by West, J. D.
Many of them still carried around guilt about decisions they made that got people hurt. Sometimes children died and whole families got killed. It’s hard for a soldier to integrate back into society. It is normal them to feel isolated and alone. The pressure to be normal made a lot of guys crack. My mother did a lot of praying and tried to get me to go to church. She raised me up in the church so I believed in Christ but my faith was shaken. I went a couple of times but was never really into it. Church was all about love and forgiveness and that's not how I felt. Part of me was angry at God for letting Dan die instead of me. He had a family and so many people that loved him. Her pastor came by the house to talk to me but I didn't want to talk to anyone. I recognized that I was becoming distracted and withdrawn from society. I always had been part of team. People relied on me and I depended on them. Feeling angry all the time made me feel useless.
I moved to Phoenix to find a job and start my life over. Going back to work would make me feel needed again. One of my mother’s high school friends was a doctor at a local hospital. Mr. Henry said that if I made the trip out here he would lookout for me. He pulled a couple of strings and got me a job working as a security officer. It was going to be a chance to have a fresh start and begin a new chapter in my life.
CHAPTER 2:
Starting Over
Tonight I was lying across my bed resting when my alarm clock broke the silence. “Beep, beep, beep.” That meant it was already 7:00 pm. When you wake up you never know how the day is going to end. It was time for me to get up and start getting ready for work. Today’s temperature read in the triple digits. It was damn near 118 degrees. Thank God for air conditioning. I headed for the kitchen after a quick shower and a shave. My shift started at 9:00 pm. I turned on the TV as I passed through the living room of my one bedroom apartment. I went in the kitchen and made a pot of coffee. The news was on and I heard the reporter say that there was a breaking news update in southern Arizona. I walked back into the living room just as they cut to a female reporter live on scene in the border city of Douglass, AZ.
The town’s people were gripped with fear and full of confusion. For weeks several horses and farm animal carcasses were found mutilated outside of town. The woman was talking to the local sheriff about several more attacks reported in the town. The sheriff said eighteen Douglass residents were killed or went missing in the last two days. A large amount of blood was found at each location. He was asking for help from the state police. The sheriff thought that he could solve the case faster if he had more boots on the ground. A couple of surviving witness claimed that their neighbors and family members were murdered. Not that far away the sheriff found a prostitute holed up in a truckers rig. The truck was pulled off of the road on the side of a sparsely populated stretch of highway. She was hysterical and looked weak. She stayed locked in that hot truck for almost a day. She was in bad shape so she was transported to the hospital. The woman told the sheriff that the trucker picked her up at the bar in town. The gruff man had a bushy beard, shaved head, and his face was leathery from hours in the sun. They went out into the desert to party. He offered her one hundred dollars for the night. After they smoked a little meth from a glass pipe she performed fellatio on him. He was so aroused that he ejaculated after three minutes. She spit it out the window and reached for the money. He snatched it out her hand and slapped her across the face. Then he hit her in the head with a closed fist and choked her. She ended up cowering in the back of the cab. He grabbed the keys and said that he was going to urinate. He threatened her that when he got back he was going to fuck her whore ass all night until he got his monies worth.
After he exited the truck several strange looking people came out the dark and assaulted him. She watched it all go down from her elevated position in the truck. She was so scared that she locked all the doors. He yelled for her to help him but she wasn't going to risk her life for a cheapskate asshole. After killing him they lingered around outside for a while before wandering off. After a while she didn't hear anything outside but was too scared to come out until she heard the sheriffs’ voice. The deputies found several boxes of pseudo ephedrine pills and paraphernalia in the truck. A few yards away the sheriffs’ men found the remains of the dead trucker in a dirt field near some brush. A quick examination showed that he had bite marks on what was left of his body. The sheriff said he was looking at members of a local religious cult as possible suspects. The county coroner said he had never seen anything like this before. He asked the sheriff to send the bodies to a forensic specialist in Tucson. The coroner thought it might be the work of cannibals.
As soon as I heard them say that I just laughed. This was another crazy claim by a public official. After all we just had an Arizona senator make a crazy statement. He said illegal immigrants started the east valley brush fires. Just last week the governor of AZ lied and said the desert was filled with the headless bodies of people killed by drug traffickers. Several cities close to the border had reported similar attacks. That included Yuma and San Diego. The broadcast said US border patrol agents also found a possible hidden campsite used for human trafficking. They used heat detection equipment and night vision goggles to try and detect movement in the dark! There was nothing else in that area other than a few ranches and trailers scattered across the landscape. Migrating illegals were usually easy to track because they leave trash, clothing and other traces as they trek through the desert. Coyotes smuggle hundreds of people across the border every year. Agents’ patrolling the dry wash and rocky stream bed on ATV’s spotted several vehicles sitting out in the middle of nowhere.
It would have taken someone a grueling hike to get there. They left to get reinforcements and returned several hours later. They reported that the site was ram shacked and blood was everywhere. The investigation process was slow. The border agents did not find any bodies but several blood trails led away from the campsite. Agents scoured the surrounding ground and picked up footprints of the coyotes and whoever attacked them. They said that it seemed like some of them were running while others were moving real slow. Someone may have injured their leg judging by the drag marks. It might take hours to track them down. When I heard that story I turned the channel to sports center. When I got in the car to head to work that was the big topic on talk radio.
“You expect me to believe that there is a cannibal cult killing and eating people in the desert?”
“You can believe it or not but people are missing.”
“That’s crazy talk and you know it. We are probably just dealing with a group of religious nuts!”
I shook my head while thinking people will believe anything. With all the time I spent at war I knew that humans were the real monsters. I pushed my Tupac CD into the cars deck and pulled off. I got hopped on the highway and got lost in the music. Thirty five minutes later I pulled into the Maricopa Hospital parking lot. It was the number one trauma center in AZ. The hospital was in a rough part of town. Security was responsible for the safety of all the staff, patients, and visitors. We got a lot of violent drunks, drug addicts, and gang bangers. We also provided backup for the police and sheriff’s department. They brought in prisoners to be treated on a regular. We saw them before they were booked into the jail. Having prisoners in a hospital setting is dangerous. The building also had two full size holding cells in the ER. Putting them in holding cells helped us control them. We always kept them separated from regular patients. I headed to the squad room and clocked in. When I got there a couple of officers got dressed and the rest were watching CNN. Officer Hernandez turned around and shook my hand.
“What’s going on Robinson?”
“You know how it is man.” I answered. “Same shit different day.”
“You got that right.” Officer Darden and Officer Miller were still watching TV so I tapped
Darden on the shoulder to get his attention. He was always joking and talking shit.
“What’s going on bro?”
“I’m just looking at this crazy shit on TV.”
“You believe that shit they talking about?”
“For real Kevin I don’t know what to believe. All I know is that if their eating people then they
need to eat my ex-wife’s gold digging ass!”
“You are crazy as hell.”
“I am not playing that ugly bitch has got to go!”
“I am not fucking with you.”
We were all standing there watching TV when we heard the story about some sailor in San Diego who got sick aboard his ship. He had just got back from leave in Cabo San Lucas Mexico. He was taken from his ship and admitted to the hospital ship the USS Comfort. It was docked in town while waiting to be deployed on a humanitarian mission. During triage he went crazy attacked several staff members. Military police were called to the Comfort and reported that staff and sailors were leaping from the ships decks. They seemed to be trying to avoid groups of other sailors and personnel. The ship was also engulfed in flames. Most of the thousands of Sailors and Marines never made it out of their bunk area. Rescued victims were sent to local hospitals for the treatment of burns, smoke inhalation, and strange bite wounds. We never heard the end of the news report. Lt. Arvayo walked into the room and shut the TV off. He needed to begin the shift briefing.
“Hey guys I don’t know if you heard but there is some crazy stuff all over the news. Stay alert for anything suspicious and stay in radio contact. Remember that our number one job is to go home to our families in the morning. Do not try to be a hero and call for back up if you need it. We need to do our eight and get the fuck out of here.” He said that the only thing second shift had to pass down is that we have maintenance working on a plumbing leak in the ER. The maintenance guy's had blocked it off so they could keep people out of their way until it is fixed. Lt. Arvayo handed out all the post assignments and the rest of us left to relieve the second shift officers. I personally liked to position my self against the wall in the ER waiting room in a pot where I could see in all directions.
The hospital has a small staff at night. The only place that was busy was the ER. We serviced the community of south central phoenix. Most of our patients were minorities or poor whites. Most of them were hard working people with blue collar jobs. Some of them received public assistance from the state in order to pay for medical insurance and food. They lived in the neighborhoods, reservations, and trailer parks around the hospital. They lived rough but rewarding lives. When you do not have a lot of money your friendships and relationships with your family become important to you.
We also saw our fair share of indigent, homeless, and mentally ill people who lived on the street. Our hospital had a high standard of care providing treatment along with jobs for the neighborhood. The emergency room staff had good people who were dedicated to saving lives. We had some of the best trained doctors in the country. It was a high stress environment but they thrived on it. They had to stay on their toes because it was easy to miss something when it was so crowded. Tonight was Friday the start of the weekend. All the security officers called Friday “little night”. That is because most of the patients that came in were a little drunk, a little crazy or a little high. You never knew what to expect. I relieved the second shift ER officer and started on patrol.
Most inner city hospital ER’s like ours were overcrowded and filled with newcomers and familiar faces. Most of those sick people had been waiting a long time. The waiting room was at full capacity. We needed an ER officer because some people wait patiently in line while others lose their temper and start acting out. Most of the gridlock was caused by understaffing or overcrowding. On the weekend it seemed like every call coming through the doors was a trauma. Patients waited to be seen by a triage nurse and separated based on life threat status. The envious patients with regular issues like illness, cuts and other superficial wounds ended up with a long wait. Most of the other patients came to the ER because they did not have a primary care doctor. Even the ones that did might have to wait a couple of months to get an appointment. They used the ER to refill prescriptions and to receive regulatory meds.
A row of beds was set up in the main hallway of the ER to treat the extra patients. Some of the beds were almost touching each other. They had to place an old demented black woman with chest pains next to a foul mouth Hispanic gang banger high on METH. Further down a suicidal young white mother was next to a homeless Native American man that smelled like urine. Out in the waiting room it started to look like a TV show. Several small children of all races chased each other around the crowded room. Everyone was tired, bored or stressed. At one point it looked like a couple of people were going to get into a scuffle. An overtly obese patient that had just checked in was escorted to the back while several others who endured long waits were bypassed. The girl at registration made the mistake of telling the first group they would be next. It could have gotten ugly but cooler heads prevailed. Most of the other people waited patiently. The ambulances kept on coming. Some of them had been diverted from smaller hospitals. Gunshot victims, heart attacks, and stabbings were pushed to the front of the line and received treatment first. The doctors also treated blunt force traumas, multiple fractures, car accident victims, and several cases of human bites.
Soon all of the rooms had patients in them. A middle aged white man walked in with his wife. She looked confused and in a lot of pain. She was really weak and could hardly stand up. The poor woman’s knees nearly buckled with each step. A small amount of blood stained her shirt. They sat down next to a noticeably drunk black man that smelled like an old bar rag. He was here to get a bite on his chest looked at. He got it from a young redhead hooker he met at a motel nearby. A beautiful Asian baby cried hysterically in her mother’s arms. Her mother slowly rocked her back and forth while trying to get her to take her pacifier. The baby’s mother was starting to get scared as she watched the child’s condition deteriorate in front of her. She immediately got up and went to the window to tell a nurse that the situation was getting worst. The old Hispanic man next to them hunched over and vomited into a plastic bag. He had drunk an enormous amount of alcohol and was now paying the price. He was also running a fever and had a couple of bite wounds thanks to one of his crazy cab fares. Dirty jokes were being told by a mixed race group of college students in the corner near the TV. There was also a sneaky looking freakishly skinny man in glasses who kept fidgeting around in his chair uncontrollably. He was sweating profusely and unwilling to look anyone else in the eye. I thought he was just nervous but I found out later that he accidentally sat on a large cucumber according to what he told registration. It had become lodged deep in his backside.
Surprisingly enough stories like his were not that unusual. It seemed like some object or another always mysteriously ended up in somebody’s rectal cavity. The staff just learned to accept their claims and perform the extraction to avoid all the nasty details. The room was loud, crowded, and smelled bad. Many of them had already waited close to two hours. I slowly walked through the room so everyone could see me before heading to the back patient care area. A young white man holding a toddlers hand was angry at the registration staff because he had to wait so long. His son was sick with a fever and after several hours he still hadn't received any medical attention. At one point he was kicking the door to the back patient area until I showed up. I spoke to him briefly and stood by for a second but left after he calmed down. In the back I stopped by the plumbing work area. The hall was congested but the work area was clear and safe.
Randy the maintenance man said that he had to take out a couple feet of pipe and replace it. He was going to be here all night. He had his work area blocked off and all his tools were o
ut on the floor. I told him I would check on him later. I received a radio call from Hernandez. He said they needed security in holding. Staff tried to check the vitals of an intoxicated patient. A wild animal had attacked the man when he tried to urinate behind a building. Something leaped out of the shadows. He was so drunk he thought a woman attacked him. As time went by there was a noticeable change and increase in aggressive behavior. He became agitated and struck a male staff member without provocation after they asked him if he had a history of psychotic episodes. Behavior like that could potentially be an imminent risk to everyone. Hernandez was requesting additional officers to help d-escalate the situation.
I stopped by the security desk and grabbed the leather restraints. Then I ran down the main hall to holding. When I got there Officer Darden and Lt. Arvayo were fighting to keep the man down in the bed. The staff was standing back watching and waiting for directions. They normally followed our lead when dealing with out of control people. There were a lot of innocent people close by. We had no other choice but to end it quick before it could escalate. Officer Darden was holding the patients legs while Lt. Arvayo had his arms. I placed the restraints on him while they held him down. We placed one arm up and one down to limit his range of motion. He continued thrust and try to kick.
“Let me go asshole!' he cursed. “It's just a scratch! I'll be fine! Don’t make it harder on yourselves by pissing me off.”
“Don't worry sir!” Lt. Arvayo told the man. “The staff will take good care of you!”
The nursing staff gave him a shot to sedate him. If he continued to act out he would be referred to a mental health representative and exercise more appropriate control measures.
