Chapter 106

Flashback – Masha – Moving day

Because of my special training, I naturally woke up earlier than Louise and Linda. I slipped out of bed, went into the bathroom and did my morning routine, then headed to the kitchen to make breakfast. Breakfast was ready when Louise, carrying Linda, came out of the back and said, “Wow, I didn’t even hear you wake up.”

I smiled at her and replied, “I wanted to wake up early so I could prepare your breakfast. It’s complete so have a seat at the table.”

Louise sat down, I brought a plate over and Louise asked, “Masha, this is a huge amount of food?”

I replied, “I know you will be working hard so I made a large breakfast and also packed a lunch for you.”

Louise sighed, “Auntie Masha you treat me too well.”

I grinned at her and replied, “Louise, I knew if I didn’t pack a lunch for you that you and Michael would have probably depended upon fast food.”

She laughed, “Yeah Auntie Masha you’re right. Michael already told me he looked forward to buying lunch for me.”

I glared and confronted her, “And you would have eaten that terrible food?”

Louise giggled and teased me, “I got you Auntie Masha! I would have gone without food rather than eaten any fast food. You have trained me well.”

I boldly inquired, “And do you feel any better?”

Louise confessed, “I notice I don’t get tired as often and after seeing Tina’s behavior I was convinced.”

That reminded me so I asked, “Did Brenda give you any problems at work?”

Louise giggled and replied, “No, she couldn’t come to work because she didn’t have a sitter. But don’t feel bad about it because Gwen and I told Michael the entire story about Tina and Michael was nice enough to give her the time off without pay instead of making her take vacation time.”

I asked, “Won’t Brenda miss the income?”

Louise answered, “No, she always brags about how much money her husband makes.”

I thought for a moment and asked, “It seems to me that you, Gwen and Brenda are three very different people. How is it that you all became friends?”

Louise said, “You’re right, we’re all different. I guess we’re friends because we all work at the market. But Gwen and I are much closer than Brenda and I ever dreamed of being. In fact Brenda is a little jealous of ... well almost everything: Gwen’s and my relationship, me coming to live here with you - you name it and she’s jealous of it.”

I thought again and replied, “Usually when someone is so jealous it means they are having problems for which they are having difficulty coping.”

Louise said, “Boy howdy are you right! Brenda has come to work with bruises from her husband’s abuse.”

I internally grinned at the American colloquial expression but shook my head and remarked, “No man ever has a right to injure any woman.”

Louise said, “That’s true Masha and I’m sure going to miss the Krav Maga lessons. I don’t ever want to be in a position again where I feel like I can’t defend myself.”

I blink a couple times and ask, “Louise, when were you ever in that position?”

We heard a truck horn, Louise kissed Linda, grabbed her lunch and said, “Sorry, Masha that’s Michael so I need to get going. We will finish this discussion tonight.”

I proceed to Louise and Linda’s new room, make sure it’s spotless and then Linda and I begin to work on her picture book while I wonder when Louise was mistreated by a man.

Flashback – Ben – The Stryker mission continued

Michael and I made it to the hospital without any problems. George met us at the door and said, “Sgt., you might want to head up to the roof and take a look at what’s going on.”

I pointed to a Private and said, “Sorry Michael, it looks like you’re going to be on your own. Take Michael to the prisoner interrogation room.” Then I added, “The agents worked him over pretty hard so I’m not sure how much good this will do you.”

Michael laughed and said, “I have ways of extracting information they never dreamed of.”

I offered, “Unless they removed them, there’s a set of Taser probes connected to his genitals.”

Michael laughed and said, “Damn that’s almost evil!”

I replied, “It sure as hell motivated him to walk when he tried his stubborn donkey act.”

I dashed up to the roof, saw George, ran beside him as he pointed and said, “I think there’s going to be some problems at the Stryker.” He pointed at a truck trying to work its way to the Stryker.

I swore, “You’re fucking right there’s going to be some problems! Get on the horn and call in an airstrike. If that fucking truck gets close enough to the Stryker it will destroy it.”

I couldn’t believe the fucking towelheads had mounted a M40 recoilless rifle¹ in the back of a truck and were trying to get to the Stryker. I ran over to the sniper manning the Barrett and ordered, “Destroy the fuck out of that truck.” He began to fire at it and smoke started to come out of the engine compartment, I further ordered, “Shoot that big fucking gun in the back of the truck.”

¹ The M40 recoilless rifle is a lightweight, portable, crew-served 105 mm weapon intended primarily as an anti-tank weapon and manufactured in the United States.

The other snipers fired on the truck and one of them must have hit something because there was a big assed explosion which shook the hospital. It was impressive enough that Michael ran up on the roof and asked, “What the fuck was that?”

I pointed at the slowly disappearing mushroom cloud and replied, “The towelheads had an M40 on a truck, we must have gotten lucky and blew the fuckers to hell.”

Michael countered, “Lucky hell, from the size of the explosion and the color of the cloud I would say you have some fucking problems coming if the cloud heads this way.”

I asked for clarification, “What the fuck do you mean?”

Michael said, “The explosion was too big for a conventional weapon so it was either a dirty bomb or some sort of gas round that got touched off. Either way, if it heads this way it’s bad news.”

I looked at George and suggested, “Sir, it might be a good idea to implement MOPP protocols.”

George looked at me and ordered, “Do it first Sgt.”

I yelled in my command voice, “All Marines, put on your MOPP² gear!”

² MOPP (Mission Oriented Protective Posture; pronounced “mop”) is protective gear used by U.S. military personnel in a toxic environment, e.g., during a chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear strike.

They grumbled as they began to pull out their gear and put it on, I looked at Michael and asked, “Where’s your MOPP gear?”

He replied, “My EOD suit is my MOPP which is back at the Stryker.”

I smiled at him and said, “Don’t worry, I stashed some extras in my UOP pack.”

I looked at a Pvt. and ordered, “Find the Marine who has my UOP pack and have him haul ass up here ASAP.”

He wisely asked, “Do I find him first or do I get into my MOPP gear.”

I looked at the cloud, noted it was drifting away from us but unfortunately toward the disabled Stryker and ordered, “Find the UOP pack first.”

Then I turned to George and said, “Sir, the cloud is headed toward the Stryker, you need to call the Stryker and have our Marines get into their MOPP gear.”

George hauled ass downstairs to the com room as the Pvt. returned with the Cpl. that had the UOP. I almost laughed because the Cpl. was about half in his MOPP gear. I took the UOP pack, opened it up and thank God the Cpl. didn’t fuck with it. I pulled out a set of MOPP gear, handed them to Michael and said, “I think you know what to do with this.”

I had recovered my sniper rifle earlier so I pulled up the rifle, looked through the scope and noticed our Marines getting into their MOPP gear. Then I noticed the mercs and agents waving frantically from the back of the disabled Stryker and swore, “Those stupid fuckers didn’t bring MOPP gear.”

I dashed down to the com room, ran in and told George, “The agents and mercs didn’t bring MOPP gear, I need to bring them to the hospital.”

George said, “Not without you putting on your MOPP gear first!”

I think I set a record for getting into MOPP gear, then I suggested, “Sir, have the snipers keep the fuckers busy.”

George sent a Pvt. up to the roof with the order then the snipers began to fire as I ran down the fucking stairs and wondered why the hell we didn’t have the fucking elevators working. I dashed out of the hospital and headed toward the fucked up Stryker as fast as I could...

Flashback – Jack – Getting ready to head to the hospital

It wasn’t as hard as I thought to find a doctor who would agree that I was fit for duty. I gave the paperwork to Colonel Maggie’s aide and waited. He came back later and said, “Sgt. Reynolds, you and Pvt. Tod are leaving in ten minutes.”

We got ready to leave, were actually in the chopper when Colonel Maggie’s aide walked up and notified us, “Sgt. Reynolds, all trips to the hospital are currently on hold.”

I swore, “What the fuck is wrong?”

He simply said, “They’ve initiated the MOPP protocol at the hospital. I will inform you when your flight is rescheduled.”

I looked at Tod and said, “Well, I guess we sit on our asses until we find out what’s going on.”

Tod showed he at least knew something about being a Marine when he asked, “Sgt. Reynolds, isn’t that for gas or nuclear attacks?”

I replied as I worried about Banzai, “That’s right, that’s why we’re staying here.”

What the fucking hell was going on at that fucking hospital...

Flashback – Jennifer – At home

I continued reading the book, which was a reverse chronological order of the history of the dead witches in our family and how they died. It seemed that when they were discovered to be witches, they didn’t live very long. Most were hanged (at Proctor’s Ledge at the bottom of Gallows hill), set on fire or drowned; all deaths were quite gruesome. It gave me concern about mother telling everyone under the sun that Grandmother and I were witches - the only good thing was hardly anyone believed in witches anymore.