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

Whispers

"All in a hot and copper sky," the voice was weak, breathless, and I looked around.

Nobody should be speaking.

"Clear the goddamn net," I snapped again.

"The bloody Sun, at noon," the voice said, choking slightly.

"Nobody's speaking, Charlie," Donovan said.

"Record, right now," I snapped, tilting my head to listen closely, slowly turning.

"Right up above the mast did stand," the voice said.

Up ahead, against the cliff, a shadowed spot near a outthrust section of rock that was blood red.

"No bigger than the Moon," The voice said, then coughed.

I listened closely, moving as the voice finished the verse.

Rime of the Ancient Mariner

I looked in the shadowed nook and gasped.

He was red faced, blisters all over exposed skin. He was still in his BDU's, the scraps of the plasticized radiation suit surrounding him. His canteen was open, empty, beside his leg. I could tell by the way his fly was open that he'd urinated in it and drank to stave off that terrible thirst. He had put up his Kevlar vest to shield himself, and slightly block his sight of the river.

His eyes fluttered then opened when I moved the Kevlar.

They were blue, slightly bloodshot but not yellowed. He stared at me a long moment, then licked his cracked and blistered lips with a dry and white coated tongue. "Her lips were red, her looks were free," he whispered.

I chinned off the external speaker and said softly, "Fox-One, this is Lima-Six-Charlie, do you read, me, Fox-One? Over," I said softly.

His eyes were still locked on my face shield, "her locks were yellow as gold," he whispered, then coughed.

"We read you, Lima-Six-Charlie, over," Donovan said, his voice tight.

"I have a survivor, I repeat, I have a survivor, over," I said.

"Her skin was as white as leprosy," the Ranger whispered.

"Jesus," Donovan said.

"Proper radio procedure," I snapped.

I saw he had a badge on his pocket and I looked at it.

He was spiked into the beginning of red. Just a touch. Just barely.

"Tell Hydra-Nine-Charlie we have a survivor," I said. I glanced at my equipment, "It's only fifteen rads in here," I said, "But outside it's over a thousand. I take him out, he'll be dead before I reach Fox-One," I said.

There was silence on the line.

"Over," I said, realizing I'd forgotten to say it.

"Roger," Donovan said.

The man looked past me, a faint bit of madness glittering in his eyes.

"There passed a weary time. Each throat was parched and glazed each eye," he whispered, pulling his gaze from the water to my face. "A weary time. A weary time."

The button clicked under my chin and I squatted down. "I'm real, soldier," I said, reaching my glove forward. His hands came up, his fingers blistered and shaking, and touched my glove.

"Special Weapons, I've got you soldier," I told him.

"How glazed each weary eye," He whispered, looking back past me.