Freedom Fight: Beginnings Series Book 9

by Jacqueline Druga

  Robbie looked down at Ellen in his arms. He tightly closed his eyes, adjusted her better, and ran as fast as he could, carrying her all the way toward the end of the long tunnel.

  ^^^^

  Dean grinned as he stood by where his new home would be. Two pieces of the modular home were there waiting to be moved and placed together.

  “Like it?” Danny asked. “You now have the open view.”

  “It reminds me of a Barbie house,” Dean laughed.

  “Yeah, you kind of open it up and get the entire feel of it. Want me to leave it like that?”

  Dean started laughing. He took a breath and held up his hand to Danny when his phone rang. Unhooking it from his belt, Dean answered. “Hello?” Any and all expression dropped from his face at the same time the phone dropped from his hand.

  “Dean?”

  Dean didn’t even hesitate to pick up the phone. He merely spun around and raced at top speed through town to the clinic.

  Her body didn’t move, except for slight twitching. She was still curled in a ball, only this time on Robbie’s lap as he drove the Jeep. One hand secured her head to his chest, the other the steering wheel, occasionally having to maneuver the wheel with his leg to switch gears. But never once did his hand move from Ellen. “Dad, did you get a hold of Dean.”

  “Yeah. I’m guessing he’s on his way. Robbie, what’s wrong. What happened.?”

  “I found her.” Robbie’s eye shifted down. “She’s alone. Oh God I’m scared. You should . . . you should . . . .” Robbie swallowed. “I’m almost there. Over.”

  The timing could not have been better or worse for Dean. As he reached for the clinic doors, Robbie screeched up in the Jeep. Dean spun on the steps and ran down.

  Robbie stepped from the Jeep with Ellen still wrapped in the bloody sheet. Dean’s hand touched her as Robbie raced to the doors with her. Her face was still pressed to Robbie’s chest.

  “Dear God.” Joe gasped as he and Henry opened the door for Robbie and Dean. “Robbie, Andrea’s in room three waiting.”

  Robbie just ran past and to that room. Dean ran quickly behind.

  Henry reached for Dean. “Dean, what’s wrong with her.”

  “Henry.” Dean pulled back, walking backwards. “I know as much as you.” He flew to examining room three. Robbie was laying Ellen on the table. “Get her out of that sheet. Andrea, what do you have ready?” Dean washed up.

  “Fluids, IV ready to start, anti-infectives, surgical . . .”

  Dean turned off the sink when he heard Andrea stop talking. He turned around and saw why. Robbie had uncovered Ellen. Her entire body was covered in blood, fresh and dried, from head to toe. Immediately, her body sprang back into a curled position, her legs held tightly to her chest.

  Andrea’s eyes went from Ellen to Dean. “She’s in shock.”

  “Robbie, find me blankets.” Dean neared Ellen. Her face was pale and her breaths so shallow her face was nearly blue. “Oxygen, Andrea start oxygen and get me vitals.”

  Robbie pulled the sheet from under Ellen as Andrea administered the oxygen. Ellen’s body turned some. “We have a bullet hole, Dean. Looks like it’s still in there.”

  “Where?”

  Robbie pointed to her arm. “And another here.” He pointed to her back then looked at Ellen chest. “Look like it went straight out.”

  Dean examined. “Up and through the shoulder, thank God.” He grabbed his pen light and turned it on. He shined it in Ellen’s dilated pupils. They didn’t change despite the light. Her eyes didn’t blink, they only stared forward. Their luster was gone. “El.” Dean called her. “Ellen, can you hear me. Andrea, what are her vitals.”

  “Heart rate, 62. BP . . . BP is low Dean.”

  “How low?” Dean kept shining the light in Ellen’s eyes.

  “80 over 40.”

  “Ellen.” Dean’s hand went to her face. “El, come on. El, it’s me, Dean. Sweetheart.” He received no response. His hand trembled as he brought it over his eyes.

  Andrea approached him. “I’ll deal with her. You can’t handle . . .”

  “No,” Dean stated strongly. “I’ll take care of her alone. I know what she would want. Just . . .” Dean took a breath. “Just leave us. I’m gonna do this. Robbie, find me some blankets.” Slowly Dean’s hand pointed to the back of the room. “And if you could. Run the . . . run the bath in there. Thanks. Not too hot, warm, only warm.”

  “Got it, Dean.” Robbie carried the sheet and moved it to the trash.

  “Wait.” Dean stopped him. “You found only her right?”

  “Yes,” Robbie said. “Why.”

  “Take that sheet to my lab. There’s a lot of blood on there. Can you?”

  Robbie looked down at the sheet. “Yeah, I’ll start that bath too.”

  “Andrea.” Dean faced her as she wheeled a surgical tray to him. “Just tell Joe and Henry, I’ll let them know what’s up as soon as I finish.”

  “Dean, I’m not leaving.”

  “I want to do this alone.” Dean’s hand rested on Ellen’s shoulder.

  “Dean, I . . .”

  “I want to do this alone!” Dean shouted at her loudly and emotionally. “Please!” he calmed down,. “Please.”

  Andrea only nodded her head once, brushed her hand over Ellen then across Dean’s back as she silently walked out.

  The room went quiet as Dean stood alone with Ellen. The only sounds in there were Ellen’s short huffing breaths, breaths that moved her body in a twitch as she took them. Dean could feel a wave of heat sweep up his body across his neck and to his ears. He burned with emotions as he pulled the tray closer to Ellen. His hand reached for her fists which were held to her mouth. Her arms locked, they wouldn’t budge or move. Tightly and briefly Dean closed his eyes in pain. His hands rose from Ellen and literally shook. He tried to stay calm for he had too. Dean knew getting a grip on his emotions was foremost if he was going to examine and help her. His head swayed in sadness and he lowered it to Ellen, laying his lips gently on her cheek. Her skin was cool and dry. “Oh my God.” He spoke with an emotionally cracking voice. “What happened to you?” He kissed her again. “What happened to you?”

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  Quantico Marine Headquarters

  George’s desk went flying across his office, crashing to the floor and sending everything on it scattering about the room. His face was red, and his arms flung violently. Jeremy stood back nearly frightened at the outraged president.

  “Sir,” Jeremy jolted at another smashing sound. “It was a mistake on . . .”

  “A mistake! They had direct orders!” George blasted. “They screwed up! How difficult could this have been?”

  “But you have to look at the other side . . .”

  “There is no other side!” George yelled his loudest. “They screwed it up and I want answers why. Get them.”

  “Sir . . .”

  “Get them!”

  Jeremy backed up and moved quickly from George’s office. There was no answer to search for and Jeremy knew it. There was no answer that would ever satisfy George.

  ^^^^

  Joe tried to stay in control of any emotions that tried to escape him. In the waiting room with Henry, Johnny, and Robbie, Joe tried to be the leader and to take charge of the situation.

  “We’ll get a full blown search in the air.” Joe explained to Johnny. “All four choppers out constantly during daylight hours. We’ll find your father.”

  Robbie sat leaning forward in a chair, his hands buried in his face. He spoke muffled and through his hands. “It’s useless.”

  Joe looked at his son at the same time Henry moved from the doorway to him.

  Robbie looked up. His face was red. “It’s useless. We’re not finding Frank,” he spoke calmly.

  “Robbie,” Henry said to him, “this is your brother. Why would you give up so easily?”

  “Because I’ve had a good look at Ellen.”

  Joe looked at Robbie curiously. “Wh
at do mean?” There was some hostility to his voice.

  “Exactly what I said.” Robbie breathed heavily and stood up. “Take a look at Ellen, Dad and when you see her, you ask yourself something, Ask yourself would Frank allow her to get like that if he was able to do anything about it? I know Frank.” Robbie swallowed. “He’d die for Ellen.” Robbie’s eyes closed. “And when you see her, it looks a hell of a lot like he did.”

  “No.” Joe shook his head. “I refuse to believe that.”

  “That’s because you haven’t seen her.” Robbie raised his voice. “You haven’t looked unto the eyes that just have no life.” He saw his father’s expression drop. “Yeah, that’s exactly what I said. I believe The Society dropped her off as a message to us. Not only did they get Frank, they got her too. And I . . .I have to get out of here.” Robbie charged for the door but Andrea was walking in.

  “Andrea.” Joe hurried to her. “What’s going on? How’s Ellen?”

  With a solemn look, Andrea swayed her head as she walked into the waiting room. “They got our girl pretty good, Joe. Beat her, shot her. I just spoke to Dean and that’s what his examination showed. We have her in a room now. Ellen is gonna make it physically, but . . . she’s in shock right now, severe traumatic shock. She has slipped into a world within herself and she does not want to come out.”

  Joe stuttered as he spoke, “Will she come out?”

  “We’re hoping in time. In cases like this they have to be pulled out or want to come out on their own. We can’t just let her lay in that bed. We . . . all of us.” Andrea looked at the faces in the room. “We all have to do our part to make her want to come out. Talk to her, constantly, kind nurturing therapy, encouragement. Anything, If you must pester her, then so be it. Pester her. But we have to work together to bring her out, because the longer she stays like this, the harder it will be.”

  Henry had to question. “Then we should all take turns with her. She can hear us. Is that what you’re saying?”

  Andrea nodded. “She can hear you.”

  Joe reached out and grabbed Andrea’s hand. “Can we see her now?”

  “Yes. But…” Andrea spoke with some reservation, “listen to me carefully. What you will see when you walk in that room is not our Ellen and don’t expect it to be. She can sense our presence, hear us. If you are not strong enough to handle what you are about to see, I ask you to immediately leave that room, because she doesn’t need that. She needs us, her family, to help her.”

  Dean sat in a chair closely to Ellen’s bedside. His hands rested on hers as he just stared at her. His eyes bloodshot, his expression screamed out lost. He turned his head only a little when he heard the door open.

  Joe walked in first, looked at Ellen, and took in a long breath. Henry stopped cold. In the worst case scenario in his mind, seeing Ellen like she was, never entered his thoughts. Robbie felt a trembling in him, a sickening anger and sadness that combined together to make him speechless and to be one of those people Andrea didn’t want in the room. Sniffing loudly once, Robbie walked to the bed, leaned over and kissed Ellen on the cheek. His hand ran over where his lips had just laid.

  “El, I’ll uh . . .” He cleared his throat. “I’ll stop back later. O.K.? I have to um, I have to do rounds.” Again he kissed her, looked at his father, and quickly walked from the room. Johnny followed.

  Henry’s eyes stayed focused on Ellen. “This isn’t what I thought.”

  Andrea shook her head. “It’s text book, Henry. This is reality when something happens.”

  “How…how bad?” Henry asked shaking his head. “How bad is she hurt? She has to be bad to be like this.”

  “I said before, physically she took a beating, but she’ll recover from that. However . . .” Andrea looked down at Dean. “We don’t feel what they did to Ellen is what sent her into this state. We believe it’s what Ellen saw that caused this.”

  Loudly Joe cleared his throat and walked to the bed. “Dean,” he spoke softly, “I’m sorry to ask this, but can I spend a few moments alone with my daughter.”

  “Yeah Joe.” Dean slowly stood up and walked from the bedside to Henry. They both left and Andrea followed shortly behind.

  Joe moved the chair closer, laying one hand on Ellen’s clenched fist, and the other hand stroked her face. “Hey, Kiddo.” Joe kissed her. “What are you doing? Huh? What are you doing? This is your father speaking to you and I want you to listen to me. I know right now you need some rest so you rest. We all need you out here, all of us. Do you know what I think? I think I raised a very strong daughter and you aren’t hiding like they think. I think you’re just having trouble reaching us, but don’t you worry. We didn’t give up searching for you and we still aren’t. I won’t.” Joe lowered his voice to a whisper. “We’ll find you in there Kiddo, and goddamn it, we’ll bring you out. That’s a promise.” He kissed her. “That’s a promise.”

  ^^^^

  Maybe getting out of the room for a second was what Dean needed. He knew until Ellen woke up, he would never be far from the room at all. He walked to his lab, his head down. So many questions went through his mind. How much Ellen had gone through in her life and even recently. How much she didn’t need this. Did she see something or had she finally reached her breaking point in life and her mind said, ‘enough is enough. I’m not coming back.’ The possibility of that was so great, it frightened Dean, because he needed her back and he, like everyone else, would do all they could to get her back.

  He saw the sheet and Ellen’s dress in a plastic bin on his counter. Dean closed and locked the lab door. He shut all binds to prevent others from seeing in. He was going to perform a test that only he could do and he hoped that the test would at least give him some answers.

  He cleared a small table and three stools making a large exposed area on the floor. Dean reached into the bin and pulled out the sheet. He flapped it outward, laid it on the floor, and spread it out as much as he could. He laid Ellen’s dress on it. Both were now brownish in color from the blood. Ellen’s dress had grass and dirt marks as well.

  Crouching down, Dean stood at the far end of the sheet, his eyes focused in concentration until he hit the first spot of blood, brought it in closer, and saw the corpuscles. Like a scanning tool, Dean, with extreme mental concentration, scanned inch by inch, left to right of the sheet. He didn’t make it too far into his scan when he stopped. He blinked, rubbed his eyes, and scanned again. He became drawn and his jaw tightened up. His face surely showed the signs of an answer to a question he didn’t want to have.

  ^^^^

  Bowman, North Dakota

  He stood in one of the six lookout towers waiting. When Hal saw the single horseman riding into town, he raced from the tower, to the street, and straight to the edge of town. His heart didn’t want to see only one man return. He had sent six to the Anderson farm.

  The horse stopped and Hal grabbed the reigns until the exhausted rider dismounted. Gary, a small man, saluted and Hal returned it.

  “I’m glad you made it back, “ Hal told him. “I’m sorry to ask you right away, but I need to know what happened. Beginnings is in a frenzy and nothing certain is being said over the radio, only that it has to do with a woman left at the front gate.”

  “That was me, sir.”

  “What . . . what happened?” Hal asked almost painfully. Hal signaled to another man to take the horse and walking, Hal led Gary further into town.

  “We were at our post monitoring the house, watching it. Never once Captain, I swear did we stop.”

  “I believe you.”

  “The man and the woman were sitting on a white sheet. In fact they had two sheets hanging from the window.”

  “A signal for their choppers. Go on.”

  “Out of nowhere, sir, five or six shots were fired. They were fired as the man stood up. He didn’t even have time to react as all of the shots hit him.”

  Hal closed his eyes. “How many Society soldiers were there?”

  “Twenty
, twenty-five. We didn’t see them at first as the grass was high. We were on the other side.”

  “And the woman?”

  “She started firing, but as soon as she stood up they shot her as well. Three times but none of them life threatening.”

  “When . . . when did you move in?” Hal asked.

  “Sir, we moved in as soon as we saw the man go down. We mounted and rode. The woman tried to get away from The Society and they beat her, dragging her and such. It was horrible, barbaric.”

  “If she would have just stayed put, she would have been fine,” Hal said.

  “Exactly. Our horse jumped over the body of the man.”

  “You got to the woman in time?”

  “Yes. We started battling, racing the horses to avoid the gunshots. We cause a lot of confusion. Some of The Society fought us. Some were consumed with the man and the woman. Because of my size, I was to get the woman and ride out. Just leave and take her straight to Beginnings, which I did. She was bleeding badly and I grabbed the white sheet that the man was lying on, wrapped her, and rode away just like the men and I planned.”

  Hal nodded., “Leaving the battle to the others. You did not stop riding then?”

  “No sir.”

  “You mentioned ‘where the man was’. Wasn’t he there? Did he get up?”

  “No.” Gary shook his head. “It was happening so fast. I was consumed with getting her out. From what I saw, four men were carrying him.”

  “I see. And how was she?” Hal asked with concern.

  She cried for the first half hour of the ride, hysterically crying out a name I couldn’t understand, but then she drew silent. She wasn’t dead. She was in shock. She just stared out.”

  Hal gave a proud squeeze to Gary’s shoulder. “You did well. You brought the woman to her people. Now, I’ll get a party out to go to the Anderson farm and see what . . .”

  “I was there, sir,” Gary interrupted. “I stopped on the way home.”