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On the other side of the road, the northern line was likewise digging in Soldiers were hollering, and in the light of a dozen siunpowder and shot, Mercy saw a striped flag waving over the trees She saw it in pieces, cut to rags by shadows and bullets, but flying, and co closer All around Mercy, soldiers cast up barricades of wood or wire, and where cannon felled trees, the trees were gathered up--by thecraft, which were equipped with retracting arms that could lift much e band ofA wild-​eyed infantryman pointed at the ruins of the cart and hollered, "Barricade!"

In thirty seconds, it was hauled out of the road and then was further dissected for dispersing along the line

Clinton was back in his ele his fellow soldiers He took Gordon Rand by the arm, since Gordon seemed the least injured and most stable male civilian present, and said, "Get everyone to the back of the line, and then take theet back toof the war, now brought into the woods--which co, even the sound, even the s a battle inside so rooain?"

"That way!" Clinton demonstrated with his now-​characteristic lack of precision "Just get to the back of the line, and ask so closer; if ours don’t catch up, we’re all of us fish in a barrel!"

Most of the party took off running behind Rand, but Ernie hesitated "Nurse?" he said to Mercy, as looking back down the road, the way they had co the captain, and the copilot, and Larsen" She looked at Ernie "I told Dennis I’d try and find hied "I’ll be better off by ot my red cross on"

She mustered a smile that was not at all happy

Ernie didn’t return it He said, "No way,a lady alone on a battlefield"

"You’re not a soldier"

"Neither are you"

It was clear that he wouldn’t be moved Mercy sized that up in a snap; she knew the type--too chivalrous for his own good, and now he felt like he owed her, since she’d done what she could to take care of his hand Noas bound to take care of her, too, or else leave the debt to stand Yes, she knew that kind Her husband had been that kind, though she didn’t take the tiht then

"Suit yourself," she told hi the hood up over her head and adjusting her satchel so that the red mark stood out proht keep her froht not

"Behind the barrier--we can’t juone up while they stood there, pieces and s meant to tear huh it, that would’ve left her in the middle of the worst of the cross fire, and that wouldn’t do Especially not with Ernie tagging along

So they wound their way through the soldiers, getting sworn at, shouted at, and shoved toward the safety they didn’t want every step of the way until they’d gone far enough east, away from the relative safety of the rails, that the barricade hadn’t yet found purchase and the road was not quite the highway of bullets that it had beco out for Larsen--wondering if she’d passed hi if he’d even survived falling out of the swiftlycart "Captain? MrMr Copilot? What was his na? Mr Scott? Can anyone hear me?"

Probably more than a few people could hear her, but it sounded like the fighting was heating up back where the cart had crashed and been disasse any attention to the cloaked nurse and the bandaged dirigible crewain, and Ernie took up the cry, to as ether they tried to skirt the line of trees and keep their heads low as they walked up and down the strip where they concluded the cart had most likely co culvert, into a cut in the earth where spring rain had carved a deep V into a hill, they got a response

"Nurse?" The response was feeble but certain It called like the men called from the cots, back at the hospital Nuss?

They scarcely heard it over the battle, and it was all Mercy could do to concentrate on the sound--the one little syllable--over the clash a hundred yards away The footsteps were still sto closer with every few steps; she shuddered to iht be, that walked back and forth along the front and sounded er than the Zephyr itself Whatever it was, she didn’t want to see it She only wanted to run, but there ca: "Nurse?"

"Over here!" Ernie said "He’s down here!" And he was already sliding down there, toward the rut in the earth where Larsen had landed

"I thought it was you," Larsen said when Mercy reached hiht?"

"He’s fine He’s on his way to the rail lines, where the train’ll pick hio, but he went I told hiood" He closed his eyes aon so to be just fine, too"

"I think youhi broken?"

"My foot hurts," he said "But it always hurts My head does, too, but I reckon I’ll live"

She said, "You’d better Co snapping sound, and everything ca, but I don’t recall anything else," he elaborated while the Mercy and Ernie pulled hione, but he waved away their attempts to assist hi, but I can do it"<ins class="adsbygoogle" style="display:block" data-ad-client="ca-pub-7451196230453695" data-ad-slot="9930101810" data-ad-format="auto" data-full-width-responsive="true"></ins>