“Thanks for getting me out of there,” Drew said, shaking Alan’s hand.
“No problem. Just doing my job,” Alan said. “EMT Dana will take good care of you now.”
Dana used a pair of scissors to cut away his pants from around the wound. “That’s a pretty deep cut. We need to get you to a hospital.”
Drew pushed her hands away. “I’m not leaving without my brother.”
“We need to stop the bleeding,” Dana said. “Can I at least clean it out and wrap it?”
“Okay, but I’m not leaving until Lucas is out of there,” he said, as his head began to spin and his chest ran cold.
The second EMT opened one of the medical boxes, pulling out gauze and other supplies. He gave them to Dana.
“Let me know if you need something for the pain,” she said, dabbing the gauze on the wound. The pad turned a dark red color almost immediately.
Drew leaned back to rest his head on the pillow. His eyes closed unexpectedly and everything went black.
* * *
Lucas had been sitting alone for almost an hour, dwelling on all the problems he’d caused, when he finally heard muffled sounds of tools clanking against rock and cement above him. He used a rebar stump to pull himself up to the opening at the top of the debris pile. He yelled through the cavity, “I’m here! I’m here! Can someone hear me?”
A male voice from the other side shouted back, “We can hear you. Hold on, we’re digging our way to you.”
“How’s my brother doing? Is he okay?”
“He tore up his leg pretty bad, but the paramedics took him to the hospital. You might want to stand back in case some of this stuff shakes loose.”
Lucas nearly jumped off the wreckage in excitement, quickly descending to the ground. While he was waiting for rescue, someone tapped him on the shoulder from behind. He gasped a quick breath and turned around. It was Larson. “Shit, you scared the hell out of me.”
“Sounds like rescue crews on the other side,” Larson said in a gleeful tone. “Hopefully, they’ll have us out of here soon.”
“What are you doing up here?”
“I got tired of waiting. Do you have a problem with that?”
Lucas shook his head.
“No, I didn’t think so,” Larson said with a smug look on his face.
Lucas fought back the urge to punch Larson in the face.
Larson used his forearm to nudge past Lucas, moving closer to the base of the cave-in. He just stood there with his hands on his hips, looking up at the opening at the top of the wreckage.
Lucas moved to within a step of the man’s backside. He raised his hands together and considered wrapping his fingers around Larson’s neck. He wondered what it would feel like to squeeze Larson’s throat until the asshole stopped wiggling.
Larson shuffled back a step.
Lucas did the same, lowering his hands so he didn’t bump into him.
Larson looked over his shoulder at Lucas. “What the hell’s wrong with you? Stop crowding me, you little twerp.”
When Larson spun forward again, Lucas flipped him the bird and mouthed the words, “Up yours!”
* * *
Sometime later, Drew woke up in a hospital room to the sounds of medical equipment beeping all around him. He found a clear plastic tube running from a catheter stuck in his left arm to a metal stand next to his bed. At the top of the stand was a clear bag of liquid and it was about half full, emptying slowly through the drip chamber below it. He felt groggy and guessed the IV bag contained more than just fluids—probably a hefty dose of painkillers, too.
His other arm was being squeezed by a blood pressure cuff as its automated system pumped air into it. A set of thin black wires snaked its way from the cuff to a high-tech looking machine flashing his vital statistics. He watched the pattern of his heart rate moving across the display screen, keeping time with the beeping noise he heard when he first woke up.
A throbbing pressure was pounding at his thigh with every heartbeat, which was odd since he only had minimal feeling in that part of his body. When he reached down, he found a pressure bandage wrapped around his leg.
He sat up and found a smiling friend sitting in a red-colored easy chair near the foot of his bed. “Trevor, you’re alive!”
Trevor winked at him, but said nothing.
“What happened?” Drew asked.
“You lose much blood. Ambulance bring you here to medical center.”
Drew read his patient ID wristband. He was in the University Medical Center, less than a mile north of campus. “No, I meant what happened to you when you left the NASA meeting?”
“Kleezebee send me on errand.”
“I thought you might’ve been in the lab when it was destroyed.”
“No. I vas south of town.”
“Where’s Lucas? Did they get him out of the elevator shaft? Is he here with you?” Drew asked, his eyes darting around the room, looking for clues that his brother had been there.
“They rescue him. He be here soon.”
“Then he’s safe, right?”
“Ja.”
“Thank God. What about the others?”
“They will get them out, ja.”
A doctor and nurse walked into the room before Drew had the chance to ask him any more questions.
* * *
A hour later, Lucas strolled into Drew’s hospital room, pushing a wheelchair with a can of grape soda, a jumbo Snickers bar, and a bag of barbeque chips sitting on the seat. He’d just bought the food from the vending machines near the entrance to the hospital. Drew’s backpack was hanging off the back of the chair.
“Hungry, little brother?” Lucas asked with a huge grin on his face.
“Lucas!” Drew cried out.
Lucas leaned down to give Drew a hug. “I’m glad you’re okay, buddy.”
“You got my chair?”
“Sure did.”
“How?”
“Kleezebee made sure the rescue crews brought it up.”
“Thanks. I’m kinda partial to that thing.”
Lucas pointed to the gash in the seat made by the falling ceiling tile. “And now it has a battle scar, like you.” He laughed, then turned to Trevor and shook his hand. “Glad to see you’re still in one piece, too, big fella. Thought you might’ve been in the lab when it was sucked into oblivion.”
Trevor stood aside and offered his chair to Lucas.
“No, thanks. I think I’ll stand for a while.”
“How’s Dr. Kleezebee?” Drew asked Lucas.
“Last I heard, they were putting a cast on his ankle.”
“And Dr. Suki?”
Lucas groaned. “He’s not doing so well. They took him into surgery,” he said, fluffing his brother’s pillow. “How are you doing?”
“The doctor said I can leave in the morning. They want to monitor me overnight.”
“How come?”
“They’re worried about infection,” he answering, nervously pulling at the wide bandage around his upper leg. “Mostly because of where I got this. With all the dirt and metal, they don’t want to take any chances. They’re pumping me full of antibiotics and just gave me a tetanus shot. You know, just in case.”
“Then I guess I’m bunking here tonight,” Lucas said, opening the can of grape soda and giving it to Drew.
Drew took a drink, and then let out a low-pitched belch.
“Sounds like you’re feeling better already,” Lucas said, smiling. He held up the candy bar and the bag of chips. “Which one do you want?”
“I don’t think I’m allowed to eat those in here. Don’t I need the doctor’s permission first?”
“Come on, pick one. I know you want some,” Lucas replied, dangling them in front of Drew. He continued to tease his brother until Drew snatched the Snickers bar from his hand. “I’m surprised you didn’t pick the chips. They’re your favorite.”
Drew tore open the wrapper with trembling hands, took a huge bite, and began to chew i
t. He smiled. “Normally, I would’ve, but I totally needed a sugar fix. I can tell my blood sugar is low, which is why my hands are shaking.”
Lucas pried open the bag and ate a handful of BBQ chips. He licked his fingers afterward. “They’re a little stale, but edible.”
There was an orange suitcase sitting along the wall next to the door. It was a wheel bag the size of a footlocker, with a black pullout handle and a pair of casters on the bottom. They didn’t own a piece of luggage that size, so Lucas presumed it belonged to Trevor. “You wouldn’t happen to have a change of clothes in there for me, would you?” he asked, pointing at the bag.
Trevor shook his head. “Sorry, no clothes.”
FIFTEEN
Tuesday, December 25
Lucas woke early the following morning in his brother’s hospital room with sunlight streaming through the window. It gave the room a livelier feel than the previous afternoon, when the fluorescent lighting had made everything seem muted and antiseptic.
He found himself slumped in the red armchair next to Drew, who was snoring peacefully in his hospital bed. Lucas felt foggy and didn’t remember sitting down in the chair, let alone falling asleep in it the night before. He sat up and looked around for Trevor, but his friend was missing, as was the man’s big orange suitcase. He assumed Trevor had slipped out during the night, not wanting to wake him.
There were twinges of soreness in his lower back and on the side of his neck, probably from sleeping in the chair. The pain in his neck was the strongest, feeling like someone had slashed it repeatedly with a hockey stick. He rolled his head around in a circle, trying to stretch out his neck muscles. When that failed, he started rubbing the sore spot with his right hand, hoping to loosen it up, which finally worked after several minutes of kneading it like bread dough. In the process, he discovered some type of tacky residue on his hand. It felt sticky, like leftover glue had partially dried between his fingers. He figured it must’ve come from the grape soda or the BBQ chips he’d eaten before he fell asleep in the chair.
He walked into Drew’s private bathroom, closed the door to muffle any noise, and then washed his hands under the faucet. It took several rounds of lather up, scrub, and rinse, but he finally got rid of the gooey crap between his fingers.
When he moved to the towel rack to dry his hands, his right shoe stuck to the floor. He pried his shoe loose and lifted his leg up to find a string of residue hanging between the rubber sole and the tile floor. It looked like chewing gum, but was a semi-clear orange color. He took a few sheets of toilet paper from the dispenser and pulled the gunk from the tread, then tossed it into the waste basket next to the commode. He washed his hands again for good measure.
When he opened the bathroom door and returned to the room, he found Drew wide awake and talking to a short, chubby nurse with plump cheeks and a Santa Claus hat sitting at an angle on her head. She reminded Lucas of an elementary school teacher, or maybe Santa’s wife down for a visit from the North Pole, especially with the reindeer pin blinking rapidly on her shirt. Her nametag ID’d her as Rose.
“Mrs. Claus, how nice of you to visit us down here in the desert,” Lucas joked.
She glanced over her shoulder, busy taking Drew’s temperature. “Ho, ho, ho,” she said. “You must be Lucas. The brother.”
“Yes, ma’am. I am. The one and only. How’s he doing?”
“Looks like he gets to go home today,” the nurse said after reading the thermometer and scribbling something into Drew’s chart. She checked the time on her watch. “Blood test results look good. No sign of infection.”
“That’s a relief,” Lucas said.
“Today? As in this morning?” Drew asked with eyes beaming.
“Yes, as soon as Dr. Marino discharges you.”
Lucas asked her, “We’d like to be home in time for Christmas dinner. Do you think it’s possible?”
“Shouldn’t be a problem. There’re only a handful of patients left with the evacuation underway. It’s been a complete madhouse out there.”
“Yeah, I can imagine,” Lucas said, thinking about the energy domes and the widespread destruction they’d caused in town. “I’m surprised this place is still open for business.”
“It takes time to stabilize and transfer a thousand patients,” she said, writing something else into Drew’s chart. Before she left the room, she told Drew, “You can go ahead and get dressed, if you like. But be careful. That’s a nasty cut and it’s going to take time to heal. You don’t want to undo Dr. Marino’s fine needlework.”
Lucas held up Kleezebee’s car keys in front of Drew’s eyes. “As soon as we get out of here, we’re going back to the apartment and pack for Phoenix. I’ve had enough of Tucson for a while.”
“It’ll be nice to spend some time with Mom,” Drew said.
While Lucas was helping Drew out of his hospital gown, he noticed Drew was missing something. “Hey, where’s your leather pouch?”
Drew felt around his neck and chest. “I didn’t even realize it was gone. Is it in the clothes bag on the counter?”
Lucas searched the clear plastic bag, but only found his brother’s pants, shirt, comb, watch, socks, and shoes. “It’s not here. When was the last time you remember seeing it?”
Drew didn’t respond right away. “Back when I first got rescued. I was sitting on a gurney by the stairwell.”
“Then what happened?”
“I remember feeling really dizzy when a nurse put gauze on my leg. The next thing I know, I’m waking up here in this bed with all these machines doing their thing. I didn’t even think of it ‘til just now.”
“Maybe the EMTs took it off you for some reason. Do you remember the name of the ambulance company? We should call their lost and found.”
“I don’t remember. I was pretty out of it,” Drew said with a deep look of concern on his face. He shook his head and pinched his nose. “Geeze, I can’t believe I lost it. After all these years.”
Lucas knew it was unlikely they’d ever see the pouch again. It’d probably been misplaced during the chaos of the rescue from the elevator shaft. He didn’t want to worry Drew, though, so he patted him on the back and said, “I’m sure it’ll turn up.”
“No, it won’t. It’s probably buried down the hole somewhere. Or someone just threw it in the garbage.”
“Let’s keep positive thoughts, bro.”
“But you made it for me. And I lost it. Like a moron.”
“Hey, there was a lot of crap going on. Don’t beat yourself up. Besides, I can make you another one. No sweat.”
“Yeah, I know, but it had my bio-mom’s picture in it. I can’t replace that. What am I gonna do, Lucas?”
Lucas rubbed Drew’s back, knowing this conversation was going nowhere. “We’ll figure something out.”
While they waited, Lucas turned on the TV. He scanned the channels to see if there was any new information about the energy fields. There was. The local news channel was reporting that dozens of domes were destroying cities all over the globe and each time they appeared, they were getting larger and lasting longer.
“You see that?” Drew asked him.
Lucas nodded. “They keep spreading and getting worse,” he said, not wanting to think about all the deaths on his hands. “But at least there’s no sign of any more of them around here.”
“Maybe they’re done with Arizona.”
“Let’s hope. The sooner we can get away from here, the better. In fact, we should probably take Mom away from Phoenix and go hide in the mountains somewhere. The domes seem mainly interested in large cities. Give us a chance to figure out the next step.”
“One of us should call her and let her know I’m getting released.”
“I’ll take care of it. Hand me the phone.”
* * *
Two hours later, Lucas and Drew were still sitting in the hospital room, waiting for Dr. Marino to sign off on Drew’s discharge. Lucas got tired of waiting, so he tracked the doctor down, findin
g him near the nurse’s station, looking over a chart. He gently reminded the doc that they wanted to get home in time for Christmas dinner. Marino apologized and thirty minutes later, Drew was released.
“How’s your leg doing?” Lucas asked without thinking, pushing the wheelchair across the parking lot in front of the emergency room entrance.
“It’s still sore.”
Lucas was shocked by his brother’s response since Drew only had marginal feeling in his lower extremities. “Wow, if you can feel it at all, then it must be a deep gash.”
“Oh yeah. It definitely hurts,” Drew said, right before his stomach growled loud enough for Lucas to hear. “Can we stop and eat on the way home? I’m starving. The hospital food was terrible, and all I had yesterday was that junk food you brought.”
“Sure, assuming we can find something that’s open. Most people who have any sense at all are long gone by now. Like we should be.”
Half an hour later, after passing a string of businesses and restaurants that were closed, the only place that seemed to be open was a Dairy Queen. Its interior lights were on.
Lucas learned forward from behind the wheelchair and pointed an outstretched arm at the building. “Looks like you might have to settle for more junk food, little brother. I doubt anything else is still serving,” he said, steering Drew’s chair across the empty parking lot.
“Figures. More empty calories.”
“Huh, that’s strange,” Lucas said, walking up to the door. “I don’t see anyone inside.” He grabbed the door handle and pulled at it, swinging it open. “Someone must have been in a major hurry; they forgot to lock up, too.” He looked around for signs of looting, but there was none. “I’m surprised this place is still in one piece.”
“I’m thinking a couple of extra large Oreo Blizzards are just what the doctor ordered,” Drew said in a matter-of-fact way, wheeling his chair forward. “But you’ll have to help me reach the toppings.”
Lucas closed the door and stood in front of it before Drew could get inside. “No, we’re not going to steal.”
Linkage (The Narrows of Time Series Book 1) Page 20