Chapter 1

Here she was yet again, walking through a village in Afghanistan with the Marine unit that she was attached to. She was a navy corpsman and damn proud of it. She also filled the role of the unit’s FET member and also was sort of the unit’s good luck charm. On this morning, they were on a routine patrol when out of nowhere a single shot rang out. Just ahead of her, the unit’s commander had just been hit in the neck and she was there in a second. For not only was this the very well-liked commander but he was also her fiancé and they were due to be married in six weeks when they both were rotated back to the states. When she got to his side, she grabbed his uniform and pulled him to cover which was quite an accomplishment being that he was six-two and two hundred twenty pounds plus his combat gear. She put a pressure dressing on his neck hoping, praying that it would save the man that she loved more than life itself, but knowing that he was already dead. He knew it too when he reached up and put his hand to her check, told her that he loved her, begged her to move on after him and to find someone else that would make her happy. She leaned over to kiss him one last time and as they shared that last kiss; he died and she just stood up because other calls needed her attention.

This is where she woke up as she always did, in a cold sweat and breathing heavy. It was 3 AM when she sat up in her bed and started cursing. She knew from previous experience that she wouldn’t be able to go back to sleep. This memory was formed eight years ago and was still as sharp and painful as the day it was formed. During this time, she had graduated from medical school and became a very respected trauma surgeon. She was known to work impossibly long hours and even with her fire and gold hair was known as the Ice Bitch because she would never show emotion in any situation. Many of her actions came off as extremely cold and at first glance as uncaring even though, they would prove to be the right call in the end. So just like every other time this happened, she did what she did best; she got up, fixed a snack, put on comfortable underwear, everything sexy had been thrown away long ago, her scrubs, and went to work at the local hospital.

This was the life of Dr. Emily O’Neal. Twenty-nine years old, reddish-blond hair and emerald green eyes. She stood at six foot even, one hundred forty-five pounds of muscle, but still had curves in all the right places with her perky breast between a C and D cup and the rest of her forming a perfectly symmetrical hourglass. She played volleyball all through high school and had kept that figure through her time in the Navy and college. Recently she had been putting on extra weight but she didn’t give a fuck because she was sick of the attention that she got from almost every guy plus a large number of women that saw her. The guys wanted to get into her pants and the women were either jealous of her, would lust after, or wish that they looked like her.

At work, it was more of the usual: a couple of car crashes with minor injuries, an older lady with heart trouble, some teens that had been stupid. It was now almost two in the afternoon and Emily was getting ready to go home when there was an explosion and everything in the hospital shook. This triggered a reaction in her and she dropped to the floor and screamed “incoming” thinking that she was in combat again. It didn’t take long to figure out that she was safe and she sat up. One of the nurses, Cindy, probably the closest thing Emily had to a friend came over to make sure that Emily was OK.

“Ya, I’m good, the only thing hurt is my ego. For a second there, I thought I was back in Afghanistan, and that begs the question: what the bloody hell was that?” replied Emily

This got a bit of a giggle from Cindy. Cindy was everything that Emily wasn’t. She was a very likable outgoing lady who had raven black hair, skin-colored like charcoal, a loving husband, and two adorable kids.

“Hell, if I know what happened but we will probably find out in a bit,” Cindy told her.

Cindy then gave Emily a hand to get back up. As Emily got back up, she was able to look over Cindy, for she was only five-three, and in doing this, Emily could see the emergency entrance. There was a cop there and he was excited by something. Emily watched the cop tell the receptionist something and run out. Now more curious than she had felt in years Emily told Cindy:

“Let’s go see the receptionist and find out what all that was about.”

As they walked up, they could see the receptionist was on the phone and they could hear it was the hospital administration. Whatever was going on was big. Looking at each other Emily and Cindy shrugged knowing that getting excited before getting news didn’t do anyone any good. After the receptionist hung up, Cindy asked:

“What’s up?”

The receptionist turned around in her chair and Emily and Cindy were taken aback. Looking at the receptionist, Sammy as she liked to be called, it looked like they were looking at a ghost. There was no color in her face and her eyes showed a look of absolute fear. Seeing this, both ladies grew very concerned very quickly knowing that whatever was going on was going to be bad and when they heard the news, they were not disappointed.

“Sammy what’s wrong, what’s happening?!” asked Emily in her cold tone.

Cindy added “Ya Sammy what’s going on? I’ve known you for twenty years and never seen you like this.” Sammy just looked at the two ladies and appeared to get even paler. In a hard, flat tone that nobody even knew Sammy possessed she said:

“That explosion we heard was the oil refinery blowing up. That cop that ran in here told me to alert everyone to expect the causalities to start arriving shortly and don’t bother holding out hope for anyone we might know there. From the looks of things, the cop said that he wouldn’t be surprised if the refinery was sabotaged.”

At this Cindy just collapsed and started crying for her husband, Ben, who worked there as a firefighter. Emily on the other hand almost instantly transformed back into a Navy corpsman and she knew what had to be done. First thing was to get Cindy out of shock and into action. After trying to calm her down and having no success Emily knew just how far out her friend was and what had to be done to bring her back. She brought her hand back and smacked her friend as hard as she could across the cheek:

“DAMN IT CINDY, PULL YOUR FUCKING HEAD OUT OF YOUR ASS WILL YOU. YOU WON’T DO YOUR HUSBAND OR ANYONE ELSE ANY FUCKING GOOD SITTING HERE CRYING YOUR FUCKING EYES OUT OVER SOMETHING YOU DON’T KNOW!” screamed Emily.

Cindy just looked at Emily oblivious to the red mark forming on her cheek. She was dumbfounded. Nobody had ever heard Emily talk or act like this.

Emily just crouched so she was down at eye level with Cindy. Emily gave her a small, warm smile and said:

“Come on Cindy, we have work to do.”

At this Emily grabbed Cindy’s hands and stood up. This pulled Cindy to her feet again and the two of them rushed off to start getting things ready. What followed could only be described as a sneak peek of Armageddon. People coming in with limbs tore off, some had most of their skin melted, some didn’t even look like people, they were just odd shapes of charcoal that happened to move. All through this Emily’s cold temperament kept the trauma teams glued together and everyone’s minds on their work. After almost twelve hours of putting people back together, they were done and exhausted.

Emily was at the nurse’s station finishing paperwork, Cindy was with her husband, who although burned badly and missing both legs was alive, barely. Emily was so involved with her paperwork that she didn’t see a young lady walk up:

Chapter 2 »