Desolation: A post-apocalyptic suspense novel, page 5
This done, he pulled the cart into the room and grabbed one of the IV packages. Following the directions, he found a vein in Nathan’s hand, sterilized the area with an alcohol wipe, and attempted to insert the IV. He missed, which he knew because no blood flowed into the little clear plastic thingy like it did in the video. So, he tried a few more times, until he saw he was doing more harm than good.
Will moved to a spot on the wrist and tried there. After two or three tries, he finally got it. He followed the procedures for flushing the IV with saline, then got the bag of saline and plugged it in. He hung the bag from the shower curtain rail and stepped back, nearly glowing with satisfaction.
He was helping. He might actually help save Nathan, and it felt good. Meaningful. Maybe more so than anything he had done in his life. Maybe this was why people went into the medical field?
As Will finished up with Nathan, his stomach felt like it was chewing itself up. He needed food. Not the junk food he had been mollifying himself with, either. He needed real food. Like a cheeseburger.
Or four.
He left Nathan’s room, mind already running over the ingredients he would need, and headed toward the restaurant.
Chapter 5
As he headed into the dining area, Will realized he was going to need some lights. The wing the restaurant was in had windows facing both the pool and the side lot, but the blinds were all down. The result was that the empty dining area was both gloomy and sort of creepy.
He cut his phone’s light on, and began canvassing the walls for switches. He found a large bank of them on the front wall and flipped them all on. Instantly, the entire dining area was bathed in fluorescent light. He headed through the dining area towards the back.
On the back wall there was an opening, and through it and a short little hallway was the entrance to the kitchen. Will entered, then stopped and looked around. There were so many implements and containers, he wasn’t sure where to start. He started exploring.
He located all the food he needed relatively quickly. They kept the unrefrigerated items in a pantry area to the rear of the kitchen. Refrigerated items were kept in a large walk-in fridge, and frozen items were in a smaller walk-in freezer. He was very careful with the doors, visions of freezing to death inside vivid in his head, until he noticed a safety release on the inside of the door. Guess the manufacturers had seen all those movies too.
Will grabbed a bottle of vegetable oil and went over to the griddle. It had a bunch of red temperature knobs and a couple of big red buttons, and he really did not want to blow the place up fiddling with them. He noticed the manufacturer’s name on the front, and back to Google he went in search of a manual.
Ten minutes later, he had the griddle lit and heating, sans explosion. He poured a light coating of oil on the griddle and went to grab the meats.
A few minutes later, he was back with some ground beef and bacon. Another foray into the storage area, and he came back with a slice of bread, milk, minced garlic, Worcestershire sauce, and ketchup.
Pulling a medium bowl down, Will made a panade, or a kind of paste, made from the bread and milk. To this he added some Worcestershire sauce and ketchup, and then a generous helping of garlic, salt, and pepper. He mixed these all into the panade, and then added the beef.
He kneaded all of this with his hands until it was more or less homogeneously mixed, then formed them into two thick patties and placed them on a plate. He then went over to the area with the sinks and thoroughly washed his hands.
With the burgers themselves ready, Will grilled them up along with the bacon. While they were grilling, he toasted the buns. When the meat and buns were ready, he topped them off with lettuce, red onions, and cheese.
Will cut the griddle off, then sat right at the countertop and devoured both burgers, not even stopping for a drink. Hunger truly is the best sauce.
When finished, he went to the soft drink machine and made himself a drink, then carried it back over and cleaned up. Will briefly thought about just leaving it, but who knew how long it was going to take Nathan to recover? He might need to cook tomorrow, and it was no good risking food poisoning at the end of the world.
When finished, Will finally let himself think a little more about Shae and Kai. He felt relieved when the TV message had said it was mostly affecting urban areas, and he had been so busy that he had put it out of his mind. But now that the pressure was off, it was at the forefront.
The scene at the hospital kept replaying in his head. So many dead people. Could it really be contained to urban areas? I mean, Shae had seen the messages and isolated them, so they were probably pretty safe. Lord knows they had enough food stored at his father-in-law’s, and they were pretty isolated on the farm. But with Lewis refusing to stay home from work… What if he got sick and brought it home? What was a safe distance, and would Shae be able to keep Kai, who adored his granddaddy, away? Will’s own class was enough to show him that with this virus, all it took was one person to infect a large group.
As he was pondering this, he realized he had pulled up short in front of Nathan’s door and had been standing there for some time. Putting his family out of his mind briefly, he entered and went to check on Nathan.
Will saw immediately that Nathan had not moved, and that the IV bag was empty. Should he give Nathan more? Will wasn’t sure. Could too much saline hurt him? He also didn’t know the answer to that.
Back to Google he went. Will found out that severe dehydration can result in up to ten percent of the patient’s body weight lost, so that’s how much Will should give him back. Well, weighing Nathan was out of the question. He gave it his best guess and figured Nathan was about 200 pounds, so Will needed to give him twenty pounds of water.
Holy crap. How much was in an IV bag?
Will looked at the IV bag. It said 1051 milliliters. Great, el foreign units. Now he had to convert that into something that made sense to him. Thanks again, American education.
He hit Google again and came up empty on how much a bag of saline solution weighed, but he found a liter of water was one kilogram, which was 2.2 pounds. Close enough. Dude needs ten bags.
Will counted quickly. He had brought six bags from the hospital, counting the one currently hanging, so he was going to have to make another trip before it was over. For now, Will switched the bags out. He needed to continue to monitor so he could switch the bags out as necessary. He also needed to check Nathan’s temperature.
Will grabbed the thermometer and scanned Nathan’s forehead again: 99.6. Still a slight fever, but improving. Good. However, he noticed when he got closer, Nathan’s breathing sounded funny. Will leaned in, close to Nathan’s mouth, and heard what sounded like a soft, wet gurgle deep inside.
That… doesn’t sound good, Will thought.
Back to Google he went, and, after weeding out cancer from the list of likely causes - since that always seems to pop up anytime you search for any medical condition - he got the most likely cause as fluid in the lungs.
Back to Google to find treatments and… nothing. At least, nothing that he could do, being a completely unskilled person with a completely unconscious patient. He knew from his own experience with the virus, lying on his belly so gravity could assist him in coughing up wads of junk seemed to help.
There was no way he could get Nathan in a similar position in the tub, but Will thought with some effort and a few pillows he could get him sitting halfway up on his right side. He grabbed the pillows and got to work.
Just like before, manhandling an unconscious person was just about the hardest thing he had ever done. This time, though, Will had the added challenge of trying to avoid pulling Nathan’s IV out.
After about twenty minutes of sliding, cursing, and sweating, Will got him as close as he could to the desired position, and he was exhausted.
Will went back into the bedroom, grabbed the desk chair and the last pillow, and brought them back into the bathroom. He sat himself up directly opposite Nathan and focused on the problem of how to stay awake while monitoring Nathan. He ultimately concluded that he should just play video games and watch shows on his phone. Will loved video games, though PCs were his system of choice. Still, there must be some good mobile games, and he had nothing but time.
The decision made, Will checked the battery on his phone and noticed it getting low again. He went back down to the reception desk and retrieved his charger. Back in Nathan’s bathroom, he plugged it in and settled in for a long night of watching.
Chapter 6
Will stood on the mound, a warm breeze bringing the mingled smells of pine needles and freshly cut grass. In front of him, sloped gently down, was home plate. Behind it, dressed up in the borrowed catcher’s gear he used, was little Kai.
The gear was two sizes too big for him, with the chest protector overlapping his limbs. The whole getup made him look comical, like some sort of baseball turtle. It struck Will as cute, like it always did, and he suppressed a grin. Kai’s little face was serious behind his mask, and it was a serious situation, so Will needed to focus.
The coach, sitting in the dugout to the left, was the head coach of one of the best travelling baseball teams in the ten and under age division. He was also a former pro ball player himself, and that kind of coaching, day in and day out, could help a young talent develop a lot. This tryout was important.
Will’s job was to pitch balls to Kai so the coach could see how Kai reacted. It didn’t occur to Will until much later how weird this was.
Normally, the coach would throw to Kai himself, or have one of his pitchers throw. But like a lot of dreams, this one was a mixture of memories and fantasy, and logic was not consulted.
Kai called for a fastball, low and outside. Will gripped the ball, did a half windup, and released. The ball caught way too much of the plate, and there was a nice crack as the ball hit the mitt. Kai tossed the ball back, and Will wiped a bit of sweat from his forehead as he went back to the mound.
The next pitch was a curve, low and inside. Will gripped and threw. The ball broke, but not that much. Mostly, Will didn’t throw it hard enough, and it bounced a good foot in front of and to the left of the plate. Kai, not missing a beat, scrambled over and hunkered down, blocking and retrieving it.
Will flushed. He wasn’t much of an athlete, unlike his son, and he wasn’t good at baseball. The only reason he knew how to throw these pitches was because of Kai; Will had taught himself so that he could help Kai when they were practicing at home. He was never a pitcher, or much of anything else really, when he was in little league. He was too afraid of getting hit by the ball, which was something that also filled him with shame.
Will caught the return throw, sighed heavily, and walked back to the mound. The good thing was that he liked and understood the game. He had spent hours explaining the statistics behind first pitch strikes or left/right versus right/right batting and pitching matchups with Kai. Ultimately, Kai understood them too, which filled Will with pride.
Next call: changeup, right down the pipe. Will gripped, wound up, released. The ball sailed a little, but ultimately was in the strike zone, and Kai had no problem handling it. Soft crack as it hit the mitt.
Slider, low and outside. Difficult pitch for him in a hard position. Grip, wind up, release. Too far outside. Kai scrambled and made a great play to block the ball and prevent it going to the backstop.
Will was sweating badly now as Kai returned the ball. His stomach was clenched tight with worry that he was going to mess this up for Kai.
Somehow, somewhere deep inside, he already knows Kai doesn’t make the team. Will knows because this has already happened, just not quite in the same way. But here, now, Will’s only thoughts are that he can’t screw this up for Kai. He has to do better; keep the ball manageable.
The next pitch was easy. Fastball, high and tight. Chin music, but in the zone. Grip, windup, release. The ball sailed far over Kai’s head. He jumped, but he had no chance at catching this ball. It struck the fence with a hollow thud and fell to the ground.
Something struck Will as odd about this, but he can’t put his finger on it. Kai scooped the ball up expertly and returned it.
As always, there’s no judgement in his little eyes, they seem to just be saying ‘You can do it, Dad.’ It breaks Will’s heart. He’s going to screw this up for Kai, and Kai won’t even blame Will for it, he’ll blame himself instead.
Will tried to regain his composure as he walked back to the mound. Visualizes what he has to do in his mind. Tries to concentrate fully.
The call is for a changeup, low. He felt confident of this one, felt like he did everything right. But the ball disagreed, and it also sailed, hitting the chain-link fence with another hollow thump.
Kai scrambled for the ball, which took a weird bounce and rolled halfway to third. Will shook his head, disgusted with himself. Kai came back smiling.
As Kai threw the ball back, he said, “You got it Dad. Don’t try to aim it, just throw.”
How many times had he given Kai the same advice? Will sighed. He nodded to Kai and returned to the mound.
Curveball, low and outside. Concentrate. Visualize. Don’t aim. Grip, wind up, release.
This ball was perfect. It broke late, going right to the edge of the zone, and then shot hard outside to slam into the fence with a thud.
What in the fuck? That’s not possible. And the thumping, it shouldn’t sound like that, it should be a metallic jingling sound when it hits the fence.
Just as this thought entered Will’s head, another ball slammed into the fence with the same thud, followed by another and another. Is someone throwing behind him? Someone trying to sabotage Kai’s tryout?
Oh shit, this is a dream. I’m asleep and… Nathan!
* * *
With that, Will shot bolt upright in his chair, sending his phone, which had been playing reruns of Top Gear, skittering onto the floor. That hollow thumping followed him into the real world. He glanced at Nathan and froze.
Nathan was still on his side, but his eyes were open and bloodshot as they stared into nothingness. The veins in his neck were standing out, and his face was changing from red to purple. A choked, gurgling sound was coming from him, and his feet were kicking spasmodically, hitting the side of the tub with a hollow thump, thump, thump.
Will jumped up and pried Nathan’s mouth open, which was full of reddish phlegm. He took two fingers and began scooping it out. It had the feel of congealed fat, but warm, and the smell was kind of sour and coppery. It was awful, and Will couldn’t get to all of it. There was too much, and it went too far down Nathan’s throat.
He tried to roll Nathan over on his stomach, but it was even harder now that Nathan was tensed. He finally got him over, but as he did, Nathan quit kicking, and his right arm curled up under him slowly in a way that reminded Will of those special needs kids from school. It looked like something a living person would never intentionally do, and Will knew instinctively that Nathan was gone.
“Oh, fuck, come on Nathan, no, no, no,” Will muttered as he wrenched Nathan back over onto his side. Nathan’s eyes still stared blankly, but now the whites were blood red. Some distant part of Will’s mind, still logically processing things, clicked a puzzle piece into place.
That’s why they all had those eerie black eyes, he thought. The vessels in their eyes must have burst as they choked to death, and when the blood dried, the eyes turned black.
Nathan wasn’t moving at all now, and the horrible choking sound had stopped. Will reached down and checked for a pulse, finding nothing.
“GODDAMN it!” Will shouted, overcome with frustration at the injustice of it all. He plopped wearily back into the chair and stared blankly at Nathan. All for nothing. All that work. He did everything he could, and none of it mattered.
A distant part of his brain answered: Not everything. You could have stayed awake.
“Fuck that,” Will answered out loud, defiantly. I got all but two goddamn bags of saline into Nathan, and the poor guy didn’t die of dehydration. He died choking on his own phlegm. Nothing, perhaps short of getting him out of the tub and back onto the bed where he could lie face down, would have prevented that.
Could Will have moved Nathan back onto the bed? He didn’t think so, as tired as he was, but, maybe? It was hard to say.
What a fuckup, Will thought as he wearily rubbed his eyes.
Well, that’s the last of them, he thought. All of his students, gone. Some job you did taking care of them, Will.
Shut up, he admonished himself. Beating yourself up isn’t going to help anything. At least now you can get back home and check on Shae and Kai.
He looked over one more time at Nathan, and was immediately struck by a memory of a movie his parents had, in a lapse of judgment, let him watch as a small child. It was The Shining, a movie about a family that got stuck in a haunted hotel during a blizzard.
One scene that struck him hard was the scene where the main character, Jack, went into a room to find a beautiful woman nude in the tub, beckoning him forward. As he embraced her, she turned into a rotted, bloated old crone.
This scene disturbed him more than all the others. Something about the enticement of her nudity followed up so swiftly by the revulsion of the bloated corpse had stuck with him to this day.
Will shuddered a little as he recognized the parallels between the movie and his current reality. He didn’t believe in ghosts; hell, he didn’t even believe in God or spirits. But that didn’t stop him from getting a little creeped out. Rationality had very little to do with fear.
Will decided he was getting the fuck out of here right now. He grabbed his charger and headed out to the hallway, absently shutting Nathan’s door and dropping the key on the carpet. Will shivered involuntarily as the sound of the door shutting echoed a little in the silent hallway. Visions of little ghost girls riding tricycles down halls entered his head, and Will cursed his, or rather Stephen King’s, imagination.
