The Independents (45 page)

Samantha met her on the porch
,
and both of them hurried through the gardens and onto Main Street.
Several of the townspeople had already poured out of their houses and were staring or pointing at the sky.
Terri followed the
ir gaze and spotted
the airplane in a low, slow circle coming around for another pass. The plane lined up with Main Street and began to descen
d
about a mile outside of town
. The pilot
touched
down on the blacktop and
bounded once
before
the aircraft was
rolling
on the ground
,
heading for
downtown Meraton.
Several people gathered on each side of the street
as
the small cra
ft idled to a stop in front of T
he Manor hotel. Samantha yelled, “David!” and
ran
to the side of the plane as the propeller
flopped
its last few rotations. Terri walked around to the passenger side and her face showed disappointment when a young girl opened the door. Bishop wasn’t with them. David hugged his siste
r and immediately updated
Terri, “Bishop’s okay. He said to tell you he was heading to Bliss and that he loved you very much.” Terri perked up at the news and said, “He’s okay though? Are you sure he’s okay?”

David smiled
.
“The last I saw of him, he was riding a motorcycle off into the desert.” Terri smiled at the thought of Bishop getting to ride a
motorcycle; he was always telling her how bad
ly
he wanted one
. David felt a small pang of guilt over leaving out the part about
Bishop being
chase
d. He’d have to tell
Sarah not to mention it.

Everyone was
sitting
around
the pool when the doctor arrived. He was smiling for the first
time in several days.
After the equipment had been unloaded from the plane, everyone had waited outside of the room while the operation on the Colonel was in progress. Several hours later, an exhausted physician had opened the door and announced it would be
some time
before he could make a prognosis. The patient was still alive, but barely.
The periodic reports had been the same until now.

The doctor
strode
over to the kids and reported, “I think your grandpa is going to make it
,
guys. He’s one tough man
,
and his vital signs are still strong after the surgery. David, you can tell him later you helped save his life.”

David was obviously distracted by Sarah Beth’s efforts to get a winter tan, without even taking his eyes off of her he replied,
“So the machine helped?”

“Oh yes it did. You also managed to bring back some stronger antibiotics than anything we had here. I actually can practice medicine now.” The doctor then turned to Terri, “I expect you to show up this afternoon for your first prenatal examine young lady.”

Terri saluted and smiled.

Epilogue

(From the upcoming novel
Hold
ing Their Own III: Pedestals of
Ash
)

Bishop was tired of pushing the dirt bike. He had run out of gas two hours ago and debated whether to leave the machine in the middle of the desert or push it
in hope of finding some fuel. He estimated he had traveled about fifty miles north
west out
of Alpha when the sputtering engine had finally shut down. The Ghouls had given chase in their pickup trucks until one of the 4x4’s had lost a wheel in a blind rut
,
and the other had been discouraged by Bishop’s M4 carbine.

He wondered if David and Sarah had landed safely, but decided to clear
the
worry from his mind. There was nothing he could do about it
,
and quite frankly
,
he was in a bit of a pickle right now.
He glanced
around at
the
terrain and shook his head.
“How do I g
et myself into these situations?
”
He could see the southern tip of the Davis Mountains to the west
;
and far off in the distance, the Glass Mountains to
the
east. The high desert
valley surrounding him
was practic
ally devoid of vegetation
,
and the
day was already showing signs of being
dangerous
.
Even though it was mid-winter, w
est Texas still experienced some very hot days. Bishop wasn’t concerned so much about the heat, but the lack of humidity in the air. On
dry
days like today, it wasn’t perspiration
or heat that caus
ed
dehydration -
it was
breathing
.
The humidity had to be less than
twenty
percent
right now
,
and that meant the mandatory act of
exhaling
air
literally sucked the
moisture
out of his
body
,
and h
e
was out of
water.