by Jim Wilson
“It is in a box ready to be burned.”
“Can you clean it and bring it to the hospital?”
“I will have it there in three hours.”
“Major you are now a Lt. Colonel, so fix your uniforms.”
The Lt. Colonel answered, “Yes sir.”
*****
Sarah’s apartment building was on Tampa Bay and her apartment was on the highest floor at the back of the building. The sixteen floors had become twelve floors. Engineers were working to clear debris as fast and as safely possible and worked on the edge of stability versus collapse. Move too fast and you get collapse and the crushing of survivors, but too slowly the survivors die waiting to be rescued. The people working on the building were the best in the world at what they did. They had one goal and that was to save as many lives as possible. Bill wanted to be at the apartment and wanted to get out of bed and somehow find Sarah alive.
The General entered Bill’s hospital room and took a close look at him. He had a single IV running into his right arm. On the small table, within reach of his left hand, was a Glock 23 with a round in the chamber and an extra clip of 40 caliber bullets. A holster was lying on the floor under the table. Bill’s mother had placed the pistol on the table as soon as he was alert. He was wearing a blue hospital gown covered with flowers. His hands, upper chest, neck and face were visible and his skin was a medium brown. The General could see that he was much lighter today than yesterday. The base doctor thought it would take seven more days for Bill to return to his original color. His injection had been supported by daily pills until he captured the warehouse in Topeka, Kansas. He was using the skin color to allow him to infiltrate a Black Muslim prison ministry. His prison name was Mohammad Johnson. When Bill was able to leave the Hospital he would stand beside the General in a robe, turban and ten day growth of beard and say nothing. The General would answer a few questions and thought it might work.
The IV was soon removed from his arm and Bill was standing as the new Colonel entered his room carrying a package. “You need to put this back on.” He opened the package and it was his robe and turban. He put on a pair of pants, took his Glock from the table, put it into his holster attached it to his belt. He slipped on the robe and arranged the turban neatly on his head.
“Let’s find Sarah.”
”There’ll be reporters as we leave the hospital. Keep your chin down and don’t talk. I’ll do the talking.” Outside the main entrance of the hospital were twenty five reporters. The general told them that this was Mohammad Johnson who had he alerted the authorities of the plan of the jihadist. In addition, he told them that Mr. Johnson had assisted law enforcement at great risk to his own life. Mr. Johnson was a real hero, and with that they headed for Sarah’s apartment. “You need to wear your outfit until we save Sarah. Then the two of you can relax at the base until your skin color returns.”
Bill and the General arrived at the rear of the apartment building. There were several teams working to find survivors. Three teams were working from the rear of the complex. The roof measured forty feet lower than the original height of the building. You could still count all sixteen floors, but the roof was too dangerous to work from. If Sarah was trapped, she was in a rear bedroom. Using a crane, they were able to see into the front rooms. Bill was talking with the chief engineer when the Colonel and Bill’s partner Ivan arrived. Ivan listened to Bill and the engineer and then asked, “Could two men be lifted by the crane and get inside the apartment through one of those open windows?”
The engineer replied, “It would be too dangerous. The roof could collapse at any time.”
Bill asked Ivan, “Do you want to?”
“Sure.”
The engineer gave them several tools and a radio. They rode in a bucket 120 feet to the level of her apartment. The balcony was gone, but there was an opening that allowed them to see into the main room. The opening was a window between the apartment floor and the building roof. It offered them about two feet of space to crawl through to get inside. They both made it into the main room and called her name. Bill felt his energy drain as he crawled farther back into the room. The ceiling was one foot above them as they reached the first bedroom door. Ivan moved to the door and pulled the pack the engineer given him. He first used a drill, and then used a reciprocal saw to cut an opening. He pointed a flashlight into the bedroom, but the roof had collapsed and about a foot from the door there was no space separating them. Ivan did not like what he saw and told Bill to wait where he was. He crawled farther down a hall and cut open another door and again used his flashlight. The second bedroom was not a place she could survive. Ivan called back to Bill, “It doesn’t look good.”
Bill thought like a Seal. We all come home. There was one last door at the end of the hall. Ivan only had enough room to squeeze in close enough to reach the door. He again cut a hole. It was a bathroom and he called out to her and heard a tiny voice. He yelled back at Bill, “She is alive! But I need help! We need jacks to raise the ceiling.” Bill crawled back to the window opening and used his radio to call for help. The engineer told him they would be there shortly and for Ivan not to move and inch.
Bill said, “It is dangerous.”
“It’s never too dangerous to save someone, but it can be too dangerous to look.”
The head searcher was a small thin man, and he quickly reached a positioned beside Ivan. He used the flashlight to inspect the room and asked her located in the bathroom.
“I’m in the tub.”
“We’ll get you out. Just try to stay calm. Are you injured?”
“I don’t think so.”
The engineer had joined Bill and noticed the floor was wet. “Something was leaking.” He shined his flashlight towards Bill and he could see blood all around Bill’s chest. Only two days earlier his chest had opened. This was life threatening, not superficial bleeding. He was now barely able to crawl, but he moved near the opening. The engineer had called an EMT, who was in the bucket heading for the sixteenth floor appointment. The thin man had three ropes dragging behind him and radioed that he needed three 6-12 jacks and three 12-24 jacks. Using the saw, he enlarged the hole in the door and squeezed into the bathroom.
The EMT used a pressure bandage to stop the bleeding wound, “He’s bleeding inside. I need an ambulance and a chest surgeon on site or he will not make it.”
The engineer said, “Her parents are in the front of the building watching the rescue and her dad is a doctor!” They lowered Bill to the ground and Dr. Realey was waiting for him.
The ambulance could only supply basic medical tools and Dr. Realey requested an IV with pain killers. Bill was placed on the hard surface of the parking lot and again someone cut deep into his chest. “I’ve closed a torn artery. Let’s leave him open, and get him to the hospital.” Then someone told him that they had found Sarah alive. ” The emergency is over for a while, but the artery needs to be redone in an operating room. I was going to ride with Bill, but I’ll wait here.” The ambulance took Bill back to University Hospital.
The jacks were able to fit into a six inch space and could lift several tons to a height of twelve inches. The thin man radioed “Get me three more jacks, and make them 10-30s.” He kept working and it took a total of fifteen jacks to get enough space for him to reach the bathtub. “Move to the other side of the tub.”
Sarah answered with a louder voice, “I am and there’s about eight inches of open space.” He pulled out a three inch circular saw with a diamond blade and cut open the side of the tub. They kept talking and Sarah stayed calm. The EMT removed a large section of the tub, freed her and wrapped her in a blanket. The three of them crawled to freedom.
Everything had changed, but nothing had changed. Sarah’s father demanded that she return to the hospital, but this time as a patient. “You have survived thirty six hours of fixed confinement, and you think you feel well, but it is just your mind celebrating freedom.” He started an IV and they took her to the hospital for obser
vation.
Bill had arrived thirty minutes before Sarah and was rushed into surgery. The flattened projectile had made tiny nicks in several vessels, and microsurgery was used to reattach and repair them. He would recover, but this time he would not be released until complete healing was observed. In three hours he was awake and moved to a private room. This hospitalization was not revealed to the press and security did not know who they were guarding, but they did what needed to be done. Sarah arrived and was treated for dehydration and released, then joined Bill in his hospital room.
Sarah was holding his hand as he looked at the people standing close together around his bed. Everyone was there. He looked for Sam and for a second he thought he saw him in the corner. How long had it been since Mira died in Ike’s arms? Something has driven me through this long war. With every battle and every wound something drove me forward and now I have Sarah back. I was trained to win and I won’t stop now. He looked at the General, “Is it over?”
“No Bill. It has just begun.”
