IN THE APOCALYPSE, A HERO RISES

by Vincent Fields

  When he arrived he could tell it was packed and busier than ever. Vehicles were illegally parked all around the emergency room entrance. Everyone seemed to be having an emergency. Blood trails lined the paths from several of the parked cars to the ER doors. Tak parked on the grass near the side of the building and went around to open Amy’s door. She was feeling the pain and moving slow as she tried to get out slowly. The bandage on her shoulder was soaking wet with blood. He said “Here, let me carry you so we don’t have any more blood leak out than already is”. She started to say it wasn’t necessary but he scooped her up so quickly she just went with it. It did send extra waves of pain through her shoulder to walk so she was happy not to have to.

  Every seat in the ER waiting room was full and people were lined up and lying on the blood splattered floor. A couple nurses were quickly moving to and fro, coming in and going out of the room as they wheeled the seriously injured deeper into the hospital. Children and adults were moaning, some yelling and some crying. Some visible injuries that Tak noticed ranged from a broken arm with the bone sticking through the skin, to the severely beaten face of an unconscious man carried by his family, to a man with a large knife sticking out from between his ribs. One of the nurses recognized Tak and quickly approached him when he waved to her. He explained the nature of Amy’s injury to the nurse she said “I’m sorry officer Graves, we are short staffed and overwhelmed. We have several more severe injuries that we’ll have to attend before we’ll get to her. I’ll get her in as soon as I can but I expect it will be quite some time.” She then rushed off to join a stretcher carrying a man with bullet wounds to his chest that was being whisked back into an operating room. Tak looked into at Amy’s green eyes that looked back into his with worry. “What are we going to do?” she asked. He replied, “Don’t worry, your wound isn’t that serious and I can take care of it easily my place. I’ve taken care of far worse in the Corps. It will be certainly better than waiting here all day.” Tak whisked her back to the jeep and sped away. He noticed that more blood was leaking from her wound and she seemed to be getting light headed.

  CHAPTER 12: SURGERY

  By the time they reached Tak’s cabin Amy was just about unconsciousness. Her uniform shirt was soaked in blood all the way down to her pants. He carried her in and got to work. He laid her on his dining room table and quickly gathered some items. He had a well-stocked medical kit that included a small surgery kit. He had training and experience in taking bullets out of bodies from his time in the Marines. He put a clean towel under her head as a pillow. She was cold and clammy and pale in the face. He removed her nano-Kevlar vest and cut off her blood soaked uniform top and bandage with medical scissors. He cleaned the wound and set up an IV of dextrose to thicken her blood, just like he had done years ago in the Corps. He hung it from a hook on the wall and then gave her a pain relieving dose of morphine from an auto injector to her thigh. Her face soon relaxed and lost its grimace. Her eyes blurred over and seemed to lose focus. She was feeling fine rather quickly. He took her hand with his right and patted it with his left, saying “I’m going to patch you up now Braxton, you’ll be just fine.” He wasn’t sure if she heard him or not as she seemed so far away, and then her eyes closed. As he began to remove the bullet lodged in her shoulder she murmured something indistinguishable. He got closer and said “What’s that?” and could only make out some of her words that sounded as if they were coming from a dream; “…. haven’t… kissed me… don’t… like me? Ohh God…. just… won’t you… ohh pl… I’m sorry if…” Then she seemed to pass out. He cracked a small grin and continued to work on her. It took him about 30 minutes to get the task finished. He removed the piece of lead that had gone in about an inch before hitting her collarbone. He stitched her up the best he could and mixed a shot of antibiotics into her IV bag. He stepped back and looked at his work. The wound should heal up nicely as long as she kept it clean, took it easy and let it heal. He had a supply of antibiotics that would keep it from getting infected. She was covered in dried blood and shivering cold. He removed the rest of her clothes, careful to be respectful and keep her privates covered with towels. He then took a washcloth and a bucket of hot water and cleaned the dried blood off of her. He couldn’t help but notice her lithe, shapely body. She obviously kept herself in top shape. She couldn’t have been much more than a hundred pounds, which Tak figured didn’t give her a lot of blood to lose in the first place. He made a mental note to find out her blood type later. After cleaning her up he wrapped her in towels and carefully carried her to his spare bedroom. He hooked up a fresh IV bag and put an old pair of grey jogging pants on her that was obviously too baggy, but at least synched at the waist. He put one of his tank tops on her as well so that he’d be able to access the wound for cleaning. He put a bottle of water on the nightstand, adjusted the lamp to its dimmest setting and covered her with a clean white sheet and thin blanket. He then said a short prayer for her and left to try and contact the department. It was all he could do for her for now.

  CHAPTER 13: IS IT THE MORPHINE?

  Amy woke up a dimly lit, unfamiliar room. The door was open and she could hear Tak’s voice in the distance. He was talking on a CB radio in his com center. She opened her mouth to yell for him and her voice croaked; parched dry. Her shoulder ached with pain. She reached up and felt her left shoulder with her right hand and noticed the bandage on it. She swallowed and tried again… “Tak!”. He quickly came into the room and she was immediately relieved. He turned up the bedside lamp and sat down next to her. He grabbed a bottle of water and a couple of pain pills that he had staged on the nightstand waiting for her. “Hey Braxton, how ya feelin? Here, take these, they will help with the pain and swelling”. He removed the water bottle’s lid and gave her the pills. She took them, swallowing back a big gulp. He took her hand again and pet it instinctively, in a nurturing, caring way. He obviously cared for her and she could feel it. “Thank you so much for taking care of me Tak. I don’t know what I’d have done without you.” Her eyes moistened up as she said it. She squeezed his hand. “Of course, it’s no problem Braxton; it’s the same I’d have done for any of my men.” She seemed a little disappointed at that comment and reached up to wipe some tears away before they fell. She replied in her emotional state, “I’m not a man, GRAVES”, as she accentuated his last name with a sense of frustration. “Just call me Amy. We’re not on duty in front of civilians you know”. “Sorry Amy, it’s just my habit. And of course I don’t mean you’re a man, that much is obvious”, as he moved his hand along her body in a motion of presentation. “I just mean that I care about you… well, you know, like any of our brothers and sisters in blue. We’d die for each other if necessary.” “I know Tak… I know”. A tear broke free from her eye this time and rolled down her cheek. Tak didn’t know what to do with an emotional, injured woman in his bed so he did what he imagined his mother would have done; he gave her a hug. She threw her right arm around him and it seemed to be just what she needed, although the damn of her tears broke and she began sobbing into his neck. “I’m sorry Tak… thank you so much”. “Shhh, shhh; you’re going to be just fine Amy. You’re probably still feeling the effects of the morphine. That is some powerful stuff you know. Good thing I’ve got some friends at the hospital or I wouldn’t have had it or the IV’s. I bet I’d have had to…” she pulled back from the hug and interrupted him with a surprise kiss. She pulled him to her and pressed her lips against his. He was shocked and momentarily lost his train of thought and wasn’t kissing her back as his eyes were wide open. After a couple seconds she allowed a few inches to come between them. Their eyes locked and she immediately thought she had messed up and felt that her feelings for him had not been mutual. He stuttered “I…uhh… I’m sorry, I…” and then he fell quiet for a few moments and let what had just happened really soak in. This meant her feelings towards him were mutual! Or, was it just the morphine? He realized that now he had the green light to move in for a proper kiss with her. Sh
e began to apologize but before she could, he grabbed the back of her head and pulled her lips to his… and this time closed his eyes and kissed her with passion. He held her head gently as she returned the fervor in the kiss. They tasted each other’s lips as excitement pulsed through their bodies. After a half dozen seconds or so they stopped and looked seriously into each other’s eyes; and then they burst out laughing. They laughed hard for a good while. Tak hugged her again and said "You have no idea how long I’ve wanted to do that, but I didn't think you felt the same way”. Amy replied “Tak, you're blind as a bat. I've been flirting with you for years and you never seemed to notice." Tak said, "Oh... well... I guess I didn't notice. I thought you were just friendly to everyone. I’ve always found you attractive but I have always tried to remain professional and treat you as one of the guys.” He put his face in front of hers again and locked his blue eyes with her green orbs. “I'm sorry I never made a move on my feelings. Honestly I thought that I didn't have a chance with someone as beautiful and sweet as you are, and I always seemed to fumble my words when things started to get personal between us. I’ve had a crush on you for years now Amy.” She blushed and giggled; "Well I've made a move now so you'll just have to deal with that." They hugged again and all the tension had left the room.

  A few moments later she asked him seriously “Do you think we’re going to be OK with what’s going on out there? The world seems to be going crazy”. Before he could reply she continued, “Oh yea, and… well it may be the drugs but I swear you seemed to have done some impossible stunts I’ve witnessed today. The first was in the Wal-Mart parking lot… I don’t understand how you could have taken those two looters out and gotten back to them before I even rounded the back corner of the jeep. That was crazy fast. And then again later in the shootout with those gangbangers; I remember getting knocked down and then suddenly they were just all dead. Nobody can shoot that fast and accurate… can they?” He kissed her forehead, exhaled as he thought of what to say, and finally said “You must be starving. How about I make you an omelet?” She looked at him with a little frustration in her eyes and then let it slip away. She said “Breakfast, now? It must be nearly dinner time.” Then she smiled and said “Just kidding, I love breakfast anytime. Let’s see how you can cook.” As he walked out of the room he said “Stay there and rest, I’ll be right back with some chow.” He walked to the kitchen with a smile across his face, but he couldn’t help but wonder if the morphine had made her finally reveal her feelings or perhaps just the circumstances. Whatever it was he didn’t really care, he was excited about their future together.

  CHAPTER 14: COM CENTER

  Tak had a homemade communications center set up against a wall on long tables in his living room. He had CB and HAM radios, four walkie-talkie style radios on chargers, his cell phone, a weather radio, a portable radio on a charger, two computers with monitors and other electronic devices either plugged into power strips or on chargers. A few of the devices were connected to a large antenna on the roof. He tried his cell phone and got a “service unavailable” message. He guessed that most everyone in the country must be on their phones about now. He took a seat in his comfortable old leather office chair, turned on a CB radio and checked to make sure it was set to the emergency channel his police department monitored. He picked up the handheld microphone and spoke into it. “Dispatch, this is Sergeant Graves, do you copy? Over.” Tak had to repeat this several times until there was a response a couple minutes later. “Dispatch to Graves, verify your radio code of the day please”. This was standard procedure used to verify an officer’s identification when using a CB and to ascertain if he was under duress. If he was under duress he would add the code “222” to the end of his normal verification code. Tak recognized the voice as officer Lewis’. Tak replied with his code “Fox, two, five, niner, four; over”. The radio squawked back “10-4 Sergeant… Sierra Oscer; over.” “Sierra Oscer” was the military letter abbreviations for “S.O.”, which stood for “Switch Over”. That referred to switching to a predetermined radio channel instead of the main emergency channel so that they would have a bit more privacy. Lewis was a good officer who had been on the force half a dozen years and knew what he was doing. He had trained self-defense with Tak several times and invited him over for cookouts with his family. Tak switched over to the pre-determined switch over channel and said “Hey Lewis, what’s going on there man; I thought nobody was going to answer the radio? Over.”

  “Tak, we are swamped here and can’t keep up with all the calls coming in. We have several officers MIA. It’s chaos out there. What’s the status with you and Braxton? Over.”

  “She was wounded in a gunfight and is recovering at my place. The hospital was overcrowded and couldn’t get her in. Can you check with the chief to see if you can send the junior ranking officer at the station or on duty to my place to watch her so I can come in to work now? Over.” “Umm… standby, over.”

  There were a couple minutes of silence before officer Lewis came back over the radio. “Tak, it appears I’m the junior man on duty at the moment, and the chief seems to be MIA. Everyone else is quite busy and unable to come to your place right now. The chief went out alone in his patrol car and was last recorded as heading to the hospital to check on the situation there. He’s not answering his radio though and the phones aren’t working.” Tak thought for a few moments before responding. “10-4, thanks. I’ll go check out the situation at the hospital. Over.”

  CHAPTER 15: THE HOSPITAL

  Tak returned a few minutes later to Amy with a tray full of food and a handheld radio. He said “The chief went to the hospital and isn’t responding to his radio. I’m going to get go check on him. I’ll leave this handheld radio with you; call me if something comes up. There’s a 9mm with an attached light in your nightstand drawer in the slim chance you’ll need it. I’ll be back as soon as I can, but it will probably be a while. Make yourself at home.” He leaned over and kissed her on the forehead and she replied “Thank you Tak. Be safe out there and please keep me updated.”

  Tak jumped into his jeep and sped off towards the hospital. As the town came into view a few miles later it looked surreal to Tak; like a scene out of a disaster movie. At least a dozen buildings were on fire. He drove into town and heard small arms gunfire at least twice. At the first stoplight a silver Prius car was stopped in the middle of the road and the driver’s side door was open. He pulled up behind it and it wasn’t moving. He slowly pulled up beside it where he could see the driver; an elderly man slumped over with a bullet hole in his left temple. Most likely the victim of a robbery, Tak thought. The driver was obviously dead and Tak didn’t have time to investigate further, so he continued on towards the hospital. Similar scenes of chaos were all over town. There were overturned and burning vehicles. When he entered the downtown area with the historic central clock tower it was a free for all of chaos and looting. People were running in and out of every store and building, many wearing hoodies and bandanas and carrying stolen goods. As he slowed next to a large old brick store with broken windows a brick smashed into his roof, thrown by some unseen hoodlum. He saw a couple beaten and bloodied bodies on the street that were not moving. He reported it in to dispatch but didn’t bother stopping. He knew he was outnumbered and needed to check on the chief so he sped off.

  About 10 minutes later he arrived at the hospital. At least 50 cars were now illegally parked all around the emergency room entrance. He got as close as he could and ran inside. The emergency room was overflowing with victims. Sounds of agony could be heard as several people moaned and cried from grievous wounds. Just from a quick glance Tak saw a half dozen bloody head wounds, a middle aged balding man with a bone sticking out from his right shin as he cried in agony, and at least two people who appeared to have already expired, slumped over on the floor motionless in pools of blood. A 30-something year old stocky and shirtless white man grabbed Tak’s arm as he tried to walk towards the check-in station. The man stopped him with
a firm grip and said “Hey, you’ve got to do something; these damn nurses aren’t helping us! A group of thugs over on Boyton Street stopped our car and then shot my son as we sped away!” He motioned to a young teenage boy next to him with his right arm wrapped in the man’s T-shirt, holding it over an obviously bleeding wound. Tak normally wouldn’t let someone grab him like that, but he saw the fear in the man’s eyes and understood that his boy was hurt. Still, Tak gave him an honest and ice cold look that made the man immediately release his grip. He said “Sir, I understand your situation and I’ll go check on it. For now keep pressure on the wound and keep talking to your boy. From the bullet hole’s location I think he will probably be just fine. I’ll tell the nurses to…” right then Tak was interrupted by several gunshots somewhere deeper in the hospital but nearby. He turned and ran towards the noise, drawing his pistol in a smooth motion. He keyed his mic “Shots fired in the hospital, Graves investigating now”. He passed the check-in station, where the receptionist was surrounded by a dozen people all trying to talk to her at once. He pushed open one of the double doors leading further into the hospital and ran down a glossy white corridor. As he came to an intersection and looked left and right, he heard a half dozen more shots straight ahead. He burst through another set of double doors and stepped into a hornet’s nest of action not five feet in front of him. Three men wearing hoodies and camo bandanas over their faces were walking backwards to the left down the intersecting hallway in front of him and two of them were shooting pistols on down the hallway to Tak’s right. From where Tak was he couldn’t tell who or what they were shooting at. One of them to the far left was limping and leaving a trail of blood. While it was Tak’s first instinct to fire, he held off and shouted “POLICE, DROP YOUR WEAPONS!” Even as he said the words, he didn’t expect them to comply, and as if on cue the nearest one began turning his pistol towards Tak. Tak didn’t need to use his ability to slow time to take out the first thug. His pistol was already up and aimed in and he smoothly squeezed off two rounds into the man’s chest. His big 45 blasted holes into the man that weren’t an inch apart, not recoiling much due to the weight of the pistol. A bloody spray hit Tak since he was so close to his target.