Year One

by Jason Hamilton

  Cursing, she turned back to the road. Sergio was doing his best to drive carefully and slowly, so as not to attract attention. It seemed to be working for now; none of the cars pursued them.

  Once they were a safe distance away, they turned the lights of their car back on and started driving at a much faster pace.

  "Where should we go?" asked Sergio.

  Kat didn't know how to answer. They couldn't go to any station within the park, even though they desperately needed medical attention. Sergio's leg was still bleeding, and Kat's shoulder felt like it was on fire. She hoped the monster's bite wasn't poisonous in any way.

  "I suppose we should just proceed to the nearest town," Kat said.

  "There’s not much around here."

  "I know, but we can't stay too close. We run the risk of being spotted by Invergence.”

  Sergio nodded, though he didn't look happy. That leg looked like it needed some help.

  They continued driving for about thirty minutes. Kat took the opportunity to find a spare bottle of milk in the bags at her feet and used it to feed Alice. Doing so was awkward without the use of her right hand, which had swollen to the size of a large orange. But that, at least, solved one of their problems. Alice stopped crying.

  Sergio drove with gritted teeth. The sky was just starting to lighten in the east, beyond the mountains.

  "Do you want me to drive?" Kat asked. "My right hand is no good but I think I could manage."

  "No, it's fine, I'll..." suddenly his eyelids drooped and the car swerved a little.

  "Sergio!" she said, grabbing his arm with her good hand. He perked up for a second, but his head dipped down again. The car started to slow as his pressure on the pedal lessened.

  "Sergio!" she said again, trying to slap him in the face to keep him alert. His face was pale; he had lost too much blood.

  With her good hand, she grabbed the steering wheel and tried her best to guide it to the side of the road. The forward momentum of the car was enough to do so. Thankfully Sergio's foot was not pressed hard against the gas pedal, or they might have been in even worse danger.

  Kat almost felt like hyperventilating again, but she quickly got ahold of her senses. Alice was sleeping in the backseat. Sergio was loosing blood. She needed to do something about that. She quickly took off her seatbelt, opened the door, and dashed to Sergio's side of the car. They had some towels in the back, so she grabbed one of those too. Then, she did her best to wrap the towel tightly around Sergio's leg. It was almost impossible to do with her bad wrist, but she gritted through the pain, and used her other extremities to hold things in place while she tied off the makeshift bandage with her left hand. He was bleeding from a dozen other cuts on his face and torso, but they weren't as bad, so she didn't worry about those too much. She just did her best with the leg. It was all she could do.

  She tried to lift Sergio out of the driver's seat, to continue the journey herself. But Sergio was too heavy, and her bad hand made lifting him impossible.

  She felt an odd sense of deja vu to the moment nearly seven months ago when they had been stuck in a similar situation, stuck on the side of the road with an injured Sergio. Only this time, Kat was injured too, and the situation seemed even more helpless than before.

  So she did the only thing that seemed to make any sense. She stepped into the road, looking in either direction for passing cars. Ahead, she could make out the lights of one approaching vehicle. She quickly started waving her hands in the air, trying to get it to stop. But the car came and went, even speeding up as it passed.

  Kat kept trying, waving her hands in the air as cars approached and the sky lightened. There weren't that many cars passing on the road at the moment. But Kat didn't let that stop her. She kept waving at each approaching vehicle. Sooner or later, one of them would stop. They had to.

  Episode 9

  “Poor dad, he always seemed to find himself in these predicaments. I’m just glad my mother was there to protect him.”

  It was the same situation they had been in months earlier, only this time it was worse. Kat stood outside of their car while Sergio lay unconscious in the driver's seat. Her wrist was either broken or severely sprained, and she felt a growing chill from the bite wound on her shoulder, where the Invergence monster had bitten her.

  She persisted trying to flag down a car, desperate for someone, anyone to help them. They were stranded in the middle of southern Utah, and there wasn't much traffic. Only large trucks moving goods back and forth, and they didn't stop for anything.

  Meanwhile, Sergio was looking paler and paler, and Kat's anxiety rose. She couldn't lose him.

  At long last, a pair of headlights drifted to the side of the road behind him. Kat let out a breath in relief. She didn't even care if it was Invergence at this point. They would probably clean Sergio up anyway before they were both tortured or whatever it was that Invergence would do to them. And if they died...well...Sergio was going to die if they stayed here much longer.

  A man stepped out of the car and closed the door. In the dim light, Kat couldn't quite make him out.

  "Need a hand with anything?" A voice cried out.

  "Ah...ah yes. My husband and I were in a...ah...hunting accident. We need a place where we can get patched."

  The man drew closer. He was a middle-aged man, but with a youthful look about him. Probably in his late thirties. He wore a button-up shirt and khakis, and looked like he was on his way to work. As he approached, his eyes widened when he saw Kat's condition, and wider still when he got a look at Sergio.

  "My word!" he said. "I've got to call an ambulance." He reached into his pocket for a phone.

  "No!" Kat said hastily. The man looked at her, puzzled. "You can't call an ambulance, or the police. I can explain later. Just...do you have somewhere where we could stay and get cleaned up for a day or so." She hated asking the man for his charity, but she didn't see any other alternative, short of going to the hospital. And after their last brush with Invergence in Las Vegas, she was almost certain that they would find them soon. Invergence was likely already combing the local hospitals looking for them. They probably found Kat and Sergio's blood at the scene of the dead monster.

  The man paused to consider her a moment. Then he continued fetching his phone. Kat's heart sank. He was going to call an ambulance anyway. She tried to stop him, but he held up a finger as if telling her to be patient.

  "Hey Bill," he said after a moment. "Tell Carol I won't be in today. Family emergency...yeah, you know how it is...okay."

  He put his phone away. "Why don't I help you with your husband," he said. Kat sighed with relief.

  "Thank you, oh thank you!"

  Together they managed to drag Sergio out of the driver seat and carry him over to the man's car. The newcomer did most of the lifting since Kat couldn't do much with her bad hand. Sergio started mumbling and nearly woke up, but remained, overall, unconscious. Once he was safely stowed, Kat went to retrieve Alice, who was sleeping comfortably in her baby car seat. Doing her best not to wake the little girl, Kat moved her to the stranger's car as well.

  Ordinarily she would have been very hesitant about getting in a car with a stranger, but under the circumstances, it seemed like the only choice. And just like she felt with Simon several months ago, she felt she could trust this man.

  "I'm Peter, by the way," said the man as they started driving. "Peter Evans."

  "My name is Sarah Rodriguez," she said, using one of their alias. "My husband is Domingo."

  "And who's the little one?" he asked with a smile.

  Kat paused, they had never come up with an alias for the baby. "Alice" she finally said, thinking it best to tell the truth about something.

  "Well Sarah, since you don't want to go to a hospital, and you're going to have to explain that one to me soon enough, I'm taking you to my home. My wife and I have a friend in our ward who is a doctor. Would it be okay if we asked him to come take a look?"

  Kat didn't know what the
man meant by "ward" but she nodded. She didn't want to make too big of a scene, but she realized that they would need a doctor at some point. Especially given her bite marks and Sergio's leg.

  About twenty minutes later, and they pulled up into the driveway of a modest home. By now, the sun had risen and shone on the house. For Kat, it might as well have been a light from heaven, like the cartoons always portray, shining through the clouds to highlight some miraculous occasion.

  Peter ran inside to open the door, then back out to help bring Sergio in. Sergio was starting to regain consciousness, but he said nothing as Peter and Kat helped him into the house.

  "Jessica!" Peter yelled. "Could you come downstairs a minute?"

  Kat heard someone move upstairs. A moment later, and a woman appeared. She stared at them. "Oh," was all she managed to say.

  "Jessica, I found these three stranded on the side of the road. They had a hunting accident apparently."

  "Why haven't you taken them to the hospital."

  Kat interjected, "I'm sorry if we're inconveniencing you, but we can't go to the hospital right now. It's important."

  The woman smiled, which was the last thing Kat expected her to do. "Can't afford the insurance huh? I feel you." Then turning to Peter she asked, "shall I call the bishop?"

  Peter nodded and Jessica retreated into the next room to make the call. Peter and Kat helped a limping Sergio enter the house.

  Peter grunted with the effort of moving Sergio, "I don't think we should put him on the couch just yet, with all the blood. Let's set him down on the floor here, and you keep his legs elevated while I go blow up an air mattress we've got out in the garage."

  He helped Kat set Sergio down, then left to get the mattress. Kat sat with Sergio for about a minute before Jessica returned to the room.

  "Bishop Cooper says he'll be by as soon as he can. He's a doctor, and thankfully he's not on call today. Little blessings, right?" Kat nodded but didn't say a word, so Jessica continued. "In the meantime, he's asked if I could help clean your wounds, but I can't touch his leg just yet." She pointed at Sergio. "There might be damage to the artery so we just want to stop the bleeding for now. Oh and here's the mattress."

  Peter came back into the room carrying a fully inflated air-mattress. He set it down, and the three of them helped lift Sergio enough to slide the mattress underneath. Sergio cried out as one of them lifted his bad leg. The towel that Kat had wrapped around the leg was already soaked through with blood. Peter then carefully raised Sergio's legs and propped them up onto a chair.

  "Okay, that will have to do until Ken gets here." Ken must be this Bishop, Kat thought. Peter turned to her. "Now let's take a look at you."

  "I'm fine," said Kat, instinctively.

  Jessica chuckled. "I've got some rubbing alcohol in the bathroom," she said, and left to retrieve it.

  Peter asked, "Can you move your wrist at all?"

  "Not really."

  "What about your fingers."

  Kat gritted through the pain as she tried to move the tips of her fingers. They obeyed, just slightly.

  "There you go!" said Peter. "Some good news after all, that probably means its just a bad sprain instead of a broken bone. I'll let Ken make the call, but I'd guess you will get by with a good brace."

  Kat was happy for the good news, but she didn't smile. She didn't feel like they were out of the mud yet. She still didn't trust these people, especially because of their unusual generosity.

  Footsteps announced Jessica's return. "Well now, let's take a look at that shoulder."

  She peered down at the bite marks and torn clothing on Kat's left shoulder. Then she turned to her husband. "Could you give us a bit of privacy, dear?"

  "Oh, right." Peter said, and left the room.

  "Okay," Jessica turned back to Kat, "Let's get these pajamas off of you."

  She helped Kat take off her top, and Kat winced as the fabric tried to stick to her bite wound.

  "Oh dear, that doesn't look very good at all," Jessica said. "What was it, a mountain lion? They don't usually attack people, but it's not unheard of."

  Kat looked down at her shoulder. Red blood oozed out of teeth-shaped welts and the whole area for bruised and dark. "Um...yeah, a mountain lion," she said eventually. It seemed as good an excuse as any.

  They took a moment to clean the bite with some water and alcohol, after which Jessica went to retrieve a fresh top for Kat to wear. Kat put it on, gratefully, though they took care to leave the shoulder exposed. Jessica continued dabbing it with a cotton cloth drenched in alcohol. It hurt, but Kat didn't really feel it. She was still wondering what they would do next.

  A knock came at the door. "Oh, that must be the Bishop!" said Jessica.

  She went to the door, and greeted a man there. Peter's voice could also be heard at the door. A moment later, and a tall balding man entered the room, carrying a large bag of what Kat assumed were medical supplies.

  "Okay," he said as Peter and Jessica entered the room behind him. "Let's take a look at that leg."

  The doctor worked for nearly an hour. First, he did his best to cut off the bleeding, then gently cleaned and stitched up the leg. Kat didn't even realize how large the cut was until that moment. It was a large gash down the leg, maybe eight or nine inches long. A second, smaller gash lay beside it. Obviously made by the claws of a predator. Hopefully the doctor would buy the mountain lion story as well.

  Once he was finished, he covered a bandage in some alcohol and wrapped it around Sergio's leg. Sergio held his head back, and looked like he was in pain, but it was not the same as before. He obviously felt a little better, now that the area had been numbed and stitched.

  "Now then," said the doctor, "Let's take a look at you," he said to Kat.

  Kat let him examine her wrist and the bite mark on her arm. The doctor confirmed that her wrist was not broken, but cautioned her to get a shot for rabies.

  "Mountain lions don't usually attack adults, especially where there are a lot of adults like at a camp ground. You need to make sure the animal wasn't rabid."

  Kat knew that the beast that attacked her was not rabid, but she pretended to comply, saying that she'd think about it. The doctor continued patching them both up and gave them a prescription for some antibiotics and a wrist-brace for Kat. Then he packed up and left, without even charging them for the visit. Though he did say he'd be back in a few days to check on them.

  That was the first time that Kat realized they would be staying here for a while. She wasn't sure how she felt about that. First of all, she didn't quite trust these people. What kind of doctor made a house-call without charging for it? And neither Peter nor Jessica seemed at all perturbed about the intrusion on their home.

  Soon after the doctor left, Peter and Jessica, who had gone outside to see him off, reentered the room.

  "We're thinking the two of us should run and bring back your car. I'm sure you'll want your stuff back," said Peter.

  Kat considered them for a moment, then finally decided to ask, "Why are you doing this for us? You don't know us? You don't know our story."

  "It's the right thing to do, honey," said Jessica. "I mean, sure, it's a step out of our comfort zone helping someone we don't know. Are you familiar with the story of the good Samaritan?"

  "Something about a guy who helped out someone else on the road when he was beaten by bandits?"

  Jessica nodded, "And who was also a Jew. In those days, Samaritans and Jews rather hated each other. If a Samaritan could see past those differences, then we can help someone we don't know."

  Kat still didn't trust them, and she restrained from pointing out that the story of the Good Samaritan was just that, a story. Nevertheless she was grateful for their care. She gave them the keys to their rental car and the two of them left the house to retrieve it.

  To her eventual shame, Kat took the opportunity to snoop around the house, looking for anything that might be a bit suspicious. She found nothing, though the family did
seem to have a lot of Bibles and other holy books of some kind. They were obviously deeply religious people. That didn't really bother Kat as much as it would have several months earlier. She'd learned a lot about religious people, and found that many of them were just ordinary people, equally capable of good and bad. Still, it seemed odd that their paths continually crossed with the religious type.

  Simon had been a lower-ranking member of Argo Force. Was there a chance that these two were also from that organization? Kat doubted it. They seemed to have no idea who they were and simply helped out the goodness of their hearts. Perhaps, though, they were members of Argo Force who were simply ignorant of Alice's importance.

  The thought of Alice prompted Kat to check up on the girl. Amazingly, she was still sleeping in her convertible carseat. Kat sat still for a while, simply watching her daughter breathe. Sergio, in the next room, had also fallen asleep on the air mattress. Good, she thought. That would help him recover.

  An hour or so later and Peter and Jessica reappeared. They had recovered Kat and Sergio's car and brought it back with them. When Kat asked, they admitted that they saw no one surrounding the car. It had remained empty on the road. This caused Kat to breathe a sigh of relief. At least Invergence hadn't tracked them yet.

  Kat felt a sudden wave of exhaustion for everything that had happened since the previous night. Upon request, Peter and Jessica helped set her up on one of their couches, and Kat allowed herself a few hours of sleep.

  She awoke to see a pair of young eyes staring at her from an uncomfortably close distance. She started awake, before realizing that the eyes belonged to a little girl, probably aged four or five.

  "Hi!" said the girl, "I'm Mallory, what's your name?"

  "My name is…Sarah."

  "My best friend is Sarah!” the girl yelled emphatically.