The King of Clayfield - 01 (37 page)

"Let's get these jeans cut off her,"
 
Dr. Barr
 
said.

Connie removed Jen's boots and
 
got to work with a pair of scissors cutting up the leg of
 
her pants.

He turned to me.

"Do you know what caliber weapon it was?"

"No," I said.

"It was Hunter that did it," Brenda said. "He had that twenty-two pistol he found."

"Okay,"
 
he said. "Maybe it won't be too bad."

Connie pealed away Jen's jeans, and started washing away the blood with a damp towel. Dr. Barr removed Jen's mask and unzipped her coat. When he pulled her scarf away, I could see the wound where that woman had bit her a few days before. It didn't look very good.

"Jen," I said, "why didn't you tell me that wasn't healing?"

"What could you do about it?"

"Is this a bite?" Dr. Barr asked.

"Yeah," Jen said. "A woman tackled me and bit me. It'll get better."

"It looks infected," he said. "Do you have any other injuries?"

"What about your ribs?" I said.

"No big deal," Jen said. "They're just a little sore."

"Travis, she has
 
two bullet wounds," Connie said.

I could see it, too. There were two small holes in Jen's leg. One was in the top of the
 
thigh and
 
another was in the side. Both were oozing blood.

"Were you shot twice?" Dr. Barr asked.

"I don't think so," Jen said, wincing when he touched the wound with his latex-gloved hand.

"I only heard one shot," I said.

"I need everyone except Connie to get out. I need room to work in here."

Brenda, Sara, and I left the office, and Dr. Barr shut the door behind us.

Immediately to our right was the entrance to the bus garage. I
 
glanced inside. There were rows of cots in there.

The room where we
 
were in was a sort of break room. There were two round tables with chairs, a countertop holding
 
a microwave and coffee pot, and a small refrigerator in the corner. On the wall was a large map of Grace County with bus routes marked off in different colors.
 
There was also a bulletin board with announcements for events and training that weren't ever going to happen.

"May we have some coffee?" I asked Brenda.

"Of course," she said.

Sara and I poured some coffee and sat at one of the tables.

"How do you have electricity?" I said.

"There is a
 
small building attached to the back of this one. It
 
houses generators. We don't run them all the time."

"They sure are quiet," Sara said.

"I'm really worried about the others," Brenda said. "Would you go back out with me?"

I didn't want to, but I nodded anyway.

"Yeah," I said. "But we're not doing anything too risky, and I'm doing the driving."

Brenda went to the office door to tell them our plans. I looked at Sara.

"Will you be okay here?"

"Yeah," she said. "The guns are in the van."

Brenda and I returned to the van and Ed opened the gate. As soon as I put it in reverse, I could see the big Ford F-350 coming up the drive. The trailer full of bodies wasn't attached anymore.

"Some of yours?" I said.

Brenda looked in her mirror then got out.

"It's Jack and Wanda," she said. "They were doing disposal."

She shut the door on the van and went out to meet them. I turned the van off and got out, too.

Jack parked the truck, and the two got out. They both had their masks down. Wanda was crying. She ran up to Brenda and hugged her.

"Oh God, I thought you were dead," she said.

Jack looked at me and nodded a greeting.
 
He looked like he'd been crying, too.

"Where's Hunter?" Wanda said. "Is he okay? I saw the two of you on the roof and--"

"Hunter went back in," Brenda said. "I told him not to, but Jamal was on that fire truck...."

Both women hugged each other again.

"Are they coming?" Ed asked.

"Some are," Jack said. "But we lost...we lost...um....some didn't make it."

Ed shook his head.

"I told him it was too dangerous," he said. "That cocky sumbitch."

"Well, we agreed to do it," Jack said. "So I guess it's on all of us."

"It ain't on me," Ed said. "Don't you put it on me neither. I had my say on it."

Jack looked up at the sky then down at his boots. I felt like I was intruding, so I went back inside.

A few minutes later I
 
was sitting at the table with Sara when I heard a vehicle pull up outside. Loud voices
 
got close
 
to the door. The front door opened. Wanda and Brenda came in first. Wanda was still crying.

"...y'all did what
 
y'all was supposed to do, it wouldn't have happened!" said a new voice.

"What are you talking about?!" Jack said. "We did everything right."

"That engine siren should have started up the very second
 
they got word about the batteries, and you and Wanda should have been drawing them away with your horn. We talked about that."

Jack and the new guy walked in.

The new guy looked at us.

"Who is this, and why are they drinking our coffee?"

"Don't be like that, Nathan," Brenda said. "They saved my life and Hunter's life."

Nathan stared at us a little longer then nodded.

"Sorry," he said. "It's been a bad day, but I guess you know that."

"Yeah," I said.

He stepped up to us, extending his hand.

"Nathan Camp," he said. "I appreciate your help out there."

"Sure," I said, shaking his hand.

He
 
was loud when he talked, loud when he walked, loud when he moved, and his handshake was entirely too hard; I didn't like him.

"Thanks for the coffee," I said.

He stared at Sara a little longer than necessary then went to the office.

"Don't go in there," Brenda said, "Dr. Barr is helping one of their friends--"

Nathan opened the door anyway. I could see Jen on the
 
desk in just her underwear. Dr. Barr was checking her ribs while Connie bandaged her leg.

"Hey!" Dr. Barr said. "I have
 
a patient!"

Nathan didn't apologize or make an effort to leave.

"I need to talk to you, Travis," he said.

"I'm naked here! Shut the door, asshole!" Jen yelled.

He closed the door and without another word went into the garage.

He came back with a shotgun.

"I'm going back for them," he said. "Jack, Ed, and the new guy are with me.”

Jack went outside.

I didn't move.

Ed looked at the floor.

"Come on,
 
boys," Nathan said. "You earn your keep."

"I've earned my keep plenty today," I said.
 
"I'm not going with you. I need to be with Jen."

"The hell
 
you're not."

"I am not," I said.
 
"We're not staying anyway. We
 
just came to drop off Brenda and see the doctor."

He glared at me.

"There are
real
people out there," he said. "You understand? Real people that ain't sick. They need help."

"I do understand," I said. "I'm sorry."

He pushed Ed aside and walked out without another word.

Brenda, Wanda, and Ed were quiet after Nathan left and wouldn't look at me.

After a few minutes, Dr. Barr came out of the office, poured himself some coffee,
 
and sat at the table with us.

"Connie is helping
 
Jen get dressed," he said. "She said I could talk to you. My guess is that the bullet went into her leg, struck the femur, and then changed direction, exiting out the side of the leg. She was lucky, because if it had gone the other way it could have hit the femoral artery, and there would have been nothing I could do about that; she would have bled to death. Also, it is fortunate that she didn't go into shock. She's a tough girl."

I nodded.

"Obviously, I don't have x-ray equipment here. I'm going to guess that her femur is fractured. She needs to stay off that leg for a while. I'm going to put it in a splint to immobilize it. I'm not going to stitch the bullet wounds;
 
they need to drain. I gave her a tetanus shot, too. Connie and I went into the hospital and pharmacy and took a lot of meds a couple of days after everything happened, so she got the best treatment I was able to give here. It's not ideal, but--"

"What about her neck?" I asked.

"Yeah," he said. "I was coming to that. It looks kind of nasty. We have someone in our group--a boy named Jamal--who had a bite like that on his arm. The human mouth is full of bacteria anyway, and I guess for these...things...it's ten times worse. It just didn't want to heal. I'm going to give her a course of antibiotics to take over the next few days. Nathan and Jack probably
 
wouldn't
 
like me doing that, so we aren't going to tell them."

He gave me a look to make sure I understood. I nodded.

"Okay," he said. "Also, her ribs might be cracked or bruised, too. They were very tender. I wrapped them, but that is the best I can do. Nathan is really keeping an eye on our pain meds, so I would suggest you going to Wal-Mart or one of the pharmacies
 
for some ibuprofen. If you find some stronger pain meds, don't give them to her without asking me first about dosage."

"So we can go now? I get the impression Nathan doesn't like me much."

"Nathan comes on kind of strong," Dr. Barr said. "No, I would prefer if she stayed here for a day or so, so I can keep an eye on those holes in her leg and see how the antibiotics are working."

"Okay," I said.

I looked at Sara and she nodded.

"On the upside," Dr. Barr said, "at least I didn't have to dig around in her leg looking for that bullet."

Connie came out of the office and told us it was okay to see Jen.

Jen was sitting up on the desk with her injured leg stretched out in front of her on a splint and her other leg hanging off the side.

She was wearing a blue and white long-sleeved dress. It was a little big on her, but she looked nice in it.

"You doing okay?" I asked Jen.

She shrugged.

"The doctor said we should stay," I said.

"Yeah," she said. "I'm sorry."

"I'm just
 
glad there was a doctor and medicine. I was really worried about you."

"Shut the door, okay?" she said.

Sara went over and closed it.

"When Connie was in here, and it was just me and her, she was
 
asking me if she could come with us," Jen whispered. "She doesn't like it here."

"What did you tell her?" Sara said.

"I told her it wasn't up to me. I really don't want her to, but she's a registered nurse, and it might be good to have her around."

"Why hasn't she left?”

"By herself? She can't get anyone to leave with her. She said a couple of others aren't happy either, but they like the electricity, and they're afraid to go out on their own."

"They do have a nice setup here," I said.

"She told me she overheard some of the men talking one night after everyone had gone to bed. They were talking about trying to find young women in child-bearing years....you know, to continue the human race and all that."

"Oh," I said, puzzled.

It seemed kind of early to be
 
talking like that. It
 
was a bad time to be having children. Frankly,
 
if the talk did indeed happen, I
 
think their motives were probably baser. They were probably all
 
thinking about the
 
sex they weren't having and
 
were using something altruistic like the continuance of the human race in their conversation to justify something less than consensual. Jen was
 
right; they were turning into cavemen.