by A. American
“That thing is going to take forever to fill up,” Thad said.
“It’s doing pretty good. I think it will take about an hour to fill it,” Danny replied.
Thad rubbed his hands, “I can’t wait to see if this works.”
“Oh, it’ll work. That much water that high off the ground has to work,” Dalton said.
The guys sat around shooting the shit while the tank filled. Once it was full, they pulled the tank back to the tower. Thad climbed up and dropped the discharge hose into the top of the tank on the tower. Danny started the pump, and soon water was pouring into the tank. Thad had to stay on the tower to keep the hose in, as it tended to jump out from the force of the pump.
“This thing is a lot faster than the well pump,” Dalton said, admiring the little gas pump.
“Yeah; it’s a good pump. We found it in a Forestry Service building. Saved our ass when the fire came through,” Danny replied.
“I remember that. Was keeping an eye on that, and getting ready to bug-out if it got too close.”
“We went and fought it. It was hard work, but the Guard helped us a lot, and we managed to beat it back.”
The gas pump had pushed the water quickly. Danny shut the pump down, and Thad dropped the hose off the tower and closed the fill port. As he climbed down, he announced, “Now’s the moment of truth!”
“Let’s go see what it looks like,” Danny said.
They went to Thad’s house and filed into the kitchen. Thad stood there a moment with his hand on the faucet, looking at the guys. “Cross your fingers.” He raised the handle and there was a gurgle, followed by small blasts of air. A little water trickled out, then more air and gurgling. After a moment, a solid stream of water began to pour from the faucet. It was greeted by cheers from the guys.
“Let’s go see what the shower looks like,” Danny said.
Thad led the way down the hall to the bathroom. The sound of the toilet bubbling, told them the tank was filling. Pulling the shower curtain back, he opened the valve, and the gurgling and spitting started again. It didn’t last as long this time, and soon water was running out of the showerhead.
“It’s real low pressure, but I think it’s enough to take a shower,” Thad said as he ran his hand through the cascading water.
“Yeah; that’s plenty strong enough to take a shower,” Dalton added.
“How long do you guys think a tank will last?” Danny asked.
Thad shrugged, “We’ll have to see.”
Dalton chuckled, “I bet the first one goes fast, everyone wanting to try it out and all.”
“I bet you’re right. And to kick it off, I’m taking a shower right now.” Thad said as he stripped off his shirt.
“On that note, I’m out of here!” Dalton shouted as he disappeared down the hall with Danny in tow.
Chapter 16
I was talking to the engineers when we were hit by the shockwave of the explosion, followed immediately by the sound. So close together, they seemed to arrive as one. Staggering, I looked up, “What the hell was that?”
The engineers were looking around as well, rattled from the blast. Then we saw the cloud of smoke rising over the armory, and people running. I followed them around the corner and realized the blast had come from the market. Then the reality hit me; the girls were at the market. The air was filled with cries and people shouting as I started to run towards the sound of chaos. I prayed my girls were alright, and terrified at the thought of what could be.
The market was destroyed. Debris littered the ground, as well as more grisly things. There were body parts everywhere. Seeing this, increased my heart rate, if that was at all possible. The first person I found was Jess. She was on her knees in a daze. Her hair was a mess, all disheveled and full of dirt, pieces of wood and other debris. I dropped to my knees and grabbed her.
“Are you ok?” I shouted as I looked her over.
She just stared back at me. I ran my hands over her looking for blood, but found none; so I checked her head. There was blood, but thankfully it didn’t appear to hers, as bad as that is. I gave her a little shake, “Jess, where are the girls? Where are my girls?” She still stared back without replying. I shook her again, “Come on, where are my girls?”
She raised her hand and pointed back towards the blast site, and my heart shrank. I jumped up and started looking at the bodies on the ground. I found Lee Ann sitting on the ground. She too was covered in dirt and debris, plus broken glass. Glass littered the ground everywhere. Like Jess, she was dazed and was trying to stand up. I grabbed her arm and helped her to her feet.
“Are you ok?” I asked as she stumbled.
She looked around, brushing her hair out of face. “I think so; my ears are ringing really loud, and my head hurts.”
I was looking her over and found a bad gash on her left arm. Blood was running down and dripping from her fingers. I pulled a battle dressing from my vest and wrapped it tightly around her arm.
“Where’s Taylor?” I asked as I cinched off the bandage.
“She was just here, right beside me.”
I looked around, but didn’t see her. There were several bodies on the ground, and anxiety grew even more. Pointing back to where Jess was, I told Lee Ann to go stay with her. More people were showing up to help. Sarge and Doc appeared with Mary.
“Where are the girls?” Sarge asked as he trotted up.
“I don’t know, I’ve only found Lee Ann and Jess so far.” As I said that, Fred and Aric walked up. They too were covered in debris from the blast, but appeared unhurt.
“Are you two ok?” Sarge asked.
Aric was holding his head and nodded. “Yeah; I think we’re alright. My head hurts though.”
“You’re probably concussed,” Doc said. “Go over there with Jess and Lee Ann while we find Taylor.”
Aric nodded, and held onto Fred as they walked back to where the girls were. Doc was already helping another injured person when I started looking for Taylor. There were a lot of wounded around, but I had to find my daughter. The cries of the wounded filled the air. Some were still screaming, while others moaned in pain.
“Morgan! Over here!” Mary called out.
I turned to see her knelt down beside a body on the ground. A body wearing a shirt I immediately recognized. There was also an H&K lying on the ground. I ran over to her and slid in on my knees, which turned out to be a huge mistake, as glass tore into both of my knees. I didn’t even notice it though as I rolled Taylor over.
What I saw, shook me to my core. She was covered in blood. Her face had numerous cuts and scratches, some deep and bleeding profusely. I immediately checked her for a pulse and found one, thankfully. But she was hurt really bad.
“Doc! Doc over here!” I shouted.
He looked up from the person he was helping. Tying off a bandage, he jumped to his feet and ran over. He quickly checked for a pulse, and then started to cut her clothes off with a pair of EMT shears. Removing her clothes, revealed a number of deep wounds.
“Is she breathing?” Doc asked as he worked.
I didn’t hear him. All I could do was stare at her. It looked so bad. So much blood, so much blood. Doc screamed at me. “Morgan; get your shit together. Is she breathing?”
I snapped out of it and leaned my head down to her face. I was trying to feel her breath but I couldn’t. “I don’t think so. Do something, please do something.”
Doc handed me the shears as he shifted around to her head. “Cut her pants off; I’m going to get her an airway.”
He pulled a small green tube out of a plastic wrapper. Squirting some lube on it, he placed the tube into her right nostril and gently guided it into her nose. I was cutting her pant leg with the shears, but couldn’t take my eyes off what he was doing. At one point, he gent
ly rotated the tube back and forth, and it continued down into her nose, coming to stop at a rubber washer.
Doc reached into his pack and pulled out a plastic bag the size of a Nerf football. It had a mask on one end, which he placed over her face. He then gave the bag a squeeze. Her chest rose as he did, and the mask fogged as the breath was pushed back out. Doc looked at Mary and told her to keep squeezing the bag in a slow steady rhythm.
Now that her airway was secure, he went to work on the many wounds. I worked as well, stuffing gauze into the larger ones and wrapping them in more. She was cut to pieces. Once the more severe wounds were dressed, Doc pulled a compact Mylar-style blanket out of his pack and laid it out. It was green on one side with some sort of reinforcing material woven through it. With the blanket laid out, Doc told me to grab her feet and help get her on it.
Once we had her on the blanket, we picked her up to carry her to the clinic. Mary walked closely with us to keep operating the bag. Sarge and Livingston ran over to help carry her, and soon we were making our way to the clinic.
“Is she going to be alright?” I asked Doc as we quickly carried her.
“We need to get her to the clinic and see what’s going on. I hope so.”
“We’ll do everything we can for her,” Sarge replied.
“Who is she?” Livingston asked.
“One of my daughters,” I replied. He didn’t respond, but I could tell he felt it.
There was already a number of people at the clinic. Many of the lesser wounded had already made their way there. We ran past them into the clinic and set Taylor up on a gurney. Doc pushed her towards one of the two operating suites in the clinic. As we crashed through the door, one of the medical staff stopped us.
“You’re going to have to wait; she hasn’t been triaged yet.”
“Yes she has; I did it. She needs to be seen right now,” Doc replied.
“There are a lot of people that need to be seen,” the man in green scrubs replied.
I stepped up and pushed him out of the way. “She’s going in now.”
Doc continued into the OR with her and started calling out for a surgeon. The man I’d pushed out of the way started to protest. I spun around and drew my pistol, “Get us some fucking help in here! Now!”
The man raised his hands and disappeared out the door. Doc ran over to me and grabbed the Springfield. “Put that shit away, Morgan! What the hell’s wrong with you?”
As I holstered it, I said, “I’m not messing around with these people. They need to get in here.”
Two people in scrubs came through the door and went straight to her. Doc started telling them what he’d found, and the doctor began calling things out. He turned to us and said, “You need to clear out, we need the room.”
Sarge grabbed my shoulder. “Come on, Morgan. Let them do what they do.” I resisted a bit, and he pulled on me. “Come on; there’s nothing you can do here.”
Looking at Doc, I said, “Save her, Doc. Please save her.”
Doc looked up and nodded. I could see the determination on his face. Sarge pulled me out the door and we walked outside. A number of the Guardsmen had gathered at the clinic to assist those needing help. The medical staff consisted of four people and they were overwhelmed.
“She’s going to be alright, Morgan. Doc will do whatever it takes,” Sarge said.
“I know. I just can’t imagine any alternative.”
“Let’s go see what we can find at the blast site. I think we know who did it, but let’s take a look.”
“Oh we know. And they’re going to fucking pay for this,” I replied.
We walked back over to the park. Gone were the wounded, leaving behind only the dead. The ground was littered with broken glass, blood and body parts. As we walked, the ground crunched beneath our feet. I stepped around the larger pools of blood, and the old man didn’t seem to even notice.
“Pure evil genius,” Sarge said as we approached the blast area.
“What do you mean?”
He pointed to the smoking remains of Big Bob’s truck. “They set the damn thing off right beside all that hooch. It increased the effect of the device by adding all that flying glass to the blast.”
I looked at what was left of the truck. There was no sign of Big Bob or his two boys. Unless of course the pile of intestines hanging in a nearby tree were his.
“That’s why she was so cut up,” I replied. “Taylor, I mean.”
Sarge nodded, “Yep.” He kicked at some glass on the ground as he shook his head, “These are some sick fuckers.”
Taking in the scene, I said, “Look at this place. No one will ever come here again.”
Sarge snorted, “Shit. In Iraq, they’d bomb a market, and it would be up and running again an hour later. It’ll take some time. All these body parts will need to be cleaned up first. but the people will be back.”
We wandered around the park a little before heading back to the clinic; I really wanted to check on Taylor. We found the rest of the girls sitting on a bench on the sidewalk.
“How are you guys doing? Anyone hurt?” Sarge asked.
Jess rubbed her head, “My head hurts; but we checked each other, and Lee Ann is the only one with any injuries.”
“How’s your arm?” I asked.
She looked at the bandage. “It hurts, but not that bad. Someone checked it out, and told me to keep it wrapped up. He said it didn’t need stitches or anything.”
Trying to smile, I replied, “Good.”
Lee Ann looked up at me with tears in her eyes, “How’s Taylor? Is she going to be alright?”
Seeing her like that, caused me to tear up for the first time. “I’m going to check on her.” It took everything I had not to break down right there. But I didn’t want to do that to her. She was already shaken up; and seeing me upset would only add to it.
“I saw the guy. The guy that left the bomb,” Jess said.
Her comment had Sarge’s attention. “You did? Would you recognize him? If he wasn’t vaporized?”
“Oh he wasn’t. He set the pack down and started walking away. I called out to him that he forgot his pack, but he took off, moving quickly away. We were chasing him when it blew up.”
“Taylor was going to get the bag,” Lee Ann added. “That’s why she was so close.”
It pained me to hear that. This was one of those times when the “what if” game started in your head. What if she hadn’t turned to go back? What if I’d said no to them about walking around the park? This sort of thing will eat you up if you’re not careful. I felt it was my fault; I had let them come with me. I’d let them walk around the park. But in the end, it wasn’t my fault, though it was hard for me to see it. There was only one person responsible; and he was still running around town somewhere.
“We’re going to go check on her now,” I said. Lee Ann nodded.
As Sarge and I walked back towards the clinic, a Hummer rolled up beside us. The Guardsmen in the passenger seat waved me over.
“What’s up?” I asked.
Stabbing a thumb over his shoulder, he said, “I think you guys need to talk to this guy.”
I looked in back to see a man in his thirties sitting between two other soldiers. “Who is he?”
“We don’t know. But he was running like hell away from town. We thought it odd since everyone else was running towards town after the explosion.”
Sarge looked in, eyeballing the man. Looking at me, he said, “I’m going to get Jess.”
I nodded, and looked at the soldiers. “Drag him out.”
They got out and stood the man against the Hummer. One of the two in the back with him handed me a pistol, “He had this on him.”
I examined the Sig, but didn’t think much of it; everyone carries a gun
now. But, turning it over, I noticed a bar code on the frame. This caught my attention, as I know only government-issued weapons typically had these. Sure, there were some on the civilian market. Sig made the 229 Navy edition, and a ridiculous 226 with Homeland Security engraved on it. Plus the government barcode. But this was neither of those. Looking back to the man, he made eye contact with me for a second before looking back to the ground.
Sarge returned with the girls and Aric. As Jess approached, she started shouting, “That’s him! That’s the son-of-a-bitch that set the pack down!” She closed on him quickly and delivered a devastating knee to his nuts. He collapsed as if he’d been shot, issuing a loud, deep moan. I grabbed Jess and pulled her back as Fred and Aric both chimed in, reaffirming Jess’s statement.
“It’s him, definitely him,” Aric said.
“What do you want us to do with him?” The Guardsmen asked.
“Take him to the PD and lock him up for now. We’ll get to him later,” I said.
Slowly nodding his head, Sarge added, “Oh yes; we will.”
Lee Ann stared intently at the man as he was pulled to his feet. She moved in close to him and he flinched, expecting another knee. Within inches of his face, in a quiet voice she said, “If my sister dies, I’m going to kill you.”
I was shocked. In the Before, the two got along okay, but they were never really tight. It wasn’t until things fell apart that they seemed to become a lot closer. Maybe it was the fact that there was no internet with Facebook, Snapchat and all the other distractions that come with it. Maybe that forced them to connect to the people around them, instead of people they’d never meet.
The soldiers loaded the man up and drove off towards the PD. With the girls in tow, we continued towards the clinic to check on Taylor. It was still very crowded at the clinic. The initial chaos had subsided, but there were still many people there being treated. We walked inside and found Doc working on a young boy that had lost a leg from just above the knee.