Redemption trilogy book.., p.23
Redemption Trilogy (Book 2): Penance,
p.23
I’m sorry, Meg. I’m so sorry I couldn’t do more right then. If you’re still alive…
He couldn’t let himself hope like that. Whatever chance he had of saving Meg’s life, he knew it was crazy to think he’d ever see her alive again.
Matty appeared at the corner, wheeling a stretcher down the road. Jo stood, holding her injured arm close against her chest. She steadied herself on her feet and walked to meet Matty halfway. Jed kept an eye out, still dreading the hit he wouldn’t hear coming. He watched them come back up the street together, jogging beside the stretcher like they were characters in one of those hospital shows.
Except this is real, and they’re not actors.
Jo and Matty stopped beside Jed. He stood aside as they lowered the stretcher and lifted Sergeant G, with Matty doing most of the work. They slid her on and Matty tightened two straps to hold her legs and chest still. The other straps were too ripped up to be useful, but Matty tied them in a knot over Sergeant G’s chest. He and Jo raised the stretcher together, making sure it stayed steady on the uneven ground.
“Got Reeve’s tags,” Matty said to Jed. He pulled two sets of the slender chains out of his pocket. “Mahton’s, too.”
Jed accepted them, put them in his pocket, and turned around to look at their path ahead. The riverside drive stretched into darkness, winding along the edge of the dead city like a failed suture. Here and there, Jed could make out debris, vehicles, and bodies that spilled off the roadway and into the water.
“The boat’s supposed to be up this way. Let’s move out.”
Jo gave him an Errr and they all set off at a trot, with Jed quietly damning Tucker’s memory as they left the dead col-lab behind them.
***
The boat was at a covered pier half a mile up the road. They wheeled Sergeant G the whole way on a footpath that ran along the riverside, dodging carefully around rubble and corpses that littered the area. At the pier they had to navigate around bodies of dead sucker faces and the people they’d killed before the chemical bombs came down.
Graying vines crawled over the pier roof, making Jed think of the sucker faces and the way they would scramble and slink along every surface like a swarm of ants that would kill you as soon as look at you.
And so many had died to get him to this point.
Every step made Jed wish he’d done better by the people around him. He couldn’t stop thinking about times when he hadn’t aimed well enough or been fast enough or alert enough to stop someone getting hurt or killed.
But you got there for Sergeant G. We found the boat and now we can get the hell out of this city. I don’t know where we’ll go, but anywhere has to be better.
The boat was a long sport fisher type with an open cabin. Stacks of boxes and cases of water lined the walls. Jed let Jo and Matty get Sergeant G into the vessel. They had to move slow because of Jo’s arm, but they managed by dropping one end of the stretcher and sliding her down head first. Jo controlled her movement from above while Matty caught her shoulders and brought her onto the boat.
Jed snapped his attention back to his surroundings and scanned the pier for signs of the monsters. The vines hung on the pier cover, winding tight around the poles supporting the roof and drooping from above. Nothing moved in the still early night air. For a moment, only the steady beat of the water against the boat’s hull told Jed he was still alive.
Sergeant G was safely on board, and Jo was with her. Matty came back to offer Jed a hand onto the craft. He turned away from the pier, climbed aboard, and took a seat next to Sergeant G. She was breathing steady. Her eyes were closed, but she was conscious. She muttered a weak Thanks as he settled himself near her.
“I’ll get us into the water,” Matty said, moving to the console.
The motor coughed at first, then grumbled into life. Jed cast them off and then they were on the water, leaving New York behind them and heading toward the East River.
— 35 —
Jed sat on his ass, with his back against a stack of boxes on the port side. He stared at the deepening night, watching it for any sign of threat. But he knew he was too numb and exhausted to stand much less fight back against anything that came their way.
Matty pushed the boat at a good pace. New York vanished into the darkness behind them as they came around Randall’s Island. Jo had laid down beside a stack of boxes and was snoring lightly. Jed let the night take care of itself and kept vigil over Sergeant G while Matty steered them through the dark water. The bulk of Rikers Island appeared off the starboard side, above Jo’s sleeping form. Jed looked behind them at their wake and watched the water cascade as nightfall finally came like a final note of loss.
Took our people, took our city. You took everything, even the light. But you didn’t take us.
Sergeant G’s eyes fluttered open and she instantly cried out, clutching at her side.
“Sergeant!”
Jed was next to her in a flash, looking into her eyes for some sign that she was okay. She flicked her gaze side to side and didn’t focus on him when he stared right into her eyes.
“I think she’s going into shock!”
Jo shook herself and crawled across to join him beside Sergeant G.
“She needs fluids. She’s bleeding internally. Matty, where’s our IV?”
“Bag’s right here! Top pouch!” he yelled back from the console.
Jed pitched forward and grabbed the trauma bag from beside Matty’s leg. He dragged it back to Sergeant G and opened the first pouch his hand touched on top. It had bandages and other small packets in it, but no IV.
He unzipped the top flap and grabbed at the clear bag held there by a velcro strap. He tugged the strap open and held the IV out to Jo.
“You have to do it, Jed,” Jo said, cradling her injured arm. “I can’t trust my hand to stay steady.
Jed shook with fright. He’d trained for this before, but it had been years. He knew the don’ts, but could barely remember the dos.
“Cut her sleeve open,” Jo said. “Shears are in the bag, there.” She pointed at the flap he’d pulled the IV from. Jed grabbed the shears from their strap and cut a slit in Sergeant G’s sleeve right above her elbow.
“Iodine,” Jo said, and her voice was the calmest sound Jed had heard in as long as he could remember. He reached for the bag, but it was too dark for him to make out which pouch was which.
“Pen light is in the top pouch, the first one you opened.”
Jo’s coaching settled his nerves and he breathed in and out, feeling his lungs swell first, and then shrink in a smooth rhythm. The pen light was where she said it would be. He flicked it on and found a box of iodine wipes.
“Wipe the whole area, and use more than one if you need to. We can’t risk introducing infection.”
He did as she said, cleaning Sergeant G’s arm again before he got the IV ready to go in. When he had the needle above her vein, the boat rocked in the water. He thought for sure he would miss or collapse the vein, but Jo’s even voice and confident coaching got him through the shakes.
Jed breathed in and out, steadied his hands, and laid the needle against Sergeant G’s vein. He gave a push and watched it slide under her skin. Pressure against the needle told him he was above the vein. He angled down, pushed again, and felt it slide home.
Jo told him to open the drip.
“Start it slow.”
He did, and together he and Jo held their patient steady as the boat pushed through swells in Long Island Sound. Jo soaked a bandage with a bottle of water and swabbed Sergeant G’s forehead. Jed put his hand on Jo’s shoulder and thanked her.
“Couldn’t have done it without you, Jo. Oorah.”
“Oorah, Jed. You did good.”
Sergeant G rolled her head to face him. He thought she said Errr before her eyes closed and her face went still.
“Sergeant G! Sergeant!”
“She’s good, Jed,” Jo said. “She’s breathing steady. You did it.”
Jed held the IV bag up in one hand and sat back on his ass. He looked at the woman who saved his life, and whose life he finally saved.
You did good, Jed. You did good.
***
The coastline of Long Island was a dark slice at the bottom of the sky as they pushed farther out from the city.
Lights flashed on the water ahead and Jed thought it was a nautical signal. He just didn’t know which one.
“Could be someone good, could be someone bad,” Matty said. “I’m turning our lights off and moving out of their path. Just in case.”
A loudspeaker crackled to their starboard, but they were too far to make out the message clearly.
“What’d they say?” Jo asked. “It sounded like enemy.”
Jed handed her the IV bag and picked up the 240, moving to starboard. He set the bipod on top of the boxes there, hoping he’d know for sure who they were before he needed to fire.
Matty had their lights off and was idling the engine. The loudspeaker crackled again in the darkness.
“Are you friendly? Confirm ID.”
“Sounds military to me,” Jed said. “I bet they’re okay. Get us closer, Matty.”
“You sure, Jed? That asshole we chased all over the city might’ve been military himself. That didn’t make him okay.”
“I trust these guys,” Jed said. “They sound legit. Get us closer. If they’re bad people, I’ll light ’em up.”
Matty grunted something, but he brought them around to aim toward the other vessel. As they turned, a spotlight flared and blinded Jed. Three motors roared to life in the dark water and in seconds they were surrounded.
Jed held a hand up to block the spotlight. He couldn’t see who it was, but he did see what they were sailing in. Three SOC-R craft floated in a perimeter, each with its armaments aimed in their direction.
“Friendly!” Jed shouted, lifting his other hand off the 240. “US Marines! We got wounded!”
***
The welcoming party escorted them through Long Island Sound until their motor sputtered. With help from one of the SOC-R teams, they transferred Sergeant G and the supplies from Tucker’s boat onto the other craft.
“We’re from Plum Island,” one of the Marines told Jed once they were underway. The whole crew wore protective gear, so the man’s voice was muffled, but it still had the command and confidence Jed was familiar with.
Sounds a lot like Sergeant G.
“Where’s Plum Island?” Jed asked.
“End of the sound. That’s where you’re going now. You’ll be de-conned, treated, and interviewed. If you’re lucky, they’ll give you a new uniform. If you’re unlucky, they’ll feed you.”
Jed wanted to laugh at the joke, but he couldn’t. He looked at Sergeant G, who was lying on the deck, still and calm, like she could be dead or alive. Only the steady rise and fall of her chest told him what he needed to be true. He got the other Marine’s attention and pointed at Sergeant G.
“She saved my life, man. You gotta help her. Make sure she comes through.”
“We have good doctors there. She’ll get the best she possibly can.”
Jed couldn’t let it go.
Doesn’t anybody care if she’s okay?
Jo was sitting next to him. She put a hand on his shoulder and looked him in the eye.
“You saved her life, Jed. Oorah?”
Jed thought for a moment, feeling everything they’d been through that day like a smothering weight. He watched the team of Marines crewing the SOC-R as they sped over the water.
“Hey,” he said to the one who’d spoken to him. The man stood behind a .50 cal turret. He turned to Jed and told him to get some rest.
“I will, but you gotta know—we had to leave some people behind,” Jed told him in a rush. “There’s people back there. The sucker faces have ’em. We couldn’t get everybody out.”
“Operation Liberty starts tomorrow morning. If they’re alive, we’ll find them and they’ll be safe. Now make use of that fourth point of contact, Private.”
Jed wanted to tell him the people were underground, but the guy had clearly ended the conversation, and the tone of his voice told Jed he’d already used his get out of hell free card.
As they raced through the sound toward Plum Island, Jed whispered into the night, saying a prayer for the people still in the city, and the people who had died so that he and the others could get out. Then he said a prayer for the people who would be going back tomorrow morning.
Good luck, and God bless you. The people we couldn’t get out, they’re down in the sewers and maintenance tunnels under buildings. If you see her down there…
If you see Meg, please get her out.
END OF BOOK TWO
THE STORY CONTINUES IN RESURGENCE
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About the Authors
AJ Sikes is a freelance editor and author. His short stories have been published by Fox Spirit Books and Hamilton Springs Press. Sikes is a US Army veteran, father, and woodworker. If he’s not at his desk, he’s in his shop. Or possibly dealing with whatever the children or cats have gotten into.
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Nicholas Sansbury Smith is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of the Hell Divers series. His other work includes the Extinction Cycle series, the Trackers series, and the Orbs series. He worked for Iowa Homeland Security and Emergency Management in disaster planning and mitigation before switching careers to focus on his one true passion—writing. When he isn't writing or daydreaming about the apocalypse, he enjoys running, biking, spending time with his family, and traveling the world. He is an Ironman triathlete and lives in Iowa with his wife, their dogs, and a house full of books.
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Table of Contents
Dedication
Foreword by Nicholas Sansbury Smith
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About the Authors
Sikes, AJ, Redemption Trilogy (Book 2): Penance
