Before the Darkness (Refuge Inc.) (13 page)

Elliot looked up at him, meeting his eyes.

"But now you know you don't have to hide

anymore, right?"

Adam nodded. That was easier to say for

Elliot. He didn't have a bag of bones he'd rather

leave buried in a closet somewhere. It was

better to change the subject than to add to the

question. "And you? Were you afraid?"

"I was hysterical. Who wouldn't be?"

Elliot answered with wide eyes. "I tried to hold it

together the best way I could, because I know

how I tend to get. Me and Jeff had a little

argument once. He accused me of using him to

get from Georgia to here. He thought now that I

had moved, I didn't need him anymore. Which

was not true. The argument got heated and he

left me that night. I panicked. It was the second

night in a new, unknown place and he left me. I

wanted to call him to tell him I was sorry, but I

had dropped my phone in the dish water earlier

that day." Elliot paused and massaged his

temples with his ingertips. "I had no way of

getting a hold of him. I didn't want to bother my

neighbors late at night and ask to borrow their

phone, so I just panicked. I don't function well in

panic mode and I lost it. I lay in bed feeling

miserable until Jeff came back. It was pathetic. I

was on the verge of that fear again until I saw

you." He looked up at Adam with an

uncomfortable look in his eye. "I probably did

panic a little back at the dental office."

"It's okay."

"Okay? Look what I've done to you. I

pretty much forced you to admit you're gay at

the most dif icult time ever. I should've known

what that can do to a person. To have to deal

with multiple crises at the same time. How

fucked up and selfish am I?" He shook his head.

"It's okay." Adam stepped closer, wanting

desperately to rest his hand on Elliot's shoulder

to calm him, but held back in fear of disturbing

him more instead.

"No, I had to admit I was gay once too,

you know?" Elliot's hands gestured and lailed

about as he spoke. His frustration visible. "At

ifteen it was fucking hard. Every day was

torture emotionally, mentally and physically.

And my lover once left me too. That was

devastating. And now I can of icially say I

experienced a worldwide catastrophe. Fucking

insane. And you're going through all three of

those disasters at the same time. Unbelievable!"

"It's not your fault." Adam reached out to

touch the skin on Elliot's arm, to soothe him—

"I could have lessened the blow a bit by

keeping my hands to myself," Elliot muttered.

Adam's hand stopped inches from Elliot's

arm and he turned in silence, placing his back

and his suddenly sagging shoulders to Elliot.

"We're headed in the right direction so let's

keep walking." Everything Elliot said was true,

but admitting he was dealing with an internal

crisis wasn't going to make anything better.

Acknowledging the fact that his internal crisis

now included the odd, emotional feelings he

harbored for Elliot was torture enough.

Elliot didn't say another word. The

breeze on the dusty street was all that sounded

around them, reminiscent of tiny pebbles rolling

around atop a hard surface. And once again

they were on their way.

The rotten smell of ammonia and death

suddenly became more apparent. The stench

reminded Adam of a septic tank full of waste

and harsh chemicals. He desperately tried to

ignore it. "Why did you leave Georgia?" The

thought had been on his mind since hearing the

dreadful details of Elliot's argument with his

boyfriend.

Elliot's pace was slower than usual and

his cough interrupted the brief silence before he

answered. "I wanted to get far away from my

family. I igured I could make new friends with

people who really cared about me instead of

staying and constantly getting disappointed."

"You were that miserable?"

"Yeah, I started to hate everything. My

brother, my parents, my house, my life. I hated

how they treated me. Like the odd-ball since I

was a teenager. I had to get away. I needed new

scenery."

They treated Elliot like an odd-ball since

he was a teenager? A ifteen year old teenager

who'd just come out? Adam was curious but

didn't want to disappoint Elliot by asking about

his coming out. He already guessed it was a

painful time for him. "Was it easy? Leaving them

behind, I mean."

"Yeah, it was easy. I was happy to leave. I

couldn't wait to leave. But—" A series of hacking

coughs followed, reminding Adam of an elderly

man that had one too many cigarettes over the

years. "But—" More coughs.

"You okay?" He gently rubbed a hand

over Elliot's back to help ease the cough.

Elliot shook his head and cleared his

throat. "I feel like shit. I'm all achy and nauseous.

Isn't it hard to breathe? I need to rest."

Adam looked around, thinking. The

rotten smell in the air was bothering him too but

not as much as it seemed to bother Elliot. Or was

it something else that had Elliot feeling so awful?

"Let me take a look at your leg." Adam

handed the lashlight to Elliot as he slid down

the freeway median to sit on the asphalt. "Shine

this on your leg while I take a look." He carefully

unwrapped a few layers of gauze and found that

the bleeding had slowed considerably, since it

hadn't saturated past the irst couple layers. But

as he continued to unravel the layers, he also

noticed a yellowish discharge coming from the

wound itself and the gash looked red and puffy.

It didn't look good at all and it de initely didn't

look like it was going to get any better. He

cleaned and redressed the wound and sat

beside Elliot against the freeway median.

"I can feel my heartbeat throbbing in my

leg," Elliot said groggily. "It wasn't like that

before."

"You need some antibiotics." Adam

rubbed his forehead with the tips of his ingers.

"I wouldn't mind some aspirin for my headache

either."

Elliot huffed, shaking his head. "My leg's

infected, huh?"

"Don't know for sure, but it looks like it."

"Shit." He slammed his ist down on his

knee. "This is the last thing we need right now."

"Right. We need to get to a hospital."

Adam glanced around at the surrounding

darkness. "Where's the closest one?"

"I doubt there will be doctors there.

Everyone left, you know."

"I know, but there has to be medicine still.

Plus, don't hospitals have an emergency power

supply?"

"A backup generator, yeah." Elliot hacked

out a few cackling coughs. "Let's hope we ind a

hospital that's still standing."

"Come on." Adam stood and held out his

hand. "If we turn around and go in the opposite

direction we should run into Arrowhead

Hospital."

Elliot grabbed his hand and stood with

Adam's assistance. "Thank you." He smiled. "I

would be a mess if it wasn't for you."

Adam lashed a brief smile and wrapped

his arm around Elliot's waist. "Let's keep

moving."

7: Close Encounters

By the time they approached the parking

lot of Arrowhead Hospital hours had passed

and Elliot's ill health worsened. He was tired and

at times felt as if he had blacked out for the

majority of their journey because he couldn't

remember most of the trek.

Many of the hospital windows were

broken and the top two loors of the ive story

building looked damaged or collapsed. Elliot

couldn't determine the extent of the damage

from where they were outside, but besides the

structure of the hospital he saw a few lights

illuminating several rooms of the building.

There was power, but it wasn't reliable.

They had followed the dimly glowing

lights for miles. Every time he had opened his

eyes, off in the distance he would see light

coming from the windows of the hospital

growing bigger and getting closer. The light

reminded him of the lame of a burning candle

by how it flickered, off and on it went.

He coughed then chuckled. "It'll be great

if there's a doctor or two on duty."

Adam scoffed. "I'm keeping my ingers

crossed."

It was instinctive to enter the hospital

through the emergency room entrance. Elliot

expected, or prayed, that a doctor
would
see

Adam struggling to get them both through the

jammed and cracked automated glass doors and

run to their rescue. That didn't happen. Titan

squeezed through a twisted part of the entrance

almost effortlessly. He stood on the other side,

watching and panting with his mouth gapped

and tongue hanging out like a mocking grin on

his canine face. He watched Elliot and Adam

struggle to maneuver through the doors as if he

were taunting them.

Once inside, a creepy chill came over him.

There was something quite eerie about the

quietness, the lack of noise and people, and the

long halls with wheelchairs in the middle of the

loor as if everyone suddenly evaporated into

thin air in the middle of their everyday actions.

Some of the halls were lighted with long

lorescent lights, while the others were dark and

grimy looking, reminding him of a scene out of a

horror movie.

He met Adam's glance in an unspoken

mutual understanding. "I think this is why some

people are afraid of hospitals."

Adam kept his arm around Elliot's waist

as they moved further into the hospital, past the

front desk and to the irst room they could ind.

It was part of several rooms combined into one

massive one and each space was separated by a

long white curtain that ran around a twin sized

hospital bed. And all of the beds looked

comfortable and welcoming. He allowed Adam

to help him onto the nearest bed and

immediately he closed his eyes. Even if it were

for a second he needed to close his eyes.

"You'll be ine here while I look around?"

Adam's voice penetrated the silence and instead

of opening his eyes Elliot envisioned Adam

looking down over him.

"I'm not gonna move. It feels too nice."

***

Even though Elliot's eyes were closed

Adam nodded. Now where do they keep

medicine in the hospital? The pharmacy. He

needed to ind the pharmacy and get Elliot some

antibiotics and pain killers so his condition

wouldn't worsen. The entire walk from the

freeway to the hospital he damn near had to

drag Elliot along, making the walk take longer

than it would otherwise. Elliot kept dragging his

feet and mumbling nonsense at times. It scared

him. He had to do whatever he could do to get

Elliot's health back to one hundred percent

again.

They had even passed by another spray

painted R that pointed in the opposite direction

of where they were headed, but he knew if he

didn’t get Elliot some meds quickly he would

regret it.

What was Refuge Inc. anyway? He had no

idea. It could be some sort of safe haven for

survivors equipped with medical personnel and

all the necessities they needed. It could turn out

to be a complete waste of time. He couldn't risk

Elliot's wellbeing in order to ind out. As soon as

Elliot was better they would continue to

investigate the spray painted R's. In the

meantime, he needed the pharmacy.

The panel on the wall said the pharmacy

was located on the ground level, which he was

on. He would follow the signs until he found it.

He read the sign at the end of a hall after

he turned down another hall, and then another.

It read: Outpatient Pharmacy & Gift Shop.

Before entering he realized by looking

through the glass windows of the gift shop that

it had been ransacked. It looked like anything