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Martin heard that there were wounded attackers coming in and headed over to the clinic to make sure that they had enough guards on site. Their doctors were precious, especially now that it was flu season. They couldn’t let anything happen to them.
Darrell and Clay were on the front door.
“Everything okay?” Martin asked
“Three wounded,” Clay reported. “None of them ours,” he added proudly.
“Good to hear.”
Darrell opened the door for him. The waiting room was empty of patients. The call to arms had sent everyone scuttling making the clinic unusually quiet. The gate into the hallway was propped open. Martin went through, scanning the area for activity.
Ruth came out a doorway, saw him and started to report. “One didn’t make it.”
“And the other two?”
“One’s iffy, the other has a flesh wound and a broken ankle. But they’re skin and bones. No secret there as to why they attacked Creamery.”
“Can I see them?” Martin asked, to be polite. He’d see them whether Ruth gave him permission or not.
She waved in the direction of the main ward before going back into her office. Martin didn’t like that they had put the wounded attackers in the same place as Tillie. He hurried down the corridor getting up a full head of steam before he saw the Watch. He should have known that Tall Joe would have set up security. The two attackers were at the far end of the room with four men guarding them and Tall Joe obviously checking in on them. One of the wounded men was unconscious, but the other was sitting up eating.
Tall Joe broke away from the group, gesturing Martin back into the hall. “He’s just a kid,” he said quietly.
“What’s his story?” Martin asked.
“They needed food. Didn’t think they had a choice, but he says they don’t have much in the way of weapons.”
“So they set a fire instead? Not very smart.” Martin glanced back into the room where Helen was talking to the young man. “Did he give you any numbers?”
“I figured you’d want to question him, so I haven’t asked anything, but he’s been talking nonstop since he arrived.”
“Let’s keep a close eye on both of them.”
“The other guy is borderline,” Tall Joe continued. “Blood loss and burns. He went down too close to the path of the wildfire, and it took our guys a while to find him.”
“He’s lucky we’re the kind that look,” Martin said grimly. He dropped his voice to ask the next question. “Any word on Tillie?”
“Still sleeping.”
“I guess that’s a good thing. Last year, they were gone in a couple hours. Maybe that means it won’t be lethal this year,” he said.
“Here’s hoping,” Tall Joe said fervently.
“Let’s talk to the kid.” Martin went back into the ward. He didn’t want to think about losing Tillie. They weren’t ready to lose people like that. Angus could insist on all the cross training and apprenticing he wanted, some people were simply irreplaceable.
Helen was sitting with the kid. She stood up to give Martin her chair. “This is JoJo. He’s fourteen and is a member of Maisey’s Band.”
“Thanks,” Martin said with an appreciative nod to her. “Who’s Maisey?” he asked JoJo.
The boy looked like he’d rather be talking to Helen. “Um, she’s the leader,” JoJo said.
“How big is this band?” Martin asked.
“It kinda changes. You know, people come and go. We’ve been with her since last fall because she had this really sweet like hole-up, and there was plenty of food.”
“But not any more?”
“No. Cause these new guys came, and I think they were stealing. You know? Maisey was fair. We all got the same stuff. But sometimes I’d help her give stuff out and after those guys came, there would be stuff missing.”
Martin nodded. “And these new guys, they were okay with Maisey being in charge?”
“Well sometimes they would want to do crazy stuff. Like attacking the dairy. Wow. We didn’t know you guys had guns.”
“Why didn’t you just ask for help?”
“Um, yeah. That’s kinda what Maisey wanted to do, and Rusty told her it would be easier to just take it. And he got everybody kinda worked up about what they had. You know, tons of food and kill a cow and have a big barbeque and all.”
“Those are dairy cows,” Martin said. “You kill the cow, you don’t get any more milk.”
“Yeah. Maisey said that, too.” JoJo hung his head guiltily. “But it sounded really good at the time. We were eating this mushy stuff that was all watered down, and some meat would have been so good.”
Martin glanced at his tray. “You get enough to eat?”
“Yeah, thanks. That was great. You guys got a lot of food?” he asked hopefully.
“We have enough to share with people who are willing to work for it,” Martin said pointedly.
“Oh. Well, I can’t do much ‘cause of my leg,” JoJo said in a rush. “But I could try to do something. Only I gotta get my sister first.”
“She’s in Maisey’s Band, too?”
“Yeah. Gracie. She’s probably goin’ crazy looking for me.” He frowned. “I take care of her, you know?”
“I could send someone to go get her,” Martin said innocently. “Where do you think she is?”
JoJo’s face fell. “I dunno. That fire was stupid. Maisey got really mad ‘cause she didn’t know they were going to do that. And last I looked it was headed for the bus, so I dunno how they’d get out of there.” His eyes grew round in alarm. “Oh no, what if Gracie...”
“No one was trapped,” Martin said quickly. “We made sure that the fire was out. We searched the area, and you three were the only ones injured.”
“Okay, okay, so you searched?”
“Checked the whole area,” he glanced at Tall Joe who got the hint and edged away. “No little girls were there.”
“She’s not little. She’s only two years younger than me. And she’s pretty tall.”
“Then we would have found her,” Martin assured him.
“Okay.” Jojo fingered the sheets nervously. “Yeah, you woulda found her.” He nodded as if to convince himself. It must have worked because he gave Martin a bashful smile. “Um, so what do I need to do to get seconds?”