“How bad are we talkin’ here?”
“Somewhere in the neighborhood of 250 miners, not including collateral damage from all the people trying to get around to the different hospitals.”
“Jesus Christ, man.” Jamie grabbed his belt and noticeably shifted something underneath his shirt.
“You packin’ for this?” Joe asked sheepishly, knowing Jamie probably had at least one gun on him right now.
“Damn right I am! You don’t think I just keep ‘em around ‘cause the look pretty in the case do ya?” Jamie said with a shit-eating grin.
“Good,” Joe said, relieved that Jamie had his back if the shit hit the fan, and essentially, it had.
Joe did not have time to further his conversation with Jamie as they walked into the station’s living room where most of his coworkers stood and waited. There was Donnie, a tall, dark haired father of two whom, like Joe, had served his time in the military and had got out when the getting was good. Then there was Andrew, a young, skinny EMT from Marion, near where Joe lived; Kody, an English major who was also one hell of a Paramedic and did the job to pay his way through school, and Aaron a.k.a “Cornbread”, a big guy with a bigger smile and, like Joe, shared a love of video games. Of course, the two rookies, David and James were there as well. They were all too busy having conversations with one another to notice that Joe had come in, so Joe headed towards Larry’s office instead. Larry was on the phone with his wife, as it appeared, and was consoling her and telling her to get the kids ready to go if need be. Joe waited until he had finished his conversation and gave Larry a puzzled look.
“What’s up with that?” Joe asked nodding to Larry’s phone.
“Paige is just worried about the kids being exposed to something,” replied Larry.
“Should she be?” Joe fired back.
“I’m not sure at this point. There’s some people coming in from the CDC and some people from the US Geological Survey to try and find out exactly what happened.”
“Why do we need the CDC? It’s not contagious is it?”
Larry paused and opened his mouth as he was going to say something then shook his head in the you wouldn’t believe me if I told you kind of look and smiled nervously. Larry motioned Joe to follow him into the living room. “All ya’ll need to hear this,” he said. Larry and Joe made their way into the living room; Joe had a seat near the door and waited to hear what his boss had to say.
“Can I have everyone‘s attention?” Larry said. “We have a ton of work ahead of us. There is also some unsettling news to go with all of this. We have had reports of some people being attacked and hurt pretty bad by some of these miners that they are bringin’ in, that you guys will be taking care of, transporting, assisting flight crews, and assisting the hospital. We don’t yet know what is wrong with these fellas. You will need to take all BSI (body substance isolation) protocols very seriously. There are some rumors goin’ around that people have been bitten and seem to contract the same illness and symptoms that the miners have. That is no big deal compared to the fact that, according to rumor, these miners were already dead when they took a bite out.”
“Wait, you mean like zombies?” asked Joe.
“Dude that’s fuckin’ stupid,” said James.
“Shut the hell up," Joe fired back, glaring at James. “Have you ever watched a zombie movie before? Shit like this is how it all starts; some kind of unexplained accident happens and then people start fuckin’ eatin’ each other.”
“Are we seriously having this conversation?” Larry interjected, obviously not interested in the subject. “The truth of the matter is that Tazewell Hospital is overrun with a hell of a lot more patients and problems than personnel and solutions. We are to go up there and help in any way that we can. If they need doughnuts, go get ‘em, if they need you to do things out of your certification level, do ‘em, if they need you to transport...”
“Lemme guess, do ‘em!” James said, laughing.
“Unless you want a job that involves touching other people’s shit with your hands, I suggest you do what the fuck they tell you to,” barked Larry at James with an emphatic finger aimed at him to drive the point home. James mumbled under his breath and sat down on the couch, rocking back and forth. All of the workers of Star Ambulance looked over to the couch at James. He was not being the pillar of reliability that they needed right now.
“Crew assignments are as follows,” said Larry, getting back to more pressing issues. “We will be running three-person crews since we only have three trucks available. There will be one ALS person and two BLS people per truck “I will be with Missy and Andrew in Unit 41; Joe will be with David and James in Unit 49, and Cornbread and Donnie will be with Jamie in Unit 33.”
“What about me?” said Kody with a frown. “What the hell am I supposed to do?”
“I need you to hold down the fort here at the office, our dispatch is going to be useless for this so all calls are going to come through the station here to avoid confusion as much as possible,” said Larry.
Larry turned back to his employees and reminded them to grab extra supplies, just in case they ran out. The employees then started towards their respective units. Joe grabbed his assault pack and headed to Unit 49 to see if he needed anything before heading out. James strode past him and bumped into him while heading towards the door without stopping. Joe frowned and wondered if there really were going to be zombies running loose if he could feed them the fat one first like in the movies. Joe grinned at this possibility and went outside, in the pre-dawn hour past the curious family members to his truck to head out for his assignment when he noticed that James was already in the driver’s seat, ready to go.
“What the fuck you think you’re doing?” Joe was irritated that the new guy apparently thought he was going to drive him around.
“I’m driving,” said James, with an angry look on his face. “You can get in the back and ride so you can check the truck off on the way to the hospital.” Joe knew he was right, but he did not want to admit it. He needed to take stock of what all he had since he had not been in the truck last and wanted to make sure he had everything available. Frustrated, Joe went to the back of the truck and got in. He began to look around to make sure he had everything when his other ignorant-ass partner came to the back of the truck.
“What do you need me to do?” David chimed in. He was not the sharpest tool in the shed, but at least he followed orders.
“Get in the truck and make sure that idiot doesn’t kill us on the way to the hospital,” Joe said flatly without looking up.
“Okay but, uh, I never really done nothin’ like this before, what am I supposed to do?” David said, fidgeting nervously.
Joe looked at David, irritated. “You get in the passenger seat and make sure we get to the hospital in one piece, after that we will play it by ear, okay?
“Alright, man I’ll do whatever you need, just gimme a break if I screw up, okay?”
“Just don’t screw up and we won’t have to worry about it.” Joe said and waved away David to go get in and closed the door behind him. Joe heard Larry talking over the radio telling them it was time to move out. The three units headed out in unison with lights and siren going strong to Tazewell Hospital and the enormous task ahead of them.
CHAPTER 2
The scene at Tazewell Hospital’s emergency room was of sheer panic and disarray. Word of the mining accident had now hit full swing as hundreds of people flocked to the small town’s ER to try to aid in any way possible. A Red Cross truck sat out in the far corner of the parking lot to offer what little assistance they could, as well as taking vital information for persons to be blood donors if they were willing to. Ambulances from the local Jeffersonville Rescue Squad and Tazewell County Fire and Rescue as well as the town’s fire department attended to offer help in any way and were coming and going as the three units from Star Ambulance approached the bottom of the hill below the hospital. They were all in awe of the level of activit
y that was going on in the small mountain town. The three trucks parked in line and the crewmembers got out, nervously looking at one another as they headed toward the ER.
“Oh my God,” Donnie finally managed to get out.
“This is unreal,” chimed in Andrew.
“I’ve seen worse,” added James. His comment drew irritated glances from the others.
“And you’re a lyin’ sack of shit too,” said Larry, glaring at James. He took the lead, motioning his coworkers to move ahead. “Come on ya’ll, we ain’t doin’ any good out here. Let’s go do this.”
The troupe moved forward together and made their way into the emergency room where a swarm of doctors, nurses, police, firefighters, and other medics greeted them. The emergency room looked like a scene from Black Hawk Down. There were over two dozen patients lying on cots in the hallway as well as two patients each in the limited ER’s seven rooms. Most of the miners were either having seizures or thrashing about violently while the limited personnel tried to contain the problem and keep the men (as there were no female patients that Joe could see) sedated and restrained. There was no discernible language present, rather just a dull roar of unintelligible sounds. Sounds of a heart monitor as it flatlined; the sound of a nurse calling for more Valium; and a strange growling sound that was unlike anything Joe had ever heard before. Men under extreme pain and duress, crying out in agony is what it sounded like. The employees of Star Ambulance were dumbfounded, but quickly jumped in and began to assist with the injured as well as the extremely combative. Joe noticed that a few of the nurses and other personnel had large scratches and some even had small bite marks on their hands and arms. It seemed that the previous reports of the “zombies” that were circulating maybe were just rumors. There was no infection spreading. It seemed what was going on and what was being reported was completely different.
Joe was finishing working with another nurse on a cardiac arrest when the House Supervisor approached him. She wanted him and his crew to help in transporting the dead to another location, as the morgue at the hospital could only take three bodies and already had twice that many in storage and what looked like many more on the way. Several of the deceased, including one that Joe had been working on to no avail, were in body bags in the hallway. The bodies were being taken to the gym at Tazewell High School to be examined by doctors from the CDC when they arrived as well as a makeshift funeral home as the only two in town could not hold this many “customers.” Joe agreed and made his way to his two other partners to get them to transport the bodies. After all, there was no sense in all three of them going just to transport a couple dead bodies. Joe searched the ER and surrounding hallway and found both of them near a coffee machine in the waiting room. They were trying in vain to chat up two borderline underage girls who obviously had no interest in them. James was married, but had not mentioned his wife much in his time on the job except when he needed money, and then he was Casanova. Bilking his wife out of her hard-earned cash did not seem to faze him much as long as he took care of Number 1. Joe approached the two of them unnoticed and stepped directly in front of them both, effectively ending their pursuit of tail.
“Why are you two lazy fucks out here drinking coffee and hitting on chicks, we’ve got a shitload of work to do!”
“We were just takin’ a break dude. Chill out, not like they ain’t got enough help in there,” replied James, motioning to the ER doors.
“No, dipshit, we don’t have enough help in there. If you were in there actually doing something you would see that,” Joe fired back and letting a devilish grin slip. He clapped both men on the shoulders. “But seeing as how you are done with your break, now you are going to help transport the bodies to the gym at Tazewell High School.”
“I uh, don’t really know where that is,” said David, joining the conversation finally.
Of course, you don’t, Joe thought.
“Yeah me either man, I just started last week. I’m not a fuckin’ human GPS either, so I guess you can ride with us and show us where to go,” James said back in a smartass tone, pointing to Joe emphatically.
“Whatever, I will take you on the first one. After that you two will take the rest, and I will stay here where I - unlike you two - am actually needed,” Joe replied, letting a little smartass in his voice come out. He was past the point of being irritated and was just downright pissed off now. He could not even send them to transport a dead body, the simplest of tasks, without having to hold their hand along the way. Joe motioned for them to follow him back into the ER. He did not want to have to babysit, but at least if he had them doing something they would not get in the way or otherwise embarrass themselves. All he had to do was go with them a mile or two down the road and have them otherwise indisposed for the rest of the day.
As Joe began to walk back towards the ER, his mind drifted back to home. He had promised himself that he was going to call his wife and let her know what was going on. She would surely hear about the incident on the news or through social networking and Joe was sure she would be worried. He pulled out his BlackBerry and dialed home, hoping she would be awake and would answer. She finally answered on the fourth ring, just before Joe was ready to hang up.
“Hey, babe. Did I wake you up?” he said, relieved.
“Hey. Not really, dispatch kept calling and woke me up a few minutes ago. I’ve got a three-day weekend, they need to piss off and let me sleep,” she said laughing.
“Yeah about that, look they’ve had a mass casualty in Grundy. A big one we...”
“Mass casualty? How bad?” She said interrupting him mid-sentence.
“Bad. There was some kind of underground explosion in Buchanan, McDowell, and Pike counties. We are treating a shitload of ‘em here in Tazewell and we are overrun with a ton of patients. They are probably trying to call you in for it. Do NOT go in.”
“Why, what’s going on?” she said, obviously concerned.
“From what we can gather there’s around 250 patients and they were transported all over the place. They called all the choppers in they could get hold of, but we still have way more patients than we can handle.”
“Okay hon, then that means I need to go in, so what’s the problem?”
“There was a rumor that if you got bit or scratched by these guys then you got the same symptoms as them, and so far none of ‘em is living.”
“Well I will just be extra careful, then,” she said very matter-of-factly.
“No, you don’t get it.” Joe paused, contemplating what he was about to tell his wife. “According to rumor they were already dead when they did it, like fucking zombies.” Joe could not believe that word, zombies, had escaped his lips again.
“Zombies? Like Dawn of the Dead and that other stuff you watch all the time?”
“Look I know what it sounds like but I’m not quite ready to dismiss the idea yet, either. There are some people here with bite marks and scratches, but they seem fine so far. Just get Chris to come to the house and bring his .45, shotgun, and any ammo he has. Tell him I said blueberry pancakes, he will know what I’m talking about.”
“Blueberry pancakes?” Buffey said, stifling laughter.
“Yeah. He will know what it means.” Joe replied, not fazed by his wife’s giggle.
“Okay honey, if you want me to stay I will, but, hey hang on a minute...” Buffey trailed off and there was an uncomfortable silence for what seemed like forever. Joe had just told his wife of 10 years to call his best friend, Chris, and get guns and ammo in the possible event of zombies. He was not entirely certain that he had convinced her that he was not kidding, and he honestly could not blame her for it. Chris had lived less than a half-mile down the road, but now was renting a one-bedroom apartment that Joe and Buffey had built for her father, and then he had decided that he did not want to leave his home, so they rented it to Chris. The apartment was brand new, not even one hundred percent complete yet, but Chris was paying it to be finished in lieu of rent. Joe and Chris were
both EMT’s and had worked together for years and shared most all the same interests, and Joe knew that he could trust him to take care of Buffey and Rickey in the event of an emergency.
“You’re not gonna believe this,” Buffey said, finally speaking again. “Ashleigh just sent me a text that said that four of the helicopters that left Grundy crashed, including one into the side of Roanoke Memorial when they were trying to land on the roof of the hospital. There are two down in Winston-Salem also that had two patients on board each. There was one that made a hard landing trying to get to the airport outside Marion.”
”Jesus, Marion’s airport. That‘s only about 8 or 10 miles from the house,” Joe said. “What’s happening?”
“I don’t know babe, but I will get Chris over here and we will hole up at the house until you get here. I’m not leaving for anything until I find out what’s going on.”
“Okay, I love you and I will call back soon,” Joe said, holding back emotion and trying to remain calm.
“I love you too, we will be okay...just get here soon,” Buffey choked out, and hung up.
Joe closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and tried to calm his overwhelming urge to run. There were now four helicopters down, one within ten miles of his house. He felt his heart jump in his chest and a pang of fear come over him. He knew that he wanted to get home as soon as possible and hole up, just to be on the safe side. However strange the events of the last few hours had been, there was still no concrete evidence that there was anything out of the ordinary aside from some extremely bad luck on the part of a few helicopter pilots. Maybe the weather had gotten bad or some kind of freak storm had popped up. There had to be a logical explanation of what was happening. Joe wandered aimlessly back to the house supervisor who informed him that his partners had loaded the first of many dead to be taken to Tazewell High School. Joe politely thanked her and moved toward the ambulance entrance of the hospital, still bewildered and nervous. As he approached Unit 49, he noticed that David had taken a seat in the captain’s chair and James was once again in the driver’s seat. He shook his head and took a deep breath. Just get them occupied and you can go to Larry and quietly explain that you have a family emergency, Joe thought. He walked to the passenger side of the truck and got in. He was nervously fumbling with his seat belt when James gave him a puzzled look.
Six Feet From Hell: Books 1 - 3 Page 2
