This was also a helpful reminder of something else that we needed to address if the town was going to survive more than another few sundowns. Since Red House hadn’t even gotten a shipment of the airborne AIDS vaccine before the end of the world set in, that meant they were behind when it came to a lot of other medical supplies, too.
Sure, in the case of the AIDS vaccine, it just so happened to work out really well for them, so hardly anybody in the town got turned into a vamp, but when it came to things like basic medical supplies that would help with accidents and illnesses, Red House was shit out of luck, and that could get them into trouble real fast.
I should be able to heal most bloody injuries while I was here, but that only went so far, and it couldn’t treat people for actual illnesses or, in this case, for broken bones. And while we had a decent number of supplies in our armored truck, it wasn’t enough for a whole town of people, and I also didn’t exactly want to give up all of our hard-earned medical supplies and leave ourselves with nothing.
I was a pretty generous person, and I really did want to help Red House, but I also wasn’t fucking crazy. The health and safety of my six women would always be my top priority, and I wouldn’t do anything to take away from that.
When Celia’s son skidded the truck back into the parking lot and kicked gravel up in every direction, he hopped out with his friends and with the farm vet right behind them. The veterinarian was younger and much prettier than I thought she would be, with dark-blonde hair pulled up into a messy bun and a spray of freckles across her nose, but as soon as she marched over to join us, I saw that while she might be young and pretty, she was also all business and from the looks of it, strong as hell, too.
“How long ago did this happen?” the farm vet demanded as she dropped down to the gravel beside James.
“Just a few minutes,” Celia replied, and then she knelt in the gravel between Catherine and the vet.
“It already stopped bleeding?” the vet asked and then glanced over at me. “But no tourniquet? I assume that you had something to do with that?”
“Yes, but I couldn’t fix the bone,” I said.
“The bleeding was the most important thing to stop,” the farm vet said and then pushed her dark-blonde bangs out of her eyes. “Sam, right?”
“Yeah?” I replied.
“Valerie, but you can call me Val,” the vet said and shook my head. “You’re a vamp, so you’re strong, yeah? So I need you to hold him totally still while I set the bone, okay?”
“Got it,” I said.
“Do you have a splint or something?” Catherine asked. “How are you gonna… fuck, are you just gonna shove it back in?”
“That’s exactly what I’m gonna do,” Val said. “Look, I don’t have equipment or supplies for humans, but I know how to set a broken leg, and right now, the sooner I move it back into place, the better.”
“It doesn’t need, like… surgery?” Lily murmured.
“Maybe, but that’s more than I can do,” Val said. “I just want to knock this sucker back into place, and then we can start to see the damage that we’re working with. Sam, whenever you’re ready.”
I repositioned myself beside Catherine’s uncle so I could keep as much of his body as still as possible when the vet started to set his bone. Erika and Brianna helped me hold his shoulders down, while Celia just reached out to take James’ hand in her own.
I hoped for his sake that the gray-bearded man didn’t wake up just yet.
Valerie lowered her hands toward James’ leg, pulled them back, moved them forward again, but then still hesitated.
“Fuck,” she muttered.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“I just haven’t done this shit on a human before,” the vet said, “and I don’t want to fuck it up, but… fuck, this town really needs a fucking doctor.”
“You’ll do a great job,” I said. “I know it’s not what you’re used to, but if you don’t set his leg now, you know it’ll probably get infected.”
“It’ll be better for him to walk a little bit crooked than to lose his whole fuckin’ leg, you know?” Lily added. “Or, like, a lot worse.”
“I know, I know,” Valerie sighed. “Okay, here goes fuck-all.”
The dark-blonde farm vet grabbed James’ leg, and in one swift motion, she shoved the bone back inside his shin, so it no longer poked out through his skin and muscle. As soon as she shoved the bone back into his actual leg, James screamed himself awake, but I held him in place so he couldn’t injure himself any more, and so he didn’t accidentally lash out and hurt anyone.
James passed right the fuck out again after a few seconds, but I didn’t loosen my grip on him just yet. The townspeople that Celia had sent on a mission came back with ice and compression bandages, so they quickly passed them forward to Valerie. She started to wrap his leg, but I laid my hand on her arm.
“Let me try to clean it up a little more first,” I said, since he had begun to bleed again when she shoved his bone back into his body.
“Okay, but he’s still gonna probably need a blood transfusion,” Valerie replied, “and I definitely don’t have the equipment for that.”
“Then at least let me stop the bleeding, so he doesn’t lose any more,” I said.
The farm vet rocked back onto her heels to get out of my way, so I leaned forward, gulped down another mouthful of James’ blood, and then let the wound seal over behind me. Once I finished, there was a thick white scar along his leg that looked like he had just gotten out a whole row of stitches, but the bleeding had stopped, so that was certainly something.
“Damn, that’s amazing how you can stop bleeding with saliva like that,” Valerie said as she started to wrap his leg again with the compression bandage, and as soon as she finished, she wiped the blood off on her jeans and put her hands on her hips. “I think that’s all I can do for now, other than get him inside somewhere and get some ice on his leg.”
“What else do you need to get him better?” I asked. “Other than equipment for a blood transfusion?”
“An actual splint would also be helpful,” Valerie replied, “and crutches or a wheelchair, since otherwise, I don’t know how he’ll get around.”
“We don’t even have a stretcher to get him inside,” Celia said and bit her lip. “Red House doesn’t have an ambulance, so when something happens, it has to come in from out of town.”
“Well, that’s bullshit,” Catherine said. “Isn’t the whole point of emergency services to be able to respond fast in a fucking emergency?”
“That’s beside the point right now,” I said. “What matters is that we get your uncle whatever supplies he needs, so that his leg can heal up and recover, so he can walk on it again.”
“Oh, speaking of, he could definitely use some heavy-dose antibiotics,” Valerie said. “We don’t have an operating room here or anything, and even if we did, I wouldn’t know what to do, but there’s a chance his leg might get infected, so… yeah, he could use some antibiotics.”
“I’ll add it to the list,” I said.
“What list?” Brianna whispered.
“And I should probably test to see if there’s any nerve damage,” the vet continued before I could answer Brianna’s question.
“How are you gonna do that?” Natalie asked.
“She’s gonna have to wake him up,” Lily murmured.
“Just for a minute, and then somebody can get him some goddamn Tylenol and Ibuprofen,” Valerie swore. “He is not gonna fucking like this.”
“He’ll get over it,” I said. “He’ll have to.”
While Celia’s son ran off to get some painkillers for James, I started to try to shake the gray-bearded man awake, but he didn’t respond at all. He looked about as white as a ghost, but I could still hear his pulse just fine, so I knew that he wasn’t in any immediate danger… although come to think of it, his heartbeat was a little weaker than it should be.
I wondered where and how fast we might be able to find equipment f
or a blood transfusion.
I reached up toward his face and slapped his cheek, and after a few seconds, James spluttered awake and immediately started to groan. He tried to push himself up, but we all held him down against the ground, since I wasn’t entirely convinced that he actually remembered what had happened to him.
“James, can you hear me?” Valerie demanded. “James, it’s Val. You with us?”
“Oh, my god, what the shit?” the gray-bearded man moaned. “Holy balls, that fucking hurts like… oh, my god!”
“I know it does, but I need you to focus,” Valerie snapped. “I’m gonna touch your foot and your leg, and I need you to tell me when you feel anything, okay?”
James nodded and clenched his eyes closed.
Valerie moved her hand all around his leg but didn’t touch it at first. When she did let her fingers touch his ankle, James nodded that he felt it, and he did the same thing when she touched the top and bottom of his foot. As soon as she barely grazed the bottom of his shin itself, it looked like James was about to pass out again, but he nodded that he could feel her touch.
“Alright, hopefully that means there’s been no nerve damage,” Valerie said, “but I don’t know about blood vessel damage or anything like that. That’s the best I can do.”
“You did amazing,” I said. “Let’s get him inside the church, okay?”
“I’ll get the couch ready for him,” Celia said as she pushed herself up onto her feet.
As Celia bustled toward the church doors, she directed a few of the other townspeople to grab the ice and to help clear a path for James.
“If somebody can try to keep his legs still, I’ll carry him inside,” I offered. “I don’t want him to bounce around too much.”
Valerie positioned herself at James’ feet, and then I carefully slid my arms underneath him and lifted him up into the air. As another wave of pain swept over him, he groaned and rocked his head back, but this time, he stayed conscious.
“Hang in there, Uncle James,” Catherine said as she ran alongside me toward the church doors. “You’re gonna be just fine.”
“This is some shit luck,” James said. “I just made myself a prime fucking target for the vamps.”
“Nah, you’re a little too low on blood for us to really be interested in you,” I joked. “You might just outlive everybody, after all.”
“Everybody else, stay outside!” Val shouted to the other townspeople. “I don’t want you all to crowd around him like a bunch of vultures, got it?”
Once I carried him inside, I set him down on the couch that Celia directed me to, and we elevated his leg on a pillow as comfortably as we could. Celia carefully placed ice all around his leg, and then after she gave James some water and Tylenol, she joined me, Valerie, and the six girls a few feet away from the injured man.
“So what now?” Celia whispered.
“I really wish we had a doctor here,” Valerie muttered as she glanced over at James. “I’m good with horses and cows, not people.”
“I think you did really well,” Natalie said. “I know what you mean, but you don’t have to sell yourself short.”
“We need medical supplies,” I said. “Blood transfusion equipment, antibiotics, crutches, splints, and any other big stuff like that we can find. It could only be a matter of time before someone else gets injured badly, too, so we need plenty of supplies if Red House is going to make it.”
“I couldn’t agree more,” Val said. “But where the fuck are we supposed to get medical supplies? The town hasn’t gotten a shipment in weeks.”
“Where does the ambulance take people when there’s an emergency?” I asked. “What town does it go to?”
“There’s a hospital down in Teays Valley,” Celia said. “If you go down 34, it’s about ten miles down the road. Southwest, so you wouldn’t go through Black Betsy or nothing.”
“So maybe a twenty or thirty minute drive?” I asked. “I know it depends on road conditions, but does that sound about right?”
“Yeah, I think so,” Celia replied and then glanced back at the church doors. “But you’re not actually thinking about going, are you?”
I followed her gaze to the doors and saw all the other townspeople as they peered into the church but didn’t actually step foot inside because they didn’t want to face the wrath of Valerie or Celia.
“I don’t think we have much of a choice,” I said as I looked at the girls. “James needs supplies now, and the rest of you might need some before everything is said and done.”
“You don’t know how long it’ll be before you are able to get more medical supplies,” Erika said, “so if Sam can get them for you now, that probably makes the most sense.”
“Plus, James really needs them,” Catherine said.
“His pulse is still there, but it’s weak,” I said, “so I think he’ll need a blood transfusion as soon as we can get the equipment for him.”
“And you think he’ll… sorry, Catherine… you think he’ll last that long?” Neko asked.
“I’ll do everything I can to make sure of it,” Val said.
“People are gonna think that you’ve decided to leave us, after all,” Celia murmured. “They’ll be scared, especially since it’ll be dark before too long.”
“Then you’ll just have to talk them down,” I told the silver-haired woman. “Plus, not all of the girls are gonna come with me, so everyone will know that I’ll be back.”
“As much as I want to come with you,” Natalie said, “I can stay and help organize defenses here.”
“Thanks, I was going to ask if you would,” I said. “And Celia, at least until I get back, I want you to make sure that everyone stays downtown tonight.”
“I’ll make sure of it,” Celia said, “and Val will whip anybody into shape who seems resistant.”
“Hell, yes, I will,” the dark-blonde farm vet huffed.
“The people here must really be afraid of you,” Neko said with an arched eyebrow.
“I’d call it more like a healthy respect,” Val chuckled.
“If there’s two things that people in Red House know,” Celia said, “it’s that you never trust the government and that you never fuck with Val.”
“Now that’s what I call inspirational,” Catherine said with a small smile.
It was the first time that I’d seen the auburn-haired girl smile since her uncle took his tumble, but I knew that she would want to stay with him to help him recuperate until I got back. But since I didn’t want to go down to Teays Valley on my own, that meant I still needed to decide which of the remaining four girls to take with me.
Lily had a little bit of experience as a nursing student, so it made sense for her to stay with James and Catherine, and Erika always acted as Natalie’s right hand, so it probably made sense for her to stay and help Natalie with whatever she needed.
That just left Neko and Brianna, but even though I knew that I could just go with Neko and we would both be fine, I also knew that Brianna and Neko were damn near inseparable, and it would probably do Brianna some good to feel useful. Of course, I knew that she already was, but the curvy blonde could definitely use a confidence boost.
“One more thing, Celia,” I said before I told the girls my decision. “You can tell everybody that they can work on fortifications until it’s too dark to work on them anymore, and then I want you all to tuck into one of these buildings and take turns keeping watch for any signs of trouble.”
“We’ll make sure it gets done,” Celia said.
“Do you want to take Rhino?” Natalie asked. “We could take the Jeep back up to the cabin and then split up, if you want.”
“No, I want Rhino to be your last line of defense,” I said. “If something happens while I’m gone, I want you to retreat from here and get back to Rhino.”
I didn’t say that the armored truck wouldn’t fit everybody in town, but I knew that Natalie would understand what I meant. If shit really hit the fan, not that many townsp
eople would survive, so there would probably be just enough room inside the back of Rhino for the girls and the few other survivors.
I also knew that I could count on Natalie to make the best decision for the girls while I was gone, so if everything did go south, she would take charge and make the best choice possible.
“So what car will you take?” Lily asked.
“Actually, I was hoping that Celia might be able to help me out again on that issue,” I said. “Can I use your son’s pick-up truck?”
“Psh, that ain’t his,” Celia said. “It’s mine, but you’re welcome to it. It’s got gas, and there’s a map inside the glovebox.”
“Thanks,” I said. “So, Nat, you stay here with Erika, Catherine, and Lily. Neko and Brianna, I want you two to come with me.”
“Me?” Brianna squeaked.
“He said your name, didn’t he?” Neko smirked.
“Unless you don’t want to come with me?” I raised an eyebrow.
“Oh, no!” the beautiful, curvy blonde said. “No, I definitely want to come with you. I just didn’t think… yes, please.”
“Smooth, Bree,” the petite Japanese girl teased her friend.
“Then grab your gear, and let’s hit the road,” I said but then turned to my girlfriend before I started toward the door. “And Nat… be safe, okay?”
“I’ll do my best,” my gorgeous girlfriend said with a smile. “Just hurry back.”
“Your uncle’s gonna be fine,” I told Catherine. “I’ll do everything I can to make sure of that, alright?”
“I know you will, Sam,” Catherine murmured. “Thank you.”
“Erika and Lily,” I said but then shook my head. “You two know what you’re doing.”
“Basically,” Erika said as she pushed her glasses up on her nose.
“And Val?” I turned toward the farm vet last. “Thanks for everything.”
“Don’t thank me yet, since he could still…” Valerie stopped herself with a glance at Catherine. “Yeah, you’re welcome, I guess.”
I squeezed Celia’s shoulder when she handed me the truck keys, and then Neko and Brianna followed me out of the church. I figured that I would let Celia and Val explain what was going on to the rest of the town, especially when I didn’t want to waste time with explanations when we needed to get to a town ten miles away from here.
Vampire Lord | Book 5 | Vampire Lord 5: Conquering A Bloodthirsty Earth Page 22