The Reaper Plague by David VanDyke

Author:David VanDyke [VanDyke, David]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: BluA
Published: 2013-12-27T00:00:00+00:00

-25-

Repeth woke to the kindly but grave face of one of the nurses – Tech Sergeant Ronall, if she remembered correctly. Her mind was clear and the IV dripping nutrient solution into her arm reassured her, I’ll be fine.

“She’s awake.” Ronall took his hand from her forehead and stood up.

Jill felt there was something off about his expression, something odd for a nurse taking care of a live Eden, by definition a patient with a positive prognosis. She looked around the room, presumably inside the converted clubhouse, and spotted a more welcome figure. “Rick.”

He stepped forward after Ronall nodded his permission, sat down in a chair pulled close. He took her hand. “Hey kiddo. How you doing?”

She looked at him quizzically. “Just fine, like always. I’m alive, so I’ll heal up. What? You don’t look so sure.”

His eyes were serious. “Jill, you’re not as fine as you think. You have a .308 round in your spine and you’re not moving for a while.”

“Ugh.” She tried to wiggle her toes and failed. Her head slumped on the pillow. “That sucks. Okay, so what next?”

“They’re prepping a surgical suite. But we don’t have any real surgeons, just a couple of GPs and nurses. They’re worried. They want to wait for an experienced cutter off one of the ships, but the Navy isn’t too hot to fly a helo this far inland. Too many nuts taking potshots at them, from what I hear. And Fredericksburg is unfriendly.”

“Yeah, I noticed.” She squeezed Rick’s hand. “Just tell them to do it. I’ll heal. Worst case and they screw it up, someone else can repair it later. Play the odds. I can’t be lying around here like this. Ronall, you tell them to do it just as soon as they can. Go in straight, get the thing out. I’ve been shot seventeen times and I’ve always come through.”

“Seventeen, huh?” The nurse seemed impressed.

The door opened suddenly and Swede barged in. She almost didn’t recognize him without his face paint and Ghillie. He nodded at her, glanced at Rick and their clasped hands. “You okay there, Top? So this is the lucky guy, huh?”

Rick let go of her to stand up, holding out a friendly hand. The two men stared at one another until Swede stuck out his too. Rick looked a little sick as the Marine’s paw crushed his.

Swede let go and turned to Jill. His manner dismissed Rick as inconsequential. Apparently her fiancé had been found wanting. “Just thought I’d check in on you, Master Sergeant,” he said pointlessly.

“I’m good, Swede. Thanks for getting me out of there. Those people are Onesies. I could see it in their eyes and on their skin.”

“Yeah, well, once we brought a .50 cal up they ran off like chickens. Drove the Humvee right up to where you fell. We recovered a couple of their bodies for the docs to look at.”

“Speaking of chickens…did you notice anything funny about the barrier guards?”

Swede looked quizzically at her, shrugged.

“You see any

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.