by Terry Yates
“Colonel, I feel like I know you well enough to know that you’ve probably made up your mind as to what you’re going to do.”
“I have,” was Potts’ only response.
“And?”
“I’m giving you another hour…at the most, to do what you can for the little girl, but if the water continues to rise, we’re taking off…and you’re going with us.”
Kyler was livid. He was a civilian and he wasn’t going to be ordered around by anyone, especially someone with a god complex. He was about to tell Potts this when the colonel spoke up.
“You’re going with us, Doc,” he repeated, anticipating Kyler’s response, “even if it means handcuffing you to me. Understood?”
Kyler wanted to punch him right in the nose, but being a doctor, a pacifist, and a fairly devout coward, he knew that was impossible.
“Give me till sunup, Colonel. Please.” Kyler was trying to play to Potts’ ego as he had earlier that morning, but he wasn’t sure it would work. “That’s all I ask. Please.”
Potts looked at his military wristwatch that he’d probably gotten with his promotion to bird colonel. “I’ll give you two hours. It’ll be O-Five Hundred by then, but if the water starts rising anymore, we’re taking off. Understood?” Kyler nodded his head. Boy, he sure knew why Nurse Walling hated him. Okay, he had till five a.m. The sun usually didn’t come up till around six-thirty. He didn’t fancy moving around in the dark, but he didn’t have much choice. He could very well see Potts’ men dragging him upside down underneath a big stick like he saw in those old safari movies when someone shot a leopard and the natives carried the game that “Bwana” had killed back to the village.
CHAPTER 15
It was four a.m. Kyler had one hour to get everything ready. Privates Hawkins and Gibson had come back from the first floor and showed Potts the homemade water depth stick they’d made from an old pool cue that they’d found outside. They would cut notches in it to show how much the water had risen. Kyler was checking on Shelly Dixon who was partially awake now, but he managed to catch a glimpse of the new notch that the privates had cut into the cue. It looked like another five or six inches. Potts nodded his head to the soldiers, then looked over at him and tapped his watch.
He gave Shelly Dixon another sedative, a mild one this time. If they had to evacuate, she would need to be able to walk. No one could be spared to carry her and her baby girl. Every hand would be full. Someone would have to help with the equipment. Someone would have to help with Sylvia Morrison. Someone would have to help the Blum kid. Someone would have to keep an eye on Rob Olsen and Opal Munn. Opal Munn. He didn’t know what to think about Opal Munn. That thing had taken a big chunk out of her shoulder, but here she was, sitting up, talking nonstop to her grandson Wilbur, and to Zora LeMarque, who was still trying to rock little Kayla Dixon to sleep, still without much luck. Opal said that her shoulder was still a bit tender, but not hurting too terribly. That had to be pure, unadulterated, bona-fidee bullshit. Any other elderly person would’ve keeled over dead by now and it didn’t take a doctor to know that. He’d had one strange son-of-a-bitchin’ day, and he had a feeling that he was about to be in for another one.
He made his way over to Michael Blum who was still sitting on his bed with his broken leg on a pillow. The kid looked lonelier now than he had three hours ago. He’d just witnessed a Level 8 shit storm and here he was sitting quietly, adjusting his glasses every few seconds as if they were the only thing that he had left and he was hanging on to them for dear life.
“How are you feeling?” Kyler asked, smiling down at the boy. He was pretty sure his smile looked phony. He had been up for twenty-four hours and no one who stays up for twenty-four hours can give a convincing smile. The mouth muscles just won’t lift that high when a person is beat.
“I’m okay,” the boy answered. He looked from Kyler to the O’Hearley’s to Kyler again. “I didn’t mean to fall on top of her.”
Kyler gently put his hand on Michael’s shoulder. “You had nothing to with this, Buddy. Her appendix was going to go at any moment. If anyone’s at fault, it’s me. I should’ve operated when I had the chance, but I thought she’d be better off in a regular hospital. Guess I’m not a very good doctor, huh? Even so…let me take a look at that leg.”
He looked at the second break that had been caused when he had knocked the boy off the table the previous morning. He wondered if he was the only doctor who had ever broken a patient’s leg in a second place. The whole leg was purple now and the slightest touch made the boy jerk and wince in pain, sucking air in and out of his mouth. Kyler had to give the boy credit. He must be in a world of pain, but he wasn’t showing it. He was either one tough kid, or his parents had taught him never to show pain or fear or any other emotion that wasn’t befitting a socially elite family.
“We’ve gotta problem,” Kyler began. “I can’t do anything for you right now except give you some pain killers. If I set your leg and put a cast on it, it’s just going to fall off again when we go outside.”
“So we are going outside then.” Michael asked. He had overheard Potts and the soldiers talking about evacuating the hospital and looking for some other place to stay.
“It looks like it. Now, I’m going to have to fix you some sort of temporary splint before we go and it’s going to smart a bit.” The boy nodded his head.
“Doctor…”
Kyler looked from the leg to Michael. “Yeah?”
“That thing that attacked us. It was your burn victim. We all saw him change.”
“I never doubted you for a moment.”
“Col. Potts doesn’t believe it though. He thinks I’m lying.”
Kyler looked away from Michael to Potts who had already started barking orders to his men as to how they would leave, who was to do what, and so on…
“I don’t think he disbelieves you.”
“But he saw it himself!”
Kyler smiled another tired smile. “Ah…but that’s where you’re wrong, Mr. Blum. He saw the thing and he saw the burn victim but he didn’t see one turn into the other.”
“But I saw it! Lauren saw it! Mrs. Munn saw it! Mrs. Dixon…”
Kyler raised his hand. “But he didn’t see it. There’s the rub.”
“Still going on about that monster, Son?”
They both turned to see Potts standing next to them.
“I know what I saw, Col. Potts.”
Potts ignored him and turned to Kyler. “Time to get going, Doc.”
“Colonel…”
“No, it’s time to get out of here. The water’s getting too high downstairs. If we don’t leave now, we might not make it.”
“Is the storm still blowing full force?”
“Actually it seems to have dissipated a little.”
“A little?”
“Yeah. Instead of a hundred miles per hour, it’s now at seventy five miles per hour.”
“Yikes.”
“But the rain is falling as hard as ever and I’ve got seven men out there somewhere. They should’ve been back hours ago.”
Kyler looked into Potts’ eyes and saw that he was actually concerned for the welfare of his troops.
“Do you have any idea where we’re going, Colonel?”
“Right now, the closest place I can think of is the base.”
“How far is it?”
“About a mile…if it’s still there.”
“And what if it isn’t?”
“We’ll find somewhere else.”
Well, that was settled then. Kyler was amazed at Potts’ ability to focus on the here and now. He didn’t seem to worry about things he couldn’t do anything about. He had his objective and he just lowered his head and bulldozed his way toward it. If he couldn’t go over the mountain or around it, he would go right through it. Amazing.
“Well,” he said looking at Michael, “let’s get you a splint ready.”
CHAPTER 16
It was five o’clock on the but
ton when Potts turned to the others.
“Everyone ready?” he asked rhetorically, not expecting or even caring for an answer.
Everyone stood in a cluster by the stairwell looking nervously at each other. Kyler looked around and all he could think of was “The Poseidon Adventure”. They were about to venture through a whole lot of water in search of rescue.
Wilbur Munn had his arm through Opal’s. Zora LeMarque was doing the same with Burt Burns, who was gradually winding down now, his strength zapped from lack of rest, and of course, the death of his brother Martin. Pvt.’s Gibson and Hawkins carried Michael Blum in the old fireman’s carriage where they each had an arm on his back and each with an arm under his knee. His new splint made his left leg stick straight out making him a little difficult to carry. Pvt. FranAnne Fulton and Nurse Walling were escorting Shelly Dixon who had wanted to carry young Kayla, but Kyler had insisted that he carry the baby. Since the maternity ward was under water, he’d had to look for something to carry her in. A newborn didn’t need to be getting hit by hard rain. He’d found an old gym bag, wrapped her from chest to toe in hospital towels and sheets and anything else made of cloth that he could find. He carried another bag filled to the brim with anything cloth they could find, which they wrapped tightly in plastic. If the baby got wet, they would need something dry to wrap her in. They couldn’t risk even the slightest cold, plus some were going to be used as diapers. He was glad Nurse Walling thought of these things. Samantha stayed with Sylvia Morrison. She was still groggy from the sedatives causing Samantha to have to keep holding her up. Not being able to see wasn’t going to make things any easier either. Zack Olsen reluctantly stayed with his father while Gringo carried Lauren. Locklear and Ariella had wanted to carry her, but once again, Kyler insisted that Gringo would be the best one suited for the job. Short stocky men were always strong as oxen and Gringo proved the theory. He held Lauren in his arms as if she were a baby. She had yet to regain consciousness so she hung limply across him, her head back and her mouth slightly open. Kyler had removed the drainage tube momentarily for the trip and put a hooded jacket that someone had found over her to cover her head from the rain He just hoped he got enough of the infection out of her. Locklear and Ariella stood close by her each holding plastic bags filled with necessities such as medicine, flashlights, and all the food that they could get from the vending machines which Gringo knocked over and broke open with the glee of a six year old. At the back were Sgt. Cohen and Sam Fong. Sam was holding a small battery charged generator over his head which they were pretty sure they would need, all doubting that there would be any electricity at the base…if the base was even there, and Sgt. Cohen more or less was rear security in case they met the monster along the way. He was also continuing to try and raise help or at least get information on his radio.
“Okay, everyone, we’re gonna take it nice and easy down there,” Potts told them. “It’s gonna be dark and the water’s about four feet high. Once we’re out of the building, the ground slopes up. We’re at the lowest point on the island. As we continue to go up, the water will lessen. It doesn’t look like too much water has amassed on the high ground and that’s where we’re going. The storms still going out there but it’s not as bad as it was a few hours ago, but the wind’s still strong and the rain’s still heavy. Stick together and if anything happens, yell out. We’ll put on the ponchos and the rain slickers when we get outside. We don’t want anything long or heavy getting snagged on anything. Now, we’ve got about an hour till sunrise, so stick together and keep your eyes open. We don’t want to run into our hairy friend again.”
The mention of the beast stopped everyone cold. Kyler dropped his head. Why had he felt the need to mention the monster? Why couldn’t he have just ended his pre battle speech with “everyone stick together” and left it at that? Because Bird Col. George Patton Potts was a no-nonsense, no sense of humor, no bullshit, everything’s on the line, and we might not make it out alive type of colonel, that’s why…and Kyler knew that there was probably no one better on the island to be with at that particular moment.
Potts lead the way down the stairs. He trod carefully on each and every step until he got to the bottom where the last three steps were under water. They had propped the door open with every heavy that they could find. They didn’t want the weight of the water to jam the door closed.
Potts walked down the stairs and into the water, which came up to his chest. He turned around and silently motioned for everyone to follow him. Kyler was still at the top of the stairs when he saw Potts disappear out of the doorway and into the hall. Zack Olsen took his father’s arm and helped him into the water and they too disappeared into the hallway.
Kyler took one step at a time as everyone began to make their way into the water. He was between Zora and Burt in front of him and Sam Fong and Sgt. Cohen behind him. He couldn’t help but notice Zora as she hooked her arm through Burt’s and gently guided him down the stairwell. Her long beautiful thick, black, wavy hair cascaded down onto her shoulders hanging about four inches down onto her back. What would Jackie Gleason have said? “Hominy…hominy…hominy…”
As if she knew that he was checking her out, Zora turned around and looked up at him just in time for his eyes to have moved back up to her hair. She looked at him for a moment, and smiled. He smiled back knowing that he was probably smiling as dorky a smile as a person could possibly smile. After a moment, she turned back around in time to help Burt into the water. After she disappeared into the hallway, Kyler stopped, adjusted the bag full of rags onto the back of his shoulder. He looked inside the gym bag to see little Kayla Dixon sound asleep covered in her swaddling clothes. God, he wished he was asleep right now. Let someone else worry about the sick and injured.
Now it was his turn to step into the water. Sam Fong shined his flashlight ahead of him into the hallway. He took one last deep breath, then raised both bags above his head and stepped into the water. He turned to his right where he could see several flashlights lighting up the hall just enough for him to see seventeen or eighteen silhouettes moving slowly through the water ahead of him. Like the Pied Piper of Hamlin, everyone silently followed Potts down the hallway. He could see someone far in front continue to turn around and look behind them. He was guessing that it was Shelly Dixon making sure her baby was in view. He almost wished the baby would cry so Shelly could have some piece of mind, but a crying baby might disrupt the flow of calmness that Potts had established.
Kyler was over six feet, so the water wasn’t as high on him as it was some of the others, plus his long arms made it fairly easy to keep bag and baby above the water. The light from Sam Fong’s flashlight shone past him so he knew that the maintenance man was now behind him. As he followed behind, he heard the baby sneeze once, then nothing. He stopped for a moment to check on the child, but before he could unzip the bag, he heard her make a slight moan, then the sound of inhaling and exhaling, which meant…for a baby…she was fine.
He looked up ahead. Potts was at the end of the long hallway and turned slightly right before disappearing out of view. He’d made it to the lobby without incident. Several more people rounded the corner a few seconds later. Great. No screams or any other sounds of distress. As he moved down the hall, his arms began to tire from constantly keeping the bags in the air. He was grateful that Kayla Dixon was keeping quiet. Shelly had already fed her twice during the late evening and once about an hour ago. He was realizing just how much he hated the responsibility he’d given himself. He didn’t know how old or worn the gym bag was, he didn’t know if the handles were very good, and most importantly, he didn’t know how solid the bottom of the bag was. The baby was about seven pounds, not much by weight standards, but it might be quite a lot by old gym bag standards.
Sam’s flashlight was lighting up the water down below him giving it that late night swimming pool effect. The water had been much warmer than he’d expected. He felt like he had been standing in water for a whole day. The jet crash,
the storm, and now this. He felt like he’d never be completely dry again. He moved through the water still unable to take his eyes off Zora’s silhouette, which was gliding effortless through the water, still hanging onto Burt Burns, her black hair floating on top of the water. He wanted to ask them both how they were fairing but since everyone else was remaining silent, he didn’t want to sound like a fart in church.
He was about fifty feet from the end of the hallway. Only Samantha and Sylvia and Zora and Burt were still ahead of him. Everyone else had made it around the corner, and he could see several flashlight beams moving around so he supposed everyone had made it to the lobby okay. As he neared the end of the hall, he could hear whispered voices. So far, so good.
With twenty-five feet to go, he saw Samantha and Sylvia make the slight turn and disappear from view, followed a few seconds later by Zora and Burt, leaving only himself, Sam Fong, Sgt. Cohen, and of course, Kayla who was wearing his arm out. He had been shifting each bag from one hand to the other trying to give each arm a break every few minutes.
Kyler finally came to the end of the hallway where the hushed voices were louder now, though still not loud by Potts’ standards. When he rounded the corner, he saw that everyone was huddled next to the same broken doors that just hours before, he’d seen a huge creature crash through. As Kyler joined the group, Shelly Dixon, drenched nightgown and all, shoved past everyone to get to him.
“Is she all right?” she asked loudly, breaking the calm stillness. Before the doctor could answer her, she was almost jumping up in the air trying to get at the bag, which unbeknownst to her, was the wrong bag.
“She’s fine” Kyler answered, pulling the real bag down toward her, then lifting it high again like a bully holding a smaller kids cap in the air so he couldn’t reach it. She was making him nervous. She was almost clawing at him trying to get at her daughter. “Shelly,” he said. “Shelly!” She stopped reaching and looked at him. “She’s fine, Shelly. I’m not going to let you look at her until you calm down. I know you’re as stressed out as you can possibly be right now, but we both want what’s best for your little girl, so I need you to calm down. All right?”