“I’m going to walk down the dock toward the boat. You stay here and for shit sake don’t make any noise.”
“Try not to fall in the water.” Alan whispered. He didn’t see or hear Robert when he left. He felt like he was blind, even though it was dark the fog still looked gray as if it had a light shining from above, but he heard nothing.
Something splashed in the water in front of him. He pulled his gun out of his pocket and fumbled the safety off. He was now glad that Frank had made him practice doing it blindfolded because there was no way he could see it now. “Shit!” he whispered and flipped the safety back on and shoved it back in his pocket. He would not use it. It would be just his luck to shoot Robert. There was no way to tell one person from another if there was someone out there.
He stared off down the dock, he heard nothing. He wanted to yell out for Robert but didn’t dare. His knees were shaking; his nerves were getting to him. He wiped his wet hands on his jacket, wishing Robert would show up or at least say something. It was all he could do not to call to him.
Alan jumped when feet pounded down the dock toward him followed by a second set.
“Oomph!” One of them fell and they were close enough Alan could make out the shadow of someone else landing on top of the first. He heard the familiar sound their nylon jackets made so he was sure one of them had to be Rob, but he didn’t know which was which. He heard grunts and groans as someone hit the other.
“Call out Rob!”
“Stay there! Well crap I think there’s two of them. Ahhh! Son of a…oh no you don’t!” Aw shit…Alan get over here! Help me!”
As soon as he got close enough he could see there were two men or people on top of one. He determined it had to be Robert on the bottom and bailed in. He kicked, pounded and struck the person on top. Someone landed a good blow and it momentarily stunned him, but he kept hitting regardless.
Someone rolled off of Rob and fell into the water, the splash soaking them all. There was one guy left and he seemed to know he was fighting for his life. On his knees Alan tried to pull the guy away from Rob who wasn’t fighting back anymore. Alan pulled the gun from his pocket flipped the safety off and when the guy raised up to get a better punch on Rob, Alan pulled the trigger. The person, froze in mid-strike and slowly turned his head to Alan. He held the position for a few seconds, something hit the dock with a clunk and he fell over. Alan pushed him off of Robert.
Someone grabbed Alan’s shoulder and he swung the gun around. An instant before he pulled the trigger, the gun was knocked from his hand. He heard it splash when it hit. A shadow man stood over him and Alan threw himself over Robert. He felt Robert’s breath on his face and knew he was alive. A hand reached down and grabbed his shoulder.
“Alan, it’s okay! It’s me, Frank.”
Alan rolled off of Robert, conscious of how close the edge of the dock was. “They snuck up on us from the water.”
“Well shit…I didn’t think of the water. Frank crouched down beside Robert and clasped his chin in one hand, he shook it gently. “Who shot?”
“That was me. I shot one of them.” Alan pushed himself up to his knees. “Is Rob alright? When he quit moving I panicked and shot the guy, but Frank, I don’t think it was a guy. I didn’t get a good look, but something about them said it was a woman. I think I killed a woman.”
“Stop that! Stop it right now. You did what you did because you had no other choice. Now let it be and help me with Robert.”
Robert groaned and tried to roll on to his side. He drew his knees up as if to curl into a ball.
“Hang on Robert. Can you tell me where you hurt?”
Alan tried to do as Frank asked, but when he tried to crawl any closer the pain struck him. He remembered getting hit in the stomach and the dull pain that had followed, but now he was on fire. “I’m not going to be much help,” he said and fell over. He briefly registered the water in front of his face and then nothing.
Frank grabbed and caught a hold of Alan’s rain jacket, halting his downward flight into the water. Despite Alan’s jacket being slippery with water, he managed to roll him back onto the dock with one hand. He didn’t want to have to do it, but knew he couldn’t handle this alone.
“Ellen! Hannah! Get out here!”
Chapter Eighteen - Hang on buddy!
He had Alan and Robert laying on the dock when the girls showed up. It had only taken seconds for them to appear at his side.
“Oh my God, what happened?” Hannah exclaimed. She had their small first aid kit, but knew it wouldn’t be enough. “We have to get them inside. I need light to work. Shit, I can’t see anything.”
“We can’t move them until we see what’s wrong with them.” Frank told her. “We need some light!”
“I’ll get light!” Ellen said and headed to the Newport. She had seen two oil lanterns aboard the Newport earlier and considered taking them until she realized they wouldn’t be able to refill them. If she remembered correctly, they both had a small amount of oil in them and the glass mantle would prevent them from going out.
She returned in less than a minute with the lamp and a barbeque starter.
“This is as good as it gets.” She said and held the light out over the two men. They each drew in a breath of surprise. Both men were covered in bright red blood. What Frank had mistaken for water on Alan was blood all over his rain jacket. One or both men were bleeding.
Hannah fell to her knees beside Alan. Her hands were shaking and in the soft glow from the lantern she looked pale.
Ellen gripped and squeezed her shoulder. “This is why you studied medicine. Now, get a grip on yourself and fix him.”
Hannah threw Ellen a quick glance, nodded once, drew in a deep breath and began her examination.
To Ellen it looked like Hannah had transformed right in front of her eyes. One minute she was the white faced, shaking girlfriend and the next she became the calm and collected professional. In Ellen’s eyes the girl was the greatest single asset to their survival. She felt Frank was competent for the quick fix injuries with his combat training and Alan had some medical training, but neither had yet proven their worth. She did have to admit if even to herself, that so far they had not had to. While holding the lantern she had a chance to study both Frank and Hannah as they worked. They each seemed to speak and unspoken language as they passed items back and forth.
Finally, Frank sat back on his heels. “Okay, that’s all I can do for him. He took a pretty good beating. It’s going to be a while before he’ll be able to open those eyes and I think his nose is broken. I’ve straightened it as best I can and packed it.” He sighed long and loud, “His hand is going to be something Hannah is going to have to fix. I wrapped it to keep it clean, but he needs stitches. It looks like he grabbed the blade of a knife and it cut him pretty good between the thumb and index finger as well as deep into his palm.”
Hannah had nodded at Frank, and continued working on Alan. “Alan stopped a knife blade too, but with his stomach. I can’t do much more here. I’ve gotten the bleeding slowed some, but as soon as we move him I’m afraid it’ll start all over again.”
“You know we have to get him on board. Tell me how we can do it.” Ellen asked.
Right then Robbed moaned and rolled to his side. “Did we win?” he mumbled and let out another groan. “Doesn’t feel like it.”
“Hang on buddy, we’ll get you on the boat in a few. In the meantime, try to not roll off the dock.”
He crawled over to Hannah and Alan. Ellen had moved the lantern closer so that Hannah could see to wrap Alan’s wound. Blood was already beginning to soak through the gauze.
“I’m going to get Rob to the boat and I’ll be back. We’ll try to come up with a way to get Alan there without doing any more damage. Be right back.” He stood and pulled Rob to his feet and guided him down the dock.
“Margaret? Can you give me a hand here?” Frank asked from the dock. He had Rob’s arm pulled over his shoulder holding him up with
his other arm around the waist. Rob had helped him as best he could but he couldn’t see and kept stumbling.
Margaret appeared in the doorway. “Here I am.” She was wringing her hands in despair. “Are the boys okay?”
“I need you to help him in the boat. I’ll hold him as much as I can, but he can’t see.”
“Ma, I’m okay but I got beat up pretty good. Where is Dana? I don’t want her to see me like this.”
Margaret held Rob’s weight as Frank let go of him. Frank climbed down into the cockpit to grab him again.
“I put the girls to bed. She’ll have to see you sooner or later.”
Frank went down the ladder first and turned to help Rob down while Margaret supported him from behind. Frank sat him on the port settee.
Rob groaned as he sat. Margaret finally took a good look at her son. “Oh Dear! Yes, you did get beat up. What can I do to help you?”
“He needs to lay down until Hannah can check his hand out.” Frank said. “Will you be okay for a few minutes? I think we need your Mom’s help getting Alan down here.”
“I’m good. Just let me rest here for a minute. This brings back a memory or two doesn’t it Ma?”
Frank looked from Margaret to Rob. He didn’t understand why she wasn’t more shaken up by Rob’s appearance. In the dim cabin light, he could see the kid was a mess. Both eyes had swelled shut, his nose still looked flatter than it should and blood had soaked the front of his shirt and down the front of his shorts.
Margaret shook he head. “Oh, I used to see him coming home looking like this most every Saturday night after the fights. Robbie thought he could box.” She had gotten a bottle of Aleve and poured two into her hand. “Take these before you fall asleep.” She handed the pills and a half full bottle of water to Rob.
Rob took the pills and sank back to the settee. His Mother pushed a pillow under his neck. “Mom, stop fussing.” He pushed her hand away as she reached out to wipe his face off.
“We need a way to get Alan down here.” Frank stated. “We need some way to carry him and keep him still.”
“A blanket! If we put him in a blanket can’t we carry him here?” Margaret suggested, “We can carry him between us.”
Frank thought for a second his eyes travelling around the cabin looking for anything they could put Alan on. Margaret was right. A blanket would be the logical choice to transport Alan.
Margaret shoved a sheet into his hands, “Now let’s go and get that boy. Robbie will be just fine alone for a few minutes. Won’t you honey?”
“Yes Mom…just go help!”
She followed Frank up the ladder. “That boy could box but he just never knew when to quit. Too slow getting his left up.”
Frank thought she must be talking to herself as her voice was too low for him to hear clearly. He had prepared himself for her to fall to pieces at seeing her son all bloody and beaten but she hadn’t. Some other time he’d ask about Robbie and boxing, but getting Alan down below was his first priority.
They rolled Alan onto the sheet and with one of them on each corner, they carried him to the Annie-C.
With Robbie on the port settee, they would put Alan on the larger starboard side. The table was still down, making a queen size bed. They had been surprised when they got Alan down below. Dana had already spread a clean sheet out over the cushions.
“Thank you Dana. How did you know we would need help?”
“I wasn’t asleep yet and I heard Mr. Frank talking to my Nana. I thought I could help you.”
“Well, you did because we never even thought of covering the cushions. So thank you.” Hannah was taking things out of the medicine tote as she was talking to Dana.
Margaret had been digging through their bag of personal things and produced a white plastic bottle. “I don’t know if you can use this or even want to but I use it for everything.” She handed it to Hannah and watched as Hannah’s eyes grew wide with surprise.
“Perfect. Where did you get this from?”
Margaret laughed, “I guess we haven’t been properly introduced yet but I was an R.N. for thirty years. Surgical for twenty of those. I used to use this Betadine scrub for everything when Robbie was boxing professionally. I still carry that bottle in my bag just in case.”
Hannah smiled at Margaret, “This is the one thing we didn’t find when we were scavenging. I try to keep things clean, around here because of the virus or whatever it is.”
“Well you just tell me what you need and I’ll do it.”
“I’m sure you could take care of him by yourself. I worked with enough R.N.’s to know who did all the work. Okay, I think I have everything we need.” She sighed deeply and turned to Alan. “I just hope we have what it takes to help him.”
Margaret patted her shoulder, “We’ll do just fine.” She looked around at Frank and Ellen, “You two can go outside or somewhere else and Dana honey, Nana needs you to go back to bed. Kiss Daddy goodnight and scoot.”
“I love you Daddy, get better soon.” She said, and kissed him on the cheek. Dana went back to the aft cabin and shut the door softly behind her.
While Hannah cut the bandage off of Alan she talked, “She seems like a great child. She reminds me so much of Olivia. They both have the same patient attitude.”
Dana wanted to follow in my footsteps but I guess she won’t have the opportunity now. Lord, that little girl used to rescue everything. Birds, kittens and one time she brought in a mouse the neighbor’s cat had. She nursed them all back to health and set them free or found homes for them. She liked to play doctor.”
They worked on Alan for over an hour carrying on conversations about everything that had happened the past three months. By the time Hannah tied the last stitch, they knew everything important about each other. Margaret had cried when she heard about Hannah’s mother and what the guys had done to her. She had dried Hannah’s tears along with her own.
Finally, Hannah stood up. Her hands immediately went to her back and she began to massage her sore muscles. She’d been stooped over the whole time she’d been working on Alan and her muscles screamed in protest.
“I don’t know what else we can do for him, but let him sleep.”
“You go out and get some fresh air. I’ll stay with him for a bit and you can tell Frank and Ellen what you did.”
“What we did for him.” She looked from Alan to the open hatch and decided she would go up. “A glass of wine would sure be nice right now.”
“Maybe we should put that on the shopping list if we don’t leave when Frank said we should. I’ll bet some of those big yachts on the other side have wine on at least one of them.”
Chapter Nineteen - Forced to stay
“How is he?” Frank and Ellen asked their voices timed perfectly.
Hannah slumped onto the bench seat and leaned back with a groan. Someone had pulled her hair back in a ponytail but tendrils had escaped and curled wetly around her face.
“What I wouldn’t give for one of those beers right now even if it’s warm.” As if she’d just realized she hadn’t answered the question she said, “I think he’ll be okay. I did everything I know how. He’s a lucky man. The knife deflected off a rib, or it would have killed him. His biggest problem right now is he’s lost a lot of blood. But, God willing he’ll be fine in time.”
All of the air seemed to leave Ellen’s lungs at the same time. She wilted into the seat she was sitting on, “Thank you Hannah.” She sighed heavily, “I don’t know what I would do if something happened to him. But not for him, none of us would be here right now. Oh, I know he blames this all on me, but in truth he’s one of the reasons I left Palmetto. Maybe even the deciding factor. Without him to think about I probably would have stayed to find out what was going on and probably died there, along with all the others.”
“We’re going to need more antibiotics, more bandage material and anything to do with medical care.” Hannah stood and turned to look at Frank, “Are we still leaving here in the morning
?”
“If there’s any way possible, we need to. We thought we saw movement on shore and if we’ve noticed someone up there, they’ve probably taken notice of us.”
“Why are we not standing watch then?”
Alan found a length of chain and padlock. We put it on the gate. So essentially I am standing watch from here. They’d have to come at us from the water like those two did. With the fog it’s hard to see anyone, but we can hear them. It actually looks like the fog has thinned out some. I can see the shadow of that boat.” He pointed at the Newport.
“That’s because it’s almost morning.” Ellen looked at Hannah, “Honey, why don’t you go lay down for a while. I’ll check on the guys. Margaret should too. We have to wait for the fog to lift more and then we’ll make a decision about leaving.”
“I will thank you. I feel drained. It was a chore just to come up here. We need to find another light source. The cabin lights aren’t much good for doing what Margaret and I just did. My eyes feel like they’re filled with sand.” She chuckled, “I can’t even think straight right now.” She sat staring at her feet as if she needed a minute to process what she had just said. As if she had aged measurably while sitting there, she reached out and with the aid of the cockpit table Hannah pulled herself to her feet.
Frank and Ellen watched her stand and climb down the ladder. She did look tired. Her back was bowed and her shoulders slumped; her hair hung limp down her back. Her words had been said as if it had taken all she had to force them out. She was obviously suffering from exhaustion.
When she had disappeared through the hatch, Ellen turned her eyes on Frank. “There is no way we can leave here today. With Rob and Alan both down, it would be impossible and what about Alan’s injury? We could do more harm to him with the bouncing of the boat. Can’t we…”
Dangerous Shores: Book Three; The End of the Road Page 10