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Memories of a Dying Soldier - Chapter Seven
Posted By: Spartan Elessar<spartan_elessar@yahoo.com>
Date: 26 April 2006, 4:46 pm
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Chapter 7:
Rose
36 Hours later…
July 18, 2552
Alpha Medical base
Planet Sigma Octanus IV
2100 Hours
Logan woke up, opening his eyes slowly. The room was well lit and the lamp that hung above his head was bright, blinding him for few seconds. He rubbed his eyes and focused. He was inside a concrete room, covered with all types of medical equipments. The room was spacey and empty. Four more beds, similar to his, occupied the other end of the room.
He tried to get up but fell back painfully. His lower left part of the stomach ached causing tears to form in his eyes. He slowly peeked inside the covers and saw a white bandage around his belly, which was holding him tightly. He was naked waist above, save his trouser that covered his belly below.
He tried to remember how he ended up in here. The last thing he recalled was he and his team pulled back from Cote D' Azur to his base and found it completely destroyed. Then something happened, huge plasma or something hit his warthog from behind, causing a huge heat wave around him and flipped his vehicle end over end.
So I was blacked out, but how long? He asked himself. He tried to call but his throat was unusually dry and his lips were cracked. He checked the nearby table; it had a glass of water, so he got up a bit on his bed without minding the blinding pain and reached for it.
The water tasted like heaven even though it caused a slight irritation on his lower throat. He set the glass on the table and sat upright on the bed. His eyes were itching making him rub it often. He once again examined his wound, but it was neatly secured around his belly. Cote D' Azur came to his mind, he was wondering what had happened to that city. Probably burned to ashes by the Covenants, he thought miserably.
The door swung open and a woman walked in. She wore a long white lab coat over an ash colored gown. Her hair was neatly cut over her collars and her eyes bore a smart look. She looked at Logan and offered a smile. Logan, who was looking at her beautiful black hair that matched her pale skin, smiled back awkwardly.
"How do you feel now sarge?" a sweet voice came out of her red lips and her hazel eyes were looking right into Logan's.
"I am fine thank you. What happened?" he asked
"You are brought down in here for medical attention," she replied and came near him
Logan strangely felt uncomfortable and shifted a bit. "Precisely, when did this happen?"
She took Logan's left hand and checked his pulse, "Yesterday to be precise."
"Oh," said Logan whose stomach was flipping uneasily. "Where am I, Miss…" he checked her name tag, and it read "Rose Thomson." Was that a Miss or Mistress he wondered
"Rose," she replied. "And you are in Alpha Medical facility, four miles from Cote D' Azur."
The sudden mention of the city's name brought back his duty sense. "What happened to Cote D' Azur?" he asked suddenly
Rose placed his arm down and scribbled something on a pad. "Its destroyed sergeant, every single piece of it." She smiled and left the room.
"Destroyed?" he murmured in disbelief
The room opened one more time and a young marine stepped in, he bore a hidden smile on his face as he approached. "How do you feel sarge?" he asked
"I am good Kelly. So is it true about Cote D' Azur?" Logan asked expecting the worst.
"Yes sir!" a strange smile and excitement surfaced Kelly's face. "Every single Covenant bastards were killed sir, along with the city."
What the hell? Did he hear that right? Logan thought. "Explain it son," he asked
"Spartans sir, they saved a huge amount of civilians and destroyed the city with a nuke. The entire Covenant that made landfall on the city was destroyed. And we also won the space battle which occurred on the planet's orbit. A total victory," said Kelly beaming
Why was he so excited, was it because of the Spartans? Logan thought. He knew perfectly what a Spartan was capable of doing, so this news didn't bring any new surprise to him, but finishing off a whole city which was populated by Covenant? That's amazing, even he have to admit it.
"What happened to us?" he asked as his mind shifted back to the present.
"We got hit by a Wraith, sir. It flipped our warthogs causing us to retreat deep into the forest. Unfortunately you got hit on your stomach and bleed non-stop. We were worried so we stuffed some bio-foam on your wound and called for an evac and waited for the pelican. We witnessed the destruction of Cote D' Azur first hand." Kelly said "But we didn't see any Spartans though," he added with a sigh. "Then we got a ride to this medical base sir," he finished
"Anyone else hurt Kelly?" Logan asked
"No sir, nothing serious," the young marine replied. "Please take some rest, Doc's orders. She didn't allow all of our team members to enter, so I will go back and report to others."
"Ok Kelly, tell them that I am fine," he said
Kelly gave a salute and left the room. Logan gave back a lazy salute and rested his head on the soft pillow relaxed and happy.
July 19, 2552
Alpha Medical base
Planet Sigma Octanus IV
0500 Hours
"Good morning," Rose whispered as she entered the room. She had a computer pad on her hand along with a pen. She wore the same colored lab coat, but she wore different clothing inside - a white shirt with a black skirt.
Logan opened his eyes and sat up. "Good morning Doctor," he replied still admiring her beauty. He has worked with many female marines, but this was different. His heart beat rose a bit whenever she looked at him.
"How do you feel now sergeant?" she asked gently
"Names Logan, Doctor and I am fine," he forced a smile, but failed
"Alright Sergeant Logan-" she started...
"You can just call me Logan Doc," he replied quickly
"Then you can just call me Rose," she replied back and Logan nodded.
"Can I look at your wound Logan?" she asked making Logan more uneasy
"Sure," he said uncertainly
She set her computer pad on the nearby table and approached him. Logan slowly straightened, clenching his hands on the covers. Damn, why am I so afraid to a woman? He asked to himself and relaxed a bit.
She took off the cover and watched his bandage keenly, and then she extended her hand to his stomach. Logan motioned her to stop, "Doctor, I mean Rose…I think I am fine," he said. He looked almost nervous and thanked that his team was not here to see him getting scared by a woman – a beautiful woman.
"But I need to see the wounds…now please try to relax I am not going to kill you," she replied smiling
"Oh you won't?" he asked, smiling nervously and she chuckled
She took his hand away from his belly and set it aside gently, Logan's heart missed a beat, and then she slowly opened the bandage. Ok, I am cool…I just need a distraction Logan thought, and looked all around the room. Then something odd struck him, there was a silver chain across Rose's left wrist. He examined it closely; the metal chain was neatly hooked with a small metal disc which had some ancient picture carved on it.
"What is that?" Logan asked even before he could realize what he said.
Rose took a moment to see Logan and then her wrist chain. "This is a bracelet," she said
"Brace…what?" Logan asked
"My father gave this to me. It's an extinct thing – a culture," she said thoughtfully. "Ancient people used to wear these but not anymore. Do you see this picture?" she asked pointing a small strange picture that was carved on the silver metal disc.
"That's called as a Rose, it's a flower. We can't see it anymore; my father was in love with this ancient plant, so he named me 'Rose' and also gave this to me. It's my lucky ornament," she said as her eyes were searching the past memories.
Logan nodded as if he understood, but he still didn't get why would someone wear such a thing in a wrist?
After few slow seconds, Rose finally unwrapped the bandage and examined the wound. His lower left stomach was burned and blackened. She applied some medicine to the open wound, which stung like a needle and wrapped a fresh new bandage around it.
"The wound looks good to me. You have healed faster than I expected, take some rest now. I have to go," she said and turned
"Wait…" said Logan suddenly, an urge woke up in him which wanted to talk to her, but he didn't know what to say. "Can I get some water, I am bit thirsty," and gave a fake cough.
"Sure I will send someone," she said and left, closing the door behind.
"I don't want someone…" murmured Logan totally unsatisfied with his actions around her. Somehow he liked her, not in a very official manner.
1100 Hours
Boredom – for last six hours Logan did nothing other than stare at the vacant room unable move or talk to anyone. "Where the hell is everyone?" murmured Logan. His door must be sound proof or no one was present outside, it was quite all the time. "If I stay here one more minute, I will go crazy," said Logan to himself and got up. Pain rose sharply from his waist to his spine. He almost collapsed, but his determination made him stronger. Without minding the pain, Logan set his bare foot on the floor, it was surprisingly cold. When his legs bore the weight of the body, another shot of pain rose.
He grinded his teeth sharply and kept his feet forward with a support of the bed's railing. Tears almost came out, when rows of pain clutched his sides. Ignoring it he set his second foot forward. "I am going nowhere with this," whispered Logan miserably. The feeling of being a handicapped worried him more than those Covenants.
As if someone read his mind, the door opened and Doctor Rose Thomson entered. She was awed and shocked to see Logan outside the bed on his foot. Logan, who was happy with the reaction, said, "Am I alone in this hospital or am I in some kind of isolated prison?"
Rose took a whole second to recover. "You are not supposed to get out of the bed," she said grabbing his arm.
Logan who was taken back by the sudden contact took a step forward and fell almost into her shoulders.
"Here," she took his arm around her shoulders and escorted him to the bed. "Please stay here and take some rest. You will hurt yourself if you try to move around."
"Ma'am I am a human being and it means I am a 'Social being.' How do you expect me to be here all alone," he said
Rose who nodded her head in agreement replied, "I understand, but…" she searched for the right word, but ended up agreeing with him. "Just hold on a second, I have something for you," she said and left the room quickly.
"Yea sure, I will wait here…I have all day with me," smirked Logan to himself.
After couple of minutes, Rose Thomson entered the room with a book in her hand. "Here take this," she handed the book to him. Logan took the book and examined it.
The book itself was old, very old…but kept in a very good condition. The front cover had a woman standing near a lake, watching her reflection on the surface of the water. The title read, 'Where is he?'
"It's a good book, one of my father's collections. It's about a girl who falls in love with a soldier." She stopped and then she added, "This might occupy you for few more hours."
Logan looked at the book and looked back at Rose. "A story book?" he asked as if he couldn't believe it. He doesn't even know if he had ever read one.
"Yes," she added slowly.
"So will this thing talk back to me, if I talk to it?" he asked sarcastically.
Rose smiled at him calmly and walked to the nearby table. She pulled a chair and placed it near his bed and sat on it. "Alright sir, what do you want to talk about?"
She sat on the chair with her hands on her lap and watched him with a beautiful smile. Logan's eye met her sweet hazel eyes. Both were staring at each other for few silent seconds, and then Rose shifted uneasily on the chair which made Logan to realize what he was doing - staring.
"I was just wondering, when I will be freed from this prison," he added slowly
"When you get alright-"
"And that will be when?"
"When you can walk without falling on the Doctor," she replied
Embarrassed, Logan nodded, "Fair enough."
"Good," she smiled. "Now please try to take some rest, while you can. I have to go," she said and got up. Once again Logan didn't want to be left alone; he wanted some company – especially hers.
She set the chair on its original place and walked out of the room gracefully.
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