Blink of an Eye: Beginnings Series Book 8

by Jacqueline Druga

  Before he kissed her, before Ellen answered, Frank pulled her close again in the dance, as he did, Ellen whispered in his ear, her answer of ‘yes’.

  The wedding was a bright thing that Beginnings needed. It was a sign of a new start, and a new life for so many. Unfortunately, unknown to everyone, the next day would be far from the picture perfect happy world that existed for that moment in the Social Hall.

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  AUGUST 16

  Had Frank not been so close he wouldn’t have heard it and felt it so strongly. It screamed out to him and he barreled to the noise, blasting open the door to the Tracking Station. Frank’s eyes widened, the synchronized beeping, the flashing lights from the monitor screens, the panicked look on Mark’s face, it all made his heart pound. “What’s going on?”

  “The system is working, Frank.”

  “They’re coming?” Frank prepared his radio.

  “Moving in steady from the northwest at approximately eight miles per hour.”

  “What’s the distance?”

  Mark looked at the screen his voice shook. “Two point nine miles.”

  “How many?”

  “Frank ...”

  “How many, Mark?” Frank asked stronger.

  “God, Frank ...”

  “Mark! How many!” Frank blasted him.

  “Computer is tallying ... Four hundred and twenty-one.”

  “Fuck!” Frank’s hand slammed down. “Tower this is Frank. I need a three-one signal on the horn, hit it now, this is not a drill. Keep it peered northwest we got em coming in large masses.” Frank switched to the ‘all call’ channel, waited for the horns to start then gave everyone that extra second to switch. “Mark, I need you here. Monitor this for me I’ll check back for distance. Where are we now?”

  “Two point six miles.”

  Frank backed out the station door. And headed toward his jeep by his office, calling out as he ran. “Robbie. I need our birds in the air now. All three get them up fast. Robbie, you have fire, Johnny has gas and John will use Dan as a gunner and lay rapid fire on them. I’ll square away perimeters and town and meet you in the air. Do not hesitate. Do not wait for me. Take them out and take them out hard. Someone give me a copy.” Frank jumped in his jeep.

  “Copy, Frank.” Robbie came back. “My ETA to the hangar is about three minutes.”

  “Make it in two, Robbie.” Frank turned over the jeep and screeched it. “Squads One through Six suit up near the field house hatch, squad leaders get your teams in position, stay low and ready. I’ll send back-up as soon as we clear town. Cole, copy me.”

  “Copy, Frank.”

  “Dad, I need you at Armory. I need every single available male. Everyone whether they are reserve or not. I need them suited up.”

  Joe spoke over the radio. “I’m right at Armory now.”

  “Get the town clear, make them clear the town. Get our tunnel leaders down there with them. Stress to the women that this is not a drill.” Frank turned sharp toward Armory. “Mark, what’s our distance.”

  “Two point two, Frank.”

  “We’re running low on time.” Frank saw Armory before him. The loud horns blasted and Frank looked at his watch counting the seconds until he had his choppers in the air. He screeched the jeep to a sideways stop and jumped from it running into help out Joe.

  <><><><>

  Three long sirens followed by one short one. Ellen and Dean, in the eastern wing of the clinic, the wing never used, worked in a makeshift operating room on the John Doe. Keeping him distant and contained from everyone.

  Ellen raised her head to the sirens. “Dean.”

  Dean’s eyes peered over his face mask as his hands worked in the back of John Doe. “It’s a three-one, Ellen. Get the hell out of here and head to the tunnels. It’s real.”

  “Oh my God.” Ellen breathed heavily.

  “Go.”

  “No.”

  “Ellen. Go,” Dean ordered strongly.

  “I’m not leaving you. We can finish this up faster together than alone. I’m staying.”

  Dean didn’t have time to argue. He tried to block out the horns that blasted at them and he continued to operate. “Just a little bit longer.”

  <><><><>

  It was a like an assembly line, the passing down of weapons and artillery down the line of waiting men ... All the way to the last one, he would take his weapon and hit his post. Frank barked out orders as they moved rapidly. “Squads Seven through Nine, scrap town, hit the front gate. Squads Ten and Eleven you are our center town patrol, the rest of you men, when town is clean, move up the back gate and support the lines.” Frank watched the line of men dwindle. “Dad, I’m headed in to move people.”

  “I’ll finish here, Frank.”

  “Then you head to the tunnels.” Frank pointed. “Don’t waste time!” Frank charged from Armory. “Mark, distance.”

  “One point eight miles.”

  “Robbie, where we at.”

  “Loading up, give us another minute.”

  Frank rounded the bend, he could hear through the loud horns, the confusion on the street. He saw Henry already armed, moving people about. “Henry.”

  “Yeah, Frank?”

  “Get your ass in the tunnel. You’re number one tunnel leader.”

  “Make someone else, Frank. I’m fighting.”

  “No,” Frank said strongly, trying to hurry people along. “I need you there. For the sake of the community and for my family. Do this, Henry. Don’t fight me on this.”

  Henry swayed his head. “All right. But let me help a few more people.”

  “Two minutes,” Frank told him then looked to the clinic and saw the wheeling out of patients. “Cole, how are our front lines?”

  “Secure.”

  “Jeff, front gate lines?”

  “Secure,” Jeff came back.

  “Robbie?”

  “I’m climbing in now.”

  Frank watched the clinic doors close then turned to see the last person go down the tunnel. “Tower.” Frank gave a thumbs-up to Henry as he lowered himself down. “Silence the horn. I wanna hear our birds.” The winding down of the horns brought quiet to the streets. “Gentlemen, all is clear in town, let’s move it out ... Robbie, I’ll join you shortly.” He listened as he ran back to the jeep. Just as Frank heard the chopper noise he heard something else. Whistles. High pitch, six of them, loud and fast. “We have incoming! Hit the deck!” Frank yelled, listening to them near, waiting for the explosion. And an explosion, never happened.

  With the fading sounds of the helicopter came the frightening sound of something else. It caused his heart to literally stop beating and all movement on that street ceased as everyone looked up.

  Pop ... Pop ... Pop.

  With the slight hissing sounds erupting, so did a thin steam among the town of Beginnings. It hovered over them like a cloud of death. It was.

  “Gas masks!” Frank ordered out and then called on his radio. “Henry, have them put the masks on down there.” Frank threw on his gas mask. “They hit us ...” Frank spoke gut wrenching and with pain. “They hit us with it.” Frank charged for his jeep in anger, his fist clenched in frustration. “No. No. No!” he cried out, then called his men to move out again in case the SUTs stormed the front gate. “Robbie, blast the fuck out of them. Show no mercy. Give them all we got.” Frank flung off his gas mask in his battle adrenaline and marched to his jeep. His mind raced. All of his work, all of his front line of defense preparations went out the window when the fog cloud was dropped on Beginnings. No amount of defense would have stopped the hit. “Henry. Tell me she’s there.”

  “Frank,” Henry called back. “She’s not.”

  “Henry, check again.”

  “Frank, the kids are all here. Ellen is not.”

  Frank closed his eyes, he spun to send someone back to find her and when he did, he heard another incoming whistle. With his heart pounding he realized it couldn’t be more gas they were se
nding in. It had to be something else. A single mortar. But to take out what? With the revelation of the mortar came the revelation that if they hit them with the virus, what would be one way to secure that Beginnings would not beat it. They could simply do that, by taking out ... the clinic. With a spinning zoom into the clinic, Frank heard the close range of the descending shell and he watched in horror as it landed with a bellowing, ground rumbling explosion and he saw the massive mushroom cloud of fire erupt behind the clinic. “Ellen.” His heart dropped.

  Ellen’s body with Dean hovered in a protection and in a loss of stance when they felt the violent jolting of the ground. Plaster fell amongst their backs as they shielded the John Doe.

  “Ellen, get out.” Dean’s fingers touched in the region of the delicate spinal cord.

  “We’re almost done.”

  “Please get out.”

  “You can’t move him, Dean. I won’t leave.” Her eyes widened. The smell of it caught her attention first, then the bright sight if it. Fire. The entire wall of the makeshift operating room became engulfed in flames. “Dean, hurry.”

  “I’m getting there.”

  “Dean.”

  “Get ready.” Dean kept working.

  Ellen placed the IV bag on the cart getting ready to help Dean wheel him out. She could feel the heat of the powerful flames burning so close to her. The fire crept up the wall and to the ceiling, crawling at them, like a snake in the grass.

  “Ready and ... Now!” Dean dropped his instruments and gripped the cart, pushing it with Ellen to wheel the patient through the door.

  Had Ellen not stopped at the startling sound of the loud crack, she wouldn’t have had to jump back in order to avoid being hit when a beam from the ceiling came crashing down separating her from Dean. The flames shot from the portion of the ceiling that fell to the floor and Ellen stood looking so helpless at Dean on the other side trying desperately to figure out a way to get her.

  She turned around to look behind her and to the small, too small, window there. Ellen could see the rushing water against the window pane. It told her that help was out there, but as Ellen stood trapped, she had to wonder if they could put the fire out that surrounded her, before it got too late.

  <><><><>

  “We need more water power!” Frank barked out looking toward the eastern wing of the clinic that began to engulf with flames. “Robbie, I’ve been delayed. The clinic was hit.”

  Robbie’s voice was nearly buried in the sounds of gunfire and explosions. “We’re good up here, Frank.”

  “Mark, how are we looking.”

  “Numbers dwindling, Frank, looks as though we got a pack still moving.”

  “Where are they?”

  “Point nine miles.”

  Frank bit his lip and twitched his head in disgust. “Cole, get ready. They’re heading your way.”

  “Copy, Frank. We’re on it,” Cole yelled back.

  “You, you, and you.” Frank pointed to men as he reached for a hose to help out with the fire. “Back gate move it! Cole, you got squads headed up and I’m sending more your way.” As Frank lifted the hose he saw Henry running to him. “Henry!” Frank shouted at him. “You are not to be up here. Get down there in case we have to evacuate!”

  “I can’t, Frank.” Henry sounded distraught. “Andrea just told me. Ellen and Dean are in the clinic. They’re operating on John Doe and for fear of the virus they’re in ...” Henry looked at the smoke coming from the clinic. “Oh God, the east wing.”

  Frank dropped the hose and ran to the back of the building where his men not only tried to put the fire out, but hold it back from spreading any farther. In his horror, through the shimmering of smoke and rippling water effects, he saw Ellen pounding on that window even too tiny for her to squeeze out. Her mouth was open as she screamed something Frank could not hear. Then her hands went flush to the glass and Frank knew she saw him. “Oh my God.” Without thought or hesitation he took off to the front of the clinic. “Henry, get a team and get them inside. Hurry.”

  Blasting through the front glass doors, Frank raced down the smoke filled hallways of the empty clinic. As he turned the first bend, he could hear Dean shouting back and Ellen’s un-interpretable response. Rounding the bend to the long hall of the east wing, the smoke got thicker. “Dean!”

  “Frank,” Dean spoke his name in a relief. “I can’t get to her.”

  “Frank!” Ellen cried out. “Frank, help me!”

  “Move that patient out of the way,” Frank ordered Dean and backed up quick and as far as he could go down the hall away from the doorway of the room which Ellen was trapped.

  Dean nearly shoved the cart from the way. “What are you ... are you crazy!” he yelled at Frank when he saw Frank take a runners stance.

  “Yes.” He wiped the sweat from his eyes with the back of his hand, and took a deep breath. Then like a bull freed from his reluctant captivity, Frank charged full speed down that corridor with his heart, raising his arms as a shield and leaping with everything he had through the flames that blocked Ellen’s way out.

  Ellen shrieked when she saw Frank emerge from the fire. His legs high in the air and he dropped hard in his land to the floor at her feet, the momentum of his run rolled him with a crash into the wall. “Frank!” Ellen coughed.

  Frank shook his head with a twitch and picked himself up. He placed his hands on her shoulders stopping Ellen’s charge for him. He quickly looked around the room assessing it.

  “Frank, I can’t believe you did that. Why?”

  “Ellen ...” He saw the bed that had been shoved in the other corner out of the way.

  “You should have never done that, Frank. You could have been killed.”

  “I had to get you.” He moved to the bed.

  “You should have left me.”

  “What! And leave you here to die? Fuck that.” Frank grabbed for the mattress. “Besides ...” He grunted as he lifted it. “Dying is not an option right now.” He carried it toward the fire.

  “What are you doing?”

  “Watch out.” Frank looked past the flames blocking the door. He could see Dean and a few other men that made it to the hall. “Dean, back up.” He secured the mattress tightly. “Get ready, El.”

  “Frank ...”

  With a throaty call out, Frank raised the mattress and threw it outward toward the fire. The second it landed, tossing out ash, cinder, flames, and smoke to the sides of it, Frank lifted Ellen up into his arms and raced forth towards the flames, using the unbalanced mattress as a seesaw bridge over the smoldering fire that now ceased to keep him back.

  Landing in safety’s range, Frank kissed Ellen quickly and set her down to her feet right with Dean. “Watch her.” He pointed at Dean and took off running from the clinic.

  Ellen didn’t even have time to thank him. Frank was gone. She turned back to face Dean. And at that moment, Dean closed his eyes in gratefulness that she was all right and grabbed Ellen into his arms, embracing her.

  Frank ran up to Henry who was battling the fire. “Henry, how’s it look?”

  “We’ve got it under control. How’s Ellen?”

  “She’s fine. They’re getting the fire from inside. I’m heading out.” Frank looked beyond the horizon of town. In the distance large clouds of smoke sprang up, the perfect back drop for the gunfire and explosions that rang out all around. “Dad, come in.”

  “Yeah, Frank.” Though Joe spoke close to his radio, he didn’t cover the cries or sniffles that filled the tunnel.

  “Town’s secure. Clinic fire is under control. I’m headed where I’m needed. Robbie? Robbie, how’s it look,” Frank asked as he ran to his jeep.

  “We’re doing all we can, Frank. They’re scattering like ants.”

  “Need me up there?”

  “No. I think we have them. I think you’re needed there. A small group broke free, headed your way.”

  “Not a problem. OK, good job.” Frank jumped in his jeep starting it. “Lay enoug
h damage to give us a safe lack of movement up there, then bring it in and we’ll send ground troops to finish them off.”

  “Got it, Frank.”

  “Mark. How we looking.”

  “In the distance we’re good, but ... some are here Frank.”

  “How many?” Frank picked up his speed.

  “Sixty ... Sixty-eight.”

  “Cole,” Frank called out. “What’s the situation?”

  Cole’s voice screamed over the loud sounds of shots behind him. “We’re exchanging gunfire with them, Frank. They’re at the back gate. I have two down!”

  “Keep behind the grade and in the trench, send four men to the roof of the utility building as snipers. I’ll be there in thirty seconds.”

  Frank had sent his finest to the back gate to be front line. Though forty-four men laced the hillside not far from the back gate. Twenty-four of them Frank had trained by hand. As he jumped from the jeep he passed his four snipers in a run to the utility building. The battle rang out in an orchestrated manner. Rapid gunfire, single shots, a grunt here and there, the explosions of grenades, and an occasional scream.

  In his low run to the hill and trenches, Frank could see the dirt sprawled everywhere from the badly thrown grenades. He rolled to Cole who had his back to the small grade. “How bad are our men hit?”

  “Don’t know, Frank.” Cole reloaded. “They aren’t dead.”

  Frank called over the radio. “Mark, what’s our back gate count.”

  “Fifty-nine, Frank.”

  Frank looked at Cole “There’s not that many out there.” Frank smiled gave a quick Joe-style whistle and yelled out. “Cease fire.”

  “What?” Cole jolted his view to him.

  “Cease fire.” Frank waited for the gunshots to slow down. “I need Squads One through Four right here. The rest of you hit safety in the trenches. Now!” Watching the men scurry to the trenches, and hearing the enemy’s gunfire, Frank looked to his fifteen men as he loaded his M-16. “Gentlemen, let’s stop pissing around and finish this thing. We’ll show these pussies what Beginnings’ Elite is made of. Let’s give them the wave. Take formation.” All sixteen of them lined up in one long row. “On my call ...” A synchronization of clicking chambers rang out. “Ready and ... now!” The first line of eight men stood up firing outward. “Now!” At the exact same time the first line lowered, the second line stood up firing. “Now.” A switch of positions, down went the second line, up went the first. “Again!” Frank stood again with his second line, staying up only in enough time to shoot in a dart and move fashion. “Down.” All men lowered “Reload and check, Mark, give me a count.”