Jackson waved at John from farther down the table.
“We’ll have to catch up later,” John said to Allison and Ethan before he left to take an empty seat next to Jackson. The two whispered a few things back and forth, and then Jackson stood to start the meeting.
First they discussed logistical items, the state of their ammunition stores and food supplies. Apparently, Jackson had sent a guy named Eric to identify a few restaurants that may be convinced to donate food to the cause. Ethan thought the group looked a bit relieved to hear that Eric was gone for a little while. He got the impression that the guy was more trouble than he was worth.
The meeting went on with Allison and Ethan describing what happened to the city’s northern resistance. The crowd was riveted and gobbled up every detail. When they’d finished, there was a palpable tension in the room.
“All of them?” John broke the silence.
“All of them,” Ethan responded gravely. “These four soldiers weren’t like anyone we’d ever encountered before. They’re definitely not a standard Urlowen patrol, or even the standard soldier.”
“I’d say not,” Leon agreed from the middle of the crowd. “The patrols are dangerous, but they’re not that well trained.”
“What are we going to do?” an older lady asked.
Jackson looked through the crowd and saw fear building in their faces. “We’ll need to get more information,” he said plainly. “You can’t fight an enemy you don’t know. I know you’ve all heard the rumors about what’s happening in other cities, and we won’t let that happen here.”
“Sounds like it’s already started,” another chimed in.
“Well, we won’t let it happen to us.”
“What if we can’t fight them? What if we’re just no match for them?” Tom asked from the back next to his wife and three kids.
“Then we’ll hide,” Jackson replied. “We won’t risk the children. If it becomes clear that we can’t defend ourselves, then we’ll leave the city. We’ll head into the mountains.” He knew the kids were Tom’s biggest concern, and rightly so. “Micah knows a thing or two about hiding, and he can help us go that route if it’s needed. That being said, let’s not jump to conclusions here. Let’s not give up quite yet. We’ll get more information and then reevaluate. In the meantime, we’ll keep lookouts posted day and night, and be extra careful.”
Everyone seemed to accept his reasoning and slowly relaxed. Jackson glanced down at his watch. It was late afternoon, and he had to get to the hospital. “We have enough to think about for now. If we’re in agreement, let’s dismiss this meeting. I’ll call everyone back together when we know more.”
Everyone agreed, and the crowd began to disperse. Ethan noticed Micah give Jackson a small nod. They exchanged a knowing look, and then Jackson made for the door.
Ethan got the feeling that something was brewing. An uneasiness took hold of him as he watched Jackson leave. “I’ve got a bad feeling about this,” he whispered to Allison.
“About what?”
Ethan glanced around the room. “I don’t know, but something isn’t right. I don’t think we can stay here much longer.”
“Where else would we go?” she whispered.
“Not just us, everyone. We’re in danger here.” A deep yearning to leave stirred in the pit of his stomach. Ethan looked at the gathered families and fighters, then out the window into the courtyard. Where could we go? Abruptly, a single word popped into his mind: forest. He knew it was his answer but couldn’t place why. It feels right. “There’s something about the forest. I think we should go there.”
“Are you sure you’re not still freaked out from the attack?” Allison said. “I know I am.”
Ethan hesitated. “Maybe.”
Their conversation was interrupted by Tom and his wife. “I’m so sorry, my dears,” Tom’s wife said. “If you need anything, anything at all, just let us know.”
“Thank you,” Allison said.
Several others stopped by to give Ethan and Allison their sympathies. When the room was mostly clear, John came to them. “Has anyone shown you the showers and brought you some clothes?”
“Not yet,” Ethan said.
“But a shower sounds great,” Allison added.
“Then let’s take care of both those things.” John looked at Allison. “Micah mentioned your leg was injured, so I’ll take you to the hospital after.”
Leaving the cafeteria, they walked to the first floor of the south wing and passed a large gymnasium, then rounded the back to the locker rooms.
“There are clean towels sitting on a small table in the corner of each room, and you’ll find soap on the main counter,” John told them. “Go ahead and get started. I’ll run and pick up some new clothes for you.”
Allison opened the door and walked into the fanciest locker room she had ever seen. The floor was marble, and all the countertops were granite, with large oval mirrors positioned above each sink. Beyond the sinks were rows of cherrywood lockers. To her left was a towel stand filled with dark blue towels and washcloths, each embroidered with the school’s crest. She grabbed one of each and found the body soap sitting on the end of the counter.
The showers were a little deeper into the room, fifteen individual stalls lined around a small entryway. Each had walls that rose to the ceiling and doors that gave the occupant complete privacy. She picked the nearest door and found the shower stall was actually two small rooms. The outer room contained a small bench, a couple of shelves, and a rail with hangers to place clean clothes, and the inner room contained the shower itself.
She placed her stuff on the shelves and disrobed. Looking at her right leg, she shuddered a bit. It was a violent shade of purple and black.
She limped carefully into the shower stall and turned on an impressive stream of hot water. There were two shower heads, one that sprayed at chest height and a second higher above her head. She let the hot water flow over her, leaning with her hands against the wall as she imagined the tension from the past several days running off her body like the streams of water. It felt wonderful.
After finishing, she dried off and wrapped the towel around herself, hooking it neatly at the side so it draped to the middle of her thighs and stayed snuggly against her skin on its own. Her wet hair clung to her neck and shoulders. She heard the locker room door open and the voice of a young girl as she collected her clothes.
“It’s Sarah,” the girl called. “My mom told me to bring you these clothes.”
Allison opened the stall door and found the girl sitting in a comfortably padded chair next to the front row of lockers. She was probably seven or eight years old. “Thank you, that’s very kind.”
“You’re welcome,” the girl said happily. She handed the clothes to Allison—a pair of jeans and a mildly stylish powder blue V-neck top. “It’s nice to meet you.” Then Sarah scuttled out of the locker room.
Allison put the clothes on and looked in the full-length mirror hanging on the wall, doing a little spin. Not quite my style, but it’ll work. She grabbed her stuff and left the locker room to find John waiting in the hallway.
“Ethan’s still in there,” he said, motioning toward the men’s locker room while leaning against the wall across the hall.
“All right, I’m going to take my dirty clothes to my room. Will you meet me there when he’s done?”
“Of course,” John replied. “I hope the shower was nice.”
“It was wonderful.”
After getting back to her room, she put her clothes down on one of the many chairs. The classroom was full of round wooden tables, which were used as student workstations; she’d pushed a few of them out of the way to make a place to sleep on the floor. She sat on a plush blue upholstered reading chair to wait for Ethan and John, pulling a magazine off the table next to her.
After a few minutes, there was a knock on the door.
“Come in.”
The door opened, and Ethan and John stepped into the
room. Ethan was wearing a pair of jeans and a green T-shirt. Allison blushed—his shirt was a little snug, and she liked it.
“Are you ready?” Ethan asked.
“I am.” She stood, put the magazine aside, and met them at the door.
“I’ve been meaning to ask,” Ethan said to John, “where did Jackson run off to in such a hurry after the meeting?”
“You noticed that, huh?” John replied a little reluctantly. “A couple new patients were brought to our hospital the night before last. He was on his way to visit them. We would’ve walked with him, but I figured you both wanted to clean up a little instead. We’ll probably only be a half hour or so behind him.”
Ethan’s apprehension grew stronger. He was beginning to feel queasy, similar to the night of the attack. The image of the two dark figures approaching the storefront leapt into his mind.
Something’s not right.
Chapter 8
The assembly line floor in the factory had been retrofitted into a passable field hospital made to care for at least fifty injured. Blue curtains were mounted on poles to create crude patient rooms. Each room contained a portable medical unit and a cot, which served as a gurney. Various compressed gas cylinders were set up for delivering oxygen to patients. In addition, carbon dioxide cylinders were available for use in surgical procedures. Water ran to each cubicle, along with a portable sink, counter, and instrument stand.
Traven and Eric crowded around the old man’s bedside, waiting for the doctor to enter. “This is quite impressive,” Traven said, looking around the room. “How’d you come by all of this?”
“We get it from hospitals in the city,” Eric shared.
“You steal it, or they give it to you?”
“Sort of both. We’ve got doctors on the inside who help us get equipment. We rotate hospitals to lower their chances of getting caught. Usually a handful of people set up a more obvious distraction for the night patrols, blowing something up, making a ruckus, that sort of thing. While that’s happening, a few others sneak inside the hospital to help the doctors get the equipment out.”
“And no one in the hospital notices?”
“Not while it’s happening, at least. We make sure to do it late at night. Doctors and nurses work such long hours that they’re exhausted by the time we come. After a twelve-hour shift, people become ambivalent to things disappearing. I suppose they think things are just getting misplaced. Anyway, the team grabs what they can and brings it here before the diversion ends. By the time anyone notices, it’s all over.”
“Sounds a little risky,” Traven said.
“Yeah, well, we’ve paid a pretty high price putting this place together. Things don’t always go as planned. So far, the benefits have outweighed the costs. Every time we save someone’s life and put them back into the fight, we’ve staved off defeat a little longer. Who knows, maybe we can even win this thing.” Eric looked around wearily, then leaned in toward Traven and whispered, “Don’t tell your friend this, but there’re rumors around here that we’re going to partner up with the resistance on the north side of the city. When that happens, the Urlowens won’t know what hit ’em.”
Traven feigned being impressed. “Is it just you and the north side, then?”
Eric looked uneasy. “Look, Trevor, I’m not really supposed to tell you about this stuff.”
Traven shifted a little in his seat. “It’s all right. I wouldn’t want you to get in trouble.”
“I know you guys are clean,” Eric continued, “but Jackson, he’s wary of all newcomers, and he sets the rules. Well, he’s in charge, I mean.”
“Do you think Tomas and I could meet him? This seems as good a place as any to stay and help out.”
“That’s a great idea,” Eric chirped happily. “He’s even planning a visit here later this evening. Apparently, we have a special guest patient that they’re hiding in a different part of the factory. I could introduce you to him after he visits the patient.”
Traven smiled politely. “That sounds perfect.” This is too easy. He had to keep himself from laughing out loud because Eric couldn’t keep his mouth shut. “Do you think you’d be able to give us a ride back to our house after we meet Jackson?”
“Of course. I wouldn’t just abandon you here.”
Kalma slid back the curtain and entered the room. “I’ve got some water and snacks,” he announced, then handed them each a bottle of water and a granola bar. “You two are looking mighty chummy.”
“It’s always great to make new friends,” Traven said, “and Eric here is one of a kind.”
Eric grinned from ear to ear. He’d done it. He’d recruited Trevor and Tomas into the resistance. Jackson was going to be thrilled. Maybe he would even start trusting Eric with more important missions. So far, it seemed like Jackson was always keeping him at arm’s length. This’ll prove my worth.
The three men sat around chatting until the doctor finally made it into the room. “Sorry, we’ve had some unexpected patients who desperately needed our help. Life-and-death sort of thing, you know.”
“Of course,” Kalma said. “It’s no problem. We’re not in any hurry. We just want to make sure our friend here is all right.” He motioned to the elderly man lying on the cot. He’d passed out before reaching Eric’s car, so they didn’t know his name.
“I’ll take a look,” the doctor said. “I’m Dr. Talbot, by the way. The nurse mentioned you had an altercation with some patrolmen. Would you tell me what happened?”
Eric, being his talkative self, leaped into a full rendition of the day’s excitement. By his telling, not only did Trevor and Tomas save the elderly man, but they very well may have saved the entire crowd watching as well.
“I see.” The doctor moved around the old man, poking and prodding, listening to his heart and breathing and inspecting the bruises on his side. He pulled out a small handheld scanner and moved it around the patient’s torso. Images of the man’s internal organs appeared on a video screen set up behind the bed. “I prefer the three-dimensional imagers we have back in the ER, but so far no one’s been able to smuggle one out.”
“Smuggle?” Traven asked.
“Sure. We try to bring some equipment with us each time we visit.”
“You mean the doctors here still work at hospitals in the city?” Kalma asked.
“A few do. It’s dangerous, but there are benefits to working in both locations. As I said before, we can smuggle equipment and medicine out with us, but we can also gather intel from injured Urlowens. You’d be amazed what people will say when they’re coming off anesthesia. Really, it’s one of the best ways we can help.”
He finished looking over the old man and walked around the cot to Traven and Kalma. “How are you two feeling? Anything hurt? It sounded like you had quite the fight.”
“We’re fine, really,” Kalma said.
“Yeah, no injuries here,” Traven echoed, making a show of inspecting his legs and torso.
“Very well. Let me know if anything starts hurting. You’ve probably still got a decent amount of adrenaline running through you right now, but when that wears off, you might start to feel some aches and pains.” He motioned toward the cot. “This gentleman will be all right. He has some minor internal swelling that we’ll treat. Honestly, I’m surprised his spleen didn’t rupture from that kick in the side, but it’s definitely intact. Still, at his age, any more of a beating and things would’ve been a lot worse. I’d say you saved his life today.”
“We’re just happy we were there to help,” Traven said.
The doctor slid the scanner back into the pocket of his white coat. “There isn’t anything more you can do. We’ll take care of him from here. We’ll also send someone to help his wife, just as soon as he can tell us where she is.” Eric had mentioned his wife when recounting the day’s events.
The three stood and walked toward the exit curtain. “I’ll show you a place we can sit and chat while we wait for Jackson to get here,” Eric said
, then pulled back the curtain and held it open for Kalma and Traven.
Eric led them through several back hallways to an employee break room. Couches lined the gray cement-brick walls, and there were tables spaced through the center of the room. He lay back on one of the couches and took another sip from the water bottle Kalma had given him.
“I’m feeling pretty tired, guys,” Eric said with a noticeable slur in his speech.
“It’s been a long day,” Kalma agreed. “Maybe you should close your eyes and rest for a few minutes. Trevor and I can hold down the fort here.”
“That doesn’t sound half bad.” Eric’s last couple of words were nearly unintelligible. His eyes closed, and he was out cold.
Kalma smiled. “There you go. Sleep well, my friend.”
“Nice work,” Traven said. “You timed that perfectly.”
Proper dosing for delayed-release sedatives was always tricky. It took a fairly high level of skill to time it as well as Kalma had.
“Eric told me there’s a high-priority patient hidden somewhere in the factory, and the doctor pretty much confirmed it when he arrived,” Traven shared. “Let’s go see who we can find.”
They walked the factory for an hour, getting a feel for the place and noting plenty of exits that could be used to make a fast escape if necessary. From the layout, it seemed the factory had once been an electronics manufacturing facility. Finding the doctors’ dressing room, they changed into scrubs and white coats so they would blend in better.
They were walking through a dark hallway near the rear of the factory when Dr. Talbot emerged from two sliding double doors. He stopped abruptly on seeing them. “Trevor, Tomas?” he asked in a paranoid, almost accusative tone. “What’re you two doing back here?”
“We’re just looking for Eric,” Kalma replied.
They continued to walk slowly toward the nervous doctor.
Dr. Talbot’s eyes narrowed a bit. “Why are you wearing scrubs?”
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