Chương 160: Chapter 158 - Redundant

Waking up in a hospital bed was an unfamiliar and unpleasant experience. Even considering his line of work, the last time Cole had been in one of the patient rooms at the DOR clinic was to see Han following the previous Curahee event. This time, he was the one in the white, back-tied gown worrying about his ass hanging out. His uniform was nowhere to be seen. Probably burned after returning from Curahee covered in God knew what. He groaned and raised his arm, looking at the needle feeding fluids from a tube.

His watch sat on the bedside table. He reached across to check the date and relaxed. He'd been down about eighteen hours. And despite feeling like hammered shit, at least he hadn't just woken up from a six-month coma or some horrific shit like that. Considering what he'd just faced… well. It could have been so much worse. Cole looked around for a call button. That being absent, he looked around for his cell phone, which was probably still in his billet. He leaned back, resigned.

He could pull out the IV needle and find someone, but it would probably get back to Roxy, who spent a lot of her non-mission time at the clinic. And woe-be-unto-he who went against a medic's orders.

"Fuck it," he said, leaving it alone and reaching for the bottle of water that also sat on his side table. It was the middle of the night. If they needed him, they knew where to find him and fatigue was already pulling him back under. The next time he woke up, he felt a lot less like ass, but still had a headache that felt like the left half of his skull had been caved in. This time, he didn't have to wait long. A nurse swung by the room just a few minutes after he woke up and smiled in, seeing that Cole was awake.

He walked up to the side of the bed and checked the saline drip.

"Mr. Colton, you're awake," he said.

"I'm Manny, I'm on the 0600 to 1400 shift so I'll be with you for another few hours. Welcome back to the land of the living, how do you feel?"

"I've felt worse," Cole said.

"Got anything for a headache?"

"Yeah, I'll grab you some aspirin." Manny stepped out and returned a few moments later with a small pill cup and a fresh bottled water. Cole took them both gratefully and downed the pills. He looked down at the needle in his arm and then up at the nurse, who snorted.

"Let me check with the doc, see if I'm good to take that out of you, Mr. Colton."

"Just Cole is fine," said Cole. He pushed himself back against the bed so he could sit up. Manny checked his vitals, pupils, and lymph nodes.

"Everyone else back, yet?" asked Cole.

"I believe that the training rotation is still on," said Manny.

"Once they brought you in here, Ms. Morgan's teammate went back to the operations complex." Even a zombified Beast Cult mage didn't do more than put a pause on the training and tryout cycle. As brutal as it was, DOR needed a steady supply of fresh Kickers. Hopefully, Ketchup bringing the thing off world so that it could die outside a Lewis Field would keep it from popping back up again on Curahee. After resetting the tryouts, it would probably still take them the better part of a day to reach the castle.

With the numbers reduced through tap-outs and—Cole grit his teeth—casualties from the reanimated mage, they'd be fine with three proctors. Probably. If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. Manny got up and moved the curtain on the next bed out of the way. Cole looked at the patient in it.

"Oh, shit, is that Delgada?"

"Yes, sir," said Manny. Delgada was in slightly worse shape, bruised with wide yellow and blue splotches and face swollen and still unconscious. Manny took a syringe from his pocket and fed its contents into Delgada's IV line.

"They brought her back a couple hours after you. Same symptoms. She's lucky." He closed the curtain.

"She'll be treated in the LF side of the clinic once an attuned healer gets here. We're going to keep you until we can give you a boost, as well. But I don't foresee any issues and you'll be out of here by this afternoon. Anything I can do for you in the meantime?"

"My phone is in my billet. Be decent of you to grab it. Keys were in my trousers."

"I'll take care of it on my break," said Manny.

"Just sit back and relax, a bit."

"You got it," said Cole. Another hour passed before Manny came back with his cell phone and keys. He checked the IV bag and removed the needle from Cole's arm. Cole got up and took a walk around the clinic's second floor, grabbing lunch in the clinic's cafeteria—chicken, rice, and green beans boxed up and sent over from the DOR dining facility on the other side of the compound.

The withering blood curse had left him ravenous and, apparently, dehydrated, because he guzzled another two bottles of water to wash it down. After the chaos of Curahee, the mundanity of a day stuck in the clinic felt surreal. When he got back from the cafeteria, his phone had texts from Roxy and an unknown number that turned out to be Arley, saying that six recruits had made it to the castle and the rest had tapped out. Cole looked at the texts. Less than half of the original fourteen. And maybe more.

They'd burned through time and resources locking down the tryouts to deal with the mage. That might make the difference between a pass and a fail in a place with razor-thin safety margins like Curahee. He imagined Morganstern shrugging at that." That's just something else that can go wrong in the field, Airborne. Being able to adapt to that is part of what we're evaluating." Still, he had no doubt the rough-exterior woman would give consideration to the circumstances.

She wasn't really as hard-assed as she presented herself. DOR's resident MD checked up on him at 1300 hours, along with an attuned medic to offer consult about LF-related conditions. By 1400, he was out of the clinic in a fresh set of the charcoal gray DOR trousers and an undershirt.

He felt a bit out of place at the compound with no tasking. It wasn't like they'd let him go back to Curahee when he'd just gotten out of the clinic, so he headed to the armory to fill some tinker orders and help with packout for another team's upcoming operation. A few hours later, Jefferson came down to the LF lab.

"Morgan's back with the rest of the tryouts," he said.

"I'm headed over to collect packs. Figured you'd want to come with."

"Thanks, Jeff," said Cole. He followed the armorer up to the first level and hopped up on the running board of the forklift as Jefferson navigated it down into the portal complex. Morganstern waved him over, and Cole hopped down while Jefferson moved the forklift over to the pallet where the tryouts were stacking their gear and loot. Cole spotted the smoke jumper twins, Wayland, Akira, and two others from Ketchup's side of the river.

"This everyone?" asked Cole. Morganstern shrugged.

"One or two more might make it, but they're struggling. Arley and Ketchup are finishing up and helping break down the FOB." She held out her hand. Cole took it.

"Thanks, Airborne. I don't think we could have got that thing off Curahee without you. You're a hell of a hunter. Glad you didn't die."

"I have Ketchup to thank for that," he said.

"I'm guessing he came back for me right after taking that BC robe through."

"Got it in one." Cole nodded.

"Going to have to buy him something nice. What's his poison?"

"Whiskey," said Morganstern, grinning.

"You'll be able to afford the good stuff with that little bonus you won for taking out Bessie before he got Big Wood. Get him something top shelf." Cole looked at the exhausted tryouts clearing their weapons in the clearing barrels to the side of the pit. The tryouts were filthy, worn down, and ready for a shower and the longest nap of their lives. They'd passed one of the most brutal gauntlets possible—more harrowing than SERE, more deadly than any other training in the country.

Hell, a few of them had helped make it possible for any of the tryouts to finish Curahee.

"I owe you a favor, too, after that. So, I think you've earned your pick of the litter, Cole. Got your eye on anyone?" asked Morganstern, following his gaze.

"I think so," said Cole.

"Let me talk to my team before I make any final offers."