by Dell Sweet
~
The next twenty minutes went by slowly. Occasional squawks of directions came from the radio, and in the distance the sound of both trucks could still be heard. The silence broke all at once.
The radio squealed in Conner’s hand. One word jumped clearly from the static… “Jesus!”… Conner couldn’t tell from whom. A crashing sound accompanied it, and in the far distance gunfire erupted in the still, previously quiet morning air.
The squeal from the radio abruptly cut off and it fell back to low static. In the distance the sound of gunfire continued for what seemed like ten minutes, but was probably no more than thirty or forty seconds in reality. Conner keyed the radio, “Katie,” he screamed. “Katie?”
Gunfire broke out again in the distance. The fast… POP, POP, POP of semi automatic gunfire, but the sharp crack of a heavy rifle too. No answer came back over the radio. Janna Adams made a small strangled sound in the back of her throat, and a low sob slipped from her mouth. “No, God, no,” she whispered.
“It’s alright, Jan,” Conner told her. He didn’t believe it himself, but it was what you said. It was how you lied to yourself when you were pretty sure that things were far from fine. Life didn’t work that way in his experience. The gunfire had stopped, but the radio maintained its teasing static as his mind continued to assure him that nothing at all was right and nothing ever would be again. Just as he had the thought, the radio in his hand squawked once again.
“You guys okay?” a panicked sounding James asked.
“We’re good… We’re good, base. We’re all good. Everything’s okay,” Jake answered.
Beside Conner, Janna broke into a sob. He reached over and pulled her close to him. “It’s okay,” he soothed. “They said they’re all okay,” Conner repeated dumbly, like the words were some magic mantra.
“I need you to come over here,” James said over the radio in a tight, controlled voice. Fear quickly spiked in Conner’s heart.
“Yeah… Uh, you need… Uh, yeah… Okay… We’re coming… We’re on the way,” Jake replied.
Conner pressed his button down. “What is it?” he asked. He spoke with more calm than he felt. “What’s going on?”
“Conner… Conner, we got a little problem here… Give me a second and I’ll get right back to you,” Jake told him.
“Standing by.” Conner forced himself to say. Now Janna was hugging him and the fear gripped his heart hard, refusing to let go.
