“Leave me alone,” she spat, but there was the soft sound of a sob in her voice.
“Katie, listen to me,” Joe began. “You misunderstood what you saw.”
“Yeah right. Tell that to the birds,” Katie hissed vehemently. “I’m not dumb. I know what I saw.” With that last remark, she spun around again and continued to hurriedly walk away from him.
Angry now, Joe jogged up to her and grasped her arm, “Will you listen, for fuck’s sake?”
Katie wrenched her arm away.
Joe suddenly grabbed her around the waist and lifted her into the air. “Okay, we’ll do things my way,” he said, turned, and began to walk in the direction of the side of the building. Katie kicked her legs and cursed at him angrily.
As Joe crossed the gravel, a military policeman approached them both. Glancing sideways at the staff sergeant with his recalcitrant armful, the MP cocked an eyebrow and said, “Evening, Staff Sergeant. Need some help?”
With his arms full of struggling woman, Joe shook his head and smiled briefly, “Thank you, Corporal, but I think I can manage.”
A smile twitched on the MP’s mouth and he nodded. “Have a good evening, Staff Sergeant,” and continued on his mission to enter the PX.
Joe carried Katie around the side of the PX and continued walking until they eventually reached a patch of darkness. Slightly out of breath, he placed Katie on her feet and waited in silence for the resultant fallout.
“How dare you,” Katie retorted furiously, almost stomping her foot. “Who the hell do you think you are? How dare you…you…?” She was so angry that her words ran out and she could only stutter with fury.
Observing her, Joe thought how beautiful she was when she was angry. He folded his arms and, struggling not to smile at her attempts to find the words to berate him, he asked calmly, “Are you going to listen to me?”
“No!” Katie exclaimed stubbornly. “What’s there to listen to?”
Exasperated, Joe unfolded his arms and placed a hand on either side of her, palms flat against the wall.
“Katie. You will listen to me. What you saw was nothing. The woman is an old friend of mine. We dated back in the US but it came to nothing. It was all one-sided on her part. Tonight I told her about you and that we were serious. She had to know and she was wishing me luck. Now, you can take it or not, but I don’t lie and you better learn that.” Joe stared at her still-furious face intently, waiting for her response. Little by little, he saw the fury recede from her eyes, although there was still an air of suspicion and wariness about her.
“I saw you with her in the mess,” Katie explained.
“Yeah, I know you did,” Joe replied, realizing with relief that she was calming down. “I ran out after you but you were moving hell for leather down the road toward the CTH.”
Katie’s mouth twitched with a small smile. “Mmmmm, I was pretty angry. I must admit,” she answered.
Joe allowed himself to grin now. “You don’t say,” he remarked. “I would never have guessed.”
“I’m sorry, Joe,” she continued. “You must think I’m acting like a child.”
“No,” Joe answered. “It must have looked pretty suspicious from where you were standing but, Katie, I would never hurt you intentionally or lie to you. Never. I love you and will always love you. And that’s a promise.”
Seeing that she still needed some reassurance, Joe took his place beside her against the wall and tugged her T-shirt. “Come here, woman,” he said and pulled her in front of him, against his body, opening his legs slightly so that her own legs fitted in between them.
“You’re quite a handful,” he teased, putting his arms around her waist.
Katie snuggled in against him, pressing her body against his as close as she could. She put her arms around his neck and gently teased his short hair with her fingers. She was delighted at his response when he shivered and squirmed.
“Naughty,” he murmured, his arms tightening around her waist.
“But you love it,” she whispered, softly and huskily.
“Oh yeah,” Joe replied and proceeded to show her how much he loved it by kissing her deeply.
As with their other kisses, their passion for each other flared quickly and for long minutes they immersed themselves in each other until suddenly Joe picked Katie up in his arms. Katie immediately swung her legs up and around his hips and he turned and leaned her against the wall, pressing her there gently so that his pelvis was hard against hers. Katie arched her back, trying to get as close to him as she could.
Joe was fast losing control. The promise he had made to himself about not making love to her in a dark corner of the camp was quickly becoming meaningless. It wasn’t until he discovered that he had one hand down between them, undoing the Velcro fastening of her combat trousers that he realized how close they were both coming to losing control. He promptly yanked his hand away and stopped kissing her.
“Jesus Christ!” he exclaimed, shaken at the emotions that were burning between them.
Katie put her head on his shoulder and he could feel her trembling and her heart pounding against his chest. She unhooked her legs from around his hips and he gently lowered her to the ground.
She moved her hips slightly against his and said sensuously, “I can feel you.” There was no teasing in her voice, just a tone of regret.
“You’re not kidding,” he said. “Saturday is a hell of a long way away.”
Katie raised her head and looked at him, “But worth the wait,” she replied softly.
“God, I love you,” Joe suddenly said. “I love you so much.”
Katie gently traced the outline of his mouth with a finger. “I want you so much,” she said simply, without artifice or seduction evident in her voice.
Joe moaned softly and kissed her again. This time it was gentle and showed all the love that he had for her. Eventually they drew apart and Joe glanced at his watch.
“Hey,” he said, “it’s getting late. Do you want to go back into the PX?”
Katie shook her head. “No,” she answered. “I’d much rather stay out here with you.”
“Okay,” Joe acknowledged and pulled her against him so that she was able to snuggle into his arms.
Out in a war zone nobody made plans or talked about when they were going back home, as that was to risk something happening, fate taking a kick at someone you loved. It was classed as bad luck. So Joe quietly spoke about some aspects of his life in the Marines until at least he sighed and announced with regret, “Time to go.”
Katie made a small moue of reluctance, feeling an upwelling of anxiety about Joe going out on patrol again. “I’ll miss you while you’re away,” she said. “I hate these patrols.”
“I know, honey,” Joe responded softly, “but four more weeks and we’ll be together out of this place.”
Katie smiled slightly at him, but he saw that there were unshed tears in her eyes and her lip was trembling.
“Hey,” he said. “I’ll be okay.”
Katie nodded with resignation.
“Come on. It’s late. I’ll walk you back to your tent.”
Joe took her hand and together they walked back along the side of the building to the front. The crowd outside was dispersing with much loud noise, and as they joined the throng, Katie attempted to remove her hand from his to save them both from any further gossip, but Joe refused to release it. “Might as well make the gossip even juicer,” he announced, and hand in hand, they walked slowly away from the PX in the direction of Camp Churchill.
Once they reached Katie’s tent, Joe took her into his arms. “I’ll say goodnight for now,” he said in a low voice and kissed her thoroughly, not seeming to care that someone might see them or come walking down the path to find their tent. After a few minutes, he released her. “Go,” he said, “before I change my mind.”
“Goodnight, Joe,” Katie said softly. “Take care.”
Joe sketched a half salute and turned to make his way back t
o his own tent in Camp Roosevelt while Katie went into hers.
Chapter Twenty-One
The next morning when Katie arrived at the CTH she found the building in complete pandemonium. There had been a number of firefights during the night and the theaters and trauma rooms were full of casualties. There were patients lying on gurneys waiting for treatment and medical personnel rushing from patient to patient and from room to room. Katie had never seen the teams under such pressure or felt such tension in the air. She ran to her locker to get changed and immediately went to Theater One to assist in any way she could.
The teams had been on duty since the previous night but there was no standing anyone down. The rooms were gore-soaked but the number of casualties did not allow time for the rooms to be cleaned after each surgery or assessment. Everyone was run ragged and exhaustion was beginning to show in short, sharp commands, and irritation.
By late afternoon, Katie was exhausted. Some of the teams were stood down by then but the CTMs, including Katie, remained on duty, seeing to the patients—as there weren’t enough trauma nurses—cleaning rooms, replenishing low stocks of drugs and helping out where they could.
At 1900 hours, Katie eventually slumped down into a chair in the R&R room. The place was crowded with exhausted, unusually silent medical staff, people sitting with closed eyes or sipping cups of coffee. There was none of the usual animated conversation or banter and staff discussing the surgical procedures. People looked numb and distracted, locked into their own worlds of fatigue.
Katie was so tired that she could barely concentrate enough to drink her own brew. She wondered briefly about Joe, felt a swift tingle of remembrance from last night, and then jerked as the alarm sounded again within the CTH.
For a moment, nobody moved. Then there was a soft groan and they all rose to their feet. “Okay,” Major McIntyre urged strongly, as though rallying troops. “Let’s get going, folks. More incoming.”
Katie threw her half-full cup into the waste receptacle and headed for the door of the R&R room. She collided with Sergeant Webster, who was just coming from his office.
“Corporal Walker, you’re needed on a CTF flight. Get your equipment,” he ordered, and without waiting for her response, he was gone, jogging down the long corridor to the front of the building.
For a moment Katie remained standing where she was, numb with fatigue and shock, and her heart sank. Suddenly her training kicked in and she was on the move to the locker room to get changed and retrieve her combat equipment. Within minutes, she was jogging out to the front of the CTH, where the team who she had been assigned to was waiting for their vehicle to take them out to the CTF Chinook. Within minutes, a Bulldog APC drew up and they climbed aboard to be driven to the checkpoint and out on to the helicopter apron.
Katie and the CTT seated themselves aboard the helicopter and rearranged their weapons more comfortably, waiting for takeoff. As on her previous trip, Katie again felt nervous, only this time she was able to keep the nerves at bay, and if she concentrated hard enough on other thoughts—such as Joe—she could almost believe that there was nothing to be concerned about.
The double engines of the Chinook began to wind up to their usual pre-takeoff screams and the double rotor blades began to spin faster, tearing at the night air. The nose jolted upward, followed by the rear, and the helicopter rose up smoothly from the ground, banked to the left, and flew off in the direction of its assigned coordinates.
Katie sat quietly, knowing what was expected of her. Conversation inside the Chinook was again impossible with the big side door open and the wind howling through it and into the interior. To distract herself from her nerves, her thoughts turned to Joe, as they always seemed to do now, and a small smile came and went as she remembered her time with him at the PX the previous evening and what they had discussed. Her life had changed so completely over the last few days that it was never going to be the same. All they both had to do now was make it to the end of their tours, stay safe for each other and out of harm’s way. Loving him was a part of her now and she felt a quiet joy whenever she thought of him. Gone were the anxieties of whether she should be involved with him or not. Time would tell whether their love for each other would last, but for now, she was just happy with the way things were.
Katie was jerked from her reverie at the sudden ominous sound of loud repetitive pinging and metallic clanging against the hull of the helicopter. She glanced surreptitiously at her colleagues to discover that they were all looking at each other with expressions of alarm on their faces. It made her feel distinctly uneasy.
“We’re taking heavy fire,” the pilot suddenly shouted over his shoulder from the cockpit. “This might prove a bit dicey, folks. We need to do a bit of evasive maneuvering, so it’s gonna get bumpy.”
As the pilot relayed his message to them, the door gunner began firing out into the black night, the continuous ratcheting noise of his gun deafening in the confines of the cabin.
The pinging and cracks against the thin metal hull of the helicopter continued unabated and the Chinook began to swerve from side to side, vibrating and bouncing. Katie felt fear begin to rise in her as she realized that there must be a huge firefight going on below them. The enemy had obviously sighted the Chinook and it would be a great coup for them if they brought it down. She gripped the edges of her seat and tried to calm herself by taking deep breaths. The crew had no doubt been through this many times and she was confident that they knew what they were doing and had a strategy on how to get out of the situation that they now found themselves in. Her belief that they would come through the brief attack was confirmed over the next few minutes as the noises against the hull diminished. Katie breathed a sigh of relief. They had obviously passed out of range of the gunfire.
Katie released her grip on her seat and flexed her tense and rigid fingers. She blew out air and tried to relax her muscles. There were a few nervous laughs from the CTT and a comment of, “That was a close call.”
In the next second, everything turned to terrifying chaos.
“Incoming! RPG!” There was a sudden nerve rending shout from the pilot, followed by an explosion from somewhere to the rear of the helicopter. The Chinook shuddered and immediately veered to the left. Loud, strident alarms sounded from the cockpit and over the strained screaming of the engines, Katie could hear the pilot and co-pilot shouting at each other as they tried to maintain control.
The Chinook began to shake then veer violently from left to right, showering medical equipment down onto Katie and the other medical personnel. Although they were all wearing combat helmets, some of the equipment was hard and heavy and they had to shield themselves as best they could.
As though the helicopter had given up its attempt to stay on a level flight, it began to spin in a slow, erratic circle, the even sound of the rotor blades becoming choppy and intermittent, the noise they were giving out now sounding like a harsh whine.
With an upsurge of sheer terror, Katie heard the co-pilot on the radio, “Mayday, Mayday. Charlie Tango Foxtrot Charlie Hotel-47. We have taken fire and are going down. I say again. Mayday, Mayday. Charlie Tango Foxtrot Charlie Hotel-47. We have taken fire and are going down.” His voice was calm and controlled but ice formed in Katie’s veins as the words impacted her brain.
The sergeant from the CTT suddenly appeared in front of her. He spoke briskly and firmly but remained calm. “Go and stand by the door, Corporal Walker. When we land, you are not to hang around. You are to get out of the helo any way you can and move as far away from it as possible without endangering yourself. The rest of the team will follow you. Do you understand?”
“Yes, Sergeant,” Katie replied in a voice that shook with terror, finally nodding vigorously in case he had not heard her answer above the noise.
The sergeant gripped her shoulder. “We’ll be all right, Corporal. Stay calm and remember your training.”
The others were all on their feet, but with the wild gyrating and bouncing of the heli
copter, it was difficult for them to remain standing, and they had to grasp any handholds that were available.
The Chinook was now spiraling down at speed, almost completely out of control, the crew still attempting to stabilize the spin. If they could raise the nose, then the rest of the Chinook would follow suit and they might be able to land safely.
Even though it was only a couple of minutes since they had been hit, to Katie it felt like hours had passed. She moved to the door, gripping her rifle so hard that the muscles in her hand ached. As she reached the door, the door gunner turned and nodded his head at her. The expression on his face was calm and reassuring.
The rear of the helicopter suddenly plunged downward and there was a rending, tearing crash as it made contact with the ground. Because it had maintained its speed during its spiraling fall, it began to slide along the ground and, almost in slow motion, topple sideways to the left, the long rotor blades snapping with harsh cracking sounds, pieces of metal flying through the air like knife-edged missiles.
The front of the helicopter impacted the ground like a block of concrete falling from a great height and began to roll sideways, following the direction of the tail. Katie found herself somersaulting toward the open door. She heard herself screaming with terror as she flailed with an outstretched hand, trying to find a handhold to hang onto to prevent her from flying outside to be crushed by the tumbling helicopter. Her other hand still retained a vise-like grip on her weapon.
The noise of the dying helicopter was a screaming, tearing cacophony. The engines continued to howl with a tortured sound, metal ruptured and crumpled, struts and steel plating groaned, strained almost to breaking point, warning alarms blared from the cockpit and somewhere in the cabin, somebody was screaming, a howl of human pain. Then Katie found herself in silence.
She became aware of the chilly night air on her face. She could still hear the dying screeches of the helicopter, but they were diminishing as it and she went in opposite directions. Then she hit the ground hard. The breath tore from her lungs. There was sudden pain in various parts of her body. Her combat helmet came off and her head hit something hard. Everything went black.
For the Love of a Marine Page 21