by Terry Yates
“I helped cook breakfast this morning, and just decided that the No Name group deserved better than the usual Ham-n-Ass sandwiches and green beans today, so I stayed behind and whipped us up a few delicacies. It’s not much, but it’ll do in a pinch.”
“Not much?” Kyler exclaimed. It was everything that he could do not to rip open the boxes, stick his face in, and start going to town. “You could feed an army with this. What do we have?”
“Let’s see…in this box, we have fried chicken…in this one…creamed corn…in this one…chicken fried steak…and then we’ve got…green beans, corn on the cob, fillet mignon, hamburgers, and blueberry pie.” Sam looked up at Kyler. “And yes, I do feel guilty, Doc, but screw it. After what we’ve been through, I thought a change of pace would be nice.”
Kyler couldn’t argue with the man. The two of them, plus FranAnne, Zack Olsen, Michael Blum, and Lauren O’Hearley did deserve a nice little lunch together.
“How’s Col. Potts?” Sam asked, sealing the lids on the boxes.
“One eye is gone, his cheekbone is crushed, and the skin was almost torn completely off that side of his face. That’s what I hear anyway. He doesn’t let me touch him.”
“Have you tried to look at him?” Sam asked.
“Oh yeah. I was checking his bandages, and when he saw that it was me, he said…let’s see…how did he phrase it…”Get away from me you pointed headed pencil dick.”
“Yikes.”
“Yikes is right. I guess he still blames me for not telling him about Nicholas Klefka.”
“Are you sure it isn’t just Potts being Potts?”
“Who knows,” Kyler answered. “I do know that he’s going to need a lot of plastic surgery.”
“Hello, hello”, came a voice from behind Kyler. It was FranAnne Fulton, all smiles. Kyler noticed that her fatigues looked baggy.
“Hello, Private Fulton,” he said, grinning. “Are you losing weight?”
“I think I’ve dropped twelve pounds since I’ve been here,” she answered, scooting in next to him.
“That’s too much in too little time, FranAnne,” Kyler shot back, trying his best to sound docterly.
“Don’t have a choice with all this work to do…and look who’s talking. Unless you’re facing me, I can’t even see you.”
“Har. Har.”
“What’s all this?” FranAnne asked, pointing at the boxes.
“Sam got a wild hair and prepared a feast for us.”
“Uh oh…I feel those twelve pounds coming back,” she retorted, trying to stick her index finger into one of the boxes, but instead, getting it slapped playfully by Sam.
“I wish those kids would get here so we could start,” Sam said. “It’s gonna get cold.”
No sooner had the words left his mouth, than they spotted Michael Blum and Zack Olsen walking toward them. Michael was walking on crutches, his once white cast now dark with autographs of famous people, and of course, his new friends. He was smiling and talking. He had learned that his family was alive and well, and would be there soon to take him home. Zack was not smiling. The sixteen year old looked quiet and pensive as he walked.
“Hey, fellas,” Kyler greeted them.”
“Hi, Doctor Kyler,” Michael returned the greeting. He waited for Zack to sit in the middle, so he could keep his leg and his crutches on the outside. Zack stood looking down for a moment.
“Zack?” Kyler asked, lowering his head in an attempt to see Zack’s eyes. Zack continued to look at the ground while he chewed his lip. “Zack!”
Zack looked up. Seeing Kyler, he snapped to.
“Oh hey, Dr. Kyler,” the boy answered, as he straddled the bench, and sat down next to Sam.
“How’s the leg?” FranAnne asked Michael as he slid in, careful to keep his leg on the outside.
“Itches.”
“Excited to see your folks?” Sam asked him, while reaching into the bag and taking out a package of paper plates, followed by a package of plastic silverware.
“Yeah,” the boy said, beaming. “This might be our last meal together.” He’d no sooner said it, than a look of sadness crossed his face.
“Well, let’s eat then,” Sam said, tearing the plastic wrapping from the plastic-ware.
“Sounds good to me,” FranAnne came back, taking a spoon, a knife, and a fork, and handing them across the table to Michael.
Kyler looked across the table at Zack, who was still seemed to be off in his own world. He couldn’t help but feel for the kid. His whole family had been wiped out in four short days, and now he had to deal with the grief and the loneliness. He hadn’t seen him smile once in the last two weeks.
“You’re not hungry?” he asked the boy.
Zack shook his head no.
“Ya’ gotta eat something,” Sam told him, sliding a plate of food in front of him.
Zack mumbled a thank you, picked up his fork, and began to play with his food. Kyler was about to say something to Michael when he noticed the boy was looking around.
“What is it, Mike?” he asked.
“Aren’t we going to wait for Lauren?”
Shit, they’d forgotten about Lauren.
“What do you mean?” FranAnne asked, chewing her food.
“Mike’s right,” Kyler told her. “We ought to wait for Lauren.”
“She’s gone,” FranAnne came back.
Everyone at the table looked at FranAnne, including Zack.
“What do you mean…gone?” Kyler asked. He looked over at Michael and saw that he had the same shocked look on his face that everyone else had.
FranAnne put her fork down and swallowed her food. “I figured you knew. She didn’t even say goodbye?”
“Thought I knew what?” Kyler asked tersely.
FranAnne looked around at the group. “A bunch of children…maybe twenty, twenty-five, were taken by families in the city. I saw the trucks leave.”
“Trucks! What were they herded in like a bunch of prisoners?”
“I don’t know…I’m sorry…I just thought…”
Kyler put his hand on her shoulder and shook his head.
“It’s all right, FranAnne. No one’s blaming you. Who took her?”
“I don’t know…just some family, I guess.
The others put their forks down simultaneously and dropped their heads. Lauren O’Hearley had been through as much as anyone on the island. Her appendix had burst, almost killing her, and she’d lost both her parents. Her mother, Ariella, had been killed by the werewolves while trying to save her, and Locklear had been shot dead by the pock marked man with the cap and glasses. They had all fallen in love with the quirky eleven year old, Kyler especially. She had stood by him when everyone else had temporarily turned their backs on him for not giving away Nicholas Klefka. She had guarded the infant Kayla Dixon with her life, and she had given him the idea of giving the island patients morphine orally by diluting it with water. He had just taken her stitches out yesterday, and now she was gone.
Michael Blum was also upset about finding out that Lauren was gone. He had not liked her when they first met in the hospital. He’d only known her as the school kook…a smart, but strange girl, who had no friends because she was just so damned weird. But during those last four days on the island, he had grown close to her. He didn’t think that he liked her as anything more than a friend, but there was something about her…he wasn’t sure…maybe it was her strength that he admired…the way she dealt with her parents dying…he didn’t know, but he did know that there was an ache and an emptiness inside his stomach that made him want to cry.
“Well…” Sam started, breaking the silence. “This food isn’t going to get any warmer. Why don’t we eat something. We’ll feel better if we do.”
Everyone quietly grunted their approval and began to eat their food. No one got more than two bites before they all stopped, their appetites gone. Kyler looked up to find that the others were all looking at him. He looked back at them and knew that they
were all thinking the same thing.
“Right,” Kyler said, wiping his mouth as he stood up. “I’m going to go talk to someone.”
With this, Kyler threw down his napkin and began to walk away.
“Who are you gonna talk to?” Sam called after him.
“How the hell do I know?” Kyler answered as he walked away.
CHAPTER 3
“What do you mean there’s nothing you can do?” Kyler asked, his hands on his hips. “You’re in charge of this place!”
“Thank you for reminding me of that, Doctor,” shot back Gen. Mueller, from behind his desk. “I’d almost forgotten.”
Gen. Max Mueller sat hands folded, with an expression that told Kyler that he was about as welcome at that moment as a fart in an elevator. Mueller was in his early fifties, but like Potts, kept himself in impeccable condition. He was at least an inch taller than Kyler, with broad shoulders and no belly. Anyone could see that this man wasn’t a desk jockey. His face was dark and the deep lines on his face gave Kyler the impression that he was an outdoorsmen, more at home sleeping under the stars. There was an 8x10 framed photograph of his family on the wall behind him. It was the typical family portrait, with the wife seated, Mueller behind her with his large hands on her shoulders. They were surrounded by four girls, who looked between the ages of ten and fourteen. Three of them were the spitting image of their mother, who had a handsome face and one of the most winning smiles Kyler had ever seen. The camera was good to her. Every time someone took Kyler’s photograph, he looked like he’d just been released after ninety days of heroin rehab. Nick Nolte’s mugs hot had nothing on him. He noticed that the one of the girls in the picture looked like Mueller. She had high cheekbones and her nose had a bump in it. Where the other girls looked like they just stepped out of a Teen Vogue magazine, this one looked more at home playing lacrosse or barrel riding in the rodeo.
“Nice family,” Kyler remarked, his eyes still on the picture.
“Thank you,” Mueller said, never taking his eyes off of Kyler. That photo was taken about six years ago. All of the girls are pretty much grown now. Only the youngest is still at home. The oldest three are all in college, two at Florida State and one at Cornell. Is there anything else, Doctor?”
“Yes, there is, General,” Kyler answered, looking away from the photograph and back at Mueller. “Unlike your beautiful family there, Lauren O’Hearley has no family. Her parents were killed on No Name Island. Those of us that survived that place are the only people she knows. She has no relatives. We’re the only family she has. She’s special, General…she’s like no other kid I’ve ever met. It’s hard to explain, but she…”
“She’s a very intelligent young girl. I had to debrief her, remember?” Mueller interrupted.
“Then why did you just let her be whisked away on a truck like she was a cow or a hog or something?”
Mueller dropped his head and began to rub his face with both hands.
“Doctor,” he started slowly. “I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but a lot of crap has been going on in the last couple of weeks.”
“Haven’t noticed…” Kyler stuttered, his face becoming red. “General, I was in the thick of that crap! I was in the middle of two hurricanes and I stood in the crashed jet where everyone was killed by a…” Kyler stopped when he saw Mueller flinch, but he couldn’t stop now. “A werewolf…yes, General…a werewolf! Half man. Half wolf! He killed every man, woman, and child on that jet. He tore their throats out and shredded them to ribbons! Children, General…children!”
“Doctor Kyler…”
“And then he made more just like him, and…”
“Doctor!”
Kyler stopped when he saw Mueller’s hand in the air.
“Doctor, I agree you saw something…”
“Saw something! You agree that I saw something? I wasn’t the only person who saw the werewolves! Everyone saw them! Pvt. FranAnne Fulton saw them. Col. Potts lost one side of his face to one of them. Your Lt. Dorsey and his whole unit saw them!”
“Lt. Dorsey was the only man who got close enough to…whatever those things were. The other men stayed close to the helicopter, and even Lt. Dorsey said that it was dark. He thought that they might’ve been bears.”
“Yeah, but they all saw one of them…we believe Marcus Dixon…jump off of the roof of your secret building and pull Pvt. Hawkins down with him. He jumped off the roof! How many bears do you know that can do that?”
Mueller rubbed his eyes again. “Yes, doctor, I admit that something happened on that island and there was something there, but a werewolf…come on.”
“Then why was I quarantined for two straight full moons?”
“The scientists were just taking precautions.”
“Because they thought I might turn into one of things…and I’m jolly well glad I didn’t. I’ve seen the destruction that those things cause. They…”
“Enough, Doctor Kyler!” Mueller was now standing behind his desk with his hand raised. The man’s face was red. He’d had enough. Mueller walked around to the front of the desk and stood in front of Kyler. “Whatever happened on that island is not important right now.”
“Not import…”
“What I mean to say is…that whatever happened on that island has to be put on the back burner right now. There are over two million people displaced right now. They’re hungry and their homeless, and in many cases, orphaned just like your little friend. Now, there are families out there who are willing to take them in…at no charge to the government…at least no charge, right now.”
“Has anyone checked out these families? What do you know about them? Does anyone know anything about them?”
“Doctor, I just sign the orders.”
“You just sign the orders without making sure who takes them?”
“I have to trust that the people in charge of the displaced children, know what they’re doing. I’m sorry, Dr. Kyler, you’ll have to excuse me now.”
Mueller stepped around Kyler and walked to the door.
“What’s going on, General?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean something must be going on that you’re not telling me.”
“No there isn’t, believe me.”
Kyler found himself looking out the window where he had a clear view of the gates.
“General?”
“Yes.”
“What happened to the man?”
“What man?”
“The man that tried to kill us on the island. The last I saw of him, he was with the lady and the other two surviving men that killed Locklear O’Hearley, and were being driven out of the gates. They were in chains, which was a relief, but I saw the man just before he got on the truck. He looked at me. Now, General, I saw what Col. Potts did to that man’s nose, which was basically spread it across his face like butter on bread, but when I saw him leaving, there wasn’t a scratch on him. Explain that to me.”
The general sighed before opening his office door. “I have to go now, Doctor.”
Kyler angrily moved toward the door. As he started to exit, Mueller took his arm and stopped him.
“Doctor Kyler, I truly appreciate what you’ve done out here. If it hadn’t been for you being one of the first doctors here, I don’t know what we’d have done. Your help has been invaluable.” Kyler glared at the man. “I know something happened on that island. Every one of the survivors’ stories match verbatim, so I’m not discounting what you’ve told me. As for the man, all I know was that several MPs with written orders took the four of them away. That’s all I know…and I was just as shocked as you at his appearance, because when he got here, it looked like Col. Potts did a tap-dance on his face. I would like to know myself how he recovered so quickly. I truly would, but I don’t have time right now. Think of it this way. Let’s say that a bus crashes and that the nearest hospital is yours. You’ve got to try and save fifty…sixty people. They’re your responsibility…and all of a sudden,
someone has a small cut on their knee and wants it tended to. What do you do? Stop everything and put a bandage on it?”
“No.”
“Of course not. You tell them that you have more important things to deal with and you’ll get to them when you can.”
Kyler stood quietly. He looked up at Mueller who had a look of sadness mixed with fatigue on his face.
“I see you let Miss LeMarque leave,” Kyler said.
“We had no reason to hold her any longer,” Mueller replied. “She told us everything that we wanted, and once again, it just got too busy around here to worry about what happened on No Name Island.”
Kyler dropped his head and nodded. He was defeated. Beaten by the army.
Mueller continued to stand there with the door open.
“Thank you,” was all that Kyler could say as he quickly moved past him.
As he entered the small lobby of the makeshift office, he looked up to see Potts standing in front of him. He stopped suddenly, stunned by the sight of the man. He looked like a colonel all right. He was standing there dressed in khaki fatigues, his every day cap in his hand. One side of his face, from his forehead to his chin was covered in plaster. The plaster even covered his eye. To Kyler, he looked like a half-wrapped mummy.
“Colonel…” Kyler started slowly, somewhat startled by the colonel’s appearance. He hadn’t expected Potts to be out of the hospital, but there he was, bigger than shit.
“Kyler,” Potts answered, his voice curt and terse. He was squinting as he tried to focus his good eye on Kyler.
“How are you?”
“Fine…half my face is missing…but other than that, I’m just peachy.”
The guilt began to pour into Kyler from every direction. His decision to not to give away Nicholas Klefka’s whereabouts did have it ramifications. It had cost Potts his eye and much of his face. He’d seen the wound that the werewolf Klefka had inflicted on the man up close and personal.
The two looked at each other in silence for a moment.
“Are you sure you should be up and around, Colonel?”
“I’ve spent enough time in that hospital,” Potts answered. “There’s worse off than me that could use that bed.
