Authors: Robert Van Dusen
Nausea roiled around in Amy's stomach. She desperately wanted to be somewhere, anywhere else than right here with some crazed NCO expecting her to hold down a diseased man. She took a deep breath and gathered her courage. “Eamon, on the count of three you grab his arm.” she said carefully as to try and keep what she had eaten earlier where it was. Frays handed the EMT a zip tie from the suspender of her LCS. “I'll grab the other one. Once we've got him held down, use the zip ties to tie his arms to the stretcher.”
The two of them knelt beside the stretcher as the man groaned and tried to reach for them. “Onetwothree!” Amy shouted. The two of them grabbed the wounded man's limbs and pinned them to the earth, struggling to keep the man under control as they tried to restrain him. Lacey pounced on the man's legs while the sergeant screamed at them, the NCO standing by the man's head.
Amy pinned the man's arm to the ground and after a little struggle managed to zip tie the limb to the
aluminum pole of the stretcher. Eamon seemed to be having a little more trouble restraining the man. Amy took a deep breath, squeezed her eyes shut and threw herself across the diseased man’s chest, trying to use her weight to pin the man so the EMT could tie him down. A gurgling sound grew in the patient’s stomach. Apparently Eamon heard it too because they both scrambled away as a jet of vomit erupted from the man's mouth.
“Aw! God! Fuckin’ shit goddamn!” screamed the sergeant as he pawed at his eyes. Amy smirked until she saw the chunks of sticky looking stuff and thick fluid spattered across the legs of her trousers. She staggered to her feet and made a knock kneed run for the trucks. Frays propped herself up against the nearest Five Ton and retched so hard she half expected to see her liver lying on the grass.
One of the privates walked over to Amy, looking at the young woman with a mixture of concern and disgust in his eyes. “Are you okay?” he asked, reaching out and putting a hand on her back. “Would you like some water?”
Once she felt she was capable of opening her mouth without blowing chunks Amy straightened up a little, turned to the young man and asked “For the love of God, can you get me a water can? I gotta get this crap off me!”
The sergeant stumbled off towards the command trailer, bumping into Lieutenant Guzman as the policeman came out to see what was going on. The wounded man crawled towards the policeman, now trying to drag the stretcher with him. “Gotta shoot 'em all.” he muttered as he drew his pistol from its holster and casually blew half the man's head off.
One of the casualties, a young black man with a horrific head wound wrapped in thick bandages, scrambled awkwardly to his feet and stumbled away from the sound of the shot. Amy completely forgot about her own nausea and chased him down. “Hey there.” she said calmly as she caught up to him and took him by the hand. “Come on back and lay down, alright?” Frays made little calming noises as if she were talking to an upset child.
Two gunshots rang out and the man fell like a puppet with its strings cut, his life pumping away through a pair of holes in his chest. Frays stared numbly at her hand then started across the supply depot towards the policeman. “W
-what the heck is wrong with you?!” she shouted, her fingers curling tight around the pistol grip of her carbine. “Why…why would you do that?”
Guzman pointed his Glock at Frays, a little red dot dancing on the center of the woman's flak jacket. “Gotta shoot 'em all.” the policeman muttered, suddenly aware that Eamon and Lacey were closing in on him. “GOTTA SHOOT 'EM ALL!”
He wheeled about, trying to cover all three of them at the same time. This worked out as well as one might expect: as soon as the policeman started to turn towards Eamon, Lacey jumped him. The Marine knocked the pistol from the policeman's hand and pinned his arms behind his back. Frays ran up and smacked Guzman on the temple with the butt of her M4. Lacey lowered the man to the ground as Frays pressed the muzzle of her weapon into the back of the man's neck. “Here, secure his hands.” she growled as she passed the Marine one of her zip strips.
Eamon picked up the policeman's Glock as Lacey searched the man for more weapons or anything he could use to escape. “Here ya go, man.” he said as he handed the EMT the two spare magazines he took from the lieutenant's belt.
“Okay.” Amy said carefully. She looked at the privates peering around the corners of the nearby trucks. “Can you guys get the wounded loaded up on that Five Ton, please? Eamon, make sure they're squared away. Lacey, keep the lieutenant covered and make sure he doesn't hurt himself or anybody else. I'm gonna go see where they set up a Medivac point.”
With that Frays walked quickly to the command trailer, straining her brain to see if she could remember the radio frequencies for the different people she might have to talk to. Hopefully they were all already programmed into the trailer's various communications systems. If she couldn't remember them, hopefully the little notebook in her ABU pocket was not too badly wrecked...
She barely noticed the sergeant standing in the hall at the other end of the trailer. The man growled, his boots clomping on the steel floor of the trailer as he rushed towards her. Amy screamed when the big sergeant grabbed the collar of her body armor and flung her against the wall. She tumbled out of the door and went head over heels down the stairs. Amy ended up sitting a few meters away from the door and pointed her M4 at the man as the sergeant scrambled after her. The carbine boomed in her hands as the 5.56 NATO round smacked solidly into the center of his plate carrier, knocking the man onto his back.
The
two of them scrabbled to their feet, the man’s eyes crazed and bulging in their sockets as he started to come after her again. Amy readjusted her aim and squeezed off a second shot, blowing the man's brains all over the entry way of the command trailer. Amy stood there, ears ringing, blood pounding in her temples as she watched the sergeant's foot kick and twitch uselessly against the doorjamb.
“What the hell was that?” yelled Eamon, his eyes wide as he took in the whole scene. He went quickly to the young woman's side
as she stood there looking pale and shaken. “What happened? Are you okay?”
“H-He attacked me.” Amy said quietly. She slowly lowered her M4 and looked around cautiously as she flicked the weapon’s safety back on. Her hands trembled and her legs felt a little funny. “I went into the trailer and he attacked me.”
“Are you hurt?” asked the EMT. “I wonder why he did that, anyway.”
“I'm fine.” Frays said quickly. She was having trouble catching her breath. Amy felt him looking at her. “I’m fine, alright! Quit your gawking and go see if they've got the wounded loaded up yet!”
Amy picked her way carefully around the corpse in the entryway and sank into the chair the lieutenant had occupied. There were banks of computer terminals and radio equipment at her fingertips and all of it seemed to be screaming at her at once. Amy picked up the handset of a radio that looked the most similar to the radios she was familiar with, took a deep breath to calm herself and keyed the hand mike.
“Break. Break. Break.” Frays said quickly as she leafed through a pile of papers on the desk in front of her. “This is Bravo Three Four. I am at um...break...Supply Depot Blue One Zero. I have a lot of casualties and I need to know where to send them, over.”
“Who the hell is this?” a voice demanded. “Where is Lieutenant Guzman?”
Amy rolled her eyes and keyed her mike. “My name is Senior Airman Amy Frays,
35th Wing, 35th Mission Support Groups, 35 Security Forces Squadron, Charlie Flight
.” she said quickly and took a look around the trailer.
“Clear the net, Senior Airman!” demanded the same voice. “This is Chief of Police Gordon Banes!”
“Well Chief, tell you what” Amy nearly screamed into her mike “I'll turn myself in if you'll tell me where you are. You are at the Medivac point, right? Or better yet, send a squad car over to bring me in.”
“Break. Break. Break.” said a new voice. “This is Joker Six Actual. Airman, stand down. Look at the screen farthest to your right. I'm sending you the coordinates to the Medivac point. Put it into your PLGR and get going.”
Amy wished the 35
th
had the money for individual GPS receivers. The unit's brand new M4 carbines and a dozen M240 general purpose machine guns had eaten up the bulk of the unit’s equipment budget for the year. She pulled out her map, unfolded it and quickly plotted the coordinates out with a grease pencil.
“Roger that, Joker Six Actual.” she said when she had finished. “Be advised that an Army National Guard PFC will be the highest ranking person at this supply point once I leave. Requesting reinforcements, sir.”
“Roger wilco, Blue One Zero.” squawked the radio. “Get those casualties loaded and bring them up to the evac point. Reinforcements are on the way.”
Amy paused, calculating the distance between where she was and the new dot on her map. “We'
re bringing up the wounded time: now, sir.” she said quickly “If the streets are clear we'll be there in fifteen to twenty mike. Can I get an ETA on reinforcements, sir?”
The radio was silent long enough for Frays to become concerned that something had happened to it. “We're stretched pretty thin, Blue One Zero. Break.” the device squealed. An ear piercing shriek came from the speakers. Amy cringed in her chair and covered her ears. “Should be there in an hour or so.”
Amy shook her head and hurried outside. After relaying command's orders to the new commander of the supply point she walked quickly to the Five Ton. “We ready to go?” she asked Eamon as he helped the Army guys secure the last of the stretchers in the bed of the truck.
“Yep.” he said as he hopped down. “Find out where we're going?”
“Yeah. Do you live around here, Eamon?” Frays asked as Lacey joined them at the back of the truck. When the EMT gave her a nod she smiled. “Good. I'll drive. You can ride up front with me. Lacey, could you ride in back with the casualties and keep an eye on them for us?”
After they got Lacey into the bed of the truck and situated, Amy showed Eamon the map and listened to his suggestions as to the quickest route. Once they had it settled, the two of them climbed in the cab and she fired up the engine. “One quick thing before we move.” Frays said before putting the truck in gear. “While we're going I need you to keep an eye out. There might be bad guys who'll want to steal the truck or what have you.
“If you see anybody suspicious, let me know. If you see anybody pointing a weapon at us, let me know. If somebody starts shooting at us, return fire out of your window. We're not getting out of the truck unless we have to. If we come to a road block or an obstruction, I'm going straight through it as fast as I can, alright?”
They pulled away from the supply point and set off down the road as quickly as possible. Amy looked across the cab at the EMT. “I just realized something.” she said quietly, a hint of a smile playing at the corners of her mouth.
“What's that?” Eamon asked. He was trying to look for anything that might qualify as 'suspicious' outside his window.
“You're a doctor, aren't you?” she asked, turning her attention back to the road. This part of the city seemed relatively clear so far, but there were still some cars and trucks on all sides of their vehicle.
The little hairs stood up on the back of her neck.
“Yep.” Eamon said with a small grin. His response drew peals of laughter from the young airman. Amy's laughter verged on the hysteric as it
continued. The man looked at her like she had cracked. “I'm sorry!” she said once she could catch her breath. “I'm sorry! It's just that I’m close to graduating from MIT. My mom was all excited when I got accepted because she thought I'd meet a doctor.” Frays started to crack up again. “I don't think this is how she wanted me to meet a doctor!” Laughter sputtered out of Eamon until it erupted into a belly laugh.
The ride to the evac point was relatively uneventful. When they got there some policemen quickly checked that they were supposed to be there then directed them towards a medical treatment center. After a flurry of activity they got the wounded off their truck and in to see a harried and exhausted medical staff. The three of them stood near the Five Ton, all of them feeling like the medics looked.
“Okay.” Amy said after a brief pause. “Eamon, go see if the medics will let you refill your bag of tricks there.” she tapped the satchel slung over the man's shoulder. “Lacey, see if you can take the Five Ton over to the fuel point and get it topped off. I'm gonna see if I can find somebody in charge around here to see where they want us.” She fumbled in her pocket for her pack of cigarettes and, finding them a mush of paperboard and soggy tobacco, she left them there. “Let's meet back here in half an hour, alright?”
Amy wandered aimlessly through the camp, stopping every person in an Air Force uniform she could find. She asked all of them the same questions: “Do you know where the 35
th
SF is?” or “Seen anybody from the Three Five SF?”
After some time she received a small ray of hope: Major Grossman, her battalion flight commander, was supposedly in the Emergency Operations Center. The young airman who told her this was even helpful enough to give her directions to the EOC. Frays was so happy to hear this that she could have kissed him but instead thanked the young man and took off at a trot in the direction he pointed.
Amazingly, nobody even stopped her as she wandered around the interior of the EOC. The place was absolute bedlam: papers strewn all over makeshift desks, people running to and fro, men and women shouting at each other... “No wonder everything's so screwed up.” she muttered under her breath as she dodged an aide hustling past with a cardboard cup holder full of coffee.