Love, Zoey

Chapter Eight

Beck's p.o.v.

            "James! Duck!" The command shot through the air and I got down on my knees, using my hands to shield my exposed neck.

           "Stay down!" Our commanding officer shouted from his post. "Remember our mission!"

            I stayed down in my crunched position. I could hear the noises from the the other people and the bombs being aimed at our compound. We had been lucky to have shelter at the compound, I could only think about the others that were in tents out there doing surveillance.

          We all stood on the roof watching the bombs as they came closer, none of us had been expecting them to start aiming for us.

          "I bet your wishing you were with Sexy right now." Marks laughed beside me. He was the type of guy you knew joined for this, the death; The bombs; The power; The ability to hold a man's life in his hand.

        He probably would have ended up as a serial killer if it wasn't for the core.

         "I bet every one of these men were wishing they were with their wives and children." I ignored his gab about Zoey.

            "To bad we're probably all going to die before you ever give her that title." He commented, bringing Zoey up again.

            I could see rocks and dirt hitting the ground around me as the bombs went off. "No matter what happened today I want you to know once and for all that Zoey is my best friend, not my girlfriend."

             "When you think about the end who are the people you want around you? Because trust me boy those are you love and if die today God will be smacking you upside the head for not telling her how you felt when you had the chance."  Martinez whispered beside me. "Now men, let's get James home so he can tell miss Zoey how he feels."

       With his words we all stood and raised our guns high over the wall and shot back with everything we had.

                           ***
         "Mr. James." A voice called me out of the dark.

          "This boy is a marine, he will never answer to Mr." The second voice was stronger, rougher, the kind you imagined a general would have.

         "Sargent James." A pause floated between the two. "Sargent James, I need your attention."

         "Martinez, if this is another 0100 wake up call to be funny I am not buying it." My eyes opened slowly and I remembered the events from the days before.

        "Sargent James we need to speak with you. Open your eyes."

         I eyes opened quickly and I stood without a second thought from the chair I had been leaning back in. "Yes, sir."

         "Sargent James, I understand that you went through some difficult times back there." He reached out and shook my hand. "I am special agent Todd and this is my partner Agent Andreason. We have a few questions about what went down with your unit. Is it alright if we speak to you now?" He flashed a quick badge, as did his partner before grabbing a notepad and pen.

      The lights here were a lot brighter than they had ever been at base. The white walls of the hospital's lobby allowed the florescents to almost blind you. "Yes sir." I stood tall and looked the greying man in the eye.

        "Can you tell me exactly what went on that day?"

         "Yes, sir." I kept my hands tightly behind my back and watched as he lifted his pen to a notepad. "We had heard the noises and rushed to the roofs covering to try and see what was happening. It was about 0300 and the enemy was sending bombs our way and we could see it was just about a thousand yards off the left of our compound."

         I allowed myself to lean a little onto the chair I had been sitting in, not allowing myself to think about why I needed too or why I couldn't feel the braces that kept my legs in place.

         The bandage at my head itched slightly but I refused to move from my post. "The bombs had created fires and we could see them from where we were posted. Despite not having anything to show we were there they turned and started firing at us. Our commanding officer, Martinez, shouted at us all to get down and we did. I could feel the shocks and see the debry, but we all stayed close to the ground. Martinez finally thought it was safe so he told us all the rise. We began shooting back, fire against fire..." I paused my story to replay the details in my head. "I saw something coming from the right and called for everyone to get down. I saw everyone do as I had asked, but Martinez was still going at it. I jumped after him and brought his body to the ground, allowing mine to cover his."

        They both nodded along, getting their note written quickly. "You are one amazing man." Agent Todd told me. He grasped my hand tightly and shook with a power I wouldn't have guessed his body possessed.

         "Have you been to see anyone else since getting here?" Agent Todd asked.

          I shook my head. "No, sir. I was the one mostly damaged from being on top and had the worst of all inguries. They rushed me to surgery and I only recently got out of a six hour procedure now." I could feel my body shaking and my knees on the verge of collapsing.

        "Sargent James, I am going to need you to sit down." A nurse was gently pushing me back into the wheelchair and another was connecting a new IV.

         "Sargent James will not be answering anymore questions at this time." She had dark hespanic features and curves that filled out her pink scrubs.

           "Zoey?" I asked softly before everything went black again.

                             ***
            I was tucked away into a hospital bed, an IV stabbed into my arm and an oxygen cord taped under my nose.

          My hand grasped the controller tightly and I pushed the nurses button. "Good morning Mr. James." She was the same nurse from before. "I am nurse Melissa, what can I do for you?"

          She opened up the blinds allowing the sunlight to hit my face. "What happened?"

           "The special agents were talking to you and instead of staying in your wheelchair like you were directed you choose to stand and that forced you to lose feeling in your legs." She chastised me. "You were lucky the doctor even let you go out there and you disobeyed him."

        "You stand and shake a man's hand." I told her as she fixed my pillows. "Are my men okay?"

         Her perfume drifted around me as she reached around me to fix my bed. "You jumped onto a pile of men to sheild them, you experienced the most inguries. Worry about yourself for a little bit."

           "I need to know they are alright." I grasped her hand tightly in mine. I could see scars on my arm, both from my youth and newer ones that had a faint pink that showed their freshness.
          
          Her deep brown eyes stared into my own. "They will be fine."

          I leaned back into the bed, allowing her words to pass through my brain. "Where are we?"

          "We are in Florida. Your family has already been notified that you are here and that you are safe." She had a sassy half smirk that way seconds away from covering her entire face, it was the same one that Zoey had when we would sit together after we put Lilly to bed. "They are on their way."

       "Will everything be okay?" I asked her, my gut telling me she wouldn't lie to me.

        "Everything will work out they way it needs too."