Joshua was getting impatient. The doc had promised a quick look at the kid, the usual examination for the mark that his father normally performed, before handing the boy back over. But Joshua had mentioned the kid claiming to be Caleb, with an uncanny knowledge of things only Caleb would know, and he had a funny feeling that's why this was taking so long.
Caleb had always been a favorite of the doc's, and could be the old man was seeing if there was any shred of truth in the kid's story, no matter how strange.
Joshua let out sigh and pulled his stiff vest down, as he waited outside the bunker entrance, hopeful for a sight of the men he'd sent up the mountain. The midday sun was starting a heavy beating on him through the thick black fabric of his uniform, but he kept his place, kept his pose watchful, aware of the glances of the community going about their day topside.
A young lady passed, her hair tied up in a modest bun, carrying a basket of vegetables along the main road to the storehouse. The frayed hem of her dull blue dress dragged along the ground as she walked with quick steps.
Tipping his hat to her with a short nod, he watched her closely as she curtsied quick to him, eyes pointedly averted, then turned back on her way, her step faster than before, shoulders pressed forward in haste.
Joshua smiled. Lisa was looking mighty fine these days. If she wasn't already promised to the Smithfield boy, he'd be looking to take her in as a second. As it was, he barely had time to spend proper with his first wife Adeline, what with being second in command, and currently in charge with his father leading a salvage to Fort Drum.
His thoughts returned to the kid they'd brought in. The one who acted like Caleb. Who'd almost convinced him complete, though he'd never let anyone know he'd fallen for it, hugged the boy and all. What the heck had come over him?
The kid's ranting about being dead, and coming back, that wasn't new. They'd been seeing more travelers like that lately, picked up more on their sweeps. It'd been astounding at first, finding the dead who were on their way to living, finding the living who carried the mark of the dead. Then Samuel had put the proper perspective on it all. Ruled that they were all the Judged, regardless. The devil was just trying something new, trying to sway them with an illusion.
And all of the Judged were redeemed, fully walking dead, or the living breathing kind who still showed the mark. They were all given that blessed passing, which guaranteed their place with the Lord.
Joshua felt a burst of pride at the thought, the quickening in his chest as his heart grew full, knowing and understanding he was doing good work. Important work. And the one they'd just brought in would be redeemed too, if he carried the mark of the Judged, didn't matter if he acted like Caleb or not. Didn't matter that he knew something that only Caleb would know, spoke as Caleb had.
Felt like his twin brother so much it'd pulled tears from him.
The smile fell from Joshua's face. His certainty about the boys fate didn't sit quite right. The boy had talked of a demon. He'd been frantic, begging for Joshua's help in driving it down, keeping it at bay.
Was it possible? Was it possible his brother had found a way to return from the dead in a different form?
Joshua scowled at himself. What kind of dumb was that? Why the heck was he even giving it time in his head? There was no real proof that Caleb had even died...
But he knew his brother had. He'd felt it. Many summers ago, he'd felt a pain that'd torn him up inside, took him by surprise as he walked home from an elders gathering in the Branson house. A terrible wild panic that stole his breath as he doubled over on the road, and something was wrenched from his heart.
And he knew at that moment that Caleb was gone. He'd staggered home, he'd crumpled up in the bedroom with a pillow over his mouth and he'd roared till his eyes were swollen with tears. Adeline knew better than to intrude, and left him to his grief, though she never knew the cause of it, and he never shared his knowing with anyone. Not Samuel, not his ma, not even Doc Adams.
What the hell was taking the doc so long? Joshua kicked the dirt at his feet, scowling, then gave up on his men and stepped through the blast door of the bunker.
The cool air surrounded him and the scrape of his boots on the concrete stairs echoed hollowly as he made his way down. Passing through the secondary door, he entered the main assembly room, lined with lockers and benches, and nodded to Foley, one of his best soldiers, who was gearing up for his shift in the ammunition stores.
Foley nodded back, and pointed down the hall towards the medical wing. "Somebody's been screaming back there, about demons or some such," he said, tugging on his shoelaces.
Joshua frowned and turned away down the wide hallway, passing doors ajar to unoccupied beds and shelving cluttered with basic first aid and surgical supplies, to the quarantine room at the back of the wing.
As he approached, he could hear talking. Sounded like Doc Adams doing most of it. Low, muted tones. Curious, he stopped a few feet from the door and listened.
"..stop Samuel, bring this place back from the brink. As I never could. And you've ended that."
The words were a bit of a shock, and Joshua stood completely still, not understanding what he was listening to. Stop Samuel? What in the world was he talking about? The doc wanted to stop his dad? Was he hearing that wrong?
Trying to give the man the benefit of the doubt, he moved closer still, and focused, wanting to hear more.
But the doctor didn't speak again, though Joshua could hear him rustling through supplies and moving around.
Must have just heard it wrong. That's all. No way the doc would turn against his dad. It wasn't possible.
Although... the man had been resisting them recently with the Judged, the ones with the mark. Doc Adams kept bringing up his own theories on what was happening with them, saying that the judgement had been passed, that these people were now free from the devil's influence, that that's why they were coming back. But dad hadn't had any of it. Joshua remembered his father slamming his fist down hard on the old school table in the meeting house after the doctor's most recent appeal.
That'd ended things quick.
The doc had been quiet since then, keeping his thoughts to himself... but maybe...
Shaking his head at his rambling mind, Joshua raised his fist and tapped his knuckles against the door.
"Doc?"
There was an answer of sorts, something muffled that didn't sound like the doctor.
What the hell was going on in there?
"Josh!"
Joshua jerked back from the door, surprised. That'd been the kid. Calling him by the nickname Caleb used. Nobody else called him that, because he hated it. Made him sound like he was five years old.
Something was wrong, the kid's voice was strained, and the cry had been for help.
Torture wasn't the doc's style... what in the world was he doing?
Joshua tried the handle, but the door was locked. Scowling, and starting to get really worried, he knocked again.
"Doc, open up."
"Not now Joshua," the doctor's voice finally came. The man sounded weary. "Give me a moment please."
Give him a moment? Confused, Joshua stepped back again. If the doctor needed time, he could give it, but...
There was a low moan, and the kid's voice came again, sounding like he was pleading.
Joshua's eyes grew wide. They'd made no agreement about torture, and the doc was not allowed to interfere with the Judged. The kid was afraid, clearly, and Doc Adams appeared to be the cause.
"S-stop!" came the kid's cry, and it was enough to spur Joshua to action.
He took another step back, and rushed the door, hitting it bodily with his shoulder. It held. Ignoring the pain in his arm, he took another couple of steps back, and rammed it hard again. The lock shattered the frame and the door gave way, leaving him stumbling into the room with the momentum.
The scene came as a shock at first. The kid was laying on the bed, his lower face covered in blood, strapped down in the usual restraints, and the doctor was laying sprawled on the floor, head at an awkward angle against the bookcase.
Joshua rushed to the doctor's side, but knew before he'd even put his fingers to the man's throat that Doc Adams was dead. His neck was clearly broken, and an ugly gash on his forehead matched a stain on one of the shelves.
He rose slowly, clamping down quick on the emotion rising from the man's death, and turned to face the kid on the bed.
The boy hadn't moved. At all. And if it wasn't for the kid's eyes peeking out at him from heavy lids, he'd have thought the kid was dead, he was so still. Those eyes were glazed, but tracking him.
"You kill him?" he barked, pointing back at the doctor's body. Keeping his emotions in control, not letting them get the better of him. Not beating the kid's face in...
Then he saw the syringe sticking out of the boy's arm.
What the hell?
Doc drugged him? Made sense with what he was seeing, the kid wasn't acting normal, still wasn't moving... his color was getting worse as he watched.
But why?
He pulled the syringe free and dropped it on a nearby tray, where he saw two vials, and not of the same drug.
Why two? It wasn't standard procedure to use any drugs until the examination had been completed...
"What was he doing to you?" he said, turning back to the kid.
His heart jumped in his chest. The young man was deathly still, and the skin around his lips, his eyes, was turning blue.
The boy wasn't breathing.
Oh sweet Jesus.
Was it an overdose? Had Adams done that on purpose?!
Joshua grabbed the kid, his fingers groping for the pulse at his throat, his chest tightening with a fear he didn't quite understand.
There was a heartbeat, faint, but there, but the kid still hadn't taken a breath.
He shook the kid hard, and yelled at him, not really sure what he felt it'd do, how it would help, but needing the guy to breathe.
Because he'd been Caleb... even if it was a lie, even if he didn't look like Caleb... for that moment, Joshua had his brother back... and...
The kid gasped, and relief came through Joshua in a bright rush. He was going to be okay, kid was okay, just needed some time...
The brilliant blue eyes fixed on him, and Joshua's jaw fell. Caleb was in there. He could feel his twin brother in there looking out at him... the connection they'd always had... was there.
The kid held his eyes, and Joshua felt the desperation in them, as the guy spoke, his voice a thin hiss, "Nalox... Naloxo..ne... nal..."
The words trailed off to nothing, as the eyes that held him dilated beyond seeing and drifted closed.
Joshua's chest squeezed, and he grabbed the kid again. Completely unresponsive now, the boy lay still against his hand and wasn't breathing at all.
God help me! Caleb!
Quickly, he undid the restraints, and pulled the kid into his arms and down onto the hard floor, fully prepared to deliver CPR if he had to, if he couldn't find a pulse again.
It was still there. Shaky, and getting weaker, but there. Heart racing, Joshua jumped up, stepping over the doctor's body to grab a mask from the lower far shelf, and quickly returned, fixing it to the kids face. Taking a deep breath, he closed his lips over the valve and blew. The kid's chest rose and fell, and Joshua continued, desperate to keep the young man alive.
He needed help... they had to work out what the kid had been given, and how to reverse it, if it was possible. But the only person who could tell them what to do was lying on the ground a few feet away, dead.
"FOLEY!" he yelled towards the door, in between rescue breaths, and Foley showed up almost immediately - he must have been coming to see what the noise was all about.
"What the-" the man started, but Joshua cut him off.
"Foley, look at the vials up there, tell me what they are, quick now."
Joshua checked the kid's pulse again, and scowled. It was thready, and slower still. They were going to lose him if they didn't counteract the drugs he'd been given.
Then he remembered... the kid had said something before he passed out... Something that he'd dismissed as gibberish at the time, but... could have been the name of a drug? What was it though... Nola.. Noxo something?
Foley started to reach down to Doc Adams.
"He's dead, leave him!" Joshua snapped. "Check the vials, now!"
"Lord," Foley whispered, then stepped to the tray. Picking up the vials, he struggle to read them out. "Amo..barbie-tal? And morphine? That sound right?"
"Nothing like Nolaxone? Something like that?"
"No sir," Foley answered. "Want I should check the shelf?"
Joshua gave another rescue breath and nodded, "Yeah, look for Nolax or Naloxone or something." He stared back down at the kid, whose skin had turned ashen. "Hang in there Caleb."
Then he felt like a fool, saying something like that in front of one of his men. Thankfully Foley hadn't heard, he was too busy scanning the shelf.
"Naxolone?" the man said, holding up a box.
"That's it! Bring it over!"
Foley stepped awkwardly over the doctor's body and handed the box to Joshua before peering closely at the young man on the floor.
"Who's the kid?" he asked, scratching the back of his neck.
"He's... a friend," Joshua answered as he fumbled with the box, ripping it apart. The contents spilled over the kids shirt and clattered on the concrete floor and included two syringes, two small brown vials and simply printed instructions. The word 'OVERDOSE' caught Joshua's eye first, and he knew they had what they needed.
"Keep breathing for him while I do this," he ordered, and quickly scanned the directions for the dosage. Snapping the head off one of the vials, he inserted a syringe and drew up the entire contents in one pull. Then he cleared out the trapped air, and grabbed at the young man's arm.
Foley was dutifully giving rescue breaths and looking down at the kid. "The blood on his face, what's that all about?"
Joshua ignored him, and steadied the needle. The previous injections had left a little mark on the inside of the kid's elbow, the best guide he was going to get for insertion. He had no idea how deep to go, but he'd been given shots before, he knew what they looked like, and he pushed the needle in as he remembered and delivered the entire dose.
And he prayed.
And then he drew the carved crucifix from a pouch on his vest, the one the kid had held out to him in the forest, and wrapped the kid's hand around it tight.
There you go Caleb. You come back for me now, you beat the demon down and come back.
I'm ready for you now.
"Joshua..." Foley said, coming up for air after another rescue breath, "If Doc Adams is dead... what're we going to do for a doctor?"
The question hit Joshua strange, and his eyes sought the still form of the man who'd brought him into the world, lying behind Foley. The man's white hair was matted red with blood from the gash in his forehead, and his skin was about as white. Doc Adams was dead. It still hadn't sunk in right, and he had a feeling it wouldn't for a while. The news would not be welcome to his dad either. No matter the doc's protests of late, he'd been an essential part of this community, and his loss would hit the town hard.
His eyes fell to the boy, whose chest was falling after another rescue breath from Foley. He had no idea what part the kid had played in the doctor's death, but he made a silent promise to whatever lay of Caleb inside the boy that he'd only speak of it as an accident.
And he thanked the Lord above that his father was out on an arms salvage.
"I don't know Foley," he finally answered, resting his hand against the kid's head. "But we'll find another, God willing."
The instructions had said that the drug worked fast, that they should see a response in a couple of minutes... hadn't it been a few minutes already? Surely it had? Did he need to give more? Was there a maximum dose?
At that moment, the kid made a small noise under the mask, just as Foley was lowering to breathe for him again, and his chest rose slightly and fell. The fingers around the crucifix twitched, tightening around the wooden Jesus, and the kid gasped loudly through the mask, his head tilting back with the effort.
Joshua's heart jumped in his chest. It was working! He was coming back!
"Thank you Lord," he sighed, and he quickly pulled the mask from the kid's face, not wanting anything to be in the way of his breathing.
"Foley," he snapped up at the soldier, "Go get one of the oxygen masks in the other room, make sure it's hooked to a full tank."
"Yes sir," the soldier answered with a nod, rising to his feet.
Joshua stared down at the young man's face, at his pale skin, at the red shock of blood against his mouth and chin, and the dark blue shadows around his eyes.
The kid looked like a corpse.
The thought was sobering, and he withdrew his hand from the guy's head. He was being unwise here, letting some fantasy sway him about his brother. How could this boy, who might be one of the Judged, be his brother? How could Caleb be in there?
But he couldn't deny he'd seen him, seen his twin in the boy's eyes. He knew it as truth. And this made him lean in close as he shook the kid's shoulders, and call out his twin's name.
"Caleb! Wake up now!"
The boy gasped again, and his brow trembled in something like confusion or pain... or both. Slowly, his eyelids fluttered open, and dull, bloodshot eyes rolled to settle on Joshua.
"Caleb... I'm here brother, stay awake for me now," Joshua said quietly, only for the boy to hear, as the sound of Foley's returning footsteps came from the hall out the door.
The kid's eyes glazed over as his brows drew in tight, and his head moved the slightest bit back and forth.
"N-not," the kid managed to rasp, before his body rolled suddenly and he vomited in a violent spasm onto the concrete floor.
"Gross," Foley said from behind Joshua, and tapped his commanding officer on the shoulder with the oxygen mask. The tank clanked dully on the concrete floor as he set it to the side.
"Good, thank you," Joshua said, holding the mask as the kid retched again, then settled back with a groan. He gestured to the shelves. "Pass me that towel."
Foley did so, and Joshua wiped the kid's face, before fixing the mask and starting the flow of oxygen. Then he sat back and just watched as the boy blinked and breathed, occasionally slipping under again before Joshua would shake him and bring him back. Each time he did those eyes would turn to him, and the boy would mumble something Joshua couldn't hear before the kid looked away again.
The oxygen was helping though, the young man was growing more alert, and making clumsy efforts to sit up. When Joshua felt the danger had truly passed, he gestured for Foley to move the tank as he picked the young man up off the floor and lowered him back onto the bed.
When he pulled back, the kid was staring at him, eyes sharper than before, his gaze steady. The look he was giving Joshua was anything but familiar, and very guarded.
Joshua stared back for a moment, then took the kid's far arm and secured it back in the restraint.
The kid fought him on it, trying to pull his arm away, and when that failed, he tried to undo the padded cuff with sloppily scrabbling fingers.
"Stop..." the kid sighed through the mask, jerking away as Joshua went for his other arm.
"It's for your protection," Joshua answered, reaching out and pulling the kid's arm back and into the cuff.
With an annoyed sound, the young man gave up struggling, and flopped his head back on the bed, scowling at Joshua. "Heard... before..."
"Maybe so, but it's meant here," Joshua said, much more kindly than he'd intended. He secured the buckle and nodded to Foley, then glanced down at the doctor.
He gave a heavy sigh then, as sadness gripped him hard, and for a moment he did not know what to do. He was a child again and Doc Adams was smiling at him as he bandaged his knee, and mussed up his hair before sending him on his way.
"Doc.. doctor... help him..." the kid said behind him, and Joshua turned back to see the young man twisted over in the bed and pointing at Doc Adams' body.
"There's no help for him now," he answered quietly.
The kid stared at him for a moment, then his brow squeezed in and he shook his head awkwardly. "No... no, just.. hit... head," he mumbled and pointed again.
"He's dead, Caleb," Joshua said bluntly. "His neck's broke."
Shock spread on the kid's face, in his eyes grown wide, in his mouth falling softly open, and Joshua could see the kid wrestling with it inside, and knew whatever had been done here hadn't been done maliciously. It truly had been an accident, and he took that as a small comfort.
Then the kid pulled himself up, and tugged at the restraints hard, disbelief apparently giving him strength.
"No... lemme see... m'a medic..." His eyes sought Joshua's, and there was desperation there, a deep need to amend what'd been done.
Joshua held his eyes, and gently, but firmly pushed him back down in the bed.
"Doc's beyond your help boy," he said, and sighed. "He's with God now."
With a low moan, the kid stopped fighting him, and crumpled in on himself, turning away as best he could to face the wall.
"Noo... I didn want... didn mean," he choked, and then the words fell from him as he started to cry.
Joshua stared at him hard a moment, his own eyes growing wet, then caught Foley's gaze. "We need to move the doc to the morgue. Grab his legs for me."
"Yes sir," Foley said, and maneuvered over, waiting for Joshua to gather the doctor's upper body before lifting the man's legs. Together they moved out and down the hall, and Joshua pushed through the first door on the right into a dark room.
"Lights Foley," he barked, and relief flushed through him as the fluorescent lights flickered on above his head, illuminating the single metal table in the center of a space filled with rusted equipment. Grunting, he lifted the doc's body up high enough for the table and set him down with a tender gentleness that Foley didn't quite mimic, missing landing one of the doc's legs as the table rolled on the concrete floor.
"Sorry," the soldier said to Joshua's glaring look, and quickly righted things, then stepped back. He gave the room a moment of silence before opening his mouth again. "Did I hear right? That kid's a medic?"
Joshua just shrugged, unsure of what to say. Caleb had never shown any liking of the doc's trade, so unless he'd taken it up in the city, Joshua wasn't sure whether it'd come from him... or the kid who'd looked at him as a stranger might.
Shaking his head, annoyed at himself for the pretzel his thoughts were turning into, he stepped around and clapped Foley on the shoulder.
"You go get the undertaker, let him know we've need of him. I want him to take special care with Doc."
Foley gave a sharp nod, gazed once at the doctor's still face, then headed for the door. Reaching the door frame, he turned back.
"So that kid in there's got the same name as your brother then?" he asked.
"That important at this time Foley?" Joshua asked back, his voice sharp.
Foley averted his gaze. "No sir." And he disappeared around the corner.
Joshua stared at the empty doorway for a moment, feeling a growing heaviness on his chest. Knowing he needed to look down at the doc, but not wanting too. Not wanting this death to be a real thing. But he did, because he'd always been the one who did the hard things, the harder the better. Looking down at the dead man's face was one of the hardest things he'd done in his life.
"God, doc..." he spluttered, as the emotions slammed him hard. Grasping the edge of the table, he fought to keep the reaction down, to see the body in front of him as just another corpse, but Doc Adams face was just too familiar. And he'd seen the man less than an hour ago, smiling with a sadness that'd been on his face most of the time of late, as Joshua had brought the kid to him. When he'd mentioned the boy's link to Caleb though, the strangeness of it, there'd been a spark of the doc he used to know.
Joshua sighed deeply, and took the doctor's hand in his own, squeezing tight. At least he'd seen that. At least that'd been the last image of the man in his head. And there would be no investigation. There'd be no questioning of the doc's motives, of his methods, and no mention of the man's overdosing of the kid. If that's what truly happened. It had to be though. Kid didn't inject himself.
"Why'd you do that, doc?" he said out loud over the corpse. Then sighed again and shook his head. "Nevermind. God's got you in his hand now. Hope he holds on tight."
Letting go of the doc's hand, and setting it gently down beside the man's body, Joshua stepped back, and said a short prayer. When it was done, he wiped his eyes and stepped out of the room, turning the lights off as he shut the door reverently.
Snipped this chapter for length. Sooooo freaking long. I realize we're spending a long time with an OC, but bear with me here. ;)