by J. R. Tate
“You’re in scrubs. Are you a doctor?”
“Nurse. I’m a nurse.”
The metal moved away from her neck and she took a deep breath, though she knew she wasn’t out of danger. She could see the man in her peripheral vision, moving around like a meth addict who had just hit his high.
“Come to the back of the store with me.”
He motioned the gun in the direction he wanted her to move. Hesitating at first, Alice eyed the exit. Should she try to run that way and get out? If she went to the back of the store, she may never get away. Was he going to kill her once she got back there? So many things flashed in her mind - her family needed her and now she was in trouble, all because she took a wrong turn and had bad judgment about the convenience store. How could she have been so stupid about it? She should’ve just kept walking. The water would have held her over. Food would have been good but she could have lived without it.
The man continued to hold the gun on her, his index finger resting on the trigger. He was already antsy and clumsy and Alice couldn’t risk him getting any more agitated than he already was. Doing as she was told, she turned on her heel, heading to the back where several signs noted that they were now in an employee-only area of the store. None of that mattered anymore. It had been a day since everything had crashed and already, people were acting chaotic. How could things escalate so quickly?
There was a curtain that led them into a back office. A computer, calculator, and cash drawer were sitting on the desk. Alice’s heart skipped a beat when she saw the young girl lying on the floor against the wall, blood soaked into her white shirt, the majority coming from her abdomen. She eyes were slightly open, squinting up like a bright sunbeam was getting into her eyes.
“What… what happened?” Alice asked, taking a step toward the girl.
“Stop right there.” The man raised the gun again, pointing it right at Alice’s face. “That’s my daughter. We were driving down the road and bam!” He slammed the gun against the wall, causing a loud thud that made Alice jump. Her first assumption was he had pulled the trigger. “We hit a pole and the next thing I know, Crystal is hurt. I can’t get the bleeding to stop. She’s gonna die!” Tears poured from the man’s face and he wiped them away.
“I’m so sorry,” Alice said, looking from him to the girl, still nervous about the gun in his hand.
“You said you’re a nurse, right?”
“I am.” Alice nodded to confirm, wondering where he was going with this.
“Help her. Get the bleeding to stop!”
Alice didn’t have any equipment or even a first aid kit. If she declined, she was a dead woman. She didn’t want to decline. She wanted to help the girl. “I need to kneel down and take a look at her. Can I do that?” Alice waited until she had permission and when the man motioned the gun toward the child, Alice moved in, lifting her shirt. The wound was deep. Without supplies, her prognosis was likely fatal. Alice wouldn’t let that be known. She needed to gain trust with the man holding her hostage.
“You say her name is Crystal?” Alice asked, hoping her training would kick in.
With a gun pointed at her, her mind was going blank. Working in the emergency room had trained her to act on instinct and to work fast but she never had a gun held on her and she always had the needed supplies to get treatment rolling. Now they were on a dirty office floor in a gas station with everyone’s lives on the line.
“Yes. Do something, damn it!” The man yelled, what little patience he had fading fast.
“What’s your name?”
“Ed.”
“I’m Alice. I’m gonna help both of you but I need you to do something for me, okay?” Alice paused to see if he’d answer but he just stared at her, the barrel still trained right on her. “Go out into the store and see if you can find a first aid kit. Anything that can be useful to clean this wound. Peroxide, bandages, alcohol. Anything you can come across, okay?”
Ed’s hand shook and he hesitated. Desperation was getting the best of him, clouding his judgment. Glancing from Crystal and back to Alice, he clenched his jaw as more tears flowed down his sweaty cheeks.
“You better not leave out the back. Don’t leave my little girl here.”
“I won’t,” Alice promised. “I’m not going to leave. You need to hurry, Ed. The longer we wait, the worse off Crystal gets.”
Backing toward the curtain, Ed continued to point the gun at Alice. “I’m gonna find the stuff you need. You better pray it works, Alice. If Crystal dies, so do you.”
Alice’s heart skipped a beat when she saw the hatred in Ed’s eyes. Crystal was almost dead. Her chances of making it were slim. Alice needed a miracle, and unfortunately, a simple first aid kit and bandages weren’t going to save the poor little girl. She was going to try her hardest but she also had to come up with a plan to get away from Ed once the inevitable happened to Crystal.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Due to the mountainous terrain, Jake couldn’t see that far ahead of them. Being unfamiliar with the area wasn’t helpful but at least the highway sign had confirmed that there was a town coming up. The question was how big the town was. It could be a wide spot in the road where technology wasn’t a big thing to begin with. With a large camping area and lake nearby, he had to hold onto hope that while not a big place, it was still a decent enough size due to tourism.
“You ever hear of Jones Creek?” Jake asked, hoping he could get some insight. Larry shook his head, shattering any chance that they’d know what they were walking into. “Must not be very big if we have never heard of it. I don’t even know what state we’re in.”
“I’d guess Colorado. But I’m not sure either. The truck’s plates back there said Colorado.”
Jake nodded. “I noticed that too. There is still snow on the mountains but that can happen in Utah, too.”
The road took a sharp dip downward. Road signs warned of the steep incline and for semi-trucks to use low gear and to slow down. Jake walked slower, allowing his shoes to gain traction on the asphalt. He was still in his pilot uniform and the dress shoes he wore with it weren’t the best to hike in. He wished he would’ve thought to grab a better pair of shoes from someone’s luggage but he didn’t anticipate any of this. Hindsight was twenty-twenty and they only had a few more miles to go.
The steep downhill walk revealed Jones Creek just down the road, the highway sign confirming that it was now a mile away. Without a watch, Jake couldn’t tell how long it was taking them but usually, a three-mile walk by two able-bodied people in decent shape was forty-five minutes to an hour at most. He glanced up at the sky, noting where the sun was. If his estimation was right, it was a little after ten AM. The mountain climate was cool, though exposure to the sun was making him sweat.
The sight of the town in front of them made both men pick up their pace. As they got closer, they ran across several more abandoned cars. Jake stopped at a small sedan when he saw the blood splatter right outside the driver’s side door. No one was inside but a large amount of blood meant that whoever was involved likely wasn’t alive anymore.
A cell phone, charger, and radar detector were left behind and Jake went ahead and checked to see if the phone was working. As expected, it was dead like all of the others he had tried. Throwing back in the seat, he got out of the car and looked around. Larry was standing away from him, his gaze down in a canyon. Joining him, Jake followed where the other man was looking.
“Holy shit…” Trailing off, Jake swallowed the bile in the back of his throat. “What in the hell?”
Three bodies were dead next to a different car, appearing as if they had all been ejected when the car went over the side of the road. There was no way they were alive and even though signs of death were obvious, Jake felt guilty that they weren’t trying to get down there to help. What if there was a kid still inside the car?
Sitting down, he scooted toward the edge where the guardrail had been damaged, Larry’s hand gripping his shoulder, hindering
him from going any farther.
“What are you doing, Jake?”
“We need to see if there are any survivors.”
“No! You can’t climb in there. It’s too steep. You’ll die too!”
Jake came to his senses when he saw a rock tumble down, hitting the top of the car. Scooting away from the edge, he couldn’t take his eyes off of the dead bodies. It was the first people they came across since leaving the crash site and he had high hopes that someone was there they could get another point of view on.
“Let’s get to town. It’s right down the road. Maybe we can send some help if anyone survived that crash,” Jake replied, pulling himself to a standing position, continuing to look down at the damage. It was literally a bad wreck he couldn’t pull his eyes from.
They quickened their pace, reaching the outskirts of town in record time. Jake’s body continued to warn him of his own injuries - his head pounded, he was dizzy, and all he wanted was a nice long nap and some food. Drinking a sip of water, his worry of the size of town came true - there was a small grocery store, a bait shop and camping shop, and a post office. There were even more vacant cars, some crashed, some parked and untouched.
Pulling the door to the store open, Jake’s heart sank when he saw the shelves completely picked apart. The back coolers were open, the glass doors shattered, the beverages and food all wiped clean. The cash register was also busted open with no money left in the drawer. Larry lifted a box of batteries, the only item left within the building.
“Double A’s. We could use them,” Jake said, wiping his index finger through some dust on a shelf. “I can’t believe it. There’s nothing.” Opening the ice machine, all of the bags had melted, leaving a large puddle inside. With no electricity, anything perishable that hadn’t been looted was already starting to ruin.
Dipping his water bottle inside, he hesitated before refilling it. What if it had been contaminated? The place wasn’t clean and there was no telling who all had their hands inside. Until he knew exactly what was going on, he’d be careful about what he ate and drank. His water was still okay but he was rationing it carefully. With no signs of any other human life, he’d have to go back to the airplane and report the bad news to those who waited on their return.
After searching with no luck, Larry and Jake went back outside. Crossing the street, they checked the bait and camping shop. It was the same story - someone had already come through and taken anything of value. Jake slammed his fist against a nearby wall and closed his eyes. What was going on? Had this town been abandoned long before now? Nothing looked run down enough for it to be a ghost town.
“I think we’re dealing with something bigger than a plane crash,” Larry whispered, his eyes wide as he walked toward the exit.
“I think you’re right. I don’t guess they even have a police station here.”
“What do we do now? This explains why no help has come. Where is everyone?”
Jake checked the cabinets to make sure nothing had been left behind. A camp store would have been perfect to pick through if they were going to have to continue to hike through the wilderness. Nothing had been left behind. Not even a damn fishing pole or can of earthworms for bait.
“I guess we go back to the crash site. We gather up everything we can use from the luggage and victims. And then we all go together and find a bigger city where we can get some answers. There’s nothing left here for us. Besides, something doesn’t feel right. I feel like we’re being watched.”
Larry smiled, though he wasn’t amused. He was nervous, and Jake understood why. The man had admitted that he was a city guy. This probably felt like a foreign land to him.
“At least we’re not leaving empty handed. We have a package of batteries.” Jake forced a laugh but it fell flat. “On the way back we’ll take a different route down by the lake. We can get a better look at the campsites. Maybe there are survivors down there. Until we talk to anyone else, the only point of view we have is that we were in a plane crash and we came across a ghost town. It’d be nice to hear from someone else. Maybe it’ll help us piece things together.”
“Or we’ll come across people who will want to kill us. What if there’s some murderer going around killing everyone?” Larry’s voice shook, which was odd to see and hear. On the outside, he was a large man that Jake wouldn’t want to take on in a bar fight. He couldn’t fault him for being scared. Jake was terrified but he wouldn’t allow it to cripple him. Freaking out would only hinder progress.
“You’ve seen too many movies, Larry. Looks like Jones Creek was pretty secluded even before this. People probably high-tailed it out of here once whatever the hell all of this is had happened. Not many resources left.”
The lake was an excellent resource - fish, wildlife, and most importantly, they had a nice supply of water. Fear of contamination was the biggest hesitation Jake had about refilling their bottles. It was crucial that they talk to someone. They likely wouldn’t know much more than the survivors of the plane crash, but actually coming across someone alive might settle everyone’s nerves. Until then, Jake had to turn his imagination off. Zombie apocalypses, werewolves, and biological warfare all crossed his mind. Just as he told Larry, he had seen way too many movies.
Nothing like that would really happen, would it? This all had to be a coincidence. If they all stuck together and made it to a bigger city, things would start making sense along the way.
***
Alice’s hands shook as she applied pressure to the child’s wound. Ed still hadn’t come back with a first aid kit but she could hear him in the front store area, throwing things around and yelling. His anger was enough to make him capable of killing her if she wasn’t able to help Crystal and unfortunately, it wasn’t looking like Alice would be able to pull off any kind of medical miracle with the situation they were in.
She needed a cloth or something absorbent to help soak up the blood. Crystal only had on one shirt and she needed to keep that on - she was in shock and shivering from the trauma on her body. Alice didn’t have any clothing to spare either - just her scrubs and they weren’t thick enough to do much.
Glancing around the room, she tried to find anything that would aid in putting pressure on the injury. Standing, she dug through the desk. There was a box of Kleenex, which she kept hold of. Pulling each drawer of the desk open, sorted through all of the paperwork, noting a roll of paper towels at the back. Bingo! Not the best thing to use but paper towels were absorbent and these felt like a decent brand. It wouldn’t be the most sanitary but if Ed could get his hands on some peroxide or alcohol, Alice would be able to do some thorough cleaning and get a better vantage point on how deep and bad the wound actually was.
“What are you doing? Why aren’t you helping Crystal?”
Alice turned on her heel, reminding herself to not make any sudden movements. Ed continued to train the handgun on her, his hand shaking, his knuckles white from gripping the weapon so tightly. Holding the paper towels up, she inched toward Crystal.
“I was looking for something to put pressure on Crystal’s wound. Were you able to find anything?”
He tossed a red plastic box down near Alice. It was a cheap first aid kit, just like she imagined this type of store would carry. There were gauze pads, cotton balls, and cotton swabs inside. There were also antibacterial ointment, tweezers, band-aids, and small alcohol pads. It wasn’t much but it was better than nothing.
Looking up at Ed, Alice tried to ignore the gun. “Did you find any peroxide?”
Ed slipped two bottles out of his pants pocket and rolled them toward Alice. “You better pray she lives, nurse.”
“I’m doing the best I can, Ed.”
“Your best better be saving my daughter or you’re dead too.”
Alice’s hands shook and she tried to control the nervousness. Trying to convince herself that this was no different than a busy afternoon in the ER was a challenge. While people were unruly and demanding, having a gun held on her wasn’t
common practice. Soaking a gauze pad with alcohol, Alice applied it to the girl and the lack of response was disheartening. Usually, a person would wince or open their eyes but Crystal made no indication that she could even feel it.
Getting the blood cleared off gave Alice a good view of what she was dealing with. The wound was deep enough to see tissue and the bleeding continued. Putting pressure on it, she dug through the first aid kit with her free hand, glaring at Ed who paced above her. She’d ask for his help but he was already on edge.
“What are you looking for?” Ed asked, stopping in mid-step.
“Thread and a needle.” Of course, the kit he brought her wouldn’t have anything like that. It was the basics. Glancing over her shoulder, Alice wiped the sweat from her brow. “You think you might be able to check the store and see if there is a cheap sewing kit? You know, the kind they sell for repairing buttons and things?”
“Why the hell do you need that? How is that gonna help Crystal? You’re just making excuses to get me out of here so you can escape.”
“The bleeding isn’t going to stop unless I can stitch her wound. Unless you have a better idea of how to do stitches, I really need you to go find a sewing kit.” Alice’s tone was sharp but she was over trying not to offend him. He was desperate to help Crystal and until she was deceased, he wouldn’t pull the trigger.
Backing away, Ed’s eyes widened and he adjusted his hand on the gun handle. “Don’t you fucking leave!”
“I’m not. I’m not leaving Crystal here like this.”
Turning back to the girl, Alice removed the soiled paper towels and applied a fresh package of gauze. Nothing was working and everything she used got saturated with blood almost immediately. Stitching her up with thread would give her a fighting chance but it wouldn’t prevent infection and whatever internal injuries that Crystal might have sustained in the wreck.
It was hard to tell how Crystal got hurt. Did something puncture her? Anything could happen in a car crash and with all of the turmoil happening, the possibilities were endless. Not to mention the lack of first responder care - Ed probably moved her before he should have, which wasn’t his fault. No help came and Alice couldn’t fault him for attempting to get her out of harm’s way quickly. She could fault him for panicking and threatening her life.
