“See if you can get him to drink,” he said.
“Where are we going?” I asked.
“Let us worry about that,” he said, as he opened the passenger door.
“What about Sara?”
“She’s still in Clayfield,” he said. “Right now, Clayfield isn’t doable.”
“Isn’t doable?” I asked.
“It’s overrun,” he said. “It’s best if we go somewhere else for now so I can take care of the councilman’s wounds…your wounds, too.”
“But Sara—“
He shut the door and stepped back so he would be near me. In a hushed voice he said, “I want to find Sara as much as you do. She and young women like her are the only thing standing between us and extinction, but we just can’t right now.”
“Preventing extinction,” I said. “Yeah, I’m sure that’s it.”
I did my best to get comfortable in the back of the truck, which was impossible. They drove us around a while, heading generally north and trying different offshoots of the main highway then doubling back to the highway when they didn’t find what they were looking for. We stopped at a couple of places—I presumed so they could check them out—but eventually settled on what appeared to be a single-level apartment complex.
“This was an assisted living facility,” Dr. Barr said to me when he got out. “They should have some medical supplies here. We’ll be back for you as soon as we find an empty apartment.”
I was propped against the side of the bed crosswise, doing my best not to sit on Mr. Somerville. The two of them stopped in front of the long row of apartments, talked a while, and then went into what appeared to be the main office. After a while, they came out. Dr. Barr was pushing a rolling, shelved cart. It was a larger version of the kind you might see flight attendants pushing on airplanes. It was loaded with medical supplies, food, and water. Ellen looked through large ring of color-coded keys.
They stopped next to the first door. Ellen inserted the key and turned it in the lock. Then she pulled it out and placed the whole ring of keys on the cart. Both of them checked their guns and Dr. Barr opened the door. They stood there for a couple of seconds then cautiously went inside. There was a gunshot. Then the two of them came out again and moved to the next door.
This happened six more times. I was afraid they would find all of the rooms occupied and their shooting would draw a crowd, but finally, they found an empty apartment. They both stepped out. Ellen pushed the cart inside while Dr. Barr went back to the hub of the facility. When he came out again, he was pushing a wheel chair. Just as he reached the truck, Ellen joined him.
“You first,” he said, letting down the tailgate. “We need you out of the way so we can remove the councilman.”
I got to the edge, and they helped me into the chair. Dr. Barr wheeled me into the apartment and parked me next to the supply cart. It was dark and stuffy in there. The only light came in through the front windows, which were curtained. I was in a larger front room that comprised a small living room, tiny dining area, and a kitchenette. In the back wall was an open doorway leading to a bathroom and bedroom.
“I’m going to leave you sitting here for now,” he said. “The councilman gets the bed. We’ll try to get a cot in here for you soon.”
He left and several minutes later they pushed Somerville into the apartment on a second wheelchair. They went past me into the dark bedroom. I could only see inside a little. I watched their flashlight beams play on the wall. Then the soft glow of candles took over. I listened to them grunting and straining as they got Somerville into the bed. Then Dr. Barr came out and started looking through the items on the cart.
“We only have one I.V.,” he said. “I’m going to need that for him. I’ll get him set up, and I’ll be back to mix up something for you.”
I was kind of dazed, and I kept drifting off. I don’t know how long it took him to get to me. At some point he was kneeling in front of me with a large plastic cup and straw. The room was lit by several candles and by the open front door.
“We’re going to try oral rehydration,” he said. “I’m having to work with what I’ve got. This is a mixture of water, salt, and sugar. It probably won’t taste very good, but drink it anyway. It’s the best I can do.” Then he stood. “Ellen, come in here please.”
Ellen came into the room from outside and shut the front door behind her. She smelled strongly of cigarette smoke. Her mask was down and her hat was off. Her long, dark hair was dry and streaked with gray. Her face was lined and stern. She looked like she might have been of Native American descent. I couldn’t pin her age, but I guessed her to be a hard 40, maybe 45.
“I need you to hold this cup for him so he can drink,” Dr. Barr said.
Ellen frowned at me, “He can’t hold it himself?”
“I really need to be in the other room,” Dr. Barr said.
“Fine,” she sighed. “Give it to me.”
Dr. Barr handed her the cup and went into the other room. Ellen pulled up a chair from the small dining table and sat next to me. She shoved the cup under my nose.
“Drink it,” she said.
Her fingers smelled like an ashtray, and I almost gagged. I took a sip, and made a face.
“Taste bad?” she said.
I nodded.
“Good,” she said.
“I’m not the person they say I am,” I said.
“I guess you’re just misunderstood,” she said sarcastically. “A poor, tortured soul.”
“What have I done to you?”
“Just drink.”
I drank. Every few sips, she would stir the cup with the straw to keep the undissolved sugar and salt suspended. When I drained the cup, she went into the bedroom, and I heard Dr. Barr tell her how to mix up another batch.
When she returned with the second cup, I said, “What did you do before?”
“No need for conversation,” she replied. “We’re not friends.”
I nodded and put my mouth on the straw. She watched me drink and sighed heavily.
“I used to own a furniture store,” she said.
“Oh,” I said.
“You worked at the museum?”
“Yeah,” I replied.
“I never went in there.”
I drank quietly for a while.
“Why didn’t you stay with the group?” I asked.
“It doesn’t matter,” she said.
“What is happening in Clayfield?”
She shrugged, “Jack says the streets are packed. He says there’s no way in.”
“Is it true about the nukes?”
She shrugged again, “Beats me.”
“Then why—“
“Just drink.”
Chapter 29
I fell asleep in the wheelchair for a while. When I woke up, they were moving the small, round dining table and two chairs. I watched them quietly. When they’d made a space in the room, they went outside and returned with a plastic-covered mattress. It was one that would fit a single-sized bed. They put it in the floor, and Ellen spread a sheet over it.
Dr. Barr looked at me, “Good, you’re awake. We got you a bed. Do you need to go to the bathroom or anything?”
“No,” I said.
Ellen stepped just outside and lit a cigarette.
“Do you feel like eating?” he asked.
“Not really,” I said.
“I found some Glucerna shakes in the storeroom,” he said. “They’ll provide some nourishment. I want you to drink one before you go down for the night.”
“How’s Nicholas?”
“He’s resting,” he said. “He might lose some mobility in that left arm, but other than that, he should recover.”
“Thanks for all your help,” I said.
“It’s what I do,” he said. He stepped over to the window and looked out into the parking lot. “The next apartment over was clear, so Ellen and I will stay there. It should be more comfortable for all of us. We all need to rest.”
“I hope you like strawberry,” he said, opening the top for me.
I took a drink. It was warm and sweet with the consistency of watered-down milk. There was the strawberry flavor, but it was mixed with the taste of vitamins. It was better than the water mixture he’d given me earlier.
“I want to know when you go to the bathroom,” he said. “I don’t have to see it, but pay attention to the color of your urine and the consistency of the stool. I’ll come check on you in a couple of hours and mix you some more water.”
“Okay,” I said.
He helped me out of the chair and down onto the mattress.
“You seem to be able to stand better,” he said.
“I’m feeling a little better.”
“If you need anything, knock on the wall over there, and I’ll come over,” he said.
“Can I get a weapon?”
“You won’t need one; we’re right next door.”
“I’d feel better if I had something,” I said.
He looked around the room then went over by the front door and grabbed an umbrella.
“Here,” he said, “I’ll put it by the mattress.”
“What am I supposed to do with that?”
“Just keep the door locked and be quiet,” he said. “Ellen and I have been in and out all day, and we haven’t seen a soul.”
“What about the soulless?” I said.
He gave me a patronizing smile. “Get some rest.”
The sun was low in the sky when he joined Ellen outside. He shut and locked the front door. I could see the two of them standing by the window until she finished her smoke. Then they walked away. I heard them enter the apartment next door and the door close. Their voices were muffled. I fell asleep again.
When next I woke, it was completely dark. I could hear a thumping sound. I was immediately concerned, and I rolled over on my side to put my hand on the umbrella. I listened. It was coming from the other side of the room or maybe from Somerville’s room.
I pushed myself up on my elbow. I was a little dizzy, but I thought I could get up. I didn’t think I had the strength to fight, so I would have to call in Travis and Ellen. I couldn’t see a thing, and not wanting to risk tripping, I decided to crawl toward the wall we shared with the other apartment.
The noise got louder as I got nearer. There was thumping, but also the occasional scraping sound on the wall. I ran into a piece of furniture. I felt it, and figured it to be the coffee table. I went around it to the couch then crawled up on it. I was making out moaning noises, too. It sounded like they were in trouble, but there was no way….
Then I realized what I was hearing. Those were not the moans of the undead. Those were moans of pleasure.
“Figures,” I said, collapsing back on the couch. I was too tired to crawl back into bed, so I just lay there listening to them have sex until I fell asleep again.
Dr. Barr woke me up and was shining a flashlight on my face.
“What are you doing over here on the couch?” he said, as he checked the bandage on my ear.
“I was going to knock on the wall, but you were…occupied,” I said.
“Oh,” he said. He put the bandage back in place then went around lighting candles. “Do you need to pee yet?”
“I think I could,” I said.
He helped me into the bathroom and set a candle on the sink. He went into the bedroom to check on Mr. Somerville. I hadn’t felt the need to go since that morning. It hurt like hell, but I was glad to see everything functioning again.
When I was finished, I left the candle and moved to the doorway of the bedroom. Dr. Barr didn’t look up.
“I’ll be in there in a moment,” he said. “Don’t go back to sleep yet; you need to drink some more.”
I carefully made my way back to the couch and sat. Ellen came inside and shut the door.
“Is he in here?” she said.
“Bedroom,” I replied.
In the candlelight, she didn’t look quite so rough. She looked younger, softer.
“What are you looking at?” she said.
“Just sitting here,” I said.
There was an uncomfortable silence as we both looked around the room at nothing in particular.
“So you and Travis are a couple?”
She gave me a harsh look. “Did he tell you that?”
“No,” I said. “I heard…I could hear…you know.”
“So now you want some too. Is that it?”
“No,” I said. “Sorry I shouldn’t have said anything.”
She glared at me, and the roughness of her appearance returned.
“You asked me why I didn’t stay with the group,” she said moving closer to me, and speaking in a low voice so Dr. Barr couldn’t hear. “I’ll tell you why. Men are pigs. That’s why. I got tired of being treated like a damn whore. I’m not like that. I’m a businesswoman. I had employees. People respected me. Now all I am is a piece of tail.”
“Sorry,” I said. “I didn’t know.”
“Didn’t you?” she said. “That’s all that blond girl is to you, isn’t she?”
“Actually, we’ve never—“
“I left with Travis, because I got tired of being forced to service those redneck pigs. At least there was only one of Travis and least he was nice looking.”
“You don’t like him?” I asked.
“He treats me like a whore same as the others,” she said, pulling out a cigarette. “He might be good at being a doctor, but that’s about it. He doesn’t know shit about living in this new world, and he doesn’t know shit in bed either.”
She stood and started toward the door then turned. “And if you tell him any of this or if you try something with me, I’ll shoot you. Do you believe me?”
I nodded.
“Good,” she said, lighting her cigarette as she opened the door.
The facility in which we were staying was about a mile off the main highway and about ten miles north of the Clayfield city limits. After a couple of days of rest and regular meals, I was almost back to my old self. I still had plenty of aches and pains, but I could get around on my own and take care of myself. I was eager to leave and look for Sara. Unfortunately, Mr. Somerville had not improved at all. By the second day, he had an infection in his shoulder. He continued to get worse.
“I don’t have the meds to treat this,” Dr. Barr said, inspecting the wound. I stood in the doorway of the bedroom, watching him. Ellen stood behind me beside the bathroom. Somerville was sleeping.
“What about something else?” Ellen said. “What did people do in the old days before all this medication? I know you can break a cigarette open on a bee sting, and the tobacco helps it.”
“There is a reason why we use modern pharmaceuticals,” he said. “They work better. That being said, I read somewhere that during the world wars, field medics would treat wounds with garlic…salt, too, if they had it….”
“Well, you need to try something,” I said.
“I saw some garlic salt in the spice rack in the cupboard,” Ellen said.
“I don’t think that is quite the same,” he said. “I think it needs to be fresh garlic.”
“What about wild garlic?” I asked.
He shrugged, “I wouldn’t know how to find it.”
“I do,” I said. “It’s the same thing people call wild onions. You can smell it when people mow their lawns.”
He shrugged again, “Okay. I wouldn’t know.”
“I’ll get you the garlic,” I said. “There should be some right outside. That stuff grows everywhere. While I’m out, write down what medicine he needs, and I’ll go out and get it. Write legibly, if you can.”
“A doctor handwriting joke,” he said with a straight face. “Good one. Never heard that before.”
“I’m going out, so I need a weapon,” I said.
“We don’t have extra guns,�
� he said. “All we have are the two.”
“Give me one.”
“No,” he said. “Sorry, I can’t do that. I don’t completely trust you.”
“I’ll go out with him,” Ellen said.
Dr. Barr looked up. His eyes bounced from her to me then back to her. There was a look on his face…something like suspicion or jealousy.
“Stay close,” he said.
I went to the kitchenette and got a fork from the silverware drawer to use for digging. Ellen led the way outside with the shotgun. It was another beautiful day and the sun was high in the sky.
“Let’s go over there to that grassy area,” I said, pointing to a spot past the parking lot.
We were into early April, and the grass had had plenty of warm enough weather and rain to green out. Even in all the green, the wild garlic was easy to spot. It was a little taller and darker than the rest of the lawn, and its leaves looked more tubular. I knelt by one clump. I broke off some of the green and smelled it to be sure.
“This is the stuff,” I said. I stuck the fork in the ground and pried up while pulling on the greens. The cluster of tiny, white bulbs pulled free. I wiped away the mud and handed them to Ellen.
“They’re not very big, so I’m going to dig a few more.”
After digging up five clumps, we went back inside. I washed the bulbs in a pan of water then rinsed them in a second pan. After cutting away the chives, I presented Dr. Barr with the handful of pea-sized bulbs. He picked one out of my palm, scraped it with his thumbnail and smelled it.
“Well, I’ll be damned,” he said. “It does smell like garlic. I’ll need to crush these and try to pack them in the wound somehow.”
He extended his hand to take the rest of them and handed me a small piece of paper with his other hand.
“Antibiotics,” he said. “I’ve listed a few here that will work, and I have them listed in order of preference, but really just get what you can and get back here as quickly as possible. One of the pharmacies in the hospital might have this. Connie and I cleaned out the one on the third floor, but you would need a key card and probably electricity to get into them. You could try floor by floor there if you want to see if any of them are open, but chances are you won’t be able to get in. There were six pharmacies around town. You can look in them first, but it might be quicker and safer if you just went north to check the hospital and pharmacies in Singletree. Jack said the there was a lot of zombie activity in Clayfield.”
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