Chapter 9
Joey ran down the base’s path. He knew it as good as anyone else did and was confident he could find Patrick in no time. He passed Kya who was carrying a small basket. He swung back around picking her up off the ground to give her a huge hug. “Hey, I’m going to go find Patrick. Do you want to come with me, Kya?”
“No, that’s okay, Joey. I have something to do. He’s going to meet up with me later after you two are done getting into trouble. What are your guy’s plans, anyways?”
Joey laughed hysterically and then stopped. “Well, we don’t have any plans, Kya. I don’t know what we’re gonna do. Checkers, we’re going to play checkers.”
“Good times, Joey.”
Joey looked around making sure that no one was within earshot and whispered in her ear. “Greg is gonna get me some stuff at the Home Depot. They’re going to get Pepsi and some beef jerky. If you keep it on the low down I will share. There’s going to be a lot of kids around that probably want some but I want to make sure that my friends on base get some first, before I offer it to anyone else.”
Kya rubbed his shoulder. “Joey, I don’t know how that heart of yours fits into your chest. I think you might have one problem though, bud.”
“I do?”
She smiled as she turned to walk away. “You are forgetting one thing; you are friends with everyone, Joey. Greg would have to bring back a truckload of that stuff for everyone that you like to have a piece.”
“Oh no, I didn’t think about that. I’m going to have to radio Greg and tell him to make sure that he gets more. There has to be like a thousand people on base.”
“Try more like a hundred or less, Joey. We haven’t taken on anyone new since Bella and the survivors at the mall came.”
Joey was thinking it over in his head. “No problem, Kya, I can work with a hundred. We’re gonna have to chop it up into chunks but I can do it. We’ll give it out with supper as dessert. It has to be better than whatever Aslin is cooking.”
“If we’re lucky maybe someone else is going to take over cooking duty. There’s a few of the newbies that came in who are pretty good cooks. We can only be so lucky. You tell Patrick to come find me after you rock out with some checkers for a while, okay?”
Joey gave her a thumbs up and went running back down towards the fence line. He hoped that was where he was going to be seeing Patrick. When he got to the top of a hill he saw Patrick and Bella standing near the fence.
Chapter 10
Patrick sat next to the fence looking into the distance waiting to hear something, to see anything. He said, “I don’t know what that was. Could’ve been anything.”
“Okay, so let's finish up our shift. We’re running late.”
Patrick said, “I don’t think that Scott and Chandler are going to be in too big of a rush to get moving on a round of guard duty. We finish our shift when our work is done.”
“You know the way that you take charge of your duty you’d think that you were a seven foot tall soldier,” Bella said. “I think any camp that has you in it would be lucky to have you. You think you are going to be here forever, Patrick?”
Patrick nodded and said, “The only way I’d ever leave is if there wasn’t anyone left. Or if Shaun left to go wage a war on the dead somewhere else. I’d probably follow him anywhere. He has ideas like no one else, but he needs someone by his side that knows what they’re doing and can keep calm when the crap hits the fan.”
“Isn’t that what his friend Greg and Ellie are for?”
“We’ve been together since day one. I got up to his cabin back on day one. His dad saved us from a horde. We went straight to their family property and I hadn’t remembered my insulin, well let me tell you that doesn’t do too damn well for my body. I was about dead the next day and they went down to retrieve it. From then on we’ve been fighting to survive right alongside each other.”
Bella was nodding her head slowly staring at him with a look of guilt. Patrick said, “Sorry, did I say something wrong, Bella?”
She shook her head no, wiping at a tear, and said, “No, I was just feeling bad. You seem like a nice guy.”
Patrick said, “I don’t understand?”
Bella brought her right hand up before Patrick could put together what she was doing. A knife blade glistened and then a flow of warm fluid came down his neck. He gripped at her and she pushed his arm off. “If I didn’t do it, my dad would have and it would have been ten times worse. You guys should never have left the base; you would have been better off staying here.” She switched channels on her radio and said, “Hey, it’s clear to move now, do it now.”
A voice came back, “We’ll be there in a minute. We didn’t want that little shit hitting us with that sniper rifle.”
Bella looked back to Patrick on his knees, a pool of blood dribbling through his fingers. His face was going white and his hands were shaking violently from the blood loss and the rage going through him. He fell to the ground, Bella was looking around nervously and when she looked back she saw he was no longer holding his neck with both hands. Patrick had his pack on the ground and his rifle resting on it. She was holding her hands up waiting for the pain that she could not imagine to come through her thin body. She had seen the boy shoot and knew that he did not miss although she was praying that he would.
Patrick focused through the scope doing everything that he could to not pass out. The blood loss was worse than any flu or diabetic episode that he’d ever had to deal with. When he had what he wanted in his crosshairs he squeezed the trigger as gently as he could. The gun erupted sending a thunderous boom across the field they had been travelling to.
Bella closed her eyes when the gun went off wincing and crouching. When all that was left was the ringing in her ears, she stood up a little bit straighter. The immediate sirens went off and when she turned around she saw two things and both, she knew, were not good. The first was Joey standing atop of the hill screaming, the second was smoke rising from the warning systems that were all over the camp. They had installed warning switches and trip wires everywhere to let the living know if the dead were on the premises.
A full on siren would warn everyone. She also knew that it would bring the dead from the nearby city in droves. There was little other way to let people know, flashing lights would be useless during the day, and if people were inside they would never seem them. They had gone round and round about this discussion she’d been told.
She looked down at Patrick who had let go of his rifle and was lying on the ground with his hands clasped limply to his neck. Blood was still coming through them but the flow of it had slowed down immensely. She could hear men in the woods making their way towards the fence screaming to one another to get moving. She hoped that they weren’t more than one or two hundred yards into the woods. She knew from the long walks on duty with Patrick how thick the brush was and worried that they might have issues trying to make their way through the wooded surroundings.
Chapter 11
Joey stood atop the hill smiling and seeing Patrick and Bella standing near the fence. He squinted when he saw her pulling a knife from her side. Joey went to scream but was confused and frozen in place. The actions that he was watching were as horrific as anything he had ever had to witness and that was a feat considering he had watched his own mother being gnawed on by his father while trapped in by his seatbelt, and then days later his own sister eaten alive. Joey watched as she brought the knife up. The only thing that was able to escape him was a single tear that twisted and turned as it went down his cheek.
Joey who was always more concerned with others welfare than his own took off in a sprint. Bella saw him coming after she stopped focusing on the blaring siren going off. He was pumping his arms with everything that he could muster.
When he was within twenty-feet, she pulled the pistol from her side taking aim at Joey; who to her amazement never stopped running. Joey had his head down and was coming straight for her. She started squeezing off bullets but the boy was running in a zigzag motion because he was trying not to fall over the uneven ground as he made his way as quickly as he could towards her. The only thing that he cared about right now was saving Patrick.
Joey felt what he could only compare to a bee sting hit his side. He winced and put a hand to it as he ran bringing it up and seeing fresh blood covering his hand. Bella smiled watching this but her smile grew more into shock when he did not stop. She tried moving out of his way but she was his sole target. Joey saw the number fifty-five in his mind from the tackling dummy at his home as he moved with blinding speed. Joey hit her with everything that he had sending her off her feet and back into the fence five feet behind her. She let out a groan when Joey hit her full on with his shoulder.
He dropped to his knees uncaring about her and kneeling next to Patrick. He said, “Patrick, Patrick, are you okay?”
Bella tried pushing up with her pistol but fell back to the ground. She laughed. “You fucking idiot, of course he isn’t okay, he’s dying. God, you are pathetic.”
She leveled her pistol pulling back the hammer but Joey saw this and was already pushing up from the ground still uncaring about his wound. He pulled his bat from behind his back and brought it down once onto her wrist snapping it to the bone and then a second swing and the sound of it hitting her skull echoed across as loudly as the rifle had. Joey screamed with the tears in his eyes full on pouring out. He said, “You don’t hurt Patrick. He’s my brother! I'm not stupid, I'm special and it is okay to be special!”
The lights went out for Bella and she dropped her pistol and blood began to pool next to where her skull landed in the dirt. Joey brought it up one more time and then down as hard as he could be making sure that she would not be getting up then knelt down and took the pistol away from her. He wiped at his face getting the speckles of her blood on his arm. He grabbed Patrick’s gear and rifle. He found a field bandage to help stop the blood and wrapped it around Patrick’s neck before he stuck a second one on his side like he’d seen Lou show people during a brief emergency class they had been a part of the previous month. Lou had wanted to make sure people knew emergency techniques if the worse happened.
He picked Patrick up in his arms wincing from the pain. “You’re going to be okay, Patrick. I'm not gonna let nobody hurt you again. You’ll be okay, I promise. Joey’s going to take you to Lou and Lou is going to fix you. He’s going to make you okay again. You hang in there, Patrick. I'm going to get you there as quickly as I can.”
Joey took off in a run feeling faint. He shook it off with each step refusing to let Patrick down. He had the same love for him that he had for his own brother. Joey looked down as he ran seeing the tan bandage that he’d applied slowly turn to red. Joey had full on tears streaming down his face and felt like his heart was breaking the darker that the bandage grew. He said, “Mr. Lou’s gonna know what to do. He’s going to be able to fix you, Patrick, I know it. He’s real good at collecting blood. You ought to have plenty of it there to make you better. Mr. Lou can put new blood in you; maybe you’ll become a mutant or a super hero.”
Joey ran straight for the medical building where he knew that he would find Lou. He kicked the doors open as he ran towards them but they were locked. Joey screamed to no one in particular. He could feel Patrick’s heartbeat under his arm and it was not beating heavily by any means. Joey ran around the side of the building seeing Lou ushering people to a safe spot. Those who had just had blood drawn would need a while before they could run, unless there would be worries they would pass out.
Lou was screaming to people where to go. They had drills before and Joey knew that they had a shelter beneath the building that could handle a tank blasting it. There was a lock that no one would fight their way through either. Lou could not hear Joey and he brought his bat and beat at the window until it shattered. Lou turned around knowing immediately that something was wrong with Joey. The boy’s face was white and he’d never so much as had anything but a healthy complexion for as long as he had known him.
Lou ran to the window and his heart sank when he saw Patrick. He turned and sprinted to the front doors. Ellie saw him running and yelled, “Lou, what the hell are you doing? We need to get in here and lock this thing down. There’s sirens going off, that is major shit!”
“I’m aware, Ellie. I don’t have a choice. It is Joey and Patrick and they both look hurt!”
Ellie handed a radio to Scott and said, “You keep everyone calm. Turn the light on so no one freaks out, and until I say 562 into this radio you stay in here no matter what you hear. You guys have plenty of rations stored here so you could make it a few days if you need to. Only if the worst of the worst happens.”
Scott looked down at the teens in the room guessing there were fifteen in there. They’d been the last of the group to donate, not out of laziness but because of the amazing response that they had received from the survivors living there. Scott said, “Don't make it a few days, please. People will lose their shit if it's for that long.”
Ellie said, “Scott, seriously close the effing door and lock it down tight. I’ll radio you just as soon as I can.”
When he complied as the last few teens sprinted in he shut it and the lock could be heard engaging. Ellie looked at Lou thinking about it and pushed some carts and beds across the entrance. If someone walked in they would easily walk right past it. They had removed all signage stating that the room was there.
Ellie turned and sprinted to Lou who was swearing up a storm as he was fumbling to unlock the doors. When he finally got them open a very impatient Joey was waiting for him. Lou started to say something and knew an explanation probably wasn’t needed. He said, “Come on, Joey, this way. Are you okay holding him? I can take him if you are tired.”
“Just show me where you want Patrick at. I need you to save Patrick! I need you to show me where you want to put him because you need to save him, Mr. Lou, you can't let nothing happen. He’s supposed to have a date with Kya later and he can’t have a date if you let him die, Mr. Lou!”
Lou was so concerned with Patrick he’d forgotten about Joey looking pale as well. He said, “Just get him on this bed, Joey.”
When Joey laid him down the shirt he’d been wearing was stained up and down the side of it with blood. Lou was going to ask Joey something when his eyes rolled into the back of his head and he dropped to the floor almost bouncing off it as hard as he had hit. Lou looked at the boy and then at Ellie and said, “Fuck.”
Before he pulled the bandage back on Patrick’s neck he checked the boy’s wrist and felt no pulse. He waited a twenty count making sure that was the case and looked at the time on the wall. It was more out of instinct than anything but recorded the boy’s time of death. Ellie was watching the window and Lou said, “Can you help me over here?”
Ellie helped him get Joey situated in a bed and when he pulled the boy's shirt up saw the blood that was seeping out past the bandage he’d applied himself. Lou ripped quickly and the boy didn’t so much as flinch, he was out for the count.
When gunfire erupted outside Ellie ran to where Joey had dropped the gear and found Patrick’s machine gun and sniper rifle. She gathered them both as well as all of the ammunition. She hadn’t fired a gun in over a month but had forgotten nothing. She knew to save the high power rounds because she had very little experience behind the butt of one. She knew that bursts from an AR-15 were going to be more effective for a quick clearing. Ellie used a metal crutch sitting in the room and sent it through a window pane clearing the glass as much as she needed to so that she would be able to rest on the window seal with the rifle.
Lou rolled Joey to his side seeing if the bullet had passed through and cursed when he saw no exit wound. He looked at the blood coming and the fact that it wasn’t black actually made him feel better momentarily. He knew from experience that it had not hit any organs which gave him an immense sense of relief. Ellie yelled, “Hey, Lou, is he gonna?”
Lou was looking at the wound, washing it and shrugged. “I don’t know but I think so. I’m going to sew him up and then we need to keep him still. I just hope that he hasn’t lost too much blood. If we would have had time to test everyone to see what their blood type was we would have a shit ton of it for the kid.”
Ellie said, “And what about Patrick? Why are you sewing him up isn’t he shot, don’t you need to remove the bullet?”
Lou said, “Yeah, if it was TV it’d be a great thing to take the bullet out. Most surgeons leave the bullet alone. You can do just as much damage to the body removing it as it incurred when it was shot. We leave it, if it isn’t in any organs he should be okay.”
“How the hell do you know that?”
“Because if it did strike an organ then he’s going to die and there isn’t a damn thing I can do about it, Ellie.”
“Is he going to live or not, Lou?”
“Ellie, the only one that knows that is God, but I’d have to question his intention letting something like this happen to two kids that couldn’t be nicer. We need to push him into the safety bunker, this bed will detach from the wheel part.”
Ellie helped him carry everything, wondering more so now than ever when Shaun and the others were going to get back. She didn’t like the idea of him being gone and throwing death and strangers into the mix did little for her overall psyche. She hit the radio telling Scott to open it with the numbers she had told him. When he lifted it a group pulled Joey up off the wheels and carried his bed and IV down to the shelter. Everyone stared at him, no one wanting to ask what happened. Ellie turned to run and Lou gripped her around the stomach lifting her and taking her back down. Ellie screamed, kicked, and bucked trying to free herself but she was still weak and looked like a toddler in Lou’s massive arms. Lou hushed her as he carried her down into the cellar. He said, “I'm sorry, Ellie, but I can’t let anything happen to you. I know I'm not your dad but I'm the only one that is looking out for you right now.”
“What are you doing, Lou? You have to let go, you need to let me out, there’s strangers and we need to keep this base ours!”
Lou said, “If it was a month from now and you could run fifty yards without getting dizzy and falling over then I would be okay with that.”
Ellie said, “You don’t understand. What do you think we’re going to do if they take this fucking base, Lou? If you didn’t notice I don’t see your daughters anywhere, do you know where they are?”
Lou had been so busy with her and the boys coming in that it was the last thing he had been thinking of. He set her down holding up a hand to tell Scott to wait before shutting the door. He hit the radio saying, “Karen, Theresa where are you, it’s dad?”
Karen the older of the two and full of fright in her voice screamed, “Daddy, where are you? Who’s shooting, why aren’t they in the practice range? Everyone is freaking out and we don’t have anywhere to go!”
Lou cringed hearing she had nowhere to seek refuge. He said, “Where are you, honey? I will come get you. I won’t let anything happen to you.”
“We are in the bunk house. This thing’s made of freaking sheet metal. If those bullets come for us we’re screwed. What are you going to do, almost everyone is in here, dad?”
Lou said, “It’s okay, it’s a straight shot there. Do you have your sister with you? Do you know where Theresa is?”
“Yeah, she’s sitting right next to me. We were on breakfast duty this morning, so we got up at the crack of dawn. We wanted to take a powernap after we got off shift so we could help tonight. What is going on, dad?”
“Karen, I don’t have any answers. I was doing the blood drive when this started. We still have people gone; people that we’d be better off having here to help right now. I have a feeling it is people that we don’t want here. I'm going to make a break for it and try to get to you. I want you to find anything that looks sturdy and use it to blockade yourselves in. You take care of your sister, I'm not kidding damn it! You don’t let her out of your sight.”
Karen said, “Hurry, daddy, please!”
Lou looked to Ellie who was stuffing magazines in her pocket. She said, “I'm ready if you are. Do you know how to shoot anything, Lou?”
“Not well enough to hit something twice in a row.”
Ellie looked to Scott and saw the bandage on his arm from the blood drive. She said, “You going to be able to make it if we need some help, Scott?”