Kallen's Atonement by Stephani Hecht Read Free Book Online Page B

middle of the pack, there was already action taking place in the front. Kallen could hear the sounds of gunshots, shouts and the inhuman screams that must be from the Spiders.
    “Look to your left!” somebody yelled.
    Kallen did, and he finally saw a Spider for the first time in his life. It was huge and ugly. With a large, shiny, black body that had a red marking on its back and numerous, red, glowing eyes, it was something straight out of a nightmare.
    Instead of running away, like he’d feared, all of Kallen’s training kicked into gear. He lifted his rifle and began to fire. Gage and Ash joined him. They filled the Spider with bullets, but it continued to advance on them.
    Just when Kallen thought that they were in trouble for sure, the Spider let out a heave and wobbled, its spindle-like legs trembling. It then fell to the ground with a loud thud.
    “Shit! That was close,” Gage breathed.
    “Tell me about it,” Ash said.
    “Medic!” somebody yelled.
    Ash patted Kallen on the back. “They’re calling for you.”
    Kallen felt his stomach do a little flip before he went running off into the direction of the voice. When he saw that it was Shane who was kneeling over the supine body of a soldier, Kallen’s stomach did another flip. Great! Just what he needed, something even scarier than the Spiders.
    Kallen still forced himself to move forward. After all, Shane had never been anything but nice to him, and Kallen did have a job to do. He knelt on the other side of the soldier, noting it was one of the Hawks who had given him a hard time.
    The Hawk had a huge, gaping wound to the stomach. Kallen blanched. He almost turned to call for Doc Featherstone or Jacyn for help, but they weren’t there. It was only him. He was the only one there to save this Hawk—this Hawk who had gone out of his way to make Kallen’s life a living hell.
    Oh, the irony.
    “What happened?” Kallen asked as he pulled his first aid kit off his back.
    He unzipped it and quickly got out the supplies. Moving efficiently, he started an IV and prepared to push some O Neg into the guy, then did his best to patch up the wound to stop the bleeding.
    “Stupid bastard wasn’t looking where he was going and stepped right in front of a Spider,” Shane said, his voice full of disdain.
    “Whatever the reason for his injury, we need to get him out of here and back to the infirmary, STAT. He needs to get into surgery right away,” Kallen said.
    He and Shane scooped and carried the injured Hawk out. While a backboard would have been optional, there wasn’t time, and the conditions weren’t the best. They somehow managed to get him out of the garage without encountering any Spiders and to one of the waiting vans.
    As Kallen jumped in the back with his patient, he yelled to Shane, “Make sure you let Gage know where I went. That way, he won’t worry about me.”
    Shane raised a bloodied hand. “Will do. Now just worry about doing your thing.”
    The ride back to HQ seemed to take forever. Twice, Kallen had to do CPR to bring the Hawk back. But by the time they arrived, the Hawk was intubated and still alive.
    They opened the back of the van doors, and Kallen had never been so relieved in his life to see Doc Featherstone and Jacyn. He began to bark out a report. “We have a Hawk with a massive stomach injury. I gave him two bags of O Neg en route. I had to bring him back twice. He’s intubated, and I have two large bore IVs started.”
    “Let’s get him to OR 1 now,” Featherstone said.
    Kallen hopped out of the back of the rig and helped wheel the cot to the infirmary. He went as far as the OR doors and stopped. Only then did he allow himself time to breathe.
    It was then he began to shake all over. He knew it was the adrenaline crash, but he couldn’t stop it from happening. A cold sweat even broke out over his body.
    “Kallen, come over here,” Drake called from his bed.
    Kallen didn’t even think; he just went over. Drake scooted over