“Bailey, I’m scared,” Chloe tearfully exclaimed.
Even she could see how screwed we were.
“We’re almost at the alley.”
I didn’t have the time or the capacity to make meaningless reassurances at the moment. I jerked to a stop a few meters from the alley, planning on using my axe again. The bag I was carrying slid off my shoulder and scratched down my arm, leaving angry red welts in its wake. I suppose it was heavy enough to use as a weapon.
I tossed my axe toward the infected guarding the alley entrance and they peered down at it as it clanged to the ground.
“You just threw your weapon away!” Chloe screeched.
“No I didn’t.”
I ran to the infected and swung my heavy, filled to the brim bag at the first one. I had the odd urge to yell, “This is my purse,” at them as I brandished the bag like a weapon. Maybe I am starting to lose my mind. The infected went flying into the other two and they all fell down in a mass of limbs. A few cans popped out the top, but I didn’t bother retrieving them.
“Come on!” I yelled as bending to pick up the axe.
Chloe ran to me, her bags jerking up and down. The alley had more infected lying in wait for us and the others had started to catch up and were now pouring into alleyway after us. I used my axe to poke at the ones that got too close, having to only stop to take one out that was directly in front of us. I couldn’t afford to get bogged down.
The house we were aiming for loomed in the distance.
“I see it!” Chloe huffed.
I had to crack open the skull of one female infected blocking the fence we needed. I thanked my past self for having the foresight to toss a chair over. My brain must have been working overtime. Using most of my reserve strength, I tossed my heavy bag over the pointed fence, then Chloe’s.
“Hurry!” Chloe yelled.
I had to knock back an infected that had snuck up on me with the butt of my axe. Seeing no other option, I stomped my heel down on the middle of its skull when it hit the ground. A flash of a memory shot through my brain, reminding me of the time Darren did that and how disgusted I was.
Chloe climbed onto the chair and I gave her a boost. Her leg and arm latched over the ragged boards at the same time I was steam rolled by an infected. I heard her scream as I hit the ground, shoving at the body trying to tear into me. Drool and fowl breath hit me, but I was able to shove it to the side. I scrambled to pull the hunting knife from my pants.
By the time the knife was clear of the sheath, the infected had crawled back to me. I shoved it back and rolled on top of it, rearing up my arms to bring the knife down. It landed in the things mouth and went out through the back of its head. It gurgled for a bit and then stopped moving. I jumped up and saw that Chloe was no longer on the fence. She must have fallen to the other side.
I climbed up on the chair and threw my backpack and axe over. I don’t know where the strength came from this time, but I was able to pull myself up enough with my arms that I could hook my leg over. My pants snagged on the pokey fence when I brought my other leg over, tearing right down the seam. This made me lose my balance, and I toppled the rest of the way down, landing on my side. Pain shot up my whole right side, especially in my elbow, which I had sticking out as I flailed down. I quit breathing as the pain made my eyes water. I had to force my lungs to start again, praying that nothing was broken.
Wheezing, I managed to sit up. New pain shot down my body. I was able to focus long enough to stand up and spot Chloe. Dragging my backpack onto my screaming shoulder, I went to usher her into the house.
“Bailey,” she said weakly.
I looked down at her. She was clasping her left arm tightly. Bright, red blood was pouring from her arm, staining her clothes and dripping onto the overgrown grass.
Oh God.
Chapter 32
Her face was paler than I had ever seen it, she was probably in shock. I ran to her.
“Oh god, oh god,” I started to panic.
I tried to lift up her right hand to see how bad it was, but as soon as I did, blood started to spurt anew. It looked bad – out of my realm bad. It was deeper than any cut I had ever gotten. That fucking, splintering fence must have sliced her arm open when she fell.
“Let’s get inside,” I had to really focus to keep the panic out of my voice.
“Am…am I goin’ to be okay?” Chloe’s eyes were glassy.
“Of course.” I had no way of knowing that.
We left a bloody trail all the way to the sliding door. My hand slipped on the door handle from all the blood that coated it; I had to wipe it off on my already ruined pants. This was too much blood for an adult, let alone a small child. I flung open the door and sat her down on a kitchen chair. I started to pull open all the drawers searching for a towel. After I tried all of them, I finally opened the right one.
I forced Chloe’s hand away and shoved the sunflower print tea towel on the bleeding wound.
“It hurts!” Chloe screamed, and I had never felt so powerless. She started to kick out her legs, and I had to jump to the side to avoid them. Blood was staining the towel at an alarming rate.
“I know it hurts Chloe, but you have to push on this as hard as possible okay? I’m going to run upstairs and grab something.”
I ran off before she could protest. I flew up the stairs, into the little boy’s room. He had to own a belt that I could use as a tourniquet. I threw open and rummaged through his dresser, clothes flying everywhere. I found a faux leather one that would work, so I ran back down the stairs in a flurry.
Chloe was now screaming and crying, the initial shock having worn off. She was like a banshee; her pain was palpable. “Make it stop!” Her face was now red from all the screaming.
She needed to stop yelling. We already had all those infected in the alley. No doubt they were banging and pushing on the fence trying to get in.
“I’m going to tie this around your arm okay? It will help stop the blood, so I can treat it.”
I looped my arm under hers and latched the belt, tightening it just past the elbow.
“OW!” She flailed, but I tugged it as tight as it could go.
“I know it hurts Chloe, but this will stop the bleeding,” I pleaded with her.
She weakly pushed and scratched at me, trying to get me to release the belt. But even as she was doing that, I could see that the blood flow was slowing when I lifted the tea towel.
“See it’s working,” I pointed out. “Now I need you to be really brave right now and hold this belt.”
I realized she had more strength than most adults would, when she grabbed the end of the belt I was pulling on and started to tug.
“Good. Now we need antiseptic.”
I ran to the living room where the stuff we grabbed from the medicine cabinet was currently sitting. There was a brown bottle of peroxide that I needed to find. Chloe was going to hate this even more. I made a mess of our bags as I rooted through them to grab the bottle. Once I got back to the kitchen, I took out the gauze we pilfered from the general store.
All this was going to do was disinfect the wound. It was deep enough that she needed stitches and there was no way I could administer them to a flailing child.
Superglue.
Darren’s tidbit from when he patched up Ethan roared into my head. I had spotted a tube when I was going through the kitchen drawers. I went back to the various open drawers and found the rolled up tube of superglue. This would have to do. I took a deep breath, realizing I would more than likely have to hold her down.
“Chloe, I need you to lie on the floor.”
“Why?” she demanded through tears and snot.
“I can’t put the disinfectant on properly unless the arm is flat out,” I lied through my teeth.
She looked at me hesitantly, so I tried to hurry her along. I helped her to the floor and she sprawled out. Every time I reached for the wound, she tried to move her arm away. Human instinct I guess, to avoid p
ain as much as possible.
“I need to hold the belt!” she tried to sit up, but I gently pushed her back down.
“Don’t worry about that. I just need you to be brave, can you do that?”
She looked at me; tears were running down her face like a faucet.
“Just make it stop, please!”
I kneeled down beside her with all my supplies. “Now Chloe, I don’t want to scare you or lie to you, but this will sting. The peroxide will kill any germs in the cut; we can’t have it getting infected.”
She tried to move away from me again. “Wait–”
Before she could finish, I placed my knee on her upper forearm to hold it in place and poured some of the clear liquid onto the wound. She thrashed wildly and screamed like I was the one who did it. I kept my hold on her arm with my knee and used my other hand to hold the lower part steady.
“PLEASE STOP! IT HURTS SO BAD!”
I had to try to block out her screaming and pleading for me to stop. It was hard. I felt like I was killing her, but it was for her own good.
The wound hissed and bubbled as the peroxide ate away the germs that had embedded themselves in there. I wiped away the white bubbles and blood with another clean towel I had grabbed. Then poured more peroxide directly into the wound this time. She kicked and jerked even harder, but I was stronger and used my weight to keep her arm in place.
The bleeding had slowed immensely, and I took that as a good sign. Her breathing was labored from all the fighting against me and screaming.
“Please… just stop,” she tearfully pleaded.
I noticed the fight was leaving her. I felt like an abuser. The worst person in the world.
Finally, after another round of peroxide, the fizzing stopped and it no longer reacted to the wound. This was a guess on my part, but I think that meant the disinfectant had done its job. Now was time for the glue. I poured the peroxide on my fingers and scrubbed it in. I needed them to be sterile.
The lid was stuck to the top of the tube, so I had to use the towel for leverage to twist it off. The smell of vinegar reached my nose once the lid came off.
“Is it over?” She sounded so defeated.
“Almost. I just have to make sure the wound closes.”
I dabbed a fair amount on my finger tip and spread it slightly on the edges of the wound.
“STOP!” Chloe started screaming and kicking again as I aggravated the sore wound.
Once I figured I got enough on there, I pinched the two sides of the cut together.
“DEAR GOD, MAKE IT STOP!” She was so loud, that I had to take feelings out of the equation.
I shoved my free hand over her mouth to smother her screams.
The look in her eyes said it all: Traitor.
She continued to jerk and scream against my hand, I could feel the vibrations against my palm. All the windows were open along with the back door and those things at the back fence didn’t need to be spurred on. I released the wound and it didn’t reopen. The glue had worked.
I took my hand off her mouth. “I’m just going to put some gauze around it, and it will be over.”
“I hate you!” Chloe spat.
That hurt, twisting up my stomach in knots, but I had a job to do. I wrapped the gauze around a few times and tied it off. As soon as I removed my knee, Chloe shuffled away from me, cradling her bandaged arm. The collar of her shirt was stained with tears and her clothes were matted in her blood. I was a horrible protector. I should never have been here in the first place, should never have been in charge of another human being. I wasn’t cut out for this.
I looked down at the mess I had made. The white tiles were stained with blood and peroxide. Dirty towels and opened supplies surrounded me. I had just held down a child while I attempted to treat a serious wound with zero experience. Chloe would have been better off with anyone else but me.
Chapter 33
Chloe huddled as far away from me as possible, like a kicked puppy. Even through her tears and sobs, she managed to shoot me a hateful glare. I swallowed past the lump in my throat and started to clean up the mess, trying to distract myself from what just happened. I left out all the supplies on the table; I would need to re-dress the wound tomorrow. Chloe shot up and ran into the living room. I heard her stomping as she ran up the stairs, away from me.
I didn’t blame her. I had handled that poorly, but what else was I to do? I had no idea how to treat a wound of that magnitude, let alone on a kid that wouldn’t hold still. I could sit here and try to justify my actions, but the truth was that I should never be responsible for a child. She got injured under my watch. My own side groaned in pain as I moved about. After all that, I was sure my elbow wasn’t broken, just really sore and swollen.
The sun was going down fast, like it was in a hurry to get to its evening plans. I didn’t hear banging on the sturdy wooden fence anymore, but there was still movement and moaning in the alley. Maybe the infected had forgotten why they were here in the first place or had just given up. Bottom line was that they were still out there. Right in our own backyard took on a whole new meaning.
I felt numb at this point, or felt too much; I couldn’t tell the difference. My mind wasn’t coping well with the events of this past day. I was running on autopilot, but unfortunately it wasn’t a very good program. I felt the way you did when you came to the end of a particularly good book and now didn’t know what to feel. Lost. Heartbroken. Empty.
I stumbled to the back doors. In the rush of everything, I had forgotten to close them. The setting sun shone through the spaces in the fence, making the yard appear stripped. Our bags were still lying on the grass, odd items thrown all around the mesh totes. I walked over and started to shove them back in, very aware of the sound of bodies moving slowly on the other side of the fence.
My task became harder, as my vision blurred. Tears were dropping onto my hands, like little liver spots, as I picked up the various cans and boxes. Pain bloomed in my chest. What have I done? I wanted to scream. I wanted to yell into the sky a slew of curse words in every language. I wanted to disappear. I gripped the can in my hand and wound my arm back to throw it like I was a pitcher for the MLB.
But I couldn’t. Everything I did put us in danger. I lowered my arm in defeat, and then stood up; the bag I was holding flopped over to its side. I started lashing out at the air all around me, like I was a kid throwing a fit. In a way, that’s exactly what I was. I needed to inflict pain, so that mine felt small in comparison. I wanted the world to know how shitty I felt.
I picked up my discarded axe and started to whack at the ground with it. Chunks of grass and dirt leapt like grasshoppers fleeing for their lives, from the uneven hole I was making. My body was starting to become heated from my spectacle; I must have looked like a raging lunatic. With a deep breath, I tried to center myself. I dropped the axe and dipped down to pick up the bags. With one in each hand, I walked back over to the house.
I threw the heavy totes inside and their contents rolled all over the floor like a glass of spilt milk. Except milk wouldn’t have made that much noise. The infected started to scrape along the fence, alerted by the banging sound.
Fuck it. Let them devour me.
We were all doomed to be food for the worms sooner or later. Why not end it now? I could hear growling coming from the crowd; some had started to lightly bang on the fence. They didn’t realize they were powerless to knock over their obstacle with their decaying arms like dried tree branches. But they were powerful enough to take down this world; the irony was almost too much.
Dead, infected people owned this place now. They marched into the streets like all armies before them, except they didn’t discriminate. We were all fair game. All races, all colors, all genders. We were all equally screwed.
I slid down the rough outside paneling of the house, resting my head in my hands and wept.
Chapter 34
I managed to get my sobbing under control. The streaks of my tears were drying on
my face, making the skin feel dehydrated. Once I shed my last tear for myself, I decided that was enough. Using the outside of the house as leverage, I pushed myself back to my feet and wandered back inside. My little episode had made the pain in my elbow come back with a vengeance and the side I had landed on screamed at me for my stupidity.
The kitchen was filling with shadows; later all we had to keep them at bay were the camping lanterns we found while searching the house. I wiped at my face, embarrassed by my behavior. Not only had I made a fool of myself, I got the infected all worked up right outside the fence. At least they seemed to have calmed down again for the time being. It seems like they have the memory of a goldfish.
I tiptoed back outside for my axe, which was now coated in blood and grass. Once back inside, I flipped the lock on the sliding doors and overturned the kitchen table up against them. If something or someone wanted inside, they would have to work for it. I made sure the front door was dead bolted and pushed the couch in front of it. The sound of the legs scraping across the hardwood floor echoed in the house. At least I didn’t have to worry about repairing the damage.
Darkness was starting to set in, and it made me nervous. This would be the first night without the others. I didn’t have them to depend on, I had only myself. I found I missed them dearly. We were our own family, looking out for one another. Yet they had abandoned me. Or was I the abandoner? I didn’t want to believe that anyone had left anyone behind. Maybe things would have been different if I had stayed behind, maybe they would have turned out exactly the same. There was no way to tell now.
All I could do was hope that they were all alive. What mattered now was surviving and finding our dysfunctional little family.
Taylor smirked at me yet again, laughing to himself about my mishap. How was I to know you couldn’t just smoke anything in the meat smoker? You could have smoked salmon, why not smoked trout? I hated the taste of fish and figured at least smoking it would make it edible.
This Would Be Paradise (Book 1) Page 22