The Search (6 page)

     “Where to now, sir?”

     “Do you think your superiors will be upset if you take me to San Angelo?”

     “Sir, they told me I was at your disposal for as long as you needed me. Where is San Angelo, exactly?”

     “A hundred miles north, straight up Highway 87.”

     He put the vehicle in gear and pulled out onto the highway.

     “Do you think we’ll find her, sir?”

     “Please. I’m not much older than you are. Stop calling me sir, okay? My name is Bryan.”

     “Do you think we’ll find her, Bryan?”

     “We’ve got to. She’s my whole life. I know it sounds corny, but she’s my everything. If she weren’t by my side, I’d have given up when the world went to shit and checked out of it like a lot of other people.”

     Bryan suddenly got the sense he’d said something wrong. The driver suddenly grew silent.

     “What?”

     “My girlfriend… we were going to be married a week after Saris 7 was scheduled to collide with the earth. Then the preacher cancelled the wedding to go back to his family in Ohio. We couldn’t find another preacher to marry us, because they were so busy consoling people and trying to save their souls in case they didn’t make it.

     “So Julie and I never married. She grew very despondent and depressed. Then one night she took a whole bottle of pain pills and just went to sleep and never woke up.”

     He turned to look at Bryan.

     “She was my whole world too. So I know how you feel.”

     Bryan felt like dirt.

     “Look, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have been so insensitive. Say, what’s your name, anyway? And don’t say, ‘Private Mason.’ I mean your real name.”

     The soldier laughed.

     “Actually, my name is Bryan too.”

     “Bryan Too? That’s an odd name.”

     “You know we’re going to find Sarah, right? Somebody picked her up and took her to find help. And there are only so many hospitals and clinics left in the area. She’s got to be at one of them. And sooner or later we’ll find the right one.”

     Bryan was touched. He’d expected the soldiers who volunteered for Sarah’s search party to be cold and robotic.

     But what he found was quite the opposite. To a man, the volunteers seemed to take the search personally, and gave their all to find her. Bryan had commented to Karen about their effort and she speculated, “It’s probably because they’ve all lost someone they loved to Saris 7. They can relate to your pain and want to help you win one for a change.

     “Thanks for sticking with me on this, Bryan Too.”

     “No problem. Now, let’s get to San Angelo and find your bride.”

Chapter 11

     Hannah had been through a lot already. The shock of finding out her best friend was missing was something she didn’t need.

     “What do you mean, she never came back? She went to pick flowers all the time. Almost every day. She was learning those woods better than any one of us.”

     “I know, honey. But…”

     Mark chose his words carefully. She deserved to know about Sarah. Needed to know. But at the same time he didn’t want to cause her any more pain than he had to.

     “It appears that she was injured somehow. We found a discarded bundle of picked flowers in a clearing. And there was some blood next to them.

     “We think that she was hurt. And that maybe she became disoriented and forgot her way back. And that she went in the wrong direction, and went deeper and deeper into woods.”

     Hannah no longer had the feeding tube in her throat. But she still had the IV tube stuck in her forearm.

     She reached for it and started to pull it out, then thought better of it.

     Hannah hated to be at the mercy of others. She was a strong and independent woman.

     But some things are better left to medical professionals.

     “Mark, would you go get one of the nurses for me?”

     “Why?”

     “To remove this damn IV line so I can go home.”

     “Are you crazy? You were almost killed. You’ve got broken bones and you’re covered from head to toe in bruises. You can’t go home.”

     “I’ve got to help find her.”

     “Honey, you can’t do her a darn bit of good. Bryan and Frank have it covered, trust me.”

     A strange look came over Hannah’s face.

     “What, honey?”

     “You said Bryan and Frank. It sounds so strange, not hearing John’s name. John was always our rock. He was the one who ‘handled’ things when we had a crisis. He was the one person besides you I could always count on to never crumble, never falter.”

     “I know. But Frank Woodard is a good man too. He’ll do a good job as security manager. And in time you’ll feel just as close to him as you did to John.”

     “But he’ll never be John. John was… special in so many ways.”

     “I know, honey. But Frank is working closely with the Army. He’s probably better at that than John would have been, because Frank was once one of them.”

     “Working with the Army how?”

     “The Army sent a lot of volunteers to help search for Sarah. They combed the woods for miles and miles, and even brought in a tracking dog.

     “They finally lost her scent several miles from the compound.”

     “Oh, my God. They lost her scent?”

     “Yes, but calm down. They said that’s a good thing.”

     She looked at him intently.

     “How can that possibly be a good thing?”

     “Because they lost her scent on one of the utility roads. They said someone found her there and picked her up. To take her to get treated for her injuries.

     “When I called them this morning Frank was at the desk. He said the Army gave Bryan a vehicle and a driver and they’re making the rounds of all the area hospitals and clinics.

     “I fully expect that when I call back tonight they’re going to tell me that they found her and that she’s home again, eating chicken soup and healing. And probably getting pampered to the nines by Bryan.”

     Hannah was worried about her best friend, but was doing a pretty good job of holding herself together.

     Then she heard a voice in the doorway of her hospital room.

     “Found who? Is somebody missing?”

     Hannah turned to the sound of the voice and instantly started crying.

Chapter 12

     Mark turned to see a man in a wheelchair, sitting in the doorway with a young nurse behind him.

     Two ugly white bandages covered the stumps of his legs, just below the knees.

     “Hiya, doll. How are you?”

     Ordinarily, Mark would have made a smart aleck comment. Something along the lines of, “I’m fine, sweetheart. How are you?”

     But somehow he seemed to sense that the man wasn’t making a pass at his wife. That the man was here because he was genuinely concerned about a friend.

     He seemed to sense that this man was the mysterious Joel that the nurses had told him about. And that Hannah herself had asked about just after she woke up from her coma.

     “Oh, my God! You did make it!”

     It was all she could say through the tears.

     Joel pointed toward his missing limbs as the nurse wheeled him closer.

     “Well, most of me did, anyway.”

     She held her hands out to him and he took them in his. Then he started to tear up also.

     “I was worried about you, kiddo. I was hoping you’d find a way to pull through. I wanted to gaze into those beautiful brown eyes again. It was all I wanted to do before I died.”

     Joel looked at Mark, then back at Hannah.

     He said, “So… is this my competition?”

     Hannah replied, “This is the love of my life and my husband, Mark.”

     Joel reached up to shake Mark’s hand as Hannah went on.

     “Honey, this is the man who kept me alive for two days while we were waiting to be rescued. If he hadn’t been there, I think I would have just given up and drifted off to sleep…”

     “Don’t give me all the credit, gorgeous,” Joel interrupted. “You helped me as much as I helped you. We stayed awake long into the night, plotting your husband’s demise so we could run away together to Hawaii. Don’t you remember?”

     Hannah laughed. Then she said, “Have I told you that Mark is a professional wrestler,
and
a professional boxer,
and
used to be a hit man for the mafia?”

     “He can be all those things, as long as he has a sense of humor.”

     He eyed Mark with a sideways glance.

     “You
do
have a sense of humor, don’t you?”

     “Yeah. I’m guessing you’re the guy Hannah said kept asking her to marry you.”

     “Yes. That would be me. But to her credit she was honest and told me she was already married. So I told her I’d settle for just the honeymoon. She still didn’t bite. Silly girl. Doesn’t know what she’s missing.”

     Mark didn’t know quite what to make of Joel.

     But he liked him.

     “Thank you.”

     “For what? For trying to make out with your wife? I’m not finished yet.”

     “No. For saving her life.”

     “You don’t have to thank me, Mark. Seriously. I saw how special she was the moment I laid eyes on her. I saved her because the world would be a damn lousy place without her to brighten it up for everyone.”

     Mark caught Hannah’s eyes and said, “Well, I agree with you on that.”

     The nurse behind Joel could hold her tongue no longer.

     “If it makes you feel any better, Mr. Snyder, he’s been trying his honeymoon line on every single one of the nurses, including nurse Ratchet and myself.”

     Joel was busted, but undeterred.

     “Hey, I have no shame. What I lack in quality, I make up in quantity. And if I’m successful just ten percent of the time… well, I still get luckier than most guys.”

     Hannah tried to feign a look of sorrow.

     “Joel… you told me I was the only one who held your heart.”

     “You are, my dear. Every Tuesday from noon to sundown. Then you have to share me with others. Because after all, a guy with all this charm, charisma and good looks is just too much for one woman to have all to herself. It just wouldn’t be fair to all the other women of the world.”

     Then he lost his smile and became serious.

     “I’m glad you made it, Hannah. We went through too much together to lose you. If I had found out you didn’t pull through, I think I would have just given up.

     “But the nurses tell me you came through just fine. And you’re obviously just as beautiful as ever.”

     “I wouldn’t know. Mark won’t let them bring any mirrors in here.”

     “Trust me, gorgeous. I know ugly when I see it. And you ain’t it. Your husband, on the other hand…”

     “I’m sorry you lost your legs, Joel. I was hoping they could save at least one of them.”

     “Hey, don’t sweat it, doll. I’ve still got all the important stuff. Which brings me back to that honeymoon thing.”

     “Oh, my God,” the nurse said. “Don’t you ever give up?”

     “Hey look at her,” he said, nodding in Hannah’s direction. “If you were a guy, would you ever give up?”

     Mark didn’t feel threatened by Joel at all. But he did feel a bit like an outsider. He sensed it would be a good time to excuse himself for a few minutes.

     “Why don’t you two visit? I’m going to go to the radio room and see if they’ll let me call out and check on things back home.”