to me,” Cobb said as he laid back onto the bed and covered himself with the sheet. He looked at Zeff and said, “Thanks, Doc.”
“Call me ‘Zeff.’ I’ll be in my office next door taking a nap myself if you need me.” With that, Zeff turned and left the room, turning the light off as he went.
Cobb laid on the table and, in spite of his better judgment, allowed his hopes to rise. All he had to do was make it through today and tomorrow, and he’d be headed to safety. He slowly dozed off.
He woke to the sound of voices. He could hear the doctor’s voice but could not make out what he was saying. He could make out several Kirrian voices, and Cobb assumed the clinic was open for business. The room smelled clean, like medicine and alcohol. The smell gave him a feeling of ease and of security. He also felt excited, but there was nothing for him to do except fall back asleep, which he did.
He awoke alert. Someone had opened the outer door. Cobb’s muscles tightened, but he laid still and watched the inner door. A figure entered the room and turned on the lights. Cobb was blinded temporarily, but then slowly made out Dr. Zeffer carrying several packages and liquid containers. Cobb relaxed.
“I thought you might be hungry and thirsty,” he said as he sat the items on the table.
Cobb sat up in the bed. He was really glad to see Zeff, and not only because he had brought food.
“I thought you’d forgotten I was here.”
“That would be very hard to do. I brought you some soup and fruit drink,” Zeff said, handing Cobb the items.
Cobb took a long drag on the bottle and then started to drink the soup directly out of the container.
Zeff said “You could use a spoon. I brought one.”
“True,” Cobb replied as he continued drinking the soup from the container. The fluid had a meaty taste and felt warm all the way down. It felt and tasted great.
“This is good.”
“We don’t have much here, but what we do have is healthy and good.” Zeff was eating the soup with a spoon, while leaning against the bed next to Cobb. “How do you feel?”
“I feel pretty good considering my condition when I came in last night. The sleep really helped. Is there any more soup?”
“Here’s another one. I figured you’d be hungry.”
Cobb tore into the second container with the same relish he’d languished on the first one. “Thanks, Doc.”
“You’re welcome.” He finished his soup and disposed of the empty containers. “I can’t stay long. We have a lot of patients today, and it would look suspicious if I stayed here too long.”
Zeff turned the light off and left the room. Cobb sat on the bed finishing off the last of his drink. As he sat there in the dark, staring at the light flooding under the door, he thought about all that had happened to him over the last week. As a soldier, he always knew there was a risk of being killed, maimed, or captured—but he would have never dreamed up this scenario. What a change of status. He found his memories disturbing; not only the ones since the destruction of his unit, but before that as well. He decided that this was definitely not the time to deal with any self-doubt, so he laid down and tried to fall asleep. After a while, he finally succeeded.
Cobb was awakened again by voice—this time very loud ones accompanied by scuffling noises. He could tell that Zeff was one of those yelling. He heard the outer door being roughly opened. As Cobb grabbed his knife and placed it under his body near his right hand, the inner door swung open quickly. The light coming on blinded Cobb again temporarily, and by the time his eyes adjusted, there were four figures in the room. One was Zeff, another was his interpreter who Cobb recognized from that first night, and the last two were Kirrian MPs. One appeared to be an officer and only carried a holstered hand laser, the other was a low rank and carried an old laser rifle.
Zeff was yelling, “You can’t come in here! This man has Colberian fever and is highly contagious.” Zeff’s interpreter was frantically relaying this to the Kirrian officer. At these words, the enlisted Kirrian MP looked very nervously at Cobb. But the officer shoved the doctor aside and spat some words at him. The interpreter said, “The captain says, ‘I don’t believe you, I don’t believe anything from Alliance scum.’”
The officer moved over next to the table, and Cobb studied him at close range. He had several scars on his face and was old for an MP. Cobb thought he was probably an ex-soldier, recruited for the military police. He scowled at Cobb and reached over to pick up a pair of scissors. Cobb gurgled some things in a futile attempt to dissuade the officer from removing his bandages. Cobb watched the other MP; he was young and nervous. Zeff started to move forward and said, “I have the permission of your superiors. You are in big trouble if you...”
The young MP turned to stop Zeff and, as he did, took his eyes off Cobb. In one swift, smooth motion, Cobb plunged the knife into the Captain’s heart. The Kirrian let out a short rattle and began to slump down. The other MP saw the motion and began to turn toward him. Cobb raised the knife and threw. Instantly, the knife was embedded into the throat of the young Kirrian. A stream of blood shot out of the wound leaving a crimson trail on the wall. The Kirrian in his death throws pulled the trigger of the laser rifle and a bright, red beam shot out to Cobb’s left. Cobb was off the table in an instant and took the laser rifle from the MP as he collapsed against the wall. Cobb could see the pleading, frightened look in his eyes as they slowly dimmed.
Cobb turned to see the Kirrian translator cowering in the corner staring to Cobb’s left. He turned more to see Zeff’s body lying on the floor almost cut in half. The laser beam had hit him squarely in the abdomen, passing through him and out the wall. Zeff’s body was convulsing, and smoke slowly rose from the singed edges of the wound. Bubbles of blood were growing and bursting on his lips. Cobb knelt by the body and softly said, “I’m sorry.”
Cobb went through the double door with the laser rifle leveled for action, but when he came out, he only saw Kirrian nurses and patients, no MPs. The Kirrians saw the blood soaked figure of Cobb, started yelling, and ran toward the door into the street. Cobb went to the changing room and withdrew his old clothes from the trash. Though repelled by them, he changed back into them as quickly as he could. He left the clean bandages on his head. He grabbed his med kit and hand laser, and he’d already taken his knife from the Kirrian’s throat. He hid everything in his shirt once again. He knew he couldn’t take the rifle because it would only help to point him out.
Cobb ran out the front door screaming and waving his arms as he had seen the patients and nurses do. He ran down the street through a gathering crowd and turned into an alley as soon as he could. It was early evening, and the lights had not come on yet. He kept moving as fast as his bad knee would let him. He headed west once again and knew that every MP in the city would be looking for him—and this time they knew what he looked like. His only hope was to get clear of the city and lose himself in the countryside.
He found he was already near the edge of the city proper and soon spotted a guard station similar to the one he’d seen coming into the city. He could tell they were on high alert, checking everyone that even came near their area of control. Cobb veered down a street away from the MP station. He moved down the street, paralleling the border of the city. When he’d covered at least a kilometer, he turned again to go outside the city. The row of buildings ended at the edge of a ditched filled with water that gave off a horrible stench. Cobb quickly waded across without hesitation. He was scared and his adrenal glands were on overtime, but his instincts were working perfectly. As he climbed the embankment on the other side of the ditch, he heard a vehicle and dropped into the high grass at his feet. A wheeled vehicle was moving slowly along a track on top of the embankment. The headlights were pointed down just in front of the vehicle to avoid detection from the air. This was the main reason the two soldiers failed to see Cobb lying prone not five meters from their route. Cobb w
atched them until they were out of sight, then he rose and crossed the dirt track.
Cobb continued west, but it was now very dark. He stumbled over the rough ground. His eyes adjusted a little to the starlight, but it was still hard going. Before long, his legs and knees were badly scratched and bleeding. Despite this, Cobb kept moving. He had to find some place to hide out during the next day.
He wasn’t sure how far he had traveled during the night, but the glow in the eastern sky was beginning to provide enough light to allow him to at least make out what was in his immediate vicinity. The increasing light was also an indication that he was running out of time. If he was still in the open at full light, he would have no change of evading capture.
Just as these thought passed through his mind, he saw three black structures outlined in the dim light about a kilometer off to his right. He quickly shifted directions and started moving toward the structures. He didn’t care if they were occupied or not, because either way he was going to hold up there during the day.
From about a hundred meters away, Cobb could tell the structures were parts of a deserted farmhouse, probably abandoned as a result of the war. As he entered the open area between the structures, the sun was just beginning
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