“Ms. Johnson,” The President asked after they had finished briefing us, “I would like to know what happened the day of the attack that brought you here, if you don't mind sharing.”
“Yeah, of course,” I said reluctantly “Just bear with me, I haven't talked to anyone else about it before now.”
“Of course, take your time.” She said sitting down a digital recorder.
“What's that for?” I asked
“For Jerry and I to consult, if we need to.”
“Ok,” I said as I began “Well we had been on the run for two or three weeks, I can't remember how long. Connor had torn up his arm pretty badly trying to scale a cliff, his face as well.”
“Ahh, I wondered how he got those cuts and scrapes.” Johann said to himself.
“Right,” I continued “So we found this ranger's cabin a few days later and this guy, Mike, was there. He was acting really weird, nervous even. We stayed there over night and Connor found a radio stuck to the bottom of a table when he was going through his bag.”
“The next day Connor made Mike show him around, letting him think he was just curious about the place. In actuality, what he was doing was looking for an exit strategy and signs of whoever was forcing him to use that radio. I don’t think he was a bad guy, but he was scared and willing to throw away our lives to save his own.”
“While they were out, the radio went off. The guy was speaking English with a thick oriental accent. He came across a few times asking for an update. I didn't answer, but I took the radio into the other rooms and got our bags ready to go. When Connor and Jesse got back, I heard him trying to distract them while I was waiting in the other room. They didn't realize I had the radio. Then, Connor came into the room pretending to look for me. I handed him the gun and we walked back out. Connor was pleading with him, he didn't want to kill him. The guy had been almost begging us to make a difference the night before, I think he really meant it at the time.”
“What happened next Liz,” Johann said, his hand on my knee, gently coaxing me.
“He went for the radio,” I said choking up a little, “It wasn't there, but Jesse didn't know that. He shot him, three times in the head.”
“He did the right thing,” Rigalio assured me.
“I know, believe me I know.” I replied, “It's just that, well he's so young and he's had to kill so many people because he was unlucky enough to cross our path.”
“He's very lucky to be alive, darling” Johann said.
“We made a frantic dash to the gator,” I continued, “The Chinese had already sent scouts, they were chasing us. They must have known something was wrong after he never replied. Jesse was in the back shooting at them to hold them off. That's when he got shot. I climbed back, while Connor kept driving. He was in so much pain. He was crying, he thought he was going to die. Eventually I got him bandaged and Connor had to stop because they had hit the fuel line. He taped it up and made us leave him.”
“I didn't want to leave,” I said overcome with emotion. “I knew he wouldn't come with us though. I had this horrible feeling that it was the last time I would ever see him.”
“He took a lot of weapons,” I said forcing myself to get through this. “The path was only about ten feet wide with trees everywhere. It was ideal for the way Connor fought. He could get right in there to where they would have to shoot each other to take a shot at him. He had body armor on, but he always use to tell me how bad it was back when he was in the service.”
“There was a three inch shard of metal sticking out of the chest plate when he arrived, he was blessed to be wrong.” Johann added.
“So we kept going. I was trying to get to the road hoping to find someone. We had been so close. Only five minutes away. As the trail broke onto the road we nearly got hit by Terry's truck.”
“Terry is who?” Johnson asked.
“Oh Terry,” Johann said “He and his son TJ own the little restaurant down the way. They were on their way back from a hunting trip I believe.”
“Yeah,” I said “They were, they barely stopped in time. They almost t-boned us, the truck went sideways when they slammed on the breaks. They saw Jesse bleeding and thought it was a hunting accident, then TJ saw the assault rifle. I tried my best to explain who we were, luckily they watched more TV than I do. They parked the truck on the side of the road and set Jesse up in the back seat. TJ took the assault rifle, leaving Jesse with his shotgun, so he wouldn't have to reload every shot.”
“Is this when Jesse placed the phone call?” Johnson asked.
“At some point yes,” I said. “After we headed back, he must have unpacked the sat phone and called Raul. He knew Raul was in Seattle with the mayor of Portland.”
“They were actually in my office at that exact moment.” She commented.
“Right so that's how they knew where to send the surgeons when we got back, I guess.” I continued. “When we arrived we saw Connor in the distance he was being drug to his feet by a soldier, it was only him and two others. Somehow they didn't even hear us.”
“From the broken ribs, I assumed a grenade had thrown him into a tree or a rock” Johann said, “They were probably a little hard of hearing so soon afterward.”
“We were too late though,” I said. “They were about to execute him. The soldier and his boss, I think. I opened fire, so did TJ and Terry. I hit the guy behind him, they killed the officer I think. They had already started to shoot him, he was falling down when we killed them. I think my shot jerked the soldier just enough to avoid a direct hit in the back of his head. Johann said the bullet grazed the side of his skull and eye socket.”
“Correct, it barely missed his eye.” He said “But I have no way of knowing if it has affected his vision.”
“He was dieing when I got to him.” I said, doing my best not to let my voice break. “His eyes were open, but he couldn't see me. He kept mumbling, I couldn't understand him. We had to drag him to the gator because of all the dead bodies and broken branches around. I've never seen anything like that in my entire life. I thought the Mega Mart was the worst violence that I would ever witness. But this, it was something entirely else. It looked like Connor had slaughtered an entire army. How on earth one person, even him, could have done that is beyond me.”
“What do you mean?” Rigalio asked.
“There were at least twenty bodies, some had been shot, others blown to pieces, a handful had been hacked up.” I said. “You have to understand, Connor was an amazing fighter, but he was a better tactician. Even when he was fighting he was planning and adjusting his strategy in his mind. It was like a science to him. Everything he did was precise and timed.”
“He was amazing with swords and knives as well,” I said “His dad showed me an old video of him at an exhibition once, where his sensei had him surrounded by five people with weapons. It was all for show, but with Connor that only meant he was slowing down. Being careful not to hurt anyone.”
“You know, according to his file, he was pretty heavily courted for a career in espionage after his time in Venezuela.” Rigalio said.
“He never told me that,” I responded.
“Of course not, it would have been classified,” He said “He turned them down with no real explanation though.”
“I think he wanted to go to school,” I said smiling, “He told me he didn't reenlist because he didn't want to spend his life fighting. Funny how that turns out sometimes. Where was I?”
“You were saying how the area was pretty much destroyed.” Johnson said. “By the way, I had a team comb the area and dispose of any evidence.”
“By evidence you mean bodies?” I asked
“Among other things, yes.”
“As we were dragging him to the gator to get back to the truck,” I continued, “He was losing a lot of blood. I did my best to compress the wounds. We had to use every spare piece of clothing
we had on us. He kept mumbling, I swear he said I was an angel.”
“It's ok, darling” Johann said, I had started bawling. “Just take a deep breath.”
“He, umm, he gasped for air as we laid him down on the back of the tractor.” I said after a few moments, “We kind of dropped him, he was so heavy. It scared me so bad, when he gasped. I thought he was going to die right then.”
“But he didn't” I said, “Not until later. We were on our way to Johann's. Jesse had told Raul where to send medics and we were headed here. TJ said he was such a great doctor, that if anyone could save him it would be Johann.”
“He died as we were coming out of the pass. I looked down and he had stopped breathing, I couldn't get a pulse. I was so angry at him. I kept shaking him, yelling at him not to give up. Telling him that other people give up, but not him. He never surrenders and he can't now, when we all needed him the most.”
“It was another fifteens minutes or so before we got here. Johann was at Jeanine's, TJ practically dragged him back. Terry and I laid him on the operating table in the main room, we began cutting away the clothes. Terry was fighting to get the body armor off of him.”
“His chest was so bruised, it must have been from the bullets that didn't penetrate. He had cuts, and bullet holes everywhere. The whole time I kept trying to do CPR, but it wasn't working. Finally after what seemed like a year Johann arrived. Jeanine was running behind him. She was like his nurse.”
“She's been helping me with the local kids for so long, she might as well have a license.” Johann said.
“She was so calm, she just set up everything while you started working on him. You thought he still had a chance. It took almost forty five minutes for you to get a heart beat back.”
“He had lost so much blood, there was hardly anything left to pump.”
“That's what caused him to have the stroke that put him under right?”
“Yes, I believe so sweet heart.” Johann told us. “You see when the body has had too much stress or trauma it attempts to reboot itself, almost like a computer. When his brain tried to hit the reset button, it sent him into this locked-in state, wherein he still has brain activity, but his body is not responding beyond breathing for himself. I do keep him on oxygen just to be safe though, I’ve found that relieving the stress on such a major system allows the body to focus elsewhere.”
“In Captain Smother's debriefing he told me that you had helped pioneer a lot of the procedures used today in major trauma cases.” Rigalio said.
“That was back in another life, Commandant. I'm just an old man living in the country now.”
“Nonetheless, they said it was a privilege to work with you. I told them I would pass on their compliments.”
“Well thank you, sir.”
“Johann, I’ve been wondering how Jeanine knew how to set up those machines?”
“Oh that's simple dear,” He said grinning “She's very nosey and likes to play with other people's toys.”
“I'm not following you Doctor,” Johnson said.
“She's a dear old friend,” He explained, “She's spent so many years helping me around the office that she just kind of picked up on it over the years, that and she always wants to know which button does what.”
“As soon as the helicopters arrived with the surgical team, she went and set up Jesse for surgery.” I continued. “We had stopped most of his blood-loss already, but it was a little overwhelming with two critically injured patients and only one doctor.”
“So Jeanine made two of them come with her to start work on Jesse. You would have thought she was the doctor, to hear her barking orders at them. Jesse was in surgery for, what five hours, to repair the tissue damage. Connor was in so long that I can't even recall.”
“Nearly three days, dear.” Added Johann.
“Doctor Brier, what exactly were the extent of his injuries?”
“Oh my, do we have enough time on that recorder?” He joked.
“Only the best for the President,” Rigalio retorted.
“Well I’ve already mentioned the bullet that grazed the left side of his skull, damaging his eye-socket. Another large caliber round tore through his right trapezius just above the collar bone. His right kidney had to be removed because it was pierced by another bullet.”
“His nose was broken pretty badly, along with quite a few contusions on his head courtesy of the butt of a rifle or pistol. Two rounds penetrated the body armor in his chest, one narrowly missing his heart and lodging into a rib behind it, the other did some minor damage to his lower left lung. He had shrapnel all over, it had to have been twenty pieces here and there. Hitting some large object did much more damage. Whatever caused that explosion, flung him into a tree which broke four ribs and severely damaged his right arm. He also had a deep cut from a limb, with splinters all around it. Some of the cuts were older, I assume from the cliff incident. That would also explain damage to the hand and the missing fingernail.”
“My god, how could anyone survive that?” Johnson asked.
“That isn't all Madam.” He said continuing to rattle off the injuries. “Several abrasions near the throat, were he had been drug by the collar, those only caused bruising and chafing. It looks as if another bullet grazed his ribs where they were broken, taking a chip of bone with it, but I didn't find a bullet there. He also suffered cuts to his wrist from plastic zip ties. He was also shot point blank in the left shoulder, but escaped any major damage, he must have been moving at the time. A few more shots grazed him, the only severe one being his leg. It barely missed his femoral artery due to the way he had been standing. I had never seen one person so severely injured able to be resuscitated. His will to live was incomparable. Which is why I believe he deserves more time.”
“Can we see him?” Johnson asked.
“Liz, darling?” Johann said, allowing me to answer.
“I don't think I have to remind you that seeing his face, will put your life in unprecedented danger.” I said, “But I feel compelled to express that much. We haven't let anyone aside from Jeanine, Terry, and TJ see him in order to keep them safe.”
“Well, seeing as how I am the acting President, presiding over a council of joint chiefs who may be plotting against my life, I think I could do with a little more excitement.” She said laughing, “Jerry here is the only one of those bastards that I can trust. I have to say I’m glad that out of all of them, the Marine is on my side.”
“Ok well, let's go down to Johann's then.” I said. “Oh before we go, what did you mean when you said the Marines were making progress in South Asia?”
“I'm not sure you have the clearance..” Rigalio started.
“Oh for Christ's sake Jerry,” Johnson said. “These two have more then enough information already, allow them a little more.”
“Yes ma'am.” He said, “I suppose a person is easier to trust when you both have something to blackmail the other with.”
“Fair enough,” I replied.
“Well my boys are stationed all over the Pacific ocean, have been since world war two.” He pointed out, “At the time of the attacks we had about 100,000 around japan and another 50,000 in South Korea, due to that little skirmish a while back.”
“The one where the DKRP tried to launch a nuke?” Johann asked, “I'd hardly call that a little skirmish.”
“Correct, doctor.” he continued. “So my immediate orders were for them to start pushing toward the Chinese ports. The boys in South Korea, along with their army have made a helluva push toward the Yalu River. We expect them to break it within a week. The DKRP is imploding upon itself, and it's army is revolting.”
“In Japan, we've been making bombing runs and sending in special forces teams to assault high value targets. They're building an unprecedented armada, as we speak, and our boys are slowing them down like only us jarheads can.”
“Oh my,” Johann said, as he led us int
o Connor's room. Very few people even knew someone was still here, and even less knew who he was. “Here he is.”
“One day,” The president said taking my hand, “we're going to look back on this and reflect upon how you three changed history. How you, Connor and Jesse helped renew our country's fighting spirit. For the first time since we dropped the bombs on Japan, our country is fighting for a cause that they believe in.”
“You are so much more than a man” she said sitting down beside his bed, looking at him. He looked so peaceful, yet so haggard and rugged from all the fighting. “You've become a symbol of hope for not just America, but the entire world. Know that as long as you keep fighting for us, we will continue fighting for you.”
Chapter 21