Isolation & Fear (Damned of the 2/19th Book Seven)

One Quarter

Room 319
Intensive Care Unit
Wurzburg Army Medical Center
Wurzburg Army Post
West Germany
26 November, 1987
1000 Hours

The door to my room opened and he stomped in, looking around the sterile room as if it had somehow offended him. He looked at my husband and jerked his thumb out the door.

"Get the fuck out. She ain't fit for duty, she ain't fit for sucking your baby-dick, REMF," Henley snarled.

Jerry squeezed my hand and left.

Henley stomped over and threw himself into the chair, farted loudly, and stared at me. "Don't speak, you bovine retard, just listen."

I nodded. I had been under the knife only a few days ago to repair the last of the damage to my throat, and to remove my remaining tonsil. It was the last of the surgeries I'd need.

Now I just needed to recover.

Chief Henley being here told me, quite simply, that 2/19th was about to pull me back to work. I could physically survive being out at Atlas or Graf, and I was supposed to start talking as soon as possible to work my vocal cords and get used to the way I would speak now.

I braced myself for the worst.

"Corporal Bomber is awake," He said.

I couldn't stop myself, I burst into tears.

Henley didn't say anything, just sat there, staring at me, and let me cry.

When the tears slowed and I was finally able to look at him he just glared at me.

"In case you were interested and are done crying like a goddamn baby, Cromwell and the rest of the preggos are still in the War Fighter Tunnels. It looks like she's not going to open the door till about March or April," He snarled. "So that's another member of that gaggle of fuckups who is still alive, along with Groom's fat dyke ass."

I just nodded, the tears still flowing.

"Nobody's heard from either Hannah or Paul Foster," He told me. I nodded as he continued, "CID found blood, but no trace of either of them, the baby, or Lane's sister," He said. "Although CID did track Lane's sister and the baby to some kind of family farm, nobody can get close to them."

I just nodded at that.

"And we think Stillwater is still alive."

That made me nod. Of course he would be.

"How many?" I croaked.

Henley shrugged. "All of them. I gave the order, and like a good soldier, he carried it out." He looked out the window. "Don't know or care how he carried it out, just that he secured the nuclear weapons and the Group Area. I sent Specialist Lopatkiewitz up the mountain with orders to make contact with him, and she signalled that he's alive."

He stood up. "I know you filed a DoR, but you should rethink it," He said, still looking out the window. "I was against offering you a second chance, all for throwing your fat ass out of the military, but our new CO seems to think that you deserve a second chance."

He turned and looked at me, and I shrank back slightly. "You take that chance, you fuck up again, and I won't send you to some shithole to count chemical rounds. I'll cut your fucking throat in front of your REMF husband after I shoot him in the stomach."

I nodded silently.

"You were a good soldier once, Nagle," He said softly. "One of our best."

He was quiet for a long moment.

"Right now, the anger at your DoR has been wiped out by the fact the KGB hit you. If you come back to the unit, and don't say anything about the DoR, you'll be forgiven," Henley told me. He glared at the next part. "If you're still going to DoR, then don't bother coming back to the unit. Once you're released from here, I'll start your outprocessing paperwork."