by Skye Knizley
“Let’s go,” he replied.
He opened the door and hefted his rifle, which was a Browning BAR that had belonged to Dustin’s father. River had fired it a few times over the years and found it to be adequate at a moderate distance.
River opened the Raptor’s glove box and removed the Glock 19 she kept locked within. She handed it to Rylee, who held it tight.
“I’ll be back in a few minutes,” River said.
Rylee smiled. “We’ll be waiting.”
“Good luck,” Jody added.
River smiled back then stepped out of the truck. The night was cold and overcast, with the taste of blood and snow in the air. Something about the scent made the hair rise on the back of her neck and she turned to look into the darkness. She could see nothing, but there was a sound, just on the edge of her hearing, a faint rustle like people whispering in the darkness.
“Hey, are you ready? Richie isn’t getting any healthier,” Dustin said.
River glanced at him, then back into the darkness, but the sound was gone. If it had ever been there at all. She shook her head and started through the snow using the flames as a beacon. When she neared the craft she drew her pistol and moved along the starboard side of the fuselage until she reached the side hatch, which had been left open, likely by whoever had survived the crash. She looked back at Dustin, who looked frightened but determined, then stepped onto the hatch and into the plane.
The hatch emptied into the main cabin where the three guards she killed still lay in the middle of the aisle. Dustin looked at the bodies and ran a hand across his mouth. By the look on his face, River could tell he was almost ready to vomit. He was an accountant, he’d never seen people shredded apart by bullets before. She took his hand and squeezed.
“Hey! Look at me!” she said, her voice pitched low.
He turned wide eyes on her and she squeezed his hand again.
“Keep it together, Dusty, it was them or me and Richie. Take deep breaths through your nose, out through your mouth.”
Dustin wiped his mouth again and took a breath, then another. After a moment, his eyes returned to normal and he nodded. “Yeah, I’m okay now.”
River held onto his hand. “It gets easier. Stick with me, keep your eyes on my back and you’ll be fine.”
She let go and started forward. She could feel Dustin at her back and hoped he could keep it together. His reaction was normal, human blood and corpses freaked most people out, but he wasn’t going to do anyone any good blowing chunks on the carpet. They passed through the forward compartment where River stepped over the other two bodies. Something about their placement was wrong, it was almost like they’d been moved, but that was impossible. She must have remembered it wrong.
She passed the galley and knocked softly on the office door while Dustin watched behind them. His hands were shaking so bad, River could see it, but she refrained from saying anything. If they had even an ounce of luck, they would never have to deal with sort of thing again and Dustin could go back to a normal life.
She knocked again and tested the knob, which turned under her hand. Richie lay where she’d left him, surrounded by pillows and blankets. His eyes were closed and his face was sallow and drawn.
“Rich? Richie it’s me, River.”
Richard opened his eyes. It took him a moment to find River’s face, but when he did he smiled with relief.
“I heard gunshots, I was afraid you weren’t coming back,” he said.
Dustin pushed past River. “Richie! What happened?”
Richard shook his head. “I’ll tell you later, get me out of here!”
River stepped back and let Dustin lever Richard out of the chair. When they were ready she turned and started back down the aisle.
“My truck isn’t far. We’ll get you to a hospital in no time,” she said.
“Sounds lovely,” Richard replied. His voice was weak and raspy, like something was caught in his throat.
River gripped her pistol and continued toward the hatch. She stepped over the first corpse and was startled by a sharp intake of breath. She turned to see Richard staring at the bodies with eyes that looked like saucers.
“What?” Dustin asked.
Richard nodded at the corpse. “He moved. I swear I saw him move.”
River looked at the body then back at Richard. “Richie, he’s dead. The only way he is going to move is if someone picks him up and carries him.”
Richard shook his head. “I saw it! I saw it move! Maybe he isn’t dead all the way.”
“Let’s just go, Richie, you need a doctor,” Dustin said.
River stepped onto the hatch then dropped to the ground and reached up to help Dustin with Richard. Once he was down, Dustin followed and the trio began the return trip through the darkness to the distant headlights of the Raptor, where Rylee was waiting. She and Jody helped load Richard into the front seat, then they piled into the back with Dustin, who again held his rifle over his knees.
The return through the forest to the main road was a blur of flying snow and the roar of the Raptor’s unleashed engine. The truck onto the main road in a cloud of ice and dirt and accelerated toward Winter Cove, which glittered with lights even at this hour. As soon as they were clear of the heavy snow, River accelerated even more. Time was of the essence, she could hear Richard’s breathing becoming more shallow and jagged with each passing moment.
CHAPTER FIVE
Main Street Winter Cove looked like every ‘Old Time’ Christmas card ever printed. The antique street lights that once flickered with gas flames now glowed with yellow bulbs and were decorated with holiday wreaths so green they couldn’t be real. Garland in red, green and gold hung in the windows of the Victorian storefronts and brightly colored lights twinkled in second-story apartments, making everything bright and cheery, even in the cusp of midnight. It was the kind of scene that should have been filled with carolers and carts selling hot chestnuts and cocoa, but there wasn’t a living soul in sight.
River guided the Raptor down the street at near breakneck speed until she reached the town’s small hospital. It didn’t look like much, just a two story brick building at the end of Main Street nestled between the harbor and the town park. The front doors had, at some point, been replaced with a glass sliding unit and a bright sign glowed with the word ‘emergency’. The town’s only ambulance sat near the doors with its engine running and lights glowing in the night as if it had just arrived or was just getting ready to leave.
River parked as close as she could and helped Dustin carry Richard through the doors.
“Hello? Hello, is anyone there? We have an injured man here!” Dustin called.
The lobby was small, which wasn’t unexpected in a town of only a thousand souls. To the left of the door was a reception desk with a selection of admittance forms and self-help pamphlets while to the right were some uncomfortable looking chrome and orange pleather chairs set beside a ‘take a number’ roll. A short hallway to the left was marked ‘emergency admittance only’ while the corridor ahead led into the rest of the hospital.
River lowered Richie into a chair while Rylee banged on the counter with the flat of her hand.
“Yo! A little help?” she yelled.
“Where the hell is everyone?” River asked.
Dustin shook his head. “There should be a full staff here, this time of year we have a lot of sled and fishing accidents so they bring in extra volunteers and holiday temps.”
He shrugged out of his coat and hurried toward the emergency doors, which opened at his approach. River knew that the exam rooms, surgeries and supplies were down the corridor.
“Did you see anyone?” Rylee asked.
Dustin shook his head. “No. What the hell?”
Rylee took off her coat and dropped it into a chair. “Riv, get me a gurney. Dustin, find an empty exam room.”
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br /> Dustin threw up his hands in exasperation. “They are all empty!”
River pushed past him to the gurneys, which were both locked in place. She kicked the brakes free on the nearest one and dragged it back to Rylee, who was taking Richard’s vitals.
Rylee looked at River. “If I do this, it could mean legal trouble. I’m not licensed in Maine.”
“If you don’t, he could die. Do what you can, honey.”
River turned to Dustin. “Help me get him on the gurney.”
Dustin moved to help while Rylee addressed Jody. “Hon, I need you to find a surgical tray. Forceps, scissors, that kind of stuff.”
Jody nodded and hurried off, her black hair trailing behind her like a cape.
River let Dustin push the gurney as they followed Rylee down the corridor to the first exam room, which as Dustin had already indicated was empty. Rylee entered and directed Dustin to park Richard beneath the lights.
“Set him up there and make sure the brakes are on. I don’t want him wandering off.”
Dustin did as he was asked. Rylee leaned over Richard, who was now sweating and breathing in gulps.
“Richie, what’s your blood type?” she asked in a calm voice.
His eyes found her, but he was shaking so bad he couldn’t answer.
“B positive,” Dustin said.
Rylee nodded, but didn’t look up. She busied herself helping Richie out of his coat. “River, there should be a room where they keep the blood stored. The bank is probably inside the main hospital, but there is probably a cache closer, between the operating rooms. Find me three of O-negative, I don’t have time to explain how to screen B-pos and make sure he won’t react.”
River was out the door the moment Rylee finished talking. She found Jody in the hallway with a covered tray that looked like a macabre room-service dinner. She pointed Jody toward the exam room then continued down the short hallway to a small room between the surgeries. She found the blood inside a series of coolers that looked more like they belonged at a 7-11 holding soda and beer instead of blood. Seconds later Rylee was hanging the blood she’d brought back from an IV rack.
Richard still lay on the gurney, but his breathing was better and he was quiet.
“Don’t worry,” Rylee said. “I sedated him so I can get the bullet out.”
“Are you sure you know what you’re doing?” Dustin asked.
Rylee gave him a look. “No, Dusty, I thought I would get this all set up and go home. Relax, I do this for a living.”
She finished setting up the IV then turned to the small room’s sink and began washing her hands with some foul-smelling soap that was guaranteed to both sterilize and remove the top layer of skin.
“River, I need you to get cleaned up, too. I can’t do this by myself and you have training. Dustin, go sit with Jody,” Rylee said.
“I should be he−”
Rylee looked at him. Gone was the silly Rylee, this one was all business. “Now, Dusty!”
He left with obvious reluctance and River washed her hands and arms with a healthy dose of the evil soap before drying and donning a pair of gloves from a box by the sink.
“What do you think?” she asked.
Rylee looked up from her examination of Richard’s wound. “I don’t think it hit the stomach or anything. If it had, he’d be dead by now. It feels like the bullet is lodged in his ribs, but I can’t be sure. I wish I had time for an x-ray. Where the hell is everyone?”
River shook her head. “I have no idea. We can search some more when Richard is out of the woods. What do you want me to do?”
Rylee smiled. “Be my nurse and I’ll be yours later.”
River smiled back and they set to work. It was slow going, Rylee had to move by feel and with extra care. If she nicked anything else, she could make things worse. River heard her mutter something about the game Operation before she dropped the bullet into the pan beside her. It was a 30-06, like River expected.
When they stepped outside an hour later it was to find Jody dozing on one of the gurneys while Dustin paced the floor. When he saw them he rushed over, concern etched in his face.
“How is he, is he going to be okay?”
“He’ll be fine. He’s resting and I shot him with enough antibiotics to kill everything in the universe. I didn’t see any other injuries, but his breathing is still ragged. Still no sign of anyone?”
Dustin sagged with relief and rubbed his forehead. “No, no one. I tried calling 9-1-1 from the land line and just got that annoying “your call cannot be completed as dialed” recording. I thought maybe River could go down to the station?”
River pulled on her coat. “Yeah, I’ll go see what I can find. You and Jody should try to get some rest. Maybe take the room next to−”
“What the hell?”
Jody was sitting bolt upright, looking out the doors.
“What?” River asked.
Jody slid off the gurney and moved to the doors. “I saw someone. Or something, out in the snow.”
River joined her at the doors where she cupped her hands around her face and peered out into the darkness. It had started snowing again, a hard steady fall that promised to dump several more inches before the sun rose. She didn’t see any sign of movement, but there were fresh tracks, dozens of them, just beyond the ambulance. She could see them in the glow of the flickering emergency lights.
She drew her pistol and pushed open the door. “Stay here.”
The wind was bitterly cold and it bit through her skin like tiny needles, making her huddle in her coat for what protection it would provide. She hurried past the ambulance, sticking close for what cover it would provide from anyone out in the street. When she reached the rear doors she slowed and glanced around the edge. Out in the street, less than a block away she could see several figures huddled over something in the snow. They were tearing at it with their hands, shredding away the flesh and sending it spinning into the night.
River raised her weapon and stepped out. “Hey! Step away from him and raise your hands where I can see them!”
Most of them ignored her, the closest however turned and looked in her direction. It was a woman, with long black hair and dark skin. Her eyes glowed with a feral light, like a cat in the dark, and her lips drew back off her teeth, teeth that looked blackened and sharp. She hissed and charged, a loping, sideways movement as if her legs no longer worked properly.
River squeezed the trigger twice. Both shots hit home in the middle of the woman’s chest and she fell backwards into the snow. Momentum caused her to slide almost a yard before she stopped, motionless.
The noise of the shots made the others cry out and scamper away in the same loping movement. Soon they were gone, eaten up by the storm.
River stared at the body so long snow began to melt on the hot barrel of her weapon. She blinked to clear run-off from her eyes and knelt beside it. It was definitely female, but she looked sick. Her skin was gray, her hair was black and almost waxy and her staring eyes were tinged with yellow mucus that still ran down her cheeks.
River didn’t have to check for a pulse to know the woman was dead. She straightened and hurried down the street to their victim. In the middle of a circle of pink-tinted snow lay a man. He’d been young, perhaps nineteen or twenty, with blond hair cut in a bowl style and blue eyes that were now filled with snow. His attackers had torn the flesh from his body and ripped the organs from his chest, leaving them spilled out on the snow like so much garbage.
River tried to blink, to look away from the gruesome scene. She didn’t want to see this, any of it, but somehow the blood dripping onto the snow fascinated her. She’d seen it before, bright and crimson, dripping onto the sand and forming a stain, almost like oil on concrete.
When she was able to look away, she wiped tears from her eyes and walked back to the hospital, her brain
on autopilot.
“What happened? I heard a shot,” Rylee said when she stepped into the lobby.
River didn’t meet her eyes. “Yeah…there were, um, people. I think they might have been sick or something.”
She holstered her pistol and dropped into one of the chairs. Rylee sat beside her.
“Where are they?” Rylee asked.
“They attacked someone and then one came after me. I shot her and the others ran away,” River said.
Rylee stood and started to put on her coat. “Is she dead? What about the person they attacked? Do they need help?”
River looked at her. “They’re both dead, honey. Trust me. How is Richie?”
Rylee sighed. “He’s still out, the noise didn’t wake him. I’m worried, though, he should be getting stronger, but he isn’t. His breathing is labored and his pulse is weak.”
River checked her watch. More time had passed than she’d expected. She had stood in the snow for almost three-quarters of an hour.
“Is there anything else we can do for him?” she asked.
“I can put him on a nutrient and fluid drip, it might help, but he’s starting to look like a pincushion as it is,” Rylee said. “I’d rather finish the transfusion and see how he is doing then. It won’t be too much longer.”
She reached over and brushed hair from River’s face. “How ‘bout you? Are you okay?”
River forced a smile. “Yeah, I’m fine. Just hungry, is there anything to eat around here?”
“Actually, there is. Jody found the cafeteria, there was a meal set out, but no one around to serve it. She brought everyone back a plate and left some money and a note by the cash register,” Rylee said.
She stood and moved behind the desk. “I saved ours until you got back. It’s a little dry from being under heat lamps, but edible.”
She came back with two plates laden with cafeteria beef, carrots and potatoes. They sat on the floor in front of the chairs and ate in near silence. After a few moments, Rylee looked up.
“Should we move the…the bodies?”
