Survivalist Reality Show: The Complete Series
Page 70
She took a deep breath. “Medicine.”
He smirked. “You may as well ask for the keys to the city. You have to know medicine is extremely valuable.”
“I understand its value—trust me. I do have a few things I think you’ll be interested in,” she said, pulling out the can of chocolate syrup.
Mac burst into laughter. “What is that?”
“Chocolate.”
“I can see that. What do you think you’ll buy with your chocolate?”
She shrugged again. “Medicine.”
He continued to laugh. “I suppose that chocolate is definitely something the folks around here could appreciate. What kind of medicine are you looking for?”
Tabitha hesitated, not wanting to give away too much information. If she showed signs of weakness, they could take advantage.
She finally opened her mouth to ask for antibiotics, figuring she had to play her hand now, but didn’t get a chance to say anything before there was a commotion at the front gate.
“Mac!” one of the guards along the wall yelled out.
Mac jumped up from his chair, snapping his fingers. A man emerged from the house and grabbed Tabitha by the arm, pulling her up and out of the chair so fast that she didn’t even get the chance to resist.
“What’s going on?” Tabitha asked, suddenly afraid.
Her eyes went to the man on the wall who was holding up two fingers. Mac spun around to look at Tabitha. “I thought you were alone?”
“I am!”
“Take her inside and put her in the room until I deal with this,” Mac said, stomping down the porch steps.
“Wait, I’ll go. I’m sorry I came by!” she shouted.
The man holding her arm twisted it and shoved her inside the house. “He’ll deal with you later,” the man said, opening a door and pushing her inside.
“Wait!”
The door slammed shut and she heard a latch being slid into place on the outside. Her hand reached for the door handle, only to find it had been locked. She put her forehead against the door, groaning and cursing her poor decision.
Slowly, worrying over what was happening outside, she turned around to see what kind of cell she was being held in. She was surprised to see it was an average room. There was a bed, a small writing desk, and a dresser. The window had been boarded up, effectively locking any occupant inside. Tabitha walked to the other side of the room, opening the desk drawer only to find it empty.
There was nothing that could be used as a weapon, which had to be on purpose. She sat down on the edge of the twin bed with a black, flowered comforter and put her head in her hands. Geno was going to be furious. He was going to shout at her and tell her she should have known better. And he was right. She should have. She should have listened to him.
“I’m so sorry,” she whispered into the room.
She had let down her husband as well as Lily. She had always been so stubborn and strong-willed, her mother used to tell her it would get her into trouble one day. That day had apparently arrived. She’d walked right into trouble. Now, she could only hope that Wolf would forget about trying to rescue her and get Lily to the reservation, and that he could convince Geno to come along with them rather than attempting a solo-rescue. She would never forgive herself if her little foray cost Lily her life, or any of the others theirs, for that matter. She’d done her best to convey how sick Lily was, and to explain the situation, so maybe they’d understand. The question might be whether they would listen to her now that she’d gone off on her own.
And if Geno didn’t do it first, Regan might just kill her if she made it out of this so-called town alive. Tabitha had taken a page from Regan’s book after all the preaching and lecturing she had done against it, but she hadn’t done it well enough.
As she sat on the bed, she considered her options, surprised at how calm she felt. She could tell Mac she needed medicine for a sick girl. The guy seemed nice enough—maybe he’d give it to her and let her leave if she promised to never darken his door again.
She could also try telling him she was with a large group of mercenaries who would be coming for her if they didn’t let her leave, but she quickly nixed that idea. The last thing she wanted was a war that would end up with more people hurt or dead. Mac and his people had guns—big guns, and a lot of them from what she’d seen.
She got up and began to pace the room, wondering what had happened to send Mac running for the gate. The man on top had held up two fingers. Did that mean there were two people approaching? If so, she wondered who they were—surely, anyone following her from her own camp would have caught up to her and stopped her. She’d been traveling fast enough, but not nearly fast enough that anyone trying wouldn’t have caught up to her if they’d really tried.
Travis felt his arms growing weaker as he trudged through trees, his feet barely moving. He couldn’t carry Lily much farther. He knew it was nothing more than adrenaline that had given him the strength to carry her as far as he already had. And maybe he should have turned back, but he understood why she’d done what she had, and by the time she’d collapsed, they’d been closer to the town than their camp. When the wall came into view, he began shouting for help. It was his only choice. He had to hope they would take pity on them. A man stepped out from behind the wall, cautiously approaching with his rifle up and ready to fire.
“I’m not armed. My friend is sick. She passed out. Please help us!” he begged.
Another man with a plaid shirt emerged from behind the gate, looking left and then right before walking toward them.
“What’s going on?” the second man asked the first before looking at the unconscious Lily.
“It’s a young girl, unconscious,” the man in plaid said. “I’ll take her, son. Follow me,” he said in a soft voice.
Travis hesitated, but the man was already reaching for Lily, and his own arms felt like Jell-O as the man relieved him of his burden. Lily was carried behind the wall then, Travis right on the man’s heels, refusing to let her out of his sight and convinced he could overpower the man if he needed to. He wouldn’t give up without a fight.
“Take them to the clinic,” the second man ordered.
Travis turned to look at him. “Thank you.”
The man nodded his head, but said nothing in return. He was staring at Travis, sizing him up. Travis stared back, not ready to back down even if he was twice his age.
“In here,” the man carrying Lily said, striding toward a brick building.
Travis ran ahead, opening the door for him. Another man who wore a white coat and wire-rimmed glasses jumped up from behind a desk positioned against a wall.
“What do we have?” he asked moving toward Lily.
“I don’t know,” the first man said.
“Take her into the exam room,” the doctor ordered, walking behind the man carrying Lily into an exam room and setting her on a bed. Travis stuck right by her side, scared to death she had pushed herself too hard. She was so pale; her face was the same shade of white as the paper sheet she was lying on.
“I’m Ben,” the man in the white coat said, introducing himself as he pulled on a pair of latex gloves.
“I’m Travis, and this is Lily.”
“I’ve got this, Junior,” Ben said to the man who’d carried Lily in.
Junior nodded his head and left the room. “We’ll be right outside if you need us,” he said, casting a glare at Travis.
Travis ignored him, his eyes focused on Lily. “Please help her,” he whispered, staring into Lily’s pale face.
“What happened?”
Travis pointed to her arm. “She fell a few days ago, maybe a week. She broke her arm and it pierced the skin. We’ve been trying to find medicine, but there hasn’t been any. She’s got a bad infection.”
Ben opened a drawer and pulled out a pair of scissors, carefully cutting away the bandage Tabitha had put on Lily’s arm. When he pulled the bandage back, the odor was overpowering. Travis covered his n
ose as he stared at the angry flesh, red and oozing. He hadn’t seen the wound in days and had no idea how bad it was. Seeing it explained why Tabitha had been so determined to get Lily help.
“Oh wow,” Ben muttered. “This is bad.”
He reached up and felt her head with his gloved hand, wincing as he touched her skin.
“Can you help her? Do you have medicine?” Travis asked hopefully.
Ben nodded. “I do. But I need you to understand this is very serious. How long has she been sick?”
Travis shrugged, really not sure—the adults had been trying to shield him from the worst of her sickness, he knew. “I think it’s only been about two days that she’s been really bad.”
Ben looked at him, staring directly in his eyes. “I have some antibiotics. I hope they are enough. I don’t have access to a lab, so I can’t test her blood, but I’m guessing this infection has spread throughout her body.”
Travis gulped down the lump in his throat. “Okay. Do whatever you can, please. You have to help her,” he whispered, not wanting to cry but barely holding it together.
Ben took a deep breath. “I’m going to try. Sit here and I’ll be right back.”
Travis squeezed Lily’s good hand. “You’re going to be okay, Lily. You hold on,” he whispered.
Ben returned a few minutes later carrying a tray of supplies and an IV bag, and set it all on the counter. Then he left the room again and returned with more supplies. Travis was surprised to see how much equipment they had. That had to be a good sign. He wished he could call his mom and tell her they’d done it. They were getting Lily the help she needed. His mom would kill him, but she would be happy about what he’d accomplished—now that he hadn’t gotten himself killed, at least.
“I’m going to try and start an IV in her good arm. At this point, she needs strong antibiotics to fight that infection. I can’t give her a few pills and hope she gets better. This is serious. And I need you to know this may not work,” he explained in a soft voice. “No guarantees.”
Travis nodded. “That’s what Tabitha said. It’ll work. Lily is strong.”
“Who’s Tabitha?” Ben asked, opening a package with a needle inside.
Travis hadn’t seen Tabitha when they’d been ushered inside, but assumed she had been taken in, as well. She had to be somewhere else, trying to trade and not realizing Travis had already gotten Lily help. The people in the town were nice. They were likely supplying Tabitha with the meds needed for Lily even as she got treated here. He could save her the trip back.
“She came in ahead of us. She’s an EMT and has been taking care of Lily’s arm,” he explained, purposely leaving out the details about the rest of the group. “She didn’t realize we followed her.”
“Really? And she’s here?” Ben asked.
Travis nodded, wincing when the needle pierced Lily’s skin. “Yes. We’ve traveled a long way, trying to find medicine. Other people refused to help us.”
Ben nodded as he went about hooking up a tube and then an IV bag. Travis thought the man seemed very capable, and hoped it was truly medicine and the guy wasn’t tricking him. He certainly looked like a doctor, and they’d called this the clinic—Travis had no other choice than to trust him. Still, he tried to think about what Wolf would do. Would he demand to read the label on the bag? Travis had no idea what medicine would be needed, so it wasn’t like that would tell him anything—heck, he doubted Wolf would know any better than he did when it came to medical labels. He had to trust the doctor to do the right thing.
Beside Lily, the man was nodding, so focused on Lily that it was another minute before he answered.
“That’s good to know. I could use some help in the clinic. Right now, I’m a one-man show. I don’t get a lot of rest. If anyone gets hurt or sick, day or night, I’m the one they come to. An extra pair of skilled hands would be very helpful. I’d be able to perform minor surgeries if I had the help,” he added excitedly, as if just thinking of it.
Travis nodded his head, not mentioning the fact that their stay would be temporary. Tabitha wouldn’t be staying behind, though he imagined she’d be willing to help for a day or two in return for this man saving Lily. He’d leave that discussion for later. He didn’t want to do or say anything that would make Ben angry and not want to help Lily.
Ben moved to inspect the arm a little more closely now that the IV was taken care of, gingerly touching the stitched area.
“Is it okay?” Travis asked.
Ben looked up and smiled. “It is. It’s an excellent stitching job. This is the work of your friend, Tabitha?”
Travis nodded. “Yes, she said she had to leave the other cut open to let the infection drain.”
Ben smiled. “She was right. If she would have closed that injury up, your friend would be a lot sicker. I’m assuming it’s also Tabitha who’s been keeping the wound clean?”
“Yes, she’s been washing it a couple times a day,” Travis verified, his eyes still on Lily. She looked so pale.
Ben nodded his head as he began to clean the area again. “She’s very good. I’d really like to meet her.”
“She’s here, isn’t she?” Travis asked, the first shiver of alarm snaking through his body. What if something had happened to her on the way there, and they’d somehow passed her without knowing it?
Ben shrugged. “I’m not sure. I haven’t seen her. Are you sure she came inside the walls? They are very strict at the gate. They usually don’t let anyone in.”
“Oh, um, I mean… I thought so, but maybe I was mistaken,” Travis muttered. Could she have gotten hurt along the way without them seeing her? Or maybe she’d had a change of heart and decided not to come, or been turned away at the gate, though he would have thought they’d have run into her, had that been the case.
If Tabitha wasn’t here that meant it was only him and Lily inside the walls. And his mom was seriously going to kill him when she realized he was gone, especially if that was the case. At least if he’d been gone with Tabitha, she wouldn’t have worried as much, but if Tabitha had already gone back to the van, he was in big trouble.
“Once we get those antibiotics going, I’ll wrap her arm, and consider casting it later if it looks like the infection is fading. I don’t want to put a cast on it if I need to get to that wound,” he explained.
Travis nodded, watching the man work. He seemed very capable, if not a little young. “Are you a real doctor?” Travis asked instinctively, not sure he even wanted the answer. Not that it mattered if the man had a real license.
Ben grinned. “I am. Just. I graduated, got my license, and moved out here to take over the practice of the doctor who worked here for close to fifty years. I’d only been here a few weeks before everything went dark.”
“Is this your clinic?”
“Yep. Thankfully, I’d gotten a supply delivery the day before the EMP hit. When I first got here, I couldn’t believe how little the other doctor kept on hand. I loaded up on everything in anticipation of doing a swift business since I was the new doctor in town. Little did I know, most of the people who lived her were none too pleased to have a young man as their doctor. Then, after the EMP, a lot of the townspeople left, thinking it would be better elsewhere. I thought about leaving, but Mac insisted I stay.”
“Who’s Mac?”
Ben made a face. Travis couldn’t tell what it was about. It was a combination of disgust and anger, maybe.
“Mac is our ruler. He has decided he’s the mayor, governor, and all of the above.”
“Oh,” Travis said, suddenly feeling very nervous about what they had walked into.
“He’s not a bad guy, don’t get me wrong, but watch yourself. Be careful how much you say around him or his minions,” Ben cautioned.
“Thanks,” Travis mumbled.
“Sit tight and I’ll be right back,” Ben said a moment later, walking out of the room.
Travis moved over to the door and listened, hearing Ben talking to another man.
Travis felt his heart drop into the pit of his stomach. Ben knew Tabitha was there, after all, and he’d lied about it. Swallowing down his anger, Travis realized he’d made a huge mistake in telling the guy that Tabitha was an EMT. This was exactly what Geno had been afraid would happen. If they thought she was valuable, they’d want her to stay. No, not want, he corrected himself—they’d demand it. They would hold her captive if they had to. And he had no idea what that meant for him and Lily. Would they let him leave with Lily? Wolf would move mountains to get his daughter back, he knew.
The door opened and the man from earlier slipped out. Travis dashed back to where Lily was laying and picked up her hand once again, not wanting Ben to know he had overheard him. He stared at the clear bag of fluid dripping into her vein and hoped it was truly medicine that would make her well again, and not some horrible poison. It had to be medicine, he told himself.
Ben came back into the room, smiling and acting friendly. “Can I get you something to drink? I bet you’ve had a hard road to get here.”
Travis nodded his head. “Yes, please. Water or anything you have would be great.”
Ben slid over the rolling doctor stool and ordered him to have a seat. Travis wanted to believe the man was genuine, but after what he had heard, he knew better. He’d go along with the ruse for now, though. He had to, for Lily’s sake.
17
Regan made her way back to the camp with RC and Wolf lagging behind her. She was anxious to get back and see how Lily was faring. The moment she got close to the van, she immediately knew something was off. It was a gut feeling she couldn’t ignore. Lately, she’d been becoming more reliant on her senses, and had learned the hard way not to ignore them. Now, everything in Regan’s body was telling her that look on Tabitha’s face earlier had been a warning of something serious. And she never should have left her friend’s side.