Rise From The Ashes: The Rebirth of San Antonio (Countdown to Armageddon Book 3) (7 page)

     “10-4. We can stabilize and transport. Be there in a couple of minutes.”

 
-10-

     “This is Robbie calling from San Antonio for Hannah. Are you there, Hannah?”

     The radio call caught everyone off guard. It was just after dinnertime, and everyone was dreading another long night when they would all be up, hoping and
praying  for Scott to appear. Or at least get close enough to call on his radio to report he was okay.

     But they weren’t expecting a call from Robbie.

     Hannah rushed from the dining room to the security console. She was half full of anticipation and half full of dread. She knew Robbie wouldn’t call unless he had something to report.

     The only question was, what was he reporting? It could be very good news, or very bad.

     “Go ahead, Robbie. This is Hannah.”

     “Hi,
Hannah. First of all, I don’t want to get your hopes up. We found a man in Scott’s house. Unconscious from a bullet wound. He’s alive, but the doctors say that he lost an awful lot of blood and he’s in bad shape.

    
“The problem is, we don’t know who it is. It might be Scott, but we can’t tell because he has no identification on him.

    
“It could be someone who was shot in a gun battle and took refuge in Scott’s house.

    
“All we know for sure is that he was in Scott’s living room, passed out on the floor, and that he gained access through the back fence.

     “
Can you put his wife on the radio to give me a description?”

     “Robbie, this is Joyce. I’m his girlfriend. He’s about six feet tall and around a hundred and eighty pounds or so. Dark brown hair and brown mustache, but his mustache is starting to gray.”

     “Any tattoos?”

     “Yes. He’s got the words, “Ride Like The Wind” on his upper left arm and a Harley Davidson emblem beneath it.”

     “Okay, good! That’s the information I was looking for. It’s definitely Scott. He was shot once, and apparently his vehicle was stolen. Like I said, he is unconscious and critical. The doctors did surgery and repaired the damaged vein, but he’s lost a lot of blood and will have a long road to recovery.”

     Joyce wept, but tried her best to maintain her composure. Linda hugged her sons and openly cried.

     “Thank you, Robbie. Thank you so much.”

     “It’s not a problem. I’ll call you back daily until he regains consciousness, and will pass on anything he has to tell you. The doctors want to know if he has any drug allergies.”

     “No. None.”

     “Okay. I’ll go back by there and let them know. Is Hannah still close by?”

     Joyce handed Hannah the microphone.

     “Go ahead, Robbie.”

     “Hannah, I have some news for you too. We took Scott to the same hospital where John is staying. After we got Scott admitted, I went up to Quarantine to check on him. The doctor said his white blood cell count is looking much better, and that the infection is going away. He also said that John is starting to move his hands and legs a bit. He hasn’t woken up yet, but they’re saying they’re hopeful he will within a few days. So I guess all of those prayers have been working.”

     Now Hannah was crying too.

     “Thank you, Robbie. For everything.”

    
“Don’t mention it. I’ll call again sometime tomorrow to report on both of your patients, unless something significant happens before then. Is there anything either of you want me to tell them if they wake up before I check in again?”

     Hannah looked at Joyce.

     Joyce nodded her head yes, but couldn’t seem to get any words out.

     “Joyce says to tell Scott she loves him. Same goes for me if John comes around.”

     “Okay, you got it. Keep the faith, you two.”

     Hannah left the security desk and sat on the couch. Rachel and Misty sat on either side of her and she held them close. They cried together.

     Tom looked around the room and saw that everyone was either in tears or close to it. And he felt his own eyes getting moist.

     He turned and walked outside. Tough guys don’t cry. And when they do, they sure as hell don’t let anyone
see it.

-11
-

     “He’ll be okay. You just have to have faith. That’s what my mom tells us whenever we start worrying about my dad.”

 
   Rachel was trying her best to console Zachary after he got the news about his father.

     “I know. It’s just that… well, I guess I always thought that Dad was invincible. I mean, he’s always been the strongest man I know. He’s always been able to win at everything. I guess I just assumed that if he was shooting it out with someone else, that he would win
that too.

     “Or maybe I just didn’t consider the alternative because my mind wouldn’t let me.”

     “Or, there are other possibilities. Maybe there were several of them and he was outnumbered. Maybe there were fifty bad guys, and he shot forty nine, but then the last one got a lucky shot. Or maybe they bushwhacked him, like they do in old cowboy movies. Maybe they shot him without giving him a chance to fight back.”

     “Yeah,
maybe. That would make more sense, I guess.”

    
Rachel reached out and held his hand. She looked into his eyes and said, “In the end, it doesn’t really matter. He’s alive, and that’s all that really counts.”

     She put her arms around him and held him. He hadn’t expected that, but he enjoyed it. He enjoyed it a lot.

     “How are you two doing out here?”

     They looked up to see Linda stepping off the back porch and walking toward them.

     “Okay, I guess. How long do you think they’ll keep him, Mom?”

     “I don’t know, Zach. You heard the same thing I did. I know it takes the body a while to replace lost blood. I suppose it depends on how much blood he lost, and whether they have blood of his type to give him. If they don’t, if his body has to make its own, then I expect it’ll take a lot longer.

     “The main thing is, he’s at a hospital, and he’s under the care of doctors, and I’m sure they’re doing everything they can for him.”

     “Do you think
we can go visit him?”

     “I’m sorry, honey. But you know that the city’s been hit hard by the plague. We’re darn lucky it has
n’t spread up here. But if we went down there and got exposed to it, we’d probably bring it back with us. And then some of us, probably starting with your brother’s baby, would get sick and might die.

     “I know your first impulse is to run down there to support your father, but you’ll have to trust me on this. Your dad will understand. In fact, I’m fairly certain that he would not want us to go see him. He realizes the risks more than anyone.

     “We’ll just have to trust the doctors to take good care of him, and trust Hannah’s friend Robbie to keep us informed on his condition.”

    
Rachel was no longer holding Zachary in her arms, but she never let go of his hand. It didn’t escape Linda’s notice, and she made a mental note to talk to him about it later, when Rachel wasn’t around. She already had one grandchild on the way. She certainly didn’t want another one. At least not right now. The world was way too chaotic, and way too dangerous.

     “You gonna be okay?”

     “Yeah. I just miss him is all. And I’m worried about him.”

     “I know, son. I feel the same way. But you could look at it another way. We’re better off than we were yesterday. Yesterday we didn’t know if he was even still alive. Today we know that he’s not only alive, but that he’s in the care of the people who can make him well again. And he’s a strong man, and stubborn too. He’s not going down without a fight. You know that.”

     “I know that. And yes, I’m okay.”

     “That’s my boy.”

     “Mom?”

     “Yes?”

     “I wish you wouldn’t call me that. Especially in front of my girlfriend.”

     She smiled.

     “Oh? Why not? Last I checked, you weren’t a man yet. But you’re right. You’ve grown up a lot over the last few months. We all have.

     “But even more important than that is the ‘girlfriend’ thing. When did that happen? I thought you two hated each other. If that changed, I didn’t get the memo.”

     “We never hated each other. It just took us awhile to get to know each other is all. And yes, we’re boyfriend and girlfriend now.”

     Zachary looked at Rachel, needing her support.

     “Right?”

     She shyly
nodded her head.

     Linda helped take her off the hot seat.

     “Well, okay, then. I guess if you are officially boyfriend and girlfriend I’ll have to start treating you a bit differently. Rachel, does your mom know?”

     “I don’t know. I mean, I think she suspects, but she’s never really asked me.”

     “Would you like for me to tell her?”

     “Sure. I mean, would you?”

     “No problem. I need to talk to her about our new surveillance schedule anyway.”

     Zachary asked, “What surveillance schedule?”

     “Watching you two. Constantly. Rachel’s mom and I will have to decide how to break the day into shifts. So one of us can be with you two for twelve hours a day and the other can take the other twelve hours. I hope Hannah doesn’t mind working the night shift. I hate working nights.”

     Then she seemed to get a great idea.

     “Hey, we can ask Joyce for her help. I’ll bet she’d follow you for eight hours a day. That would give us three watchers instead of two.”

     “Mom…”

     He was halfway sure his mother was kidding. But only halfway. Rachel, for her part, looked horrified.

     “What, son?”

     “We know all out sex and abstinence and all of that stuff. We learned it all in sex ed class. And we’ve already talked about it. The whole concept of it kind of creeps us both out, to be honest.”

     Rachel offered her own terminology.

     “Yes. It’s all icky!”

     “Trust us, Mom. We’re a long way from even thinking about that kind of stuff.”

     “That’s what I thought about your brother, Zach, and he and Sara let us down. Now they’re going to be parents.”

     “Yeah, well, my brother’s a moron. Just because he’s older than me doesn’t make him more mature. We won’t do anything, Mom. We haven’t even kissed yet. You don’t have to worry about us.”

     Linda walked away actually believing him. She’d still talk to Hannah, but she’d tell Hannah that the pair seem to be mature enough to handle a relationship without intimacy.

   
But she’d watch them like a hawk anyway.

-12
-

     Scott woke up in the hospital and looked around. He was slightly shocked to find himself there, with tubes stuck in his left arm and upper shoulder. His mouth was painfully dry and his throat was incredibly sore. But he was alive.

    
At least he assumed he was. Death, he suspected, didn’t hurt this much.

     His whole body was stiff and sore. It hurt to move his head, but his vision was still cloudy. His peripheral wouldn’t take in everything.
So he fought through the pain and moved his head to scope out the surroundings.

     The last thing he remembered was walking from the kitchen to the couch. Had he made it to the couch and taken a nap? And then had he flagged down a patrol car and hitched a ride to the hospital? Had
the loss of blood caused him to have amnesia and forget all of that?

     Or was this the most realistic dream he’d ever had?

     He looked above his head and saw several bags of fluids. The big bags of saline he recognized. The others he wasn’t so sure of. Some ugly yellow stuff dripping slowly into a tube. It was the color of butterscotch pudding, but he imagined it probably didn’t taste that good. A smaller bag of a clear liquid. It was labeled, but he couldn’t make out what the label said.

     O
n the side of the bed he could see two other bags, containing his bodily fluids. The urine bag was almost full.

     His vision was slowly clearing, enough to make out some of the words on the whiteboard on the east wall.

Charge Nurse:
Gonzalez.

Attending Physician: Joco.

Harter, Scott, NKA.

Change linens every third day.
Last Done: Tuesday.

     He muttered to himself, “How long have I been in here, anyway?”

     An orderly started to walk into the room, saw Scott looking around, and immediately exited without saying a word.

     A minute later a nurse came in. At least Scott assumed she was a nurse. She had a nurse’s nametag on her civilian clothes, and a nurse’s demeanor.

     Scott got the sense she would have been quite attractive a few months before. Now she just looked harried and worn.

     “Hi. I’m Becky. How are you, Mr. Harter?”

     He tried to speak, but nothing came out. His throat was dry and very raw.

     “You can
nod your head if you wish. We took out your breathing tube yesterday and let you start breathing on your own. Your throat is still raw from the tube. They tend to cause a lot of inflammation and soreness after a few days.

     “The good news is, you’re breathing on your own again. The
muscle stiffness will go away after a couple of days. The pain will take longer, I’m afraid. I can bring you some lozenges to suck on now that you’re awake again.

     He
nodded his head yes.

     He tried to speak, but was only able to get a single word out, in a husky whisper: “How…”

     “Try not to speak, Mr. Harter. That’ll just cause further irritation.

     “I think you asked ‘how.’ Let me see if I can read your mind. I’ll tell you everything I know, and if I’ve missed anything, I’ll go get you a pen and a writing pad. Fair enough?”

     He nodded his head again.

     “But first things first. We have you down as having no known allergies. Is that correct?”

     He nodded his head.

     “Good. Now, you can use your fingers for this one. On a scale of one to ten, one being
a happy dance and ten being unbearable agony, what is your pain level right now?”

     He thought for a moment and then held up three fingers.

     “Okay, that’s good. Is it mostly in your wound area?”

     He
nodded his head again.

     “
Okay. We took you off of morphine last night. You seemed to be resting comfortably without it. If the pain level starts to rise, let me know and I’ll bring you some pain pills. Okay?”

     He
nodded again.

     “
If you were asking how did you get here, it’s my understanding that you were found unconscious by the SAPD and they brought you in. Just in the nick of time, apparently. The surgical team said they actually lost you twice on the table. That’s where the bruises on your chest came from.

     “If you were going to ask how long you’ve been asleep, you’ve been here eleven days. That’s a long time to be asleep, but you were almost out of blood, and your body put itself into a coma so it could recover.

     “If you were going to ask if your family knows your whereabouts, the answer is yes. One of your friends comes by to check on you every two days, like clockwork. He says he passes the information onto your family and keeps them abreast of your status.

     “Let’s see, what else? If you were trying to ask me to do the tango, you’ll have to wait a couple more days. You’re still too weak.”

     She smiled.

     “Just kidding about that. I don’t dance.”

     Scott smiled too.

     “You were shot once and spent four and a half hours in surgery. The bullet went all the way through,
and in case you keep count, you have…”

     She peeked at one of the forms on the clipboard at the foot of his bed.

     “…you have seventy two new stitches.”

     He winced, just a bit.

     She laughed.

     “Oh, don’t worry. You’ve already been through the worst part. Taking them out is a piece of cake. They’re coming out today, by the way, so you’ll see for yourself later.

     “The line going into your shoulder is called a picc line. You’re getting your nourishment through it. That’s that big bag of stuff that looks like chicken noodle soup without the noodles. Now that you’re awake, the doctor will probably put you on a liquid diet, and then transition you to solids gradually.

     “The other line is just saline sol
ution to keep you hydrated. The smaller bags are an antibiotic to prevent infections, and a stool softener.”

     She smiled warmly.

     “One more thing everybody wants to know. When can you get out of here? That one’s up to Doctor Joco. He’s making his rounds, and he should be in to see you within an hour or so.

     “So, I think that covers
most of it. I’ll be right back with a note pad and a pen, so you can ask whatever I missed.”

     While Nurse Becky was gone, Scott took the opportunity to look around the room ag
ain. The stiffness in his neck was going away and he was regaining his mobility.

     He could tell he was in the pediatric ward by the décor. The walls had depictions of purple elephants dancing with green giraffes. Over in the corner, a hippopotamus
on a skateboard was rolling past a zebra with a hula hoop.

     It didn’t matter much, of course, but he wondered why he was being treated here.

     Nurse Becky was back.

     The first question Scott scrawled was, “What’s with the purple elephants?”

     She smiled again.

     “These days we put patients wherever we have space, and this was the only room available when you came in. Two whole floors of the hospital are on quarantine now, because of the plague. All the unaffected patients were moved off those floors and into the other wards. I heard a rumor yesterday that the quarantined floors are getting pretty crowded, and they may have to convert a third. If you stay here very much longer, you may get a roommate.

     “Any other questions?”

     He started writing again.

     “No. Just a couple of comments. First, thank you for the briefing. It was very thorough. And second, you have beautiful eyes. Thanks for taking such good care of me while I was napping.”

     Scott was aware that what he wrote would probably be interpreted as flirting but he didn’t care. Although he wasn’t the smartest guy in the world, he’d learned a few important things in his lifetime.

     One was that a patient should always be nice to his nurses. They went through a lot during the course of a typical day. After cleaning soiled sheets, wiping up vomit, and emptying bedpans, the last thing they wanted or needed was overly demanding and surly patients.

     Second, compliments
to a woman – any woman, are as important to her as oxygen. It’s something all women need occasionally to let them know they’re appreciated. He suspected that in this environment, compliments were probably rarely given.

     And finally, Scott had lived his life believing that one should never mince words and should say what was on
one’s mind without sugarcoating or concealing anything. She
did
have beautiful eyes, and he felt she should know that.

     For Nurse Becky’s part, the compliment couldn’t have come at a better time. She’d been working fourteen hour days for weeks, was run ragged and felt like dirt. It was nice of this man to notice she was still a human being. And even nicer of him to remind her.

     “Why, thank you, kind sir. You just made my whole day. If there’s anything you need, the buzzer is hanging on the bed rail. As I said, the doctor will be in to see you shortly. I’ll look in on you again in a couple of hours to get your vitals and check your pain level. If there’s anything you need in the meantime, just push the button to the nurse’s station.”

     With that she walked out of
the room, and Scott was left to his own thoughts. He wondered how things were going back at the compound, and hoped everything was running smoothly in his absence.

-13-

     Scott dozed off and thought he was dreaming when he heard voices again. Then he recognized one of them as Nurse Becky’s and slowly opened his eyes.

     A tall thin man with olive skin stood over him.

     “Well, Mr. Harter. Welcome back to the world of the living. You’ve been asleep a long time. How are you feeling?”

     Scott managed to nod his head.
He hoped the doctor understood.

     He seemed to.

     “That’s good. I’m sure you remember none of your ordeal, so you’ll have to take my word for it. You’ve come a very long way.

     “I have some good news as well as some bad. Your white cell count is pretty much back to normal now, and that means we’ve whipped the infection from your wound. We’ll be taking you off of antibiotics very soon. Your wound is healing very well, and one of my interns will be removing the external sutures this afternoon. The internal ones will dissolve on their own.

     “There’s bad news too. You were out there without a mask, and were exposed to the plague. Thus far you haven’t displayed any of the symptoms, which is why you’re in this ward instead of under quarantine. However, we’re going to monitor you closely, and the moment you show any sign of the disease you’ll be transported out of here immediately.

     “It may be that the pe
nicillin you were receiving for the infection in your wound protected you from the plague. It’s possible that you had it and have ridden out the storm and are now immune. But we have no way of knowing that. You should assume that you were exposed and are a carrier.”

     Scott reached for his pad and scrawled, “
When will I be released? And when can I go home?”

     “The policeman who brought you in said he was a friend of yours, and he explained your situation. The first of your questions is easy. As long as you continue to progress, you can expect to be out of here in a week or two. First we’ll g
et you eating again, then try to regain use of your digestive system. Once you can expel everything normally, and are strong enough to get around on your own, we’ll kick you out of here.

     “As for going home, that’s a bit more complicated.”

     The doctor must have seen the look of disappointment on Scott’s face.

     He elaborated.

     “Look. You were out there unmasked. If you’re lucky, you’re only a potential carrier now. If you caught it, you’ll come down with symptoms at some point and we’ll have to hit you with antibiotics again. It’s also possible, like I said, that you already had it and the penicillin we gave you for your wound took care of it. If that’s the case, we’ll probably never know. Right now we’ll have to go with the assumption that you’re at least carrying it.

     “Whether or not you decide to go home right away depends on how much you love your family. That’s very blunt, but unfortunately it’s reality. Robbie tells me that right now they’re in a safe place, and that’s great. But if you are a carrier and go back to them, you could kill them all. Or at least the most vulnerable among them.”