The Gathering of the Clans Book 2

TGC Book 2 Chapter 13

Book 2 Chapter 13

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Mieters Hospital

Terran Eltnam sighed in relief. His patient's marks were in and looking well. Gilbert would survive. He tucked Gilbert's arm under the covers and watched the soldiers removing bodies from the room. He'd never felt so useless before. The Sickness had reduced a doctor to little more than a hand holder. The experience was humbling. They'd lost half of the patients during the course of the night. Quite a few had died from complications such as heart attacks and bleeding in the brain. He stood up and stretched. Enough maudlin thoughts. He needed to get on to the next patient.

Doc Ater sipped his cold coffee. Someone had told him it was dawn outside but he couldn't remember who had told him it and he had no time to see it himself. They'd lost all the females except a two-year-old girl. Nola was a cutie. He propped her up with pillows and offered her a bottle of diluted apple juice. The girl perked right up and reached for it. She seemed unaware that she'd lost her parents. Perhaps that was a small mercy for one so young.

George Calford, Leonard's cousin, was one of those that died in the night.Doc Ater was not surprised that he had died of a heart attack. The man was morbidly obese, smoked, and drank like a fish. Leonard, on the other hand, was doing well. His marks were coming in quite nicely. As weak as he was the man still had the energy to try and climb out of bed on a regular basis. He glanced over at Leonard's cot and sure enough, he was levering himself up again. "Dammit, Leonard! You keep straining yourself and you'll never recover! Lie back down, you stubborn ass, or I'll have them tie you to the bed.

Leonard frowned but laid back down. Ater fixed the covers and pulled a chair over to the bedside. "How many did we lose Doc?" Ater sighed. "So far a little over half." Leonard closed his eyes and choked up. "You have to promise me Doc that if we lose too many to make it on our own through the winter you'll bring us to Pepepski. I won't risk my people anymore. This is all my fault."Ater frowned. "This is no one's fault except the Sickness. You did what you thought best with the information you had. Nobody could have expected more from you than that."

"But people left to go to Pepepski." Ater nodded. "You drew a line they couldn't tolerate anymore and George did not help things."Leonard nodded. "That's why you left too." Ater nodded."How are things in Pepepski?" Ater smiled. "They're going as well as can be expected. You know, the scientists say we have more survivors in this area than any other. That's one of the reasons why they came here to investigate." Leonard gasped. But our numbers are so small." Ater nodded. "They've got whole areas where nobody survived. Hell, Adams County is sending us the couple of handfuls of survivors they have and that's a whole county."

Leonard lay there and tried to wrap his head around that many dead. "You heard Ian's broadcast right?" Leonard grimaced. "I was kind of in and out of it Doc, not sure what all I heard." Ater grinned and got Leonard up to speed. "Males can get pregnant now! Well shit! Umm Doc, I need a favor..." Ater smiled. "You want me to check Earnest for you." Leonard gasped. "You know about us?" Ater smiled and nodded. "I've known about you two for years now." Leonard blushed. "I love him Doc but with my job... well you know how it is." Ater nodded. "As for checking Earnest, I already did. You're going to be a papa."Leonard smiled and then frowned. "How am I going to keep up with a kid at my age?" Ater laughed and stood up. "You'll figure it out. I'll send Earnest over to you so you two can talk."

Colonel Keir Gilbert was bored out of his mind. He hated these types of missions. The men were busy helping the doctors. Not one man had complained about their duties. They helped feed people and change the sweat-soaked bedding. They even went so far as to help clean up the patients after they messed themselves. Keir shuddered. Nursing the sick was not his cup of tea. Hell, just getting along with people was difficult for him.