Blink of an Eye: Beginnings Series Book 8 (74 page)

Standing and talking to Joe
, Frank felt the smack to the back of his head. “Ow.” He turned around Ellen stood there.

“
Thanks a lot, Frank. Talk about embarrassing me.”

“
I didn’t want those guys to see your legs.”

“
So you stick your head between them?”

Frank laughed
. “You love me.” He pulled her into him. “And I would like to dance with you.”

“
I’ve been dancing all night.”

“
But not with me so ... Tough, you’ll dance now.” Frank cupped her hand. “This turned out really nice. You ladies did a great job.”

“
Thanks.” Ellen went silent for a second. “Frank, I have to tell you something.”

“
What’s that.”

“
I feel bad. I ... I had a couple sips of wine.”

“
So.”

“
No.” Ellen shook her head. “Not ‘so’. I’m supposed to help you. That wasn’t helping you.”

“
El, I don’t expect you to change your lifestyle, just because I changed mine.”

“
No, you shouldn’t.” Ellen moved into him. “But I want to. I have to. Especially if I’m going to be with you.”

“
Are you?” Frank asked very seriously.

“
What did I tell you?”

“
Ellen.” Frank stopped moving in their dance. “What you did for me this past week, I’ll never forget it. Never. I don’t think I’ve ever felt closer to you.”

“
How about now?” Ellen tugged him into her.

“
See, just about now.” Frank lowered his head to her ear. “Just about right now ...” he whispered. “Is about the time I want to sneak you out of here and take you home.”

“
And do what?” Ellen asked, getting lost in his soft voice.

“
Make ... love ...” Frank pressed his lips teasingly to her ear. “To you.”

Ellen
’s eyes rolled back. “Kiss me.”

Frank slid his lips across her cheek and to her mouth
, then stopped.

“
What’s wrong?”

Frank looked around
. They really weren’t noticed. Everyone was doing their own thing. “I know this isn’t about us. But ... I have something to ask you.”

“
What’s that?”

Frank breathed almost nervously
, released her hand and then reached into his pocket. After a moment, eyes connected with Ellen, he rejoined their hands in a dance.

Ellen stopped when she
felt the oddness of it. She pulled her hand from Frank, and brought it up to her view. She looked at her hand, then to Frank. “Frank,” she spoke out of breath, looking again her finger. The finger that moments earlier, was bare now wore the wedding band she had given back to Frank nearly a year before.

“
El.” Frank held her hand. “All those years behind us, all those years, El, they can be nothing compared to the years we could have ahead of us. We’ve messed up. We’ve broke. But no one has ever stood by my side like you. I want you there for the rest of my life. I need you there. And if I’m gonna be holding hands with you at eighty years old, then I want the hand I hold to be my wife’s.” He brought her hand to his mouth and kissed it. “Be my wife again, El. Say you’ll be my wife again. Say we’ve learned from our mistakes.” His hand spread across her. “Say you’ll marry me again.” Frank’s nose brushed against hers, his mouth was open in a hover over hers. “Say yes.”

Before he kissed her
, before Ellen answered, Frank pulled her close again in the dance, as he did, Ellen whispered in his ear, her answer of ‘yes’.

The wedding was a bright thing that Beginnings needed. It was a sign of a new start, and a new life for so many. Unfortunately, unknown to everyone, the next day would be far from the picture perfect happy world that existed for that moment in the Social Hall.

Had Frank not been so close he wouldn
’t have heard it and felt it so strongly. It screamed out to him and he barreled to the noise, blasting open the door to the Tracking Station. Frank’s eyes widened, the synchronized beeping, the flashing lights from the monitor screens, the panicked look on Mark’s face, it all made his heart pound. “What’s going on?”

“
The system is working, Frank.”

“
They’re coming?” Frank prepared his radio.

“
Moving in steady from the northwest at approximately eight miles per hour.”

“
What’s the distance?”

Mark looked at the screen his voice shook
. “Two point nine miles.”

“
How many?”

“
Frank ...”

“
How many, Mark?” Frank asked stronger.

“
God, Frank ...”

“
Mark! How many!” Frank blasted him.

“
Computer is tallying ... Four hundred and twenty-one.”

“
Fuck!” Frank’s hand slammed down. “Tower this is Frank. I need a three-one signal on the horn, hit it now, this is not a drill. Keep it peered northwest we got em coming in large masses.” Frank switched to the ‘all call’ channel, waited for the horns to start then gave everyone that extra second to switch. “Mark, I need you here. Monitor this for me I’ll check back for distance. Where are we now?”

“
Two point six miles.”

Frank backed out the station door
. And headed toward his jeep by his office, calling out as he ran. “Robbie. I need our birds in the air now. All three get them up fast. Robbie, you have fire, Johnny has gas and John will use Dan as a gunner and lay rapid fire on them. I’ll square away perimeters and town and meet you in the air. Do not hesitate. Do not wait for me. Take them out and take them out hard. Someone give me a copy.” Frank jumped in his jeep.

“
Copy, Frank.” Robbie came back. “My ETA to the hangar is about three minutes.”

“
Make it in two, Robbie.” Frank turned over the jeep and screeched it. “Squads One through Six suit up near the field house hatch, squad leaders get your teams in position, stay low and ready. I’ll send back-up as soon as we clear town. Cole, copy me.”

“
Copy, Frank.”

“
Dad, I need you at Armory. I need every single available male. Everyone whether they are reserve or not. I need them suited up.”

Joe spoke over the radio
. “I’m right at Armory now.”

“
Get the town clear, make them clear the town. Get our tunnel leaders down there with them. Stress to the women that this is not a drill.” Frank turned sharp toward Armory. “Mark, what’s our distance.”

“
Two point two, Frank.”

“
We’re running low on time.” Frank saw Armory before him. The loud horns blasted and Frank looked at his watch counting the seconds until he had his choppers in the air. He screeched the jeep to a sideways stop and jumped from it running into help out Joe.

<><><><>

Three long sirens followed by one short one. Ellen and Dean, in the eastern wing of the clinic, the wing never used, worked in a makeshift operating room on the John Doe. Keeping him distant and contained from everyone.

Ellen raised her head to the sirens
. “Dean.”

Dean
’s eyes peered over his face mask as his hands worked in the back of John Doe. “It’s a three-one, Ellen. Get the hell out of here and head to the tunnels. It’s real.”

“
Oh my God.” Ellen breathed heavily.

“
Go.”

“
No.”

“
Ellen. Go,” Dean ordered strongly.

“
I’m not leaving you. We can finish this up faster together than alone. I’m staying.”

Dean didn
’t have time to argue. He tried to block out the horns that blasted at them and he continued to operate. “Just a little bit longer.”

<><><><>

It was a like an assembly line, the passing down of weapons and artillery down the line of waiting men ... All the way to the last one, he would take his weapon and hit his post. Frank barked out orders as they moved rapidly. “Squads Seven through Nine, scrap town, hit the front gate. Squads Ten and Eleven you are our center town patrol, the rest of you men, when town is clean, move up the back gate and support the lines.” Frank watched the line of men dwindle. “Dad, I’m headed in to move people.”

“
I’ll finish here, Frank.”

“
Then you head to the tunnels.” Frank pointed. “Don’t waste time!” Frank charged from Armory. “Mark, distance.”

“
One point eight miles.”

“
Robbie, where we at.”

“
Loading up, give us another minute.”

Frank rounded the bend
, he could hear through the loud horns, the confusion on the street. He saw Henry already armed, moving people about. “Henry.”

“
Yeah, Frank?”

“
Get your ass in the tunnel. You’re number one tunnel leader.”

“
Make someone else, Frank. I’m fighting.”

“
No,” Frank said strongly, trying to hurry people along. “I need you there. For the sake of the community and for my family. Do this, Henry. Don’t fight me on this.”

Henry swayed his head
. “All right. But let me help a few more people.”

“
Two minutes,” Frank told him then looked to the clinic and saw the wheeling out of patients. “Cole, how are our front lines?”

“
Secure.”

“
Jeff, front gate lines?”

“
Secure,” Jeff came back.

“
Robbie?”

“
I’m climbing in now.”

Frank
watched the clinic doors close then turned to see the last person go down the tunnel. “Tower.” Frank gave a thumbs-up to Henry as he lowered himself down. “Silence the horn. I wanna hear our birds.” The winding down of the horns brought quiet to the streets. “Gentlemen, all is clear in town, let’s move it out ... Robbie, I’ll join you shortly.” He listened as he ran back to the jeep. Just as Frank heard the chopper noise he heard something else. Whistles. High pitch, six of them, loud and fast. “We have incoming! Hit the deck!” Frank yelled, listening to them near, waiting for the explosion. And an explosion, never happened.

With the fading sounds of the helicopter came the frightening sound of something else
. It caused his heart to literally stop beating and all movement on that street ceased as everyone looked up.

Pop
... Pop ... Pop.

With the slight
hissing sounds erupting, so did a thin steam among the town of Beginnings. It hovered over them like a cloud of death. It was.

“
Gas masks!” Frank ordered out and then called on his radio. “Henry, have them put the masks on down there.” Frank threw on his gas mask. “They hit us ...” Frank spoke gut wrenching and with pain. “They hit us with it.” Frank charged for his jeep in anger, his fist clenched in frustration. “No. No. No!” he cried out, then called his men to move out again in case the SUTs stormed the front gate. “Robbie, blast the fuck out of them. Show no mercy. Give them all we got.” Frank flung off his gas mask in his battle adrenaline and marched to his jeep. His mind raced. All of his work, all of his front line of defense preparations went out the window when the fog cloud was dropped on Beginnings. No amount of defense would have stopped the hit. “Henry. Tell me she’s there.”

“
Frank,” Henry called back. “She’s not.”

“
Henry, check again.”

“
Frank, the kids are all here. Ellen is not.”

Frank closed his eyes
, he spun to send someone back to find her and when he did, he heard another incoming whistle. With his heart pounding he realized it couldn’t be more gas they were sending in. It had to be something else. A single mortar. But to take out what? With the revelation of the mortar came the revelation that if they hit them with the virus, what would be one way to secure that Beginnings would not beat it. They could simply do that, by taking out ... the clinic. With a spinning zoom into the clinic, Frank heard the close range of the descending shell and he watched in horror as it landed with a bellowing, ground rumbling explosion and he saw the massive mushroom cloud of fire erupt behind the clinic. “Ellen.” His heart dropped.

Ellen
’s body with Dean hovered in a protection and in a loss of stance when they felt the violent jolting of the ground. Plaster fell amongst their backs as they shielded the John Doe.

“
Ellen, get out.” Dean’s fingers touched in the region of the delicate spinal cord.

“
We’re almost done.”

“
Please get out.”

“
You can’t move him, Dean. I won’t leave.” Her eyes widened. The smell of it caught her attention first, then the bright sight if it. Fire. The entire wall of the makeshift operating room became engulfed in flames. “Dean, hurry.”

“
I’m getting there.”

“
Dean.”

“
Get ready.” Dean kept working.

Ellen placed the IV bag on the cart getting ready to help Dean wheel him out
. She could feel the heat of the powerful flames burning so close to her. The fire crept up the wall and to the ceiling, crawling at them, like a snake in the grass.

“
Ready and ... Now!” Dean dropped his instruments and gripped the cart, pushing it with Ellen to wheel the patient through the door.

Had Ellen not stopped at the startling sound of the loud crack
, she wouldn’t have had to jump back in order to avoid being hit when a beam from the ceiling came crashing down separating her from Dean. The flames shot from the portion of the ceiling that fell to the floor and Ellen stood looking so helpless at Dean on the other side trying desperately to figure out a way to get her.

She turned around to look behind her and to the small
, too small, window there. Ellen could see the rushing water against the window pane. It told her that help was out there, but as Ellen stood trapped, she had to wonder if they could put the fire out that surrounded her, before it got too late.

<><><><>

“We need more water power!” Frank barked out looking toward the eastern wing of the clinic that began to engulf with flames. “Robbie, I’ve been delayed. The clinic was hit.”

Robbie
’s voice was nearly buried in the sounds of gunfire and explosions. “We’re good up here, Frank.”

“
Mark, how are we looking.”

“
Numbers dwindling, Frank, looks as though we got a pack still moving.”

“
Where are they?”

“
Point nine miles.”

Frank bit his lip and twitched his head in disgust
. “Cole, get ready. They’re heading your way.”

“
Copy, Frank. We’re on it,” Cole yelled back.

“
You, you, and you.” Frank pointed to men as he reached for a hose to help out with the fire. “Back gate move it! Cole, you got squads headed up and I’m sending more your way.” As Frank lifted the hose he saw Henry running to him. “Henry!” Frank shouted at him. “You are not to be up here. Get down there in case we have to evacuate!”

“
I can’t, Frank.” Henry sounded distraught. “Andrea just told me. Ellen and Dean are in the clinic. They’re operating on John Doe and for fear of the virus they’re in ...” Henry looked at the smoke coming from the clinic. “Oh God, the east wing.”

Frank dropped the hose and ran to the back of the building where his men not only tried to put the fire out
, but hold it back from spreading any farther. In his horror, through the shimmering of smoke and rippling water effects, he saw Ellen pounding on that window even too tiny for her to squeeze out. Her mouth was open as she screamed something Frank could not hear. Then her hands went flush to the glass and Frank knew she saw him. “Oh my God.” Without thought or hesitation he took off to the front of the clinic. “Henry, get a team and get them inside. Hurry.”

Blasting through the front glass doors
, Frank raced down the smoke filled hallways of the empty clinic. As he turned the first bend, he could hear Dean shouting back and Ellen’s un-interpretable response. Rounding the bend to the long hall of the east wing, the smoke got thicker. “Dean!”

“
Frank,” Dean spoke his name in a relief. “I can’t get to her.”

“
Frank!” Ellen cried out. “Frank, help me!”