Extreme Medical Services Box Set Vol 1 - 3

by Jamie Davis

  He looked around the room. There were puzzled looks staring back at him. Ashley suddenly started smiling. She seemed to have gotten the gist of what he was saying. He could see it in her eyes.

  “Brynne, could you work through back channels and get me an old, spare heart monitor, and maybe put together a drug bag for me?” She started to speak, but he held up a hand. “I know that using meds and my paramedic-level skills puts me above the level of just a bystander.”

  “You could lose your license if you’re caught,” Brynne cautioned.

  Ashley interrupted the two paramedics. “You wouldn’t lose your state license if you still had a medical director overseeing your patient care.”

  Dean looked at Brynne and then back to Ashley. He wasn’t sure where she was going with this.

  “I’ll talk with Doc Spirelli at the ER,” Ashley said. “He has been following your case and knows you’re innocent. I’m sure he’ll write you a letter of oversight to cover your back, at least until you are off suspension.”

  “So,” James said. “You can get back on the street. You can even act as a paramedic. How are you going to get dispatched when there are emergencies? You can’t be on the radio with all the other paramedics. You are still suspended.”

  “Ha ha, James,” Dean said. “You don’t know what I know. I will have a secret ally.” Dean pulled out his phone and dialed a number. He waited while the other three watched him and the phone rang. He put it on speaker as the phone on the other end picked up.

  “Hello?” said the voice on the other end. “Dean, is that you?”

  “Gibbie, my man,” Dean said, grinning ear to ear. “I have a proposition for you.”

  Chapter 63

  It took two long days to pull everything together that Dean wanted in place for his plan. Brynne got an old, retired heart monitor/defibrillator from a storage closet at Station U, as well as a few old, beat up medication and trauma bags. Ashley got Doc Spirelli at the ER to order the meds from the hospital pharmacy for a “clinic” and she got trauma bandages and supplies from the ER storage that was used to resupply the ambulances. James wanted to get into the act and buy a new vehicle for the plan, but Gibbie put his foot down. He wouldn’t take anything from James, refusing to be beholden to his vampire overlord for anything. It seemed odd to turn down the gift, but Dean chalked it up to some sort of vampire pecking order thing. He did talk Gibbie into letting James put new tires on Gibbie’s white creeper van. At least they wouldn’t suffer a blown tire while responding, and Dean insisted after he saw the condition of the bald tires on the first meeting he held to get organized.

  Dean spent those two very busy days working part-time in the Nightwing clinic set up by James for the feeder employees, and the rest organizing his gear for the street. He also took a big step forward, banking on his success in beating his legal troubles and getting back on track in his career as a Station U paramedic. On her day off, Ashley took him downtown to a shop called Tattoo Icons. It was where all the paramedics at the station had gotten their permanent ultraviolet ink tattoos of the Station U star of life emblem. The tattoo was not visible to humans, but it could be seen by Unusual patients, and it would identify him as a paramedic specifically for them. Displaying it would let patients know that they could relax their guard and get medical attention from him when they needed it.

  The owner of the shop, named Gareth, appeared Native American but was, in fact, a chupacabra - a shapeshifter variety from the southwestern United States and northern Mexico. He had long black hair pulled back in a braid and a big toothy grin that greeted everyone who entered his tattoo parlor. Dean learned that Gareth had moved to the east coast to be with his human wife when she got moved for her job. He set up shop here in Elk City more than twenty years ago, and had a broad clientele in the community, both human and Unusual.

  This was Dean’s first tattoo, and he was a little nervous, especially since he couldn’t see what Gareth was doing with the invisible inks. He assured Dean that it looked great when he was finished, and Ashley agreed, nodding enthusiastically. He needed to keep the area clean for the next few days while the area on the back of his hand healed. He was given some lotion to use on it, too.

  So, it was with a new and still healing tattoo that he couldn’t see, some borrowed medication and gear bags, and an old refurbished heart monitor, that Dean got started on his counter-career as a volunteer responder. He stood with all the gear on the concrete around him, in the parking garage below the Nightwing building. He checked his watch for the fifth time, waiting for Gibbie to arrive. Ashley was there, as were James and Brynne. This plan had a lot riding on it, in more ways than one. The people served by the Station U paramedics still needed care even though they had become too scared to call 911 anymore, and Dean felt the need to get back out on the street. Plus, this seemed the best way to circumvent his suspension.

  Dean heard a car horn that sounded like a European siren and Gibbie’s beat up white van pulled around the corner in the underground garage. The middle-aged vampire hopped out and approached the group with a huge grin on his face. He shook hands vigorously with Dean, hugged Ashley and Brynne, and bowed to James.

  “Are we ready to get this show on the road?” Gibbie asked. He was bouncing on the balls of his feet, his naturally flamboyant nature taking control.

  “Easy does it, Gibbie,” Dean said. “You really need to tone this down about ten notches.”

  “I can’t do that, Dean. When I get excited about something, the dial goes to eleven!” Gibbie said with a laugh. “I’ve got things set up with some of the CERT team you and Brynne trained. Some of them are going to work to take calls and act as dispatchers for us. Wim and Dora, the twin dryads from the class, are going to use a room and phone lines provided by Kristof at the newly remodeled Sabatani’s restaurant to take calls from our patients.”

  The side door of the van slid open, and a girl’s voice came from inside. “Hey, you guys gonna get us out on the road? I’m itching to get started. This is going to be awesome.”

  The owner of the voice leaned out and Dean could see Marian Gregory, a teenaged werewolf who was another of their CERT students. Her bright pink spiked hair stood out as much as her eyebrow and nose piercings. Dean lifted one eyebrow in question, looking at Gibbie.

  “Oh, yeah, Marian is going to join us on the weekends and when she doesn’t have homework during the weeknights,” Gibbie explained. “That’s okay, isn’t it? You trained us to do this, so I thought it was alright to include everyone.”

  Dean looked at Brynne, and she shrugged. Clearly it was alright with her. They were all flying by the seat of their pants on this venture. He knew what she was thinking, though. They were already breaking so many rules, what did a few more matter? Dean knew he was working without a parachute here. He wasn’t covered under any kind of liability policy, and if headquarters were forced to take official notice of his activities, that would be it. He’d lose his license as a paramedic forever, whether he had a piece of paper from Doc Spirelli or not, even if he was found innocent of the charges against him.

  “Yeah, Gibbie,” Dean said with a nod to Marian. “It’s fine, but she has to keep her grades up. That’s on you to check in with her parents and make sure.”

  “Oh, absolutely, Dean. I already told her that. Her mom and dad are happy to have her doing something constructive.” Gibbie leaned in and whispered, “I think she has a boyfriend they don’t like too much, and they want something else to distract her.” The paunchy vampire turned and waved at Marian, who was still leaning out the side of the van. She rolled her eyes at them and ducked back inside the van.

  “Well, it’s time to go then,” Dean said. “Let’s load up.” He handed the monitor and gear bags to Gibbie, who took them and walked back to the van to stow them. Dean looked at Ashley, leaned in and gave her a kiss.

  “I’ll see you later this evening or tomorrow morning, I guess,” he said. He turned to James and shook his hand.

  “At l
east I got you new tires so you won’t go careening off some back road with a blowout,” James chuckled, looking at the van. “As to the rest of that heap of metal, well, good luck to you.”

  Dean laughed and started over to the idling van. Brynne walked with him as he headed to the passenger side. Gibbie had already climbed back in the driver’s seat, and Marian slid the side door shut.

  “Remember, Dean, you call for help from the Station U medics if you get in over your head,” Brynne cautioned. “Even with the danger from The Cause, patient care has to come first. They are all aware of what is going on and will do their best to cover for you if you have to call them.”

  “I’ll remember, but we have to protect our patients, too.” Dean opened the front passenger door of the van, and Gibbie reached over and slid some trash off the seat to make room. Dean shook his head. He was going to have to whip this bunch of misfit responders into shape if this plan of his was going to work. The first thing was to keep their response vehicle in order and without trash strewn everywhere. He would set Gibbie and Marian to that task when they stopped for gas this evening. Dean sat down and closed the door, waved again to the others assembled to see him off, and hastily buckled his seatbelt as Gibbie peeled out and drove the van out of the garage and into the nighttime streets of Elk City.

  ———

  They rode in silence downtown for a few minutes, and Dean took some time to look around the inside of the old van. It looked like Gibbie lived in here, even though he knew the vampire had a basement apartment on the edge of town. There were balled up used blood containers littering the floor and crumpled Starbuck’s cups, too. A glance over his shoulder showed Marian sitting on the edge of her seat, the eagerness palpable as she leaned forward to look out the windshield.

  “Shouldn’t you buckle up, too, Marian?” Dean asked. “There is a seatbelt law in Maryland, you know.” He glanced at the driver. “You, too, Gibbie.”

  “Nah,” the teenager said. “I regenerate, so I don’t have to worry about it like you humans do.”

  “That’s only if you survive the initial impact,” Dean said. “You’ll only regenerate if you’re still alive. Besides, I don’t want to be killed when your regenerative body gets thrown into mine during the collision. Same for you, Gibbie. Seatbelts are there to keep you in the driver’s seat and in control of the vehicle, too. So buckle up, both of you, or I’ll have you take me back to the garage.”

  Marian rolled her eyes and then slid back into the seat, buckling a lap belt across her hips. Gibbie pulled the shoulder strap around and across him and buckled up his belt, too. Dean nodded his approval and looked forward again. He had thought he had a handle on all the things he was going to need to do in this new venture, but he had missed some operational details. Gibbie had tried to fill them in, like getting the Dryad twins to dispatch calls for them, but there were still things they didn’t know because there wasn’t an institutional culture of conduct under which to run, the way there was in a fire department. He was going to have to build that from the ground up if he was going to be successful in what he intended to do.

  The plan was for Dean and Gibbie to start providing some basic emergency medical care again for the Unusuals in and around Elk City. Because this would be seen as part of James’ oversight for the region, there should be a significant surge of goodwill. Hopefully, that would offset some of the bad will associated with his inability to stop The Cause in their attacks. The hope was that by having Dean back on the street, he would be able to do whatever Ashley had foreseen for him and James in her visions. She said it was still unclear what that action was, but it was less likely to happen as long as he was cooped up in the Nightwing building. The other good thing about responding to Unusual calls for assistance through the CERT team’s efforts was that it circumvented the regular 911 dispatchers and the fire department. Someone there was feeding info to The Cause. Because the members of the CERT team were such a small group, they could keep things closed down somewhat and respond to calls for help without anyone else finding out. At least, that was the plan.

  A cell phone rang, and Dean looked on the dash where Gibbie had mounted a burner phone with Velcro strips. It lit up with a number Dean didn’t know, but Gibbie obviously did. The vampire smiled at him and reached over to tap the respond button. It went to speaker mode and Dean heard a female voice he assumed was either Wim or Dora.

  “Hello Gibbie-mobile,” the voice said cheerfully. “How do you read?”

  “We read you loud and clear, Wim, honey. What’s the dealio? Do we have a customer?” Gibbie replied.

  “You do indeed. This is so cool. I feel like a real dispatcher,” Wim said over the phone. “Dora and I got headsets to plug into the phones. We have one to take calls and one to call you guys. And we have our laptop set up so we can follow you on the map, and give you directions if you need it. It’s awesome.

  “That’s so cool,” Gibbie said. “What app are you using to track us?”

  “Uh, guys,” Dean interrupted. “Stay focused on the job at hand. We have a patient to take care of …”

  “Oh, yeah,” Wim said. “Dora’s on the phone with a guy who says his friend is overdosed. They’re in a building down by the harbor downtown. He is being quite cagey with my sister on the phone, so she doesn’t have a lot of info to pass on. Just that it’s a guy, and it’s one patient. Sorry.”

  “That’s alright, honey,” Gibbie soothed. “You gals are doing the best you can.”

  “Yeah, Gibbie’s right,” Dean added. “Just try and keep them on the line while we head that way. What’s the address?”

  Dean listened as she passed along the street address while Gibbie turned and headed to the harbor district. He entered the address into his phone’s navigation app and started giving Gibbie directions based on the instructions he was getting but Gibbie just waved his hand in the air.

  “I know the place, Dean. It’s a skeevy vamp hangout for some of the most undesirable members of our community. Stay close to me when we get there, just in case.” The vampire driver looked up in the mirror at their third partner. “You, too, Marian. These guys don’t like lycans and other shifters much.”

  Dean felt the van lurch a little when Gibbie accelerated as they got on the cross-town freeway and headed off toward their first call as responders in the night.

  Chapter 64

  The white van slid slowly down the street. Dean looked out the passenger window at the abandoned industrial buildings on his side of the road. They were mirrored by similar buildings on the other side. The multi-story brick structures were looming on either side of them in the darkness. The van slowed to a stop, and Gibbie slid the gear lever into park.

  “That’s the building right there,” Gibbie said, pointing to the left.

  Dean looked at the building on the corner. The flickering streetlight showed the painted bricks spelling out “Sherwood Distillery” on the side of the building’s second floor. There was a giant smokestack standing to the rear of the lot, disappearing into the cloudy night sky’s darkness.

  “Okay, we need to be careful,” Dean said. “Just like I taught you guys in our class. Scene safety comes first. Pay attention to where we are and your surroundings. If you see something, say something. We’re each other’s eyes and ears on the street.” He unbuckled his seat belt and climbed out. Marian slid open the door on the side.

  “Hand me the med bag. You carry the trauma bag and give Gibbie the heart monitor,” Dean said. He took the bag she gave him and then led the three of them across the street and up the broad steps to the main doors. He reached out and tried them. They were unlocked. He heard Gibbie talking with Wim over the phone behind him asking for directions to the patient.

  “Wim says they are on the third floor, towards the back,” Gibbie relayed. “She says to watch out because the floor is falling through in the middle of the room. Stay along the walls.”

  “Great, no power, so no elevator and no lights, and we take the stairs,�
� Dean said. “Okay, Marian, there are two Mag Light flashlights in the side pocket of that bag you’re carrying. Hand me one and you shine the other one. I know you two can see in this darkness, but I am going to be nearly blind up there. Remember that.”

  The werewolf girl handed him a long-handled, black metal flashlight. He turned it on and started inside. There was a long hallway ahead of him with trash strewn across the floor. He looked to his left and saw an open stairwell door. He beckoned to the others and started upstairs, watching his footing carefully as the wooden stairs creaked under his weight with each step.

  He heard Gibbie stumble behind him and the vampire whimpered a little bit. “Take your time, guys. Watch your footing.”

  “I just hate places like this. They give me the heebie-jeebies,’’ Gibbie said.

  Marian snorted, “What do you have to be afraid of? You’re already dead. This place is awesome. You could have the most awesome rave here.”

  “I’ve always been afraid of the dark, okay.

  Dean stopped and turned around, playing the light on Gibbie. “You’re a vampire. Can’t you see in the dark?”

  “It’s just shadowy, creepy places. I know I can see in the dark, but I know the darkness is still there.”

  Dean saw that Gibbie was terrified. He glanced at Marian and back to Gibbie.

  “Let Gibbie hold the other flashlight, Marian. I need you up here with me so you can use your superior sense of smell to help us find our patient.” He waited while she handed off the flashlight and came forward to join him. “Just make sure we aren’t surprised by anything while we are here. You are going to be our situational awareness. Got it?”

  “Got it, boss,” Marian said. She had a big grin on her face as she moved to the front of the group. She started scanning the darkness ahead and behind them like a trained bodyguard.

  The three responders continued up the stairs, taking their time and making sure of each step. It took precious minutes, but they finally reached the third-floor landing. The doorway to their right opened onto a spacious and open warehouse floor with columns spaced across it supporting the ceiling. The floor was littered with crates and broken furniture. Dean shined his flashlight around the room, but the light failed to illuminate the furthest corners of the huge room. He turned and looked at Marian.