Praying for War: The Collin War Chronicles

by W. C. Hoffman

  Collin nodded. “Sorry, Doc. Seriously, can you show us the medicine?”

  “Why?”

  “We heard that it may have been stolen,” Collin said in a rush. “Hurry, there’s no time to explain.”

  Dr. Horner’s brow furrowed as she stood. She walked away and a moment later appeared in the doorway. Dr. Horner led them out into the main hallway.

  “You don’t keep it in there?” Collin said, glancing over his shoulder at the outpatient clinic.

  “No, it’s not safe enough,” Julie said. Her white doctor’s coat flapped around her legs as she walked.

  She led them through a door, into the stairwell. Koby seemed to know where she was heading. Collin was confused about where they were heading. He had only been in the stairwell after he’d awoken from the fever. That night, it was Anna who tried to lead him out of the hospital.

  “Where are we going then?” Collin asked.

  “You’ll see in a moment,” she said. “Have some patience.”

  Collin shot Koby a look. His friend shook his head.

  Dr. Julie Horner stopped at the bottom of the stairs and unlocked a door that was marked “Basement — Authorized Personnel Only.” It was dark inside. She flipped a switch and the overhead lights buzzed with energy and flickered on. The hallway wasn’t long, but it was wide like a typical hospital hallway, with enough room to move gurneys around.

  “The morgue?” Collin said. Strange place to keep medicine, he thought.

  Dr. Horner turned and smiled at him.

  “Ugh, that’s sick,” Koby said, scrunching up his face.

  “I figured it would prove to be a deterrent in itself,” Dr. Horner said, smirking. She turned down an intersecting hallway and then stopped at the first door on the left. She fumbled for a moment searching for the correct key in the giant cluster in her hand. It made her hands look tiny.

  “Here we go,” she muttered to herself. She slid the key in, unlocked the door, and led them inside.

  At least two locks between the thief, or thieves, and the BT76, Collin thought. This was quite the secret little raid. One he didn’t believe Anna did on her own.

  Once inside the morgue, Dr. Horner led them toward a medium sized office that, once upon a time, must have been for the mortician. The air still smelled faintly of formaldehyde and other chemicals. Koby held a hand over his mouth.

  Nowadays, the mortician’s office just held a simple looking desk and tall brown, metal cabinets for paperwork. The office featured large windows on three sides, which had opened blinds, and gave whoever sat at the desk a complete 360-degree view of the morgue.

  Dr. Horner sat behind the desk and spun in the chair. She pulled open one of the cabinet doors and fiddled with something. Collin could hear it, even if he couldn’t see over her shoulder very well.

  A safe? he wondered.

  There was a soft click. The doctor pulled open a squeaky door as she slid her chair back.

  Dr. Horner gasped. Then she shrieked.

  “Wha- What’s going on?” she said, spinning in the chair to look at Collin and Koby. Her eyes narrowed and her face glowed red. “The medicine is gone.”

  The two men stared at the opened cabinet. It had to be six feet tall, three feet wide and just as deep. A lot of space for a lot of medicine.

  What they heard on the radio was true though. Every box of BT76 was gone.

  Koby leaned on the desk and whispered to himself, “No, no, no, no...”

  The knot that had been growing in Collin’s stomach dropped into a black hole. He felt nauseated, just for a moment, as if he had just given another round of blood. She’d done it. The radio call hadn’t been a bluff. Anna had indeed stolen the BT76 from Goshen.

  “Is anything left?” Collin breathed.

  Dr. Horner turned around and opened the door wider and slid away. “Look for yourself,” she said.

  Koby stepped around the desk to look at the lower shelves. He turned to Collin and shook his head.

  “What’s the meaning of all this? Why did you want to see it?” Dr. Horner was standing with her hands on her hips.

  “We need to convene the Council, doctor,” Collin said ominously. He turned and walked out of the office.

  Koby rushed out after him, leaving the doctor confused.

  They were able to exit the doors that were locked from the other side. Collin didn’t wait for the doctor, he didn’t want to have to brush off her questions. It would be better to say everything in front of the full Council.

  Collin and Koby were almost in the street before Dr. Horner came running up behind them, breathing hard.

  “We’ll explain everything when the council is formed up,” Collin told her.

  Dr. Horner looked hard at him then shot a look at Koby. He blushed and turned away, conspicuously avoiding her gaze.

  His discomfort made Collin want to laugh. He fought valiantly to keep from smiling. A blushing Koby was a rare sight; Collin would put money on that.

  All three of them strode across town. A sense of urgency radiated from them, repelling residents passing by who gave them a wide berth and didn’t bother to interrupt them.

  Seemingly moments later, they arrived at the large white church at the other end of town. When they entered Pastor Pendell’s office after a quick knock, they found Major Logan already seated inside.

  Collin had the same feeling as when HAGS had announced the medical shipment reduction and learned that dozens of people would die. He hoped with every cell in his body that it wouldn’t come to that again.

  “Excuse me, pastor,” Collin said, nodding at the major because he needed to hear it too.

  “By all means, barge into my office,” Pastor Pendell said, with barely contained indignation. He closed his eyes for a half-second and then gestured at the chairs. Major Logan took his customary place to the side of the desk.

  “We have critical information to tell you,” Collin shot back.

  “All of the BT76 is gone,” blurted Dr. Horner.

  Pastor Pendell gaped at her.

  “Excuse me?” Major Logan said.

  “All of the BT76 has been stolen,” Collin said. “Anna is also gone.”

  He turned to look at Dr. Horner. It was now her turn to gape at him in shock. The doctor’s cheeks turned bright red. She sputtered but couldn’t get out any words.

  “Koby and I went outside after my blood draw,” Collin said. “We decided to go check on how Anna was doing. You know, see if there was anything we could get for her since she was feeling ill.”

  Everyone stared at Collin. He looked at each person, meeting their eyes, and saw mixed emotions.

  “When we got to the doctor’s house, the front door was already open.” He gestured briefly at the doctor. “Inside there was...”

  Collin’s voice trailed off. He looked at the doctor again, with the most convincing apology face he could muster.

  “Inside there was blood in the living room and a trail through the kitchen to the back door,” he said.

  “It’s true,” Koby said. “I’m so sorry, Julie.”

  “There was a message too. On the chalk board by the fridge, it said ‘Anna and the BT76 belong to the Vipers now,’” Collin said. The looks on everyone’s face sent a chill down his spine.

  Dr. Horner raised a hand to her mouth. She looked like she wanted to vomit, and there was no mistaking the terror in her eyes. She looked up at Collin and then her eyes flicked away. “Not again,” she whispered.

  “Those bastards,” Major Logan said through clenched teeth. He leaned forward on the desk and gripped the edge so hard his knuckles turned white.

  Collin was worried about the BT76, but not about Anna’s safety. He didn’t believe she was hurt. The strength of Julie’s emotions struck him like a palm strike to the solar plexus.

  “We need that BT76,” Pastor Pendell said. He raised his gnarled hands in front of his face, made a steeple out of his fingers, and tapped them against his pursed lips. “Goshen can’t
survive without it.”

  “Even though the town is blessed?” Collin asked. He hadn’t meant it to sound so sarcastic. It was one of Pastor Pendell’s favorite sayings and he’d heard it many times since waking up.

  Pastor Pendell narrowed his eyes at him, but didn’t respond.

  “Major, you know what you have to do.”

  “Yes, sir. Get the BT76 and save the girl,” Major Logan said.

  Doctor Horner looked at him, appalled by his prioritizing of the tasks. “Excuse me. Anna’s my daughter, Major.”

  “You think I don’t know that, doctor? I’ve known Anna for years. This is bigger than our friendship, it’s bigger than the life of your daughter. It’s one life versus a whole town,” Major Logan said with a sneer, waving his hand to indicate all of Goshen. “Our supply of BT76 affects the most lives. We’ll save her, if she’s still alive, but the medicine must be the priority.”

  He didn’t need to be so harsh, Collin thought. Surely Julie understood that in the back of her mind. Under the circumstances, a mother’s instinct is going to trump logic every time.

  Dr. Horner looked at the pastor. He stared at his desk, not speaking. He stayed quiet for a long moment.

  “Pastor?” Dr. Horner said.

  He met her pleading eyes. Pastor Pendell lowered his hands with a heavy sigh and looked at Major Logan.

  “Major, you will accomplish both missions — secure the medicine and rescue Anna,” he said. “Whatever it takes.”

  “Yes, sir. Our Eagles can do it. If we hit any snags though, the BT76 comes first,” Major Logan said, rock solid.

  “Since we’re on the topic of running a raid on the Vipers. I’d like to volunteer to lead a team specifically to go after Anna,” Collin said. “Leaving Major Logan free to secure the BT76.”

  Dr. Horner looked at him with such affection; he thought she might kiss him. Thankfully, she opted for patting his arm.

  Pastor Pendell shook his head though. “We need you here in town. Major Logan will deal with the Vipers. He’s good at that. I’d like you to stay and lead our defenses in case they attack us again. Make no mistake, this was an attack on Goshen. They will pay for harming Anna.”

  Collin started to protest. “Pastor, I really think-”

  “I agree with Pastor Pendell. You are the only one qualified to secure the town while I lead the team against the Vipers. It’s beyond time we take the fight to them,” Major Logan said.

  Before Collin could protest further, Dr. Horner interjected.

  “Collin, I appreciate your bravery, truly I do. We need you here though,” she said. “I know we just took a blood draw but we’ll need to do another one in the morning. Your blood is more important than the BT76 in my opinion. It’s essential that you remain safe, and in good health.”

  “Very well. It’s settled then,” Pastor Pendell said. He stood up to address them and end the meeting. “Major Logan will lead the attack on the Vipers, and Collin will be in charge of defense. Koby, you will be Collin’s second-in-command since he will be out of commission for a period of time to assist the doctor.”

  Koby looked like he’d been bitch slapped.

  “You all know how to proceed, so I’ll leave you to your work. May the Lord be with you.”

  Major Logan and Collin, followed by Koby, exited the church a few minutes later. Dr. Horner stayed behind in the church to pray for her daughter. Collin agreed to meet her first thing in the morning so she could take however much blood that she needed.

  Koby nudged him with his elbow.

  “I’ve never done this kind of thing before. I don’t know jack squat about military stuff,” Koby said. He was breathing noticeably louder than usual. Their pace was quick. Koby was also quite short, so his legs had to work twice as hard as Collin’s did. “Other than technical stuff about some of their equipment.”

  “Don’t worry buddy, I’ll talk you through it. You’re a sharp guy and we all trust your judgment,” Collin said.

  The high school came into view at the end of the block.

  Collin smirked. Goshen High School barely looked like a place of education anymore. Since the Eagle’s Nest explosion, the Eagles had been operating out of the high school.

  In subtle and not so subtle ways, the look of the building had transformed. Sandbags piled into defensive fighting positions, with soldiers standing guard, flanked the entrance. They removed the shrubs and trees closest to the school and windows were either covered with wood planks or filled in with sandbags.

  Collin had already toured the newly reused space. Seeing it again was impressive though. If he had been asked to imagine what a town would look like after the collapse of civil society, Goshen High School was currently what he’d have come up with.

  The school functioned perfectly as a headquarters for the Eagles. Perhaps better than the old location. Although it lacked a bar, it had men’s and women’s locker rooms and the gym was the perfect area for formations and training. All of the salvaged equipment was stored inside one of the classrooms with guards posted. Across the hall from the equipment room was Major Logan’s new planning room.

  The Eagles had made even more improvements since the last time he saw it. There were maps and drawings of the area surrounding Goshen hanging on the walls. Several old students’ desks held a military-style sandbox for plotting out offensive or defensive operations.

  Major Logan yelled for the Combat Action Wing to form up as they entered the room. A runner passed by them on her way to pass along the message to the Eagle’s on patrol, that a CAW meeting was taking place.

  The Combat Action Wing was Goshen’s special operations unit and had a membership of twenty Eagles that were handpicked and trained by Major Logan and Collin, following the last Viper attack. Collin knew they were still green but they were better trained than the rest. If they kept their cool and worked together, the CAW could put a serious hurt on the undisciplined and under-equipped Vipers.

  Major Logan and Collin discussed the strategy in the planning room. Neither of them noticed how bored Koby looked until they called him over to show them where he’d seen the second crate drop.

  They laid out a map on an empty table. Koby used a protractor to gauge the distance and a pencil to mark out the area where he witnessed the crate drop.

  Surprisingly, the drop wasn’t as close to the suspected Viper camp as they originally thought.

  “How sure are we about the camp’s location?” Collin asked.

  “Better than eighty-five percent,” Major Logan said.

  Koby nodded. “HAGS wouldn’t have dropped it off target. The Vipers are nearby for sure.”

  “How far away is that?” Major Logan asked.

  Koby looked closely at the map and measured out the distance. “Looks like it’s close to seven miles.”

  “I know that meadow,” Major Logan said quietly. He pursed his lips and stared hard at the map.

  “Will the Vipers even know the second drop was made?” Collin said. “You said their camp site was way over there.” He gestured to a spot on the map that would be miles away.

  “That was years ago,” Major Logan said. “I doubt they stayed in the same place. There’s no telling what direction they moved, but I am willing to work off Koby’s assumption that HAGS has a decent idea of where they are. If they dropped the medicine there, then I’m sure there’s a good reason.”

  Collin nodded in agreement. “How long will it take for the team to get there and secure the crate?”

  “There aren’t any worn trails or roads heading that way. Just rough, untended forest with the constant threat of attack the whole way,” Major Logan said. “I’d say it’ll take at least four to six hours, probably closer to six hours.”

  Koby whistled. “That’s a long day’s work.”

  An Eagle walked into the office to inform Major Logan that every member of the Combat Action Wing had assembled.

  “Thank you. I’ll be right out,” Major Logan said. He sighed then looked at
Koby. “Don’t worry. Our team can handle it.”

  Major Logan slid the pencil and protractor off of the map. He rolled it up carefully and then slid it into a plastic tube. He tucked the tube under his arm and walked out to meet the Eagles in the gymnasium. Collin and Koby stood in the doorway to listen.

  “The place they have to go is dangerous,” Koby said in a low voice. “It’s a large, open meadow with a river on one side and mountains on the other sides. We call it Devil’s Meadow.”

  “Ominous sounding,” Collin said. He watched the Eagles.

  “The mountainsides are more like cliffs, similar to the ones along our dam. Some of the cliffs in Devil’s Meadow have cave systems. It’d be just the kind of place snakes would love to hide,” Koby said. “Back in the day, the town had adventurous spelunkers go missing there every year. An occasional survivor was recovered. Most of them died. Sometimes they couldn’t even find the bodies.”

  Collin looked at Koby, surprised.

  “There are hot springs up there, too. So it used to draw all kinds of people,” Koby said. He watched the Eagles standing around chatting and sighed. “I hope they make it back okay.”

  Caves were no place for a soldier, Collin thought. There should be no reason for the Eagles to enter the caves though. If the Vipers were there, they could just collapse the entrances.

  The major walked among the soldiers, a mix of men and women, young and old. Most of them were experienced Eagles, a few were survivors of the explosion. All of them were motivated, in great shape, and well-trained. This would be their first offensive action against the Vipers. Strain was evident on their faces, but they looked eager as well. Collin understood the feeling. He had a vague sense that he’d been in the same situation many times during his service, even though he couldn’t recall specific missions.

  Major Logan approached the formation and looked them over for a long moment.

  “Eagles, we are about to embark upon your first offensive action. None of you has been on a raid before. Fear not. We have trained you up to a proficient level, in a short period of time,” Major Logan said, pacing back and forth in front of them. “This time, we will have the element of surprise on our side and we will take full advantage of it. Eagles hunt Vipers.”