by Mark Clodi
"I wasn't grilling you doc, we started over now you know. I don't care what you did or to who, so long as you do your best now. You better take a few of the boys under your wing too, in case this ain't like we think. Ain't short term. I gotta go talk to Jack again. Are you going to check Hank while you are here?"
Doc looked at Juan in a most peculiar manner, but said, "Sure thing, vice-jefe."
Juan watched while the Doctor checked on Hank and had to wonder a little about the medicine he had gotten at the doctors request that morning. Half the bottles were antibiotics, Juan read that on the labels, the other half were prescription pain medicines, of which only a very small amount had gone to Hank, six pills in fact out of four bottles. Juan was not a doctor or even that experienced with medicine, but he knew most of the common antibiotics, which is how he knew which ones were for infection and which bottles of medicine were probably for pain. The extra three bottles of antibiotics were sitting back in the pharmacy; the four bottles of 'other' medicine had not been in the bag when Juan returned the rest of the medicine for storage. He didn't want to think too much about it, but he could not help asking himself, 'Where did those other bottles of pills go?'
After the doc finished poking around Hank, not quite waking him up, he wandered off to find nurse Beth or Charlie and get them on disinfecting the bitten's wounds. Juan wandered off to find Jack. Once he was outside one of the men told him Jack had gone back to helping the guys move cars into position. Juan wandered slowly over to where he saw the men working on the street, maybe a quarter mile away. There were armed men all around the parking lot, most had baseball bats, quite a few had rifles, they were taking down the zombies if they approached. It did not appear like there were a lot of zombies coming around anymore, they were just trickling in by ones and twos. The men, and some women, handled them quickly and efficiently, using bats, not guns. Juan already knew that loud noises attracted the zombies attention. As he was walking a shot rang out and one of the men fell backward behind the car, the other men started yelling and shooting at something beyond the cars that Juan could not see.
Juan ran up to the men, in the July heat it made him break into a sweat, even to go that short distance. By time he got there the shooting had stopped, a man was bent over the wounded man on the ground who was shaking and kicking his feet. Juan elbowed his way in next to him and knelt down. The man had been hit in the neck. Juan didn't know either of the men, the man trying to treat the wounded man yelled out at Juan, "Back the fuck off and give me room. Someone go get Doc! You!"
Juan sat back on his heels and yelled in Spanish at one of the men to grab some clothing to help stop the flow of blood. Quick enough they had a clean looking blanket out of a nearby car which they tore into rags, it did not do any good, the man kept bleeding and kicking his feet, first his feet stopped moving, then he stopped moving entirely, then the other man working on him started CPR, Juan had been to all the classes to certify as a Cub Scout leader so he jumped right in on compressions, thanking God he did not have to do the breathing. What seemed like half an hour later the Doc was there, he knelt down in the blood, looked at what was going on and said quietly, "Stop." Neither Juan nor the other man stopped working. Doc raised his voice and said , "Charlie, Juan, stop!"
Juan looked up at him, sweat beading and rolling into his face, Charlie, saw Juan stop and said, "Don't stop goddamn it, we can save him!"
Juan looked at the doc, the doc said, "Charlie! Charlie look at me." Charlie did so. "I am the doctor here, this man cannot make it, I am calling it. Time?"
Charlie responded by looking at his watch, "Fifteen thirty-fi....dammit!" He got to his feet a little wobbly and looked down on Doc, "We could have, should have.."
"Charlie, things have changed, we couldn't have, shouldn't have. Me, you and Beth and anyone else are going to have to have a talk about triage today. There are no hospitals to go to, no flight for life, nothing. If we can't fix it here, with what we have, it won't get fixed. We don't have much here either. Which means we won't be able to fix much."
Juan looked at the doctor, "Triage?"
"Triage Juan, is when a nurse or someone else, a doctor some times, evaluates who we can fix and who we can't. Once the ones we can save are in one category, they are evaluated for who needs the most help to save now, versus the ones we can afford to leave for later. Like treating someone bleeding badly, before a guy with a broken finger. Sure the finger might hurt, he might even have gotten to us first, but the guy bleeding to death can't afford for us to wait to set the guy's finger or he, the bleeder, will be dead. Triage. Usually we can work everyone, so triage is not needed. Sometimes though, like if two buses collide or a plane goes down and does not kill everyone, there is a need to decide who to treat and in what order. I have been pretty lucky and only had a couple of times where I had to assign a nurse to do triage. Usually the nurses end of doing it, not the doctors."
Juan nodded, and said, "Okay, so now you mean if people get shot in the neck, there won't be any way to save them, so we should not waste time trying to save them?"
"If it comes to that, yes, I am not a miracle worker, I was never a surgeon, I couldn't have done anything for this man if direct pressure didn't stop the bleeding. I am sorry. Charlie you did all you could do. By the way Charlie, this is Juan our 'segundo', did I get that right Juan?"
Again Juan nodded, "Pretty close. 'Say-goon-doe', that is close enough."
"Means 'second' doesn't it?", seeing Juan nod yes, he continued, "Yeah I heard some of your neighbors saying that, it sounds better than 'vice-jefe' to me."
Charlie, held out his bloodied hand to Juan, who took it and was pulled to his feet. Charlie then shook his hand, "Sorry I yelled at you. I know you were trying to help, I just needed space. I have the feeling my life of treating people is going to suck for a long time, if I can't save them, they are going to die and we won't be able to save many trauma patients now. You see what happen Juan?"
"No, tell me."
"We were moving cars into place, a guy drove up with car full of people, friends and family, only one of them was not bitten. Thomas here", he pointed at the dead man, "told them our deal, the bitten go into pen, the girl who was not bit could come in and not be segregated. Or they could leave, their choice. Just like Jack told him to say, you know? Well, they got all mad about it, made to drive away and we got back to work, about ten seconds later one of them shot Thomas from a block away. Everyone shot back, probably killed all of them. Hey," Charlie said to everyone around them, "Did anyone check on them?"
A chorus of "No" and "Hell No!" came back from the crowd. "Maybe we should? Just in case?"
Jack's voice called out from somewhere outside the circle, "Yeah, we should. I'll go, you want to come with me Juan?" Jack stepped out in front of the crowd, a look of sadness on his face as he glanced towards Thomas.
"Sì." replied Juan, "I'll go. Gimme a gun somebody."
A man handed Juan a new looking shotgun, he whispered, "Fully loaded, five shots, plus these." As he passed the gun and a half empty box of shells over to Juan.
"Okay, everybody else get back to work. Next time, we keep our guns out and ready until they get out of sight completely okay? C'mon Juan." said Jack.
The doc took Charlie aside and started talking to him as Juan, Jack and a couple of other guys started walking slowly to the van. As they walked the block to where it was Juan could smell gasoline and blood.
"You came looking for me, right?", asked Jack to Juan.
"Sì. We need to find a bus or two, maybe a semi too. I think we are moving to Sky Ridge, we wanna send some people over to take a look at it first, the highway should be open, it was this morning when we came through to get back here anyway. You know anyone who would want to go?"
"Hm tough getting people to leave, plus brother, I don't know the way to Sky Ridge, it's now the place people like me get their medical care. I could get you to Denver General though. Hold that thought, lets take care of this first."
One of the bodies was moving like a slow zom and drew Jack's attention, he put a bullet in its head before Juan even knew if it were a zombie or just a badly wounded man. Turning towards him, Jack said, "I am in charge of security, anyone kills one of my guys they can't expect me to let them in. These guys are all dead anyway Juan, all bitten, except her." He pointed to a woman in the back seat, who had taken a bullet to the head, "She claimed not to be, I'm going to shoot all these guys in the head so they don't come back." Jack then proceeded to do so, while the two guys with them watched for other zombies attracted by the noise and shot two of them as they approached. Juan just watched and waited. When Jack had all the bodies out of the van and on the ground he rummaged around and pulled out all the guns and bags he could find, going through the bags for ammunition, there was a lot of it to go with the hunting rifles and shotguns, plus some rounds for a Glock style plastic pistol one of the men had one him. Jack, Juan and the boys brought all the guns back with them, where the work was continuing on moving the cars.
"Fuck Juan, you know I issued instructions that got one of our guys killed. It could have been you or that kid you came in with, Kevin, or any of us. I don't know if I am cut out for telling people to do things that will get them killed."
"Sì. You did like we decided; I would have done the same."
"Maybe, maybe I should have spoke up against turning people away instead." Jack said sadly.
Juan reached over and grabbed Jack's shoulder, stopping him and turning him them both face to face. "You did the right thing, you hear anybody blaming you for what happened? No? That's right, 'cause they all, all these people, would have done the same thing, you know why? Yeah, sure you do, because it is the right thing to do. Some of us are gonna die Jack.", smiling he continued, "Well some of you. Not me. Not from a zombie. My old lady will kill me when she finds me in bed with another woman fifty years younger than me."
That got half a grin on Jack's face. "You saying I can't afford to over think this huh?"
"Sì amigo. Sì."
Jack seemed to digest this and they walked the rest of the way back to the group in silence, once there he turned back to Juan and said, "So Juan, why are we still working on the perimeter if we are leaving this place, shouldn't we just get packed up to go? I can have twenty of these cars moving in fifteen minutes if you want to go today, take three or four over to scout the place then come back for everyone else if it is clear."
"Doc said, maybe we could keep this place too, it is built like a fort, we hold it and the supplies and use the hospital to live in. Doc has been to the hospital, I think I could find it if he gave me directions, I'll go."
"What? Our Segundo getting into the line of fire? No way, not on my shift you ain't."
"Hah, who will override me? You? You are just a board member." Juan joked.
"Oh playing politics are we? I'll have you know, rumor has it anyway, that our Jefe, wants a couple of women on the board, I was thinking of nominating Nanci and maybe your mom, what was her name? Gloria?"
Juan's face paled, "You wouldn't!"
Laughing Jack shot back, "Maybe we can come to a deal without me resorting to such extreme tactics?"
"What did you have in mind?"
Jack looked thoughtful for a few seconds, "Okay, I go, you go, one of the nurses goes, that guy Charlie, plus three others for the extra guns and eyes, we take pickup trucks with extended cabs. This way we have a nurse to get the supply inventory, and the trucks to carry some of it back, if the place is clear or mostly empty, then we just bring back a few days worth of medical supplies, if it isn't we do a quick snatch and run back here with whatever we can get away with. Sound good?"
"Sì. Yeah, sounds good, I want to go now, before Hank wakes up and 'modifies' our plan any. He is too hurt to come with us, you know how he is though, he would want to come, this way we will be gone before he wakes, if not back before then." said Juan.
"Okay I will get Charlie, the three others and two trucks lined up. You go talk to old man Gonzales get him to at least cut us some bottled water."
"Sì." Juan turned and headed back to the building.
Chapter 11
Before looking up Cisco Gonzales to get some bottled water Juan went looking for Nanci. He found her in the back of the store where a dozen grills had been set up to act as a makeshift kitchen. Nanci was busy cooking up dinner, which was still several hours away by Juan's thinking, however he had never cooked for two hundred people either. He knew more than half of the grills were set up to smoke all the meat from the deep freeze into a more portable form, dried jerky. The freezers were still working, but they drew a lot of power, Alfonso, their only electrician, didn't think they could keep everything running, if they could shut down the deep freezers that would allow them to have that much more power for the industrial sized refrigeration units. Men and women had spent quite a bit of the morning reorganizing the refrigerators, packing stuff in for storage as opposed to leaving it in the display cases. They had also duct taped all the doors closed to make them more efficient, except for one refrigerator door, which they now used as an access point. This way they would not have to open and close the fork lift sized door on one side of the refrigerator very often. If the power did go out the deep freeze would be shut down, the food would stay very cold for a few hours, maybe a few days, but they would move as much of it as possible to the refrigeration units, which should be powered by three of the generators on the roof. How long that would last depended entirely on how long they had a fuel supply.
Juan approached Nanci and she smiled tentatively at him from where she was cooking, then frowned as she read his expression. She always could read him like a book.
"I know that look." she said in Spanish, "It is the look you get when you want to tell me something I am not going to like. What is it?"
Sighing Juan outlined the plan to scout out the hospital. Nanci looked at him for a minute, her face displaying a variety of emotions from sadness, to anger, to a flushed embarrassment, she finally settled on a cross look of sad anger before she said, "Fine. Go. You don't have to, but you will, someone else could do this, but you have to be the one. Yes? Always you now. I was proud when you got Segundo, more than proud, but I was also happy, I thought maybe you would be sending others out for things like this. Not risking yourself, so I was happy because you would not come back dead or as, as, one of them!" Nanci then lowered her head into the dishcloth she held in her hands and started to cry. Acutely aware of the hostile looks the other women in the kitchen were giving him, Juan stepped forward and pulled his wife into a hug. "I will be careful, mi amor. I will come back okay, no one wants to go, if the people they put in charge do not lead, do not take any risks, then they will not be in charge very long. I will be fine, you'll see. I have to go. I need water for six men, is there any here or do I need to talk to Gonzales?"
Pulling herself away from Juan, Nanci kept the towel to her face and pointed to the deep freeze, her muffled voice said, "We keep some water in there for us to use for cooking and drinking, there are some coolers, just take one, we'll get another. Be careful Juan! If you don't come back I shall hunt your corpse down and kill it myself!"
"Only after lecturing me on the error of my ways and how you were right. And I will deserve it too."
Ruffling his wife's hair and then pulling her in for a quick kiss, Juan turned and headed for the freezer, where several coolers filled with water bottles were sitting, he picked one up and headed out to meet Jack.
Charlie had changed his pants and t-shirt, he carried a rifle, had a pistol in a holster on his belt and had what looked for all the world like a doctor's little black bag at his feet. Terry was an older white woman, perhaps forty years old, she had a pudgy stomach and legs like solid oak trees that sprang out of her gray shorts. To top it off she was wearing an over-sized Nascar t-shirt, her brown hair and silver earrings offset a face that only a mother could love. To say she was ugly would be an insult to ugly people everywhere. Something was just not right with her face, it appeared to be slightly misshapen, with a large nose, mis-sized eyes and a tight, pursed set of lips that made it seem unbalanced. In Juan's experience he had gotten along with ugly women a lot better than pretty women, so her looks didn't bother him at all, after all he was not going to sleep with this mujer, just ride with her. Jen was also a middle aged woman with raven hair, brown eyes and a slight scar across one of her cheeks, it had faded with age, but was still visible, she had broader hips, but looked like she was an outdoor type, tan skin, hiking shoes, and a shotgun completed her ensemble. Last but not least was Mary, a kid really, she was probably seventeen and Hispanic, acne had already taken her smooth skin away from her, leaving parts of her face pock marked with scars. Still she was dainty and attractive in body, not rail thin, not overweight, her brown hair and dark brown eyes were typical of Hispanic heritage. She was wearing a rugged western style shirt, blue jeans and boots. And she was holding the rifle like she knew how to use it. At her belt was a fanny pack, that was bulging and hanging low.