The door to my little computer room burst open and somebody hit the lights, bathing us both in harsh, fluorescent splendor. What the actual fuck?
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Chapter 4 – Midnight Run
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Gayle started talking rapid-fire before the door was fully open.
“Michael it’s Lorraine she’s in trouble I think and I don’t…” she stopped talking mid-sentence as the picture became clear to her.
I pulled out of what’s-her-name’s ass with an audible pop. As I stood up, cum strings hung from my cock. Gayle stared at me, then my cock, then at the girl’s gaping asshole that had some cum oozing out of it.
“What’s the matter with her?” I asked, trying to break the tension. My fuck buddy tried to dig a hole in the air mattress. She managed to hide a little bit in the blanket. Of course, by this time, a couple other girls had come out to see what the problem was. I started dressing.
“She’s, she’s…” Gayle couldn’t get the words out.
“What Gayle, come on!” I snapped at her, probably a little too much.
With sudden steel in her voice and a cold hard stare, Gayle said, “She’s running a fever of 103.6. She won’t wake up. I looked at the wound and it seems infected. Her breathing is shallow and ragged. She needs antibiotics, or something.”
Shit, I thought as I laced up my boots. I don’t have any liquid antibiotics, just pills. But you can’t make an unconscious person swallow pills and liquid. They’ll likely gag or get their lungs filled with fluid.
“Somebody go get Blake.”
“I’m right here!” he answered from just behind the door. Great, everyone seemed to be up at this point.
“Is there a clinic in town?”
“Uh… just Doc Brown.”
“Does he give IVs to people?”
“Um… um… Yeah! When those hikers got lost last year? We brought them to him after we found them. He put those bags on them.”
“Alright, Blake. Get dressed. RFN. You’re coming with me.”
“RFN?”
“Right Fuckin’ Now!” I hollered. He moved like a bandit.
“Where’s my shooter girl? Erin?”
“Uh,” answered somebody who wasn’t Erin. “She just ran to back her room also… yeah she’s getting dressed, too.”
I looked at Gayle. “We’ll make a speed run to town. 5 minutes. Grab some shit from the Doc’s place. Back immediately. 10 minutes, tops. We’ll save her.”
She crossed her arms and just looked at me like this was all my fault.
“I’ll save her, I promise.”
I handed her a small hand-held HAM/GMRS radio.
“Channel 16. Leave it on but don’t call us unless we call you. Here’s the button to talk.”
I scooped up my regular AR and my fancy one from back home. It’s got a red-dot sight that’s very handy in the dark.
“Blake, can you shoot?” I asked as he ran up to me.
“Um, just air-soft guns, yeah.” Jesus, what kind of country boy doesn’t shoot?
“Alright, you get the Crovel. Erin, you’re riding shotgun with my good AR. We’re taking the Jeep.”
We bounced in to town in record time. The Unimog is an awesome rig, but it’s not real fast, and it’s not real quiet. I had outfitted my Jeep with some good Teraflex parts underneath so we could handle the rough road at speed with ease.
“Go down there,” said Blake, pointing the way. “Then turn right and right again. You’ll be on Main Street.”
I cut the lights and slowed. The Jeep has a quiet exhaust on it, but it still squeaks and the tires make noise on the pavement, too.
“You can drive, right Erin?”
“Yeah, no worries.”
“Ok, it’s an automatic. We’re going to back up to the office. I’m going to turn on these rear lights to shine inside. Blake and I will smash and grab. I want you standing outside, but right by the Jeep. Keep it running. I need you to keep the area clear. But don’t shoot until you have to. Got it?”
“Yes Daddy,” she said.
What the fuck? Daddy? Whatever… I don’t have time to worry about that.
I busted in a pane of glass on Doc’s front door. The noise made me cringe, but I figured it was quieter than breaking the whole thing down.
“Eyes sharp,” I whispered to Blake. “Keep sweeping the light.” He had a flashlight, I had one mounted on my gun. I reached in and undid the lock. We entered the office.
Kind of messy for a Doctor’s office, I thought. Papers and shit were on the floor, things knocked down. Maybe we weren’t the first to loot the place?
Blake waved towards the back, indicating where to go.
His flashlight hit upon a stainless steel locked cabinet down in the back. I looked at Blake and he nodded. He had his sharpened crovel at the ready. I let him go first.
Stupid… Stupid Stupid STUPID!
He walked past the examining room. I followed, but as I did a zombie came out and grabbed me and knocked me down. Jesus Christ, I thought, as we fell in the hallway. I don’t have any of my armor on, not even my helmet or goggles or anything.
Old Zed had me pinned. Actually he seemed like a teenaged boy. But he was a big boy. He leaned in for a quick bite. I couldn’t get my rifle to bear on something inches away from me. I was kind of sitting on my pistol, so that was no good. I punched him a couple times to keep him away. But Zed never gets tired, or hurt, or deterred. He just keeps coming. My Ka-bar knife is on my chest rig, if I can just reach it….
Blake screamed.
“Well fucking help me!” I hollered to him. I thought he was screaming about my predicament.
I hit my Zed particularly hard at that moment, his head seemed to be a little off kilter now. I risked a glance at Blake to see why he wasn’t helping me.
Blake stood a few feet from his own zombie. Doc Brown, from the looks of him. His white coat spattered with blood, he was coming towards Blake.
I punched my Zed again as hard as I fucking could, further tweaking his head and neck.
“Blake!! Swing! Hit Him!!!”
But Blake just stood there. ‘The Fear’ had gripped him. He froze.
I hit my Zed so hard that his neck broke. He stopped grabbing me and I was able to push him off me just in time to see the Doc bearing down on Blake. I grabbed my rifle and fired off a perfect headshot on the dead Doc.
But I was too late.
Blake dropped the Crovel and grabbed his neck. Blood flowed out around his fingers.
“Erin! Get in here!”
But she answered with a Boom!… Boom! Boom!
“Come on Daddy-oh! We got trouble out here!”
Shit shit shit SHIT!
Blake handed me the keys to the cabinet.
“I… got these from Doc. I’m sorry…”
“No buddy. It’s okay. You did fine.” What the fuck else was I going to say?
“I… Doc… he….”
I rummaged through the cabinet as Blake tried to explain.
“He’s been my Doc since forever. I couldn’t kill him.”
“I know, Blake. I know.”
Erin’s rifle blasted a few times.
I found the IV bags. I dumped out a trash can and threw them all in there. Then I grabbed several tube-looking things and as many syringes as I could. I also threw in some bottles of pills, and little bottles of liquids that had drug names on them. I don’t know what they were, I took them all. I looked at Blake as he struggled to speak.
“Michael… you have to go. Save Lorraine.” He was a coward two minutes ago. Now he’s grown granite balls.
“Come on Blake, you’re coming with us.” I have to try and do something for this kid.
We got outside, Blake nearly falling off the sidewalk.
“What happened?” Erin asked in horror. She could see his blood from the rear Jeep lights.
“I got bit. You guys go. I’m… done… I can feel it…” I didn’t know what to do, or say. He was right, of course. He was done.
Erin came around on his non-bitten side, and leaned up and kissed him on the cheek and held him for a moment.
I put my arm on his shoulder.
“You’re a brave son of a bitch,” I said, my voice cracking.
“Yeah… just go. This really hurts. Fucking hell…”
And Blake turned and walked slowly up the street. In the dim light, some zombies saw him and started shuffling towards him. We had a clean getaway now.
Erin raised her rifle, I pushed it back down.
“No. It’s my job.”
I raised my rifle. Sighted in on the target. I paused for a moment. Exhaled.
Then I pulled the trigger.
– – –
I grabbed a road flare from the back of the Jeep and lit it. I tossed it a couple feet away. I made her drive away, slowly down Main Street without any lights and as soundlessly as possible. I was hoping the flare would draw the zombies towards its light, so they wouldn’t follow us home. We turned the corner, and she punched the accelerator for home.
– – –
“We’re two minutes out,” I said into the radio.
“You’re late,” replied Gayle, tersely. “You guys just fooling around out there?” Ouch.
I didn’t respond.
Erin drove like a Baja 1000 champion. I sat there and bounced around. Somehow I had gotten my seat belt on, I don’t remember doing that.
I should have cleared the rooms before we passed them. I’ve watched enough cop shows and war movies to know that you don’t walk past a fucking room without checking it. Jesus.
Blake’s dead because of me. I got him killed. Then I had to murder him and leave him in the street, like a rabid dog.
We pulled in to our complex and quickly got inside. Gayle anxiously took the trash basket full of drugs and began sorting them out on the table. All the other girls were there, waiting anxiously to see what was going to happen. It only took about three more seconds until someone asked the inevitable question.
“Where’s Blake?”
My throat clamped up as I tried to choke back the tears and the screams. They all looked at me. I couldn’t talk.
Erin rescued me. “He didn’t make it.”
A collective gasp rose from the group, then a bunch of them starting all talking at once.
“Shut up!” hollered Erin. And they did. “Let’s focus on getting Lorraine fixed up.”
Gayle and the others looked at me. I tried to help but my hands were too shaky. I almost spilled the amoxicillan bottle. But I could still help. Sort of.
“Tina,” I finally said, my voice sounding weird to me. “Get the tablet over here. Yeah. Click on the server icon, right. Click Medical, ok click the IV folder, click that file, yeah mixtures.”
Fortunately, I had my downloaded files pretty well organized. We skimmed and found the directions for the proper amount of antibiotic fluid for the IV bag. Erin put in the right amount.
Then we searched the videos and found how to insert a line for the IV. Gayle watched it twice.
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