Saving the Dead, page 9
“Young man, are you asking me to expose my bosom so that you can perform this EKG thing?”
Justin flushed. “Um yes, ma’am.”
She shook her head. “I’m sorry, but I simply cannot allow that.”
At a loss for words, Justin looked from her to his mentor.
Ramirez cleared his throat. “May I ask you why, Mrs. Browning?”
“Oh, Leo, I simply cannot be held responsible for imposing on young Justin’s virtue. That is a cross I simply will not bear!”
“My virtue?” said Justin.
Drifts snorted and said under his breath, “His going price just went up.”
Louis Browning groaned. “Mother, that is what he’s learning to do. Let the boy do his job.”
“No, I will not hear of it.”
“So if I’m to understand you correctly,” Ramirez said, “You’re not objecting to us doing an EKG. You just don’t want Justin to do it because you want to preserve . . . his . . .”
She finished for him, “His virtue. That is correct.”
Ramirez nodded. “Very well. Will you object to Sam doing your EKG then?”
“Hey!” cried Sam.
She smiled. “Oh my, no.”
“What about preserving my virtue!” blurted Drifts.
“Oh, come now, Samuel,” said Mrs. Browning. “We both know that our virtue has long since left the likes of us.”
She then winked at him. Drifts stared back at her slack jawed.
“Go on, Sam,” Ramirez prompted his partner with a small smile. Drifts spared him a scathing look that promised a future colorful conversation. Ramirez winked back.
Drifts snatched the EKG leads out of Justin’s hand. “Give me that!”
With clipped motions, Drifts hurriedly applied the monitor’s sticker to her chest while Justin obtained her blood pressure, avoiding eye contact with the EMT.
A minute later, Drifts tore the EKG strip out of the monitor and glanced at it. “Huh.”
Louis snapped on the sound like a trap on a rat. “What is it! What did you see?”
Drifts ignored him as he handed the paper to his partner. “Here you go, Leo.”
Ramirez took a moment to look over the tracings. His silence was too much for the son to handle, “Is there something wrong? Tell me!”
“Sir, please remain calm.” He looked from the man to his mother and asked, “Mrs. Browning, do you have any heart conditions that we should be aware of?”
“Oh my no. I’m no longer a spring chicken, but I’m as healthy as a horse. Why, I go walking with my friend Dotty every Monday and Wednesday and every other Friday. Our church has a bridge luncheon every other Friday, and we go to that instead. It is quite the fun time, I must say.”
“Mother, they don’t care about your bridge games. Please just answer their question!” Louis whirled on Ramirez. “Why are you asking about her heart?”
“Louis Montgomery Browning!” snapped Mrs. Browning. “Have you misplaced your manners? You must have, because I have not seen them all night! I must say, I have never been so embarrassed. It’s bad enough that you invited these poor men into our home in the middle of the night, but you have the audacity to speak to them so poorly in front of me!”
“But Mother they are worried about your heart.”
She waved his comment away. “Oh, pshaw! They aren’t worried about any such thing.” She looked at Ramirez for confirmation. “Leo, please put my son’s mind at ease and tell him that my heart is as healthy as it can be.”
“Actually, I do have some concerns,” Ramirez reluctantly admitted.
“Oh Mother!” wailed Louis.
“Now, now, Leo, you must watch what you say around my Louis. It doesn’t take much to upset him. There was this one time that he-”
“I’m sorry to interrupt, ma’am,” Ramirez said, “but we really need to consider taking you to the hospital.”
“The hospital? Oh my! Whatever for?”
“Well, based on your EKG, I believe you might be having a heart attack.”
Louis burst into tears and ran from the room. “Oh, Mother, no!”
“I wish you hadn’t said such a thing young, man! You’ve upset my Louis!”
“I wish I could have helped that, ma’am, but in truth I couldn’t see another way around it. I would like to start treating you and get you ready to go to the hospital.”
“Leo, what you are saying is most upsetting. Do you really think all of this is necessary?”
Ramirez nodded. “In my professional opinion, I believe that you are having a life threatening emergency. May we treat you?”
Mrs. Browning, momentarily at a loss for words, merely nodded.
“Thank you.” He looked at his student. “Justin, will you please start an IV?”
Justin nodded as reached into the medical bag for the needed supplies. Drifts put an oxygen mask on her while Ramirez watched his student look for a vein.
Mrs. Browning asked again, “Is all of this really necessary?”
Before Ramirez could answer Drifts jumped up and yelled, “What the fuck!”
Ramirez whirled around automatically taking a defensive stance in front of the kneeling Justin. His flashlight appeared in his hand almost under its own volition.
“Samuel! Do not use such hateful language in my home!” Mrs. Browning scolded.
Drifts ignored her as he focused on the doorway, which she had failed to notice in light of his recent remarks.
Standing there was Louis with tears streaming down his ample cheeks, aiming a shotgun at them.
He stammered, “Y-you don’t have the right to talk that way around my mother!”
Drifts held up his hands. “Look man, I’m sorry. You just startled me. I apologize to both you and your lovely mother.”
Ramirez slowly took a step in front of his partner.
His movement drew Louis to aim the barrel at him. Ramirez didn’t flinch.
“Don’t move!”
Ramirez locked eyes with him as he asked calmly, “Mr. Browning, what are you doing?”
As Ramirez stepped in front of Drifts, Mrs. Browning’s view was no longer hindered. “Louis! What on Earth are you thinking? You’re liable to scare these poor chaps half to death!”
Louis swung the shotgun towards her. “I’m sorry mother!” He shook his head. “I can’t bear the thought of letting you become one of those things!”
Mrs. Browning gasped. Ramirez took another step. Louis swung the shotgun back towards him. “Don’t come any closer! I don’t want to hurt you! But I will if you make me!”
Ramirez held up his hands. “I won’t Louis, but I need you to be calm. Just remain calm, please. Right now everything is okay. Your mother is doing fine. We just need to get her to the hospital so that she can get the care she needs to be with you for a long, long time.”
He shook his head, “Don’t lie to me! You said it yourself! She’s having a heart attack! She’s not going to be okay!”
“Not if you keep waiving that gun around like that, no,” said Ramirez. “But a heart attack is treatable if you let us do what we can. You don’t want to lose her right? We can help you with that. She’s all you have left after the outbreak?”
Louis looked at him. “How did you know?”
“I can see the pain your eyes. I lost someone special too during the outbreak, my son, David.”
Drifts watched his partner soberly.
“Did you see him turn?”
Ramirez nodded slowly. “Yes.”
“My God!” the son said. “I didn’t see it happen to my Daddy, but I saw my Lucille change. Along with so many others. We had evacuated to the stadium during the outbreak.”
The crew looked at the man with dawning horror. The city’s stadium incident was among the biggest tragedies in the area. Thousands of people went there seeking refuge, but only a few hundred came out.
Behind them, Mrs. Browning stifled a sob. “Oh, Louis, please don’t talk about that horrible place! I simply can’t bear it.”
“It’s okay, Mrs. Browning,” Ramirez reassured her. “Some things are just too big to hold in. Why don’t you go with Justin out to our ambulance? He’ll take good care of you while your son and I talk for a bit.”
Louis shook his head. “No! She is not going anywhere! I won’t let her become one of those things!”
“What happened at the stadium?”
He shook his head. “I didn’t want to go! I didn’t! Daddy insisted, and there wasn’t anything you could do once he made up his mind. I tried to tell him I didn’t agree. I couldn’t convince him so I went along, and my Lucille foolishly followed me!”
“You were being an obedient son,” Mrs. Browning said approvingly.
“I was being a coward, following Daddy’s stupid plan!”
“How dare you speak ill of your father!” she snapped.
“Enough Mother!” Louis shouted, bringing his shotgun to bear. “The stadium was a deathtrap! You, I, and the whole city know that now! But we didn’t pay the cost! All those thousands of other people did, along with Daddy and Lucille.”
“What happened?” Ramirez gently repeated.
Drifts watched Louis for any opening to spring.
“My family and I were among the last to arrive at the stadium. By then the outbreak had reached pandemic proportions. We were seeing the first signs of cracks in our social structure. It was overcrowded and cramped, but the worst part was how bad the stadium stunk!” Louis shook his head. “I take several showers a day, and I still can’t get the smell out of my nostrils. The stadium reeked of sweat, urine, and shit.”
“Louis!” shouted Mrs. Browning. “I will not have you using that foul language in my home!”
“I’m sorry, Mother.”
The crew looked between the two of them. Despite the presence of the gun their relationship still upheld some rules.
Louis looked at Ramirez. “It smelled so bad. And there was no getting away from the stench. We were so packed in we could hardly move without bumping into one another. At first everyone let the jostling pass, but as the hours became days and the days became weeks, people became less understanding.
“Tensions were high. Food portions were meager at first then they stopped coming altogether. People were starting to get sick. The medical staff couldn’t keep up. People were starting to die just from lack of resources. The staff could not keep up with dying that had begun to turn. People had to put down their own loved ones. It was horrible!”
“What finally happened?” Ramirez asked as he took an unobtrusive step forward.
“What happened? It was chaos. I’m not sure, but I think we were near the epicenter when the tension in the stadium imploded.”
“I remember hearing an argument nearby. I ignored it at first. They were common then, but then something about it pulled my attention.” He looked at Ramirez. “Some woman was yelling about putting down a baby before it turned, and the mother obviously disagreeing came at her with a gun.
“Suddenly there was the sound of machine gun fire and the whole place erupted into chaos. People were screaming, running, and fighting; they were being trampled to death and no one was stopping! There was more gunfire coming from all sides. I saw a man go down as a bullet took him in the chest.” He shook his head. “I never saw where the shot came from.
“Everyone was in a blind panic. I tried to hold onto Lucille’s hand, but a surge of people swept her out of my grip. I tried to get to her, Daddy tried to help me. We were both punching and shoving our way after her. If people retaliated, I didn’t notice.
“By the time we reached her, she had been trampled to death. I wanted to scream! But something crashed into me. Daddy was wrestling a runner. The dead were inside the stadium. I started to kick at it, but then I saw one chasing Mother.” He shook his head. “I don’t know what happened next. I just remember holding Mother, and we both were very bloody. I looked over and saw Daddy lying on the ground being devoured by three of those things.”
Mrs. Browning burst into tears.
“Then I saw my Lucille. I wish I hadn’t. Her body was broken, but her head was intact, and she was trying to rise.” A sob escaped him. “I wish I had taken the time help her rest in peace. But more of those damned things came. I learned later that somebody in a blind panic had opened the stadium gates and the dead swarmed in.”
He looked at Ramirez. “To this day, I don’t know how Mother and I escaped. I know in the days that followed, I did so many things I’m not proud of.”
Ramirez nodded. “I know you have. I know the pain of watching someone you love die before your eyes. It leaves its mark, one that you will never shake. Don’t do this.” He pointed at the gun. “Don’t let this be another regret.”
“I can appreciate your desire to not let her be one of those things. I think, however, that the shotgun is a bit premature. We can still help your mother if you let us do our jobs.”
“You can?”
Ramirez nodded, “Yes, now can I have the gun, please?”
For a tense, silent moment, Louis looked down at the gun in his hands. He then relaxed his grip and relinquished the shotgun to Ramirez.
Ramirez took the gun and passed it back to his partner. Drifts’s hand grabbed the weapon hungrily and pumped it furiously until all the shells clattered to the ground.
“It’s empty.” Drifts said with entirely too much control in his voice.
“Good,” said Ramirez. “Sam, Justin, why don’t the two of you load Mrs. Browning into the ambulance and finish getting her set up to transport.”
Obviously reluctant to leave his partner behind, the tattooed EMT asked, “Are you sure?”
“I believe that we’ll be okay.” Ramirez placed an amiable arm on Louis’s shoulder, “Mr. Browning, I am going to call in another ambulance for you. I believe we need to get you some help with your stress and coping trouble.”
Louis looked at him genuinely perplexed. “You really think I have trouble coping?”
Chapter Six
The Trouble with Transfers
Unfortunately for them, there wasn’t another unit available to pawn Louis Browning off on, so they agreed to transport him in the back of their rig where he sat in the captain’s chair. They did, however, get a police escort along the way in case their second patient decided to try to do anything en route. Louis remained calm, even nodding sheepishly as Mrs. Browning regaled them with childhood tales of his bedwetting and his aversion to beef.
At the hospital Louis watched, in handcuffs provided by the escorting cops, as the emergency room crew swarmed over his mother and prepared her for emergent cardiac catheterization. He started to get anxious again, but immediately calmed down when the cardiologist showed him the Cath lab’s emergency hot-drill. The doctor assured him that he was quite adept at using the device. He watched in silence as they rushed his mother down the hall, after which he went placidly with the crew as they checked him into the emergency room’s locked down psychiatric ward. The accompanying officer took off his handcuffs, and before anyone could respond, Louis hugged Drifts and broke down crying on the EMT’s shoulder. Once they finally pried him off of Drifts, he waved goodbye and thanked them for all their help.
In the hospital’s ambulance bay Drifts lit his fourth cigarette in a row. “I swear to God, Leo, if you had let that crazy momma’s boy shoot you over some gray head that’ll probably kick the bucket in the next day or two, I would have shot you again myself. Just to make myself feel better.”
Ramirez didn’t look up from the third supplemental sheet of his Patient-Care-Report. “Thank you for caring, Sam.”
“Caring nothing! If that crazy bastard had pulled the trigger, I would have gotten your blood all over my best boots!”
“That would have been a shame,” Ramirez agreed.
Drifts looked over at Justin, who was nursing his own cigarette. “How are you holding up, kid?”
The student shook his head. “That was crazy.”
Drifts took another drag off his cancer stick. “It caught my attention, too.”
“Is it always like this?” asked Justin.
Drifts shook his head. “Nah! Some nights are busy.” Justin snorted. “So, how are you holding up okay? We don’t need to call you a therapist or anything, do we?”
“No, I think I’m okay,” said Justin.
“No that proves it. You don’t decide to learn a profession like this and be okay,” said Drifts. “Hey Leo, I think should go back in and get the kid a cot next to Louis the momma’s boy.”
“You mean the guy you were a little spoon to a few minutes back?” Ramirez asked dryly. “I didn’t think you were that anxious to see him again.”
Drifts’s expression sobered. “Fuck you, Leo.”
“No Sam. You have Louis for that now. I won’t be party to your carousing.”
“We’re getting off this subject.” Drifts pointed at him. “No getting-off jokes! How are you, partner? You, after all, were the one staring down the barrel of a gun. And you mentioned David?” Drifts asked quietly. “You never do that?”
Ramirez looked at his partner with hard eyes for a moment. To his credit, Drifts looked back unflinching. “He mentioned the stadium.”
Drifts nodded. “Yeah, I know. That was pretty intense.”
“It was. Just like I remember it.”
Drifts coughed. “You!” He choked out his words. “You were at the stadium? I never knew that!”
Ramirez said, “I don’t like to talk about it.”
“What happened?” asked Justin.
Ramirez was silent for a long moment. At first they thought he wasn’t going to respond at all. Then he started to talk as though some internal floodgate had opened. “Mr. Browning wasn’t wrong. It was hell. It wasn’t supposed to be. When there was still a government structure, there was a detail of us first responders set to guard and take care of the people at the stadium. By that time our ranks were so depleted. It was a random mix of soldiers, police officers, firefighters, and EMS personnel like me. We did close the doors and we were going to keep the people fed and safe, but then the deliveries stopped coming almost immediately.”
