Dead and Forsaken (2 page)

Many of them still carried around
guilt about decisions they made that got people hurt. Sometimes
children died and whole families got killed. It’s hard for a
soldier to integrate back into society. It is normal them to feel
isolated and alone. The pressure to be normal made a lot of guys
crack. My mother did a lot of praying and tried to get me to go to
church. She raised me up in the church so I believed in Christ but
my faith was shaken. I went a couple of times but was never really
into it. Church was all about love and forgiveness and that's not
how I felt. Part of me was angry at God for letting Dan die instead
of me. He had a family and so many people that loved him. Her pastor
came by the house to talk to me but I didn't want to talk to anyone.
I recognized that I was becoming distracted and withdrawn from
society. I always had been part of team. People relied on me and I
depended on them. Feeling angry all the time made me feel useless.

I moved to Phoenix to find a job
and start my life over. Going back to work would make me feel needed
again. One of my mother’s high school friends was a doctor at
a local hospital. Mr. Henry said that if I made the trip out here he
would lookout for me. He pulled a couple of strings and got me a job
working as a security officer. It was going to be a chance to have
a fresh start and begin a new chapter in my life.

Tonight I was lying across my bed
resting when my alarm clock broke the silence. “Beep, beep,
beep.” That meant it was already 7:00 pm. When you wake up you
never know how the day is going to end. It was time for me to get up
and start getting ready for work.
Today’s
temperature read in the triple digits. It was damn near 118 degrees.
Thank God for air conditioning.
I
headed for the kitchen after a quick shower and a shave. My shift
started at 9:00 pm. I turned on the TV as I passed through the
living room of my one bedroom apartment. I went in the kitchen and
made a pot of coffee. The news was on and I heard the reporter say
that there was a breaking news update in southern Arizona. I walked
back into the living room just as they cut to a female reporter live
on scene in the border city of Douglass, AZ.

The town’s people were
gripped with fear and full of confusion. For weeks several horses
and farm animal carcasses were found mutilated outside of town. The
woman was talking to the local sheriff about several more attacks
reported in the town. The sheriff said eighteen Douglass residents
were killed or went missing in the last two days. A large amount of
blood was found at each location. He was asking for help from the
state police. The sheriff thought that he could solve the case
faster if he had more boots on the ground. A couple of surviving
witness claimed that their neighbors and family members were
murdered. Not that far away the sheriff found a prostitute holed up
in a truckers rig. The truck was pulled off of the road on the side
of a sparsely populated stretch of highway. She was hysterical and
looked weak. She stayed locked in that hot truck for almost a day.
She was in bad shape so she was transported to the hospital. The
woman told the sheriff that the trucker picked her up at the bar in
town. The gruff man had a bushy beard, shaved head, and his face was
leathery from hours in the sun. They went out into the desert to
party. He offered her one hundred dollars for the night. After
they smoked a little meth from a glass pipe she performed fellatio
on him. He was so aroused that he ejaculated after three minutes.
She spit it out the window and reached for the money. He snatched it
out her hand and slapped her across the face. Then he hit her in the
head with a closed fist and choked her. She ended up cowering in the
back of the cab. He grabbed the keys and said that he was going to
urinate. He threatened her that when he got back he was going to
fuck her whore ass all night until he got his monies worth.

After he exited the truck several
strange looking people came out the dark and assaulted him. She
watched it all go down from her elevated position in the truck. She
was so scared that she locked all the doors. He yelled for her to
help him but she wasn't going to risk her life for a cheapskate
asshole. After killing him they lingered around outside for a while
before wandering off. After a while she didn't hear anything outside
but was too scared to come out until she heard the sheriffs’
voice. The deputies found several boxes of pseudo ephedrine pills
and paraphernalia in the truck. A few yards away the sheriffs’
men found the remains of the dead trucker in a dirt field near some
brush. A quick examination showed that he had bite marks on what
was left of his body. The sheriff said he was looking at members of
a local religious cult as possible suspects. The county coroner said
he had never seen anything like this before. He asked the sheriff to
send the bodies to a forensic specialist in Tucson. The coroner
thought it might be the work of cannibals.

As soon as I heard them say that I
just laughed. This was another crazy claim by a public official.
After all we just had an Arizona senator make a crazy statement. He
said illegal immigrants started the east valley brush fires. Just
last week the governor of AZ lied and said the desert was filled
with the headless bodies of people killed by drug traffickers.
Several cities close to the border had reported similar attacks.
That included Yuma and San Diego. The broadcast said US border
patrol agents also found a possible hidden campsite used for human
trafficking. They used heat detection equipment and night vision
goggles to try and detect movement in the dark!
There was nothing else
in that area other than a few ranches and trailers scattered across
the landscape. Migrating illegals were usually easy to track because
they leave trash, clothing and other traces as they trek through the
desert. Coyotes smuggle hundreds of people across the border every
year. Agents’ patrolling the dry wash and rocky stream bed on
ATV’s spotted several vehicles sitting out in the middle of
nowhere.

It would have taken someone a
grueling hike to get there. They left to get reinforcements and
returned several hours later. They reported that the site was ram
shacked and blood was everywhere. The investigation process was
slow. The border agents did not find any bodies but several blood
trails led away from the campsite. Agents scoured the surrounding
ground and picked up footprints of the coyotes and whoever attacked
them. They said that it seemed like some of them were running while
others were moving real slow. Someone may have injured their leg
judging by the drag marks. It might take hours to track them down.
When I heard that story I turned the channel to sports center. When
I got in the car to head to work that was the big topic on talk
radio.

“
You expect me to believe
that there is a cannibal cult killing and eating people in the
desert?”

“
You can believe it or not
but people are missing.”

“
That’s crazy talk and
you know it. We are probably just dealing with a group of religious
nuts!”

I shook my head while thinking
people will believe anything. With all the time I spent at war I
knew that humans were the real monsters. I pushed my Tupac CD into
the cars deck and pulled off. I got hopped on the highway and got
lost in the music. Thirty five minutes later I pulled into the
Maricopa Hospital parking lot. It was the number one trauma center
in AZ. The hospital was in a rough part of town. Security was
responsible for the safety of all the staff, patients, and visitors.
We got a lot of violent drunks, drug addicts, and gang bangers. We
also provided backup for the police and sheriff’s department.
They brought in prisoners to be treated on a regular. We saw them
before they were booked into the jail. Having prisoners in a
hospital setting is dangerous. The building also had two full size
holding cells in the ER. Putting them in holding cells helped us
control them. We always kept them separated from regular patients. I
headed to the squad room and clocked in. When I got there a couple
of officers got dressed and the rest were watching CNN. Officer
Hernandez turned around and shook my hand.

“
What’s going on
Robinson?”

“
You know how it is man.”
I answered. “Same shit different day.”

“
You got that right.”
Officer
Darden and Officer Miller were still watching TV so I tapped Darden
on the shoulder to get his attention. He was always joking and
talking shit.

“
What’s going on bro?”

“
I’m just looking at
this crazy shit on TV.”

“
You believe that shit they
talking about?”

“
For real Kevin I don’t
know what to believe. All I know is that if their eating people then
they

need
to eat my ex-wife’s gold digging ass!”

“
You are crazy as hell.”

“
I am not playing that ugly
bitch has got to go!”

“
I am not fucking with
you.”

We were all standing there
watching TV when we heard the story about some sailor in San Diego
who got sick aboard his ship. He had just got back from leave in
Cabo San Lucas Mexico. He was taken from his ship and admitted to
the hospital ship the USS Comfort. It was docked in town while
waiting to be deployed on a humanitarian mission. During triage he
went crazy attacked several staff members. Military police were
called to the Comfort and reported that staff and sailors were
leaping from the ships decks. They seemed to be trying to avoid
groups of other sailors and personnel. The ship was also engulfed
in flames. Most of the thousands of Sailors and Marines never made
it out of their bunk area. Rescued victims were sent to local
hospitals for the treatment of burns, smoke inhalation, and strange
bite wounds. We never heard the end of the news report. Lt. Arvayo
walked into the room and shut the TV off. He needed to begin the
shift briefing.

“
Hey guys I don’t know
if you heard but there is some crazy stuff all over the news. Stay
alert for anything suspicious and stay in radio contact. Remember
that our number one job is to go home to our families in the
morning. Do not try to be a hero and call for back up if you need
it. We need to do our eight and get the fuck out of here.”
He said that the only thing second shift had to pass down is that
we have maintenance working on a plumbing leak in the ER. The
maintenance guy's had blocked it off so they could keep people out
of their way until it is fixed. Lt. Arvayo handed out all the post
assignments and the rest of us left to relieve the second shift
officers. I personally liked to position my self against the wall in
the ER waiting room in a pot where I could see in all directions.

The
hospital has a small staff at night. The only place that was busy
was the ER. We serviced the community of south central phoenix. Most
of our patients were minorities or poor whites. Most of them were
hard working people with blue collar jobs. Some of them received
public assistance from the state in order to pay for medical
insurance and food. They lived in the neighborhoods, reservations,
and trailer parks around the hospital. They lived rough but
rewarding lives. When you do not have a lot of money your
friendships and relationships with your family become important to
you.

We
also saw our fair share of indigent, homeless, and mentally ill
people who lived on the street. Our hospital had a high standard of
care providing treatment along with jobs for the neighborhood. The
emergency room staff had good people who were dedicated to saving
lives. We had some of the best trained doctors in the country. It
was a high stress environment but they thrived on it. They had to
stay on their toes because it was easy to miss something when it was
so crowded. Tonight was Friday the start of the weekend. All the
security officers called Friday “little night”. That is
because most of the patients that came in were a little drunk, a
little crazy or a little high. You never knew what to expect. I
relieved the second shift ER officer and started on patrol.

Most
inner city hospital ER’s like ours were overcrowded and filled
with newcomers and familiar faces. Most of those sick people had
been waiting a long time. The waiting room was at full capacity. We
needed an ER officer because some people wait patiently in line
while others lose their temper and start acting out. Most of the
gridlock was caused by understaffing or overcrowding. On the weekend
it seemed like every call coming through the doors was a trauma.
Patients waited to be seen by a triage nurse and separated based on
life threat status. The envious patients with regular issues like
illness, cuts and other superficial wounds ended up with a long
wait. Most of the other patients came to the ER because they did
not have a primary care doctor. Even the ones that did might have to
wait a couple of months to get an appointment. They used the ER to
refill prescriptions and to receive regulatory meds.

A
row of beds was set up in the main hallway of the ER to treat the
extra patients. Some of the beds were almost touching each other.
They had to place an old demented black woman with chest pains next
to a foul mouth Hispanic gang banger high on METH. Further down a
suicidal young white mother was next to a homeless Native American
man that smelled like urine. Out in the waiting room it started to
look like a TV show. Several small children of all races chased each
other around the crowded room. Everyone was tired, bored or
stressed. At one point it looked like a couple of people were going
to get into a scuffle. An overtly obese patient that had just
checked in was escorted to the back while several others who endured
long waits were bypassed. The girl at registration made the mistake
of telling the first group they would be next. It could have gotten
ugly but cooler heads prevailed. Most of the other people waited
patiently. The ambulances kept on coming. Some of them had been
diverted from smaller hospitals. Gunshot victims, heart attacks, and
stabbings were pushed to the front of the line and received
treatment first. The doctors also treated blunt force traumas,
multiple fractures, car accident victims, and several cases of human
bites.

Soon
all of the rooms had patients in them. A middle aged white man
walked in with his wife. She looked confused and in a lot of pain.
She was really weak and could hardly stand up. The poor woman’s
knees nearly buckled with each step. A small amount of blood stained
her shirt. They sat down next to a noticeably drunk black man that
smelled like an old bar rag. He was here to get a bite on his chest
looked at. He got it from a young redhead hooker he met at a motel
nearby. A beautiful Asian baby cried hysterically in her mother’s
arms. Her mother slowly rocked her back and forth while trying to
get her to take her pacifier. The baby’s mother was starting
to get scared as she watched the child’s condition deteriorate
in front of her. She immediately got up and went to the window to
tell a nurse that the situation was getting worst. The old Hispanic
man next to them hunched over and vomited into a plastic bag. He had
drunk an enormous amount of alcohol and was now paying the price. He
was also running a fever and had a couple of bite wounds thanks to
one of his crazy cab fares. Dirty jokes were being told by a mixed
race group of college students in the corner near the TV. There was
also a sneaky looking freakishly skinny man in glasses who kept
fidgeting around in his chair uncontrollably. He was sweating
profusely and unwilling to look anyone else in the eye. I thought he
was just nervous but I found out later that he accidentally sat on a
large cucumber according to what he told registration. It had become
lodged deep in his backside.