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“GET DOWN!” he barked, as a strange faint whine was heard splitting the silence and Eric closed his eyes, bowing his head.
If he was about to meet his maker? It would be on his knees like a penitent man. He crossed himself and swallowed in that split second, praying for himself, his brothers, and whatever was going on with the other men in the building that were also silent now.
An explosion buffeted them, knocking Eric backwards about two feet in the air, landing flat onto his back like he was nothing.
As he lay there, knocked back from the first massive tremor that rocked them all, a gust of wind from the blast shot through the streets like a vortex between the buildings… blowing glass out above them. The only thing he could think for a moment while he tried to process what happened was one single, strange thought.
‘Get down’ meant ‘downer’… ‘further downer to the grounder’he mused numbly in a daze. Downer? Grounder? Were those even actual words?
Shaking his head and working his jaw to get his ears to pop. He wasn’t dead, but he certainly was rattled badly.
“How many fingers am I holding up?” Keyes was yelling nearby.
“Same as me,” Selkirk replied, guffawing in obvious relief before he heard another person curse aloud – and laughter surrounded them. Selkirk only had one finger up and Keyes’ mouth was in a flat line of frustration.
Eric finally sat up, his head spinning as his ear popped hard enough to cause him to wince. He met several sets of eyes in that split second, just as Talbot let out a yelp of excitement. They were alive!
“WAHOOOOOOO!”
“Shhhh,” Mitchell hissed and glanced up, over the wall. “Thank you! Medivac is here and we aren’t pinned down… Let’s go before we have a repeat, boys!”
* * *
Sometime later,Mitchell remained outside of the clinic where the group of them had taken a vigil, waiting. Eric was on his knees, exhausted, hot, tired, and using his rifle to keep him upright as he prayed for their fallen brother.
Reed was a dead man, and Eric knew it deep down inside.
An exceptionally good man, but taken far too soon,he thought painfully, swallowing as the images assaulted his mind.
The other soldier had been gray, his coloring muted and lips bloodless, as they’d hauled his broken body out of the truck from the Medivac unit and into the clinic… and unfortunately, they all saw his state of emergency.
Reed was the quiet one and had just arrived back from a trip home, smiling and talking about some girl that he’d fallen in love with. He took all the teasing easily, with grace, and…
A shudder rocked his frame in awareness.
…And it could have been any one of them,Eric realized in horror, looking at the other faces bowed in prayer. Logan yanked Perry inside to donate blood, leaving them there, before coming back out to address them for a moment.
“Are you okay, soldier?” Logan said kindly in a gentle voice as if to keep them from shattering. “I’ve been in your shoes. How are you doing up here?” he said, tapping Keyes on the helmet beside where Eric knelt.
“I’m fine sir,” Keyes said tightly in a choked manner.
“You sure?”
“I’m fine.”
Logan moved in front of him – and he met the captain’s steely gray eyes, nodding and not trusting himself to speak yet. Anything he said would not be helpful in this moment, and could only cause more harm. His thoughts were dangerously dark right now as the captain moved before Selkirk.
“Are you okay, Soldier?”
“Better than him!?” Selkirk said hoarsely, near tears. “The dude looked like Swiss cheese. See me? I’m too pretty to be ‘ventilated’…”
“Oh man,” Peña uttered under his breath, shaking his head.
“Shut up, Selkirk…” Talbot growled hotly, leaning forward and glaring at him.
“No!” Logan interrupted, holding up a hand. “We all manage to get by in different ways, and none of them are wrong. Clark is talking with a counselor, Perry is donating blood, Mitchell is heading to the chapel, and I’m going to go check on Reed again. Mark my words, tonight someone will be crying, someone else might be taking a really long shower, one of you might be screaming in your sleep, and someone else might start a fight… None of its wrong, because it’s how we keep from breaking or falling apart.”
Logan met his eyes last as he looked at the men.
