She hesitated. She would never leave the patients to die, but she wasn’t a nurse or doctor, either. It was possible that there would be enough medical staff willing to stay that Lindsey would be free to leave.
“I’ll need to think about it,” she told him. “I’d love to go somewhere outside the city. I’ve been worrying about how long we’ll be safe here and that was before I knew about the bombing.”
“I agree,” he said.
“Hey, let’s go,” the copilot said, stepping out onto the roof. “We’ve got a lot to do.”
“I’ll see you tomorrow,” Reynolds told Lindsey, giving her a quick kiss. “Please consider my offer.”
“I will,” she assured him, thoughts churning as she watched him leave.
~*^*~
~28~
Snake found Jack and Dr. Sharma talking and he updated them on the information he’d received from Lt. Reynolds.
“It might be good if some of us leave,” Dr. Sharma said. “The hospital is starting to get crowded.”
“I don’t like the part about the guns, though,” Jack said.
“I thought that it was a constitutional right to bear arms in this country,” Dr. Sharma replied. “How can they leave us in a crisis with no way to defend ourselves?”
“I don’t know, but it happened during Katrina,” Jack pointed out. “I guess they didn’t want armed vigilantes running amok, or so they claimed.”
“How are we supposed to protect ourselves if we stay?” Dr. Sharma asked.
“Good question. I wonder if they just want the weapons for themselves,” said Snake.
“That’s kind of a scary thought,” Jack said. “If the military is worried about not having enough weapons, the rest of us are in deep trouble. We need to have a meeting. Snake, can you have your guys spread the word?”
Once everybody had gathered in the cafeteria, Jack got things rolling then turned the floor over to Snake, who reiterated most of what Reynolds had told them. He omitted the part about the guns, which would have to be brought up carefully. When Snake was done speaking, Jack asked for opinions.
“I’m not leaving,” Keith said after hearing the news. “Not only am I not about to abandon my patients, but I need to get my wife out of her building before I leave the city. Why leave to go sit in a corn field in Iowa and hope that the military can protect us? How safe would we be in tents? If the fence gives, we’d be screwed. And if someone in the shelter manages to get infected, we’d be trapped inside the fence with no easy way out. We have a well-fortified building here with lots of supplies.”
“I agree,” Dr. Sharma said. “I don’t feel safe in this city right now, but I don’t want to leave anybody behind to die. And if this virus is spreading, where will it hit next? Maybe the whole world will be like this in another month.”
“Bite your tongue,” Jack said. “I don’t even want to think like that right now. I’m still hoping they can get it under control, but I’m with you two. I’m staying.”
Snake nodded. “We’ll be on our own for supplies now, so I guess I’ll be sticking around to take care of that. I’ll give my guys the option of going, but I have a feeling I know what they’ll say.”
“I’m staying,” Ernie said. “My kids are up north but they know where to find me if things calm down. If I leave, they won’t have any idea where to look.”
“I’m concerned about the bombing,” Lindsey admitted. “Lee said that they wouldn’t hit the buildings right around us, but we may end up trapped in here.”
“Lee?” Keith asked, fighting a grin.
“Lt. Reynolds,” Lindsey said, blushing furiously.
“I’m staying. We’re safe here,” Amelia said, adding her opinion. “Why would we leave?”
“Look outside,” a CNA named Rick said. “There are more of the infected out there every day. They know where the food is and it’s right here. Won’t be long before they force their way in and then we’re all goners.”
A loud murmur went through the crowd as some agreed and others did not.
“Cheri and the kids and I will be leaving,” Eric said. “I think I might take them back to their place. Seems pretty secure and I only brought her here for treatment but now that she’s better I may as well take her back home.”
“Cheri and the kids are staying,” Dr. Sharma said, standing and crossing her arms. “I’ve been treating her and she’s doing well here. She’s not ready to go back to the home she shared with her recently deceased husband yet.”
“It’s not your decision,” Eric said.
“You’re right,” Dr. Sharma replied. “It was Cheri’s decision. I already talked to her.”
“Oh,” Eric said. “Well, I should probably stay and help out here since I’m second in command, seniority-wise.”
“Look,” Jack said. “This isn’t a group decision. Anybody that wants to leave is free to go. Those that don’t want to go are welcome to stay. We’re just asking one thing.”
He hesitated, noticing that there were several children in the room. “Can we maybe have the kids leave for a few minutes?”
A couple of the adults volunteered to watch them in the ER waiting room, and once they were gone, Jack brought up what Reynolds had said about the guns.
“Lt. Reynolds stuck his neck out to warn us about this,” Jack pointed out. “All it’s going to take is one person to open their mouth and not only will Reynolds get in trouble, they’ll be back here to grab every weapon we have. Those that stay will be scavenging food and supplies from any place we can find it. We’ll need our guns for that and if the military know we have them, they’ll take them. Does anybody have a problem with keeping quiet about that?”
One of the ex-patients finally spoke up. “I don’t have a problem with it at all. As far as I’m concerned, everybody here has gone above and beyond to help us. You all could have easily just left us here to fend for ourselves when things got bad. There’s no way I’m saying a word to anybody.”
“Honestly,” Marian said, “I hear the guns but I never see them, since I don’t go outside. I doubt that most of us have a clue as to how many weapons there are.”
“Three,” someone in the back said.
There was some laughter at the reply.
Jack nodded. “Thanks everybody. Now, I’d like to know who will be leaving. Can I see a show of hands for those who have decided to go?”
Not a single biker had even entertained a thought of leaving as Snake had guessed, and much of the hospital staff opted to stay.
Dr. Chan, the Cardiologist, raised his hand and explained his reasoning.
“I’ve only got two patients left and since Dr. Sharma is staying, she can treat them. I was torn about whether to go or stay but it sounds like these shelters could probably use a doctor. Since we have four doctors here for a handful of patients, I’m going to go.”
“Dr. Martinez?” Jack asked the young general practitioner.
“I haven’t decided,” the younger doctor admitted. “I agree with Dr. Chan that we could be of assistance in a larger environment, but I’m not so sure we couldn’t do the same here. Who’s to say how many survivors are left in the city that might find their way to us? And we don’t really know what these shelters are like. On the other hand, I think that disease from the corpses is going to become a problem here and that’s something we’re going to have to consider. We might be okay until spring, but after that, this city may become even more dangerous than it is now. I’ll have to think about it.”
Rick, the CNA who had spoken earlier, said that he would be going along with a nurse he’d been dating. The other nurses were all staying, as well as one CNA. Most of the recovered patients were going to be leaving as well as a lot of the visitors, though Theresa had opted to stay and keep the kitchen running. Doune was not in attendance.
The meeting went on for another hour, with several people asking questions and raising concerns. When it was finally over, Lindsey was still undecided. She wasn’t convinced
they’d be any safer outside of the hospital than they were in it. Besides making her own plans, she also had Autumn to consider.
She went to talk to Doune and was somewhat surprised to hear he’d be staying. She wasn’t naive enough to think that it had to do with finding a cure to save the world or that he would be staying to help his patients. She knew that it had more to do with the fact that he had a lab in the hospital and wasn’t ready to abandon it for the unknown, especially knowing that he’d be put to work dealing with day to day illnesses and injuries. That was just not his style.
“What do you think about leaving?” Lindsey finally asked Autumn, who was watching intently as the doctor prodded Harold’s brain.
“Look!” Autumn replied excitedly, ignoring the question. “We found some green, slimy stuff down by the back of the neck. Dr. Doune doesn’t even know what it is.”
“Near the brain stem,” Doune added. “It’s quite odd.”
“Fascinating,” Lindsey said, rolling her eyes, “but what about leaving, Autumn? You need to . . .”
“No,” Autumn cut her off, still seemingly mesmerized by the autopsy. “Why would I want to leave all this to go live in some prison camp?”
Lindsey let out a sigh of frustration, though the image of a prison camp had crossed her mind, too. “I seriously doubt that it would be like that.”
Autumn said, “When we found out I had cancer and my doctor here told my parents we needed to go to UCLA, we drove out the first time. My dad said he thought it would be fun for me. I think he really thought I might die and would never get to do it later. He and my mom were both teachers, so they taught me stuff all along the way. They always did that. It took us weeks to get there, but I learned a lot.”
Lindsey remained quiet and let the girl have her say.
“I was pretty young, so I don’t remember everything about the trip, but I do remember a lot of it. I remember stopping at this place in Utah that was out in the middle of nowhere. Moab, I think it was called. My dad told me that during one of the wars, all of the Japanese people were put in these camps. It didn’t matter if they had done anything wrong or not; it was just that they were Japanese. Most of them were Americans, but even if their parents were Japanese, they got put in the camps. My dad said that it was partly because farmers wanted their land. I don’t know much about that part, but I just remember looking at that place in Utah and thinking how bad it would have been to get taken from your home and your family and get stuck someplace like that. I never forgot about it and I don’t ever want to end up someplace like that.”
Lindsey was silent for a moment longer. She’d never seen any of the War Relocation Camps, but she had heard about them. She hoped that the U.S. had learned a lesson from that dark time in history, but she did have some doubts. Still, she didn’t want to let paranoia keep her from taking advantage of a safe shelter. She felt that she had to at least try to convince the girl to go.
“I doubt that this would be . . .”
“No. I’m staying. Final answer.”
Lindsey wasn’t about to drag anybody to a shelter against their will, so she dropped it, letting Doune and Autumn go back to their conversation.
The girl wanted to know everything that the surgeon did and why he did it. He was eating it up, enjoying having such a rapt student. Lindsey, on the other hand, was bored with the autopsy. She had never been the type of person to enjoy standing around watching someone else work.
“I’ll be back in a while,” she said, needing to get away.
Lindsey was glad that Autumn had found something to keep her interest. Many of the other children seemed to be bored quite often. The girl was a natural in the lab and she had learned the job so well that Lindsey had become superfluous, which was fine with her. She’d simply been there in the capacity of a babysitter, until she had realized it wasn’t necessary. Doune might be a bit of a sociopath, but Lindsey was sure that he would never do anything that would endanger his star pupil. The lab was also right next to the ER where the bikers tended to congregate when they weren’t busy. If anything went wrong with one of the experiments in the lab, someone would be right there to help.
Lindsey still walked Autumn down to the lab each morning and she checked in on her now and then, but she had been very busy with other things for the last few days and she had enjoyed it. It had been challenging to try to find the right jobs for all the newcomers and to get them settled into life in the hospital. Now that no more survivors were to be brought in by the military, she would have to find something else to do. Perhaps it would be best to go the shelter, she thought. Maybe she could do the same type of job there or maybe they could even use a physical therapist.
She wandered around, not sure what to do to kill time. She wandered over to the ER where she heard Snake and some others talking about making a run for supplies.
“We need to get as much as we can today,” Snake was telling the other bikers. “I want to get one more run in before the military starts bombing our part of the city tomorrow at dawn. Who knows how much will be left when they’re done? We may not even be able to get through the rubble after today.”
Snake looked a list over and then tucked it into a pocket.
“I could go along if you need me,” Lindsey said. “The doctors and nurses shouldn’t risk going but there isn’t a whole lot of physical therapy needed right now. And since I don’t have a gun, I’m probably one of the least valuable people here at the moment.” She laughed and added, “Even Autumn has turned out to be an excellent assistant to Dr. Doune, so I guess I’m still trying to find my niche.”
“Looks like you’re in better shape than most of us,” Snake told Lindsey while patting his rather extended belly.
“What do we need to get?” she asked.
“Medical supplies, mostly,” he said, pulling the list back out of his pocket. “Plus some diesel fuel for the generator if we can find a way to carry it back. Groceries and anything else we run across that might be useful.” He turned to Lindsey. “You know this area better than we do. I guess you’re leading the way. You sure you’re up to this?”
“I’m up to it,” Lindsey said. “I’m actually kind of looking forward to it, in fact. I’m getting stir-crazy here.”
She glanced up from the list and said, “My dad taught me how to shoot when I was young. It’s been a while but I’m sure I could pick it up again if we happen to stumble across a .38.”
“I don’t know how much luck you’ll have at the gun store, even if the military hasn’t stopped by there first,” Snake said. “Last one we went to was almost cleaned out of firearms. Hit a mess of ammo, though. If you can’t find a .38, I could lend you a .44 Mag. Little more punch.”
“It might be too much for me, but I’d be willing to try it if I can’t find something smaller,” she said, handing Snake the list back.
“You might as well hang onto that,” he told her. Snake pulled out a map and highlighter that he had found in one of the administrative offices.
“I marked the area that Reynolds told us about yesterday, but I couldn’t remember all of the street names,” he said.
Lindsey looked the map over and took the highlighter to mark a few more streets. They ended up with a decent-sized area around the hospital.
“There’s a gun shop here,” Lindsey pointed at a spot on the map, “and a medical supply store here, I think.”
“What about a grocery store? And we’ll need a gas station, too.”
Lindsey pointed out several locations and Snake nodded. “We should be able to get everything we need while staying inside the safe zone.”
He made a trip up to the fifth floor to warn the snipers, in what they were now calling the Crow’s Nest, that he and the rest of his crew were about to venture outside. They would undoubtedly need cover. On the way out the door, Snake had to stop the biker who had cut himself the day before.
“You’re staying here,” Snake said.
“I’m fine. It’s just a little c
ut.”
“It’s a big cut that could easily get infected,” Snake pointed out. “Wait ‘til it heals before you go back out there.”
The biker hung his head and turned away from the door.
“That’ll teach him to play with knives,” Snake muttered as they waited for the “all clear” call on the radio.
~*^*~
~29~
Once the parking lot was clear enough, the group made a run for the vehicles. Some of the men fired up their bikes while the rest headed to the truck.
Snake told Lindsey to get into the cab with him as the others climbed onto the hood then up onto the top of the truck.
“Will they be all right up there?” Lindsey asked, watching the men as they climbed up.
“They’ll be fine,” Snake assured her. “We bolted a length of chain from the front to the back of the roof on each side, so they have something to hold onto.”
He started the engine and they headed out of the relative safety of the hospital parking lot into the plague-ridden city.
Lindsey was stunned by the destruction around them as they moved through the besieged neighborhoods. She had observed enough from the windows of the hospital to know that it was bad outside, but seeing it up close drove the fact home.
The truck moved slowly as Snake eased it around cars that had been abandoned in the street. Some had doors flung open, telling Lindsey that the occupants had left in a hurry. Some of them hadn’t left at all. She watched the undead clawing at windows to try to get out, forever trapped in their seat belts. Many of them were families, with luggage tied to the tops of their vehicles. She wondered how many of them had not been able to get out of the city because they’d taken the time to get their possessions. And how many had already been infected before getting into their vehicles to leave? It must have been a lot, she thought, seeing no other explanation for cars with doors closed and windows intact and infected passengers inside. Others had windows broken out, telling a different story.
Dead, but Not for Long Page 24