by Chris Bostic
Joe lost what little breath he had, and it took him a moment to simply ask, “The healers?”
“Yeah, whatever they are.” Leisa wiped at her eyes. “They’re coming.”
“I’m on fire.” Joe tried to move, but still couldn’t do more than barely roll to the side to look at her.
“You’re still tied up. I’ll get you loose.” Leisa leaned over him and worked behind his back on his wrists.
Joe flexed his fingers and sighed as his hands slipped from a tight, biting rope. “Now I can finally hold you.”
“Not yet,” she said, scooting away from him. “I think you’re getting another check-up.”
“Another?”
Before Leisa could answer, billowing white robes topped by a solemn face settled in by his side. Joe stared into dark, unreadable eyes. Without a word, harder than CPR, the man shoved on his chest. Joe’s eyes bulged as the healer kept up the pressure.
Joe tried to gasp, but soon fell back into a relaxed state. He swore he felt bones moving and sliding in his ribcage. Another shot of heat seared through him, but there was no pain. None at all.
The healer sat up and locked eyes with Joe. With a nod, the man climbed to his feet and walked away, leaving Joe in stunned, but blissful, disbelief.
“Thanks,” he said to the retreating healer’s back, and had no problems inhaling another lungful of the rancid air. The pain was still gone. “That was amazing…like magic.”
“Like Pete always said,” Leisa said, sliding back close to him.
“And now he’s gone.” He looked to Leisa for confirmation just in case he’d misunderstood earlier in all the excitement.
“I’m afraid so.” Leisa blinked away a tear. “I know you guys were buddies.”
Joe offered a somber smile. “At least I’ve still got you.”
“And Sarge,” she said, as a scream from Connie ripped through the night.
Terrified, Joe turned to his side to see the healer working on their sergeant. With gnarled hands pressed on his leg, Connie writhed in pain but quickly relaxed.
Joe relaxed too. He sank back to the ground as if he was floating on the clouds again. Despite all the blood and death, he felt remarkably at peace in the moment. Butterflies danced and children giggled, and he was a thousand miles away in his lover’s arms enjoying the prettiest sunset on a white sand beach.
“It’s the craziest feeling,” Joe whispered. “There’s only pain for a second, then joy. All this heat builds up inside you. It’s so hot, yet relaxing and sweet, like you never want to be separated from those feelings.” He grinned at Leisa again and took her hand. “It’s kinda like being in love.”
CHAPTER 31
Leisa laughed off Joe’s statement, but not without a small clue in a smile to indicate that she knew what he meant. “You must be feeling better.”
“I feel great. Help me up.”
She gave him a hand, and he sat up for the first time in what may have been hours. Though soothing music played in the back of his no longer aching head, he felt compelled to look for his fallen friend.
“Where’s Pete?”
“Up the hill.” Leisa looked at Joe curiously, perhaps wondering if he had already forgotten his friend’s fate. “I covered him,” she added softly.
“That’s good.” A pang of regret stabbed through Joe, but he quickly brushed it aside. It wouldn’t do him any good to linger in the moment or run off to see the body. Rather than relive all that, he turned to Connie.
The white-robed man had risen to his feet, but kept close to Connie as if he was still examining his patient, if only from the distance.
Joe didn’t want to interrupt the man, and waited with Leisa until the healer finally turned toward them. He offered a quick bow, and stepped away as if to leave.
“Wait,” Leisa said, and he stopped. “Thank you.”
“Yes, thank you,” Joe added. “We’re forever in your debt.”
The healer’s expression never changed. He bowed to them again and waved in the direction of their lines as if to direct them home.
Joe got the faint idea that the man truly wanted them to go back, as if he wanted them to tell the others that their supposed enemy wasn’t all ruthless savages.
Before Joe could say anything else, the man abruptly turned away. Like a phantom, he disappeared into the forest.
“This is so bizarre,” Leisa said.
“I don’t think we’ll ever understand their culture,” Connie said. “It’s like they have some kind of weird code that makes them take care of the sick and injured, no matter what side they’re on. But we’ll worry about that later. Help me up?”
“You can walk?” Joe asked as he hurried over with Leisa.
“I think so. I don’t know how he did it, but my leg feels fine.”
Joe had misgivings about trying it out, but knew that he personally felt infinitely better since the beating he had taken. He also wasn’t looking forward to carting Connie up another hill.
“We can try it,” Joe said. Offering him a hand, he helped Leisa get the big man to his feet.
Though wobbly at first, their sergeant quickly found his footing. As they watched incredulously, Connie strode off under his own power like he had hours before.
“I’m sure it was just the fall and that wicked crash that took him out, but I’ve still gotta wonder about that fever of his,” Joe whispered, sharing his misgivings about the healer’s inexplicable treatments. “I know he’s all good now, but I’m still kinda worried that he’s gonna get all sick again.”
“Me, too.” She raised her soft eyes to meet his. “I’ll be watching you too.”
“I feel great.” He hopped from foot to foot and touched his toes. “Not a bit of pain.”
“Still, you’d better take it easy.”
“Yes, ma’am.” And he meant it, though he also felt like he needed to hurry in case the treatment might eventually wear off like a dose of painkillers.
They left their helmets behind without a second thought. They were too close to their own lines to care, and Leisa seemed reluctant to waste any energy on doubling back for them.
A newly energized Connie led them straight up the hill without slowing. Joe wasn’t terribly fatigued anymore either, but he noticed Leisa was having trouble keeping up.
“Sarge, we should take it a little slower,” Joe said, echoing Leisa’s earlier thoughts.
Connie agreed without replying, and they settled into a smooth, even climb. It wasn’t long before they were closing in on the summit. As they were about to leave the valley of new life and pointless death behind them, Joe slinked over next to Leisa to ask a nagging question.
“Why weren’t you hurt back there? I mean, not that I wanted that to happen, but…”
“This may sound weird but it’s like they wouldn’t hurt a girl. At least not one that wasn’t fighting back.”
Joe looked at her curiously, not meaning it to be some kind of insinuation that she hadn’t been equally courageous. Still, she replied defensively.
“I screamed when they attacked you, but one of them grabbed me and threw me back…and my helmet came off.”
“And they saw your hair,” Joe said, imagining the surprise when her brown locks flew out from under her helmet.
“I think so. They didn’t hit me after that. They kinda hung back and let me stay by Connie.”
“So they like to dish out pain, but they also like to heal the injured too? I’ve got a theory about that…”
“It’s weird all right.” She rubbed her head.
“Did the healer work on you?”
“I think he kinda wanted to, but I led him over to you. I’ve got a heck of a headache, but…but I thought you were dead.”
“So he gave me a treatment, or whatever you call it…then you guys took care of Pete and Connie?”
“Yeah. Some better than others.”
Joe nodded and kept quiet. His heart ached probably as hard as Leisa’s head. Pete had been a roya
l pain the last few days, but that hadn’t diminished all the better times they’d shared leading up to the surprise attack on what Joe decided to call Savage Hill. The place where his cruel world turned even more upside down.
Moving ahead, Connie crouched and sneaked toward the top of the ridge line. Joe and Leisa followed his lead and stayed low. They caught up to the sergeant, and were soon close to the tip of yet another rocky spine.
The jagged peak looked sharp enough to slice a man in half. As Joe picked his way closer to the precipice, he made sure Leisa stayed at his side. He wanted to see her reaction when they finally stared at freedom, surely just a scant jog away. But he would have to wait.
Connie held up a hand, signaling a stop right below the ridge top.
Joe frowned. Astonishingly, they hadn’t run across any of the enemy running the ridge or guarding the top, though they had obviously been in that dreaded valley below. With nothing else to do, he enjoyed the strange, but pleasant, warmth coursing through his veins. At the same time, his mind was slowly being pulled out of paradise toward the war.
Though he resisted the thoughts, Joe wondered if the lines had moved again while he’d been unconscious. With the K-NAP soldiers ebbing and flowing like the tide, it seemed to him that the Regulators were destined to fight a series of seesaw battles for control of any number of meaningless hills. As far as Joe was concerned, all they’d done so far was trade useless real estate and way too many lives for nothing of any apparent value.
Joe’s ears perked up at the sound of gunfire well off to their left. Connie pointed that direction and gestured for them to stay down and wait while he crawled on to the top. A big wave from the sergeant followed a moment later.
Connie cracked a crooked smile that resembled a torn pocket. He waved more vigorously. “C’mon, lovebirds. We made it.”
“No way.” Joe flew to the top, practically ripping Leisa’s arm out of its socket in the process.
They stood at the spine gazing into the valley below. Bright lights shone from a road below. The first road Joe had seen in days, and this one was filled with armored vehicles of the Regulators headed toward the fighting.
“It’s the prettiest sight I’ve ever seen,” Joe said, drawing a playful elbow from Leisa. He picked her up and spun her around, then lowered her into a long embrace.
“Since when do you like anything to do with the war?” she whispered.
“The feeling will pass,” Joe replied.
“We can’t let them pass.” Connie turned to presumably tell them to follow him, but any encouraging words caught in his throat. “You’ve gotta stop that now!” he barked at Joe, suddenly hostile. “Keep your hands to yourselves. We’re already pushing our luck big time coming back like this. They see that hugging business and all our heads will roll for sure.”
Joe growled with disgust at the rules, but didn’t argue. Connie had been way too lenient since his injuries, and they all knew it might create problems in the future. Major problems.
What concerned Joe more was the hint that they wouldn’t be welcome. Getting back had been all they’d lived for the last couple days, and there Connie had to go mentioning again about how their comrades might not roll out the red carpet for them.
Despite all that, their most pressing problem—getting back alive—had been solved. As the convoy rumbled below, Connie led them down to the road. Joe pretended like Leisa was practically a stranger once they were spotted by a sentry.
“Hold it there,” the man snarled, leveling his coilgun.
“Easy, soldier.” Connie put his hands up slowly. “We’re friendlies.”
“You look like filthy drifters.” The weapon remained trained on Connie, but Joe felt as anxious as if it was pointing directly at him. The welcome wasn’t going well, but he almost expected as much. After such a sudden, brutal K-NAP offensive, Joe figured it was only natural for the advance scout to be a little jumpy. For all this nervous guy knew, the enemy might have resorted to dressing in Regulator clothing.
“I feel like it.” Connie replied. “I’m the sergeant. We’re back from the Two-Five. Been wounded, but we escaped.”
“Escaped, huh?” The man gestured with his weapon for them to head down the hill. “I’ll get you to the commander.”
Within seconds they were dragged to the nearest officer, who immediately welcomed them with a look somewhere in between disbelief and suspicion.
“Welcome back,” said the thin, neatly manicured man in a high-pitched voice that didn’t fit his rigid persona. “We haven’t heard of a soul making it back from the onslaught. And here you stroll back without any of your weapons. Shoot, you don’t even have your dang helmets or packs or nothing.”
Connie nodded but didn’t reply. That seemed like the smartest move to Joe too.
“The savages overran our lines for miles. Must’ve grabbed up hundreds of prisoners.” The diminutive officer barely came up to Connie’s shoulders. He looked them over with a mixture of disdain and curiosity. “But you all found your way back, didn’t you?”
“Yes, sir,” Connie replied without mentioning their struggles or the treatments at the hands of the white-robes.
The guy thinks we’re deserters, Joe thought. His stomach clenched, and he felt bile rise in the back of his throat. He didn’t know if it was the healing powers wearing off or his general disgust with all things Regulator. Especially the officers.
“Follow me.” The officer ordered them over to a stopped vehicle. The rest of the convoy rumbled past at low speed, still headed toward the shooting far off in the distance. “We can’t very well have you walking. You ladies look like hammered crap.”
Joe cringed at the remark and risked a crossways look at Leisa. She remained as steely-eyed as if the man was just Connie making another crack.
Several questions remained in Joe’s mind as the three of them were herded into the cramped interior of an armored personnel carrier. Foremost, he wondered if he should mention the healer.
In a way, he preferred to see one of their own medics—soon. If he could work up a medical exemption and get pulled out of the Regulators for good, even better. But that wouldn’t be any help for Leisa. He needed no contemplative time to resolve to stick with her no matter what.
He noticed the subtle way she watched him as he settled onto a bench across from her. He dared not smile or even acknowledge her in any way, but he hoped she could read his mind through the seriousness in his eyes.
The officer, licking his lips in a most creepy way, threw loaded questions at Connie like grenades. The sergeant tried to deftly answer every one without mentioning improper relationships or the healers, while Joe observed Connie’s evasive techniques.
Joe had eluded one enemy, and he was prepared to do it again. But the officer continued to pester Connie about having abandoned their posts and leaving their comrades’ bodies behind. Then about letting all their high-tech gear fall into the enemy’s hands.
Joe couldn’t stop an unquenchable desire to speak his mind.
“We’re practically heroes, you know,” he blurted out.
The officer whipped around to face him. From behind the man’s back, Connie shot Joe a hostile look. Leisa was mortified.
Joe wouldn’t go down without a fight, especially when the happy healing juices were still flowing, making him feel impenetrable.
“We should probably get medals,” he insisted. “Maybe a parade.”
“I’m gonna parade you off to Old Stony Lonesome, boy,” the officer snarled.
“For what? Surviving?”
Joe ignored the daggers Connie was shooting at him, and took a sidelong glance around the small area. They were closed off from the driver and navigator up front, leaving him alone with a snarling officer threatening imprisonment for daring to come back alive.
“For leaving your squad behind.”
“You’d have us dead too? To what gain?”
The man raised his hand as if to smack him across the face, but Joe st
ayed firm. And in that moment, he watched the man shrink back ever so slightly. He couldn’t hit him, Joe realized. Their precious rule book prevented it. If it hadn’t, or if there hadn’t been witnesses, the tyrant would’ve shot him down the same way the savages treated their stragglers. Despite all the big talk, they really were no better. Maybe worse.
The officer settled for assaulting Joe with specks of spittle as he screamed.
“I’m gonna run you outta my army! Bad enough we’ve got these sissified women in my corps!” He turned his back on Joe in disgust. “Afraid to fight. Afraid to die. I should dump you on the road right here like you dumped your gear and let the savages have you back.”
Joe wanted to take him up on that offer. Wisely, he bit his lip as the man raged, eventually concentrating his fury on Connie.
“Have you no control over your men?” He spit the last word caustically as though it pained him to say it. “You’re all a disgrace to the Regulators, and I’ll see to it that you don’t spend another day in uniform.”
Joe watched the veins bulge on the side of the man’s neck. When he finished berating Connie, the officer turned back to face Joe. His face was redder than a second-degree burn.
“As soon as we get to Nochni, you’re gonna hand me your filthy uniforms on the spot. I’m dumping the lot of you in the barracks until the MPs can haul you off for Old Stony.” With a disgusted shake of the head, he added, “I’d take your guns, but you pathetic worms don’t have ‘em, do ya?”
Grabbing a phone off the wall, the officer yelled at the driver to stop. The back door lifted, and he stepped out into the darkness, saying, “We’ve got a war on, and we’re gonna go fight while you sit here like the slackers you are. I can’t stand to look at ya.”
The three of them sat in silence until the vehicle started moving again.
“I can’t believe that actually worked,” Connie said, cracking a rare smile. “That was freaking awesome.”
“Say what? Going to prison?” Joe looked at Connie in amazement. “How’s that any better?”