by Jeff Olah
“She’s lost a lot of blood and isn’t going to make it if we don’t do this right. Take off your shirt and get in the back seat.”
Ethan shook his head. “What?”
Emma coughed once more, her eyes now drifting to Bryce.
Bryce stepped back, giving Ethan room to move away. “You need to get out of my way, and I mean right now. Otherwise your sister isn’t going live another hour. Get your ass in the back seat and take off your shirt.”
Ethan kissed Emma on the forehead and moved away from the door. As he rounded the front of the SUV, he pulled off his shirt and climbed into the second row, avoiding Griffin who had slipped into the passenger seat.
Bryce lowered the driver’s seat to nearly horizontal and now had his hand over the wound on her neck. He looked into her eyes and whispered into her ear. She managed a weak nod and then her eyes again seemed to fade. “Ethan, help me. We’re going to slide her into the back. You keep that shirt over the wound on her neck, apply pressure, but not too much. Talk to her, keep her eyes open, and just let me do the rest.”
Ethan now struggled to breathe. He felt the air escaping his lungs, but couldn’t seem to remember how to continue. He looked to his sister and then to Bryce, but didn’t respond.
“ETHAN, YOU GETTING THIS. YOU READY?”
Frozen with fear, his eyes moved over his sister’s body and up to Bryce’s face. The man he’d only met a few hours before was shouting at him, but it was as if something had muted him.
Bryce stepped into the cab with his left leg straddling Emma, leaned forward, and with an open hand, slapped Ethan. “NOW MAN, WAKE UP. YOUR SISTER NEEDS YOU!”
Ethan forced himself to look away from his sister. The fear pulling him down, the thoughts, the images, and the pounding in his head, he had to put them aside, at least for now. He was useless to her and to the others if he couldn’t get himself together.
“Okay,” Ethan’s voice came out slow and shaky. He looked into Bryce’s eyes and nodded. “What do you want me to do?”
Bryce dropped his voice, but maintained his intensity and pace. “Good, we need to get her into the back seat and keep her from moving. That shirt, you’re going to put it on her neck and stop her from bleeding out. Keep her still and keep her talking that’s all you need to do, got it?”
Fighting the urge to think about anything other than what was right in front of him, Ethan again nodded. “Yes”
The pair quickly slipped Emma into the second row. Ethan pulled her into his chest, the back of her head resting just below his chin. And as Bryce climbed in behind the wheel, Ethan cupped his left hand over the t-shirt and took a deep breath.
With the crowd at the opposite end of the long block continuing to grow, Bryce waited for Tom to pull the van alongside and then pointed back toward the high school. “Stay on my bumper, we’ll take them in through the back entrance.”
From the van, Tom offered a quick thumbs-up and shouted back through the open window. “I’ll go ahead and get the gate open.”
Another twenty minutes and the downtown area had become a distant memory. Ethan spoke quietly into his sister’s ear and continued to watch the slow rise and fall of her chest. She no longer responded to his words, but she was still here.
“You remember that day when we were in high school and I ran home through all that snow to get that thing—I don’t know—whatever it was, for your science project? I’ll never forget that. Dad grounded me for two months, said I should have never gone out in that storm by myself. He was probably right, but back then, I thought I was invincible.”
Ethan smiled at the memory, almost laughed.
“I know better now, the way life is. You know, how fragile it is.” Ethan paused a beat. “I can’t do this Emma, not without you. I need you to hold on for me … please, just a few more minutes. We’re getting you help, I promise.”
Bryce turned to Griffin. “You okay?”
“I’ll make it.”
“Ethan.” Bryce motioned through the cracked windshield. “We’re coming up to the gates, thirty seconds and the rest is on foot. We’ve got to get her to the second floor, one set of stairs and short run to our guy. He’ll take care of her.”
Ethan lifted his head up and looked out across the wide-open parking lot. A sign, now mostly faded and beginning to rust, read Harbor Crest Mall. “Okay, I’ll carry her, just show me where.”
Beyond the gates and approaching a massive three-story concrete structure, Bryce pulled the SUV in tight behind the light-colored van. “Tom, they radio ahead?”
Tom was already out of the van and moving toward a set of double doors at the side of the building. “They’re getting everything ready.”
As the door at his back was opened, Ethan again spoke quietly into his sister’s ear. “You’re gonna be fine, Emma.” He leaned back, stepped out of the SUV and pulled her into his chest. “Just please hold on.”
Ethan turned toward the building and as he began to run, a thin trail of blood rolled from the corner of Emma’s mouth. Her head then dropped to the side and her body went limp in his arms.
“EMMA!”
No movement.
Now ten feet from the doors, Ethan slowed. He lowered his ear to just above her mouth and watched her chest.
Still nothing.
He continued into the building, his mind now screaming for her to wake, although after a count of ten, he stopped and called out to Bryce. “I need some help, she’s not breathing!”
39
Ethan followed Bryce through the door. His arms were cramped and his lungs burned as he carried his sister out into the wide-open corridor. Fifty feet ahead, Tom stood at the entrance to what was once a high-end mattress store. A steel reinforced plate-glass ceiling rose forty feet from the floor and was framed by the waist high railing that overlooked an expansive atrium at the center of the abandoned shopping mall.
Slowing as he approached the entrance, Ethan’s eyes drifted to the twelve individuals who watched intently from the railing. They spoke to one another in hushed tones and avoided eye contact as he rounded the corner and moved into the dimly lit store.
Four beds lined the right side and rear of the store. One of the beds was shrouded in a clear plastic tent, a series of tubes and monitors running in from behind the headboard. Bryce stood at the foot of the last bed on the left and frantically waved Ethan over.
“Right here.”
At his back, Mayor Gil and Ben helped Griffin carefully climb onto the second bed and then hurried out of the room.
Another man moved away from the tented area and stood at Bryce’s side. Dressed in a white t-shirt that was at least two sizes too big and a pair of navy blue sweat pants, the stocky dark-haired stranger met Ethan’s eyes and motioned toward the bed Emma now occupied. “When did she stop breathing?”
Ethan’s voice shook and tears started down his face as he gently laid Emma’s motionless body atop the immaculate white sheets. “A minute or two, can you help her?”
The man sighed heavily, pulled the t-shirt from Emma’s neck, looked her over, and nodded. “I think so, but I’m going to need you to wait outside.”
Ethan just stared back.
“I need you to go out into the hall and let me work. This isn’t up for debate.”
Ethan leaned in, kissed Emma on the forehead, and turned toward the door as the man in the oversized t-shirt moved in over Emma and began CPR. He didn’t have the nerve to look back as he made his way out into the hall and into the arms of Shannon.
“She’s tough Ethan, she’ll be okay.”
He didn’t tell her. There wasn’t any reason to explain the details, and even if there were, he didn’t think he’d be able to voice the words. No way to describe what had taken place out on that street. This was his to own.
Instead of responding, he simply hugged Shannon tighter and kissed the side of her face. He leaned into her, buried his head into her neck and began to cry.
Shannon held him close and guided him to a sofa
near the railing that overlooked the atrium. “Ethan, you need to rest, let them help her.”
He sat with his head in his hands, every now and again looking up toward the closed doors of the former mattress shop. “This is my fault.”
“Stop it,” Shannon said, now taking a seat beside him. “She’s going to be okay, you just need to have some faith. If not for you, then for her.”
As much as he wanted to, he couldn’t run from this. There was no going back, no changing what had brought them here. Seven weeks ago, he had little concern for anything other than himself and that was the way he preferred to live. But then the world fell apart and he was given the opportunity to change, the chance to prove he was more than just a thirty-eight year old alcoholic who never fought for anything or anyone. And he failed.
Every. Single. Time.
Ethan wiped his face with his hands and turned his eyes to Shannon. “If she doesn’t make it, if they can’t help her … you know I can’t stay here.”
“She going to be—”
“I’m not asking you or the others to do anything. You all are welcome to stay, in fact it would probably be best if you did. It looks like they’ve got something good set up, but it’s not for me, I don’t deserve it.”
Shannon pulled away from him, slid back on the sofa. “Pull it together Ethan, I’m serious. This isn’t about you and you need to stop making it sound that way. You’re better than that.”
“No,” Ethan said. “That’s exactly the point, I’m not. Just look around, how many people have lost their lives because of the things I’ve done or haven’t done.”
Shannon paused a moment, looked back toward their friends and then the others they had yet to meet. “This is the last time I’m going to say this and I shouldn’t have to, but the reason why any of us are here, why all of us are here, is because of you. Not a single person that walked through those doors this morning would be alive today if you hadn’t come along.”
Ethan looked away as Shannon moved from the sofa and now stood over him. He began to respond, but stopped short as Zach darted away from the others. “Mr. Ethan?”
He quickly composed himself as the boy raced to his side. “Yes sir?”
“Can I stay over here with you and Ms. Shannon? Mr. Ben said I needed to ask you first.”
Ethan patted the sofa cushion beside him, offered Zach a wink, and then looked up at Shannon offering her a weak smile. “If Ms. Shannon doesn’t mind giving up her seat for a few minutes, it’s okay by me.”
Zach turned, looked up at Shannon, and waited. She ran her fingers through his hair and squatting, kissed him on the cheek. “Just as long as you keep it warm for me.”
As Shannon turned to walk away, Zach climbed onto the sofa, sat across from Ethan, and rested his hands in his lap. The boy’s t-shirt and jeans were unusually clean considering what he’d gone through the previous night, although further down, his arms were an instant reminder of the attack on the high school.
His mind still not fully in the moment, Ethan avoided looking directly at his young friend. “You okay, buddy?”
“Yeah.”
“Okay, good.”
“Mr. Ethan?”
“Yeah?”
“Is this place safe?”
“I think so.”
“Can we stay here?”
Ethan didn’t know what to say. He knew the answer and the truth about his situation, but didn’t feel the need to let the boy see that other side of him. There was no good reason for it, and although it would be easier, it wasn’t the right thing to do, not now, and probably not ever.
“Yeah, we can stay.”
“Can I tell Mayor Gil and the others?”
“I think they already know, but sure if you’d like to—”
With a rush of cool air and the smell of antiseptic flooding into the hall, Tom appeared at the door. His head hung low and thick lines of sweat were running from his neck, into his shirt. He wiped his blood-soaked hands on a large cream-colored towel and allowing his eyes to adjust to the change in illumination, finally looked to Ethan. “They need you inside.”
Ethan was up from the sofa and to the doors before Tom could finish. “What’s going on? Is she okay?”
Tom motioned toward the room. Up close his face was a mess of worry and exhaustion. “They’ll explain everything, but they need you right now.”
Into the room, Bryce met him as he strode quickly toward the bed he’d laid Emma on less than thirty minutes earlier. He couldn’t see her face, but from where he stood, she was still unmoving.
“Ethan, we’ve got her breathing again but it’s not enough.”
His mind ran off in a thousand different directions, felt as though he might be sick. He looked from Bryce to the dark-haired man, his eyes again filling up. “What … what do you mean?”
The dark-haired man draped a fresh sheet over Emma’s waist and stepped away from her bed. “Your sister’s not doing too well. She’s lost quite a bit of blood, but she’s at least breathing on her own. Although, I’m not sure for how long.”
“I can’t lose her, do whatever you need to do.” Ethan felt a pressure building behind his forehead. “You have to help her.”
The dark-haired man nodded. “I’ve got her stable, but she’s not going to make it through the day unless there’s someone here with her same blood type … please tell me that’s you.”
Ethan began to smile. For the first time since finding her at the church a month before, he felt something other than complete helplessness and anxiety. She was hurt, but she was going to live.
“My parents, it was the one thing they always made sure we knew, it was almost like an obsession for them. It’s something I’ll never forget. Ever. And yes, we’re both A positive.”
40
Day Fifty-Five...
Ethan had been sitting at the side of her bed for nearly a week. She’d come around a few times in the last three days and at one point they’d even had a five-minute conversation, although he was certain she was going to forget. His sister wasn’t completely out of the woods, but she was growing more aware of her surroundings with each passing day, and for now that was everything.
“Ethan …”
He sat up, looked into her eyes. The glassy film and the edge to her voice from the night before was now gone. She sounded more like the Emma from before the end of the world, just softer. “You finally here with us?”
“Uh … where is here?”
He’d told her this two days earlier, but thought she might actually remember it this time. “You know where we are, where you’ve been for the past week.”
“Harbor Crest,” she said. “It’s been a week?”
Ethan wasn’t necessarily in the frame of mind to go over the details yet again. He’d packed away everything from that day and was fine with it remaining in the past. But he also knew that she needed to hear it, she needed the opportunity to find her own way through the pain and become a stronger version of herself for it, but not today.
“Yep, you’ve been just lounging around for the past seven days, thought you were on vacation or something.”
Emma smiled. “You look good, clean.”
“A shower and a few good meals will do that.”
She looked around the room and then to the door. For a moment, she hesitated. “Griffin … is he okay?”
Ethan sat forward in his chair, reached for her hand. “Yeah, they’ve got him rolling around here in an old wheelchair. He was pretty banged up. The things that guy went through, I mean, he’ll have to tell you about it, but it was pretty unbelievable.”
“He knows about what happened at the school?”
“I told him,” Ethan said. “He hasn’t really wanted to talk much about it. Finding out about Carly was a pretty big blow … to all of us.”
Again, she hesitated, her timid smile beginning to fade. He could see the memories beginning to return. “The others, they all make it here?”
“Everyone’s he
re, we all made it.”
“Zach,” she said, “how’s he doing?”
“Uh, he’s good. Been asking a ton of questions about you and about this place. He really likes it here.”
“You know that’s not what I’m asking.”
He didn’t want to go down this road, but knew better than to keep anything from her. It wouldn’t work. It never did. “Well, he hasn’t really been sleeping a whole lot and seems kinda warm. That’s not normal, is it?”
Emma’s expression changed yet again. She closed her eyes as if trying to recall something just out of reach of her clouded memory. “Yeah, he had started to run a bit warmer over the last few weeks, but we couldn’t get an accurate reading without the use of a thermometer.”
“No Emma, I’m talking almost hot to the touch. And I think he only slept a few hours last night.”
“That’s new,” Emma said. “Has he been overly tired, especially during the day?”
“No, that’s the weird thing, he seems to have just as much energy, maybe more. But that’s good, right?”
She didn’t speak right away, but then shook her head. “No, it’s not.”
“No?”
“It sounds like it’s progressing, and faster than I would have thought.”
Ethan paused. “Emma?”
“Yes?”
“What’s going to happen to him?”
“Ethan, at this point I really don’t know.”
Ethan rolled his neck and breathed out slowly. “Okay.”
“What is it?”
“What do you mean?”
“Really Ethan, I think I know you better than that. What aren’t you telling me?”
He thought about it for a moment and then sat back in his chair. “Emma, there’s a family here. They have a little girl … five years old.”
“She’s infected?”
“About two weeks ago.”
“I need to see her.”
Ethan shook his head. “Tomorrow. I’ve already talked to her parents and they know about Zach, they’re keeping an eye on her. The little girl seems to be fine right now and you need the rest. So tomorrow.”