Chapter 13
A few weeks later we finally arrived at our target camp. The final enemy camp we encountered was tough to beat. Kavanough's right hand man, Evan Richards, was shot in the shoulder. The bullet tore through his shoulder and lodged into his shoulder blade. I assisted Bones and the other medic, Stitch, in removing the bullet. Richards stared in my eyes as the men worked on him. As Bones and I rehearsed, I remained silent and used nonverbal gestures to communicate. We didn't want to tip off the new team I was a female.
Evan said my eyes were the same colour as his daughter. He concentrated just on my eyes. We couldn't risk rendering him unconscious in case we had to leave camp in a hurry. The men could handle carrying him, but it was best if he could maneuver on his own. I could see him flinch a few times, but he pulled through the on site surgery. Our only concern was infection. Bones and Stitch took shifts tending to Richards.
We found a well and used the water to finally bathe. I was happy to remove the layers of mud and dirt from my body. Cal, Ram and my teammates kept watch as I bathed behind the make shift shower stall. The alpha team didn't realize I was a woman until they heard me thank Cal and Ram for guarding me.
"Who are you?" the alpha team captain demanded.
"Private Fannie Palmer, Sir." His eyes opened wide when he realized who I really am.
"Wonder Woman. The best female sniper in the Army," he added. "It's a pleasure meeting you ma'am." I didn't realize my reputation had spread so far.
'Sir," I nodded. We sat around a small campfire to plan our exit strategy. They wanted to forge ahead a few miles to the designated extraction point. I had a very bad feeling about going that route. "Sir, if I may speak out of turn," I managed to squeak out. My spidey sense was practically strangling me.
I waited for Captain Miller to grant me permission to speak. "Proceed," he ordered.
"Sir, I have a bad feeling regarding your extraction site. I recommend we backtrack a few miles and arrange extraction at this location," I said as I pointed a new area on the map. It was a smaller space, but still large enough for the chopper to lower enough for us to board. My spidey sense relaxed when I pointed out the new site.
"What bad feeling private?" He wasn't immediately dismissing me, but needed an viable reason to change extraction sites. During dinner, my team talked about how I knew the outhouse was hiding men and the danger we faced at our previous target camp. Citing I had a spidey sense to warn me.
"I can't really explain it, but I feel tingling in my neck and goosebumps on my back when I sense danger."
"How does it work?" He was genuinely interested in how I could sense something was wrong.
"I'm not entirely sure, but when I was looking through my scope and saw the outhouse, I felt my entire body shake. The tingling in my neck felt more like I was on fire. I swapped my rifle for Ram's rocket launcher. You heard the rest of the story over dinner," I explained.
"Is that the same feeling you have now?"
"Not quite. I feel the tingling paired with an overwhelming sense of dread, like I'm going to lose most of my team. It's stronger than the one I felt when my team encountered our last target. I fell as though I was being suffocated." He looked at Richards who was injured earlier.
"Okay, we need to contact base with our new coordinates," he ordered. His tactician used his satellite phone to contact base with our new extraction coordinates and waited for their ETA.
We had twelve hours to get to our new extraction site. After cleaning up camp and removing all traces, we started hiking towards our new location. It took eleven hours to arrive at the edge of the meadow. We heard the chopper almost an hour later. Ram grabbed Richards' pack while Stitch pulled his good arm over his shoulder. Richards was pale and sweaty. I knew he had an infection. He needed stronger antibiotics than his injection from Bones.
I arrived at the chopper just after Cal. He hopped into the chopper and reached down to pull me in. We carefully pulled Richards in behind us. Cal moved him to the cargo area and strapped him to the backboard. I ripped his shirt open to check his injury. A yellow pus like substance was on the bandage. Kavanough and Miller were the last to board the chopper. We immediately left the area and took the long way back to base. It would take several hours to arrive at our destination. The wound needed to be cleaned before Richards started running a high fever. From the sweat on his brow and his pasty complexion, I knew he was already running a fever. His skin around the wound was hot to the touch. I gently cleaned Richards' wound as Stitch and Bones looked through their medic bags for alcohol or peroxide.
"What are you two looking for?" I wondered.
"Alcohol or peroxide to clean the wound," they replied.
"Those aren't good for cleaning this type of infection. Does anyone have salt?" I asked. Neither Bones nor Stitch had any antibiotics. Richards already received the last dose available. I knew Ram always carried salt with him. He claimed our rations were too bland without it.
Ram passed me the bag filled with salt. I raised my eyebrows wondering why he had so much with him. "Fannie, you asked me to bring extra," he gently reminded me.
"Right. For the salt bomb," I suddenly remembered. I shook my head and took the bag from his hand. "Does anyone have filtered or bottled water?"
The copilot pointed to a cabinet behind him. Cal opened the cabinet to grab a few bottles of water. He opened a bottle and tipped it over his open mouth, careful to avoid touching the opening with his lips. Bones brought me the open bottle and used a small funnel to pour salt into the bottle. He replaced the cap and shook it until the salt diluted. "Open it and drop some on my tongue." I stuck out my tongue as Bones used a new dropper to place a few drops for me to taste. "It needs a bit more." He added more salt then repeated the shaking and dropper part. "Perfect. Richards, this is going to sting, but it will help until we get you to the hospital. Ready?" I waited for him to nod before carefully pouring the water into his wound. It needed to soak into the wound for at least 5 minutes to be effective. His jaw clenched as I used new gauze to clean the wound. I had to remove the stitches to release the abscess and clean it thoroughly.
Bones prepared a second and third bottle of salt water for me. He recommended leaving it open until it could be cleaned properly at the hospital. My quick method was enough to staunch the pussy discharge. I soaked some gauze in the remaining salt solution and packed his wound. "You're doing extremely well Richards. I've got you," I whispered as I dressed and bandaged his shoulder.
"Quick thinking," Stitch said with awe.
"All part of my education," I stated. I explained how I learned different tricks during my high school Biology class.
"I never learned that in Biology," Bones stated. "What high school did you attend?" He correctly assumed I didn't attend college or university.
"Trenton Central until June 2001. I had private instructors for my final year. Each instructor specialized in a specific subject."
"What courses did you take?" He wanted to know more about me.
"Chemistry, Biology, Physics, Math, English, Music, History, Geography, Spanish, Italian, Computer programming and Business administration."
"Wow." I heard all the men say.
Cal added, "4.0 GPA and a 99.5% final average." I wondered how he came across that information. He blushed when I glared at him. It didn't take long for my brain to make the connection. Cal was a computer nerd. He probably knows my real name too.
I waited until we were settled at the Travis Air Force Base in Fairfield California before questioning him. Cal, Ram and I were in a Jeep heading towards our barracks. I leaned into Cal and asked, "You know?"
"Yes. I found out after you shared your story," he admitted.
"Did you tell anyone?" I made a pointed look to Ram.
"Yes," he admitted and lifted his chin towards Ram. "No one else." Cal has never lied to me before so I took him at his word. Very few people knew my true identity and I wanted it to remain that way.
We spent a night on the California base before taking the Army chopper back to Fort Benning in Georgia. Debriefing was scheduled to start early tomorrow morning. Uncle Alex was scheduling time for me and Carlos to spend a few days together before my next deployment. I could hardly wait to see my husband.
My team debriefed separately before we were brought together. They wanted to document our personal experiences before documenting the overall events. All our stories were identical. I was asked more questions because I recommended changing the extraction site. After spending six hours repeating my story and how I used my intuition, they were finally satisfied and dismissed us. A soldier was waiting outside the General's office to drive me to General Palmer's home. Carlos was waiting for me in the back seat. I slipped in the seat beside him and tucked into his side.
"I missed you Babe," he whispered into my ear.
"I missed you too." We didn't talk in front of our driver. Carlos and I remained silent until we arrived at home. I led Carlos to my bedroom and stripped his clothes off his muscular, sexy body. "You have more muscles," I said as my hands moved over his eight-pack abs.
"So do you," he kissed down my chest and abs after stripping me bare. Carlos lifted me onto the bed and quickly entered me. His motion was almost desperate. It didn't take long for us to release. "I've been waiting for you."
"Didn't you rub one off?" I asked out of curiosity. It was perfectly healthy for men and women to masturbate to release sexual frustration.
"Many times. When I heard you were coming home, I stopped."
"You shouldn't have to suffer," I said but I was secretly happy he waited. "What will you do while you're deployed?"
"Rub one off," he said through laughter. "When do you leave?" I could tell Carlos was hoping I'd be home for awhile.
"In a month. I was supposed to leave within a few days of returning, but I need to be cleared by the Army therapist first."
"Babe, I'm sorry you had to take a life," he said guessing the reason I needed to see a therapist. During basic training, it was one of the items they stressed was mandatory. If you took a life or watched a teammate die, you were required to see a therapist until they cleared you for deployment. I was still an active soldier but I was temporarily benched.
"It's not an experience I wish to repeat, but I'm in the Army and it's part of the job." Once I finish my next deployment, I would be able to train for a job stationed on base. I really wanted to work on the program I was developing to help the men on missions.
I moved to my dresser to hand Carlos his birthday gift. He opened it to find a Saint Michael medallion. "General Palmer said soldiers are permitted to add this to their dog tags." He flipped the medallion over to see our wedding month and day engraved on the back.
"Thank you Steph." He removed his dog tags to add the medallion. I accepted the small package he pulled from his cargo pants.
Carlos got me the exact same gift down to the engraving. I laughed as I added it to my tags. "Thank you Carlos."
"I love you so much." He rolled me under his body and pushed into me again. I noticed he often transitioned to Spanish while his emotions were running hot. Luckily I understood every word he said.
"I love you too," I moaned as he stroked the perfect spot inside me. We made love a few more times before we fell asleep wrapped around each other.
The following morning, Carlos and I talked about our goals and dreams for the next few years. "I heard you showed remarkable skill in the field," he said over breakfast.
"I guess," I attempted to fluff it off. "I just went with my gut."
"More than just your gut from what I heard. General Rogers said you have natural instincts which allowed all the men to return alive."
"It never happened during basic training. I'm not sure how I was able to know." I took a few minutes to gather my thoughts to explain what I was trying to tell him. "Whenever you're nearby, I can sense you. I get a pleasant tingling sensation that runs down my neck and stops at my heart. It makes my heart feel… happy."
"I feel that too," he confessed.
"These feelings start the same, but my heart doesn't feel happy. When someone's life is at stake, I feel like I'm losing Stephan again. The tingling feels like it's burning my neck. That feeling of loss causes my body to shake. If we're in danger, but not life threatening, I feel the tingling sensation and get goosebumps down my back. My team started paying attention after our first incident. They quickly realized I was like a tuning rod to detect imminent danger."
"I'm proud of you Babe," his voice was thick with emotion.
"I'm so glad the alpha team listened. So many lives could have been lost that day," I shivered when I thought about losing my friends.