by Eric Vall
“Right,” Anna agreed. “Maybe we’ll work on one of those.”
I enjoyed watching the redhead speak with Brody. She was calm and sincere, but there was a little devilishness behind her words that I knew everyone in the room could hear. To an outsider it would seem almost playful, but I knew full well her true hatred for the man that sat next to her, and I also knew that she wanted him to realize that no matter what the circumstances, we had the upper hand.
“Doesn’t the college have fences?” Brody asked.
Anna opened her mouth to answer, but suddenly we heard a loud scream from down the hallway, and I knew instantly that it was Tara.
“What the fuck?” Anna asked as she and I both shot up from our seats.
“Was that Tara?” Paige asked, and she was on her feet as well.
I didn’t stop to speculate or explain that I knew it was her, I just took off out the door toward the sound.
Chapter 7
“Someone help us!” Tara screamed again.
“It’s definitely coming from this way,” Anna said as we ran down the hallway.
I could hear all the girls behind me as I ran, but I didn’t turn to look back, I just followed the sound of Tara’s voice.
Wait, had she said ‘help us?’
Who was the us? Was Tara hurt, or was it someone else?
I shook my head to clear it, I needed to focus and be prepared for whatever I saw when I found her.
“Tav!” the platinum blonde yelled again, and her voice was definitely closer.
“There!” I said when I saw a door that was wide open at the end of the hallway.
“Let me get in there first,” Paige said as she came up right beside me.
“Go, go,” I told her as we came to the open door, but none of us were quite prepared for what we saw.
It was a large bedroom, and on the bed laid a young woman who was bleeding profusely. There was a large puddle of blood that stained the bed around her hips, and it had seeped all around her. I couldn’t even be sure that the girl was still breathing.
Tara sat on the bed with the girl’s head in her lap, and tears streaked down from her light brown eyes.
“She’s still breathing,” the platinum blonde cried. “She was awake just a second ago, I saw her bleeding and I came in, but then she just passed out.”
“Okay,” Paige said calmly as she rushed to the woman and put her fingers on her neck to check for a pulse. “I have a pulse, but it feels weak. How long has she been like this?”
Nobody answered, so we all turned to look at Brody. The question had obviously been directed at him, though I wouldn’t be surprised if he didn’t know the answer.
“I don’t know,” he said after a few seconds. “She was fine when I saw her yesterday.”
“You haven’t seen her all day?” Anna asked.
“I guess not,” he said. “I don’t keep track of everyone, they know their duties.”
Paige tried to look over the girl, but there was a lot of blood, and it was clear that she didn’t know what to do. Tara sat and stroked the woman’s head and brushed her light brown hair out of her face as she cooed to her.
I knelt down to inspect the woman myself, and the first thing I did was check her thighs and abdomen for cuts. She wore a tank top and a pair of small sleeping shorts, so it was easy to get a look at her stomach and thighs, but it became abundantly clear that the blood had come from another source. Her shorts were so soaked that she had to have been bleeding for some time.
“There’s no cuts that I can see,” I said. “Something’s wrong internally.”
“We have to get her to Marla,” Paige said quickly. “I’m not equipped to handle this. She needs serious medical attention.”
“I’m sure she’s fine,” Brody said, and we all turned to look at him like he was absolutely fucking crazy. “It’s probably that time of the month.”
“What the fuck is wrong with you?” I asked before I could stop myself, and before I even knew it I was on my feet and headed right toward Brody.
“We’re going to take her to Marla,” Anna said as she stepped in front of me to block me from getting to Brody.
I took a step back and collected myself with a deep breath. My second in command was right, this girl needed help, this was no time for a fight.
“We can handle it here,” Brody said, and I took a step forward but was once again cut off by Anna.
“We’re taking her to get help,” the redhead said. “That’s final.”
“Be my guest,” Brody sneered, “but it’s a waste of your time and resources.”
“Then you have nothing to worry about,” Anna said, then she turned to look at me. “Tav, grab the girl, we have to go.”
I spun around to the bed and carefully lifted the girls legs and placed them in the crook of my arm, then I reached my other arm under her shoulders, but Tara looked at me with tears in her eyes, and I paused for a second to give her a nod.
“She’ll be okay,” I promised the platinum blonde.
“There’s so much blood,” she said.
“Paige, stay with Tav,” Anna said, “Tara, Bailey, you’re with me, we’re going to get the jeep.”
Anna reached into my pocket and retrieved the keys before she pushed past Brody with Bailey right on her tail.
“It’s okay,” I told Tara, “go with Anna.”
“Come on!” the redhead called.
“Take care of her,” Tara said, then she took off after the redhead.
I stared at the puddle of blood on the bed for a second before I shook my head and focused on the task at hand.
I carefully walked the girl to the door and made eye contact with Brody before I stepped through the threshold. He seemed slightly concerned, but something told me it was more about us seeing this than it was concern for the girl herself. She had to be the girls’ age, maybe slightly younger, and here she was nearly dead in his home and he didn’t even know, or if he did know, then he just didn’t care.
What the fuck was going on here? Suddenly the whole fort seemed like a sham, and I realized that all of our speculations about Brody were probably true. It took a true sicko to not care about someone who was bleeding out right in front of them, especially someone that they were in charge of. It was his job as their leader to make sure that everyone was safe and healthy, and he couldn’t even do that right.
We had been down the hall drinking vodka while this poor girl laid bleeding just a few hundred feet away. The thought sickened me, especially the fact that if Tara hadn’t gone to the bathroom then the girl in my arms probably would have died.
“I’m telling you,” Brody said, “it’s a waste of resources. Look at her.”
I set my jaw and kept walking down the hallway instead of turning around to scream at him about how it was his fault. He should care about his people enough to check on them. He wasn’t dumb enough to actually think that this was her period, he knew that she was nearly dead, and part of me thought that he was counting on her dying before we even got her to Marla. I wondered what she could have to say that would incriminate him so badly that he would wish death on her.
“Just keep walking,” Paige whispered beside me as we continued to walk.
It was only midday, and the sun was bright as I stepped out of the building portion of the wall and onto the cement steps that led down to the courtyard.
In the light of the sun the girls blood looked even more vibrant than it had in the bedroom. The crimson red stuff was smeared all over my chest and arms from picking her up, and I could feel the wetness on my stomach from where her hip was pressed against my abdomen. The blood from her shorts was seeping through into my shirt, so I knew it was still fairly fresh, and that gave me hope that we may be able to save her.
I carefully navigated the steps with Paige by my side the whole way, continuously checking on the girl’s breathing and pulse.
The men on the wall, and the civilians in the courtyard stared with wide eyes and open mouths as I car
ried the woman toward the gate, but nobody tried to help.
“Open the gate!” Paige yelled to the men on the wall, and they shook their heads to stop staring and a second later the large gate opened wide.
I turned to see Brody standing at the top of the stairs with his arms crossed as he stared at me.
I met his gaze and lifted my chin in a show of defiance. He wouldn’t win this one. I was going to save this girl, and I was going to figure out what the hell he had done that was so bad he’d rather her be dead than to speak to us. Whatever it was, he’d pay for it.
He’d killed five women just a few days before, I had no doubt that he would have killed this girl, too, had we not come into the picture to save her. Actually, he probably wouldn’t have wasted his energy, that’s what he kept saying after all, that it was a waste of time and resources. He probably would have just left her to bleed to death alone and scared in that large room, which in my opinion was a much crueler act than speeding up death.
“Come on,” Paige whispered, and she grabbed me by the elbow.
I turned my gaze from Brody and stepped through the gate. The girls weren’t there yet, but I knew they would be soon, so for the moment we stood and waited. I didn’t want to risk moving the girl around too much since I wasn’t sure what internal damage was done or why she was bleeding in the first place.
“How’s she doing?” I asked Paige as she checked the girl’s pulse on her wrist.
“Still has a pulse,” she said. “It’s still weak, though.”
“We’ll get her to Marla,” I assured the brunette. “It will be alright.”
“I know,” she said, then she bit her lip, “I just…”
“What is it?” I pushed.
“There’s only one thing I can think of that would cause this much bleeding at once,” she said as she looked at the young girl in my arms.
“What would that be?” I asked.
“A miscarriage,” Paige said softly.
“You think she’s pregnant?” I asked.
“If she was before, then she might not be now,” she said with a shake of her head, “but I can’t think of anything else that would cause this. I’m not a doctor, though, so maybe there’s something I don’t know.”
“No,” I told her, “I think it’s good to trust in your instincts. Make sure you tell Marla your theory when we get there.”
“I will,” she said with a curt nod.
“And I want you in the back with her,” I instructed. “Keep her as stable as possible.”
The sound of the jeep hit us, then, and I could tell that Anna was driving. I turned to see her take the corner way too fast, then she skidded to a halt in front of us, dust blowing all over from the quickness of the stop.
“We laid down the back seat,” Anna said as she threw the jeep into park and hopped out of the driver’s seat.
“Get her in,” Tara encouraged as she threw open the back door.
With the backseat laid down there was plenty of room to lay the girl down, and Tara and Bailey helped get her situated while Paige crawled into the back with her.
“Let’s go,” Anna said as she ran around to the passenger’s side.
I hopped into the driver's seat and threw the jeep into drive, but before I took off I took one last look at the wall to see Brody staring down at us, then I hit the gas and left the fort behind us in a blaze of dust and flying rocks.
If Paige was right, then there was no doubt in my mind that the baby would have been Brody’s. Maybe that was why he didn’t care whether she lived or died, he didn’t want the responsibility of a child. I hadn’t even considered that the girl might be pregnant. We had stocked up on birth control pills, so anyone on campus who wanted them had free access to them, it wasn’t something we had to be concerned about. How had Brody not taken this into consideration? When I had been in his room the night the woman came to his door, he had referred to her as his nightly visitor, but I took that to mean a different woman every night. These women were sleeping with him because they felt they had to in order to remain at the fort, and that kind of coercion was basically just rape with a different name.
I pulled my sunglasses down from the top of my head and sped toward home. The sun was bright above us with the early afternoon, and I could see in my rearview mirror that the girls were still hovered around whoever this woman was.
“How’s she doing back there?” I asked.
“We still have a pulse,” Paige said. “Her breathing is even, that’s all we can do at the moment.”
“Just get us home,” Tara said softly, and I knew she was still crying by the way her voice sounded.
It was hard for all of us to see this woman in such a state, but I thought about what Tara had been through with her friends in college and I figured it was probably even harder for her. Her friends had been raped, and Tara had felt powerless because of it. I was sure she felt the same sense of powerlessness here. She had found this girl bleeding to death, and there was no one around who could help her. Paige tried her best, but a good leader knew when to delegate, and our resident nurse in training had known right away that this was well above her paygrade. I just hoped it was within Marla’s, otherwise this girl was done for. I had basic first aid training, particularly when it came to combat wounds, but I had never had to deal with anything like this before. This was a whole new world to me, and one that I had no idea how to navigate.
I didn’t know the first thing about miscarriages, if that was even what this was, and I definitely didn’t know how to handle one medically, but it was my job right then to get this girl to someone who did know how to handle it.
“Hold on,” I said as I stepped harder onto the gas pedal and white knuckled the steering wheel. There was blood all over my hands and arms, but I ignored it and focused on the road.
The drive back to campus was a blur, and things only seemed to feel real again once we were on our way up the new driveway. I had to take it slow then because the road was new and bumpy, and I didn’t want to do more damage than had already been done.
When we were about halfway to the campus Winchester appeared and barked happily at us as he led us the rest of the way home.
Once we were close enough to the dorm building I stopped the jeep and hopped out so I could carry the girl inside.
“Shit,” Anna said as I got out, “is anyone here or are they at the farm?”
“Fuck,” I breathed, “go check now.”
The redhead took off toward the dorm buildings, and the rest of the girls and I waited impatiently for her to give us the go ahead. A lot of times Marla and Kimmy stayed at the dorms to watch the children, but sometimes they went with the others to the farm to work, and I just hoped today wasn’t one of those times.
“She’s here!” I heard Anna yell, and I immediately sprung into action.
“Go, go, go,” I said as I leaned into the backseat to pick the girl up.
I made my way toward the dorm building with Paige, Tara, and Bailey beside me, and Winchester in front of me. The black headed dog whined low as he led us toward the door. He knew something was wrong the way dogs always did.
“Get her in here,” Anna said as she held the door open for us.
“Oh, my,” Marla breathed as she looked at the woman in my arms. “Set her on the couch.”
“Okay,” I said, and I gently laid the girl down. “What can we do?”
“I need some towels and hot water,” she said. “I have my med kit here, but I didn’t realize the bleeding was this severe.”
“Towels and hot water,” I repeated as I ran upstairs to retrieve the items. Tara and Bailey were right behind me, and we hurried into the bathroom and found several full sized towels. Anna came up the stairs a minute later with a couple of bowls for the water, so I thanked her and filled them up.
“Great,” Marla said as we set the supplies onto the coffee table, but she didn’t look up from the girl.
“Is she going to be alright?” Tara asked
, her voice shaky from emotion.
Winchester nudged the girl’s hand and whined low.
“I can’t give you any details right now,” Marla said, “get Winchester out of here and get some air outside, I’ll come get you when I find out something new.”
“Do you want me to stay or go?” Paige asked quickly.
“You stay,” Marla said, then she turned to the rest of us, “you all go.”
“Alright,” I said, and I widened my arms to gently push the other girls outside with me. Marla was curt when she needed to be, and I knew she didn’t mean anything by it, but Tara and Bailey were obviously distraught, and I needed to get them out of there as quickly as possible. Marla was right, we weren’t needed right then, we’d only be in the way, and our worrying would do nothing for her focus.
“Tav, wait,” Marla said, and I turned back around, “wash up first.”
“Right,” I said as I looked down at my blood stained arms and clothes, then I turned to Anna. “Get them outside, I’ll be out in just a minute.”
“On it,” the redhead said softly, “come on, girls.”
“Come on, Winchester,” Bailey called, and the black headed dog reluctantly left the woman on the couch, though he looked back at her and walked toward Bailey with his tail between his legs.
I headed upstairs to the bathroom and started to wash my hands and arms, but I quickly realized that my stomach was wet as well, so I took my shirt off and wiped off my abdomen before I rinsed the blood out of my shirt before it could stain.
Once I had washed up I splashed some cold water onto my face and stared down at the sink for a moment.
“Are you alright?” someone asked, and I jolted around to see Kimmy standing in the doorway of the bathroom with baby Anthony on her hip. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you. I heard something going on downstairs, and then I heard the bathroom door open and the faucet come on so I just wanted to see if there was anything I could do to help.”
“Oh,” I breathed, “no, I’m alright.”
“Anna rushed in and said someone was hurt,” Kimmy said in a low voice, so I figured the rest of the children must be nearby. “Who is it? Are they going to be okay?”