Doomsday Sheriff [Day 1]
Page 10
Doctor Weinstein performed the surgery right there in the dining room, and Max held Piper’s good hand the entire time. The doctor had given her a heavy dose of drugs to keep her out during the horrid affair. Due to a lack of equipment, he had been forced to use a hacksaw to do the dirty deed. He cut off Piper’s arm just below the elbow, six inches away from the dead and rotting skin. He did so in such a way that there was a fold of skin left to stitch together once the wound had been treated.
Two hours after he began, Doctor Weinstein collected his tools and stood from the stool.
“Is she going to be alright?” Max asked.
“I daresay that she will. I’ll keep an eye on her all night. But you should get some sleep. If today was any indication, we’re going to need you at your best tomorrow.”
Max hardly registered the doctor’s words. He stared at Piper’s bruised face, and his stomach lurched. She looked so small there on the table covered in white sheets, so fragile.
The doctor put a hand on Max’s shoulder. “Get some rest, son.”
Max nodded, though he had no intention of sleeping. He plopped himself down in his chair and held Piper’s hand, watching her chest slowly rise and fall.
Ned came into the dining room a few minutes later and offered Max a respectful nod. “She looks better.”
“You think so?”
“Yeah, thanks to you. And thanks to you, hundreds more are alive, and a lot of them children. Maybe you’re not such a dick after all, Sheriff.”
Max laughed weakly. “I knew you were still pissed about the arrest.”
“When a woman comes at you with a knife, you’ve got a right to sock her in the mouth,” said Ned, reminding Max of what had led him to Ned’s residence three years prior on a night much like tonight, sans screamers.
“I agree, that’s why I arrested you both.”
“She got off scot-free. I spent a month in jail and lost custody of my kids.”
“That wasn’t me, Ned. That was the judge.”
Ned nodded, blinking heavily. “Ah, it’s all in the past anyway.”
They passed a silent moment, watching Piper.
“It’s quiet,” said Max at length. “I take it the screamers aren’t giving us any more trouble.”
“No, they’re…it’s probably best if you see for yourself.” Ned walked to the window facing the lake and peeled back the curtain, waiting for Max.
He joined Ned at the window, and the big man handed him a pair of binoculars. Max aimed them at the deck of Mirror Lake Inn. There was a mass of bodies there. He zoomed in, playing with the binoculars until the image became clear.
“Jesus Christ,” he said breathlessly. “What the hell are they doing?”
A group of at least a hundred screamers were stacked on top of each other in a cockeyed version of a human pyramid. The base had to be twenty feet wide, and the highest screamers in the pile topped at least fifty feet.
“I don’t know what they’re up to,” said Ned. “But you see them vine-like things holding them all together?”
“Yeah, what is it?” Max glanced at Ned, and the big man shrugged.
“Beats the hell out of me.”
Max handed the binoculars back to him, shaking his head.
“Where’s your deputy, Sheriff?” Ned asked.
“He…” The vision of Stefan being dragged through the broken window flashed in Max’s mind. “They took him. I couldn’t save them both.”
“So, you saved your wife?” Ned gave an ironic little chuckle that made Max want to smash his face.
“Yeah, something like that.”
Max returned to Piper’s bedside and sat back down and closed his eyes.
“Wake me up if the world ends.”
“Max?”
He snapped awake and grabbed Piper’s hand, blinking through the sandman’s crusty gift and wiping at his eyes. “Piper?”
“Max…water.”
He grabbed the glass of water that he had ready on the table and helped bring it to her lips as he tilted her head. She drank greedily, emptying half the glass before nodding. She gasped, her bloodshot eyes searching the room.
“My hand,” she said, glancing down.
Max moved closer, blocking her view of the bandaged stump. “Doc had to take it. You would have died. It’s alright though, you’re safe now.”
“What are you talking about? It’s still there, it hurts…my fingers hurt so bad.”
She tried to pull her arm up, and she cried out in pain when it hit Max’s back. He moved out of her way, partially jumping from her sudden curse of pain.
“Baby, you shouldn’t look…”
Piper ignored him and tried to bring her hand to her face. Her eyes widened, and she looked down. Tears filled her eyes, and she slowly laid her head and her arm back to the table.
“This has got to be a hangover from hell,” she whispered.
Max smiled, catching a laugh in his nose. But he was nearly delirious, and a laugh started in his gut that refused to go away. Piper scowled at him, but then she too began to chuckle. Max dove into her, kissing her lips, her face, her neck. He held her close, and their laughter turned to tears of sorrow.
“I’m sorry I didn’t come home,” he said, releasing her. “Piper, do you remember that I had a doctor’s appointment yesterday?”
Her eyes suddenly widened with recognition, and her nostrils flared as she tried to stifle more laughter.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, but that only made her burst into laughter.
“I’m sorry,” she said, waving with her good hand. “Go on, what did you want to tell me?”
Max chocked it up to the booze and painkillers. Piper wasn’t herself. None of them were. “Doc gave me some bad news.”
Piper snickered, but quickly recovered. “What news? What is it? Tell me.”
“Babe, I’ve…I’ve got cancer.”
Piper burst out laughing, and Max shook his head, not understanding. She must have been more messed up than he thought.
“Oh, my. I’m sorry, Max.”
“It’s alright. I’ve come to terms with it. I think…”
“No,” said Piper. “I’m not sorry you are sick, I’m sorry that I played this trick on you.”
“Trick?” Max didn’t understand. Was she delirious? Did she think she had played a trick being a screamer? Did she think it had all been a gag?
Had it been a gag?
“I paid Doctor Weinstein to lie to you. Oh man, I got you good.”
Realization hit Max like a bag of bricks, and a slow smile spread across his face. “It was a prank? I don’t have cancer?”
Piper nodded, tears flowing. Her face stretched in a beautiful smile.
“Oh, oh you wait. You just wait.” Max kissed her lips softly, lingering there for a good long time.
Doomsday Sheriff: Day 2
Coming July 2018
A new day dawns, and a new phase begins. Follow Max, Piper, Stefan, John, and the survivors of the alien worm invasion in Doomsday Sheriff: Day 2.
Pre-order below and the book will automatically be delivered to your reading device on July 16!
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