Becoming Forever (Waking Forever Series) (31 page)

“We have to move this man now
, Sergeant!” Emma shouted over the noise of nearby cannons.

S
ergeant Wilson was a short man in his late thirties. He had an overgrown mustache and his face was pock marked from what Emma had been told was a severe case of chicken pox as a child. “They’re moving through too quickly. Just stay down!”

The Confederate Army of Northern Virginia had begun a major offensive through the Strasburg, Virginia area before dawn that morning. Emma, along with other non-military personnel, had been caught in the middle of the advance. Initially told to move through the trenches and adjacent fields until she could reach the back of the line, Emma had opted instead to lend aid to the injured until the runners could retrieve them and move them back to the field hospital.

“I’m moving him, Sergeant.” Emma looked around for a runner.

“You can try
, nurse, but he’s got a good fifty pounds on you.” Wilson’s smile was smug.

Emma had never cared for the man. He was lazy, and she had caught him on more than one occasion staring at her in a sugges
tive manner. “You could help,” she yelled.

“I follow orders, and they told me to stay right -” A piercing boom tore through the trench as dirt and rock flew in every direction. Emma felt something akin to a brick wall hit her full on. Landing on her back, her ears were ringing and she couldn’t catch her breath. After a few seconds, she managed to sit up, a wave of nausea shooting through her.

Looking around Emma could see Wilson was dead. The cannon ball had landed just behind him, and propelling him forward onto the young soldier. Blood, muscle and bone were strewed about with the rocks. Smoke burned Emma’s eyes as she tried to assess her own injuries. Finding nothing more than a few cuts and bruises, she crawled toward the soldier.

Looking back and forth along the length of the trench
, she couldn’t see anyone. Then a wave of smoke cascaded over the rim of the trench, and walking through it, Emma could see a tall, dark haired man in a Union uniform. “Soldier! Over here!” Emma got to her knees, and waved the man over.

Without crouching, the man confidently made his way toward Emma. As he approached, Emma gasped. His face was black with soot, making his eyes appear to glow an iridescent blue. “Ma’am?”

Emma managed to gather her senses long enough to remember what needed to be done. “Sergeant Wilson is dead, but the man under him isn’t. I need your help getting him back to the field hospital.”

The tall soldier looked over Emma’s shoulder at the man. “Yes
, ma’am.” Stepping around Emma, the man easily pushed what remained of Wilson to the side, and effortlessly hoisted the limp soldier over his right shoulder. “Follow me.” 

Emma got to her feet
and grabbed the man’s belt loop, worried she would lose him in the smoke and confusion. Keeping her head down, she followed the man through several hundred yards of trenches, and then up onto a sprawling pasture littered with dead bodies.

“My God.” Emma looked around her. T
he waist high grass of the pasture was broken and bent under the weight of countless corpses. She struggled not to step on them as she was pulled along by the nameless man in front of her.

The cruelty and carnage that surrounded Emma took her breath away. Men lay on top of one another. The dead
were suffocating the living. Moans and cries of pain could be heard above the now distant cannon fire. Without realizing it, she had stopped walking. “Ma’am. We need to keep moving.”

Emma looked up at the soldier, who stood covered in dirt and blood. “Of course.” She was confident she could release the man’s belt loop without losing him at this point. If her bearings were right, they were only a few hundred yards from the field hospital. Approaching a line of trees that divided one pasture into another, the soldier stopped, and quickly put the unconscious man down. “Lay flat on the ground, and don’t move.”

Getting on her knees, she looked up to find the space the man had occupied empty. Scanning the tree line, she couldn’t see anything as she laid on her stomach. After a few minutes, a large dirt encrusted boot stepped inches to the right of Emma’s head. She clenched her jaw, trying to lay still. A cold hand grabbed her arm, pulling her to her feet. “It’s clear. Let’s go.”

Emma was relieved to see the soldier, but confused by the fresh blood that surrounded his mouth, and ran down the front of his throat. “Are you injured?” Emma reached for the man instinctively.

Turning away from her, he retrieved the other soldier off the ground, and began walking toward the tree line. “We need to move. It’s not much further.”

Not wanting to linger in the exposed field, Emma quickly followed the man into the tree line. After a hundred yards, they broke into another clearing, and Emma breathed a sigh of relief when she saw the three canvas tents that made up the field hospital. There were soldiers and doctors rushing back and forth as Emma looked around for Doctor Anderson. He was one of the more competent and helpful doctors she had met.

Unlike some of the male doctors who viewed the nurse’s role as more of a servant than a partner, Anderson was keen to share his knowledge with Emma, and allowed her access to the few medical journals and books he had access to.

“Ma’am, I’ll take him over to that tent, but then I have to get back.” The man looked down at the ground.

Emma reached up, and lay her hand on the man’s cheek, trying to determine where the blood on his face had come from. In spite of the humid conditions, and the effort of carrying another man nearly a half mile, the man’s skin was cool to the touch. “What’s your name?”

The most intense blue eyes Emma had ever seen looked up at her. “Thomas. Corporal Lewis Thomas, first West Virginia Volunteer infantry.”

Emma was speechless. Even covered in mud and blood, the man was beyond handsome. He was beautiful. Surprised that word came to her mind regarding a man, Emma took a step back. “Thank you for - for saving our lives.” She managed a smile.

Lewis nodded, and then walked toward the nearest tent with the limp soldier over his shoulder. “Emma! Emma, over here. We need your help.” Emma was pulled back into her harsh reality by Doctor Anderson’s voice.

Turning to see where the man was, she found him bent over an elevated wooden table, and rushed over. Laid across the table was a boy no more than fourteen years old. His hand was severed and the remaining appendage was bleeding badly. “His damn rifle backfired and blew off in his hand.” Anderson said through gritted teeth.

The right side of the boy’s face was burnt badly, and blood dripped from his ear. Emma reached for a pile of rags near the table, and began wrapping what was left of the boy’s forearm while Anderson attempted to clean the burns on his face. Emma finished with the tourniquet style bandage and grabbed an empty ammo box from under the table. Standing it on end, she propped the boy’s arm up to slow the bleeding.

“Watch that. Leave it on too long and he’ll lose the entire arm.” Anderson didn’t look up from his work.

Emma considered the doctor for a second, his thick brown hair matted to his forehead with sweat and dirt. She knew the application of the tourniquet followed by periodic loosening of the wrapping was common practice. The intent was
to avoid circulation being cut off for extended periods of time, but what Emma had witnessed was the sudden rush of blood back into the wound frequently caused the patient to go into shock, or worse to slowly bleed to death with each release of the bandage.

“Doctor, it’s been my experience that can cause more harm than it helps.” Emma made direct contact with the doctor as he looked up.

There was a slight twitch in the doctor’s left cheek. “Explain.”

Relieved Anderson didn’t immediately dismiss her, she continued. “Preventing arterial blood flow to a limb for longer than two hours
can
result in ischemia, and death of the surrounding tissue. But periodic loosening of the tourniquet, in an attempt to reduce limb ischemia, can often led to incremental blood loss and death.”

Without looking up at Emma, Anderson grinned. “Then it sounds like you just volun
teered to take that off him in two hours.”

“Yes doctor.” Emma couldn’t stop her smile as she turned to see where else her help was needed. Stepping back from the table, she ran into a woman she hadn’t realized was standing right behind her.
Her hair was a long, thick brown-auburn mane loosely tied back in a braid.  Emma then noticed her eyes.  They were an iridescent blue, like Lewis’, and like the man, this woman was beautiful. “I’m sorry, excuse me.” Emma nervously stepped around the woman.

“There’s no need to apologize. It was entirely my fault.” The woman’s voice was smooth, with a melodic m
ezzo-soprano tone. She wore a pair of blue men’s trousers cinched at the waist with a leather belt, and tucked into a pair of mud caked boots. The top three buttons of her tan shirt were open, revealing smooth, pale skin underneath.

Emma knew nurses who wore trousers. She had a pair herself, and she frequently wore them on days the field hospital was being taken down, moved, and reassembled.

Emma smiled and reached out her hand. “I’m Emma Atman. I didn’t realize we were getting a new nurse.”

Without breaking eye contact, the woman took Emma’s hand between both of hers. Her skin was unusually cool, and smooth. “Coleen Andrade, and I’m not a nurse.” Coleen looked at the man lying on the table. “I don’t have the stomach for it.” She grinned.

“I’m sorry, I assumed.” Emma felt heat rise to her face with the intensity of the woman’s stare.

Coleen released Emma’s hand. “I’m a federal intelligence operative.” S
he looked around. “I suppose it’s safe enough in the middle of a Union camp to disclose that to you.” She stepped closer to Emma, and lowered her voice. “Can I trust you, Emma?”

Coleen smelled like jasmine, and Emma was struggling to focus on the conversation. “I - I’ve heard there were women operatives, I just never thought I would meet one.”

Coleen looked at Emma’s mouth, and suggestively ran her tongue along her bottom lip before speaking. “Well, here I am. In the flesh you might say.”

The woman seemed forward to the point of being inappropriate. Emma was inclined to forgive her the indiscretion because she couldn’t pretend to know the complexities of this beautiful stranger’s life. “I would love to talk with you. About what you’re doing
, I mean.” Emma stammered, irritated Coleen was making her so nervous.

Putting her arm around Emma’s shoulder, Coleen nodded toward Doctor Anderson. “When you’re done with this, come see me. I’ve taken a tent near the northern corner of the camp.” Not waiting for Emma’s response, the woman turned and left the medical tent.

Emma swallowed, and took several cleansing breaths. She wasn’t certain she liked this woman, but she was certainly curious.

***

As Emma walked across the camp, the rain began to fall. She had finished her duties at the field hospital, and couldn’t abate her curiosity about Coleen any longer. Approaching the tent, she was surprised to see Corporal Thomas exiting. Unlike when they had last met, the Corporal’s face had been washed clean of the dirt and blood. Emma still marveled at his attractiveness, and the intensity of his eyes.

“Corporal Thomas?” Emma called after the man as he was walking away from Coleen’s tent.

The man turned, and immediately smiled. “Ms. Atman, I’m glad to see you are doing well.”

Emma blushed at the man’s attention, and immediately felt silly for it. “Thank you. How are you?”

Lewis nodded, and looked over Emma’s shoulders. “I’m good. We’re getting ready to head out on patrol.”

Emma looked at the tent. “How do you know Coleen?”

Lewis hesitated, and then cleared his throat. “She’s my cousin.”

Emma wasn’t sure she believed the man. His eyes darted back and forth between her and the ground. “That’s convenient that you should be stationed in the same camp.”

“It is.” Lewis shifted nervously from foot to foot. “Pardon me, ma’am, but I have to get going.”

“Please call me Emma, and take care of yourself.” She patted the man’s firm shoulder reassuringly.

Nodding, Lewis left, and disappeared among the myriad of tents and soldiers. Emma turned toward the tent, and let out a startled cry when she came face-to-face with Coleen. “Heavens, you scared me.”

Coleen smiled, and took Emma’s hand. “I’m sorry. That seems to be a habit of mine with you.”

Emma instantly forgot her irritation as she looked into Coleen’s concerned blue eyes. “I - I didn’t know you and Corporal Thomas were cousins.”

Coleen looked toward where the young man had just walked. “Why would you know that?”

Shaking her head, Emma stammered. “I mean, I - it’s nice the two of you are stationed together.”

“I supp
ose. Sometimes he can be a handful. He’s young, though eager to learn. You can’t ask for much more.” Coleen turned her attention back to Emma as she pulled the tent flap back. “Please, come inside before we get soaked through.”

Emma followed Coleen into the small canvas tent. There was a narrow wooden cot covered with a thin cotton blanket, a three legged stool, and a large closed steamer trunk. The tent was immaculate, and smelled of jasmine and rain. “Thank you for inviting me over. I don’t get the chance to interact with many women. We are spread among various camps, and our paths rarely cross.”