ADAM

 

Tuesday January 14 - 0212 CST

One day until Turbocharger activates

 

I woke with a start when someone touched my arm. Bleary eyed, I blinked several times at the unfamiliar surroundings. It wasn't a bed in my motel room. Instead I found myself collapsed on a couch in a hospital waiting room. Colonel Sterling was standing over me.

"He's awake, Adam. I thought you'd want to see him."

That was when it all came back. Gunny Lively had been beaten half to death and we'd followed the ambulance to the parish hospital. Of course I wanted to see him. Still half awake I'd forgotten the special package I'd brought along. It was a shoe box filled with a few of my favorite novels and comics, along with a special surprise for the Gunny. The shoe box tumbled off my lap as I got up and spilled out half its contents on the tile floor. It got me a few strange looks but not as strange as they would have been if the surprise had come out as well. With my cheeks flushing with embarrassment I scooped up the scattered books and found myself looking at the oddest thing. My Centurion #1 was on the floor and opened up wide to the scene where the main character was hanging on for dear life on the back of the hundred-foot long centipede monster known as the Scolopendra.

Something about that scene had been worming its way through my thoughts the past couple days. It could have been coincidence but I couldn't help but feel that it was because the metaphor described my new life. Like the Centurion in the story I was a regular guy thrust into a world of monsters and fighting for his life and his brothers-in-arms. Sometimes they were quite literal monsters. Other times it was more of the street trash like the evil people that put Gunny Lively into the hospital I was standing in.

After getting everything back in the box I put those thoughts aside and readied myself for my meeting with the Gunny. I knew it would be tough because of all the surging emotions railing at me. Half of it was the dread and utter helplessness of nearly losing someone you cared about. The other half was blind rage at the perpetrators. I didn't want Gunny Lively to see either of those. So I did my best impression of Colonel Sterling and put on a poker face.

Gunny Lively looked like a mess. His face was several shades of purple and green in spots and there were micro-stitches holding together some open cuts. But at least they got the tubes out of his nose and mouth and gotten rid of the neck brace. He smiled with a wide grin at us like nothing was wrong, but I could see the subdued pain in the corners of his eyes.

"Hey guys." He said with feigned enthusiasm. "Glad you're here."

"Of course we're here, Gunny." Sterling pulled up a chair beside the bed. "We weren't about to leave you alone. I also spoke with Sheriff Dubois. You're going to get a deputy posted outside the door 24/7."

Then I put the shoe box in Gunny Lively's lap. "I also brought you this."

He opened the top and stared blankly at the books. "Conan the Cimmerian? Lord of the Rings? Thanks, Adam. I appreciate it, but you know this just isn't my thing."

There was also a Bible in there too. I tapped on its spine. "How about that?"

"I suppose I should use this time to catch up on some long overdue reading of the Bible." He pulled the Bible out and stopped before flipping to the first page. His eyes were firmly planted on something he saw hidden beneath the holy book.

I grinned wickedly because I'd placed it there. That special surprise was his prized Colt 1911. "I put it back together and function tested it for you." After a suitably dramatic pause I added. "Don't worry. I made sure it was unloaded and pointed in a safe direction first."

Those were his words and he hammered them into me during training. I figured he would like to know that his lessons paid off and that I cared enough to remember them. He chuckled at my words with genuine humor, and that made me feel really good. Up until the laughing was cut short by a grimace and a hand clutching at the bruised ribs that didn't appreciate his laughter.

"Sorry, Gunny."

He stopped me from going deeper into the apology hole with a dismissive wave of his hand. "Don't be sorry. You did nothing wrong. The only people that should be sorry are the ones that whooped my ass. They oughta be praying for the Almighty's mercy because once I'm healed up they won't be getting any from me."

I nodded in agreement. As much as I was pissed at our predicament I imagined Gunny Lively would feel it even more. After all, it was him that was in pain. "I just wish we knew who it was that did this to you."

Colonel Sterling gave me that look then. It was the one he saved for when he knew something the rest of us didn't. "Adam, we might have a lead in that regard."

I resisted the urge to crack my knuckles. What they really wanted was to be cracked against the face of the scumbag that did this to Gunny Lively. "I'm all ears, sir."

And then he told me about the other guy was who was brought into the hospital not long after Gunny Lively.