“Got it,” a voice crackled back.
Cedric and Garcia stepped back from the members of the FRA while they waited. Everyone stood in silence.
After a few minutes, the small golf-cart came into view as the electric motor whirred noisily. The crew gathered the man onto the back of the cart and drove back to where Cedric was waiting.
“Come on,” Cedric told Davis. He then turned to Miller, “You can wait outside the gate. You are purposely trying to stir trouble and cause issues.”
“Like Hell!” Miller shouted back. “I’m in charge here.”
“No,” Cedric said. “You aren’t. If you’re in our area, you play by the rules of the treaty. If you need our help, you play by our rules. You wait outside the gate.”
“Now listen here, boy,” Miller said flexing his jaw.
“If you want this man looked at, you will listen. Otherwise, we’re done.” Cedric felt his knees beginning to shake and he hoped his voice didn’t do the same. This man, Miller, looked violent and dangerous. But Cedric was not going to back down.
Miller clenched his jaw tightly. After a few tense moments, Miller said through gritted teeth, “Fine. Go. Take care of him.”
Cedric held his hand in the air and spun his pointer finger pointing up as a signal for the golf cart to go back. Davis was riding on the back of the golf cart with the patient, so Garcia took the opportunity alone to talk to Cedric.
“What the Hell, man?” She said once they were out of earshot of everyone else. “I am the one who was supposed to have the lead. Talk about not following protocol.”
“Listen,” Cedric said, “you and Miller were arguing just to piss each other off. That’s not what we’re about here and you know it. We help. We don’t discriminate. No matter who they are, or were, we help.”
Garcia huffed, but she knew Cedric was right. “I still don’t have to like it,” she said. “I still don’t trust them.”
“Why do you think I sent Miller back out? And why do you think we’re keeping them outside?” Cedric asked rhetorically.
They stopped talking once they thought they were in earshot of the others. Cedric helped Corporal Davis pull the man from the back of the golf cart and sit him in a chair. Cedric didn’t have to wonder what was wrong with the man, and he wondered briefly why Miller couldn’t put two and two together.
Cedric immediately assumed the man was suffering from simple dehydration. “When was the last time this guy had water?” he asked Davis.
“Today,” he said. “We have a creek nearby. We all have water.”
“What are his symptoms?” Cedric asked. He should have waited on the doctor, but his times camping and being outside told him a good probability of what was wrong.
“His pulse is up. He’s throwing up. He’s in the outhouse constantly. He passed out yesterday. Then again this morning.”
Cedric shuttered when Davis said they had an outhouse, but just hearing it wasn’t enough for Garcia.
“Wait,” she said holding her hand up, “Outhouse… singular? As in, all of you guys share one outhouse?”
“We have five,” Davis said.
“And how many of you are there?” Garcia asked innocently. Cedric knew why she was asking about the outhouses and everything. It had nothing to do with the outhouse itself. She was just using it as an excuse to get information.
“Forty, maybe forty-five,” Davis answered. “It’s really not that bad.”
“Nope,” Garcia said. “Not for me.”
Just then, Dr. Moore came slowly from the doorway with a small bag clutched in his hand. He held his hand over his eyes like a visor and peered around, looking for danger.
Cedric immediately relayed the information Davis had given while Dr. Moore took the man’s temperature and began a cursory examination.
“Right,” Dr. Moore said when he finished. He looked at Cedric and asked, “I’m curious Cedric, what do you think his condition is?” Cedric knew the doc was asking because the doc liked to tease him for being a know-it-all at times.
“He has an infection from contaminated water. He’s drinking from the creek. It caused him to become dehydrated,” Cedric said with confidence.
“Right,” Dr. Moore said pulling a notepad from his pocket. “We do not have any treatments to spare but take this.” He tore the paper from the pad and handed the slip to Davis. “He likely has dysentery or another foodborne bacteria. Give him one of these antibiotics and try to get some fluids in him. Worry about food after he settles down.”
Davis took the paper from Dr. Moore and asked, “So, that’s it? No treatment? No help?”
“You know what’s wrong with him now,” Dr. Moore said. “We didn’t have to do that. But we did. We do not have the supplies to treat him right now. I’m sorry. But I suggest boiling your water before you drink it. Especially since you have the outhouses. The groundwater from the latrines will seep into the drinking water.”
Davis just stared for a moment before saying, “Fine. Can I get some help out to the gate?”
Cedric nodded and they put the man back onto the golf cart. When the driver was about to climb back in, Cedric stopped him. “I’ve got it,” he said.
“Me too,” Garcia added.
Cedric drove the cart back to the gate.
When they got close, Cedric saw that the other men from the FRA did indeed have guns pointed at him. Cedric and Garcia ignored them as they climbed out.
“Davis has instructions from the doctor. And he suggests you start boiling your water,” Garcia said with a hint of scorn in her voice.
“Why won’t your doctor treat him?” Miller asked hatefully.
“Because we don’t have to. We said treatment wasn’t guaranteed,” Garcia snapped back. “We didn’t even have to examine him, but we did.”
As Cedric and Davis lowered the man into the car, Cedric swore he heard the man whisper, “Thanks, man.”
Cedric nodded at the man, not sure if he got the message. He turned around and saw that Miller and Garcia were nearly chest to chest arguing about the help provided. The men with Miller were just laughing at the spectacle.
“I’m not going to be told what to do by some little south of the border princess,” Miller said vehemently.
Cedric knew exactly what was about to happen, so he rushed in and tried to immediately diffuse the situation. “Garcia, let’s go. We’ve got to get back.”
He wasn’t so familiar with Garcia that he knew what would calm her down, so he grabbed her wrist and tried to pull her along to the cart. “Not worth it,” he whispered.
“Yeah,” she mumbled.
Cedric thought she was about to turn when she finished her sentence, “it is.”
Garcia swung her free hand with all she had and slammed Miller directly in the jaw. Cedric could swear he heard bone crack.
Before anything could be done, Cedric had the barrel of a shotgun in his face and Garcia was pinned to the ground with a gun pointing at the back of her head.
How many times does this have to happen? Cedric wondered to himself as he slowly sank to his knees.
Chapter Three:
SETTLING DEBT
Cedric calmly looked around for Miller despite the shotgun barrel inches from his face. As soon as he saw him leaning on the trunk of one of the cars, Cedric began to speak, “I need to give the signal for my people not to shoot.”
Miller just smiled for a moment to appreciate the situation. He casually sucked on his front teeth with his tongue and made a small popping sound. “If ya move, they’ll shoot ya, boy,” Miller said. “They’re under explicit instructions to shoot you if you move at all.”
Something about the way Miller said that didn’t sit right with Cedric. But, with the current situation, he couldn’t work it out. “If I don’t give the signal, my people will open fire,” Cedric said trying to reason with the man. “I need to give it or you will be shot.”
Again, Miller acted like he had all the time in the world. Cedric knew a
t this very moment that his team would be scrambling to line every single one of the men into a shot. With Miller right in the open and Garcia on the ground, his team wouldn’t be hard pressed to make the shots either. Cedric knew that between his team and Garcia’s team, they had four long range rifles on the roof. There were eight targets. It would take them a matter of a few minutes to line up the shots well enough, but Cedric knew they would take the first volley of shots any moment.
“Miller,” Cedric said one last time. “Your people are about to get shot.”
“If your guys shoot, we shoot. We can all die today,” Miller said. He then reached down to Cedric’s waistband and pulled the walkie-talkie off. Miller clicked the button on the side and repeated the message into the speaker.
After a few brief moments, a message came back over the radio for Miller. One word. “Fine.”
Cedric fell from his knees onto his side at that moment and heard the sharp crack of gunfire split the air. Cedric didn’t waste any time. He immediately jumped to his feet and pulled his pipes from their holsters on his belt.
As soon as his thoughts caught up to his senses, Cedric realized he was swinging his pipes like a madman. He managed to disable one of the four remaining men by smacking him sharply on the side of the knee. He followed through with a swing from his left-hand pipe to strike the man on the jaw. The man toppled over.
Cedric caught movement from his peripheral vision and saw Garcia tackle one of the other men. Cedric threw a pipe at the man trying to pull Garcia off of his companion and it smacked the back of his head making him stumble forward. Cedric dropped his other pipe and picked up the shotgun of one of the men who had been shot.
Cedric grabbed the barrel and held it like a club. As the man Cedric had pinged with his pipe ran at him, Cedric swung hard with the gun. The man caught it on his arm, blocking it from hitting his head. Cedric was sure it had fractured the man’s arm. He didn’t have a better option as the man was now pulling on the butt of the gun, so Cedric let go of it and kicked outward. The combined momentum sent the man flying backwards.
Cedric saw Garcia delivering blows to the man she had pinned to the ground, but he was still conscious and covering his head with his arms. Cedric looked for the fourth man. He saw Davis standing to the side looking stunned.
Cedric calmly stared him down and said, “Davis, get down on the ground and put your hands behind your head.”
Davis obeyed.
Cedric walked to each of the four men who had been shot and checked their pulse. Each of the men was still alive, but each had been knocked to the ground, winded. He noticed each of them was actually still awake, they just didn’t have the ability to speak at the moment since they were trying desperately to manage the pain and catch their breath.
Cedric began to collect all of the firearms as he heard footsteps approaching. Help arrived right as Miller was trying to pull himself to his hands and knees. Eric’s boot planted directly in his back and pushed him back to the ground.
As soon as Garcia had subdued her man, she began to help the effort of collecting the weapons, including the ones from the vehicles.
Once the task was complete, Cedric walked calmly to where one of the men laid on his stomach wincing in pain.
When he arrived, the man began to speak through clenched teeth, “What did you do?”
“I told you that you would be shot,” Cedric replied. Now that he didn’t have a gun in his face, he could think a little more clearly. “I never said you would be killed.”
“Why am I not bleeding?” the man asked. He winced with every breath.
“You were shot with a non-lethal bullet. I’m sure it broke some ribs,” Cedric replied before asking a question. “Were you sent here to start a fight?”
“No,” the man choked out.
“So, that was Miller’s idea after we made him come back out,” Cedric stated flatly.
“What’s this?” Eric asked. “Miller set this up on purpose?”
Garcia walked to Miller and squeezed his cheeks as she talked to him, “You wanted to start a fight so you could start something big, didn’t you?”
Miller tried to spit at Garcia, but he couldn’t with her grabbing his cheek. He ended up slobbering out of the side of his mouth.
Cedric tapped Garcia on the shoulder and motioned for her to follow him.
Once they were out of earshot, Cedric started to talk, “We can’t keep him. We can’t hold any of them. It would start a war. We need to let him go back with the others. We don’t need to give them an excuse to come after us. But we keep the guns.”
“No way,” Garcia said. “We can’t just let them go. They gotta pay for what they did.”
“They are,” Cedric said pointing to their pile of newly collected guns. “And they report to the Colonel what happened,” Cedric added pointing at Miller’s companions.
Garcia huffed as she walked away. She didn’t like it, but she knew Cedric had a lot of sway with what the group did.
When Cedric returned, he found Eric and the others searching the vehicles. Within minutes, they turned up a few more hidden firearms.
“Are there any more?” Cedric asked Davis after Eric finished.
He could hear Miller grunting something from the side. Garcia had taken pleasure in tying him up and putting a gag over his mouth so he couldn’t be heard.
“Nothing,” Davis said.
“You sure?” Cedric asked. “Davis, we can work together on this.”
“That’s everything,” Davis reassured him. “You’ve got all the weapons.” Cedric noticed he sounded defeated—like a child who had been scolded.
“Davis,” Cedric said, “Would you like to stay?”
Davis looked up perplexed. “What do you mean?”
“Yeah,” Garcia chimed in. “What the Hell do you mean?”
“Do you want to stay with us instead?” Cedric offered again. “Leave the army, so to speak.”
Cedric could hear Miller grunting again.
“No,” Davis said firmly. “I’ll report what happened. But that’s it. Miller broke the truce. But that doesn’t mean I don’t believe in the Colonel. But, I am supposed to offer a message.”
“What message?” Garcia asked. “And why are you just now mentioning it?”
“Because I wasn’t supposed to say anything until we left,” Davis answered. “And, well, it’s kind of the same offer. Colonel wants to know if you will come be his second-in-command, Cedric. The offer stands if you want it.”
Cedric paused. He was slightly in shock. “You can’t be serious. After all the crap he put us through during the winter, after he shot my brother thinking it was me, he wants me to help him?”
“That’s kind of the point. He thought you were the dangerous one.” Davis said.
“You weren’t there, Davis,” Eric said. “Jackie and Qualls are the ones who instigated everything.”
“And it was Jackie who ordered me kidnapped at the hospital,” Cedric said remembering the woman who used to be second in command.
“That’s the key,” Davis said. “Jackie. But she’s gone. Just think about it, will ya?”
“No,” Cedric said just as firmly as Davis had earlier.
“Just think about it,” Davis repeated. “Am I free to go?”
Cedric looked at Garcia. She nodded slightly. “Go,” Cedric said. “Report what happened. Miller is no longer allowed in our area. From this point forward, he is shot on sight.” Cedric leaned down and picked up a lime green hunk of plastic, “No plastic bullets next time.”
Davis smirked.
“Let ‘em go,” Cedric said loudly. “But… I have a special place for Miller.”
Once Miller was safely stowed in the trunk of one of the cars, Cedric handed a single shotgun to Davis. “Do us a favor. When you’re a good distance away, fire a few scatter shots. Our shots fired here will attract the infected.”
Davis nodded as he got into the driver’s seat.
Within minute
s, they were gone. Another few minutes later and the confiscated guns were taken to the armory.
“Ross will be thrilled,” Steph said as she looked at all the new weaponry. “More paperwork.”
“Doubtful,” Cedric said as he glanced at the guns. They had taken eighteen guns from the men and cars. “But I bet he will be more thrilled than me. Garcia and I have to go report to the other department heads what happened before we can leave. That’s gonna be fun.”
When Cedric got to the main hallway again, he found Karli waiting on him. “So?” she asked. “How was it?”
“Dreadful,” Cedric said. “Miller’s a jerk. Davis is alright, but Miller needs to go cho…”
“Not that,” Karli interrupted. “But I do want to hear that story too. I think I know Davis from somewhere.”
“Probably,” Cedric said. “He’s from here. As in, he went to this high school. But what did you mean?”
Karli grabbed Cedric’s wrist and flipped it over. Cedric noticed the large bandage covering his inner arm and realized what Karli meant.
“Not bad actually,” he said. Cedric slowly peeled the bandage back to reveal the laurel topped hawk.
“Why’s it got a crown?” Karli asked.
“Laurel wreath, I think,” Cedric said. “I didn’t choose it, nor approve of it. Anderson did it before I knew it was there.”
“It’s cause Ced’s the jerk who waited until last to get with the crew,” Steph said walking up behind them. Neither had heard her approach.
“I don’t really think Cedric is a jerk,” Karli said icily. “But somebody here is, Stephanie.”
Steph’s only reaction was to correct her name, “It’s just Steph. Not Stephanie. And you have to haze the boss.”
“Alright, then,” Cedric said with false cheerfulness. “Steph, can you go tell the council members I’ll be in to report in a few minutes. Thanks.”
“Copy that,” Steph said as she walked away.
Once she was out of earshot, Cedric asked, “Why do you give Steph such a hard time?”
“Cedric,” Karli said with a small pout. “Do I really have to spell it out for you?”
“She can’t help she likes who she likes,” Cedric said. “It doesn’t affect anything. She’s got my back out there. That’s all that matters.”
The Living Saga (Book 2): Enduring Page 4
