The Orphans Series Vol. 1: The Orphans (26 page)

             
Shaun smirked thinking he was being duped. "Yeah, whatever, man. You know and I know nothing ever happens here. Seriously, is your dad home or not?"

             
"
I swear to God! He's just gone out the door! He's working the murder scene with the detectives. He said he's on his way to E&T.... Some guy called 'Rogers' I think....
"

             
Shaun face went white. "Wait did you say!? Rogers!? My dad has a guy named Rogers on his team! The
only
guy on his team!"

             
"
Yeah, something horrible happened. He didn't leave any other details than that. Maybe we'll make the news! That would be awesome!
"

             
Shaun was thinking about his dad and starting to get worried. "Thanks for checking if your dad was there. I need to call Ellie back and let her know what's going on. Can you text me your dad's number, please? I'll talk to you later." He called Ellie back.

             
She answered right away. "
Hey, did you hear back from your dad? I've been going crazy here!
"

             
Shaun flinched, hating letting her down. "I can't get a hold of my dad, and Greg's dad is busy at work. Greg said there was a double murder at E&T I'm pretty sure it's my dad's lab partner."

             
"
Oh, my God! I hope your dad's okay! Do you think something happened to him?
"

             
"No, I don't think there's any cause for alarm. I just think he isn't answering his damn phone. I'm sure someone would've called if there was an issue. He's probably at the hospital already. Have you tried calling the nurses' station at the hospital?"

             
"
Yeah, and you'd think with all the people that work there that maybe one person could answer the phone! Of course, you'd be wrong. I can't get anyone!
"

             
Shaun sat down frustrated. "Hold tight.... I'll see if I can find anyone to give us a ride, okay?"

             
"
What choice do I have?
"

             
"Just hold tight. I'll try my best."

****

              Pat watched the parking lot getting bored. He was looking at his cell phone and trying to remember how to look at the text messages his granddaughter had taught him about last month, but he'd be damned if he could remember how she did it so effortlessly. She said she would send him a message with the results once they got through the tournament. He never thought he could love someone so much as he did his own daughter until his baby had one of her own. A flashing light on the security console caught his attention and checked his cheat sheet to see which security camera to bring up. It was coming from outside of one of the labs on the research and development floor.

             
Pat typed in the list of commands to bring the security camera to view.

             
What he saw immediately made him sick to his stomach. He hadn't felt guilt like this since Vietnam where men were forced to do things that men weren't required to speak of again. He saw the nurse he had called and requested to come to the doctor's aid earlier lying in a pool of what he thought could only be her own blood.

             
He thought he was seeing the end of a horrible story right now. Dr. Fox ran into view holding an axe and looking like a wild man. A second man, who he could only assume was the assistant who was supposed to be comatose, ran for the doctor like an animal. Fox swung the axe quickly and in a circle burying it in the young man's chest. Pat gasped, "Oh, my God in heaven!" He looked around but there was no one else there to tell. The other guard kept himself down in the delivery dock most of the time. Pat hit his speaker. "Gutenberg! We got an incident, code red, going on up in the R&D wing! Two doctors going at it! One just used an axe on the other! Get out front and meet the police! I'm going to call them now!"

             
Pat let go of the speaker button and called the police. It rang quite a few times before he received an answer. A young man came on the line and said. "
This is Joe, what is your emergency?
"

             
Pat sat up straight. "Sir, this is Pat Hamilton from E&T in Adel Iowa! We need help now!"

             
"
Sir, could you tell me exactly what you need so we can please get the proper assistance for you?
"

             
"A man got assaulted with an axe, sir, and we have a woman in need of medical assistance!"

             
"
What type of assault sir? Do you know if the woman is conscious?
"

             
"No, I don't know her condition, but the man was assaulted with an axe ... the axe is stuck in his chest! The man that did it was Dr. Fox from our science department! He left and headed out to his truck in the parking lot! I'm pretty sure I just saw him heading east on highway five out of our parking lot. I think he might have assaulted the nurse!"

             
"
Please wait, sir, while I connect with the police department. Units are already on their way to you.
"

****

              Ben thought he'd get ahead of the traffic, but the tournament had ended early and he was facing all the people making their way home. He hit the heaviest of traffic and was trying his hardest to remain calm under the pressure of having to have the shipment there on time. He looked around at all the mini vans and oversized SUVs passing him wildly. The morning traffic was swerving in and out of the space between his semi and the cars in front of him, making his job twice as hard. He needed that space to slow the big rig down and when someone slid their car in-between, they turned his semi into a death trap on wheels. He hated the drivers and their dirty looks as if he was a disease on the road.

             
He was twenty-five minutes into his drive, chain smoking and trying to stay calm by listening to the radio. As he took the exit swirling around for Chicago he jammed on his brakes attempting to stop hard as a minivan slammed on its breaks in front of him. His brake pedal hit the floor, and he was grinding gears while down shifting. The tires screeched as he lost control of his rig and he went down the sharp curved incline.

             
He looked into the rearview seeing the container behind him sliding sideways until it pushed at such a angle to free itself from the trailer. It slid straight towards him leaving a trail of sparks flying and coming to a rest in the middle of the lane. The container was now blocking traffic both ways. Cars slid and slammed into each other causing a huge volleyball-mom pileup.

             
The burst containers were polluting the air with X-74 toxin with every second that passed.

             
Cars became backed up for miles. The wreckage from the pileup of cars made moving in either direction impossible. The tournament traffic filled in behind Ben. His truck cab had received a giant dose of vapor, being the closest, and filled the small cabin with enough X-74 to gas a small army.

             
He barely crawled out from his truck to the grass. The combination of drugs and the blood loss he suffered from had him looking around in a daze, and he fell onto his back, staring up at the blue skies before his eyes rolled into the back of his head as he passed out. His driver's license slid out of his shirt pocket, lying on his chest along with some spilled cigarettes.

             
Charlie, a young college student who had skidded to a crashing stop into the trailer, came around after knocking himself out from the airbag. He looked around, taking in his surroundings. He forced open his door, kicking it with everything he had. Looking around at the massive amounts of wreckage, he saw cars as far as the eye could see. Just about every other car had dark smoke floating into the sky. People were standing outside their cars, unsure what they should be doing. Charlie looked in his window, examining himself. His white shirt had drops of blood on it and his blue jeans were spotless. The only damage he could see was a scrape on his face. He wiped at it with a handkerchief and saw more drivers slowly getting out of their cars and looking around in confusion.

             
He noticed the injured trucker lying bloody and on his back on the ground, and ran to his aid. He checked his pulse--he was alive. It didn't take a doctor to realize that he was unconscious. He removed his ball cap which identified his favorite brand of beer, and there was a large amount of blood. There was a deep cut on his head. Charlie pulled off his fleece jacket and applied pressure to the wound. He noticed the license and read it aloud. He pulled out his phone and called for an ambulance. He was advised they would send help immediately, and Charlie gave all of the man's information. Before he ended the call, he could hear the sirens.

             
He looked back at his wrecked car, praying it would still start. He just needed to finish the short drive to Des Moines Southside, knowing most likely he'd be cutting it close to still get to the airport. Studying abroad in Italy was a dream of his--seeing the places of his ancestors and getting to enjoy the relaxed lifestyle while studying towards his medical degree.

             
Bystanders had started to wander into the wreckage area and blaming the trucker who was only doing his job. Ten minutes went by and Charlie heard the thud-thud-thud of a helicopter coming in. Charlie yelled to a bystander, “I think help is coming, I hear a helicopter coming in.”

             
The man, in his late fifties, was staring around and looking more at the damage on his car than what was going on. He shrugged at Charlie. "Our mighty tax dollars at work. Wonder what
that's
costing me? Why the hell does it smell so bad? What is that stench? Did someone hit a skunk?"

             
Charlie looked at the man lying on the ground. He felt his pulse again and it was still beating like a clock as fast as could be. He saw the red and white medical helicopter. It hovered around the semi and gracefully landed in a clear space on the side of the interstate. Charlie walked back up the hill, waited for the doors to open and watched as two women and a man stepped out. He waved his arms frantically to gain their attention. When they got close he screamed over the sound of the rotors that were powering down. "Hi! I'm Charlie! I'm the one who called! You guys are quick!"

             
The senior staff member looked around. "Hell of a mess you guys have here, Charlie! I'm Ralph...! Can you show me who's hurt!?"

             
Charlie pointed to Ben lying on the ground. "He isn't conscious, but his heart's racing like a son of a bitch. It doesn't match anything in my medical text books from school. I'm pre-med.... I saw his license--his name's Ben."

             
Ralph rolled his eyes and thought every college student with a science book is pre-med for God sakes--the world's going to be filled with doctors. He made his way down the steep awkward grassy slope. He tripped going down the hill, cutting his forearm down to his wrist on a broken beer bottle in the grass. He slid awkwardly landing on his back, messing that up at the same time.

             
Ralph cursed out loud, unable to believe the medic would now need assistance. He quickly opened up his case and did the best that he could until one of his two assistants could come down the hill. He hobbled to Ben and checked him, observing his ribs, legs, arms, and listened to his heart with his stethoscope. Ben started going into convulsions, spitting blood onto Ralph who was in the middle of the examination. He held him down while he tried to keep his face away from the blood that was spitting out. The blood that mixed with his own in the fresh wound on his arm.

             
He lifted each of Ben's eyelids and noticed each was severely bloodshot, and looked like he'd been given something to make his eyes dilate. He wiped Ben's face with a cleaning pad, trying to narrow down where the bleeding was the worst. He noticed after cleaning his face and forehead that his eyes were not bloodshot ... they were bleeding.             

             
He looked at the other two women who flew in with him and were waiting for directions. "Melissa! Bridget! Get up to the helicopter! I want the stretcher! This guy needs to be moved!" He watched the two skinny women climbing the hill and looked down at the much bigger truck driver. "There's no way this guy's getting carried up by those two."

             
He looked up the hill, racking his memory for a minute, snapping his fingers as he remembered the kid's name. He yelled, "Hey, Charlie!
Charlie
!"

             
Charlie looked behind him and saw the man from the helicopter signaling to him. He came jogging down to him with a smile on his face, leaving the bystanders he'd been loitering with. "Do you need help? Is he going to be okay?"