by Jamie Davis
“I’m a paramedic,” Dean said. “Uncomfortable is what we train for.” The elevator doors opened, and he gestured for the trio to step off first. Artur nodded and led the girls from the elevator.
“Don’t say no one warned you, young man,” Artur sneered. “I’d stay and deal with your rashness myself, right now. But, as you can see, I’m famished and must get to my dinner before bed. Don’t worry, though. I know how to clean up my own messes now. Ta ta.”
Dean stared at them in anger and almost missed his chance to get off the elevator behind them as the doors started to close on him. He interrupted the sensor with a wave of his hand and reopened the doors, stepping out into the hallway. The trio had already turned the corner at the end of the corridor and was out of sight. Dean walked down to his apartment and decided to place a call to James’ assistant Celeste to warn her about the two girls with Artur. He was pretty sure the vampire would abide by at least some of the rules of hospitality. He would probably not do anything overt to expose James, like leaving two dead bodies to be found near the building. Probably. Still, it was a good idea to warn her just in case. He shut his apartment door as he placed the call upstairs before going to bed to get some sleep.
* * *
———
* * *
He woke as Ashley placed a kiss on his cheek. He rolled over in bed and looked at the clock on the nightstand while hooking an arm around his girlfriend to pull her close. It was five o’clock in the evening already, and she was in her scrubs to go back to work in the ER for another night shift. He looked up at her, the green-eyed beauty staring back at him. She leaned back in for another kiss.
“I thought I’d stop over and wake you up, sleepyhead,” Ashley said between kisses.
“Why don’t you stay a bit and help me fully wake up?” Dean proposed.
Ashley laughed and pushed him away, rolling out of bed. “None of that,” she said wagging a finger at him. “I have to get to work. I just wanted to get you up for the night’s activities. I got your text about the medication replacements. I’ll get the script for them, and you can swing by the ER later. I’ll meet you in the parking lot with them since you can’t come in. How’d it go last night anyway?”
Dean sat up and pulled on a t-shirt and shorts. “I think this will work out pretty well, Ash. Gibbie is pretty good as an assistant, once you get past his more unusual quirks and flamboyant reactions to everything. Marian has the makings of a pretty good EMS provider, too, if she decides to stick with it after high school.”
“That’s good,” She said. She kept talking as she went into the living room. “I’ve wasn’t sure after you went out last night. I expected an immediate shift in my premonitions that would indicate we were on the right track. It didn’t happen until this morning just after dawn. I was at work, and suddenly I sensed a change in the possibilities of the future. It all seems to have realigned. Did you do something this morning at the end of the shift with Gibbie?”
Dean shook his head. “We had our last call at about four AM. We just drove around for the rest of the night and Gibbie dropped me off. I got back here around dawn.” Then Dean thought for a moment. “Unless …”
“Unless what?”
“Unless it had something to do with my running into Artur this morning on my way up in the elevator. I thought I had screwed something up, and let the cat out of the bag when I lost my temper with him.” Dean explained about the interchange between him and Artur in the elevator and beyond.
“You shouldn’t have tried to push his buttons, Dean,” Ashley said. “He is dangerous, old school and vindictive. If James or I aren’t with you, he could just end you without so much as a shrug, even with my residual protections in place.” Her concern showed in her facial expression, worry lines crinkling her forehead.
“I guess I figured that the rules of hospitality applied here in James’ building,” Dean said. “I thought maybe he couldn’t hurt me while I was here. I was just so pissed off that he was flaunting the two girls at me when I knew what he had done before.”
“Well, whatever you did and why you did it is beside the point now,” she said. “That encounter with Artur changed something in the chain of events here. It has reset the course for us, at least partly, in our favor. You just need to be extra careful out on the street at night. Now that he knows about what you are doing, there are going to be situations that might not be what they seem on the surface. There will be opportunities to get at you. I’ll do what I can to protect you from afar, but you need to pay attention to what you’re doing and what’s going on around you. Okay?”
“Okay,” Dean said. “I’ll be careful out there. I’m not going to stop, though. It felt good to be out helping people again, and the patients are glad they have someone to call for help. We’ve got to keep pushing forward.”
“We will, but it will be for nothing if anything happens to you, so be careful.”
“I will, I promise,” Dean said.
Ashley came over and gave him another kiss before heading for the door. “I’ll see you later when you stop by for the meds.”
Dean watched her leave, then turned back to get ready for the night with Gibbie and Marian. He was excited by the news from Ashley, that what they were doing had shifted her premonitions back on track. It meant that this was the right thing to do to fight The Cause. It helped that it felt like the right thing to do anyway, just helping people. He headed to the shower and thought about what else he could do to get under Artur’s skin while he was out serving the community tonight.
15
That night Dean and the crew went out and rode around for several hours without any calls for help. It gave them all a chance to get to know each other better and for Dean to work through some procedural things for them to keep track of that would have normally been taught in the academy. They worked out that Dean would always grab the med bag while Gibbie got the monitor and their teenaged helper, when she was able to come out with them, grabbed the trauma bag with the bandages and dressings.
He was reviewing the extra gear in the trauma bag when the first call came in. Dean glanced at his watch. It was near midnight. Dora had taken the dispatch phone this evening while her sister answered calls from their emergency callers. Dora told them they were getting called for a traumatic amputation at the city park on Broadway. The Broadway Park was about thirty acres of open parkland that included baseball and soccer fields, as well as playgrounds and a community pond. When they pulled into the parking lot, a figure shielded its eyes from their headlights while waving to them. Dean got out and approached the figure, realizing he knew who the person was when he got there.
“Freddy?” Dean asked. “What the heck are you doing here this evening? Is everything alright?” Freddy, the Zombie chef for Station U’s paramedics, stood there, shielding his eyes from the van’s headlights.
“Hi, Dean. I am fine. I’m here for my weekly meet up with the other zombies of Elk City. It’s our full contact Ultimate Frisbee night.”
Dean knew he must have looked ridiculous when he did the double take and just stared at Freddy. There was a zombie Ultimate Frisbee league, and this was the first he heard about it? He was still looking at Freddy when something flew in and thumped him the chest. Dean bent down and picked up a Frisbee, then dropped it like it was a hot rock when he realized it was smeared with blood. He hastily reached into his pockets and fished out a pair of exam gloves, pulling them on. Gibbie and Marian were walking up to join him in front of the parked van.
“Glove up, guys. This one is going to get a little messy,” Dean cautioned.
Freddy bent down to pick up the Frisbee and carried it with them as he led the trio of responders out onto a dark field. Dean and Gibbie turned on their flashlights and trained them on the path in front of them. It wasn’t hard to keep up. Freddy didn’t move very fast. Dean picked up a step and caught up with their leader.
“What happened? Why are we here?” Dean asked. “Dora said something on
the phone about a traumatic amputation.”
“We play here once a month or so, at night so people can’t see who we are. To anybody walking by on the path, we are just guys playing Frisbee in the dark. Sometimes it gets a little rough. A few of the guys are pretty competitive by nature. Anyway, tonight, when two of the guys were reaching for the same Frisbee, they grabbed, held on, and then pushed off of each other with the other arm. One came away with both the Frisbee and the other guy’s arm. It’s happened before, so nobody was too concerned, but Dirk is all about keeping his parts together. He just wouldn’t wait for the end of the night to get his arm reattached.”
“Seriously,” Dean said, chuckling a little. “Good thing you guys can’t feel it when stuff falls off. That would nearly kill anyone else, Unusual or human. So, where’s the patient?”
“Just over here. By that tree up ahead.”
At this point, as his eyes adjusted to the darkness, Dean could see people stumbling around in the field nearby. Clearly the game went on despite the injury. He looked ahead and could now make out two figures, sitting by the tree Freddy pointed out. He played the flashlight on them as he approached. Both of them had the mottled skin and dry, musty smell that indicated zombie. One was cursing a blue streak while the other patted him on the shoulder with one hand. He was holding a detached arm in the other. They both looked into the light, squinting. Dean came up and handed his light to Freddy.
“I’m Dean Flynn. I’m a paramedic. I think one of you is in need of some help?”
“Well I’m glad someone is here to help,” said the figure missing an arm. “All Ricky here can do is apologize and whine about how sorry he is.”
“Well, I’m here now, so let us see what we can do,” Dean said. “What’s your name?”
“I’m Dirk, and I used to be the best player here. Now I’ll be forever known as the armless wonder.”
“Look,” said Ricky, “I said I was sorry. You could have let go of the Frisbee. I got there first. But you decided to fight me for it and hold on until your arm came off.”
It looked like the two of them were ramping up to another argument. Dean held up a hand to calm the two of them down. “Okay, okay guys. That’s enough. Dirk, let me take a look at that shoulder and arm. Sometimes, with zombies, we can reattach things that fall off.”
“I certainly hope so,” Dirk said. “I’ve got to have a chance to show Ricky up before the night is over.
Dean moved around them and crouched down next to Dirk to look at the stump of his arm where it came off at the shoulder. He could see that it was cleanly off at the joint. That should help. If it hadn’t been too long, in theory, he could reattach the arm, and the zombie tissue would reconnect over time, making it usable again. The outer wound around the skin would not heal, though. That meant it would always be prone to dropping off unless he could come up with some way to hold it there. Tucking his flashlight under one arm, he turned to Ricky and held out his hands for the detached limb. When Ricky handed it to him, he was surprised by how heavy it was. He turned it and looked at it, trying to realign it in his mind. Dean tried to think of a way to hold the heavy limb in place. Medical adhesive tape would not be strong enough to hold it for long, especially when Dirk started moving it as the tissues reconnected.
“What are you thinking, Dean?” Gibbie asked. “Can we help?”
“I need to come up with some way to reattach this arm sort of permanently or it will detach itself randomly and not stay in place. If we don’t figure it out, we’ll just end up having to keep coming back here once a month and putting it back on.”
“Wait here,” Gibbie said. “I think I have something that will work.” The frumpy, middle-aged vampire turned and headed back to the parking lot while Dean and Marian waited with their patient. Dean looked back to the parking lot where the van was parked under a street light and watched as Gibbie retrieved something out of the back of the van and came jogging back over to them. Dean handed his flashlight to Marian and took the small, plastic tackle box Gibbie handed to him.
“What is it?” Dean asked, flipping open the latches.
“It’s my sewing kit,” Gibbie said.
Dean stopped and stared at his friend, then flipped open the lid and looked inside. He wasn’t much with a needle and thread, and this definitely was outside his scope of practice as a paramedic. Still, it sort of made sense.
Gibbie leaned over, shining his flashlight into the box. “I thought we could use a curved upholstery needle and some upholstery thread. That’s pretty tough stuff.” He reached past Dean and selected a large spool of thread. It did seem more substantial than the other thread selections. Dean took the spool and unwound about a foot of the thread and tried to break it by pulling with both hands. He could not pull the upholstery thread apart. In fact, it cut into his fingers and hurt him without even stretching. This might work out after all.
“Find that curved needle, Gibbie and thread this on it,” Dean said handing him back the spool of tough nylon thread. He turned back to his patient. This was going to be tricky. He had never sutured a patient before and especially not all the way around an entire arm. It was going to be all about getting the positioning right before he started.
“Marian, come over to this side and hold the flashlight so I can see the wound in Dirk’s shoulder,” Dean instructed his teenaged aide. “Keep the light aimed so there aren’t any shadows while I’m working.”
“Got it, boss. This is awesome. Wait until I tell my friends at school about this,” she said, bouncing on the balls of her feet with excitement.
“No, Marian. You are not going to tell anyone. You will not talk about this with anyone but me and Gibbie,” Dean said, stopping his consideration of the patient to look up at her from where he crouched. “That’s one of our first rules, right? Keep the patient’s private stuff, private.”
She nodded and seemed to deflate a little bit. Dean noticed and added with a smile, “It is pretty awesomely cool, though. I agree.” He turned back to his patient. “Dirk, I will need you to sit very still. I don’t think this will hurt very much, but it might get uncomfortable sitting still while I finish up.”
“I’m not doing anything else,” Dirk replied. “Do your worst. And by that I mean do your very best, please.”
“This is new to me but I plan on putting my best effort forward,” Dean said. “Okay, let’s get started.” He held out a gloved hand, and Gibbie handed him the curved needle with the upholstery thread ready to go. “Gibbie and Ricky, hold the arm out straight from the shoulder so I can work all the way around it. Try to move it as little as possible.” He leaned forward and decided to work on the underside first to practice his stitches where no one would see it. Hopefully, they would get better as he worked around to the top. He reached over and started inserting the needle through the skin on the underside of the arm and then hooked the needle around through the skin of Dirk’s armpit, pulling the thread through. Gibbie had tied a knot at the end of the thread, and it pulled to a stop at the skin of the arm. One stitch was done, and about a hundred more to go. This was going to take a while.
Dean took his time, and it did, indeed, take about a half hour to work his way carefully around the whole arm. When he was finished, he took the flashlight from Marian and leaned in to inspect his work. It didn’t look half bad, considering his lack of experience. He handed the light back and looked up at the aide.
“Marian, get a triangular bandage out of the trauma bag. We need to fashion a sling for Dirk. It will support the arm, and hopefully, things will start reconnecting inside.” He was not an expert on the animated dead, but it was supposed to work that way once things were reattached. He waited while she dug in the bag and then came up with a plastic-wrapped cloth triangular bandage. He took it out of the packaging and folded it, tying a loose knot with the two long ends. He had Gibbie bend the arm at the elbow and slowly bring it down to Dirk’s side, watching the stitching on the top of the arm as the skin stretched and pulled
when he manipulated the arm. It looked like everything was holding together. He slid the forearm through the sling and then had Dirk duck his head as he passed the knotted loop over his head. Dean leaned back and checked his work.
“Dirk, try and wiggle your fingers,” Dean said.
They all looked at the hand at the end of the previously detached arm. Slowly, the fingers started moving. Dirk tapped each of his fingers against his thumb, one at a time. He looked up at Dean with a big toothy grin.
“You did it,” Dirk exclaimed.
“I’m glad it worked as planned,” Dean admitted. “You will need to take it easy until the connection is stronger. All that is holding that arm on right now is the stitching, so be careful with it going forward. I would not try to play any contact sports with it until a few days have passed. Based on you moving your fingers, though, I think that you are on the mend.”
Dean stood up and looked around in the darkness. He could hear the game still going on out there, though he couldn’t see a thing. Dean was pleased with himself and the CERT team. He had pulled this one off, all on his own, without Brynne looking over his shoulder, giving him her advice on what to do based on her experience with Unusuals. It felt good to be able to come up with unconventional solutions on his own in these types of strange situations. He looked around at Marian and Gibbie as they cleaned up their mess and packed up their bags.
“Gibbie,” Dean said. “Excellent job. Thinking of using that upholstery thread and the needle was ingenious. You, too, Marian. You held that light steady the whole time. I couldn’t have done this without you, either.” He saw them both grin ear to ear in appreciation of his praise. He knew it was important to share the credit with his team at times like this. It helped build their bond and improved everyone’s ability to improvise and think on their feet when they knew their hard work was appreciated.