His heart monitor beeped rhythmically, sending a mesmerizing tempo throughout the white room. Doctor Bixon stared at the v-shaped pulses blink onto the screen, disappear, and reappear right on cue. The man's chest rose and fell, momentarily fogging the silicon around his mouth with his calm breaths. To an outsider, the man looked like he was merely resting. To the doctor who saved his life, he looked like a corpse wheezing into an oxygen mask.
Ryan Bixon, sitting in an old office chair, leaned over and placed his head in his hands. He rubbed his hazel eyes as someone opened the door and closed it behind them. He looked over his shoulder, relieved to see his partner in medicine, Doctor Lambay, approach him. Her lab coat brushed against the back of her legs, disrupting the heart monitor's spell.
"Ryan..."
The woman placed her hands on his shoulders and rubbed them reassuringly. She brought her face close to the side of his head and sighed.
"You need to eat."
Ryan shifted in his seat into Doctor Lambay's touch.
"Mmm."
Ryan rolled his shoulders and yawned.
"I'm fine," Ryan mumbled. He lazily laid his head against Doctor Lambay's cheek, breathing in the scent of her tied-up brown hair.
"You haven't eaten or slept for two days, now. You don't need a doctor to tell you that that's not healthy. C'mon, I'll watch over these guys for you."
"No, Alice. I can't leave these two. Not with CEDA always hovering nearby."
Leaving anybody in ICU without supervision was foolish, especially with CEDA in the same building. It didn't help that they kept sending agents to peek through the window. Alice knew that Ryan detested CEDA enough as it was. She was usually the ring-leader – she had to pull Ryan away from CEDA's puppets many times. Usually, his fists would be swinging.
Alice looked up and away from Ryan's cheek; she adverted her gaze to the two patients, both adorning hospital garb. One was breathing into an oxygen mask. The other was breathing from a tube that was inserted into his airway. Ryan watched Alice leave his shoulders and approach the younger patient. She checked his IV drip and his heart monitor before grabbing two latex gloves. She wiggled her small hands into them and flexed her fingers as she looked at Ellis' intubator pump air into his lungs. She pulled a stool over and sat down, readying herself with antiseptic wipes and new bandages.
Ryan watched with intrigue as Alice bent over Ellis' still body. He noticed how small she was; so skinny and fit. It was a contrast to his semi-muscular frame. She had tiny hands that worked rather skillfully. Her face was free of wrinkles or blemishes, but she wasn't too young for Ryan's tastes; twenty-six and still gorgeous. She glanced over with her violet eyes and raised her eyebrows.
"Ryan?"
"Just looking..."
Alice sat up, disappointed. "Ryan..."
"I know, I know, I'm stopping."
Ryan pushed himself up and grabbed two gloves for himself. He pulled them on and posted himself on the other patient. Alice returned her attention to Ellis, smiling.
"Does Nick need another IV bag?" Alice asked as she untied the sling holding Ellis' arm against his chest. She untied the yellow and red splotched bandages and started to unravel them. Ryan looked up to Nick's fluids and shook his head.
He pulled Nick's blankets from his body to his feet and pulled up his gown. His bandaged thigh had no blood showing through; a good sign. Alice, however, cursed and covered her nose with her wrist. She squinted in disgust.
"It's getting worse," she choked.
Ellis' tattooed arm was covered in slimy puss, oozing from the long incision Alice had made the week before. She threw the bandages into the biohazard-waste bin and cleaned the undamaged skin before moving to the injury. She started to clean it, rolling his arm this way and that to examine it.
"This is really bad, Ryan."
"Load him up with antibiotics, then."
Alice growled quietly. "It's not that easy, Ryan. We have a limited supply."
Ryan bit his tongue. He would have bluntly responded with a 'So?' but that wouldn't have ended well.
"And this, this isn't the first thing about the kid that's confusing me."
Ryan looked up at Alice for a moment. "...Oh?"
"I opened him up and there was less blood than there should have been."
Ryan fumbled with the scissors he was using to cut away Nick's gauze. He stabled his hand; kept his cool. He breathed deeply, but got the stomach-churning scent of Ellis' oozy puss in his nose. Thankfully, Alice had more to say.
"And the bone I had to fix was missing a piece. I dug around for it, looked for it, felt for it, and I couldn't find it."
Ryan couldn't relax.
"That's strange."
Ryan's shoulders eased the tension a little as Alice went quiet. He was in the clear. She had no idea that Ellis underwent a direct blood transfusion to save Nick. And it would stay that way.
Alice stopped working altogether. Ryan looked up as he pulled some gauze away from Nick's thigh and walked over to the waste bin. He stopped and returned her stare, feeling uneasy at her scrutinizing blue eyes.
"This is where you're supposed to add your opinion," she stated. She tossed another yellow, soiled cloth into the garbage. Ryan dropped Nick's old bandages on top of it. He started to walk back to Nick, grabbing new gauze along the way. He tossed it from one hand to another, thinking.
"Ellis told me beforehand that he was shot. Considering that the bone snapped so easily when he fell in the elevator, I'm guessing that the bullet caught the bone, chipped it, and he pulled it out. There."
Done and done.
Ryan smiled as he freed Nick's leg of the rest of the bandages. There was no infection. The skin was pink around the slashes and the dozens of stitches held the flesh together reliably. All the doctor had to do was reapply the new gauze. Thankfully, Alice didn't see, sparing Ryan another glare of jealousy.
There was a knock at the door. Alice looked to it as she wrapped Ellis' arm. Ryan pulled off his gloves, covered Nick with his blue blankets, and opened the door just enough to see who was waiting outside.
"Hey, Ryan! Brought you something."
Ryan didn't like Diane. The nurse was hopelessly flirty in an annoying, stalker-ish way. She always had her bleached hair messed up in what she liked to call 'sexy beach curls'. Ryan liked to call it a 'crusty crimp' in his head. She wore a nurse's uniform that was too tight. She always had too much gum in her mouth so she sounded like she was a suffocating, grunting pig whenever she came near. Ryan's back shivered in anger when he thought about Diane taking her time getting the dialysis machine. Little things tended to bug Ryan. Diane was full of them.
Ryan pulled a strained smile over his face and stepped aside to allow the nurse in. She pulled a trolley into the room. Ryan looked into the hallway. On one end of the hallway, patients wobbled around. They greeted each other. Some were helping other limp around. One was holding a baby. On the other end of the hallway, it was deserted. Footsteps echoed around the corner. Ryan blinked. He could have sworn that the hallway was getting longer.
The footsteps came closer. Ryan couldn't help but keep his eyes fixed on the end of the hallway to see who would turn that corner. A CEDA agent marched around the corner, bee-lining his way to Ryan. Abdomen clenching and heart hammering, Ryan slammed the door, locked it, and pulled the blinds shut on both the window and the door. Both Diane and Alice jumped.
The agent's shadow appeared on the other side of the blinds like a gray demon. He stopped and turned as if he were looking into the room, even with the blinds down. Ryan clenched his jaw.
"They're vultures, I tell yah."
Diane laughed loudly (to Ryan's disgust) and pushed the trolley to the side of the room. She opened the cabinet on the side. She pulled out two plates covered to keep the contents fresh.
"Instant mashed potatoes and beef jerky with canned beans; today's roast beef dinner." Diane laughed at her own joke, snapping the gum in her mouth loudly.
Ryan took the plate from Diane and shot a look at Alice.
"What?" she asked as she took her own plate. "I was going to get you to eat sooner or later."
"Sneaky. Thanks."
Ryan removed the plastic cover and tossed it back to Diane. She fumbled with it. It bumped her in the forehead.
"Ryan!" she squealed. She laughed again. Even Alice glanced over, eyebrows raised. Ryan caught her eye and shrugged. Alice winked.
Ryan gnawed at the tough, dry meat with a smile as Alice started to use hers as a spoon for her potatoes. Diane walked over to Nick and stared at his heart monitor, smacking her gum loudly.
"How are they?" Diane asked through her struggling mouth. "Have they woken up yet?"
"Not at all," Alice replied. "Nick, the older one, only breathes. With Ellis, it's a bit different. We had him under in an induced coma because the infection is so bad. It got to his lungs before we could get our hands on any antibiotics."
Ryan looked over at Alice. "I gave him the counter-medication a while ago so he should be waking up in the next few hours."
"You got the infection under control?" Diane asked.
Alice slowed her chewing, swallowed, and licked her lips. "...No, not exactly. We have to take him off it because we ran out of supply yesterday. We won't have another shipment until we hear back from Canada. And it has to be flown all the way over here so it's easier to just wake him up and hope for the best."
There was a moment of silence as Alice nibbled at her beef jerky, obviously upset.
Diane motioned to Nick as she snapped her gum again. Ryan twitched.
"Any heart problems?" she asked.
"With Nick? Not after we brought him in."
"So that thing worked?"
Ryan stopped eating. Alice swallowed and looked up. Diane's face fell.
"You know, the thing with the dialysis machine? ...Was I not supposed to say anything?"
Ryan shut his eyes. Fuck you, Diane.
"What's she talking about, Ryan?" Alice asked. When Ryan didn't respond, she looked to Diane. She bent under the stare and opened her mouth.
"Well, Doctor Bixon, he, umm..."
Alice rubbed her forehead and glared at Ryan, her bad mood getting worse.
"What did you do?" she asked firmly. Ryan turned to Alice. All the work he did to cover his tracks flittered away, exposing his lies in an instant.
"When I brought Nick down here, he was running on nothing; no blood, nothing. Out of the survivors that were with him... Ellis was the only one who could give him blood."
Alice tried to speak a few times, but was so dumbfounded that she couldn't find her voice.
"Ryan," whispered, "if you're telling me that you gave Ellis' blood to Nick, I swear I'll –"
"That is exactly what I'm telling you, Alice. I did what I had to."
Alice put her plate on the counter and stood up. Ryan avoided eye contact the best he could. Diane's constant chewing and smacking disappeared.
Alice rubbed her face, her hair askew.
"So I performed surgery on someone when they had no blood to recover?"
"I left the machine running longer than I had initially wanted..."
"You weren't supposed to use it to begin with!" she shouted. Ryan tensed at the sound.
"I had to save Nick."
Alice scoffed loudly. "Good job. You did. Now I have to save Ellis! How? How am I supposed to do that? He has an infection raging through his blood stream that I can't stop! He can't have morphine and he can't stay asleep! He almost died on the table and it wouldn't have happened if you'd have told me! Fuck, Ryan, what next? You gonna give somebody a kidney? A liver? We can't do that!"
Alice's face was red with anger, her hands balled into fists.
"Alice, I didn't tell you because this would happen. Yeah, I break rules so I can save a few more lives. You know, it wouldn't hurt if you did the same."
Alice went stiff, tears springing up to her eyes.
"You know what? Fuck you."
Ryan caught his breath. He hit a nerve; the one nerve he thought he never would.
"Wait, I didn't mean –"
"No, I don't wanna hear it, asshole."
Alice turned to the door and started to walk to it. Ryan reached out to stop her, but she turned around.
"Oh, and you know what? You can deal with Ellis. Leave me out it. I'm sure you're more than capable."
Alice opened the door and disappeared down the hallway, stopping long enough to flip the bird at the CEDA agent waiting outside. The man didn't even react.
"Wait here," Ryan ordered Diane. She nodded as Ryan ran out of the room, calling out Alice's name.
Diane gulped as she heard Alice yelling at Ryan without considering the patients around her. Everyone disappeared into their room or stood by a window. Diane kept looking after them, but she couldn't see them after Ryan pulled the two of them into a room.
"Everything alright, ma'am?"
Diane spun around at the CEDA agent's question. Her mouth went dry.
"Maybe we should come in. We need to –"
"No."
"Please be advised that we have an obligation to –"
Diane shook her head. "No."
Diane shut the door and locked it. She backed away from the door and watched the agent's shadow shift and move. When the agent was gone, Diane relaxed a little bit.
She turned and looked at the patients. She bit her lips, crossed her arms, and bounced a little. After a while, she started humming. She chewed through her gum in boredom until she peeked over to Alice's abandoned plate on the counter. She looked away quickly. Slowly, she returned her gaze to the food. She looked over her shoulder in spite of herself and walked to the counter. She grabbed a chunk of the half-eaten meat with one hand and pulled the wad of slimy gum out of her mouth with the other. She shoved the meat in her mouth and chewed it savagely.
The doctors only got meat. It was a rare delicacy these days and since there wasn't a real money system at the moment, they got paid with food. Nurses sometimes got nibbles of meat but mostly had to settle for rice, potatoes, and anything canned; served cold with water.
Diane finished the meat and ate everything else on the plate, swallowing loudly as she did so. When she saw Doctor Bixon's plate, she gobbled up every morsel on it. After she swallowed, she shoved the stale gum back into her mouth and kept chewing. It kept her from being hungry all the time.
Maybe, just maybe, if Diane could get her hands on something of value, she could bribe the cafeteria worker to give her some more beef jerky. Maybe even some hair gel. Stealing from the ICU room was perfect – so many machines with valuable wires in them; medicines exclusively for ICU patients always had a good price to it; even hand sanitizer was worth gold. Shortages called for restocking. Why call to Canada for morphine when they keep a supply in here?
Diane quietly crept over to the counter beside Ellis' bed and opened the drawer. She grabbed whatever she could. She didn't read any of the names on the vials of medicine before she stuffed them into her pockets, bra, panties, even her shoes. She left some behind to make it look like she hadn't been stealing and shut the cabinet.
Neither of the doctors came back so Diane went over to Nick's side. His cabinet was in between Nick's bed and Ellis' bed and was standing over wires connecting to both men. Diane opened the cupboard after shoving tubes and wires out of the way (disorganization in an apocalyptic hospital was normal), she grabbed more medicine. She closed it when she was finished pilfering and stood up. She adjusted her clothing to hide the bulges of objects.
Something glinted in the corner of her eye. She looked to it and her eyes lit up.
On Nick's hands were a total of three golden rings.
Licking her lips, Diane lifted one of Nick's hands and inspected it. She grabbed a ring between her index finger and her thumb and pulled it off after using some force. She rubbed it on her uniform to remove her greasy fingerprints and looked on the inside. She gasped when she read the '24k' on the inside of the band. She looked to the door before she dropped the ring between her breasts. She leaned over Nick's body to grab his other hand. She grabbed another ring and started to tug on it. It held firmly. It was tighter than the first one.
She heaved on the ring. Her hand slipped and flew back. She stumbled, feeling something snag on her uniform's pocket. She looked down to see what it was just as she grabbed Nick's hand again.
Her uniform had snagged on Nick's IV. The long needle taped to his skin to keep it stable had ripped out, send blood pooling out and onto his blankets.
"Shit," Diane muttered. She look to his hand and tried to pull the rings off as fast as she could.
Suddenly, Nick's arm shot out from under Diane's grip. His eyes snapped open as he grabbed the nurse around the throat. Diane screamed and tried to pull back, but the conman's grip tightened around her thin neck.
"GET OFF!" he screamed. His hands tightened around her neck. Diane struggled against his hold. She hip-checked the medical cabinet. The tubes attached to Nick and Ellis snapped and broke off. Both heart monitors started squealing maniacally.
"Where the FUCK am I?" Nick yelled. Diane wriggled against Nick, trying to force out a scream.
Nick looked past Diane and saw Ellis. He looked back to Diane, squeezing harder.
"What did you do to him? WHAT DID YOU DO?"
"N-nothing!" Diane choked.
Nick tried to squeeze the life out of Diane, rage pulsing through his arms to his hands.
Diane threw her hands up, trying to hit Nick's face. Her short arms couldn't reach, so she landed a blow on Nick's thigh.
Nick screamed in pain, releasing Diane's throat. She fell to the floor. A series of popping noises sounded through the room. Diane shrieked in pain as blood and medicine started to seep through her uniform. She scratched at her skin, glass shards embedded in her flesh.
Nick grabbed his chest as pain pulsed from his thigh to his chest. He pulled on the bedside railing and pushed his legs over the edge of the bed.
The door to the room swung open. Doctor Bixon barged in without a moment's hesitation.
"Get me some nurses!" he shouted. Footsteps clicked and clacked in the hallway as more personnel ran to help.
"Nick, lie down," Ryan ordered. He grabbed Nick's shoulders and pushed him down onto the mattress.
"Get the fuck off me! Don't touch me!"
Nurses ran in. Some gasped, some groaned, and some froze. Diane, sobbing on the floor, tried to roll over onto her hands and knees.
"Get her the fuck outta here and lock her in a room!" Ryan ordered. Nurses grabbed Diane and wrenched her up. She howled in pain as they dragged her out of the room and into the hallway.
"Doctor, Ellis isn't breathing!" one of the nurses cried. She looked at the intubator's monitor, looking for a switch.
"Shit!" Ryan spat. "Grab him!"
Ryan let go of Nick, replaced with two other nurses. Nick swung his arm up and landed a punch on somebody's cheek. They grunted in pain. Nick pushed the nurses away, but couldn't get himself off the mattress before they grabbed him again.
"Tie him down!" Ryan shouted as he shoved the nurse away from Ellis' monitor. "Find the plug to this damn thing!"
"Ellis!" Nick shouted. Five nurses were on the conman, holding down his arm and legs while one buckled him to the bed frame. "Don't touch him! Get off me! I'll fucking kill you!"
"Get that guy some more morphine and another IV drip. Stitch up his hand! And where is the fucking plug?"
Nick pulled against his restraints. "I'll kill you! I'll kill you all!"
"Shut him up!" Ryan barked. He jumped over Ellis' legs and landed on the other side of his bed. He grabbed the medical cabinet between the two beds and lifted it off the ground. He hurled it behind him without another word and found the broken tubes. The worn plug on the machine was severed completely, sawed in half by the sharp legs of the medical cabinet.
"Fucker!' Ryan yelled. "Miles, get me another intubator!"
"From where?" the nurse asked.
"I don't fucking care!" the doctor screamed. He stood up and started to unbuckled the contraption holding the tube in Ellis' airway. He disconnected the tube, and replaced it with a breathing bag secured to the tube leading to Ellis' lungs. He started squeezing it, looking up at his heart monitor. All Nick could think of was what the fuckers in this place did to him to get him like that in the first place.
A hand shot over Nick's mouth. He opened it to scream when a pill fell into his mouth, dissolving as he choked it down.
His vision blurred, the taste of the pill lingering on his tongue. His eyes felt heavy. He was breathing heavily, too weak to make a sound.
"We're losing him!" Ryan growled. "Where the fuck is that intubator?"
Nick forced his eyes open, shaking his head awake. He shot up, feeling his arms holding him back against the bed.
"Let me go!" he yelled. "Don't touch him! Let me go!"
Ryan looked over his shoulder. "I thought I told you guys to shut him up!"
Nick pulled even harder, especially after he felt the nurses push against his chest again. His heart hammered in his head, pain flourishing in his breast. He grimaced and grunted, curling over as his heart continued to pang with pain. The nurses pushed him back down. Nick, fighting against the pain, tried yet again to get up.
"We gave him Lorazepam already, Ryan. It should work soon."
"Soon is not now. Give him more before he gives himself a heart attack!"
Nick gasped as the pain got worse. He fell on the mattress, wheezing. He left his mouth open to suck in more air. Another pill was shoved into it. He choked again, trying to get it to the tip of his tongue so he could spit it out. It turned into mush on his tongue instead, falling into his throat with his saliva. The hand left his mouth. He gasped and coughed. He weakly pulled his feet against the belts as Miles ran in with another intubator machine.
"I found it in a room, but it's not sterile at all."
"Really, dumbass?" Ryan asked. He removed the breathing bag from Ellis and grabbed the machine's tube, screwing it on. "You think he's gonna care?"
Ryan snatched the power cord from Miles and slammed it into the socket. It blinked on and air started pumping, but Ellis' heart monitor kept squealing. Ryan stared at the monitor, then jumped as Ellis's chest convulsed. The hick's eyebrows furrowed after his chest heaved again.
"What are you doing?" Nick yelled as he fought weakly against the nurses. His knuckles went white as he pulled his arms against the belts. Miles, another pill in hand, slammed his fist into Nick's mouth, forcing the sedative down his throat.
"Turn him over, quick!"
Ryan, with the assistance from two other nurses, pulled Ellis onto his side. He kept coughing into the intubator, his whole body seizing up. His legs moved over the mattress slowly. Nick looked over, the effects of the drugs finally taking control. He kept struggling against his restraints.
Ryan grabbed the mouthpiece holding the intubator in place and unclipped it. He pulled the tube out of his mouth, shaking his head.
"Kid's breathing on his own," he muttered. "Perfect timing."
Ryan threw the tube onto the floor, still squatting to meet levels with his patient. Suddenly, Ellis threw up over the bed and onto Ryan's pants. Anyone who was watching groaned in disgust. Ryan stood up and felt Ellis' forehead, wrinkling his nose in anger.
"He's too hot. You two, cool him down. You, clean up the floor. And you, go get another bag of antibiotics. I don't care how you do it, just do it. And someone get me some new pants. Jesus, the guy's lucky he's been out for a week."
Ryan bent over again, resting his hand on Ellis' forehead. Ellis' face twitched with the contact as he spat the rest of the puke out of his mouth with little to no effort.
"Ellis," he said gently. "Ellis, open your eyes for me."
Ellis panted quietly, his breaths hoarse.
"C'mon, kid."
Nick, forcing his body up one last time, looked over to Ellis.
"Ellis."
Ellis's eyes opened at Nick's voice. He looked past the doctor in front of him and saw Nick barely staying awake, his wrists pinned to the bed.
"Nnniii..." Ellis slurred. He lifted his bad arm and tried to reach out to the conman, rolling closer to the edge of the bed. The doctor grabbed his arm and eased it back to his chest. He rolled Ellis onto his back.
"Hey now, you stay in bed."
Ellis' faced twisted into discomfort as his lungs sucked in pathetic puffs of air, his stomach churning.
"Welcome back. You remember me?"
Ellis stared at the doctor, panting against the heat raging through him.
"B-Bixonnnn..." he wheezed. "You took my blood... you gave it to him... you gave it to him..."
"You have a major infection; we've kept you in an induced coma for a week, but we can't keep you on it any longer. You're going to feel some pain for the next few days while I try to save your arm, alright?"
"Pain?" Ellis asked. Nick, exhausted, felt his head rest on his pillow.
"Yes. But you're safe now. And so is Nick. Hang tight."
"Niiick..."
Nick saw Ellis turn his head, his bloodshot eyes meeting his.
Nick didn't realise everyone leave. He stared at Ellis while most of the nurses left. Miles stayed behind, mopping the floor and taking out the trash. Ryan walked in with some vials of medicine to replace the ones that Diane had damaged.
"Nick's not asleep... are you sure it was Lorazepam you gave him?"
"Positive. We gave him enough to tranquilize a cow. He just keeps fighting off sleep."
Ryan looked over to Nick, who was still staring at Ellis. He wondered what they would say if they could do more than just stare at each other. What would they say? What could they possibly say to each other?
He stared at the floor silently for a moment. He turned to the door and opened it.
"I'll be right back. I'm going to see Alice. Make sure both of them have some morphine and antibiotics. Not too much; we're running low on everything and Canada hasn't gotten back to us, yet."
"Yes, sir."
Ryan stepped out and bee-lined it down the hallway, smirking at the sound of Diane sobbing in another room. Lucky for her, she managed to get penicillin under her skin. Having an allergy to it, her whole body was covered in hives. Good.
But when Ryan walked out and when Miles went to the bathroom, the CEDA agent rounded the corner and peeked in between the blinds and the window frame into the room. He stared at Nick, who had fallen asleep. He grinned maliciously and cracked his knuckles, one word flying through his head.
Jackpot.
