Amanda Carter in the L.A.Z., life after zombies

by Jo Lee Auburne

  Sam had already tucked herself into the tight squeeze of a spot in the backseat, and Roy had started the engine by the time that Cole had returned, carrying the woman.

  Cole held her while he negotiated moving back into the passenger seat, before Roy quickly spun a U-turn with the Jeep and began bumping back over the rough road, as fast as he dared without jostling the woman too much.

  At one point on the return trip, the woman came too long enough to open her eyes and clutch Cole’s arm before she passed out again. Cole worried that that was perhaps a death throe until he saw her rib cage begin to move again with her breath.

  Back at The Trench, it was Sam and Roy that laid the rails down, while Cole stayed seated with the woman in his arms.

  “I hope she makes it,” Sam said, moving quickly to get her rail laid out. “Anyone with a name like that has to be cool.”

  “I hope she makes it too, regardless of her name,” Roy said, moving to return to the vehicle, instructing Sam to remain and do her best to obscure some of the tire prints and pick up the rails once they were over.

  “Anything?” Roy asked as he pushed the stick in gear.

  “No, nothing since she grabbed me,” Cole said, eyeing the woman and hoping that she wouldn’t die right here in his arms.

  Cole had begun to sweat profusely from where their body heat had combined, and he worried that this would make things worse for her. She needed to be cooled down and not heated up by someone else’s body heat.

  It seemed to the trio that the remainder of the trip was taking forever as they made their way back to the lower parking section of their camp. But when they did get back, instead of stopping at the lower section, Roy downshifted into first gear and drove the Jeep straight up the incline and into their camp.

  Jason heard the vehicle approaching first and yelled for someone to go and check it out. Both Amanda and Maryanne were dashing for the edge of the hill to see who and what was coming at them. They were both simultaneously relieved to see that it was their own Jeep but also alarmed that it must be an emergency that had prompted them to drive the distance instead of walking it.

  Cole was the first one to open his door, as Roy had to stop the vehicle, put it in gear, set the emergency brake, and shut it off. Maryanne pushed past Amanda to get to the open door and took some of the woman’s weight off of Cole long enough for him to get out safely without dumping her out of his arms.

  “Follow me,” Maryanne said, hustling toward her foam mat that was lying under the tarp in the shade.

  “She only regained conscious once, and that was only for a second or two,” Cole said.

  Roy and Sam trailed after them, anxious to know if the woman could be saved.

  “I wish I had sent a search party over this morning,” Amanda said, knowing that she had been watching the vultures circling for hours now.

  Nobody paid any attention to Amanda’s comment, as all eyes were on Maryanne and the woman that they had found.

  “She’s desperately dehydrated,” Maryanne said, after a cursory examination. “Cody, you know where I stashed the fluids?”

  “Yes, ma’am,” Cody said, eager to be of service.

  Cody dashed to the small hole in the earth that Maryanne had dug to store the fluid bags in, covering them with a cloth. The doctor had been worried that the extreme desert temperatures would make the fluids unusable because they would be too hot to administer, so she had dug a hole to keep them in the dirt where they would be much cooler if needed. That had turned out, on two occasions now, to be a wise decision.

  Maryanne had some trouble finding a vein in the woman’s arm, so she chose to use a vein that was readily apparent along the top of the woman’s frail-looking right hand.

  “There,” Maryanne said, standing and working to attach the bag to one of the tent poles that held the tarp up. “That’s the first step. Now, how about all of you give us some privacy, and I’ll see if she has any bites anywhere on her, and I’ll sponge her down.”

  Roy moved off toward the Jeep, wanting to get it back down the hill. Sam opted to go with him. Amanda moved back to her mat, and Cole went to find a bucket that he and Cody could use to wash up with. But when Cody went to follow his father, Maryanne called him back.

  “If you really want to learn to be a doctor, you stay,” she said, eyeing the boy to get his reaction.

  “Sure,” Cody said, looking interested in staying to help.

  Cole said nothing and took his bucket of water down the hill. His son had never seen any parts of the body that weren’t on a man, so he figured that this might be interesting, but Maryanne was right; if the boy wanted to learn medicine, there would be no time to start like right now. On second thought, Cole imagined that perhaps the subject had been covered in school, if so, Cody had said nothing about it.

  Cole had come to the conclusion that he would need to allow these people to help him raise his son, if they were to stay. It was far too close knit a group to allow for anything else, and though he hated to relinquish control, of any kind, he had begun the process of being okay with it. If there was ever a group of people that he could trust to help him raise his son, this was it.

  As it turned out, Cole had nothing to be concerned about. Maryanne was very conscientious and left the woman wearing her bra and underwear. She instructed Cody to begin wetting down her hair and face in an effort to cool her, while she began examining the unconscious body for any sign that she may have been bitten.

  After close scrutiny, Maryanne determined that the woman was bite free and that her primary and maybe only problem was that she suffered from severe dehydration, and that could still kill her. This diagnosis and prognosis, she explained to Cody.

  “In the hospitals, fluids were administered regularly to people that had experienced many types of problems,” Maryanne was saying to Cody. “But your challenge, as a doctor in today’s world, will be a lack of proper supplies to care for your patients. We are low on fluids now and will try to cool her with water and rubbing alcohol so that she doesn’t require any more intravenous fluids.”

  “Rubbing alcohol hurts when you put it on a cut,” Cody said.

  “Yes, it does,” Maryanne said, before smiling. “But I can’t see where she’s cut anywhere, so I don’t think it will hurt her. Can you go get the rubbing alcohol for me?”

  “Sure,” Cody said, popping up easily.

  At his age, he was spry and had no problem moving around fluidly even after having been down on his hands and knees in the dirt—whereas, for Maryanne, it would have been much more of an effort if she had needed to go and get it herself. She decided that she very much liked having a doctor’s assistant.

  “It’s in the box that’s . . .” Maryanne began to say.

  “I know,” Cody said, already laying his hands on one of the bottles of it. “I checked out all the medical supplies earlier, you know, to be well-informed.”

  “Good for you. Can you bring us two bottles of it?” Maryanne asked, before getting her focus back to the woman.

  Amanda had decided that this was as good a time as any to change back into her own clothes. She was right; it had taken no time at all for them to dry on the rock, and they were both dry and stiff when she went to grab them. With Cody’s back turned to the woman that he was helping with, Amanda changed quickly into her clothes.

  “Do you mind if I use some of this water to wash some clothes?” Amanda asked, noticing that she and Cody had been busy, and there was a lot more usable water at the ready now.

  “Yes, that’s fine, just save enough for drinking and fixing dinner, washing dishes, and such,” Maryanne said, looking up.

  Amanda not only washed one more pair of pants and a T-shirt for herself, along with a pair of underwear, but she also washed the clothes of Maryanne’s that she had just taken off. She figured that after such a grueling day, Maryanne would appreciate having a fresh change of clothes, either tonight or in the morning.

  In part, Amanda wanted to do somethi
ng because she wasn’t accustomed to being inactive. But also, she felt guilty that she had waited so long to draw attention to the circling birds. It seemed that had she said something earlier, the woman would have had more of a fighting chance. Guilt weighed heavily on her as she spread the washed clothes out on the rock. It did not matter that she had been the only one at all to even notice the birds, nor did it matter that had she not been here, no one would have gone over there. The only thing that mattered to Amanda was that she had not done anything about it right away.

  “I wouldn’t be beating myself up about it if I were you,” said Jason, having astutely read her thoughts.

  “I feel real bad about waiting so long to get anybody to do something about it,” Amanda said, coming to sit in one of the folding chairs beside him.

  “You know, if you hadn’t have noticed those birds, she would have died for sure. At least she’s got a chance because of you. I saw the vultures circling, but it didn’t register as something that I needed to concern myself with. But to you, it did. You should be giving yourself props right now, instead of bashing yourself over it.”

  Amanda sighed, and then was quiet, while weighing out the words that he had just spoken to see if they had merit. She should have known that they did, considering the source. When she had finished contemplating it, she decided that he was right.

  “Her eyes are open,” Cody said, in a squeal that sounded like it had come from a girl, because he had not reached the age that his voice would have matured—especially given all the malnutrition that he had recently suffered.

  Chapter 65

  Sky opened her eyes and clutched Maryanne’s arm with her left hand. It was a weak grasp, and the woman’s lips moved, but the sound was not intelligible. And then she closed her eyes again, but she continued to breathe, deeper and more steadily now.

  Maryanne knew what she had said, even though the words had not come past her dry throat. She had said, “Thank you,” having recognized that they were there to help.

  “Is she okay?” Cody asked, looking alarmed that she had closed her eyes again.

  “I think she’ll make it. You’re doing a great job cooling her, Cody. Now take the rubbing alcohol and put it on the rag and start wiping her down. Don’t let her drink any of it because you only want it on the skin, it’s poisonous to ingest it. I’ll dress her again when you’ve finished,” Maryanne said, standing on stiff legs. “I need to get some more water started so that we have enough around camp. Lord knows the way we’re going through it, it’ll be gone by morning.”

  “Sure thing,” Cody said, beginning to get started on the task.

  “Sorry,” Amanda said, referring to her liberal use of water today.

  “Don’t be, I’m just happy to have it,” she said, grabbing a bucket.

  “I’ll go too,” Amanda said, grabbing another one. “That’ll give us twice as much.”

  “If you’re feeling up to it, then okay,” Maryanne said, beginning to feel too tired to argue with her seemingly healthy patient. “Why aren’t you sweating, it’s certainly hot enough?”

  “Don’t know,” Amanda said with a shrug, falling in line with her friend to go down the hill for more water. “I don’t feel hot at all. Actually, it seems kind of pleasant, really.”

  Maryanne eyed her friend suspiciously but said nothing.

  There were a couple of oddities about Amanda since she had come back from town with the bite, but it wasn’t anything at this point that she felt, as a doctor, too alarmed about. Overall, she was pleased with how well Amanda was doing and surprised that the burn wasn’t causing her more pain than it seemed to be. Amanda had not asked for a pain pill since the one that she had given her this morning. Either she was really good at faking normalcy, or it really wasn’t bothering her as much as Maryanne would have suspected.

  The doctor felt very weary by the time she had trekked down the hill. It had been a long night, and she had had very little sleep and a hot day with a lot of chores and excitement, and the day was far from over. Even with Cody being such a great help, there was a lot to do. More water needed to be sanitized; she had another patient; Jason needed his leg checked and needed to do some physical therapy with his other leg and arms; dinner needed to be prepared; and dishes washed again after the meal. Unlike usual, when she was easily throwing herself into the camp chores, today felt like it would last forever.

  Maryanne wished that she could go and take a nap, but it was out of the question with so much to do and impossible for her in this heat. She opted to put the tailgate down on the truck and sit for a few minutes, hoping it would take the place of a “power nap.”

  “Not surprised to see you down here,” Roy said to Amanda. “Did the doctor give you the all-clear?”

  “Not yet, but I begged a trip down here off of her,” Amanda said.

  “How’s the woman?” Cole asked, not knowing Maryanne well enough yet to be able to read her.

  “Good, looks like she’ll make it,” Maryanne said before yawning widely.

  Cole nodded. His hair was wet, and he had on the pair of coveralls that Amanda had found at the rental lot repair shop.

  “Where’s Sam?” her mother asked.

  “She’s practicing her bow skills, giving me a chance to wash up,” Cole said. “Washed my clothes too and found these,” he said, looking down to indicate the coveralls.

  “I knew that those coveralls would come in handy,” Amanda said, pleased that she had thought to throw them in with the load.

  Amanda and Maryanne carried up five gallons of water apiece, and then they went back down and repeated the process, until they had twenty more gallons of water to be sanitized.

  On the way up the hill, Amanda’s stomach growled loudly, and she realized that she was not only hungry again but that she felt famished.

  “Was that your stomach I just heard?” Maryanne asked, before laughing, but it was a thin and tired sound.

  Amanda’s hand went to her forehead. She had missed having her morning coffee, and now she had a caffeine headache. But there was no sense in having any now, and besides, even though she had found a lot of coffee grounds on the run, it wouldn’t last forever. She might as well get used to life without it a little at a time.

  Once they had made it up to camp for the second time, Maryanne sent Cody down to see his father so that he could get washed up too. And the boy was happy to oblige, leaving with a skip to his step.

  “He sure is a happy boy,” Maryanne commented to her husband.

  “He’s definitely a glass-is-half-full kind of guy,” Jason said.

  “If you ask me, he’s the glass-is-all-the-way-full kind of guy, regardless of how full it is,” Amanda said. “He’s the biggest reason why I trusted them enough to bring them back here. You can’t be too careful these days.”

  “You got that right,” Jason said, before returning to his book.

  Sam came up the hill and got herself a big glass of water, claiming that her bow skills had already improved. She shed the cotton long-sleeved shirt that she had put on to practice so that she didn’t further aggravate the red mark that the bowstring had rubbed on her arm earlier. She claimed that she had figured out how she had been holding the bow at the wrong angle, thus the mark.

  “I’m glad that you’re figuring it out,” her father said. “God knows that we could use someone in this crew that can be silent but deadly from a distance. By the way, thanks for the book, it’s really interesting, and you’re right, it’s helping me to pass the time without going stir crazy here.”

  Sam smiled, pleased that she had garnered not one but two compliments from her father. The way she saw it, her relationship with her parents had changed a little since she had come back from the run. She felt like they were treating her more as an equal now, and not like a little kid. That’s the kind of independent relationship that she wanted to have with them.

  “Sam, do you have the time to clean this fridge up?” Roy asked from over where he was fussing wit
h the wiring for the solar panels.

  “Why do I have to do it?” Sam said with a moan. “Do you know how messed up it is, yuck. It almost made me vomit when I first opened it.”

  “I’ll help,” Amanda said, “shouldn’t be too hard, considering that we brought back all those cleaning supplies.”

  “You want that refrigerator as much as anybody else here,” Maryanne said, with her hands on her hips, giving Sam a no-nonsense look that said she was about to give her a lecture.

  “So much for equality,” Sam said, mumbling under her breath, but she followed Amanda to where they had placed the bottles of cleaner.

  Sky sat up. Maryanne had soaked the woman’s clothing with water, before putting them back on her, to help with getting her body temperature down. All the doctor’s efforts had worked. She was alive, conscious, and sitting upright.

  “Can I have some water,” Sky said, gathering the attention of the group.

  “Mercy!” Maryanne said. “You’re with us. I did all that I could do, and we were just waiting for you to wake up.”

  Maryanne filled a water glass and quickly made her way over to the woman.

  “I’m sorry, the water’s quite warm. I just boiled it not half an hour ago to make sure that it’s safe. It’s still hot but drinkable,” Maryanne said, placing the glass in the woman’s fragile-looking fingers.

  Sky took a long drink, before setting the glass down nearly empty.

  “It tastes wonderful,” she said. “I want to introduce myself. My name is Sky, and I want to thank you for rescuing me. I thought that I was done for, and I curled up to die. That’s the last thing I remember. How on earth did you all find me way out here?”

  “The buzzards were circling in the air over where you had parked in the next canyon. When they went to investigate, there you were. I’m Amanda, and this is Maryanne. Roy’s over there, and Sam is behind me. There’s Maryanne’s husband, Jason, convalescing in the chair, and little Tammy, she’s our resident artist. Cody and Cole are down the hill. Red’s the big wolf dog, and the little dog is Boo, she’s Tammy’s companion, and Red shadows Sam. Cole, Sam, and Roy brought you in,” Amanda said, before offering the woman a smile.