The Sleeping Army Awakes

Part 83 Matron Rules

Matron barked out orders like a sergeant major, and she, and her identical looking robotic nurses, rushed around in such a flurry of activity, that within a remarkably short time, everyone who needed surgery had been divested of whatever foreign body that needed to be removed. Each patient had their wounds cleaned, sterilised, stitched, bandaged and checked in the infirmary after which they were encouraged to leave it as quickly as possible.

Matron's remaining six patients were all on saline drips. Most of them still dangerously full of alcohol but quiet, that is apart from a rather large individual who insisted on repeating the word 'Fish" periodically, even after he had closed his eyes. He had been placed in a side ward so that when he woke then he would think that he was the only one there, the only one who mattered. It also allowed Samuel to talk to him alone.

If Matron could have smiled in satisfaction at a job well done, then it would have been a very large smile indeed. They had all been waiting for exactly this type of disaster for decades. They had been fortunate that the infirmary relied on sterilisation machines rather than sealed utensils that might have been past their shelf life. The patients had been lucky that the Sikorsky and the trucks all carried anaesthetics as none of the infirmary's supplies were still in date.

Auntie Sacha and Jana were not smiling however, Matron had made it abundantly clear that they were surplus to requirements and neither of them could understand why.

"This is military hospital!" Matron asserted in Slavik, "anyone who isn't enlisted or casualty please vacate area and wait in canteen!"

Auntie Sacha and Jana, who did not usually get on together, looked at each other and in a rare moment of agreement they both said, "Well!" and stomped off hoping to be fed.

Food

Katka had been busy in the kitchen finding pots and pans but she had quickly been joined by some of the old ladies, who in turn, had organised some of the teenagers to prepare cooked meals on the big hobs in big pans for anyone that was hungry or to supervise the younger children who were running starting to take on more of a party atmosphere.

There was soon a queue of fascinated giggling youths waiting their turn to use the electric can opener, which was a novelty to them, with no-one really counting how many cans had been opened, compared to the number of mouths that needed to be fed, there were too many being opened. When Katka did a quick head count of people and then counted the number of cans that were now empty she worried that there were far more cans than people already, so she told them to stop. There were indignant cries that from a couple of the youths that they hadn't had their turn yet. Where was Samuel when she needed him?

For those that didn't want to enter the mine, and there were quite a few of the older evacuees, who feared the dead souls of miners, or the Sleeping Army, there was a bonfire outside built from the firewood that Karlov and Elektra had brought, and there was the enticing aroma of cooking carp emanating from that direction, because Slepý Bobek and Bláznivý Marek had set up an ingeniously improvised grill.

Pawel, Michal and Basil had got into the canteen early, the two brothers ate their rations as if it were a race, with Pawel winning because he was the only one who could use both hands and then Pawel wanted to disappear outside to the bonfire. Basil couldn't eat as fast as the brothers because his damaged arm was quite a mess and it languished in a sling. He couldn't get the hang of eating with one hand but Pawel ignored his objections because he couldn't or wouldn't understand him.

"Delej Basil!" Pawel said in Slavik, meaning hurry up, but the word sounded more like the English word delay so it left Basil confused, "If we stay here they will making us wash dishes!"