“Wow.” Rather than comforting her, this news drove home the danger they faced, making her pulse quicken. They were heading into an area where IS fighters were hiding with only an armored Land Cruiser, the hospital’s old Humvee, and a handful of men to protect them.
If they were ambushed…
Had she made the right decision? Was she doing the right thing by putting all of them in danger? If she’d refused to come, they would all stay safe—or relatively safe—right here, rather than heading off into the unknown.
And what about the girls and women who were hurt?
Jenna couldn’t turn her back on them.
They left the hospital, the Land Cruiser grinding its way over rutted dirt roads, headlights illuminating a rugged, snowy landscape, the tail lights of Hamzad’s vehicle red in the distance. Derek communicated with someone via the mic in his helmet. It was all military-speak, none of it making a bit of sense to her.
It will be okay. Everything will be okay.
* * *
Derek foundhimself in a scene that was all too familiar. All of the adult males and older boys of the village lay dead in the snow, the eerie silence interrupted by the occasional wail of grief or child’s crying.
If there was a hell, this was it.
Hamzad looked around, fury naked on his face. “When The Lion hears of this…”
Derek knew that Kazi would scour the countryside looking for the Daesh fighters who’d done this. He might be a petty tyrant with delusions of grandeur, but he was also a useful ally against terrorists. If he found these fighters, he would see them hanged.
“Let’s move the bodies so their loved ones can wash them,” Hamzad called to the other men. “We can prepare graves in the morning.”
While Hamzad and the others moved the bodies of the dead, Derek followed Jenna to the homes of the women who needed help. He stayed outside, on watch, still in touch with the team in Mazar-e-Sharif. They monitored the visual feed from the drone, ready to give Derek advanced warning should anything move their way.
After close to forty minutes, Jenna stepped outside, clearly upset.
“A pregnant mother and her two daughters,” she said. “The younger is only ten. They’re in shock. I examined them, did what I could for them medically, and madethem tea.I thought it might soothe them.”
“It might.”
“What are these women going to do?” Jenna looked up at him, distress in her eyes. “The men are all gone. How will they live in this world?”
“I don’t know.”
Life for widows, especially those who had no grown sons, was rough.
“I need to get to the others.”
Derek moved with Jenna back and forth from house to house, remaining outside each door. His breath formed crystals in the air as the night grew colder, clouds hiding a waning moon.
It was almost midnight when Jenna finished.
“I don’t know what else we can do for them.” Jenna looked exhausted. “They need trauma counseling, but there’s no one to provide that for them. One woman is due to deliver in a month. I tried to persuade her to bring her children and come back with us, but she can’t handle that now.”
“You can’t fix everything, Jenna.”
“Why would anyone do this? These are simple people, farmers and shepherds. They have no money, nothing to steal. They don’t want to be a part of any war. How can anyone just kill them? How can anyone rape pregnant women and little girls? These are their fellow Muslims.”
“I don’t know.” Derek found himself wanting to hold her. “Some people have nothing inside them but hate. You need sleep.”
While Hamzad and his men stayed in an abandoned home on the other end of the village, Derek stayed near Jenna as she settled in for the night with one of the pregnant victims and her children.
“I’ll be out here.”
“In the cold?”