The Next Ten: Beginnings Series Books 11 - 20

by Jacqueline Druga

  Ellen quickly pulled away. “Elliott.” She looked.

  “I had them take him immediately down to the Clinic,” Frank answered.

  “What about you?” Ellen asked, seeing the blood on Frank.

  “I’m fine.” He winked. “Let’s get you two out of here.” Cupping his hand on the back of Alexandra’s head, Frank put one arm around Ellen and they began to walk. “Alex, sweetie, just keep your eyes closed.” Frank began to lead them through the bodies of Savages. “Robbie!” Frank called out to Robbie who was doing a ‘dead’ check of a Savage. “We’re heading down.”

  Robbie nodded and moved on to the next.

  Frank felt the jolt of Alexandra when a shot rang out in their tunnel. “Fuck.” He called out, “Can you guys not shot anyone? My daughter’s here.” Frank shook his head then kissed Ellen as he still held her while they walked. “Man, no common sense.

  ^^^^

  Andrea beeped off her phone and looked at Bev who sat with a hospital gown on in the examining room. “Stay put. Do not leave this room until I get back.” She rushed from the room and pulled the door closed just as Jason and Dean raced down the hall with gurneys.

  “Incoming,” Dean notified moving quickly to the main doors.

  “Joe just called.” Andrea grabbed the end of the cart. “There’s six.”

  “Not bad,” Dean stated.

  “Elliott’s the worst.”

  “God, is the man in a contest with Frank or what?” Dean shook his head.

  The doors to the Clinic flung open and Andrea peered up to the two men who helped a very bloody Elliott walk in. “I’d say. At least he’s still standing.” She hurried to him and looked at the two men that aided him. “Help me get him on the cart.”

  “Elliott.” Dean rushed to him. “My wife. My daughter.”

  “They’re fine,” Elliott said. “Just fine.”

  Dean let out a long breath of relief. “Good. I need you on this cart.”

  “I’d rather walk,” Elliott stated.

  Dean looked at Elliott’s escorts. “Take him down to O.R. Three.” Dean rushed to the next man brought in. “You can walk. Exam Room Two.”

  “No,” Andrea called out. “I have a patient in there. One. Room One.”

  “One then.” Dean shrugged as another was carried in. “I cannot believe the injuries we’re dealing with. What happened to the good old days of gunshot wounds?”

  Smiling as she examined a guard on a cot, Andrea, in her mind, agreed.

  “Pap,” Alexandra called out as soon as Frank set her down in the waiting room of the hospital. She ran to Joe and he picked her up.

  “Saving mother and daughter now, Frank?” Joe asked as he held Alexandra.

  “Joe.” Ellen rushed in. “How bad are the men?”

  “No major injuries, thank God.”

  “Elliott.”

  “He’ll be fine.”

  Ellen backed up. “I have to find him. Frank? Find an examining room. We have to clean you up.”

  “Yeah, yeah,” Frank waved her off.

  “I mean it,” Ellen ordered as she hurried down the hall. She stopped at Exam Room One, knocked then opened it. Jason worked on a guard. “Sorry.” She backed up, knocked on Room Two and opened it. “Shit.”

  “Hi, Ellen,” Bev smiled. “I’m waiting.”

  Grunting, Ellen pulled the door closed and moved to Three. She opened the door. No Elliott.

  “Ellen.” Dean stopped working on his patient and moved to the door, “Wait.”

  “I have to find Elliott.” Ellen backed up.

  “O.R. Three.”

  “Thanks. I’ll be right back.” She spun and raced down the hall. She turned the corridors that seemed to be even longer than usual in her seek of the operating rooms. Room Three wasn’t far and Ellen rushed in.

  “Girl.” Andrea looked up from her work on Elliott who sat up. “What did you get this man into?”

  “Elliott.” Ellen hurried to him. “Are you all right?”

  “I’m fine,” Elliott told her. “Really. You?”

  “Fine.” Ellen laid her hand on his. “I wanted to thank you.”

  “Frank saved the day,” Elliott said.

  “You saved me and my daughter.” She laid her hand on his cheek. “You were great.”

  Elliott lowered his head in an almost blush.

  “We’re finishing up now,” Andrea stated. “I want to keep him in the Clinic overnight. He’s your patient so it’s your call. But with those arrows, he needs a good IV dose of anti-infectives.”

  “I agree,” Ellen said. “Sorry, Elliott, you’re stuck with us.”

  “I’m glad to be here on . . . this day.”

  Ellen quickly looked at Andrea. “I . . . I saw her waiting.”

  “I can send her home,” Andrea said as she worked. “Everything’s ready. We’ll just have her come back when things are settled.”

  “No.” Ellen shook her head. “Are things under control with the injured?”

  “Yes, just about,” Andrea answered. “Why?”

  “Twenty minutes.” Ellen backed up. “That’s all I need. I’ll secure the sample, get her out of here, help you finish up, and then . . . and then when the four of us are all free, we do it.”

  “Are you sure?” Andrea asked. “Are you O.K. to do this?”

  “I have to get this done. Elliott, I’ll check back.” Ellen moved to the door.

  “Ellen,” Elliott called out. “Good luck.”

  With a simple nod, Ellen left. She moved quickly past the examining rooms to the lab. She had to get the box that held the supplies. It was hidden in the paper storage cabinet. She heard Frank’s voice talking to Joe and knew she wouldn’t be seen by him. Dean was working on a patient, so he was occupied as well. Actually, to Ellen, the attack was a diversion in her favor. She grabbed her lab coat and put it on. As she did an envelope fell from the pocket. Setting her tray of supplies down, Ellen bent over and picked it up. Her name was on front. She debated a second and opened it. When her eyes read the words, her heart sunk and her throat swelled up. “El, just wanted to leave you a note. I’ve done nothing but think about you while you were gone. How can I not. I love you that much. I just need you to know how much of my world you are. My life’s complete now that I have you. I love you, Dean.”

  Ellen closed her eyes as she folded the note and slipped it back into her lab coat pocket. “Please let this be a sign. Please, Dean, let this work out in your favor.” She picked her tray back up and walked from the lab.

  ^^^^

  “I certainly hope . . .” Bev said perky, yet snidely, “You can perform this test with those shaking hands.”

  “Bev.” Ellen looked down at her. “I would think, with the size of this needle, the last thing you would want to do is get me angry.” A small tray lay before the table Bev was upon. The gown she wore was open to expose her stomach that was starting to round. Ellen never thought it would bother her, but it did. It was not so much the rounding belly, but the image on the ultrasound of the baby. It was so tiny with a beating heart and it’s little legs kicking about. Holding the instrument, Ellen had to watch that baby and look for her pocket of opportunity where she could insert the anchor of the amniocentesis needle.

  “Cute, huh?” Bev asked, smiling at the image of her child.

  Ellen glided the wand of the ultrasound in her hand. The most tedious of tasks would be to find a spot in the baby’s sac and the baby kept moving. With the wand held tightly against the abdomen, Ellen kept the needle of the anchor within millimeters of the wand. She readied to take the chance when the baby shifted out of the way. “There,” Ellen whispered. “Bev, do not move. Take a breath. This is going to hurt.”

  There was a certain amount of relief for Ellen when she inserted the anchor into the flesh of Bev’s abdomen. It meant it would be over soon.

  ^^^^

  “I’m killing your father.” Dean pulled a vial out of the refrigerator.

  “You got the cool
way, Dr. Dean,” Johnny said.

  “No, I mean for real. He keeps saying, ‘Dean just give me a fuckin shot. Come on, I got things to do’.” Dean grunted and placed the vial on his stack of folders and papers. “I’ll give him a shot all right and listen for the man to scream.”

  Johnny snickered. “Give it to him.”

  Carrying his stack of papers in his hand like a high school kid carrying his books, Dean moved rapidly across the lab. “I’m finishing up, Frank. I have one more patient then I have to shoot straight down to the cryo. I have a sample I’m . . .” He stopped at the door, turning so quickly a sheet of paper flew out unnoticed from the stack. It dropped to the floor. “Johnny, could you tell El to find me or at least call me. Please.”

  “Will do.”

  “Thanks.” Dean hurried out.

  “Oh Dr. Dean, you dropped . . .” Johnny raced across the lab and stopped talking when he saw it. “Ah, how cute.” He smiled as he bent down to the half sheet drawing of a house, man, and a little girl. It was drawn well. The words ‘I missed you Daddy. Love Alex’ was written in big red letters. Johnny slowly stood up, crinkled the art partway, laid it neatly on top of the trash, and with a wide grin, walked from the lab.

  ^^^^

  The sample was perfect, clear, more than enough, and still warm as Ellen held the tube in her hand. Standing before the labeling machine Danny got her, she took a moment to stare at the amniotic fluid.

  “You will not mention this to anyone until I personally give you the results. Got that?” Ellen heard herself warning Bev. She shuddered away her ‘bad’ feeling. She typed into the label machine “‘B’ Sample DO NOT TOUCH!” and pressed ‘print’. The label ejected and Ellen swiped it around the tube then took it to the fridge.

  The rack for special samples set right in front, samples that always remained on hand for future reference until they no longer were viable or were frozen. Ellen set the tube in the rack.

  “El,” Robbie called out.

  Nervously Ellen shut the refrigerator as she turned around. “Robbie,” she breathed out his name. “Hey.”

  “El?” He stepped to her. “Where you been? I’ve been looking for you.”

  “I have a patient who has . . . um . . .” Ellen dropped her voice to a whisper “female problems.”

  “Oh.” Robbie leaned down and kissed her on the cheek.

  “What . . . what was that for? That was nice.”

  With slight rolling eyes, Robbie smiled. “El, you were stuck in a bad situation today. I wanted to see if you were all right.”

  “Oh, yeah. I’m fine,” Ellen nodded. “Thanks for asking but I could really use a hug.” Ellen closed one eye as she asked.

  Robbie fluttered his lips. “And you ask.” He took another step to Ellen but didn’t have a chance to put his arms around her because Ellen grabbed him first. He felt the trembling of her body and the racing of her heart pounding against his chest as she gripped so tightly to him. “El?”

  “Huh?” Ellen still held on.

  “Are you sure you’re O.K.?”

  “Much better now. Thanks.” Ellen released her hold and stepped back. “So . . . what brings you here? Anything besides me?”

  “Actually, yeah. I wanted to see Sgt. Ryder.”

  Ellen closed her eyes. She wanted to kick herself for forgetting even momentarily about how he was doing. “I want to also.”

  “I heard he did so well out there. He really protected you and Alex.”

  Ellen tilted her head. “How did you know that? He did, but how did you know?”

  “Frank.”

  “Frank?” Ellen was shocked. “Frank praised Elliott?”

  “Oh, yeah, he really complimented him. Of course, you know, he used his ‘Sgt. Fuckin Ryder’ protected El.” Robbie snickered. “But in Frank’s way, he complimented him. Wanna go together to see him?”

  “Yes. Let’s go now before I check my patients.” Ellen walked to Robbie and took his hand.

  Robbie slowed in his walk as her fingers slipped in his. “Cool.”

  Ellen snickered. “Oh, wait.” She release his hand and stopped by the door.

  “Hey.” Robbie indicated to his lonesome hand.

  “Wait, my scope.” Ellen eyed her stethoscope lying on the counter by the door. Without moving her stance she leaned far to the counter, gripped it with her fingers, and brought it to her. She smiled, held it up, and put it over her neck. As she went to turn back and take Robbie’s hand, a flash of color lying on top of the trash caught her eye. She held up her hand to Robbie, bent down, reached to the trash, and pulled out the half crinkled artwork.

  “What’s that?” Robbie asked.

  Undoing the wrinkles, Ellen stared for a few seconds at Alexandra’s recent picture to Dean

  “El?”

  “it’s nothing.” She folded it up, slipped it into her pocket, and pretended all was fine. “Nothing. Let’s go.” She grabbed Robbie’s hand, held it a little tighter, and walked from the lab with him.

  New Bowman, Montana

  With his elbows on his desk, Hal held the phone tightly to his ear. “He’s all right, Dad?”

  “He’s fine,” Joe answered on the other end of the line. “They’re keeping him at the Clinic on intravenous to help fight off any infection he could get.”

  “At least he’s not serious, right?”

  “Have to tell you, Hal, he did well. The man really fended them off”

  “Elliott is a good man. That’s why he works side by side with me.” Hal leaned back in his chair. “So what now?”

  “Now we beef up our end of security. I don’t think I need to tell you what to do on your end. Dan just came back from his surveillance. They’re stationary.”

  “They’re moving in attack groups.”

  “Yeah,” Joe said, “which is really stupid. We’ll take them out.”

  “What if they come in full force?”

  “There’s still not enough of them out there, only about a hundred left. The toughest part is heading them off when they breach.”

  “Which if we’re ready . . .”

  “Shouldn’t be a problem,” Joe finished Hal’s sentence. “As for now, though the roadway is safe, we’re gonna go back to the closed gate policy of the tunnel. We’ll post a man inside and control the gate, letting the trucks and Dan-tram in and out.”

  “I think that’s a good idea.”

  “And before winter sets in we still want to perimeter New Bowman as well.”

  “Dad.” Hal had a chuckle to him. “Our tracking goes further out than yours. We have a bigger scope of warning. There’s no need”

  “But we have perimeter beams.”

  “I have more men.”

  “Humor me. Christ.” Joe sounded irritated. “All right, I know Elliott’s here. Can you get your third Council man to hold down reigns?”

  “Who?”

  “Your third Council man. What’s his name, uh . . .”

  “Oh, yes, him.” Hal nodded and rolled his eyes. “Why him?”

  “I’d like to get you in Beginnings tomorrow for a strategy meeting. Is there a good chance of that?”

  “I was coming anyhow,” Hal said.

  “For what? Not that I mind, but I didn’t know you were coming.”

  “Yes, for the Distribution meeting.”

  ‘The Distribution meeting?” Joe asked, shocked. “What the hell is a Distribution meeting?”

  “Um,” Hal stuttered.

  “Hal?”

  Hal snickered. “Dad, call me ‘Frank’. I got confused. I was worried about Ellen and wanted to go there tomorrow so I told her I had a meeting.”

  “All right . . . Frank,” Joe laughed. “I’ll talk to you later and fill you in on how our meeting went this afternoon.”

  “Good, talk to you then.”

  “Oh, Hal. No more Frank moments, all right? I can only handle one temporarily mentally disabled son.”

  “Not a problem,” Hal said seriously. As he hung up t
he phone, he realized his father’s sarcasm. He cringed and wanted to hit himself at his second momentary lapse. Right there and then Hal promised himself that his first order of personal business would be to spend less ‘one on one’ time with Frank.

  Beginnings, Montana

  Ellen faced the closed door of the clinic lab before turning around. She took a strengthening breath and stepped further in. First she looked upon the faces of Andrea, Jason, and Johnny. “I . . . I’ve secured a large sample and have one for each of you.” She walked to the fridge and opened it. She pulled out a small rack and took it to the counter the three stood before. Four tiny infant blood tubes were in the rack, each with amniotic fluid. “If you make an error or feel you need more, there is more of the sample left. Just let me know you took it. I’m monitoring it.” Slowly Ellen lifted the tiny tubes. She’d hand one out, then pass on an empty folder. “I know this seems so ‘I spy’ but I need this secret and I need to be the first to know. We have two accessible computers. Under the file name ‘DNA-SEQ-OR’, I wrote that inside your folders, you can pull up Dean’s DNA sequence. After you’ve run a sequence on Bev’s sample, you can run the program to see if it’s match. Please . . .” Ellen closed her eyes. “Please do not share this with each other. Just print up the results, place them in the folder, and give them to me. I’m . . .” Ellen held up her tiny tube. “I’m going down into the cryo-lab to perform mine while Dean’s not there.” She moved sadly to the door. “Thank you very much, all of you, for taking time out of your day to help me out. Your help is so important to me.”

  They all watched Ellen leave, all of them with the same look of helplessness upon their faces. Hesitant, but knowing what they had to do, Andrea, Jason, and Johnny readied themselves to perform the test.