Chapter 7

Nearly an hour had gone by since they had climbed into the tankard. The air was hot and stifling; sweat was visibly running down the faces of everyone inside. Still, they did not move. They did not talk. They did not make a sound in case they had guests waiting outside. Bass, Miles and Connor had not moved from their positions of holding down and guarding the door.

Charlie took a swig of water from her canteen and motioned to Bass to take some but he shook his head no, intent on what he was doing. She passed the canteen to Rachel, who smiled at her daughter before taking a long sip herself and passing it on to Gene.

He doesn't look so good, Charlie thought to herself, watching him as he held the canteen to his forehead hoping for something cool and seeing the look of disappointment on his face as he realized it was as warm as everything else. He noticed her watching him, smiled quickly and took a drink. She smiled back, encouragingly.

Just then they heard footsteps outside- the sound of boots clicking on pavement, they were most likely Patriots. Everyone froze.

From twenty or thirty yards away they heard another tankard's door being thrown open. There were shouts and then muffled laughter as men began gagging from the gas that was enveloping them. Apparently, they weren't the only ones who had hid within the tankard yard and the look on Scanlon's face as he heard the men—his own men—coughing and gagging to death was pure horror. Then they heard gunshots and the look turned to crazed anger and he tried to rush the door to get out, to get revenge, but Connor and Miles held him back. He started to protest and Miles put his hand over his mouth and a knife to his throat if he dared to say even one word. Scanlon backed down and Miles let go.

Everyone stiffened as the sound of boots grew closer, seemingly right outside their door. Miles had just gotten back into position, holding the door down when someone from outside tried to yank it open. It didn't budge.

Whoever it was stood there for a moment then slowly walked alongside the tankard…very slowly. Everyone held their breath.

The first shot fired into the tankard just narrowly missed Charlie's right arm. She quickly reached behind her to place her thumb over the hole to keep the gas from getting in.

The second shot went far and wide above Gene's head. He too covered the hole with his finger.

What happened next was a blur.

There was a third shot. As Connor fell backwards landing on Scanlon, blood spurted out from the upper left side of his chest. Scanlon grabbed him and put a hand over his mouth, stifling a scream.

As Bass jumped back to help his son a fourth shot was fired and grazed the right side of his waist. He grimaced, reaching for Connor and putting his hand over the wound, applying pressure.

While the first few moments had been a blur the next few seemed to be frozen in time as they each looked around frantic, not knowing if the patriot soldier was still outside or if more shots would be fired.

Charlie watched frantically as Bass removed the bandanna from his arm and shoved it into Connor's wound which was bleeding profusely. Connor was now slipping in and out of consciousness. Bass looked frantically to Gene to come help and Gene began quietly making his way over to them.

Miles was still holding the door shut, watching the scene, worry clouding his face.

Outside there were voices, several of them, coming from a distance. The man outside shouted something, his footsteps receding.

Everything else happened quickly but quietly. Gene had reached Connor and they stretched him out onto the bottom of the tankard.

"Let me check his back," Gene said to Monroe. They lifted his shoulder and Gene sighed with relief. "It's a through and through- that's good. We gotta get his shirt off."

Rachel moved closer to help while both Miles and Charlie tore off pieces of their own clothing to stuff in the holes made by the bullets. Scanlon looked like he still wanted to bolt and had Miles not been blocking the door he would have.

Gene stuffed part of Connor's shirt into the hole in his back to try and staunch the bleeding. It was beginning to pool around him. Bass pulled off his own shirt to replace the bandanna which had been saturated with blood almost instantly.

"His pulse is weak," Rachel said.

"Charlie, get over here with that flashlight," Gene cried, "we gotta move fast."

"Hurry, Gene," Bass said, gritting his teeth.

"Look, we're gonna have to cauterize it…with no alcohol to sterilize or clean the wounds."

"Just do it," Bass said.

"Miles, give me your knife," Gene said, hurriedly, "all I have is a damn lighter! It might not get hot enough…Charlie, hold the light over the wound…no, don't bend down, keep standing!"

"Shhhh," Miles reminded him, motioning to the door and what could still be waiting for them outside. Gene eyed him with an annoyed expression while exhaling deeply.

"Monroe, we need your belt," Gene said more quietly. "You there," he said, looking at and flicking his hand at Scanlon. "What's your name?"

"Scanlon," the young man said, warily.

"Okay, Scanlon. Get over here and get ready to brace Connor's head; I'll tell you when. Miles, we're gonna need you too," Gene said, leaving no room for any argument.

He took Bass' belt and folded it over three times so it was almost an inch wide and then placed it in Connor's mouth between his teeth. "Scanlon, hold his head in your lap and when he starts to thrash have your hands cupped under his jaw so he's biting down on this." He began to heat the blade of the knife with the lighter. "I don't know if this'll work. Monroe, hold down his arms and sit on his stomach," as Bass was already straddled over him since having put pressure on the wound. "Miles," Gene continued, "get his legs. Rachel, when I say go remove the shirt from the wound, pinch the skin together as much as you can until I say to let go. Charlie, keep the light directly above the wound. We're gonna have to do this several times, more than likely."

The blood had now formed a pool underneath Connor's head and chest and just about everyone except Miles was either kneeling in it or had their hands in it. It had begun to circle Charlie's boots as she stood close by holding the flashlight above them all.

"I think it's hot enough," Gene said, holding the knife above the wound. He looked around, briefly, asking, "ready?"

"Hurry, Gene," Bass breathed, sweat dripping off his brow.

"Rachel? Go!" Gene cried. Rachel took off the shirt and pinched the skin of the bullet wound together as well as she could, the blood flowing out of it like a stream. Gene brought the knife with the lighter still on it right down above her hand and yelled, "Now!" She pulled her hand away just as he slammed the hot knife blade against the wound. The smell of burning flesh filled the tiny room and Connor came to life. He jerked and thrashed against his human chains, which held steady against him. His face strained and turned bright red with his hollow screams coming to an end on the bite of his father's belt; a single tear slid down his cheek. Scanlon was braced, his back against the wall, holding Connor's mouth shut over the belt.

It was after this that Connor passed out again.

Gene removed the knife from the wound and about half of it appeared to be seared shut. "Good," he said. "Get ready, Rachel." Rachel placed the shirt back on the wound and held it there while Gene wiped the blood and bits of burned flesh from the knife onto his plaid shirt and began heating it once again.

Charlie was watching all of this in silence, her body giving way to a slight sway that no one seemed to notice at first. Her gaze was centered on the blood. All the blood became the focal point she couldn't seem to move her eyes away from; she briefly saw Connor's face, ashen and still laying in the pool of blood. But then Connor's face became Jason's and back again. She shook her head slightly trying to shake the image but the harder she tried the worse it got. Pretty soon, all she could see was Jason. Lying there, his still and lifeless body in a pool of his own blood, unable to move from the deadly wound she'd inflicted on him. She no longer heard the voices around her in the tankard getting ready to lay down the knife on open skin once again; she heard nothing but silence…dead silence. And so much blood. Red everywhere; each way she looked she only saw red…she tried desperately to make it go away, blinking her eyes to no avail. She no longer saw anything but red.

Just as Gene shouted, "Now!" and Rachel removed her hand for him to place the knife on Connor's chest, Charlie went down. She fell straight back, as if she was playing the 'dare' game to see if one of her friends would catch her…but no one was there.

She hit her head on hard steel with a thud, the flashlight having fallen from her grasp on the way down.

Rachel screamed. Miles, who was the only one to witness part of her swan dive, murmured "Jesus…"

"Go," Gene motioned to Rachel, as he pulled the knife away from Connor's chest, having closed the majority of the wound.

Bass froze. So intent on his son, he took in the scene with Charlie, as if seeing her for the first time in a long while- the look on his face was one of pure horror. He looked from Charlie to Connor and then back again. As he did, the motionless form of the woman he loved began to move…only not in the way anyone would hope. As he watched, the horror growing on his face, Charlie began to seize.

"Oh my God," Rachel moaned, "she's having a seizure! Dad?!"

Gene looked on, his own horror plain on his face momentarily, then quickly masked by the doctor inside him. "There's nothing you can do- just make sure she can't hurt herself any further and try to gently turn her head to the side in case she vomits. Don't try to hold her down," he said, before turning his attention back to Connor.

"Monroe, you still with me?" he asked the clearly grief-stricken man in front of him.

"Yea," Bass said, returning his focus to Connor.

"Okay," Gene replied calmly, "this one's good enough for now but we have to get the other side now and we have to do it quickly. You guys ready?" He looked at Monroe, Miles and Scanlon. They all managed a nod. "It'll be better if we sit him up for this one- less pressure to the one we just closed. Let's lean him against the wall here." They pulled a still unconscious Connor up and set him up with his back against the wall, the wound still visible. Bass held the now soaked shirt there and waited for Gene. Miles sat on his legs, Scanlon kneeled against the right side of his chest and arm, while Bass straddled him once again, leaning against him and holding the belt in his son's mouth. Gene handed the discarded flashlight to Miles. "We're going to lean him forward a bit when we do this- sit on his legs and shine the flashlight right on the wound."

Miles nodded.

"It's subsiding," Rachel said, still kneeling beside Charlie, holding her hand.

Bass let out a small sigh of relief at this but kept his focus on Connor. Thank God, he thought.

Bass & Gene leaned Connor forward and as Gene brought the heated knife blade closer to Connor's skin, Bass instinctively removed the shirt and pinched the skin together as well as he could. When Gene said, "Okay," he removed his hand and put all his weight against his son's body. This time, however, only a small whimper escaped from Connor's lips, his body having given out over the pain and loss of blood. Bass didn't know whether to be comforted by this fact or more worried from it. But there wasn't time for either, as they began the procedure again to close the hole.

"Charlie?" Rachel whispered her face close to her daughter's now still form. "Can you hear me?" Charlie slowly began to move, her own voice releasing a small whimper.

Bass felt his heart catch at the sound. There were three people he loved most in the world, all of them in this small space, and two of them unconscious and hurt. For a brief moment, he thought about what would happen to him if he lost them both; his heart lurched and he stomped that thought down, refusing to believe it could be a possibility. He would not lose them, he told himself.

When Gene was satisfied with the job they'd done on the second bullet hole he leaned Connor back against the wall. He checked the first wound once again and there was a tiny trickle of blood seeping where the dead flesh simply would not adhere to one another. "Later, I'll sew that once we get out of here and find some place to hide. I'm sure I'll be able to find the needed supplies then," he said looking at Bass. Frankly, Gene didn't know if Connor would last that long but didn't want to say right now since Bass was clearly shaken. Gene took off his plaid button-down and then removed the t-shirt he had on underneath it. He packed the t-shirt against the front wound and then tied his button-down around both, knotting it under Connor's arm. He checked his pulse noting, "It's still weak but steady. Let's move him over there next to that wall and get him out of all of this," motioning to all of the blood. They lifted him carefully and set him down in the corner from which he did not stir. "Monroe, I need to take a look at your wound," Gene pointed, the small trail of blood steadily flowing down Bass' side.

"Later," Bass said, quickly moving to Charlie. "How is she?" he asked Rachel.

"She hasn't opened her eyes yet," Rachel said, the look of worry clouding her face. Miles and Gene had moved next to her as well and Gene began gently examining her. Only Scanlon didn't move, having set himself down next to Connor.

"She's got an enormous goose egg on the back of her head here," Gene observed, "Helluva fall for our girl here."

Bass took hold of Charlie's free hand and leaned down close to her. "Charlotte, can you hear me? Baby, it's Bass."

Miles inwardly groaned at the use of the term 'baby' for his niece and watched as Rachel bit her lip, drawing blood. Gene seemingly pretended not to hear and kept on with his examination.

Charlie began to cry. "Bass?" she slowly began to open her eyes seeing him for the first time. "God, it hurts."

"Honey," Rachel squeezed her hand. Charlie slowly turned to her. "You fainted, sweetheart. You hurt your head pretty bad- don't try to move right now."

"Mom," Charlie cried, "I don't feel so well." Then Charlie felt her stomach lurch and had there been any food there she would have vomited- but since there was not she began to dry heave.

"Let's turn her on her side to take the pressure off this lump on her head. Gently," Gene cautioned. They slowly rolled her onto her side; the movement, however, caused Charlie to grow very dizzy and she continued her dry heaving for a few more moments before finally calming and lying still.

Her brow was wet with cold, clammy sweat and Rachel poured some water from the canteen onto a bandanna she'd had around her neck and wiped it away and then gently placed it across Charlie's forehead. Her body was now facing Bass and as he held her hand she squeezed it to let him know she was all right.

"Oh my God, Connor," she said as if suddenly remembering what had been happening before she woke up on the hard steel of the tankard. She tried to find Bass' face but didn't dare move her head again.

Bass leaned down close to her. "He's okay now. His wounds are closed and he's resting," he whispered, kissing her softly on the cheek.

"Thank God," she whispered, "but Bass…you're bleeding. Why are you bleeding?" She tried to move but couldn't and noticeably got upset with herself and the worry that he was hurt.

"I'm okay," he said. "Don't worry, a shot just grazed me is all. In fact, your grandfather was just about to take a look at it, okay? Now please don't worry, Charlotte. Try to close your eyes and rest."

Rachel squeezed Charlie's other hand as Bass got up to go see Gene, who was now waiting for him on the other end of the tankard where Connor was. Rachel lay down behind her daughter to rest and just let her know she was there. The act seemed to have a calming effect on Charlie, as she exhaled a deep sigh and tried to relax, suddenly exhausted.

"Do you think he'll live?" Bass asked, motioning to Connor.

"If he makes it through tonight I like his chances. The wound itself wasn't too bad as far as I could tell. No major arteries were hit and it was well above his heart. The problem is the blood loss- but like I said, even though his pulse is weak it is steady for the most part. He's a fighter, that kid," Gene said looking Bass straight in the eye, "just like his father."

Bass nodded slightly and stood still to let Gene examine his own wound. Despite their differences, the old man wasn't so bad, he thought. And he didn't know what he'd have done without the guy for the past hour. He didn't want to even think about it.

"It's just a graze, like you said," Gene commented, "I still want to wrap it if I can and then you might need a couple stitches later."

Without even being asked, Scanlon removed his jacket and then took off his shirt and handed it to the old man. Miles chuckled at this. Pre-blackout days, with all the sweat pouring off all of them, you'd think they'd all just come out of a sauna. Every man in the tankard was now shirtless, having given up their shirts in the line of duty to help their fallen; Miles took a small bit of comfort in that.

Gene folded the shirt up and placed it against Bass' wound; as Bass held it in place he then took the belt they had used for Connor and secured it around Bass' waist, keeping the wound wrapped up securely.

"Do you know the cause of Charlie's seizure?" Bass whispered to Gene, not wanting her to hear; she seemed to remember nothing about it. Rachel & Miles both looked up as well, wanting to hear what Gene had to say.

"She has no history of them so the best I can surmise is that it happened because of the fall. She hit that steel hard- she definitely has a concussion which accounts for her confusion, the dizziness and vomiting. Those things can also occur after a seizure. Most importantly now, she just needs to lie still and rest; she's in a lot of pain but I have nothing for her," he grimaced, "and we're going to have to wake her every few hours to make sure she can wake up and also check her level of confusion and remembering things that just happened."

They all took this in silently, looking at Charlie with worried expressions on their faces.

Miles, looking for a distraction, checked one of the holes in the tankard and remarked it was too soon to leave, the gas still around outside. Gene commented that it was just as well anyway because he didn't want to move either of his patients just yet. Bass took all of this in quietly, looking between his son and his girlfriend. He noted that Connor's chest was moving so he relaxed a little in the fact that his son was still breathing and had made it through the arduous procedure. He then walked towards Charlie and noted her eyes were closed and she had dozed off. He started to walk away, to find a spot to sit where he could keep an eye on both of them when Charlie spoke.

"Bass, is that you?" she asked.

"Yea, baby, it's me," he said, leaning down next to her once again. "I thought you were sleeping."

"I did a little bit…are you okay? Did grandpa stop your bleeding?" she said, a worried expression crossing her face.

"I'm fine, Charlotte. See?" he said turning to show his now covered wound, the blood having been wiped off his skin. "You need to rest, baby. You scared the hell out of me…out of all of us," he looked at Rachel. "Enough talking for now, okay?"

"Okay," she agreed, "go and be with Connor. He needs you now more than I do."

Oh Charlotte, Bass thought, you are so strong and I love you all the more for it. He smiled at her and took hold of her free hand. "How 'bout I stay with you at least until you fall asleep, all right?"

Even in her strength he saw the look of comfort on her face that these words brought her. He leaned down next to her, lying on his good side, his face close to hers as he squeezed her hand. He kissed her forehead as he always did before they went to sleep and then he looked her in the eyes as he mouthed the words 'I love you' so it was just between them. She mouthed the words back, a small smile on her face as she closed her eyes and went to sleep.

Hours later he opened his eyes, realizing he had fallen asleep as well; he checked his watch and it was a little after 7:00 the same night. They'd been in this small, somewhat stifling space for nearly 11 hours. He looked across at Charlie and she was sleeping still, although a frown crossed her face and she made small sounds every so often that expressed the pain she must still be in. He kissed her hand and slowly sat up looking around at everyone else; Rachel had since moved from Charlie's side and was curled up with Miles, their backs against the door. Gene had taken Scanlon's spot next to Connor and was holding the flashlight; it was turned on and sitting upon his lap, while he dozed. He quickly looked to Connor and saw that his chest still moved slowly up and down- Bass released a huge intake of breath he didn't realize he'd been holding. Scanlon was now on the other side of Gene, sleeping soundly.

Miles stirred and woke up, the two of them locking eyes. After all these years they could hold entire conversations with just their eyes and facial expressions. They both knew they had to get out of this space and find a bigger, more secure hiding space. Miles removed torn material from one of the bullet holes and nodded to Bass. He then tapped Scanlon's boot with his own.

Scanlon opened his eyes and straightened, grabbing his weapon in alarm. Once he saw Miles he relaxed and met his gaze.

"You ready to get outta here, kid?" Miles asked. Gene opened his eyes and Rachel began to stir.

"Hell yea," Scanlon replied, standing up slowly, feeling cramped after so many hours in this small space.

Miles knew instinctively that Bass would not want to leave Connor and Charlie right now and his friend and brother nodded at him in acknowledgement and gratitude.

"The air's cleaner now," Miles said to everyone who was awake. "Scanlon and I will go and find a safer place to hide, refill the canteen's and see what we can find as far as supplies."

He opened the door and they all breathed a sigh of relief as they took in clean air. Scanlon followed him out and they set off, the sun just barely beginning its long descent- they still had a good two hours of light left. Gene offered him the flashlight but Miles shook his head, figuring they needed it more than he did. Bass, Rachel and Gene came out of the tankard, each stretching & breathing in the humid night air.

Gene turned back toward the door and said, "Well, I think it's time to wake Charlie." Both Bass and Rachel followed him back in, wanting to be there when he did.

It was going to be a long night.