She grabbed a couple of the bags and helped me out. We walked around the hall and got back to the group. I walked over to Jack and handed a couple of the bags. Emily came over to us and took a bag from my hand.
“We have to make this quick. He’s not doing so well, I’m afraid.”
“Be serious with me, Emily,” I began. “What do you think it is?”
“Honestly, I don’t know. Make sure nobody goes near him, though,” she said to Haylea. I reached out and touched her shoulder. It was the only sort of compassion I could show her in the moment.
“Mom, wait up,” Elyse came walking over.
“You’re not coming,” Emily said.
“Oh…darn,” Elyse said. I don’t think she wanted to go outside and I didn’t blame her. “I just wanted to give you a hug,” she said as she wrapped her arms around her mom. “Be careful out there.”
“I love you.”
“Love you, too.”
“Take care of your father, okay?”
Elyse nodded and I could see that her eyes were sad. She wasn’t crying, but she was sad. Elyse had proven herself, so far, to be a strong girl and this was proof of it. Her father quite possibly could have already had a death sentence and her mom was going outside into the one thing we knew made us sick but still, Elyse was standing strong.
“Hey,” Elyse said to Jack.
“What’s up, kid?” Jack responded as he threw the bag over his shoulder.
“Thank you for helping, I know my dad appreciates it,” she leaned in and kissed him on the cheek and then galloped off like a schoolgirl with a crush.
Emily shot Jack one of the most evil looks that I had ever seen a mother give someone. It was like when I was younger and I picked up one of my earlier girlfriends on my old motorcycle. Her dad almost threw me out of the house before I was able to shake his hand.
“What’d I do?” Jack said to her. She didn’t respond. Instead, she rolled her eyes, sighed, and walked away.
Jack, Travis, and I shared a laugh after that.
“Hey,” Haylea called to me.
“Howdy, ma’am,” I did my best impression of an old school cowboy.
“Don’t you go dying on me now, cowboy. I want you home before sun down,” she was always humoring me with her own impression.
“I’ll come back, babe. I will be back.”
She gave me one of the more passionate kisses of my life. It wasn’t a porno-type kiss, it wasn’t even a long kiss, but she put so much passion behind it with the rare chance in mind that she would never see me again.
After our kiss, just like I always did, I kissed her on the top of the head and then tapped Jack on the shoulder. Travis walked away with me but Jack stayed behind for a second. I waited to see what was going on and could overhear them.
“Please make sure this one comes back,” Haylea said to Jack. She didn’t stay around for a response. He already left one of our guys out to die and she wanted him to know that if he thought about doing that to me, for one second, she would chop his balls off…but I don’t know if he knew that.
“If he doesn’t come back,” she turned back to Jack stopping him for a second. “I will chop your balls off.”
And then she walked away.
Jack turned around and again we had a moment where we actually smiled at each other. I think he realized how tough my girl was at that moment. All I could do was raise my eyebrows and tilt my head to him. He walked by me shaking his head. I slipped the mask over my face and waited for Haylea to turn back around one last time. I knew she would. She was walking away, but she had to look at me one more time. So, I waited. After a few short moments...
We connected eyes.
XXI
Kurt Elkins, April 19th, 2012. 3:46 p.m.
T he ride to the hospital was quite quiet. It had that feeling of the aftermath of a family vacation. On the ride to, everyone is excited and planning out the trip hour by hour. Talking about where they are going to eat and what sights they want to see. There is always someone saying, "I don't care what we do, AS LONG AS I..." and finishes it out with some bucket list item. There is always the person in the family who just wants to eat the food and nothing else, the person who wants to spend the vacation doing nothing but relaxing. There's something for everyone.
When the vacation is over and it is back into the car or onto the plane, that trip home isn't as fun. Everyone is tired, exhausted from the previous day’s activities. Nobody is looking forward to heading back to reality. Getting back to the office or school. Work, homework, studying for tests was the only thing that was waiting on the other side of reality. Nobody wanted that.
This ride was a little different, though. I think that Emily, Jack, and I were scared. It's as simple as that. I don't think Jack would admit it. I think that Emily would play it off because she wouldn't want her husband to be worried, but I'll admit it. I wasn't going to play the part of the hero. I was just an average guy. We all were average and there was no reason for us not to be scared.
I looked over at Jack. He sat in the passenger seat, his index finger pinching his lip with his thumb, staring out at the lack of world outside of our car. With all of the horror put aside, it was a gorgeous day. The sun was just passing its highest point in the sky, the weather was warm, and flowers were blooming all over the place. I guess the air didn't hurt the foliage like it hurt us.
There weren't any people, though. April, on a good year in Indiana, was just the time when the weather was starting to become warm enough for people to get outside. There would be a couple of days, maybe even weeks, in February or March, that would be high 60's so you think that Spring was around the corner, but it was never something to get excited about. Winter would come back for a couple months and Spring wouldn't show up again until mid-April.
I couldn't help but think of my time in college. The very first sight of Spring was my favorite time of the year. I remembered walking home from class in the middle of the afternoon. I didn't have much time to do anything once I got home because of my next class in just over an hour, but I did have time to throw my bag on the floor, make a quick sandwich, and run to the bathroom. That was about it.
That second class was the hardest class to get to in the late afternoon. Walking home in mid-April was the first time I started seeing all the other students, my neighbors, and even some faculty sitting outside of their homes hanging out, having a barbecue, and especially drinking. I wanted so badly to be done with class so I could crack open a couple of Bud Lights and just relax in a lawn chair and talk to the pretty girls that were walking by.
There were a couple days when I actually did skip class to do that very thing, but most of the time I would just sneak in one beer with lunch and then head back to class. Those memories were just that to me now, memories. There wasn't a single soul outside enjoying this weather, because if there were, I guess that would be a death wish. I couldn't help but think that I'd never have another cook out with Haylea and our friends. I'd never be able to go visit my parents and lay out by their pool. I don't know if it had hit me as badly as it did in that moment. Life was never going to be the same.
We all sat in the car, me driving and Emily in the back seat, with our masks on. We wore gloves, too, but I wasn't sure that the gloves were going to protect us from anything. Cam, Pete, and Seth weren't wearing any gloves and they didn't seem to show any signs of sickness. Seth wasn't even wearing a mask and he seemed to be doing fine.
"You doing alright, Emily?" I asked her. She didn't respond to me as quickly as I would have liked. I checked in the rearview mirror to see if she heard me and I think she did, but I turned my head and looked back at her. I think she was fighting back some tears, so I turned around and tried to give her as much privacy as I could.
"We're probably going to need to make a couple of trips," was all she said to me.
Jack looked at me. I think both of us wanted to tell her no. I think we were both aware of the danger of going in and out of an unsec
ure building multiple times. We probably should have said no, but we weren't the doctors. We didn't know what she needed and we didn't know what any of this stuff looked like. It was her call, it was her profession...it was her husband.
"What are we looking for?"
"Umm," Emily responded. It wasn't an indication that she had to think about it, either. It was like she was lost. I looked back at her again through the mirror and she was in a daze as she looked outside the window.
"Emily," Jack said aggressively.
"We'll need a few things. A bunch of bags of fluids. An IV. A blood analyzer. A lot of medication. And... some cutting instruments."
"Cutting instruments?"
"In case we have to do a surgery."
I couldn't believe my ears. Again, Jack and I connected eyes. This time only for a moment. I couldn't imagine having to operate on someone inside of TIX. The lack of equipment...and the lack of doctors and a hospital made it hard to believe that she would even assume that she could successfully operate on someone inside of the station. I guess it was good thought on her part to prepare for it.
"Ya know," Jack began. I could tell before he even started that he wasn't looking to talk about anything in the moment. He wanted to reminisce. I felt the same way. I wanted to talk about anything but our lives at that moment.
"When I was younger," he continued, "like eleven or twelve, I was, uh, really exhausted and fatigued. I didn't want to go to school, I wanted to quit all my sports, and just rest. I was tested for Mono and Leukemia and a bunch of other shit. After all the tests, though, it turned out I was just really bored."
After a few seconds of laughter had passed, once I realized he was making a joke, I turned to him, "Wait...that was from a movie, wasn't it?" I asked.
"No...no, true story," he said to me.
After a moment, Emily spilled the beans from the back seat, "He changed it, but it's from Wayne's World."
Jack looked back at her like she had just given away his deepest secret in life. He looked mad and I was afraid we were going to get the unpredictable rage that Jack has shown before, but instead, he looked back at me and started laughing. He put his bottom lip between his thumb and index finger again and continued to laugh while looking out the window.
"That's a good movie."
XXII
Haylea Meyers
W aiting.
It is something that I couldn't stand doing. I didn't like sitting in the waiting room of the doctor's office. It bugged me when the cashier at Marsh scanned an item a minute. I just didn't have the patience for waiting. Now, if it was something that I was enjoying, like sitting in the sun or watching a baseball game, I was all for it. But I guess that was more relaxing than waiting on something.
This was the worst time waiting that I could ever remember. I stood at the window watching with anticipation, hoping that I would see the white WTIX van pull back up to the station with my fiancé inside. They had only been gone a couple of minutes, though. I watched the leaves of a tree blow in the wind, and then the wind would change direction and push the branches back in the other direction. I watched trash and debris scatter across the pavement. It didn't help my nerves. Each little thing that I noticed outside was only a way to kill a couple of pointless seconds. I was watching a pot boil.
"Come sit with us, Haylea," Jenny said.
There was a small group sitting in the kitchen area. It was Jenny, Travis, Heather, Janet, Barry, and Joe. I liked Jenny. She was always so nice to me. She started about a year and a half before I did, but welcomed me like we were best friends. She was gorgeous. Before she was an anchor, she used to be a fitness instructor. While she was short and a little stumpy, she was gorgeous. She had thick legs and a thick backside, but it fit her quite well. She had beautiful brown hair and bright blue eyes. Simply beautiful.
I was hesitant at first. I didn't want to leave the window if there was a chance that Kurt and the others would be driving up. But I was just playing minds games with myself. They weren't coming back for a while. The hospital was about a half hour drive north and they literally just left. So, I took a seat over by the others in the kitchen.
"It's okay. They'll be back," Heather said to me. I didn't want to blow her off and show the others that I had tension with her; so instead, I nodded to her and showed a smile.
"We were just talking about how these two-started dating," Janet said nodding to Travis and Jenny.
"Well, it just casually happened," Travis said. I could tell he wasn't much for the romantic talk. He looked away and was nudging Jenny to finish the conversation.
"He was just very kind when I got here. He was helpful and was always volunteering to show me around town. Our first date was an Indian's game," the Indianapolis Indians were the minor league baseball team in town. There weren't a whole lot of people that were diehard Indiana fans, but the games were a blast to attend.
"It didn't take too much for me to lock this one up," Travis said with a smile. I think he tried to play it off like a joke, but really wanted us girls to know that he was a fantastic catch. I wasn't fooled. He was more like the guy you get drunk with and have sex, but never tell your friends it happened.
"Oh, shut up," Jenny playfully smacked him on the leg.
"What about you, Haylea?" Janet asked.
"I'm sorry," I wasn't entirely invested in the conversation.
"When's the wedding?"
"Well...it was..." and then it hit me. I covered my mouth with my hand because I almost lost my composure at that moment. I wanted to excuse myself to get a moment of peace, but I didn't want to draw any attention. I didn't want people coming up to me and asking question after question of how I was doing.
I could see each of them really hanging on the edge of their chairs to hear about my wedding. I guess good conversation was the only thing that we all had left.
"April 19th, 2014...an exact year from today," I said to them.
I think if they were all as emotionally tied to the wedding as I was, they would have cried with me. I held it back as best I could, but the tear fell. I felt my eye fill with it and felt the warmth of it slip down my cheek. I brushed it away and smiled to hide the pain as best I could.
"I hope that you'll get to experience the joy of that day," Janet said to me. I reached out my hand and squeezed hers. She was such a pleasure to be around. A fabulous woman who, in reality, I didn't know her at all. I knew nothing about her. But I was still glad she was stuck in the station with us.
"Hey, old man!" I heard a voice from around the corner.
I didn't realize that Barry had gotten up to help himself to a glass of water. At that moment, I was glad that he couldn't hear anything, because it was one of the stragglers that was screaming to him. It was the black guy, Cam. The three of them were still tied to the pillar and weren't going to be going anywhere, but they would still try and get under our skin.
"Hey, Ebenezer, you still banging that old lady of yours?" he yelled.
I looked at Janet thinking that she would be disgusted and embarrassed, but she wasn't. She looked angry. She looked like she still had a lot of fight left in her and I believed that she did. The way she called out Jack and Kurt for arguing earlier proved that to me.
"Untie me. Come on, man. Untie me and I will give her a ride like she hasn't had since the Washington administration."
I moved to stand up and say something, but I wasn't quick enough. Janet was already to her feet and moving toward the stragglers.
"Janet, don't," Heather reached out to grab her, but Janet pulled her arm away and continued moving.
Janet grabbed Barry's attention and had him go back to the group and sit down. I thought that'd be it, but Janet kept walking toward Cam. Barry watched her with eyes wide open, but I put my hand on his back to keep him calm.
Janet walked all the way to Cam. She stood only an arm’s length away from him. He looked up at her and smiled.
"Want to take me up on that offer?" he said to her with a smir
k.
Janet leaned over and slapped him in the face and then walked away. Cam didn't say another word. His tongued came out of his mouth to check if his lip was bleeding. He watched her walk away and then looked away from the group all together.
Before Janet sat back down in her chair, she shot me a small wink and smiled. I couldn't help but smile at the love she had for her husband. Whether the guy was tied up or not, she stood up for him and slapped him in the face.
A part of me was worried…or at least I think wanted to worry, but after a second thought, I knew they couldn’t retaliate. There was nothing that any of them could do to us. They were a group of rabid dogs that were chained up. Jack and Kurt had both taken a gun with them and that left one with us. Scott originally was the one that was asked to hold the gun, but he had done an awful lot of wandering around the joint never telling anyone what he was up to, that we decided it be best to keep the gun sitting on the table in the kitchen. It sat there between Janet and I, and Heather, Travis, and Jenny.
At times, I noticed the eyes of someone make focus on the weapon and then look away quickly. I couldn’t tell if nobody wanted to be caught looking at it, or if they didn’t want to tell themselves they were looking at it. I still had the fear that a gun in the wrong hands of someone would definitely bring out the worst in us. Knowing that the gun was a few inches in front of me calmed my nerves, but there was always the possibility of someone snapping and leaping over one of the tables to get it. I would never forget that.
XXIII
Jack Scoville
W e drove by a middle school on our way to the hospital. Me, Kurt, and the doctor. While we spoke some about what we needed at the hospital, most of the ride was taken in silence. I remained tough, strong during most of this disaster, never showing a side of weakness. The second that I showed a soft spot was going to be the second I let my guard down…and probably die.
But that ride knocked me back down to earth. Especially the sight of that school. I’ve gone on record saying that I don’t want kids, I don’t like kids, I don’t usually like to hang out with people that have kids…but they don’t deserve to die. No kid deserves to die that young.
Dead Last (Vol. 1): Dead Last Page 12
