Tenth Daughter, Part 6

 Zero Waste and Verdant Exhalation 

"Plunkit, Plunkit."

The chop thickened, waves engulfed my torso and face, and I tasted salt on my lips. The wind was picking up and a second wave flipped me over as the surf rolled me on to the beach. The sandy beach morphed into an unrivaled expanse of green grass, the downslope of the hill we had just taken, uncontested, but at a loss. I took a last deep breath of salt air, inhaling instead the loamy verge. 

"Plunkit, snap out of it," the sergeant slapped the side of my helmet and my pocket unraveled. "Grab the litter and help get Hagrid to the village." It took six of us to trundle the giant down the hill, stumbling half the way. Between hazardous steps I would glance at his prostrate bulk, sometimes to see his eye lids open halfway. The giant's chest rose and fell slowly, and I prayed it didn't quit, not here, not on this hill.

At the slope's base there was a simple paved road, and one of our lifeless vehicles met us there. The driver had disengaged the transmission and with the help of two other soldiers was pushing the jeep-like transport. We hoisted the gurney onto the jeep and then helped push the car up the road into town. Only one square in, there was a doctor's home, and several of the troops lugged him, not easily, over the threshold. I watched them, unable to help because of the cramped quarters, then turned away from the struggle and walked back the way I came with a few others. The mood was black.

"We should get back to the hill, the Sargeant wanted all hands gathering supplies from the drones."

"Aye, we should," said Goony, but he stopped and looked into the open doorway of a small brick cottage. Inside were two local women and a child sitting at a table. The noon day was warm, and the windows stood wide open, the floral pattern curtains barely stirred in the scant breeze.  He unzipped a side pocket and rummaged inside, pulling out some crumpled bills and a few silver clinkers. "Not much," he said.

"I've some too," said Blondie. She looked at me, and I nodded.

I stepped up to the doorway. "Have you got any wine?" I asked. "Maybe bread?" Sargeant wouldn't miss us, not right away.