It was sundown as the ship flew over the lower camp. Gad and Dan scanned it carefully trying not to make the same mistake as they had before. The scan showed no life forms, so they landed in the middle of the camp.
“Everyone watch where you step. There could be more booby traps,” Ben warned.
They drove the bulldozer out of the cargo bay. They had picked it up from the bank of the river on the way back from base.
Everyone began to pile everything into a big heap as Rueben dug a giant hole with the bulldozer. Gad’s spiders scattered everywhere searching for bombs or metal objects. They would dig down into the earth and bring up an object then take it to Gad. It only took a few hours before the whole camp was down except the building in the middle of it. Rueben took the bulldozer to the right side of the building and knocked in the wall. It exploded with a great bang, throwing wood everywhere. No one was hurt by the explosion and it started the wood on fire so Rueben dumped it into the hole with the rest of the junk from the camp and everything caught on fire. It burned all night as most of the Rage slept-something they had not done in two days. By late morning of the next day Levi finished the cleanup by pouring dirt over the ashes of the fire and filling in the hole.
They gathered around the monitor and said “Good Morning!” as a group to everyone at the base. Kate, Tia and Naph smiled back at them from the table in Naph’s quarters.
“How is Izzy? Can we talk to him?” Levi asked.
“He has a concussion and can’t remember anything. So don’t be upset with him if he asks you the same things over and over again,” Naph explained. He carried the laptop into the operating room and set it on the table over his bed. Izzy was sleeping so Kate touched his face and said, “Your friends want to talk to you.”
His eyes opened slowly and he said, “Levi?” He spoke in a groggy voice not recognizing him at first. “Where are you?”
“I’m still in Afghanistan.”
“What are you doing there?”
“Cleaning up-you’re lucky you got to go home early.”
“I was in Afghanistan?” Izzy asked Kate. She nodded her head yes.
“Do you know everyone on the screen?” Kate asked
“Um, Levi, Ash, Rueben, Ben” he pointed to each of them as he said their names slowly. His eyebrows pulled together as he concentrated. He paused after he said Ben’s name and his eyes closed for a moment. When he opened them again he looked at Ben. “Hi Ben,” he said, losing his train of thought. “Where are you?”
“I’m in Afghanistan,” Ben replied as if this was the first time Izzy had asked.
“What are you doing there?”
“Clean up. How are you feeling?” Ben asked.
“Tired,” he yawned. “My eyes don’t want to stay open.” And he closed his eyes again and fell back to sleep.
“I guess that’s all for now,” Kate said. Naph carried the laptop back to his quarters. “When will you all be home?” Kate asked when Naph set the laptop on the kitchen table.
“Early Wednesday morning,” Ben said.
“Would you guys feel up to having a barbeque Wednesday night?” Tia asked, excited to have them all home.
“Yes!” they all shouted back.
“Okay, Wednesday night we’ll get everyone together for an early dinner.” Her eyes brightened. “Melo is here and he will be coming too.”
Ben smiled. “What is he doing back here?”
“He moved back home with his two boys because he lost his job,” Tia answered.
“They were so small the last time he was here.” Ben chuckled. “I can’t wait to see them.” He stretched and yawned. “Well, I guess we better get busy then, if we plan to be home by Wednesday morning.”
They all said goodbye as a group and the screen went dead.
Dan started the engines of the Whale and they flew up into the air. There was nothing left of the lower camp but dirt and footprints.
They flew over the main camp and scanned it again. The scan showed ten people in the mess hall. They landed the Whale in the camp and walked out to the building, three spiders leading the way. Ben opened the door to the mess hall just enough to let the spiders in. Then Simeon and Ash went inside wearing gas masks and pulled the men out. The others zip cuffed them and helped drag them into the ship. Again Rueben dug a big hole and they threw everything into it and set it on fire. The air stunk with the smell of the trash burning. The fire burned all night and part of the morning. Rueben was busy all day collapsing the tunnel and then he covered the smoldering debris in the hole with soil.
“One more camp left.” Ben said. They all moaned.
“Yes, but it’s filled with booby traps,” Rueben reminded him. “Everyone make sure that you watch where you’re walking.”
“Gad, I want you to sweep the area before we start the takedown. And then I want everything burned and buried by morning,” Ben ordered as they scanned the upper camp. Everyone watched the monitor so they could see the man holes and any traps that might show up.
“Unfortunately the more primitive the trap, the less likely it is to show up on the monitor,” Dan reminded them.
“Well, it seems we’ve saved the worst for last again,” Rueben complained.
Ben looked at Rueben. “Let’s finish this and go home.” They hit each other on the shoulder and walked off the ramp into the upper camp. Most of the tents were burned to the ground. The building was still standing. Now that they were looking for booby traps, they found five more simple ones like the one that Izzy triggered in the surrounding rocks. Gad collected the spiders that Zeb left the first time they were there. The camp was for the most part clean. There was just one thing that Ben wanted to make sure of before they dozed the building. Levi transformed into his Warrior form and slowly entered the building with two spiders in front of him. He could smell the bomb under the floorboards. Carefully he tore floor with his large claws. The wood broke apart as he clawed at it.
“It could have blown up the half of the mountain,” he said on the intercom, looking down at the bomb. Quickly, he shape shifted into his human form and started working on it. Within fifteen minutes he had disassembled it and collected all the pieces into organized piles. “Ben, what do you want me to do with the bomb?” Levi asked.
“We’ll give it to General Richards with the prisoners,” Ben said calmly.
Levi emptied a box that was in the building lying on the floor next to the wall and put the disassembled bomb into it. Just as he was walking out of building he heard a faint cry in the corner of the building and sniffed the air. It seemed to come from a pile of clothes in the far right hand corner of the building.
“Did you guys see any life forms on the monitor in here?” Levi asked.
“No. There was a small blip, maybe an animal of some kind,” Gad said.
“Well, it doesn’t sound or smell like an animal. It smells human.” Hastily he dug through the clothes only to find a small baby boy covered in defecation struggling to breathe. Quickly, he grabbed some clean clothes from the pile and wiped the baby off. Then he gently wrapped him in a clean shirt. Holding the baby up to his chest he ran from the building into the cargo bay.
“What was it?” Gad asked.
“A small human male,” Levi answered as he placed it into a sleeping chamber and ran a scan on him. It read the babies vitals. The chamber closed and filled with oxygen. “He needs fluids and all the IV’s in the ship are for adults. We have nothing for an infant.” Levi panicked.
“Ben we need to get this cleanup done earlier than we expected or we will have a casualty,” Gad said. They watched the baby through the window. He relaxed a little as he became more stable. Levi worried that if the baby didn’t eat soon he would starve to death.
“Who got hurt?” Ben asked in alarm.
“I found a small human baby in the building,” Levi said growling. “He needs help now!”
Ben sighed. “Contact Naph and take him back to base. Then get your butt back here and help us finish cleanup. Dan, you go with him.”
Cleanup of the camp continued. Ben dug the hole this time while Levi, Gad and Dan headed back to the base with the infant.
“Naph we found a small infant in one of the buildings. I am sending you the scan right now,” Dan said. Naph immediately sent Kate to the store to get supplies for the baby. “This will be a good trial run for us,” Naph mused as Kate ran out the door.
The ship landed and Levi came running into the lab with the baby boy in his arms.
“The child is filthy,” Naph said as he took him from Levi.
“He probably hasn’t eaten for two or three days,” Levi said.
“He’s weak and nonresponsive,” Naph commented as he starting working on him. He bathed the baby and started him on a small IV of sodium chloride just to hydrate him. Kate returned with the supplies Naph sent her to get. She made a bottle for the baby and held him, but he was too weak to eat. He just choked on the milk. Kate held him, looking down at his little face and then at Levi.
“How did this happen?” she asked frowning up at Levi and Naph.
“We gassed his mother two days ago, when we brought Izzy here and we took her to General Richards. We didn’t know that she had a baby because she was still sleeping when we handed her over to Richards.”
“Oh!” Levi said as he walked away from Kate. “Ben, I left the explosives in the building.” His words came rushing out. He had forgotten to tell Ben in the all the excitement of finding the baby.
“I know, we found them. How is the baby doing?”
“Kate is holding him and he is not eating. Naph thinks he needs more time in the incubator and then they will try to get him to eat again. Did you contact Richards yet?” Levi asked.
“Yes, the mother is still on the aircraft carrier,” Ben said as he worked collecting debris, tossing it into the large hole. “We have three days to deliver him to his mother before the ship will be moved to a new location. Naph has until then to get him healthy enough to travel.”
“We’ll be done in the morning. It would be nice to sleep in the ship tonight.” Ben said hinting that Levi should return.
“Sure, I’m headed back now.”
Kate watched over the baby all night. After being on an IV for twelve hours he was finally able to suck on a bottle. She took him out of the incubator every two hours after that to feed him. Watching his little face, she rocked him in the office chair. It didn’t rock as good as a rocker, but it was better than nothing.
“Naph you should get a rocking chair before your babies come,” she suggested. Each time she held him she was drawn to his cute little face. Tenderly, she touched his cheeks and smoothed her fingers over them. Then she would touch his eyebrows running, her finger along the shape of them.
“You’re perfect,” she whispered to him. “Your mother is probably sick with worry.” She smoothed his thick black hair and kissed his little hand as he wrapped his tiny finger around hers. “In a couple of days we’ll take you back to her,” she promised him. He looked at her and smiled for a second, his little lips quivered slightly. Kate smiled back and her heart felt something strange. I wonder if this is what motherhood feels like, Kate thought to herself. She leaned back in the chair, laid the baby on her chest and patted his back until his was sound asleep.
Levi and Dan returned to help finish cleaning before the sun went down. The camp trash was already burning. Ben was on the outer perimeter of the camp to make sure they didn’t leave anything when he tripped another booby trap. It sent a small arrow into the bottom of his right calf muscle. Ben howled with pain. It burned so intensely that he fell to the ground. His skin flushed with fever.
“Great!” he moaned, as he pulled the arrow from his leg. “The one place I don’t have protection.” He struggled under the pain of the poison as it caused the muscles in his calf to spasm. Swiftly the poison spread through his blood. Ben started to have chills and began to vomit uncontrollable. Ash spotted him and called for help. Dan ran out of the ship with the stretcher. Ash and Dan both carried Ben to the ship and placed him in a sleeping chamber. Dan ran a scan on him and sent it to Naph.
“Ash, get the arrow that struck Ben’s leg. Kate wants to know what kind of poison was used.” Dan gave Ben a shot that put him to sleep and wrapped his leg in a plastic blanket of cooling gel and taped it securely together. It quickly brought the temperature of the leg down to almost freezing, slowing the flow of the poison in the blood. Then they brought the camber temperature down to freezing.
Everyone worked quickly to finish the cleanup. Rueben buried the debris before it was completely burned and loaded the bulldozer. They hurried so fast it took less than an hour. Rueben started the engines and took off for base. When they landed Ash and Simeon quickly carried Ben out of the Whale and into the base. Then they headed down the hall to Ben’s quarters. Kate met them in the hallway and they gave her the arrow. She followed them to Ben’s quarters. They placed him on his bed and she examined his leg. He was hot with fever.