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Between Benny- and Sam's cots, Myers sprawled in the chair. She steepled her knobby fingers and stared through them at Benny.
It had been a long month.
"You know, kid, we're all of us glad you had a change of attitude, but that crazy woman Boyde, she ain't too pleased about you keeping company with her gels at all hours. That time you was rolling around the laundry room with Dellacourt was the last straw. It would have to be the Adjutant Gen'ral who caught you," she said, her mouth turning down in a sour grimace. "Might it be, ye chose that time and person to be caught by?"
That had been all of two days ago, and no 'gels' since. Benny was definitely beginning to feel the pinch.
"Not volunteering, are you, Myers?" He gave her a lazy, wolfish, leer. Two whole days. Benny wanted to groan with the pain of it. Two whole days of sweet agony and a burning ache. Myers was a real hag, but his time in the Manse taught him a woman was a woman was a woman, and a woman - any woman who asked - was def'netly better than having the training collar scald a hole in the gray matter.
Myers slapped a knee. Both she and Sam hooted with derisive laughter.
"Hey," Benny said with an indignant glare, "The women were asking. I must o' had one helluva audience when I dragged my bladder to the lav last week. Ain't my fault they like . . . me." He gave Myers a broad, lecherous wink.
Yo, and Dellacourt fainting on him like that. "All that screaming was what attracted that old fart. Maybe I should o' stuffed her bra in my mouth. The Gen-dude wouldn't o' made a fuss if Dellacourt hadn't o' fainted. She said it was the heat. And she didn't mean the dryers, lady." Tongue in cheek, he raised a thumb and winked at Sam. Sam laughed.
Myers glared at Sam. Sam brushed her cheek with the tip of one finger. Balling a fist she poked him in the arm. Sam chuckled, leaning a little closer to Myers.
"Go with the boy, Nell. But from what the nurses say, I don't think he's worth the effort it would take." He fell back and snickered at Benny's sullen face.
Something smashed into Benny's chest, stuck, and was torn loose with a rip of his pajama shirt. "Huh? Myers, I am wearing the dammed clothes. Lemme sleep."
Myers? Benny shot up, his crutch slicing the air faster than Old-Woman Bonn could ever manage at her worst. The crutch smashed into the bridge of the attacker's nose. With a muffled oath, the man fell back on Sam's bed.
Sam came awake with a roar, cursing and sputtering in the high kens.
"Grab him someone," Sam shouted. A tsi:ge:O charged from under the bed and stabbed a needle into the attacker's ankle and calf. Another hacked at his legs with an axe no bigger than a daisy. The serrated flint edge slashed through the heavy denim cloth and into the tender skin of the man's legs, chipped at the bone.
"Get him, get him." Sam shouted for help and the whole ward was up, shouting for the MPs. Men were scrabbling out of bed reaching for weapons left in America Del Sud. Sam grabbed the intruder only to be shaken off. The man turned on him and stabbed down with the knife. It smashed into Sam's chest and Sam fell back, laying half out of the bed, his arms and head on the floor.
Benny nailed the man across the back. The intruder spun, the knife gleaming in his hands. Light flooded the ward.
Horrified, Benny shouted. "Tommy?" Knife scars were thin slits of scarlet across the pale skin.
"I'm gonna do you like your mother did to me at the Stone, you little bastard." Tommy shrieked and dived at Benny, smashing him back into the cot, his hands clawing at Benny's neck.
Hands jerked him off of Benny. Tommy slashed at the men. Realization came over the crazed face. He tore at the hilt of the knife and it shrilled a cry of agony. Waving the knife and it's bleeding hilt, he forced a way through the packed men and ran.
Tsi:ge:O materialized out of the shadows and ran after him, tracking him until a huge, grinning orderly clothes-lined Tommy. His eyes insane with fear of the man, Tommy shrieked at the orderly. He scrabbled up and away from Hanks.
"Demon of heaven," he screamed. "Stay away from me."
Boyde snatched up a mop and came at him. Muddy water flung a wide arc around the corridor and he dodged, the knife hacking through the middle of her bra. A thin line of blood oozed between her breasts. She threw herself back from him and struck again.
With a shriek, Tommy darted for the stairwell. Half the ward boiled out after him.
"Who the hell was that?"
Benny glanced up at the panting Boyde and drawled, "Loose straps make floppy tits, big mama." He cradled Sam's head on his lap and patted the gray face.
She swelled with anger, but the look on Benny's face stopped her from demanding answers. She wiped at the blood and grimaced at the sting of the scratch. A wry smile came over her face.
A hoarse whimper came from Sam. He clutched at the bruise on his chest. Boyde screamed for a gurney and dropped to her knees beside him. An orderly raced through the ward knocking men out of his way. The gurney skidded to a halt next to Boyde. As they loaded the elderly man on it, Benny caught at her skirt.
"Will he make it?" he whispered, his eye pleading with Boyde to make it all right.
"I don't know, kid." the nurse shook her head, tears ran down the plump face. "Dear Lord, poor Myers."
©2003 StoriesByEmail.com
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