Texas Nights - Book 13 of the Damned of the 2/19th

Will You Come With Me?

Battalion Aid Station
15th FSB Operations Area
Field Site 32
Fort Hood, Texas
CONUS
Thursday
19 October, 1991
0300

The perimeter line was secure as I walked along the inside of the berm wearing my boonie hat to keep any of the Ranger snipes out there from deciding to make my day by setting off my MILES gear. The key was out of the laser system attached to the end of my rifle and put into the harness that was on top of my LBE to turn off the receiving system. You had to have the key in the emitter to get it to record firing blanks, but to turn off the harness when it started squealing because it had detected a hit, you had to put the key into the harness and turn it off.  You couldn't have keys in both.

I'd seen a couple of the Rangers running dual-keyed and I'd  told Major Robertson about it. It was cheap bullshit so that they could shoot and not get 'hit', and it didn't do my people any good to face 'invulnerable' enemies and didn't do his people any good to not face any consequences. He'd told me he'd take care of it.

I sighed, lit a cigarette, and kept walking.

I loved this time. Hours of darkness before dawn. The camp settled down. Light rain drifting down into my face. It was dim enough for me to run without my sunglasses, and the constant slight headache had eased up. Cool enough that all the gear I was packing didn't make me overheat.

I'd found out in Saudi that I hated the heat. All those years in Alfenwehr had made it so that my ability to tolerate heat that I'd had growing up in California was long gone. I preferred it cold. My thermostat needed it cold, I overheated quick.

Alfenwehr, and probably the winter of '86, had damaged my thermostat.

The rain washed across my face as the wind shifted direction, reminding me that I wasn't there anymore. The warm feel of it relaxing my frown into a smile.

When I was passing between the ambulances I heard the voice.

"Psst, Chief," a woman's voice.

I turned and faced between the ambulances.

"Jesus," Lieutenant Johnson whispered. She had her NVG's on. "Christ, that's creepy."

"Did you want to say something or just complain about my injury?" I asked her, taking a drag off my cigarette.

She motioned at me to join her. "Shh," she said in a fierce whisper.

"Don't whisper then, it carries," I told her, keeping my voice soft. I followed her behind the ambulances. They weren't the two ready ambulances, we were in between the ones 'off-duty' which were ready to go. She opened up one of the back doors and motioned for me to climb up after her.

I cocked an eyebrow and she flushed slightly.

I chuckled and followed her, closing the ambulance doors behind me. She was staring at me as I sat down on the stretcher and stared at her. She was silent, just staring at me.

"Well?" I asked her, scrubbing the ash with the boot toe. She stared at me for a moment and I sighed. "What do you want?"

She looked around, somewhat conspiratorially, then looked down at her feet. "Listen, about Lieutenant Hendricks," she said, then came to an awkward stop. I waited a few seconds and then looked at her, raising an eyebrow. Her NVG's made it difficult to parse her expression, but I'd had a lot of practice over the years. She was nervous, to say the least, and I wondered what her deal was.

"What about her?" I asked mildly, taking a long drag off my cigarette and blowing the smoke out before tapping the ashes on the rubber mat on the floor. I toed the ashes while I waited for her to say something. Eventually she reached up and turned on the pinlights normally used to allow medics to work at night. The lights wouldn't be seen much further than 20 meters from the ambulance, but provided enough illumination to work on patients. With NVG's they lit up the entire inside, providing enough light for whatever they needed in NVG's. I put on my sunglasses and waited for her to say something, making a "go-on" motion with my hand.