Land (22 page)

She pulled it out and probed around in the wound for anything else that was loose but found nothing. Then she took out the spreader and went back to the first hole and checked it but it seemed free of any foreign objects.

“Ok, I think that’s it. Should I pour more disinfectant into the holes or just sew them up?” When no one answered her she sighed “Damn it, where’s Google when you need it!” She stared around the room trying to decide and her glance took in the bottles of drugs on the counter.

“I’m just going to sew him up and pump him full of antibiotics.” and reached for the needle and suture thread.

It was a lot harder to sew skin than it was to sew cloth and she felt her stomach lurch every time she penetrated his skin with the needle. She put ten small stiches in one wound and eight in the other. Dara had thick bandages of gauze ready and she had smeared antibiotic ointment over them. After dressing the wounds and cleaning the blood off of Quinn as best they could, Alex consulted the drug book and gave him a shot of antibiotics.

She peeled her gloves and bloody scrubs off and dropped them in the garbage. She looked at her pale friend and could see the steady rise and fall of his chest as he slept. Her friends were all smiling at her and she had to grin back. They had done it. They had done their best and only time would tell if it was the right thing to do.

“Hey Josh, I really need something from you.”

“Sure Alex, what do you need? Name it and it’s yours.”

“I need that bottle of rum!”

When he pulled it out of his back pocket and held it out, she went towards him and snatched from his hand as she sailed out the door. When he went looking for her later, he found the bottle empty and her asleep.

** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** **

When Alex woke up, she came up in a rush and banged her head hard. “ARGGGG!” her head was pounding and not just from banging it. Her mouth was paste dry and tasted like something had died in it. She remembered operating on Quinn and then sitting on a stump by the fence and drinking rum. She had never been much of a drinker, just one here and there at a party so she realized that she was experiencing her first hang over and vowed that it would be her last.

It was dark wherever she was so she felt around with her hands and figured out that she was in one of the bunks in the camper. She swung her legs over the side of the bunk and groaned again from the pain in her head. Water, she needed water and drugs, lots of drugs. She made her way to the tiny kitchen and grabbed a water bottle from the counter, she could barely see but after eight days of living in the camper she knew her way around in the dark. Opening a small cupboard she fumbled around until she found the bottle of aspirin and clutched it to her chest like a lifeline. She made her way to the side door and went outside.

It was either very late or very early and it wasn’t until she looked to the east and she saw just a hint of lighter sky that she knew she had slept the rest of the afternoon and night away in drunken stupor. She shook her head at her own stupidity, causing it to pound even harder and making her stomach rush up her throat. She rushed away to the side of the vet office and vomited up the last of the rum.

“I guess that’s the designated puking spot. Twice in twenty four hours, Alex? Nothing will ever grow there again!” Josh teased her from behind.

Her stomach felt better but her head was still killing her and she fumbled with the child proof cap on the painkillers. Josh plucked it from her hands and popped the lid off, handing her two pills. After rinsing her mouth with water she took the pills gratefully and downed them.

“How’s Quinn? Did he wake up? Why are you awake? Where is everyone?” she fired at him.

Josh threw his head back and laughed “And she’s back! God, I love you Alex.”

“Yeah, yeah, I love you too, you big goof. Now answer my questions.”

When he got his laughter under control he told her, “Quinn’s fine. He woke up after about four hours and we fed him some soup. He didn’t puke it up like you, so we took that as a good sign. He has no fever and his wounds are still dry and clean so it’s a wait and see thing. We gave him some codeine pills and that made him so happy he went back to sleep and is still out. I’m up because we have a druggie and a drunk in our group and someone needs to keep watch while everyone is asleep.” he finished with a raised eyebrow at her.

Alex looked at her feet in embarrassment. “Right, umm, good, I mean umm, oh crap. I’m sorry Josh. It was a really stupid thing to do. I’m sorry I left you guys to do all the work.”

“Ah don’t worry about it Alex. You earned it. What you did in there was amazing. He’s going to be fine because of you. Besides, let’s just say, you provided the entertainment.” he said with an evil grin. “Something about black haired, blue eyed bad boys and lots of singing too!”

Alex closed her eyes in mortification, her face flamed red. She could picture her embarrassed face on public service posters for the evils of teenage drinking. Her head started to clear as the aspirin took hold. She opened her eyes and looked at her laughing friend.

“Ok, I deserve a little teasing for last night but that’s enough.” she thought to herself.

“Hey Josh, remember this? ‘I would kill someone to keep you safe Dara.’” she said as a sickly sweet love declaration.

His face went from laughing to blank instantly. “Right, I’m done. Let’s go check on Quinn, Doctor.” he quickly changed the subject. She laughed at him and grabbed his hand as they went in to the clinic to check on Quinn.

Later that morning, once everyone was awake and they were eating a breakfast of instant oatmeal, they had a group meeting. Quinn had woken up with clear eyes and hungry for breakfast so the boys had carried him on his stretcher out onto the porch and propped his upper body up with pillows so he could eat with them. Alex didn’t want his leg to be moved for a few days and they discussed what the plans would be.

Josh led the discussion. “I think we need to plan on staying here for at least five days. If we go back on the road with Quinn and we get attacked again, we would be in trouble. I looked through the house yesterday and it’s untouched. I don’t think anyone has been here. There are a lot of supplies we can use and take with us and there are some generators that I might be able to get working. I say we stay put until Quinn is more mobile and then we go like mad for the border and home. We’ve been staying away from main roads to avoid people and we’ve been shot at twice so it doesn’t seem to be helping us. All this back road driving is just making us lose time. Once we leave here, I say we head towards the interstate and once we get past Great Falls we get on it and try and make better time. I know Alex, Quinn and I have all been to Great Falls with our families for shopping. I’ve never seen that part of the interstate, from the border to Great Falls with heavy traffic. What about you Quinn?”

Quinn didn’t answer him because he had fallen asleep again. His head was slumped down, with his chin resting on his chest. They took the empty bowl off of his lap and eased his upper body back down onto the stretcher. They decided to leave him out on the porch in the fresh air so they covered him up with blankets and moved out into the yard to finish the discussion.

“I agree with you Josh. We need to stay here and let him heal. We were so lucky with where he was shot. Those bullets could have hit bone or even worse, his main artery. As it is he’ll be limping for a long time. I’m done with this back road driving too. It’s just taking too long and is just as dangerous. I agree that the northern part of the interstate was never very busy. There were always a lot of transport trucks and it was busy on a long weekend at the border crossing with shoppers but this happened on a Tuesday morning so it shouldn’t be heavy with car crashes. I’m ready to get home so that’s my vote.” Alex told them. Cooper and Dara nodded their agreement.

“Alright then, we should go up to the house and get it ready. We might as well stay up there for the next few days in comfort. Once we get Quinn moved up into one of the bedrooms, I’ll start working on the generators and see if we can get some power. We’ll need more water too if we are here very long.”

Dara volunteered to stay with Quinn as the rest went up to the house to get it ready for the coming days.

Chapter 18

Alex put her fork down and groaned at her stuffed belly. They had been on the Vet’s property for three days since the operation and so far Quinn was doing much better. He was starting to complain about being bored and that his leg was itchy so Alex knew he was healing. She had switched him to Tylenol for the pain and packed up the stronger drugs for future emergencies. Josh had fashioned him a type of crutch and she was going to start him walking the next day. It had taken all the first day for Josh to get one of the generators working but with much cursing he had it done by dark. Unfortunately there was a fancy, hot water on demand system in the house and he couldn’t do anything to make it work, so they had running water but still had to boil it.

On the second day Cooper and Josh had poked around in the barn and found an ATV that they got started. They had gone out into the fields to see if there were any neighbours close by that the group would have to deal with. They found that the property was surrounded by forest and they couldn’t see any other homes. What they did come back with was very welcomed. At the back fence line there was a small stream that ran through the property and keeping close to it were six beef cows. When the water stopped feeding into their troughs they must have went to the stream to drink. Having been born and raised on a working farm, Josh had no problem rounding one up and getting it back to the barn.

When Josh showed the girls the cow and happily exclaimed,

“Dinner!”

Alex had clapped her hands in applause but Cooper and Dara just stared at him in confusion. When Josh saw that they didn’t get it, he laughed and howled at them. “Where did you think steaks came from? They aren’t born in little white foam trays covered in plastic wrap!” He laughed even harder at their shocked faces. When he got his breath back he reassured them “Don’t worry about it. I’ll take care of it, just have the barbeque warmed up in a few hours and we’ll have a feast.”

Cooper and Dara were excited for fresh red meat but were more than happy to leave the preparations in Josh’s hands. All of their bodies were craving fresh protein and greens. They had been eating from cans for the past two weeks and the girls were thrilled to find potatoes that were still good in the basement pantry. The vegetables would be canned but it was still exciting to have fresh meat and potatoes. With the power on they could do their baking in the kitchens big oven and they moved from baking buns to baking loaves of bread. They still had plenty of flour in the camper but were pleased to find another big bag in the house.

Whoever had lived in the house had lived there alone. They had found only one bedroom that was being used with clothes in the closet. There were pictures of family members but only one man had lived in the house. Being out of town and in an isolated area seemed a strange place to have a business but the group was just happy to have a safe refuge while Quinn healed.

Josh stuffed the camper’s small freezer with meat and then braved the stench of the house’s refrigerators compartment. Alex helped him clean out all the spoiled rotten food and cleaned the insides with disinfectant before putting the fresh meat in it.

After an amazing feast of barbequed steak and baked potatoes, the girls brought out the cake they had baked in the house’s oven and they all went into the living room to eat dessert. Alex had wrapped and splinted Quinn’s leg so it wouldn’t move and with help he could move from the dining table to an arm chair with an ottoman to prop up his leg.

Even with the generator working they couldn’t use the huge flat screen TV that dominated one wall. It had fried with everything else that had a computer chip in it. It was still nice to just sit comfortably in a lighted room instead of around a campfire on the ground.

Quinn fell into a doze as soon as he was done eating his cake and Josh and Dara started a card game together. Cooper was flipping through a magazine so Alex decided to go outside and take a walk. She missed the routine of gymnastics and her body wanted exercise. She slipped out of the house and walked down the driveway, enjoying the cool evening air. Emily was on her mind and she tried to picture where her friend might be. Had she made it home yet? How long did it take to sail up the coast and cross one province to get home? She couldn’t help but think of her family and what might be happening with them. As she came back up to the house she stopped at the edge of the wide lawn and decided she had to get her mind off home.

Alex slipped her boots and socks off and dropped down into some warm up stretches. When she felt her muscles were ready she launched herself across the lawn and sprang into hand springs and cartwheels. She kept it easy because of the grass and worked her way back and forth in different combinations. Everything faded away as she pushed her body through different tumbles and she had a light coating of sweat when she finally came to a stop. She did a few more stretches and went to pick up her boots. As she came to the stairs of the house she was jolted by Cooper who was standing by the railing.

Happy that the darkness would cover her blush, she wondered if he had been watching the whole time. She went up the stairs and sat on a deck chair to put her socks and boots back on.

“I used to watch you.” he said quietly.

Her head snapped up from tying her boot and she stared at him in confusion.

“At school I mean. When you would practice your routines in the gym, I’d watch you. It’s so amazing and beautiful the way you move from one flip to the next. It was like being able to see music. Ok, that sounded really dumb. Never mind.” he mumbled and turned away, embarrassed.

“No, not dumb.” Alex said standing and joining him at the rail “I think that’s the nicest thing anyone’s ever said to me. Thank you. I never saw you there.”