Greek Island

by Druga, Jacqueline

The volunteers were in there, the floor was being scrubbed, it looked as if they were planning on inspection.

  Margot had gotten over her bout of embarrassment with me. Rather quickly, too. Hooking up with Marcus helped.

  She faced me with a smile. “We are so pumped up, Captain.”

  “I can tell,” I said.

  “I mean, ten patients, all with pneumonia. Wow, it’ll sound like a TB clinic in here, but we’ll be running.”

  “Margot, these are sick men.”

  She grinned. “Yes, I know.”

  “Should you be happy about this?”

  “Probably not. But I can be excited about it.”

  My signature inherited ‘hmm’ was greeted by a mocked ‘hmm’ from Mary Agnes.

  “Just the man I want to see,” she said.

  “What did I do?”

  She curled her boney finger in a ‘follow me’ fashion, and turned. “We have a problem. Or rather you have a problem to deal with. Maybe not a problem but a situation that …”

  “Good God woman, spit it out.”

  In a spin of her heals she huffed and glared at me. Her eyes could have turned demon red, I swear.

  She continued to walk. “Here.” She stood before the bathroom door.

  “We have a plumbing problem?”

  “No,” she sneered. “Listen.”

  I did. Obvious sounds of regurgitation emanated from the door.

  “Ellen,” Mary Agnes said.

  “Oh my God, does she have radiation poisoning.”

  Mary Agnes shook her head. ‘Sperm poisoning.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “She’s pregnant. Tested her this morning. Looks like you’re gonna be a pop.” She smiled and walked away.

  To say I was stunned and speechless was an understatement. I rattled in my mind the news and allowed it to absorb. I finally calmed down and was pretty excited when I heard the water running in the bathroom. I stood there, leaning against the wall.

  The door opened and Ellen stepped out. “Hal.”

  “El.” I smiled. “Something you want to tell me?”

  ***

  Ellen cried when she told me and they weren’t tears of joy. She was worried, concerned, and fearful the baby would be born with deformities. I had to assure her it was a good thing, the pregnancy, and that whatever happened, happened, and we would face it together.

  She was able to smile some, especially in lieu of knowing about the impending patients. I told her they’d be arriving in twenty-four hours. But her enthusiasm was hindered due to the morning sickness.

  Mine wasn’t. I was going to be a father.

  That thrilled me.

  In leaving the clinic, I got two more congratulations and it dawned on me, how long it would be before the news spread throughout the camp.

  A baby was good news. New life. I was pretty certain my father would be glad to hear it, but was also pretty certain he’d rather hear it from me than through the preverbal grapevine.

  I sought him out. He was in the radio room.

  “Jesus, Christ Henry.” He bitched over the radio. “Test the goddamn air.” He noticed me and gave an up motion of his head. “If you don’t get this goddamn project done soon, we’re putting you on the sub. Over.”

  “Probably be a lot safer, Joe. I can feel the radiation seep through me body.”

  “Henry, the rads aren’t that high.”

  “They’re still there. Over.”

  “Out.” My father shook his head. “What’s going on? How was the clinic?”

  “Buzzing. Excited,” I replied.

  “Yeah, I know, I stopped by. I want to keep that energy, Hal. Henry has to get moving.”

  “Do you have a second?”

  “Is something wrong?”

  “Actually, I think something is right.”

  “Then I have more than a second.” Just as my father reached out his hand to pull me a chair, over the radio, Marcus called.

  “Captain, come in. Urgent. Over.”

  I lifted my radio. “Marcus, what’s up?”

  “I’m in the monitoring room. We got an intruder coming down the South tunnel. Heavily armed. M-4, grenade belt, looks like a flame thrower. Over.”

  “Just one?” I asked. “Over.”

  “One man. Large.”

  I gave a nod to my father that I was handling it and began to leave the radio room. “Where is he now?”

  “Fifty feet inside. Over.”

  “I’m on it.” I switched my radio to speak to my father as I bolted into Armory. “Dad, Ray is over the other end. I’m coming up the west entrance, and coming in behind the intruder down South.”

  “Good idea, I’ll alert Ray and get him as a backup. Be careful. Over.”

  “Thanks, Out.” I hooked my radio at the same time I swiped up a M-4 and locked the cabinet. I checked the clip, secured the armory and ran.

  The intruder hadn’t reached the vault door, and that was good. I was pretty positive he couldn’t blow his way in with grenades, but if he had c-4, we were in trouble. I had to admit, my adrenaline pumped and I was gearing for some excitement myself. I wasn’t worried, not at all. I was certain I could handle it.

  Marcus kept me abreast. I ran up to the resort and out. I still had time.

  “Captain, he stopped, he’s sitting down and checking out his weapons. Over.” Marcus announced.

  That was good news. I worried that my running would be heard in the echoing tunnels. The intruder’s pause gave me the chance to get down there quietly, and I did.

  Sliding back against the wall, I saw him about twenty feet from the vault door; I darted behind the old crates. I prepared my weapon, aimed, and waited.

  He wore all black, including a black hood and sunglasses. When the intruder stood, I stepped out.

  “Hold it!” I called out. “Stop or I’ll shoot.”

  The intruder stopped.

  “Hands in the air,” I ordered. “Now.”

  Half assed, and seemingly with attitude he lifted his hands.

  “Higher.” I stepped into view and walked to him.

  He huffed and lifted them higher.

  Sarcastically, I said. “I’m sorry this is such an inconvenience for you.”

  One hand raised, his other reached for his head. I dismissed him reaching for a weapon when he pulled at his mask.

  He lowered it to expose his face.

  My rifle nearly toppled from my hand.

  “Can I put my hands down now, Asshole?” he asked.

  The fast running footsteps rushed to me with a worried, “Captain,” from Ray. “Is everything all right, Captain?”

  I didn’t respond.

  “Captain? The intruder …”

  “He’s not an intruder,” I said with shock. “It’s my brother … Frank.”

  ++++

  My father’s reaction was not one of shock, mine may have been, but his wasn’t. It was more like, ‘he knew it’, and glad you finally arrived.

  Frank wasn’t shocked either that we had survived. He knew. He had been monitoring radio signs via an automated net control device using precision lightweight GPS receiver. This enabled him to listen in. Once Henry tweaked the radio, Frank was able to hone in on us. He said he recognized our father’s voice right away and mine.

  That helped him when he learned of his wife and daughters. Of course, he had figured because he knew they were in New York City. After a brief reunion with Johnny, we spoke to Frank on the way to the clinic. We didn’t say why or where we were going; I believe my father wanted Ellen’s survival to be a surprise to Frank.

  “Fuckin' figured,” Frank said.

  “Good lord Frank,” I said. “How did you get burned?”

  “Where?” he asked.

  “On your neck.”

  “Here.” He touched the burn on the side of his neck. “Ow.”

  I rolled my eyes.

  “Fuckin' asshole Mad Max wanna be’s. They hit the base. If Rod and I would have left a half
hour sooner, we probably would have run into them on the road.”

  “The looters?” My father asked.

  “Just wild survivors,” Frank said. “You know how you watch all those sci fi movies? And you got, no fuckin' way are people gonna be like that.” Frank winked. “We thought wrong.”

  “What happened to this Rod?” my father questioned.

  “He got caught in the cross fire. I was busy putting out a fire.” Frank paused in a reflection. “Once I knew it was you, I packed up a Fox and headed up here. I remember you telling me about this place. We’re not far from the contingency cabin, anyone check it out to see if Robbie and Jimmy showed up.”

  I shook my head. “Not yet. Not with levels still high.”

  “What the fuck is up with that?” Dad, you taught us the levels would go down.

  “Yeah, Frank I did. But I never had experience in nuclear war.”

  Frank bobbed his head. “True. Where are we at?”

  I waved him into the clinic. Ellen was working on a patient. I looked at my brother’s face, finally shock. Every ounce of color escaped him. But before he could call out to her, before anyone could or alert of our presence, Ellen did something odd. Something that took me aback. Slowly from her patient, she lifted her head, and it was almost as if she sensed him standing there. The expression on her face, the way she turned around.

  The moment she saw my brother, told me more than I wanted to face.

  To be honest the reunion of the two, the emotional impact of Frank’s return on Ellen, was hard for me. It truly was. After the rare look of compassion my father gave me, and I stepped back. I couldn’t watch. I let them have their reunion, and I quietly slipped away.

  ***

  Frank’s return.

  What was wrong with me?

  Yes, I was gleeful and happy that my brother had returned. That he was alive and well. But I justifiably feared that what I had been building with Ellen was about to come to an end. Not to mention the fact that she was pregnant... to me.

  Frank and Ellen’s relationship was tricky.

  They were roommates at 18, and best friends. Frank went into the service, dropped out of college, and Ellen went on to nursing. At 20 Frank met Kelly and Eloped. According to Frank, he wanted Ellen, but she wouldn’t cross that line.

  While at Frank’s wedding in Vegas, Ellen, drunk, met Pete and married him.

  Both Ellen and Frank stayed with their marriage partners, but we as a family believed that both Ellen and Frank were more than just best friends, and were for years.

  Undeniably they had a bond that not a soul could touch.

  That worried me.

  The entire day they reunited, hung out, talked. I didn’t interfere, although I’d be lying if I said, it didn’t bother me.

  I told my father, I would cross the ‘Frank’ bridge, when and if it came to that, and against what I believed, I was about to cross that bridge.

  Two things had occurred that were right up Frank’s ally. My father had expressed concern for us to have a security force, I would never deny my brother Frank was the best for the job. While taking the bus for a test run, my father saw more evidence that people had been in the resort. People he believed were scoping or waiting for a moment to break into the bunker. He wanted to show Frank the evidence and see what Frank thought. Second, the transmission dropped on the bus when they took it for a run.

  Just like the two things that occurred, there were two things my brother shined in. In many aspects in life, reading, writing, arithmetic, reason, my brother was, well, I wouldn’t say he was the sharpest knife in the drawer. But militarily, my brother was a genius. When it came to fixing cars, he was the best mechanic I knew.

  So he was out with my father at the resort, and then he was hitting the bus. I had time. I also had time all day to think.

  Be chivalrous or selfish.

  I sought out Ellen. I, was going to be the gentleman I was raised to be, and place it in her hands.

  She was working in the clinic.

  It was a tough speech to make, but I did. I conveyed to her that I didn’t think Frank had survived, that I knew they had a bond, and I would be more than willing to step back, without hard feelings, if she wanted to pursue and or continue with Frank.

  Ellen stared at me.

  “El?”

  “Let me get this straight,” she said. “You are in a predicament. You think you stole your brother’s girlfriend.”

  “I didn’t say that.”

  She nodded. “Good, because you didn’t. I’m not gonna lie to you, Hal. For many years, Frank and I had … well; we were more than the friends we projected.”

  Hearing her say that, whether I knew it or not, made my stomach drop.

  She continued, “But he had a wife. A wife. I was not his.”

  “But, surely, El, if you knew he was alive, you wouldn’t start a relationship with me.”

  “Let’s establish something, Hal. OK? I never shed a tear fro Frank, because I knew, like Joe, Frank was alive. I knew it.”

  “Because of the bond.”

  “Yeah, because of the bond. But that didn’t stop me from continuing on. I’m sorry; I have been, by choice, second in Frank’s life for many years. I’m not second string where I automatically jump to the field when the starting quarterback is down. That’s not the way it works. If your brother thinks that way he’s wrong. I never thought that way. And this … chivalrous act of letting me go for Frank’s sake … it’s pissing me off.”

  “El, I just …”

  “I’m having your baby, Hal.”

  “I know.”

  “I like being with you. No, I love being with you. What do you want to do, let me go, say ‘here Frank, and by the way she’s pregnant, but don’t worry about it.”

  “El …”

  “Were you even going to tell him it was your baby, or were we gonna keep everything hush-hush and a lie.”

  “Ellen, I was just …”

  “Or don’t you want me; Hal and you’re using this as an excuse not to …”

  “Hold it.” Finally, I had to silence her. “If you’d let me answer a question.”

  “Go on,” she said with impatience.

  “I don’t want to stop what we’ve started. I have been enjoying it, loving it, too. And the baby is icing on the cake. I am ecstatic. If the world hadn’t blown up, I wouldn’t be happier.”

  Ellen snickered. “You know really, you Slagels are so morbid, I would think the apocalypse was on your list of things to make you happy.”

  I tilted my head. “Maybe for my father.”

  “So, you’re not ending this.”

  “I don’t want to. I won’t if you tell me that you want to keep this going.”

  “I do.”

  “Good.” I exhaled and embraced her. “But we do have a problem. Frank is not going to handle this well.”

  “Please, Hal, sure he will.”

  I gave her a look.

  “Ok, maybe not.” She folded her arms. “I’ll tell him.”

  “No, Ellen.” I took a breath. “I think it’s best it came from me.”

  “Maybe you’re right.”

  “I am.”

  “What will you tell him?” she asked.

  “I’ll set him down, possible pour him a drink. And say... Frank …”

  “Hal…”

  “Ellen and I have been involved….”

  “Hal …”

  I continued, “We didn’t intend on things to happen. They did. We are a couple and…”

  “Hal …”

  “Then I’ll ease into letting him know you’re pregnant,” I said. “What do you think?”

  With a wincing, uncertain expression Ellen pointed behind me. “I think it’s too late.”

  I looked.

  My brother stood in the doorway of the clinic.

  ***

  “You suck, Hal.” My brother always had a booming voice, but for some reason, walking down that hallway to the lounge, a
nd not wanting people to hear, his voice sounded even louder.

  “God, Frank.”

  “No, Hal you suck.”

  “So I suck. So what. Why?”

  He growled and stepped into The Fallout. “Whoa.”

  “Whoa what?”

  “Fucking nice in here.” He walked to the bar.

  “Yes, Dad did a great job.”

  “Speaking of Dad, where is he?”

  I looked at my watch. “He should be here any second, we just called for him.”

  Frank poured us both a drink. “I can’t believe you did this.”

  “What did I do? I honestly did not set out to be with Ellen. Things happened. Circumstances were extreme.”

  “But, Hal, you knew. You knew about me and El.”

  “I suspected. And that means what, Frank? Ellen told you that didn’t not mean that because Kelly was gone, Ellen is yours by default.”

  “It should.”

  “No, it should not.”

  “But it’s a brother thing, Hal. I was with her.”

  I cupped my drink and nodded. “You’re right. You’re absolutely right, Frank, that is the one thing I have a problem with.”

  “So why’d you do it?”

  “Frank, I didn’t have a problem with it before you returned.”

  “Why not?” he asked.

  “I thought you were dead.”

  My brother at that moment looked more perplexed than I ever saw him look. “Why would you think that?”

  “Uh, maybe because there was a nuclear war.”

  Frank fluttered his lips. “And you think a nuclear war would kill me.”

  “Um, yeah.”

  “Hal, please, it’s me.”

  “Frank, please, they’re nuclear warheads.”

  “Like they’re deadly.”

  “You’re an idiot.” I shook my head.

  “Ah, brotherly love,” my father said as he entered the lounge. He closed the door first, stating that he needed it to be private. “What’s going on, boys?”

  “Fucking Hal.” Frank said. “Did you know he was with Ellen?”

  “Yes, I did.”

  “Did you know he thought I was dead?”

  “Well, Frank you’ll have that when nuclear bombs are exploding all over the place. People tend to think they kill.”