16.

~ Arthur felt the explosion all the way to his teeth. The barracks jolted from the bomb that went off and created a horrible noise that made his ears hurt.

He had been dreaming of her. Of Ariadne. Of taking her back home and keeping her safely by his side. Her warm body in bed with him. Waking up next to her every morning when suddenly his blissful dream was ripped apart by the blast.

His lady vanishing from his bed like mist and replaced by smoke, shouting and a ringing in his ears as he found himself on the floor of the barracks.

Dax was kneeling over him and shouting. Asking if he was alright. Arthur tried to get his mind to wake up as he saw half the barrack was blown and on fire.

He felt that familiar out of body force take hold of him. The same kind of drive he had felt at Normandy when he wasn't sure who or what possessed him as he fearlessly stormed the beach and killed the men shooting at them.

With sure and decisive orders, he quickly had his men mobilized. Telling them to shake it off, and secure the barracks. To establish a perimeter and secure the weapons. He shouted for medics and a jeep. For a team to help him search for who did this.

Like a well rehearsed dance, his men sprang into action. Very quickly the fires were out, the barracks secured. His jeep was ready for him and a team of ten soldiers were eager to find out who bombed the American barracks.

"What do we know?" Arthur barked as he fastened his helmet on. Thinking maybe he needed to start sleeping with it on.

"Sentries saw some men flee West, Sir!" A corporal said as the jeeps roared angrily in the early light of dawn.

"How many?" Arthur shouted.
"Three!"

"Fine. Dax! Take the second jeep and circle round. Cut them off. We will head strait and flush them out. Privet!" He shouted to the skinny privet who had dug those holes at the camp. The young man snapping to attention.

"Go south and take up our flank. Let them think they can get away by coming at you." He shouted as the jeeps rolled away from each other.

These men had practiced too much together. They know how to search and find someone. How to flush them out like they were quail hunting.

It didn't take long.

The bombers had thought the only jeep to give chase was directly behind them. They tried to go right and were hindered by Dax and his group. The bombers startled and scared now as two jeeps with the angry Americans were coming for them. They thought they had found safety by going west. Shocked again when a Jeep, driven by a skinny privet cut them off. Three soldiers jumping out and pulling them to the ground at gun point.

~ "Son, I couldn't be happier with how that operation went." Colonel Burch said. His face never showed any emotion, so it was hard to tell when he was happy or sad.

They watched at the three bombers were escorted to a holding cell.

"Thank you, Sir." Arthur said as he tired to get out of the jeep. A sharp pain went off in his back making him wince.

"You alright, Son?" The gruff Colonel asked.

"Fine, Sir." Arthur said easing back into the driver's seat.

His back hurt. He hadn't felt any pain till he tried to get out of the jeep. Arthur put his hand to his back and pulled back blood.

"You need to get to the hospital." The gruff Colonel said simply. "Must have happened during the blast. The shock kept you from feeling any pain."

"I'm fine sir." Arthur said as he felt a large piece of metal in his side.
"This is not optional, Soldier." The Colonel said curtly.

Arthur sighed as Major Cobb was suddenly there. He moved aside in the jeep as Cobb took over the driver's side.

"Good thing we know a pretty nurse." The Major said.

~ "We have wounded!" Ariadne shouted out through the dorm. An old fashioned pulley bell, sent from down stairs, went off her in her privet room early that morning. This alerted the senior nurse to rouse the sleeping junior nurses from their beds.

It must be a large amount for that bell to go off. Girls jumping out of their beds in various states of undress to pull on blue dresses over night slips. Hurriedly fixing hair in bobbie pins and affixing hats to heads. Ariadne raced to pull on her white stockings, her dark gray dress, her white apron, her hat, her hair and her shoes. All while shepherding her junior nurses out of the dorm.

Down three flights of stairs the nurses almost ran. There was no time for elevators and they were taught never take the elevator in this modern hospital unless they were with someone too sick for the stairs.

~ In the large trauma ward, the smell of burned flesh hit Ariadne with a heavy force. She had almost forgotten what a burn victim smelled like. The last one she had treated was the small boy Arthur had tried to save.

"Steele yourself, Ladies." Ariadne warned her younger nurses as one of them looked especially green.

The men were all screaming and shouting for help as Ariadne and the Doctor were giving orders of basic treatment. Of not to waste time on minor burns and prepare clean gauze.

Doctor Kikie assigned Ariadne the grim task of assessing those who could not be saved. Men who were in such pain only morphine would help them for the few hours before they died.

Ariadne was almost sick as she pined a red tag on the clothing of a badly burned young man who's hair had been blown off. Who's eyes were swollen shut.

"Take him to the English doctor, right now." She said to the American soldiers who brought the young man in. His comrades still thinking he could be saved.

All Doctor Kikie could do right now was doll out the last of his morphine to make sure the victims of what was happening didn't suffer too much longer. He whispered that God would forgive him for bringing the young men to heaven early, if it meant they didn't lie in pain for days.

"What happened?" Ariadne asked an officer she recognized from the movie theater Arthur had taken her to. The young man who so carelessly reminded her of her escape from France during the invasion.

"Bomb went off in the barracks, Ma'am." Dax said as he helped bring in the wounded.

His uniform was singed and dirty from the explosion. He wasn't hurt, but looked like he had been close to explosion that caused all this.

She felt her heart leap up into her throat as she selfishly thought of only one person.
"Arthur? The Captain?" She asked Dax. Her hand going to the Lieutenant's dirty uniform.

"Major Cobb is bringing him in." Dax said helping another man onto a gurney.

Ariadne left the large triage room and walked past the wounded men in the lobby. A nurse assessing the very worst of the victims and sending them into triage. The rest, she could only give ice to and tell them to wait. Some Army medics had managed to arrive and were treating the less sever cases.

Outside on the lawn, the soldiers were milling about. Some lightly hurt from the blast, others fine.

Ariadne looked through the sea of faces as they all looked back at her worriedly. Nowhere did she see Arthur or Major Cobb.

Then, as daylight flooded the sky, a jeep pulled into the hospital driveway. Arthur was was in the passenger side, looking especially pale.

"What happened?" Ariadne snapped as Cobb put the jeep in park, barked at a skinny Privet to help bring the Captain into the hospital and told Ariadne about the bombing and the capture of rouge enemy insurgents.

"They just threw a bomb into the barracks?" Ariadne asked in disbelief.

Arthur was having trouble walking. His feet stumbling over themselves.

"Gurney!" Ariadne shouted to a nearby medic. She didn't know what was wrong with her once strong Captain, but she feared he might be holding hands with death now.

She helped to ease Arthur onto a nearby gurney and pulled away from him. She hadn't noticed before, hadn't seen the shard of metal stuck into his side.

She looked stupidly at her hand for a moment. Her brain catching up to what she was seeing. Bright red blood stained her flesh as she was slow to realize Arthur was bleeding to death.