Page 129 of Monsters within Men
Tiny prickles of guilt danced across Zeke’s conscience. If there was something inside him that could help, shouldn’t that be the priority?
The tone rang three times before Leo picked up. “Doctor Herbert?” The connection was poor; his voice crackled through the tinny speaker. “Who is this? This isn’t a good time.”
“Leo. It’s me,” said Noah. “Don’t say my name. It could flag this call.”
Leo was silent, but the background noise of animated voices and people crashing around indicated he was still on the line. “How can I help?” he said at last, sounding wary.
“I’m sorry, because this is about to be a lot. I mean, alot.”
“I’ll do my best, but it’s carnage here. How much do you know?”
Zeke made eye contact with Noah, their eyes widening in a mirror of each other.
“What’s theretoknow?”
A door slammed shut and the background noise faded. Zeke imagined Leo hiding in a supply cupboard. “It’s fucking carnage. Red alert. Command tried to keep it quiet but two massive hordes, bigger than ever before, are marching in some sort of at least semi-organised fashion towards the North and East Wall. It’s like they were waiting for the snowstorm. We’ve sent out drones but they’re near useless, and our bullet reserves are worse than anyone knew about. Every regiment is being called up there as we speak. Plus, did you hear about all those documents and photos leaked to the press? It’s bloody mad here. Where evenareyou? Why are you worried about Command hearing you? And did Ze— did your friend see those letters I scanned over to him earlier?”
Noah cradled the wristband to his ear, slumping to the floor. Zeke could practically see the flashbacks of Rotterdam falling flashing through his mind. Wordlessly, Noah unlocked the cage, and climbed in beside him, curling his body into Zeke’s.
“Hello?”
“I-I don’t know what to say.”
“I have literally two minutes left before I have to get back out there. We’re packing up med-kits.”
“Command ordered all of squads K and E executed by C’s hand. No time to explain why. C are all dead. Same with some of our squads. Sav is potentially bleeding out, we need to cut our trackers out of our bodies, and we’re at the very bottom of our food and ammunition.”
Now it was Leo’s turn to be silent. “Jesus. Is Z.B. okay?”
“I hope so,” Noah whispered, tightening his grip on Zeke’s chest. “Oh, and no to the letters, we’ve had to keep all bands and helmets offline. What letters?”
“I’ll forward them to this number. I can’t help with Sav without seeing her, really. What’s the injury?”
“Stomach. Embedded rifle bullet.”
“Ouch. Your lead medic should only try to get it out herself if she can’t control the bleeding.”
“We don’t have any other choice Leo, we can’t come back. What should I tell her?”
“Tell her I said that she’s got this.” Through the line, someone was calling Leo’s name, sounding angry. “I’m sorry, I have to go.”
“Trackers?”
“What? Oh. They’re designed to be removed fairly easily, as they’re swapped out every few years. Use lots of alcohol, and you should be good. There will be blood, so have blocker on hand.”
Zeke felt Noah grimace against his shoulder. “Running low on that, too. I’ll let you go now. One last thing. Do you want to come with us?”
“What? Where?”
“Unsure.”
“Noa—” Leo cut the word off with a grunt. “I can’t. I have a duty to do.”
“Should we come back?”
A long pause.
“No. Get the fuck away from here. And good luck, my friend. You’re going to need it.”
