Rally Cry Read Free Page B

you know, the men of the 24th Corps are already trained in amphibious operations and will take the beach and piers where your people will be unloaded. From there on you're no more concern of mine."
    "A situation I'm sure we are all looking forward to," O'Donald replied.
    "Yes, I am sure of that," Tobias replied icily.
    Without another word Tobias turned and left the wardroom, his officers falling in behind him.
    "Well, lads," O'Donald laughed as the door slammed shut, "I'd say it's time for another round," and with a roar of approval his officers and some of Andrew's people gathered around the towering red-headed artilleryman.
    Going to the far corner of the room, Andrew pulled off his rubber poncho and stretched out on a narrow sofa. Leaning back, he was soon lost to sleep, in spite of the uproar around him.
    There was a blinding flash of light, another, and then yet another. But strangely there was no report as the white puffs of bursting rounds exploded around him.
    Clouds of smoke swirled past, obscuring everything, blanketing him like a fog rolling in from sea. There was a shadow in the fog which gradually took form.
    "Johnnie!" he cried, rushing through the white mist.
    "Andrew, I'm afraid," and his brother came up to him, his eyes wide with fear, arms outstretched like a small boy looking for comfort.
    Andrew couldn't reply. Reaching out, he took his brother's hand and started walking back in the direction John had come from. Through his hand (strange, it was his left hand) be could feel John trembling.
    The sulfurous smoke parted, and there before him was a blood-covered field, filled with a carpet of dead that stretched to the far horizon, blue- and butternut-clad bodies mingled together for as far as the eye could see.
    "Andrew, I'm afraid," his brother whispered.
    "I know, boy. I know."
    "Make me go home to Ma," and now the voice was that of a little boy.
    He could feel himself shaking, the field strangely out of focus as he came around behind his brother, placing both hands on John's shoulders.
    He pushed the boy forward.
    As if he were sliding down an icy slope, Johnnie slipped into the bloody field, even as he desperately tried to kick back away.
    "Andrew!"
    The blue uniform started to peel off his body, and as it did the flesh melted away, like ice disappearing beneath a July sun.
    And then he turned to look back, but now it was only a skeleton, and, merciful God, it was a skeleton that still had eyes.
    "Andrew, I want to go home!" the fleshless skull screamed, and then he fell away, his bones falling apart to mingle with the thousands of bloated bodies that now as one turned, and with ten thousand eyes gazed upon him.
    "Johnnie!"
    It's all right, it's all right."
    "Johnnie, for God's sake! Johnnie!" Andrew sat bolt ■plight, the room now coming back into focus.
    "John," he whispered, as gentle hands reached about him, rocking him slowly.
    "It's all right, colonel."
    Colonel. Someone was with him, a woman. In an instant he felt the rigid control return, and looking straight ahead he stood up and the arms about him drew away.
    "Just a bad dream, that's all," she whispered.
    He turned and looked back down at the woman. Her eyes, dark-green eyes, were locked on him. She seemed to be about his age, in her late twenties or early thirties, with pale skin and high cheekbones. Her hair was drawn up under the bonnet of a Sanitation Commission nurse, but a thin strand hung down over her forehead, revealing a pleasing reddish-blond tint.
    She stood up beside him, coming just to his shoulder.
    "I was walking the deck and I thought I heard someone in here, so I came in and found you," she whispered, almost apologetically.
    "It was nothing," Andrew said in a quiet, distant voice.
    "Of course," and she reached out and patted his hand in a friendly fashion. "Don't be embarrassed, colonel. I've been a nurse since the beginning of this war. I understand."
    There was a moment of awkward silence.
    For the first time he noticed the