Saving the Dead (6 page)

“Yes, but about forty-eight times a minute, and I don’t think she’s conscious enough to protect her airway very well.”

“So that’s why you’re going to intubate her?”

“No.” Ramirez looked him dead in the eyes. “That’s why you’re going to intubate her.”

Ramirez didn’t think the kid’s eyes could get any wider, but there they were bulging like an old cartoon character’s. “I’ve never done it before.”

Ramirez shrugged. “There’s a first time for everything.”

Chapter Three

Into the Woods

“One-two-three!”

In one smooth motion, the ER staff mobbing around Maybelline transferred her from the EMS stretcher to the cot in their trauma bay.  Drifts swiftly pulled Triple-Three’s stretcher out of the way and the trauma team swarmed her.  They cut off her remaining clothes, attached her to their monitors, and pulled blood from the two field IVs.  They shouted out their findings and actions for the recorder.

Ramirez placed a hand on Justin’s shoulder. “How are you doing?”

The student nodded. “I’m okay.”

He squeezed it. “Good.  You can stay here and watch for a bit if you’d like.  I’m going into the main ER.” He sighed heavily. “I have to make a call to Child Protective Services.”

He nodded to the nurse taking notes in the corner. “I’m pretty sure that I’m not the only one that’s going to be making the call to them.  I already gave her the more illicit details.”

As Ramirez left, the lead trauma doctor stepped up next to Maybelline’s stomach with an ultrasound probe.  He squirted gel on her abdomen and placed the probe against the gooey skin. 

After a moment he announced, “We have quite a bit of blood!”  He angled the probe. “There’s the fetus!  Looks to be about thirty-six weeks gestation!  No fetal heartbeat present!  Positive tissue break down.  We have necrotic activity!

“Alert the OR that we’ll need to do an emergency C-section.  Have dialysis on standby in the ICU!”

Drifts came ambling up to Justin, “How’s she doing?”

Justin shook his head, “I’m not sure.  They just brought in blood, I guess to combat the hypovolemia.”

“They won’t use it.  At least not yet.”

“Why not?”

“Leo can explain it better than I can, but it comes down to getting that trailer trash’s spawn out of her before introducing more blood to her system.  Otherwise, that little bundle of zombie joy will infect the transfused blood as well.  It’s the same as a bite. They have to scrape out all of the infected tissue first.  So they’ll deliver the fetus and do a D and C.  Then they can deal with her injuries and blood loss.”

A nurse burst in. “How long before you move her out?”

All the activity ceased as the trauma staff stared at her. “Not long.” said the doctor.  “Why?”

“There’s been another multiple shooting.  We have three GSW victims coming our way!”

“Dammit!” groaned Drifts. “I can’t believe we missed another one!”

“That’s the fourth one tonight,” said the trauma doctor.

“And that’s just here at Memorial,” said a nurse, “I’ve heard that there’s a gang war going on between the blues and reds.  Last I heard, St. Lukes has gotten five GSW victims so far.”

“Maybe these gangbangers could wipe each other out!” responded the doctor.

The nurse shook her head, “No such luck.”

The scribe hung up the phone and called out, “OR says that they can take her in operating bay eleven!”

“Okay let’s package her up to go!” called the lead doctor although his order was unnecessary, as the trauma team swarmed on Maybelline with the same chaotic precision as before.  They rapidly loaded her gurney with supplies and monitoring equipment.  Part of the team, split off and began to rapidly clean the room around them.  The first team pushed the young girl out of the room as the stretcher leaked a trail of blood and black pus in its wake.  A tech followed it with a mop procured from housekeeping. 

Justin watched in amazement as the remaining trauma team finished tidying the room, third set of personnel showed up and started putting on isolation gowns, gloves, masks, caps, and booties.  The cleaning crew rapidly washed their hands and then did the same.

They had no sooner pushed another stretcher into the room than another EMS crew plowed into the room with a couple of police officers and firefighters in tow.  Their patient, a young man with wounds to his left leg and abdomen, was panting. “When I see that fat fuck, Johnny, he’s going to fucking pay!” he said.

The officer asked, “Who is Johnny?” The young man looked at the officer and shut his mouth. 

The trauma team swarmed him and the officer stepped back to where Justin and Drifts were standing, “I’m never going to understand why gang members feel the need to protect their enemies too.”

Drifts shrugged. “Fuck it!”

He took Justin by the arm, “Come on, kid. Let’s head back out to the rig.”

As they reached the ambulance bay doors, another crew burst through with a similar entourage as before, this time, one of the firefighters was standing on the stretcher’s railing pumping on another young man’s chest in rapid CPR.

The two of them made room for the crew to pass and watched them for several moments.  Finally Drifts shrugged. “Well that fucker’s going to get drilled.”  He headed out to the truck.

“So watching that doesn’t make you the least little bit sad?” asked Justin.

Drifts looked at him appraisingly. “You’re not judging me are you, kid?”

Justin held up his hands. “No. No.  I was just curious.  It just seems so sad to me.  I was wondering how it didn’t affect you.”

Drifts sighed. “It used to, kid.  Back when I was still wiping the green off of me, it got to me pretty fucking bad.  Then I realized something one day that made me feel better.”

“What’s that?” asked Justin.

“I realized I don’t know these fuckers.  They’re not my fucking family or friends, and for the most part, they don’t deserve my God damn sympathy.  That’s how I sleep at night.”

“Oh.”

“Okay, that time you were fucking judging me!”

Justin nodded. “A little.  Sorry.”

Drifts shrugged. “I’ll give you a bye, because you’ve got the fucking balls to admit it.  Just tell me how you feel after you put as much time on the streets as I have.”

“Okay.”

“Come on I need a cigarette.”

Out in the ambulance bay Drifts let out a low whistle. “It looks like you guys massacred someone in here.”

“Damn near!” said an older EMT who was pushing a blood mop inside of the ambulance. “The kid didn’t have a chance.  The trauma doc took one look at him when we rolled through the door and ordered the hot-drill straight up.  The other gangbanger, was apparently his brother, freaked out on them.  They had to sedate and tube him.  Hopefully the Versed will take away the memory of that moment, because there is some shit you shouldn’t have in your brain.”

“It does that?” asked Justin.

The older EMT looked at him, “Yeah.  It can have that a side effect.”  He looked at Drifts. “So you and Leo have another student huh?”

Drifts shrugged. “It is our cross to bear.” 

“Well Leo’s been carrying your sorry ass for years.  So what’s a little extra weight?”

Drifts shook his head. “Justin this is Joe Donnagan, oldest damn EMT in the company.  Too crotchety to quit and just happens to be my old, emphasis on old, preceptor.  Joe this is Justin, today is his first ride along.”

Donnagan waved at him, “You damn kids are getting younger and younger.”

“Nah you’re just getting senile.  We already introduced him to you three times today.”  Drifts then said in loud slow voice, “HIS NAME IS JUSTIN.”

Donnagan’s eyes narrowed, “Fuck you, Sam.”

Drifts snorted.

Donnagan leaned against his mop.  “Did you guys see any of these gang shootings tonight?”

“Nah.  All we’ve fucking had was this chick who was pregnant with a corpse and a code with crazy knife-wielding bitch for a daughter.”

Donnagan whistled. “I heard about that!  Did her mom really turn and bite her right there.”

“She sure as hell did.  Leo you’ve got to love him pried them apart, and took the zombie out with that knife of his.”

Donnagan shook his head. “That partner of yours is one badass dude.  I wouldn’t fuck with him in alley at night.”

Drifts nodded appreciatively, “Speaking of which, how’s your night going?  Or better yet, tell me about you partner Tracy.  How is her night going?”

Donnagan’s eyes narrowed. “It’s not going to happen, Sam.”

“What are you talking about?” Drifts smiled with mock innocence.

“You’re not getting anywhere near Tracy’s panties, Sam.”

“Why the hell not?”

“Well for one thing, she knows all about your exploits around the city,” said Donnagan.

“What the fuck does that have to do with anything?” protested Drifts.

“Because I happen to like my partner, and I remind her of said exploits when she mentions you.”

“Wait she mentions me?  What exactly did you tell her, Joe?”

“Just enough to make sure you don’t break my girl’s heart, or at least not give her the clap.”

Drifts jabbed a finger at him. “Did you start that fucking rumor about me?”

Laughing, Donnagan held up his hands. “Not I, my friend.  The point is, Tracy is not just another hot piece of ass.”

“Hey guys,” said a beautiful woman approaching them with a subconscious but tantalizing walk. “You’re not talking about booty again, are you?”

“Sam was,” said Donnagan without missing a beat.

Drifts turned on him. “No I fucking wasn’t!  You have to believe me, Tracy.”

She smiled at him brightly. “Oh, Sam, it’s okay.  I know how you are.”

Mollified, Drifts said, “Oh, okay.” Then he thought about it and said, “Wait!  What?”

Tracy had already moved on to look at Justin who for some reason flushed in the face. “Who’s this?”

Drifts, still processing said, “This is Justin.  Tonight is his first ride-along.”

Tracy smiled. “Leo’s showing you the ropes?  He can teach you a ton.  He’s done it all and somehow manages to stay a cool cat.  When he’s not being too vulgar, Sam’s a pretty good egg, too.  Listen to them and you’ll learn a lot.  They’ll keep you out of trouble.”

“Thanks.  Hey!” said Drifts.

Before Drifts could craft a proper response, their radios squawked. “Unit Triple-Three, respond out of Memorial for a code two!”

Drifts held up his finger. “To be continued.”

Tracy smiled. “Looking forward to it.”

“Oh, brother,” groaned Donnagan.

Drifts said into his radio, “Triple-Three responding to the truck.  My partner is still inside the ER.”

“I’m here,” said Ramirez as he strode out the ambulance bay doors.

Drifts hopped up into the truck keying the mic. “Triple-Three en route.”

The dispatcher came back. “Unit Triple-Three you are en route code two to Berry and Sixty-Third Lovecraft Park, shelter eight on a fall.”

“Responding to Lovecraft Park on a fall.”

“Man, what the hell was that all about?” griped Drifts.

Ramirez looked up from the map book with a cocked eyebrow. “I’m sorry?”

“Donnagan!  That asshole is totally cock-blocking his partner!”

“Oh,” Ramirez said with sudden understanding. “Right.”

Drifts looked at his partner suddenly, “You knew!”

Ramirez shrugged as he said, “Turn here on Howard Avenue.”

Triple-Three barreled around the intersection. “Dude!  I mean, what the fuck, man?  Leo, why didn’t you fucking say something to me!”

“I figured that rumor would get back to you sooner or later.  I wasn’t really in a hurry to speed that process up.”

“What the hell kind of answer is that?”

“An honest one, Sam.  You sleep with far too many of the girls we deal with from day to day.  How many times has one of our amiable relationships with some of ER personnel become hostile because you had your way with a girl and then never called her again?  You might bolt for the rig as quick as you can.  I have to actually stand there and give them patient report.”

“Really?  Name one time!”

Ramirez starting counting off on his hand. “Becky, Veronica, Latonya, Danielle, Lucy.  That nice little receptionist who quit her job soon afterwards.”

“Dammit, Leo, I said to name one!”

Ramirez sighed. “The point is, your tryst with these girls sometimes make our working conditions awkward.  Tracy is a good girl.  She’s not another girl for you to just turn and burn after you had your fun.  Which is why I understand Donnagan’s desire to prevent you from hurting her.”  He pointed. “Turn in here.”