Extreme Medical Services: Medical Care On The Fringes Of Humanity (25 page)

“I can do it,” he said trying not to grin. “We’re going right to the ECMC Burn Unit?”

“Yes, you’ll have to call ahead and tell them we’re on the way,” Brynne said. “I’ll bring one of the firefighters along to assist with ventilating the patient. Just take your time and get us there in one piece. Safety before speed, right?”

“Right.” Dean responded. He could barely contain his excitement. Brynne was right, though. When driving, he had the ultimate responsibility to get the patient and his crew to the hospital in one piece.
 

The two firefighters had brought the stretcher from the ambulance and positioned it by Vanessa. With Brynne and Dean’s help, they carefully lifted her up and onto it. Brynne took a moment to check and make sure the breathing tube was in place after moving the patient. She checked the in-line capnography reading and listened to the patient’s lungs before nodding to them to keep moving.
 

The team slowly rolled the burned patient over to the back of the ambulance and loaded her inside. Dean held the door open while Brynne climbed inside. She turned and looked at him. “Remember, Dean, slow and steady wins the race.”

“I got it, boss,” Dean said. He slapped the closed back doors of the ambulance and walked around to the driver’s side. His phone buzzed in his shirt pocket, and he absent-mindedly checked the text message as he climbed up and sat down behind the wheel. And then he froze.
 

The text message read:
Dean, I know you saw me. Don’t tell Brynne I was there. I’ll explain later. You need to know the whole story before you make up your mind. There’s a reason this all happened. Remember you are a part of this now. - Z

Dean felt stunned. Somehow he’d gotten mixed up in something that was rapidly turning into a disaster that he didn’t know how to extricate himself from. He knew one thing for sure. He couldn’t go to Brynne with his suspicions because Zach might implicate him in some way and then he’d lose the job of a lifetime. He couldn’t risk that. He put the phone back in his pocket after deleting the message with a swipe of his thumb and shifted the ambulance into gear as he carefully pulled out onto the street and headed off to the hospital. He hoped he would figure a way out of this mess before anyone else found out about it. He decided as he neared the hospital that he needed to talk to Mike Farver about it. He’d know what to do.

Zach watched the ambulance drive away with the witch in the back. He was pretty sure they had gotten the job done on her. Not even that bitch, Brynne Garvey, would be able to bring her back from the brink of death. The thing that worried him the most was whether Dean would keep his mouth shut about seeing him at the scene. It could bring up some inconvenient attention at a time when the Cause didn’t need it. He was willing to sacrifice himself if that was what it took, but he didn’t want to do so without a good reason. He thought there was still time to get to Dean, and to get him to keep quiet, one way or another.

He turned and walked around the corner and down the block, away from the crime scene and pulled out his phone, selecting another number to text. He tapped as he walked, choosing his words carefully. Even though it was a burner phone, he didn’t want a search warrant of the account to turn up anything incriminating. The leadership in Elk City had a lot of resources in their bag of tricks, and that didn’t even take into account the things those freaks in the monster community could do. He sent that message off and kept walking for a few more minutes until a large black SUV pulled up next to him. He looked around and then climbed up into the passenger seat. Mike Farver looked at him from behind the wheel.
 

“Well?” Mike said.

“I don’t think she’ll live, but we might have to take some steps to follow-up at the hospital,” Zach said as they drove off. “There’s another problem, though. The new guy saw me in the crowd. I sent him a text to keep it a secret until I could explain myself, but I’m not sure if it worked or not.”

“I hoped that he would have been on our side by now with everything he’s seen,” Mike said. “I picked him for this job specifically because I thought he could be our man inside after you botched the job. Now you tell me you got noticed and that the witch isn’t dead?”

“There’s still time to fix it, Mike,” Zach said. “I’ll make it right, I swear.”

“I know you will because you know the consequences of failure,” Mike said with a deadly tone. “I don’t have to tell you what the others would think if you can’t hold up your end of the bargain?” Zach didn’t answer, just stared straight ahead as the older paramedic drove off into the darkness. “No worries, Zach. Perhaps I need to have another impromptu meal with Dean and see if I can find out what he knows. Then we can decide how to handle him.”

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Want to know what happens next?

Book 2 - The Paramedic’s Angel

Book 3 - The Paramedic’s Choice

Book 4 - The Paramedic’s Hunter

Available now at Amazon.com

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About the Author

Jamie Davis, RN, NRP, B.A., A.S., host of the
Nursing Show
(
NursingShow.com
) is a nationally recognized medical educator who began educating new emergency responders as a training officer for his local EMS program.
 
As a media producer, he has been recognized for the
MedicCast Podcast
(
MedicCast.com/blog
), a weekly program for emergency medical providers like EMTs and paramedics, and the Nursing Show, a similar program for nurses and nursing students. His programs and resources have been downloaded over 4 million times by listeners and viewers.

Jamie speaks nationally on health care, technology, and education and is an advocate for integrating podcasting and media creation in schools at all levels. He has spoken at the Podcast and New Media Expo, been a featured faculty member of the Podcast Secrets course, and has been invited to speak and MC at medical conferences and expos around the world. In addition to his traveling speaker opportunities, Jamie is also an adjunct instructor in the health careers department at Cecil College where he teaches a variety of courses to future nurses and paramedics.

Jamie is also the managing director of the
ProMed Network
(
ProMedNetwork.com
), a collection of the best and brightest independent medical podcasters and new media creators currently available online. The network now comprises over 30 independently produced programs for medical and health care professionals at all levels. These trusted resources for high quality medical education and information reach over 500,000 downloads to medical professionals every month.