Eric Flint - Time spike

He-ah-well…" Frank didn't want to say too much. Not to men like this, when he had one of the only two pistols in the group of nurses and guards. "He'll be back soon," he finished lamely. "Just went out for a bit." The second voice chuckled. "Yeah, sure he did. Went down to the 7-11 to get some soda pop. Damn, boy. You want to get ahead in life, you gotta learn to lie better." There was another rustle and the man connected to that voice came out of the woods some thirty feet away from Cook. Sure enough. It was Geoffrey Kidd. And, sure enough, he had a gun in his hand. The same prison-issue model that was in Frank's own hand. The big, heavily tattooed convict smiled at him.

"Tell you what. Now that you've shown me yours and I've shown you mine, how about we tuck 'em back into our pants?" That seemed… like a good idea, all things considered. Not easy to do, of course. With another mental effort, Frank forced himself to shove the pistol back in his waistband. He wished he had a holster, but if need be he could get the gun out of his pants pretty damn quickly. Of course, he was sure Kidd could do the same. But the convict had his own gun tucked away, and what was done was done. "Whereis Blacklock?"

Cook asked. "And please spare us any more bullshit." Frank said nothing. He wasn't about to let these convicts know that there were dozens of almost unarmed guards and nurses nearby. Cook shook his head. "I'm not stupid, Nickerson. If Blacklock isn't here-and given how jumpy you are-that means you never hooked back up with him. So it's just you and the nurses and the guards that Marie Keehn and Casey Fisher freed from the cages. Which means the only guns you've got will be the one stuck in your pants and whatever happened to the other piece." How the hell did he know all that? Cook shook his head again.

"I told you we weren't looking for any trouble. I can even prove it."

"How?" Cook turned his head. "Okay, guys. Come on out. And bring Elaine with you." Elaine… The only Elaine whom Frank could think of was Elaine Brown, the injured C.O. who'd been left behind in the prison. But everyone who'd seen her at the end seemed to be sure she was dead by now. They didn't talk about it much, though. Abandoning Brown was something that obviously preyed on them a lot. Had she survived after all? And, if by some miracle she had, were these bastards now holding her hostage? It was Elaine Brown, sure enough.

But when she came out of the woods, she came out in a stretcher-more like a jury-rigged litter of some kind-and she was smiling in no way he could imagine a hostage smiling. "Hi," she said. "You're Frank Nickerson. We never really met except in the infirmary and I was in bad shape at the time." By now, Frank was confused more than anything else. He had no idea what to do. "Who's in charge, Frank?" she asked.

"It probably wouldn't be you, as new as you were." He scratched the back of his neck. Pressed to the wall, he decided honesty was probably the best policy. Certainly the easiest one. "Well, actually, I am.

Sorta. Marie Keehn left a few days ago, to see if she could find Blacklock and the others. They're supposed to be with the Cherokees.

She left me in charge because I'm the only one besides her who really knows anything about getting by in a wilderness." In for a penny, in for a pound. "Lieutenant Joe Schuler's with us, too. But he got hurt badly by an animal and he's not in good shape." "Is he in good enough shape to talk to us?" asked Cook. "I don't know, to be honest. He sort of comes and goes." Elaine spoke up. "Frank, just take us to him, will you? And the others. There won't be any trouble." Her hand reached out and held Cook's. The clasp was easy and intimate. "Oh, what the hell.

Okay. Follow me." Frank was worried about how the guards would react. But Cook seemed plenty smart enough to figure out that might be a problem. So he made sure that the first convicts coming out of the woods were himself and a stocky guy named John Boyne, carrying Elaine between them on the litter. That did the trick. Elaine caused so much of a stir that by the time the guards fully digested the fact that they had almost two dozen convicts in their midst, things were fairly relaxed. Especially when they saw that the inmates had brought three kids with them-and the kids seemed attached to that scary Kidd like barnacles. Luckily, Casey Fisher had the other gun at the moment, and she was the first guard who spotted Brown. Her face turned pale.

For a moment, Frank thought she might even drop the gun. "Elaine?" she gasped. Brown waved her hand, very cheerily. "Hi, Casey! How's tricks?" "Elaine!" That shout drew everyone's attention. Barbara Ray had just come out of the cave. Her mouth fell open. Then she started yelling-Elaine's here! Elaine's here! She's safe!-and before they knew it they were being mobbed. Cook and Boyne set down the litter. Boyne stepped back, but Cook came down on one knee next to her. "Dammit, keep your hands off!" he half-yelled. "I'm not taking any risk with infection, not after all she's been through. And where are the nurses?" "Here," said Barbara Ray, pushing herself through the little mob. She came down on her knees and surveyed the way Elaine was wrapped up in what looked like at least a half dozen sheets. "You're James Cook, right? The new inmate who's an E.M.T.?" "Yeah, that's me."

She placed her hand on Elaine's forehead. "How long has she been wrapped up like this?" "Since we got her out of the basement in the admin building where she'd been hiding. I made sure she stayed wrapped up, too. Well, except when she had to go to the bathroom. So to speak.

But she managed that on her own, and didn't take off more than she had to. I insisted. No peeking at the wound." "Even at night," Elaine said, smiling. Again, she reached out her hand and took Cook's.

Barbara looked at the handclasp, then up at Cook. "She doesn't have a fever." "Yeah, I know. She hasn't run a fever once." "Any other symptoms?" "No. Not any. I think the wound's probably healed, but I didn't want to risk taking off the bandages to look." "Good." "Hey, I feel fine!" Elaine said. "Except I'm dying to get out of this stupid mummy wrap." Barbara Ray and James Cook gave her the identical sort of look. Frank almost laughed. Two medical pros, not about to listen to a damn ignorant civilian telling them their business. "Well…"

Barbara Ray shrugged. "I'm tempted to wait until Jenny Radford gets back. But that could be a while. If Elaine's survived this far, and doesn't have any bad symptoms, we should probably get her unwrapped and take off the bandages so we can see what kind of shape she's in."

Cook frowned. The nurse chuckled. "You can't keep her wrapped up forever, you know. Don't worry. We were able to get some medical supplies out of the infirmary before we made our break. The worst that happens is that I just put on some antiseptic and wrap her back up again. In fresh, clean bandages, right out of the original package."

"Okay," said Cook. "You'll have to let go of her hand, young man."

"Oh. Yeah." But when he tried, Brown wouldn't let him. "Not just yet.

Barbara Ray-everybody-I'd like you to meet my new fiance, James Cook.

We got engaged three days ago, as we were on our way out of the prison." She giggled. "It's quite a story, actually. But it's way too long to tell it now. I really reallywant to stop playing mummy dearest." "Well, hell," said one of the guards. "What do we do?"

Casey Fisher asked, that evening. She and several of the guards had gathered around Frank at the campfire, along with Barbara Ray and Lylah Caldwell. For his part, Frank really really wanted Joe Schuler to come out of his state of near-unconscious. So much so that he'd had to restrain himself mightily from asking the nurses to wake the lieutenant up. But they would have refused anyway. So. That left Frank in charge. Whether he wanted to be or not. "I don't know," was his sterling contribution to leadership principles. One of the older guards glanced dubiously at the area where Boomer's gang had set up for the night. Elaine Brown was with them. She'd insisted. And now, she was lying under a blanket with James Cook. With nothing but a small bandage in place of the wrappings she'd had on. Even that bandage, according to the nurses, was more of a formality than anything else. They were quite sure that Elaine had recovered fully from her injury. "Sexual relations between guards and convicts are strictly forbidden," he said. "They'll fire you for that in a heartbeat." "That is possibly the most asinine statement I've ever heard," Lylah snapped. "Josh Edwards, use your head. First, youcan't fire Elaine Brown. She doesn't work for the Illinois Department of Corrections any more, for the good and simple reason that it doesn't exist. Second-" Lylah Caldwell interrupted her. "Just drop it, Josh.