Battle Cry - Leon Uris [250]
Kyser moved to the last stretcher. “He got it in the face and the leg,” the corpsman said.
“Give me a sponge.” The doctor wiped the caked gore and dirt away. “The big Swede…I was at his wedding.” He opened Andy’s eye and turned a flashlight on it. “Dilated…pulse thready. Rip those dungarees off, I want to take a look at that leg.”
He studied the mangled bone and flesh and felt the pulse once more. “Morphine.” He flipped the boy’s dogtag over and wiped it clean to read. “Pedro, get a thousand cc’s of type O ready. We’re going to have to cut above the knee. Pedro, dammit, answer up…where is he? I sent him out a half hour ago.”
“He hit a land mine, Doc.”
“Get…get…this boy ready. Plasma…amputation…”
“Hit the deck!”
Divito dashed into the tent.
“Another buffalo on the beach, Doctor.”
“You walking wounded help with the stretchers there. The rest of you get tagged and get aboard the buffalo.”
“Doc, let me stay and help you.”
“Your arm is in bad shape, son. You’d better evacuate.”
“I’ll stay on too, Doc. You need help.”
“Dammit! You people get out of here! You’re just cluttering up the place.”
“I’m going back to the front.”
“Get to the beach and in that buffalo. That’s an order, Marine!”
“Doc, the shelling is starting up again.”
“Come on, you people, move out, easy with those litters. Hurry and prep that Swede kid, they’ll probably be bringing more in.”
Outside the tent there was a wild shouting and ruckus. “Come quick, Doc. Someone’s gone loco!”
Kyser rushed outside. Three corpsman clutched the struggling Shining Lighttower. “I’m not leaving! I’m not leaving my buddies!” He kicked and squirmed furiously to break the grip.
“What’s the matter with him?” Kyser asked.
“He’s stone deaf. Bilateral rupture—both eardrums, from the shellfire.”
“Give him a shot of morphine and get him quieted down. If he gives you any more trouble put him in a straight jacket. Get him out of here as soon as you can.”
Lighttower broke loose from his tormentors and threw his arms about the doctor. “Don’t let them take me away!” A needle plunged into him from behind and the corpsman dragged him loose. Kyser wavered faintly a moment, gripped a canvas flap, steadied himself, and returned to the tent.
Andy was on the table. Doc Kyser reached for his sterile gloves. At the same moment from the other section of the tent he heard a familiar call. “Corpsman, man here in bad shape.” The stretcher bearing the body of Danny Forrester was lowered to the deck.
Kathy opened the door of the refrigerator and reached for the bottle of cold water. A shadow fell over the kitchen. She turned with a start.
“I didn’t mean to frighten you, dear,” her mother said. “I saw the light on.” Sybil Walker tied her robe, reached across the table and picked up the small bottle of pills. “How long have you been taking these?”
“I…I saw the doctor a few weeks ago. He said it would be all right….”
“Kathleen, why didn’t you tell me?”
“I didn’t want to worry you, Mother.”
Kathy stared out the window into the black night. “They’ve landed again. I know when he lands….”
“You’re just imagining, dear.”
“No, I know, Mother.”
Sybil came up behind her daughter and placed a hand on her shoulder. The girl fell into her mother’s arms. “I’ve tried to be brave,” she sobbed.
“There, there, baby,” mother soothed.
“If Danny dies, I don’t want to live.”
“Hush, now, hush. Let’s sit down and talk, dear.”
“I don’t usually let myself get like this,” she said as she dried her eyes. “But when I know he’s going in…I…get afraid. I dream I see him, all covered with blood…trying to reach out to me….”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“We promised…we’d see it through together.”
“Don’t you know we love you, that we worry every minute of every day with you? Come on now, how about a nice hot cup of cocoa?”
“That sounds good.”
“Feel better, dear?”
“Uh-huh.”
“If you’d like, I’ll sleep in with you.”
“Would you—please, Mother?”
CHAPTER 4
THERE would be no repetition this time of the miracle that saved the Marines from