THE BATTLEFIELD OF LOVE
Part 54's. Broken Arrow City's
I'll come back for you.
Those words were ringing all afternoon and night in my head. Andrew said he liked me. It still left a lingering sense of that little kiss.
“Do not daydream.” Susan came up to me sitting on the triage. We rested in the middle of a window that was still hollow, cold air, only fixed with a wire so that nothing could crawl in.
“Susan, Andrew says he likes me.” Susan looked at me and smiled.
“Not something surprising. I expected it. He seems to have special attention with you.”
“I'm still waiting for Fred. Where is he now.”
“Entah Jen, it's been months. Almost five months, you don't know what happened, Jen's messed up world, if we live today, can still eat, maybe it's a miracle, 20% the world's population is estimated to have been victims.30% of cities in America are no longer liveable, life seems to be about to end. I'm not downplaying your expectations, but if he's alive he won't try to get home from Dallas to El Paso, he's still got family there, it's only a ten-hour drive by road. You have to be realistic Jen.”.
My tears are falling back. Should I throw away my hope. I sniffled beside Susan.
“Jen, if Fred is alive it's good, even if the chances are small. But you should know maybe it's just a little hope for months. I think you should start letting it go and accepting the truth. Andrew's a good man I guess.”
Accepting the hope that maybe Fred is dead. I don't think I want to believe in such a reality. I really had to let go of my hope all along. This storm felt more tore my heart apart than just my exhausted body.
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A gunshot rang out this morning blind, waking me up from sleep too early.
“What is it?” I'm on standby right away
There is infected on the outside of the camp parimeter, the, the missing sensors were replaced with stone-filled cans suspended in repaired barbed wire to signal that a brainless intruder was looking for your flesh.
Life now is a fight between brain eaters and humans.
In the past month, the farmlands around Henryetta have been mostly repopulated. There are additional refugees from Siloam Spring. Commanders and army engineers work to re-enable life so that we can meet our basic needs, and support the army based here. The situation at Henryetta is good enough. People here have learned to defend their lives properly, at least they won't get bitten again at night, all trying to take care of each other. Safe settlements have been made and as recently as many agricultural workers come to work to make the food supply awake.
You know what it's like back in medieval times again. All the main cities that still survive like must be fortified by a large fence. Super tight escort. The soldiers rotated back to the city to eradicate the rebels. Farms are concentrated around the city. People have to work under military authority so they can live.
But the sad thing is all the big cities especially on the east and west coast are the cities that fell the worst. LA, San Diego, Seatle, Portland, San Francisco is uninhabitable because it is full of tens of millions of infected and survivors spread to small towns and outback trying to defend themselves best with small clusters.
One thing is for sure all foods must be hot, raw and cold foods be terrible, salads are no longer on the menu, medium rare steaks have been thrown out of the box of garbage, unless you want to bear the risk of turning into infected, even the fruit raises the fear of having to wash, as clean as it is with clean water, if necessary dipped briefly in hot water, then, peel the skin with a knife and clean hands to make sure it is not contaminated because scientists have not found a way to avoid infection.
But after strict rules on hygiene and raw food were put in place, new cases of infection were reported to be severely declining. So the task of the troop groups is to make the perimeter of the city new habitable and clean up the fallen cities. Now the focus is on reducing refugees and making clusters habitable so that people can organize their lives again in cities running farms and staple industries.
The government is trying to establish secure self-sufficient cities, trying to keep the basic economy running, humans are trying to adapt to form their own safe clusters, while soldiers are deployed to kill each infected, cleaning the city.
“We're going! In two days.” Our lead Dr. Joseph came with a notice.
“Because our soldiers to the north, this area is clean, and the farm is running, the medic team will join in the suburb of Broken Arrow, our army is fighting to clean up Broken Arrow and Tulsa, our army is cleaning up, there is one area with a complete hospital building, ready to be occupied, along with its command center. We will join two other medical teams, so our strength will be around 80 plus local doctors and nurses. There will be 4000 soldiers joining forces to liberate Broken Arrow and Tulsa. There are hundreds of thousands infected in that city.” A week after Andrew's departure we finally got the news of the transfer. James informed us after he returned from the command building.
“Finally we have a fixed building. “ Finally we are closer to civilization again.
“Finally we return to the city.” Everyone is relieved now.
“We will start moving containers in two days. Place all your medicines and equipment into two main containers. But we're not going to dismantle this place, it's still going to be a refugee area. And there's a guard post. Medical soldiers who will use this place and if needed we will come here.” Tulsa and Broken Arrow
In two days we drove forty-five minutes north and finally met with a large complex of areas full of soldiers with a permanent hospital building. Plus the buildings in the area became a new military camp. We will support this major operation. It feels a relief once, can meet the brick intact.
It was already afternoon when we set up finished arranging all the nurse and doctor shifts. And we're resting for work tomorrow morning.
“You're already here.” I was in the lobby in civilian clothes when I heard that voice.
“Andrew..” His smile made me smile. Ah it's just fitting that I didn't find Susan she must be with D’Angelo.
“How are you?”
“Good, as you can see.” Ever since that confession I thought Susan's words might be true, it's been almost five months, maybe I should learn to let Fred go. “I was we found the building again actually.” I laughed because I was still relieved to be back in the building.
“Hmm camping in the open is not so fun.” She still sees me, maybe glad to see me again. “You want a little walk. The safe area around here is quite large.” He took me for a walk while sitting down to dinner in the soup kitchen, saying he would go into Tulsa tomorrow morning with hundreds of people as the first wave.
“Be careful, I don't know if there is such a smart infected as we found in Springdale.”
“I'll be careful. I promised I'd always come back to you.” I saw him with a hot face. I don't know how this is going to work. But I owe Fred everything, I feel like he's still out there.
“I,.. hope you always come back. But I can't tell you anything yet.”
“I understand, take your time, I know you expect your loved ones back. Accepting reality takes time. I appreciate the fact that you're a loyal lover, after all I still have to fight outside for months to come. But I'm always happy to come home here and see you again.”
“Thank you for always taking care of me.” I remembered my first assignment in the fields where we were surrounded by hundreds of infected.
“You don't have to say thank you. It's our job to look after each other.”
He's handsome, a good soldier. If Fred can never come back after the summer, maybe I have to accept the fact he can never come back, while life has to go on.