by Mark Clodi
"Hank, the doc says you gotta finish that juice." She said pointed to the jug beside him, "And I have to leave this on here for you to finish off over the rest of the afternoon, plus you have to drink as much as possible tomorrow too, after that you get to drink yourself silly on beer and liquor so he can save the pain medicine for other people who need it more."
She stood by while he finished off his jug of juice, though he did cheat by letting Sylvia have a few gulps too. Then he handed her the empty and she sat the full one down on a tray by the side of his chair. She pulled a couple of medicine bottles out of a fanny pack she was wearing and held them up in her hand.
"Doc also said to sleep as much as you can, and take one of these four times a day until they are all gone and to take these as you need for the pain, but the more you take, the less other people can take later. Got it?"
Hank nodded 'yes' sleepily and watched as Evaine gathered up Juan's plates and several other that had been set down by the children watching the movie. Juan was not in the chair by Hanks side, but he walked up as Evaine walked off, he watched Hank watch the woman leave.
"You are doomed you know. Why did you not date her more? Or call her even?" asked Jaun.
"Naw, me? She is just a kid, what? 24? Thirteen years younger than me, too young, we got nothing in common, though she is easy on the eyes."
"Nothing in common, isn't that good? Gives you more to talk about....late at night."
Shrugging his shoulders, Hank responded, "Well maybe, but things have changed now, there won't be time for stuff like that anymore. I don't even know, you know, how to do that stuff anymore, like dating and all, the other parts I still get."
Shrugging back Juan said, "Too old for love, huh? Still life goes on amigo. This is a mess and I am not talking of making a family right here and now, we're gonna beat these things and people like you and me, workers who know how to put broken things back together, we are gonna do well."
"Ha! Look around Juan! You see any useless bodies around here. Hell even our former drug pushers are productive these days, sure we are all wondering what the future will bring, but these people. " Hank paused and waved his arm around at all the people in the Mike's Club, "These people, know there is going to be a future and that we are going to be a part of it."
Chapter 9
Jack walked up to the men in the recliners, "You talking about me again Hank? I suppose I am not gonna see much in the way of drug demand for awhile am I? Well no worries man, I have seeds stashed and the market it going to be wide open, who's gonna worry about a little happy plant when you have blood sucking zombies chasing you down? Doc said you might want to talk to me about the bitten we are keeping in the parking lot."
"Well yeah, how are you keeping them there?"
"We got a chain link fence roll from across the street and set it up with posts on the concrete. We welded the posts together out of angle irons and other fencing, it is not zombie proof, not really, but when they turn we try to get to them before they gnaw on anyone else. That wasn't what doc said that had me curious though, he said something about you running into a guy who got bit, but didn't turn?"
"Yeah, not directly that was Kevin, he ran into an old man who got bit the same as the man's old lady, she died and turned, he did not. I was hoping you could keep an eye out maybe, see if any of the others don't turn?"
"I want to Hank, but it is a mess. For example a family comes in right, dad and son number one got bit getting them away from a mob somewhere, mom and the two other kids didn't get bit. I want to let them in, but only if dad and son go into the fence until we figure out how to stop them from dying. Mom and the kids don't want that, either they go into the fence with them or dad and son don't go into the fence or they all just leave and go elsewhere. What do I do? I send them elsewhere it is a death sentence for certain, I put the non-infected in with the infected and they are at risk. Who knows maybe you can get this shit by contact or breathing the same air? I know if I don't put the bitten into the holding area and we will have zombies in the building. Several of the ones in the holding have turned and I only set up this system this morning."
"So you enforce the rule then? Bitten in the pen, otherwise move on? That makes sense to me. No? What?", asked Hank.
"I sorta told some of them that the people leading us would decide what to do with the bitten."
"Yeah, who's leading us? What did they say?"
Jack burst out laughing and merely pointed at Hank, saying, "We nominated you!"
"What? Me? For Christ's sake why? I have never led anything in my life, I am just a worker!", turning to Juan, Hank asked him, "Did you know?"
"sì, it just happened.", Juan replied while shrugging his shoulders.
"Yeah, um, we know, most of us are just workers too, in our own way, ya know? Everybody thinks you are pretty fair and even tempered, plus you were not there at the meeting, everyone else we tried to nominate hollered and declined, you couldn't fight back."
Hank sputtered a bit, "Wha-wah-what? You nominated me because I was unconscious and could not say no?"
A half circle of women, a few men and a dozen kids was gathering around Hank.
Juan waved Jack quiet and answered, "Sì, it was easier, you know, your name came up first, then we batted around a bunch of others, we kept coming back to you, jefe. If it makes it any easier they pegged me as vice-jefe, Jack, Doc and old man Gonzales are on the 'board'. You make the big decisions, I can make smaller ones the board can overrule us by a two to one majority. Plus each board member has an area they are responsible for, Jack has security, Doc has, well, medical and sanitary stuff, Gonzales has 'resources', which is like food, clothing, anything not involving guns and medicines."
Hank looked at the hopeful faces in front of him, the silence lingered for a few seconds as he looked around, as he looked at the faces, he was thinking. Hank was not a leader, he knew it, he could barely lead his crew in fixing a car, he had no desire to lead a bunch of 'Mad Max' style refugees into the future. Thinking he wondered who would be better? Almost anyone, he had no plan, just to lay low at the warehouse and wait until the authorities showed up to save them. True, it had been his idea to come to the Mike's Club, he had told Juan. Juan told the whole damn neighborhood and they all ended up here, with their most prized possessions and families. He could understand why they had the wrong impression that he would make a good leader. This was not a job he wanted, someone else would have to take on the chief role if they ended up being stuck in this situation for very long. Still Hank was a talker, he could reason with most people, work out deals, maybe it would not be so bad, for a couple weeks. Finally he said, "Okay. I got a few problems, but okay I accept. I will do my best." The small crowd of people cheered and surged forward to shake his hand and pat him on the shoulders, after a few minutes Hank raised up his hands and called for everyone to be quiet, "Whoa! Whoa! Slow down a bit, let me get a word in here, I said I had a few problems and as you made me your 'Jefe', I need to get a few things out there on the floor. First off, you all elected me while I was out, I suppose that is okay, I can see a need to fill the position quickly. Then, you set up the board, but people there are not any women on it. I am not a genius or anything, but I think we need to have at least one womanly vote on the board from the get go, don't you?"
"Better to get two." said Juan, "We kind of think that having an odd number on the board is important, so we get a couple women on the board to serve. Dios knows we have enough other areas to cover, I am thinking Gonzales could use a hand, divide his stuff up a bit more?"
"Yeah this needs some thinkin' on. Me and you and maybe the rest of the board should spend five minutes working it out? I don't want no long-assed meetings and bureaucracy, if we are going to do things over again, we are going to do them better than before." Hank kind of wanted to get back to the bitten people in the parking lot, but was having a hard time thinking of a way to steer the conversation back that way so he just said, "Okay Jack, we still got to discu
ss the guys in the pen. What about the whole parking lot? How do we keep zombies from outside off the pen, I mean if they can see it the zoms will just head right to it, if we start firing guns to kill them, that will attract more zombies, then we will have an all out war."
The crowd slowly started disbursing, several people stayed around to see what their new leader would say, the kids all got back to being children, except Cage who clambered back up into Hank's chair with him.
"Hank we have moved the cars to the outer edges of the parking lot. Put them bumper to bumper so that the zombies have to crawl over or under them to get by. The lot is pretty big and we used the wrecker that Ted got from his work to move the cars into position. Now we have started closing off the main streets, putting cars right up to the buildings to expand our 'territory', by tonight I think we will have the walls far enough out to keep the slow zombies from being able to see the parking lot entirely. The fence is just outside the exit of the store, so the people cannot be seen by anything at the back. Plus we didn't have to use as much fencing because one long side is up against the building. The back of the store is a problem, there is a ravine behind it with two loading docks. There is enough room to line up cars, we just don't have enough of them yet to cover the whole back of the store. The ravine is not deep enough to keep the zombies from crossing it either. Some of the boys think that we can block the street off on the other side of the ravine, but that won't solve everything, there is a bike path on the other side too. We can block that off pretty easy, but it won't stop much either."
"So we maybe need to move? How many people are here now?" asked Hank.
"I don't know about moving Hank, the doc, he has opinions on the matter, wants us to move to the University of Colorado Hospital, up on Colorado Boulevard. Or maybe that newer facility further south, Sky Ridge. Me? I don't know it is like twelve miles to University and only four or so to Sky Ridge, but Doc says Sky ridge may not have everything we need medically, he thinks we will need and run out of the supplies they have in their emergency room pretty quickly. He didn't seem to want to go there, real negative on it and all. I think Sky Ridge is a better bet, from what he describes it is in suburbia, surrounded by landscaping and pretty big, there will be grocery stores not too far off to raid and stuff. As for the people, we have over two hundred now, but I can't say exactly how many. We have, well had ten minutes ago, twenty two people in the pen with bites too."
"Well probably you should have the doc come over here when he gets time, as I am not supposed to be moving around much. Go get a head count if you can. If people won't consent to penning if they got bit, then they have to move on, make it clear you think they are dumb asses for leaving. Try to get them to stay, we know, right now, that the bitten will turn, maybe not all of them, but lets make out like they all will. As for the penned, if the Doc ain't working them over with disinfectant and such, maybe we could assign his nurse, Beth, I think? To teach some of the boys to clean the wounds until they bleed again? At least it will look like we are trying, and maybe more won't turn, talk to Kevin, maybe he knows more about the guy who didn't turn after he was bit that he didn't tell me. Ask around if anyone else knows of people unaffected by the bites. Oh and Jack?"
Jack who had been turning to leave, turned back and looked questioning at Hank.
"You are going a good job with the cars and keeping things going, thanks. Watch out for any super fast zombies, they will eventually get guns, we didn't have any problems finding some."
Nodding Jack waved and headed off towards the front of the store. Juan sat looking at Hank and eventually Hank stopped ignoring him and turned to look at him. Juan had a huge smile on his face. "Cut it out Juan, you are right here with me and don't think for a second I will ever forget you getting me into this mess."
Juan gulped, then recovered and grinned again and said, "Sì amigo. You know we almost had some racial problems?"
"What? Already? Don't people have better things to do? What happened?"
"You are tired, I should let you rest, but I gotta tell you, it is a good story really and ends well. We had us eighty people in here, then all the others started showing up, from what I was told, a mix mostly of whites and Hispanics, a couple Black people. Well they started settling in and gravitated toward each other, like, you know, white guy comes in, heads towards white people, Hispanics did the same. Jack noticed, got a little pissy about it. Went and talked to everybody, made them mingle. You know what happened then?"
"Fist fight?"
"No! They did it! They picked their shit up and crowded in as a group. You believe that?"
"Not for a minute. What did Jack really do?"
"Really he just talked to them. I could not believe it myself. Now when people come in, they can stay with people they came with, but are mixed in with everyone else. Jack is pretty good."
"Sounds like he should be 'Jefe' to me, think I can dump it off on him?"
"No, no way, he made that pretty clear, he said he likes the idea of being a warrior, head of the military, but he thinks our government did that right, at least, put the civilian head of the government in charge of the military. He doesn't want anything to do with policing people though, 'infringing their rights' he called it."
"I think he means soldier, not warrior. A warrior fights on his own, like a gladiator, a soldier fights as part of a unit. Which is why soldiers win battles and warriors, individuals, lose them. Still I could have protested louder than him, had I been given the chance. That is pretty good about him and the police force, doesn't he realize he just became 'the man'?", Hank grumbled sleepily.
Juan nodded, then said, "Oh we know Hank, we know you can get loud, that is why we elected you how we did, amigo."
Cage had settled in for a nap and Hank roughed his hair up a bit and leaned back himself.
Chapter 10
Twenty minutes later when the Doc came around he found the pair sleeping, Juan motioned him over closer to the televisions to talk.
"Heard the 'Jefe' wanted to see me?" Doc asked Juan.
"Yeah he had some questions about Sky Ridge and about cleaning the wounds of the guys in the pen. Maybe get the nurse to break out all the Hydrogen peroxide to clean up those with bits."
"Clean up the....no that wouldn't work. Their wounds are already infected, cleaning them out now would not do much goo..." Doc stopped as Juan shook his head.
"No Doc, it ain't for them, it is for everyone else, to make sure it looks like maybe we are at least trying to do something, besides maybe it will help someone, you never know. Could Betty take some of the boys around, show them how to clean up the mess and let them take over after that?"
"Oh I get it, yeah, my bedside manner has gotten kind of worn thin in this world of 'managed care', I can see how it would be a comfort to everyone else at least. Beth, my assistants name is 'Beth', not 'Betty'. Another nurse came in too, Charlie or something, a guy." Juan raised his eyebrows, "Yeah, I am 'old school' enough to still find that odd too, a male nurse, still there are, were, more and more of them lately, and the women nurses loved them for their muscles when dealing with unruly or unconscious patients. What did Hank want to know about Sky Ridge?"
"How big a place is it? Could we all fit? I don't think you are gonna find many of the people here have ever been there."
Doc knew what Juan was saying, the people holed up in the Mike's club were predominately from Juan's old neighborhood, which was in the bottom of the income bracket for the metro area, not quite the very bottom, but not high enough up the chain to have gone for treatment at a hospital like Sky Ridge either. "Well I worked a few shifts in their ER when they first opened, it has about eighty beds, but they don't have much in comparison to Denver General or even University Hospital, I suppose the place might do. There is only one main road going by the place and it is backed onto the highway, big fences just went up there last year, that would be good to keep any zombies on the road from seeing us. We could block the street off pretty easy. Easier than
securing this place, there is no creek out back at Sky Ridge to contend with either. We'd have to move though, all these people and we need the food and stuff here, the generators would be handy but any hospital with a trauma center has generators. I will have to tell Jack to look out for a bus or two, plus semi-trailers to haul the food out of here. Maybe we keep this place as an outpost to guard the food and goods? Move the families over to Sky Ridge and clear the roads between the two places?"
"The highway is open, it looks like the national guard already went through there, maybe yesterday and opened it up. How many other rooms does the hospital have? How many floors?" asked Juan.
"I don't know, I went to a a few meetings, they have a chapel, a cafeteria, the place is huge, it sits on thirty acres of land, and has tons of parking. Sky Ridge Hospital is definitely geared towards higher class clients. Eighty beds means they have about sixty rooms, 'cause some of those were double occupancy. But as I remember the rooms were good sized and the place is big. I suppose it would be okay if no one else got there before us. I'll talk to Jack, if the highway is open all the way there maybe we could send a couple boys up there to scout it out?"
"Nah, we are council member now Doc, I'll talk to Jack and get him on it, tell him to find the buses and semis too. Plus we are going to want more guns and ammo. Thirty acres of land is quite a lot, we could see zombies coming across the yard, that is even better. What was it like working there? Why did you stop?"
Juan didn't say it but the Doc knew what he was aiming at. When they had first met the Doc had been holed up in a small clinic in a poorer part of town, not exactly in the same category as a hospital built to serve the upper echelon of Denver's society. The Doc thought about it for a second and replied, "I had some trouble Juan, I had some procedures reviewed and lost the appeal, the rich fucks at Sky Ridge let me go pretty quick after that. I turned to private practice and had to start small." he held up his hand to forestall Juan's questions on the subject, "It was five years ago and I don't want to talk about it. All you need to know is I am licensed to practice, so is Beth, and I think this Charlie guy is too, though he didn't have his paperwork with him." He rubbed his hands together like a greedy pirate, "Okay I say we get our guys moving and use this warehouse as a supply outpost."
