Invicta by A.L. Masters

Author:A.L. Masters
Language: eng
Format: mobi, azw3
Published: 2022-11-14T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fourteen

Night

Kate

“She’s not doing so well,” Tamura said, checking Anna’s temperature again. “I can’t say if she’s just got a bad case of bronchitis and another virus, or if it’s the beginnings of pneumonia. Stew?”

Stewart shifted in his seat before kneeling next to Anna. He put an ear to her chest. “I hear crackling in her lungs—” He broke off as she coughed and then put his head back down. “But it’s higher up in the chest. We’ll have to wait and see.”

Jared tucked the blanket in around her on the makeshift pallet and put a comforting hand on her forehead. Kate rubbed her lips and looked at Storm. He and Red looked worried. She motioned them away as Tamura was explaining Anna’s need for complete rest.

Kate led Red and Storm away from the customer service desk where they had set up a temporary camp. She whipped around. “This isn’t good,” she whispered. “She’s really sick.”

“Tam’s got it covered,” Red assured her. “We have access to water and some medications here, and it’s safe for now. There are no windows, at least,” he said, peering off into the dark.

“This will affect our plans though,” Kate said, realizing just how much.

Storm nodded. “It will. We can’t split up. We just don’t have that kind of manpower anymore. It’s too dangerous. We have to wait until she feels well enough to travel and then take her with us.”

“If it’s pneumonia it could be weeks,” Red pointed out.

“Bronchitis isn’t as bad. She could be ready to move out in a few days to a week. She won’t be at one hundred percent though. I’m not sure we’ll be able to take her out when we recon the facilities. One cough could get us all captured and killed, or worse,” Storm theorized.

“Yeah. Shit, this is bad. I’ve got a bad feeling, Gabe,” Kate finally said, leaning against Storm’s chest. He rested his chin on the top of her head while she considered alternatives. None seemed good.

Red tugged on her hair gently. “Don’t worry about it too much, Bubba. She’s young and strong. She’ll recover and we’ll deal with whatever comes after. Ultimately, we can only do what we can do and no amount of worrying will change that.”

She looked at him and he was uncharacteristically solemn. “Sometimes things don’t happen the way we think they should. Sometimes, the good guys don’t win the battle.”

“But there’s always the war,” she said, smiling faintly.

He grinned. “There’s always that, and me, you, Storm, and Jared have a damned good track record so far.”

“Yeah, but our casualty rate fucking blows,” she sighed.

“That’s the way of it. This is war,” he shrugged.

She understood that, in a way, Red and the guys had always been pretty fatalistic when it came to their military service. She didn’t think it was possible to serve in all the combat situations they had and not be that way. You couldn’t run missions properly if you were always worried about dying. It was part of what made her stick around with them after the stadium fiasco back in Arkansas.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.