"How did it go?" Captain Stanley asked. The doctors had finished the surgery and gone over to the mess tent to grab a bite to eat during the lull. Dixie had stayed with Mike to monitor his vital signs in case of any complications. Despite the casual question, Hank was very concerned for his engineer. He'd come to rely on Mike Stoker during the years they'd worked together. He liked the younger man and didn't want to have to deal with breaking in a new guy.
"We got the wound cleaned up and we've hit him up with antibiotics. Barring any unforeseen complications and further infection he should be fine. It's a good thing you got him here when you did though, another few days and gangrene would have set in. Your engineer might have lost his leg," Dr. Brackett informed them.
All the members of the group were seated at a table, trays of food sitting in front of them. Chris was pouring over the Red Cross list, desperately trying to find her brother's name. Her food was sitting untouched on her plate. For the first time in her life she wasn't hungry
"Is he there?" Roy asked even though he knew the answer from the expression on her face. The doctors had agreed to let him out of the hospital tent so long as he agreed to take it easy and get as much rest as he could for the next couple of days. Not wanting to be separated from the others, he'd have agreed to just about any demand they'd made.
"No," Chris answered, not looking up from the sheets of paper. She kept looking at them over and over again in the vain hope that maybe his name would magically appear. Reality didn't apply at the moment.
"I'm sure he's fine," Johnny tried to assured her. "Eat your food. We'll find the showers and clean clothes once you're done."
"I'm not feeling very hungry right now," Chris responded. She knew the paramedics were trying to look after her but that didn't really stop the pain burning in her heart at the thought of her brother being dead. It hurt so badly that it was hard to breathe.
"I know you're not but you have to eat. We've been surviving on C Rations for two days now, you need real food," Roy said.
"You call this real food?" Chet griped from the end of the table. He was spooning around his mashed potatoes.
"Hey, it's hot and you didn't cook it. That makes it real food in my books," Johnny replied. To prove his point, he scooped up a wad of the gluey white substance and flung it at the curly haired Irish man.
"Hey!" Chet exclaimed as the spoonful of mutilated potatoes hit him in the head. Their gluey nature continued as he tried to get it out. "Thanks a lot, Gage."
"You're welcome," Johnny said, an evil grin on his face.
"Would you two grow up?" Marco asked. He was still worried about his friend. The escapades of the two were starting to really irritate him.
"Where's the fun in that?" Johnny asked.
