Missing (15 page)

Chapter 30

     Rescue Two wasn’t the only one chasing smoke. Bryan, running through the woods near the compound, had no clue that the helicopter crash site had been found. That news had only been broadcast on the Army’s encrypted frequency, and the radio bouncing on his belt as he ran was eerily silent.

     Except for the thumping sound it made as it banged against his hip with each step he took.

     A hundred yards before, the forest in front of him began to grow hazy. The smoke was so widely dispersed by that point that it was almost colorless.

     As it grew thicker and more yellow, Bryan reasoned he must getting closer to its source. He was on the right course.

     And even when the smoke canister went empty, he stayed on that course.

     Until the forest opened up into a small clearing, perhaps fifty feet across.

     The clearing contained little more than mountain grass and a couple of large boulders, which probably rolled there from Salt Mountain when the mountain was formed millions of years before.

     The only other thing the clearing contained was considerably newer than that.

     Two tall men in woodland camouflage uniforms, standing and peering down at a bloody spot on the ground and a loose bundle of wilted and dying flowers.

     They turned to face him when they heard his footsteps.

     Through heavy breaths, Bryan demanded of them, “Where is she? Where is my wife?”

     The taller of the two, a private, merely shrugged his shoulders.

     The other man said, “Sir, my name is Staff Sergeant Halsted. The blood trail appears to lead off to the east. I’ve been instructed to tell you that a bloodhound is on the way and will be here soon. If you’ll wait until the dog arrives, we can…”

     Bryan cut him off.

     “Screw that!”

     Bryan brushed past them, looking at the ground and following the drops of dried blood back into the forest on the east side of the clearing.

     The tall soldier, the private, started to say something.

     “But…”

     It was almost like he took offense to someone disobeying his sergeant’s request.

     The sergeant told the private, “It’s okay. Neither one of us would have waited either.”

     He took out his radio and called into the control center.

     “Search Control, this is Sergeant Halsted. The husband is back in the woods, following the blood trail. Please advise.”

     “Sergeant Halsted, we have the coordinates for your present location. The dog handler just checked in. He’s about an hour away. Wait there with your man until the handler arrives and go with him.”

     It was almost too much for Sami. For the better part of two days three people she loved had fallen off the face of the earth. Now they were close to finding all three of them.

     But in what condition?

     She was overwhelmed, exhausted and near her breaking point.

     Karen was standing next to Sami and felt her body start to rock as Sami’s knees went weak.

     “Here, honey, let’s get you somewhere where you can sit down.”

     Mark took the cue and grabbed Sami’s other arm. They led her to an easy chair, and Karen went off to get a cool compress.

     “Mark,” Sami said. “What if they’re all dead? Maybe we’re better off with them just missing. Then we can at least pretend they’re all right. Missing doesn’t have to be permanent.

     “Death… death is final.”

     Mark held her hand.

     “Wipe those tears, girlie. Nobody is dead. They can’t be. They just can’t.”

     The minutes ticked by.

     The wait was agonizing.

     Finally, an update over the Army’s radio.

     “Kelly Ops, this is Rescue Two. We have Hilo One’s wreckage in sight. Setting down in a clearing roughly one hundred meters to the southwest. Request Air Evac unit set down in larger clearing, due west of us, on the edge of the debris field.”

    Mark cringed when he heard the word “wreckage.” For the first time, his worst fears were realized. The chopper hadn’t landed with mechanical problems. They weren’t just waiting for someone to come and repair their aircraft. They went down hard. And that meant people were hurt.

     Or worse.

    “Roger, Rescue Two. Mercy One is already enroute, with an ETA of twelve minutes. Please stabilize the survivors and provide their status as soon as possible.”

     “Roger.”

     Lt Col Weiss turned to the group to explain what was going on.

     “Rescue Two is a search team helicopter. The crew is trained to stabilize the injured and to prepare them for transport. They’re not unlike paramedics. They could also do the transport if they had to, but their aircraft is not specifically deigned to air evac patients.

     “By the time the rescue team performs their triage and gets the patients ready for transport, the Mercy bird will be on the ground. Their bird is in essence a flying hospital. Although their main mission is transport, they’ll be able to administer the first steps in the emergency medicine process enroute. It’ll give the ER people a step up on what they have to do.”

     Karen asked, “Transport where? Where will they take the injured people?”

     “To San Antonio. The Wilford Hall Medical Center was the Air Force’s biggest trauma hospital before Saris 7 hit the earth. It’s up and running again, on a limited basis. The best combat surgeons and nurses in the country are stationed there now.

     “And to a large degree, combat wounds aren’t too dissimilar from crash wounds. Lots of trauma, lots of internal injuries. Those people at Wilford Hall are the best at what they do, and they’re exactly the kind of people we need to treat your injured.”

     Mark asked, “How soon will we know whether they all made it?”

     “Soon. Very soon. It’ll be part of the initial assessment they’ll give us in just a few minutes. The hospital will have to know how many wounded are coming and the nature of their wounds, so they can have the proper surgical teams standing by.”

     The lounge fell deathly silent. All of the workers stopped what they were doing and gathered around the radio set.

     The next bit of news would determine all of their actions in the coming hours.

     They had as much interest in the coming report as the people in the compound.

     They just didn’t have as much riding on it.

     The minutes seemed like hours.

     Finally, a different voice came over the radio’s speakers.

     “Kelly Ops, this is Rescue Two, we’re transporting two survivors. Patient one is female, approximately thirty years of age. Lower body trauma with multiple open and closed fractures. Blunt force trauma to the abdominal area, internal bleeding. Hypotensive, barely responsive and alert, no apparent head trauma. Hypovolemic shock.

     “Patient two is approximately thirty years of age and male. Patient lost lower left leg, below the knee. Self-applied tourniquet times approximately twenty hours, no loosening since application. No visible signs of clotting. Extensive trauma to right leg, upper and lower, with multiple open and closed fractures. Patient is alert and responsive and does not appear to be in shock.

     “Both patients have been triaged and are being strapped into Mercy One at the present time. Estimated liftoff is four minutes.”

     Kelly Ops asked the question that was on everyone’s mind.

     “Roger, Rescue Two. Are there any uninjured survivors?”

     At the compound, everyone within earshot held their breath.

     “Negative.”

Chapter 31

     After almost a full day of no activity at all, the crash site was now busier than a hive of bees. But Hannah was barely aware of it.

     The medics gently moved Joel several feet away from Hannah so they could work on both patients at the same time.

     Recognizing that Joel was a crew member from the torn and bloody flight suit he wore, they asked him, “Did anybody else make it?”

     “No. Everybody else is dead.”

     He didn’t want to leave Hannah’s side. Even though help had arrived… help infinitely more qualified than he was to care for her, Joel still felt responsible for her.

     And, the truth was, he felt something else for her too. As illogical as it was, he felt something akin to love for her.

     Not the kind of passionate love a man normally feels for a woman, although he enjoyed teasing her and making her blush. No, this was something different. The kind of love two people feel for one another when they’ve been to hell and back together and survived.

     Of course, he’d never tell Hannah how he felt.

     Then again, maybe he would.

     But first she’d have to survive.

     Hannah was barely responsive. She tried to answer the corpsman’s questions, but had trouble even remembering her own name.

     She was in very bad shape.

     Part of the triage process involved assessing each patient to determine which was more critical, and to focus on their needs first. There was nothing personal about it. Joel knew how the game was played, so when the medics determined he was in no danger of dying anytime soon, and shifted all their efforts to Hannah, Joel understood and didn’t take it personally.

     In fact, he preferred it that way.

     As they huddled around her, tending to her fractures and placing IV and PIC lines into her veins and giving her drugs and saline, they kept asking her questions, trying to keep her awake.

     “Tell me if this hurts, Hannah.”

     “Hannah, squeeze my hand if you can hear me.”

     “Hannah, do you know your blood type?”

     “You’re going to be fine, Hannah.”

     “This may not be what you want to hear, Hannah, but we’re going to take you for a chopper ride. We’ll make sure this one arrives safely.”

     Despite all their comments and questions, though, Hannah barely said a word.

     Until they lifted up the stretcher to carry her to the waiting air evac helicopter.

     Then, in a mild panic, she called out “Wait. Where’s Joel? Please don’t leave Joel behind. He saved my life. He’s my hero.”

     Joel couldn’t help but smile.

     She did care after all.

     “I’m right here, Hannah. I’m okay. You go with these guys and I’ll see you later.”

     But no one was leaving Hannah’s hero behind.

     As soon as the medics delivered Hannah to Mercy One, they left her there to be strapped in by the crew and went back for Joel.

     They determined that his injuries, while devastating and agonizing, were not life threatening. Except for the tourniquet Joel had placed on his lower leg the day before. It hadn’t been loosened for almost a full day, which presented a good chance that blood clots had formed.

     Life-threatening blood clots.

     But that could be treated in the chopper, on the way to Wilford Hall.

     There was, therefore, no reason to delay the flight any longer.

     Joel wouldn’t die if he wasn’t treated on the spot.

     Hannah, however, might very well if the medics wasted any more time.

     It was really a no-brainer.

     As the crews of Rescues One, Two, Three and Four began scouring the area around the crash site and placing little red flags next to each piece of human remains they found, Mercy One lifted off and plotted a fast course to Wilford Hall Medical Center.

     The Rescue operation was now over.

     The recovery operation was only now beginning.

Chapter 32

     Sami had to ask the question, but it summoned every bit of courage she had in her body to do so. Because she knew that the wrong answer would destroy her.