Apocalypse Atlanta (84 page)

That left Jessica free to finally get the pistol out, and she clicked the safety off as she brought the gun up.  “Let her go.”

“Calm down.” the man said, his voice even.  “I’m not going to hurt either of you.”

“Let me go!” Candice yelled, wiggling as she tried to slip out of his grasp.

“You’re right.” Jessica said.  “Let her go or I’m going to make sure of it.”

“Don’t shoot.” the man said, and he turned slowly.  Jessica blinked at him, her thoughts dulled by the pain still radiating outward from her left knee, and before she could recognize what he was doing, he’d put Candice between himself and Jessica.  She raised the gun automatically, trying to draw a bead on his head, but he ducked down a little so she couldn’t see enough of him to be sure of a good shot.

“Someone get Doctor Morris!” the man shouted.

“Why?” a different voice called back.

“Just do it!” the man shouted back, his tone annoyed.  “Now!”

“Let her go.” Jessica said again, though she knew she wasn’t in a good position.  She couldn’t see where she could shoot the man except maybe in one of his legs, and that wouldn’t really help her any.  He’d still have his hands on Candice, and he looked strong enough to twist her daughter’s head right off without much effort.  And, Jessica realized as her eyes continued roving over what she could see of him, he had a gun of his own.

His was black.  It was in a holster on his left thigh, and she could tell from the hammer and back end that protruded out around the holster and the straps that it was an automatic like hers.  Beyond that, and the fact that it was black instead of shiny steel, she was clueless.  But it was definitely a gun.  And just because he hadn’t pulled it out yet didn’t mean he wouldn’t.

“You need to calm down.” the man said, his voice even and calm once more.  “I can tell from your face, from your expression, that you’re hurt.  Probably in shock.  I know from experience what a lot of pain can do to your ability to think clearly”

“Who are you?”

“Austin.  My name’s Austin Carter.”

“Why are you here?”

“I work for Tyler Morris.”

Jessica blinked.  Before she could try to parse that answer, she heard Dennis shouting from somewhere nearby.

“Jessica?  Jessica, is that you?”

“Dennis?” Jessica called back, a surge of relief flooding through her.

She heard feet pounding on wooden steps, then the dull thudding of someone running across the grass.  Candice stilled her struggles, but Austin didn’t release her.  His face remained calm though, continued to look at her without malice or anger.  Moments later, Dennis Morris ran up next to her.

“Jessica, why are you pointing a gun at Austin.”

“You know him?” Jessica asked carefully.

“Yes, he’s helping us.”

“He pulled a knife.” Jessica said, trying to find an explanation that wouldn’t sound ridiculous.

“I was going to cut off the wrapping on your knee.” Austin said, his voice still nice and level.  “Which is swollen enough that the wrap has to be hurting like hell.”

“Jessica, just put the gun down.” Dennis said, and his tone was the one Jessica heard so often at the office.  It was the one he used on patients, the one that said he was the doctor and knew what he was doing.  The one that promised everything would be okay if you’d only trust him.

Jessica lowered the gun slowly, then clicked the safety on.  She drew a breath that shuddered despite her best effort to keep it even.  Austin opened his arms, and Candice scrambled away from him immediately.  Austin stepped back, moving with a surprising amount of grace, and Dennis took his place at Jessica’s side.

“Damn, he’s right Jessica.” Dennis said, an edge of grimness leaking in around his practiced doctor voice.  “Your knee is swelling up like a balloon.”  He turned his head, looking over his shoulder at Austin.  “Where’s that knife?”

“We should get inside before you start working on her doctor.”

“Knife.” Dennis said commandingly.  “I can at least get that wrap off, then we can move her.”

Austin bent down and picked up the knife out of the grass.  Jessica blinked at it warily.  It really was a big knife, as long as her forearm and gleaming in the moonlight.  Dennis accepted it without a qualm and gave Jessica a reassuring smile when she tracked her gaze from the blade to his face.

“Don’t move or this might hurt more.”

“Okay.” Jessica whispered.

Dennis reached down to her leg, and she felt the pain spike as a band of pressure increased across the front and side of her knee.  Then abruptly the pressure lessened, and the pain did too.  It still hurt, but it wasn’t nearly as sharp and insistent as it had been.

“Oh God!” Jessica said, trying to hold back more tears.

“We need to get inside.” Austin repeated.

“Jessica, can you walk?” Dennis asked.  “I won’t hold it against you if you say no, your leg looks pretty bad.”

“I don’t know.”

“Be brave mom.” Candice said.

Jessica laughed, just a single bark of laughter before she gritted her teeth again.  “You’re right Candy Bear.  Uh . . . I may need someone to lean on though.”

“You want me to take the gun, or you going to put it back in the holster?” Austin asked.

Jessica blinked, then looked down awkwardly to see the pistol was still in her hand.  She was still looking at it fuzzily when Austin’s hand appeared in her field of view and took the weapon from her fingers gently.  She looked up as he did something to it, then tucked it into a big pocket on the leg of his trousers.

“Alright, up you go then.” he said almost cheerfully, leaning down over her again.  Jessica didn’t even have time to reach for him before his hands had slid under her arms and scooped her up to her feet like she weighed nothing.

“Whoa.” Jessica said dizzily, swaying in his grasp.  Being vertical didn’t seem to be much of an improvement, even though her leg hurt a lot less now that Dennis had taken the ‘bandage’ off.  She looked down, blinked twice, then felt her eyes opening very wide.  “Oh God.” she moaned.  Her knee was heavily swollen, so much so that even through the jeans she could tell it was bad off.  It was obviously a lot bigger than the right one, which had slack within the damp denim.

“We really need to get back inside.” Austin said again.  Abruptly Jessica found herself over his shoulder in a fireman’s carry, with only a vague memory of him having lifted her up.  He started walking.

“Candice?  It’s Candice, right?” she heard Dennis saying.  “I’m Doctor Morris, I work with your mom.  You want to come inside with us?”

“Mom said you’re a good guy.”

Jessica was concentrating on not throwing up.  Vertical was worse than horizontal, but this seemed worse than either of those options.  Her arms and legs dangled against Austin as she lay draped over his shoulder, her left knee flashing pain every time it bumped against his back.  Her stomach was twisting in knots, and she was having to concentrate to avoid feeling like she wanted to throw up again.

Dennis chuckled.  “I like to think so.”

“Is he a good guy?”

“Who, Austin?”

“I was a boy scout.” Austin said without stopping.  “Does that help?”

“Really?” Candice asked.

“Scout’s honor.”

“Candice.” Jessica called weakly.  “Go with Doctor Morris.”

Austin carried her up the steps of the porch’s levels without any sign that her weight bothered him at all.  Jessica caught a brief look at another man wearing a black outfit very similar to Austin’s, then she was being carried through the back door and she lost sight of the other man.

“Candice.  Where’s Candice.” Jessica muttered.

“She’s right behind us.” Austin said.  She heard other people, but caught only glimpses as she was carried through the house.  Austin went into a room that looked like a spare bedroom, judging by the unlived in look and lack of any personal effects, but the bed felt wonderfully soft as he lowered her onto the spread.

“Wow, you’re strong.” Candice said.

Austin turned and did something that made Candice giggle, something Jessica couldn’t see with his back to her.  Then he was stepping aside, and Jessica saw Dennis coming toward her with a big plastic box in his hands.

“I’ve been worried sick all night.” Dennis said as he set the box down on the chest at the end of the bed.  The lid came off with the dull snap of plastic fasteners being released, then he was rummaging around inside with both hands.  “What happened?”

“I wrecked the damn car.” Jessica said, suddenly embarrassed.

“I was told you called in and said something about an accident, but then we had problems of our own, and we couldn’t spare anyone to go search for you.”

Jessica wondered about that, but then dismissed it immediately when Dennis held up a fairly large syringe and started stripping the cap off the needle.  “What’s that?”

“Well, you’re in luck.” Dennis shrugged.  “Things might be in flux here–”

“No, we’re stable.” Austin said from the door.  “Anyone who was going has already gone.”

Dennis shrugged again.  “Whatever.  But as it turns out, Tyler’s people left some things behind when they scattered.”

“We didn’t all scatter.” Austin said, his tone holding a hint of censure.

“No, you didn’t, but most of your former colleagues are gone now.” Dennis said sadly.

“The situation is . . . pretty new to everyone.”

“Whatever.” Dennis said again.  “The good news for you though,” he said – looking down at Jessica briefly before he did the doctor thing with the syringe, thumping it with his finger a few times and squirting some of the contents up into the air – “is they brought a lot of gear with them that didn’t all get taken away when they left.”  He tore open a little packet with his teeth, then pushed Jessica’s sleeve back and swabbed her bicep with a cloth pad that was cold on her skin.

“Little stick.” Dennis said, then jabbed the needle into her arm.  Jessica didn’t even notice the prick, as the throbbing of her knee was overwhelming nearly all other sensations.  A few moments later, as Dennis set the needle aside and rummaged in the box again, she felt a wave of numbness flooding through her body like a blessing.

“Oh . . . oh that’s nice.” Jessica murmured as the pain in her knee just abruptly drifted away.  One moment it was there, throbbing and pulsing and making it quite clear that it was injured and she should pay attention to it.  The next moment she just wanted to lay there on the table and enjoy laying there.

“Yes, it works quite quickly, doesn’t it?” Dennis said with a grin.

“What?” Jessica blinked, feeling her thoughts ticking over slowly like they were stuck in first gear.

“Morphine.” Dennis said.  “Now, what did you do to your leg?”  He held up a pair of blunt nosed medical shears.

“Car accident.” Jessica murmured.

“This happened in the wreck?” He was cutting the left leg of her jeans, working up from the cuff toward her knee.

“I guess.” Jessica said, shrugging slightly.  “I hit it then, and all the walking since made it worse.”

“She fell in the stairs too.” Candice said.  “She screamed a lot when that happened.”

“When was that?”

“Just after the accident.” Candice said.  “When we were running from zombies.”  The girl had moved around to the far side of the bed, where she was hovering near Jessica’s head.  She didn’t lean on the bed, and she didn’t touch her mother, but her body language made it plain she was not going anywhere.

Jessica heard Dennis make a sound in the back of his throat, and looked down.  He’d bared her leg to mid thigh, and she thought she’d probably have reacted pretty badly if the morphine wasn’t taking all the pain and need to be concerned right away.  As it was, she felt a faint swirl of nausea in her stomach as she saw what she’d done to herself.

Her knee was very badly swollen, along both sides of the joint as well as above and below, though more below on her calf than up on her thigh.  There was a round bubble of flesh just below her knee cap that was pushed out a couple of inches from the normal line of her skin.  And the swollen skin across her knee was mottled in hues of red and blue and purple that were quite unsightly.

“I’m surprised you were able to walk on that.” Dennis said sadly.

“Mom is brave.” Candice said.

“I’ll say.” Austin muttered loudly enough for Jessica to hear.

“Well, more good news, mostly.” Dennis said.  “I don’t have everything I’d like to, but what I do have I can use to drain all that fluid out.  I have some antibiotics here that I can load you up on to counteract the risk of infection since I’ve only got the one needle to use to drain you with.  I don’t know what we’ll do about later, maybe we can make a stop somewhere and pick up some more supplies.”  He looked over at Austin questioningly.

Jessica wasn’t sure what Dennis meant, but apparently Austin did.  He frowned a little, but his voice was still calm and even when he spoke.  “That’s a question for the boss.  But you’re the doctor, so I suppose he’ll listen to you.”

“I’m his big brother.” Dennis said with a casual familiarity Jessica recognized from having watched her own children interact with each other.  “He’ll damn well listen or I’ll thump him a good one.”