The Rain: The End by Marietta Standlee (good summer reads TXT) 📕

right and left while Derek and Sean carry Colin towards the waiting Humvee.

Richard jumps out and opens the door for them before he scrambles onto the backseat. He pushes his torso out of the window to shoot at a few straggling maniacs.

To my right, a maniac pulls herself forward by her arms, somebody shot her in the back, shattering it. Her now useless legs hinder her progress. I aim for her head and put her out of her misery, turning any emotions I feel for her off.

Shots ring out from all sides while Derek and Sean carry Colin into the waiting Humvee. As soon as Colin is in, the rest of us pile into the Humvee as well.

I'm the last one, and I haven't even closed the door completely yet when Drew floors the gas and the huge vehicle moves forward. The momentum pushes me into the seat, rubbing my shoulder painfully.

"Slow down Drew, they can't get to us unless we crash this thing," I warn.

The truck slows, and I let out a breath of relief. Drew takes us straight to the hospital, only stopping briefly as we see another clean sweep team run towards us. They must have heard our gunshots and came to help.

I lean out and tell Cory, who is leading the team, what happened. Not many maniacs are left, but just to be sure, I volunteer everybody besides Drew to help them clean the mess up. Nobody grumbles as they pile out of the truck and make their way back to where we just came from. Everyone understands the necessity; every gun counts.

"Take care of him," Derek tells me, pointing to Colin.

"You know I will; you guys be careful," I reply.

"Always." he smiles, reminding me of Colin. No wonder the two of them get along so well.

On the way to the hospital, we run into Captain McGregor and I ask Drew to stop the Humvee one more time. I remember McGregor, the scot; he's one of Briggs hotshot pilots.

"McGregor," I yell out of the window.

"Commander Allister." He jogs towards me.

"Listen, I don't have much time for a lot of explaining, but I need you to get a crew of pilots together and get a few Black Hawks out towards the bowling alley. You'll see an apartment building across; I need you guys to search the surrounding area."

"Maniacs?" He inquires.

I take a deep breath and put on my most sincere face. "Flying dinosaurs. They took one of my soldiers, a girl named Caren Tao. I don't know if she's still alive, but those dinosaurs are dangerous."

He doesn't hesitate, nor is there any trace of disbelief on his face as he agrees. "I'll keep you posted."

"Thank you and be careful, Captain; those beasts are huge."

"Will do, ma'am." He salutes.

He jogs off, and my gaze follows him, thoughtful for a second before I'm pressed back into the seat as Drew continues to drive. I'm eighteen years old, and I just commandeered a fleet of Black Hawks. I close my eyes for a second to let it sink in. All this is happening way too fast for me to wrap my mind around. But damn. A grin spreads across my face. This is pretty badass.

But then I remember Caren, and any trace of humor vanishes.

Colin moans quietly, and I brush my fingers through his sweaty hair. His fever is getting worse. Thankfully it's only a few more minutes later before we arrive at the hospital.

Drew parks by the emergency entry and finds us Doctor Pheng. Once he makes sure that Colin and I will be taken care of, he takes off to help others.

Chapter 11

Doctor Pheng takes one look at my shoulder and Colin before ordering me, "Go find Doctor Paton; I'll take care of Commander Thornton."

I want to protest, but one look into her steely eyes tells me that it won't be of any use. Neither my temper nor my rank will impress the wife of a Colonel.  I do the only thing I can, which is to play along, for now; the sooner I get my shoulder taken care of, the sooner I can see Colin.

It doesn't take long to find Doctor Paton. The hospital is well staffed now that we have so many more people, which is a good thing because with more people come more injured and sick.

Assisting Doctor Paton is Sean's nurse, Jacky Wooly, and I get a chance to get to know the girl who stole Sean's heart. She's probably a year or two older than Sean but so sweet and pretty that I can see where the attraction is coming from.

"Well, here we go again." Paton winks at me, and shrug amused at his next question. "How many times have I stitched you up now?" He wonders out loud. "If we still had a money system, Viv here would have put my kids through college." He jokes with Jacky, who looks at me with something like awe in her eyes.

"Don't believe a word he says." I joke. "I just did it so he could get some practice. He sat in his fancy imaging center for too long. Ouch!" I curse as he injects the Lidocaine into my sore shoulder.

"Any word on Colin?" I ask.

He shakes his head. "I was wondering why he wasn't with you; what happened to him?"

"Compound fracture of the forearm." I hiss between clenched teeth; it feels as if he is injecting me right into the puncture wounds.

I look around. "I'm just glad it's you and not Frank."

He laughs, "I get that a lot. Is he really that bad?"

I give him my best, Do you really have to ask? look, and he laughs out loud. "I guess so. And what attacked you this time?" He asks while swabbing the wounds with antiseptic. But before I can answer, he turns to Jacky, "Last time it was a bear." He winks.

Jacky's eyes widen as she hands him more gauze. "A bear?"

"Actually, the bear was dead when he got me." I