The Horse Soldier: Beginnings Series Book 10

by Jacqueline Druga

  “Absolutely.” Robbie nodded, turned, and winced.

  “Good.” Reverend Bob grabbed hold of Robbie’s arm. “I can use a ministry assistant. No one really has ever expressed interest in that since Reverend Thomas went bad. With the town growing and this new connection with your brother’s town, it’ll be great to teach you and have you aboard. Thanks, Robbie.”

  “Yeah.” Robbie was stunned as Reverend Bob walked away. “Ministry assistant. What the hell is that?” He scratched his head.

  ^^^^

  There was a nice number in containment. Eight with two who were ready to leave, one was in transition, and three who were too new to consider leaving. The last two were what Ellen called residents, off their rocker too much to mingle, yet non-violent. Equivalent to mental patients in the old world.

  Ellen sat at her desk doing her daily ‘stupid’ reports, lying to get them done quicker because she just didn’t want to think. She kept dropping her pencil and rubbing her hand that burned, a result of an experiment spillage she and Dean had when they cleaned. She knew she’d have to tell Dean their equivalent to BEN GAY that they were working on, was just was to potent. Ellen swore she could feel it hitting her bone. Waiting for it to subside, hoping it would, she returned to her reports.

  “Ellen!” A survivor named Moe burst into her office.

  “What’s up.”

  “That new guy, Jerry.”

  “Jeremy,” Ellen corrected.

  “Yeah, him. He’s choking really bad. He’s blue.”

  Ellen’s chair flew to the floor as she sprang up from her seat, grabbed her radio, and followed Moe to the dining area right next door.

  Jeremy was turning blue. He thrashed about in a panic, stumbling and nearly falling. Handing her radio to Moe, Ellen raced to Jeremy. His tossing arms connected with the side of Ellen’s face. It stung but with all her strength she tried to get behind him.

  “Someone hold down his arms!” Ellen cried out, keeping her face close to Jeremy’s back as she wrapped her arms around his front, locking her wrists into his gut.

  Two men interjected, grabbing hold of Jeremy.

  “Moe, press channel . . .” Ellen brought her hands inward hard. “Two . ‘. that’s Mark out front.” Again, Ellen attempted the Heimlich maneuver. Nothing. “Tell him I need him.” With a grunt Ellen tried again. “What was he eating? Someone tell me.”

  “A plum,” a man answered.

  Ellen felt Jeremy’s legs weaken and the weight of his body fall into hers. Quickly she moved from behind him, grabbed hold of his arm as he fell to the floor. The force of his weight and fall brought her down with him. “Damn it.” Ellen felt for a pulse. She saw no movement. No signs of breathing.. She straddled over his thighs and placed her locked hand above his belly button. She applied pressure. Nothing again. “Moe, give me the radio.”

  As Moe handed it over, Mark, the guard, barreled in.

  How long had Dean and Henry been in Joe’s office? They had gone off the track about suspects and onto childhood stories, but they laughed a lot and the laugher stopped when Ellen’s panic call came over the radio.

  “Dean. Dean, where are you?”

  Dean fumbled with Henry’s radio that set on the desk. “Right here. What’s wrong?”

  “I need you at the clinic. Andrea is taking care of an emergency and Jason is too far. I have a chocking victim, Dean. We’re running to the clinic now.”

  Dean jumped from his seat. “What’s his condition?” He bolted to the door.

  “He’s unconscious, cyanotic, and his pulse is nearly zilch. Shit. We’ve lost him”

  There was static over the radio and both Dean and Henry fled from the office.

  Jeremy’s body made a crashing sound as Robbie and Mark dropped him on the already waiting Gurney by the clinic door. Melissa stood by. Ellen’s hand stayed on Jeremy’s throat. “Melissa, any luck with Andrea?”

  “No.” Melissa helped Ellen and Robbie wheel the cart. “She said a few more minutes.”

  “He doesn’t have a few more minutes. Do you have a room prepped?”

  “O.R. Two.” Melissa answered as they raced down the hall. “IV, surgical tray, trachea tube.”

  “Robbie I need you to tell Dean I am in O.R. Two,” Ellen instructed as the hit the O.R. doors. “Tell him I need him as soon as he gets here.”

  “Got it, El. Good luck.”

  Ellen and Melissa crashed open the OR doors, pushing the cart toward the center.

  “Melissa, we don’t have time for a transfer. Wipe down his neck and drape him. Then hook him up.” Ellen flew to the sink and washed up quickly. She shook the water from her hands and took no time to put on gloves. She grabbed the surgical tray in her run to the cart, sliding to a stop when she reached Jeremy.

  “Ellen, there’s no pulse.” Melissa hooked up his heart monitor.

  “Prepare for defibrillation and get me one CC of P.C.R.S.” Ellen grabbed the scalpel. “We’re going in.” Ellen’s hands probed Jeremy’s neck. “I can feel the plum pit. It’s lodged in there good.” Taking a deep breath Ellen felt for the criciod and thyroid cartridge and she made small incision below where she knew the pit was lodged. The blood of the incision seeped across her fingers. “Small clamp. I see it.” Ellen blind, laid the scalpel down and reached for another clamp. “Melissa, get the tube ready. This is lodged good.” Sweating some from nervousness, Ellen braced the small pit. “His trachea is swollen, shit.” She bit her bottom lip as she dislodged the pit and tossed it on the tray. Taking the tube from Melissa, Ellen placed it in the airway opening she made in Jeremy’s neck. “Were in. Let’s bring him back.” Ellen looked up to the clock. “Four minutes. Fuck it. Give me the P.C.R.S.” Ellen held out her hand and Melissa laid the readied syringe in it.

  Out of breath, Dean raced into the clinic, he saw Robbie. “Which room?”

  “O.R. Two.”

  “Thanks.” Dean sped in that direction. His hair and coat flapping about, his tennis shoes making that squeak against the floor. Flush both his hands were upon the door as he flung it open, only to be greeted by the looks of Ellen and Melissa as they stood over Jeremy whose heart monitor beeped strongly. Both Melissa and Ellen showed signs of performing surgery neither of them were physically prepared for. Blood covered their clothing and their hands as they wound down the procedure.

  Dean moved to the sink and washed up. He dried his hands and placed on gloves. He moved closely to the table, his eyes held a look of astonishment. “Ellen,” he spoke her name softly. “You did a cricothyroidotomy.”

  Ellen looked frightened. She swallowed harshly. “I’m sorry, Dean. The pit was lodged. I couldn’t get it out with the Heimlich. I may have panicked but I don’t think I did any damage to his larynx.”

  “He was dead, Dean. Dead,” Melissa spoke with some defensiveness to her tone. “Ellen saved him so don’t yell at her. She did good. His throat swelled up and it was really lodged. I saw.”

  “No.” Dean closed his eyes and slightly smiled. “No.” He kissed Ellen. “My God, did you do well.”

  “I did?”

  “She did?”

  “Yes.” Dean answered.

  Both women looked at each other.

  Dean reviewed what Ellen had done and how she finished up Jeremy. “I’m very proud of you. I am.” He kissed her on the cheek. “I’ll just leave you to finish.”

  “Dean,” Ellen called to him as he started to leave. “Where are you going?”

  “This is your baby. You’re doing really well. Finish it up and start a chart.”

  “Will you check him later?” Ellen asked. “What if I screwed up?”

  Dean winked at her. “I doubt it, but Andrea or I will review. Find me when you’re done.” Dean opened the O.R. doors. “Ladies, good job.” He took off his gloves, tossed them in the trash, and left.

  Ellen let out a loud ‘whew’ when Dean was gone. “I thought he was mad.”

  “Me too,” Melissa said. “I mean, you cut into a person wit
hout a doctor here.”

  “Tell me about it.”

  “I wouldn’t have let you take the blame alone, Ellen.”

  “Thanks.” Ellen smiled. “O.K., now that the nervousness is over, let’s finish him up. I think I need a drink.”

  “You don’t drink anymore.”

  “Then you’ll have one for me.”

  Melissa nodded. “After this. You bet.”

  ^^^^

  The contract was neatly handwritten. Joe expected no less from his son, Hal. Sitting at his desk, flipping through each anally laid out page of negotiation, Joe would peer up to his son who slumped in the chair across from him. “I cannot believe you wrote up a contract to present to Beginnings.”

  “I told you I didn’t want to show that to you.”

  Another flip of a page from Joe. “I can’t believe you wrote up a contract for Beginnings.”

  “Dad. How was I supposed to know you were running the show?”

  “A contract.” Joe closed his mouth and tilted his head. “I see it’s binding for two years and can be renegotiated at either party’s decision.”

  “Dad.”

  “Hal.” Joe laid down the contract. “Bottom line. You have the manpower and you can come up with the resources to provide and survive. But! You don’t want to expend your energy on it because you feel you should concentrate that energy elsewhere, like . . .” Joe bobbed his head in a nonchalant. “Getting back the country. Cleaning up the mess. Stopping the Society. And basically playing cowboys and Indians in a post-apocalyptic world. Correct?”

  “Um . . . yes. With building of the forces to eventually make this country free again.”

  “Yeah, yeah.” Joe waved his hand and put on his glasses. “Building your forces how?”

  “Like I have been. Defectors, survivors, and we know how to make those Zombie type soldiers semi-normal again. We regiment them and retrain them. It takes about two weeks.”

  “We can do that in about thirty seconds. How many you looking at getting?”

  “As many as we can. As many as it takes to break the Society and clean up the animals like the savages.”

  “In order to build forces like that, you have to feed them, cloth them, house them, etc.”

  “I know.” Hal nodded. “I’ve been doing good.”

  “But you can’t keep it up.”

  “Not if I want to concentrate on my army, no.”

  “As you know, Beginnings has the industrialization and farming capabilities to provide for more that can stay behind these walls. Right now we run it at a skeleton staff and it works. Providing for more people means I need more workers.”

  “Just let me know.”

  “I will,” Joe said. “I won’t take anymore than I need. Some times during the year it will be more than others. If the bulk of your people are sustaining the center line and keeping the Society as minimal over here as possible, then you got our gratitude and our help.”

  “Thanks.”

  “Now.”

  “Uh-oh.”

  Joe smiled. “No more father to son talking.”

  “That was father to son talking?”

  “All right smart ass. Leader to leader right here. Cards on the table.” Joe leaned into his desk. “By joining forces with Beginnings, you are saying you want to become a subsidiary of Beginnings. Correct?”

  “Yes.”

  “Then you shall be. But . . . just like in the old world, you may govern your little town under local law, but consequently you will have to be under Beginnings law.”

  “So what you’re saying is I may run Bowman, but you run me?”

  Joe sat back in his chair and smiled. “Or, you know, whoever the leader may be at the time.”

  “We expected that,” Hal said. “When we discussed coming to Beginnings, we knew asking for help meant being part of Beginnings. If we didn’t want that, we wouldn’t have come to you. And Dad, you heading this place gives me that much more confidence in joining forces.”

  “Thank you. Next.”

  “There’s more?”

  “Oh yes.” Joe smiled. “Not bad. Here’s an idea I want you to think about. O.K.? Our resident, Mr. ‘Everything’, Danny Hoi, brought something to my attention. Growth. This was before you came to me with this. Beginnings is a safe haven. We now have technology that safe guards us for miles. We spoke of eventually, with growth, of taking advantage of the small towns that are near to Beginnings. When we get too many here, we can fill the smaller towns, expand our tracking system, and link them together so we can protect anyone that resides outside these walls.”

  “Little suburbs.”

  “Exactly.”

  “So . . .”

  “So, if you are under Beginnings rule, then officially you are going to be in our best interest. Like those who live here, we will want nothing to happen to you. If Bowman sustains a major Society attack, how are you going to see it coming? Tower guards will work, but not for miles. What if you need an air strike to help you out? Could happen, we had that here. Four hundred soldiers stormed Beginnings a month ago. We took out eighty percent before they even reached within a mile of our gates. If this happens to you, what are you gonna do? You can radio us but by the time we get Robbie and our choppers there, it could be over and a blood bath. Hence a lot of our people, your people, are gone.”

  “I know this.”

  “Hal.” Joe was firm. “If we work together then we have to look out for each other’s best interest. I cannot do that when you are a hundred miles away.”

  “You want us to move base.”

  “Can you?”

  “We could.” Hal rubbed his chin. “It would be a lot of work.”

  “Yes it would,” Joe told him. “Sacrifice fifty men and put them to work on a small town before winter starts. You worry about the training and running your place. We’ll help your fifty men get things going there. Clean up, communication set up, housing, security, electricity, running water, everything. When it’s situated, then you come up. It won’t take long.”

  “Can I pick the town?’

  “Certainly. The move will be a lot of work, Hal, but it will be worth it. We can transport what you need easily and safely and you’ll be close enough, if need be, to retreat behind these walls.”

  Hal nodded. “When I return, I’ll start preparations right away.”

  “Good boy.” Joe took off his glasses. “And we don’t need a damn contract either.” He moved the paper back to Hal and extended his hand to his son. “Captain Slagel, Beginnings welcomes you and your people.”

  Hal smiled as he firmly shook his father’s hand. “Thanks, Dad.”

  “Now before you leave Beginnings, make sure you see Danny Hoi. He has a map of several areas he has already picked out.”

  “He sound like he’s on the ball.”

  “Oh he drive me insane. He told me his next civilization move is recreating television. Bet me the first show is the Danny Hoi show.” As they laughed about it, there was a light tap on Joe’s door. Joe looked up. “Come in Dean.”

  Dean walked in. “Joe can I speak to you a second please?”

  “Sure. Is there a problem?”

  “You can say that.” Dean answered. “It’s with Ellen.”

  Hal began to stand. “I should leave.”

  “No.” Dean held out his hand. “It’s all right. Joe, Ellen’s been doing things lately. When the UWA soldier came in, she upped his antibiotic, changing everything. Twice last week she fiddled with batch formulas on specimens. Today she performed a cricothyroidotomy. In other words, we had a choking victim and she made an incision in his throat so he could breath.”

  Joe let out a breath and ran his down his face. “Oh boy. She’s over stepping her boundaries. I’ll speak to her.”

  “No, you’re getting me wrong, Joe,” Dean said.

  Joe looked in surprise. “What?”

  “Ellen . . . Ellen deserves more than a nurse’s recognition. We’ve blown her off. We made Andrea a d
octor. Why? Because she had experience and knowledge. Well Ellen has it too and she has it in more ways than Andrea could ever have it. Ellen can cure things. Beat things. Work on virus and infection strains like no one I’ve seen. I’m leaving Beginnings, Joe. You know that. I don’t know for how long and if my research is going to be placed in the hands of any doctor while I’m gone, I want it to be the doctor that I know will work on it as well as I can. Ellen.”

  Joe looked in such debate. “I hear you, Dean, but let’s look at this. All right. This is Ellen. Is she gonna do those reports? What about containment? I can’t lose her there. She’s the only one that does it that well.”

  “Come on, Joe.” Dean spoke with some complaining. “She can still be in charge of containment, but she doesn’t have to be in there six to eight hours every day. How about three and the rest is spent in the lab working on our stuff because we have things that will need constantly attended. We aren’t working on the needs of the immediate. Hell, we are constantly working on the needs of the future plus stupid other chemical shit I have to mix up for this community.”

  “O.K.” Joe held up his hands. “I’m not meaning to argue with you, Dean. I’m just bringing up arguments. We have you, Andrea, Jason, and Johnny in training.”

  “Johnny is being trained to be an all around. Ellen will be more like me. More on the biological side with a few steady patients.”

  “I understand. But what about when you come back?” Joe asked. “What then? Do we need five doctors in a town with not even two hundred people?”

  “No,” Hal interjected. “But you no longer have two hundred people Dad. You now have close to seven. Remember? I’m sorry, maybe I’m over stepping my boundaries, but may I make a suggestion?”

  Joe held out his hands. “Be my guest.”

  “Thanks. We have a doctor in Bowman. One. He never had the schooling but experience and books taught him. We don’t have a research doctor like Dean. We don’t have anyone that can try different things on our people to help them, like antibiotics, anti-infectives. Well, what about with the town eventually moving closer? What about Ellen being the traveler?”