The After War by Brandon Zenner

Author:Brandon Zenner [Zenner, Brandon]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2017-03-23T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 32

Blue Skies

The sentence escaped in a jolt, “Where are the girls?”

The thoughts that followed were: Where am I? What happened? Where’s Carolanne?

A man’s voice spoke to him, “You’re awake. That’s good.”

“The girls—”

“They’re in the other room. They’re safe. You’re safe. Please relax. My name is Doctor Liam Morris. Do you remember what happened?”

Brian remembered. At least he thought he remembered. Images rushed through his mind, although the course of events was choppy. There was the boy. The rotten-toothed boy with dirty red hair. Brian saw the kid’s stare—his eyes at first shocked by the reality he was facing, then fading as death became inevitable.

Brian remembered the injured man on the ground pointing a handgun in his direction. The grenade rolling under his feet. He picked up the grenade and threw it. There was a burst of bright light combined with the sounds of gunfire. A flash of the boy’s body being tossed in the air like it weighed nothing. That was it. His memory ended there.

“I remember,” Brian said. “I think I remember.”

“You were knocked unconscious and injured in an explosion.” He felt the doctor’s fingers on his temple. “But you’ll survive.”

“I can’t see anything.” His fingers went up to touch a cloth covering his eyes and forehead.

“Your vision is fine. I’m removing the bandages now. You sustained a laceration on your left temple, and down the right side of your cheek. You’re lucky you didn’t lose the eye.”

Brian tried to do a body scan, feel his toes and feet, legs and hands. He could wiggle all his appendages, but there was stiffness in his body and pain throughout. “Where am I hurt?”

“Most of your injuries are the result of wood fragments, primarily to your torso—”

“Be frank with me, Doctor; how bad is it?”

“I was being frank. The bulletproof vest you were wearing absorbed most of the impact, but your chest is deeply bruised. You have a fractured rib and several lacerations on your right shoulder. All of these injuries will heal in time. The bruising on your chest and your injured rib will hurt the most, but they’re the least of your injuries. What we are concerned about is a piece of shrapnel still lodged beside the bone in your right kneecap and lower thigh. Without a proper x-ray, it’s difficult to determine just how close the shrapnel is to the popliteal and femoral arteries.”

“So …” Brian tried to place the pain he felt in his body to the corresponding wounds. “What do I do now?”

“You rest. Tomorrow—”

A voice interrupted the doctor. “Brian?”

It was Bethany. “Carolanne, get over here!”

“Brian, you’re awake!” The voices of the women rushed into the room.

“Are you girls okay? Are you hurt?”

“We’re fine, Brian,” Bethany said. “Are you okay?”

“I … don’t know.”

“Hold on just a second, ladies.” The doctor was cutting away the bandages. A blinding brightness grew greater in intensity as each layer of cloth was removed. “There,” the doctor said. “You can open your eyes. It will take some time to adjust.”

Brian’s eyes were like slits.

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.