Chapter 54: Redemption
Mary gasped as the foreign blade pierced her lower back. Reflexively, she squeezed Jack tighter as the smooth cold metal cut into her warm innards. Hard, solid steel, once it reached it's destination, waited, sheathed inside her, seeming so much as if it cared not so much for anything else but for the warmth of her body to warm it's icy surface.
Jack's voice lowered to a hoarse whisper, "Where is your Harvest Goddess now? Did she abandon you, like she abandoned me?"
She held her breath, not of choice, but because she was unable to force herself to take back in life giving substance. She gave a barely conceptual shaking of her head, not trusting herself to move movement least the damage to her body spread further.
"Like you will abandon me. For all your words of eternal love and forgiveness, can you forgive me now? Love is weak, love dies, and your love for me will die with you. I'll be left alone."
Her tight embrace of Jack was slipping against her will. Mary fought desperately to hold her husband, her murderer, tight, even as she began to feel the nothingness of life escaping her body embracing her in return. Mary took a deep breath, pain slicing through her as the blade shifted slightly inside her. "I love you."
"Liar! You lie to me with your dying breaths."
A violent tremor rocked her body. She knew she was on the verge of passing out. "I've never lied to you. When I swore I would love you no matter what, I meant it."
"Even if you die by my hands?"
"No matter what," a second spasm left Mary limp, her hands fell from his back as she dropped away.
With a stunned look on his face, Jack stared at his dying wife. "No..." he said in a hushed whisper, "What have I done?"
Afraid, he frantically searched for a pulse in her neck. The simple beat that would show she was still alive. Nothing. Nothing at all. Jack screamed, "It has to be there! She has to be alive." He had to save her. A faint beating under his fingers, and that was all he needed. So weak. She was barely alive.
Jack ripped off his shirt. He had to get Mary help. Nothing else mattered. He tore the shirt into strips and carefully removed the blade from her back. Preventing her from losing any more blood was the first priority. He wrapped the torn fabric around her middle and tied it tight. Mary responded with a weak grunt.
"Hold on Mary," he whispered into her ear as he took her and lifted her up in his arms, "I'm going to get you help. I'm going to get us both help. Just you wait and see. Don't die on me. I won't let you!"
He stumbled down the alter steps, cradling Mary in his arms. Every moment he delayed was another moment for Mary's life to slip away. Moving as fast as he could without further harming his precious cargo, Jack turned his back to the church doors and set his shoulders under the archaic crossbeam lock. Groaning as he did so, Jack lifted the beam out of it's holster and let it drop to the ground.
Now freed, the immense doors inched their way open on their own; proof of the hurricane's rapidly growing power. The initial force of wind that blasted through the widening crack near knocked Jack off his feet, but he refused to be budged.
Bracing himself, and with slow measured steps, Jack fought his way through the wind and rain. The road was completely flooded under several inches of water and was now thick sticky mud instead of dirt. With trudging might, he made himself maintain his balance against the hurricane, yanking free his feet as the mud tried to consume them.
The clinic was no good to take Mary to. He remembered well that the doctor and nurse Elli had long since abandoned it for the winery in view of the storm. So that was where Jack headed, to the building deemed most likely to survive the hurricane.
It took Jack a long time to reach the winery, far too long. He didn't know how long; the unrelenting storm made one minute fade away into the next, and he had lost all sense of time. And now, standing in front of the winery's front door, for the first time, Jack realized with terror that Mary had stopped shivering from the cold rain.
He kicked the door, unable to knock with Mary in his arms. "Duke!" He cried out over the din of thunder, "Open up! I need the doctor!" Jack kicked the door again, "I know he's in there! Duke!"
Te door slammed open inwards as it's lock was released. Stumbling inside, Jack collapsed to the ground, completely sapped of all his stamina despite himself. Half the town stood in the room, crowding around the front door with stunned looks upon their faces; the rest of the townsfolk were quickly filtering up the stairs, rapidly filling in the already cramped space.
"Please... I need the doctor. Mary needs help. She's badly injured."
The doctor forced his way to the front, Pulling Elli none-to-gently behind him by her wrist. Duke wrestled the front door back shut and began to move people back downstairs into the cellar.
"Please... You have to save her..." Jack pleaded with the doctor.
The first thing the doctor noticed was how pale Mary's flesh was. He quickly found her pulse, much easier than Jack had. It was very weak, but very rapid. Her skin was cold to the touch, and she was sweating profusely. "Hypovolemic shock," he declared, without any joy in his voice. At those words, Elli began digging through a medical bag she had brought along with her.
"What?" Jack asked in confusion.
"Hypovolemic shock, it's happens when a person loses about a fifth of their blood volume, usually due to a sudden severe injury. I'm assuming that injury is what the bandages are for. She needs a blood transfusion, as fast as we can get one to her, and she needs to be warmed up. Her body doesn't have enough blood in it to pump the oxygen that she needs to live. Her body is going to begin shutting itself down soon."
"Doctor," Elli interrupted, "We don't have any blood transfusion supplies on hand. We only carried a few basic necessities with us, and that wasn't one of them."
"Damnit... Um, okay... Makeshift. We need two hollow needles and a tube."
"We got them. I can break it off of these shot canisters."
The doctor grabbed Elli's hands, "No don't! We can bind together the ends of them together tightly with medical tape and gauze to make the tube airtight. You do that, and that'd give us a double ended needle. It should work just fine for our the transfusion purposes."
Elli nodded and attentively set about the task assigned to her.
"Now, does anyone know Mary's blood type? Get her father, get Basil over here!" Basil quickly answered the doctor's call, "Mary's blood type, do you know it?"
Basil shook his head, "Sorry, I don't. I wish I did."
"Great, simply great," the doctor muttered under his breath, "Alright, since we don't know her blood type, we'll need an O negative donor. Does anyone here know if their blood type is O or not? Pass the message along down into the wine cellar!"
He waited for a moment as he began applying alcohol to the bandaged wound. A resounding chain of no came back upwards at him. The doctor grumbled, "I know I've seen an O negative person in this town somewhere. Elli, isn't your blood type O?"
Elli flushed, "Yeah, I think so, but I don't know the Rh factor. I know I should."
"Well, we'll just have to go on that. I'm sure I remember somewhere back in your papers you being O negative. We'll use you as the donor."
"But what if Elli isn't?" Jack blurted out.
"Well, Elli is O negative, I'm certain of it. But, if I was wrong, there is still a good chance we'd match Mary's blood type. It's better than doing nothing. If we don't get fluids into Mary's bloodstream, she will have no chance of living. I don't have access to an IV, so the only option is a blood transfusion. I don't have access to my hospital records, so Elli is the best bet we have. She's O negative. She has to be."
Jack moaned, "Isn't there anything I can do?"
Basil glared at Jack, "Don't you think you've already done enough?"
He bolted right up, "What's that supposed to me?"
"I think you know damned well what I mean," Basil growled harshly, and he shoved Jack backwards, "Murderer!"
Jack reached for his scythe, and with shameful realization found that it wasn't strapped to his back anymore. "She's my wife. I'm trying to save her!"
"She's my daughter, and if it wasn't for you, she wouldn't be here dying in the first place!"
"Will you two shut up? What's important right now is saving Mary's life!" the doctor said, none to friendlily. He had already sterilized the needles with alcohol. Elli was now lying prone alongside the facedown Mary, with a tourniquet tied tight around both of their upper arms to slow down the racing blood some.
"Now, where was I... Vein to vein..." He slid the needle into Elli's skin, she winced slightly, and blood filled the canister, "Don't want any air..." He tapped at the tip of the free needle till a drop of blood came out the end, insuring there was no air inside it. "Now... carefully," he said as he inserted the other end of the needle into Mary's arm.
Both ends firmly in place, he removed first Mary's tourniquet, then Elli's, "Okay, we should now have a healthy blood flow into Mary. Elli, let me know if you begin to feel faint. Now to stitch up that wound. It won't do any good to put blood in if it just comes right back out. Good thing we at least brought stitching supplies with us!"
He began untying Mary's bandages and examining the wound. "I don't think there is any internal damage. You seemed to have missed hitting any organs, thank goodness. That was very lucky. Jack, I want you to apply pressure to both sides of the wound with your hands to help slow the outward flowing of blood while I stitch her up."
Jack obeyed the doctor's commands and watched helplessly as the doctor stitched Mary back up. Tension in the room stayed at a high boil, as Mary's breathing seemed getting more rapid and jerky.
"Finished," the doctor finally exclaimed, having just knotted down the final stitch, "You can take the pressure off now Jack."
Stiffly, Jack sat back up, "But why isn't her skin getting it's color back? And she seems to be having more trouble breathing now. And her chill is gone, but it's being replaced by a fever."
The doctor paused for a brief second, "Oh no! She's having a transfusion reaction! I didn't notice because I was too intently focused on stitching her up."
Jack grabbed the doctor's collar angrily, "What does that mean?"
The doctor blanched, answering Jack's question before he responded, "Elli isn't O negative. She must be O positive. And Mary must have a negative Rh factor. Which means Elli's blood is incompatible with Mary's. The antibodies in Mary's blood are destroying Elli's blood like it's a bacterial invader. We have to stop the transfusion immediately, and correct the error."
Jack let go, staring firmly into the doctor's eyes, "Do it. Do it now, and you better do it right. I promised Mary I would save her."
Mary convulsed violently and fell back, ripping the needle out of her arm. Elli yelped as the needle was twisted in her arm.
The doctor cursed loudly and checked Mary like before. He swore again, "She's stopped breathing. I need to perform CPR." He leaned over Mary, pinched her nose, and breathed deeply into her mouth twice. She didn't resume breathing. He resumed the CPR with chest compressions.
He repeated the cycle four times before quickly checking her pulse. The doctor announced with a hint of fear in his voice, "Her heart has stopped beating."
Over and over again, the doctor breathed into Mary and performed chest compressions. Every time he checked, Mary heart still lay unbeating. The warmth was quickly leaving her body. The minutes ticked away agonizingly.
Finally, the doctor stood up, "Mary's dead," he declared grimly looking away from father and husband, "I'm sorry, I did all I could."
Jack fell to his knees beside Mary and wept upon her body, "No... Mary... don't leave me."
A swift kick in the side sent Jack sprawling across the room. Basil screamed furiously, "Bastard! This is all your fault!"
"Mary can't die," Jack said, a dazed look on his face as he stood up, "I promised her, we'd both get help."
"Are you listening to me? You murdered my daughter!" He cried out agonizingly as he attacked Jack.
Without paying any heed, Jack rammed his fist into Basil's stomach, crumpling him. "Come on Mary, come on. I'll help you."
The doctor placed a hand on Jack's shoulder, "There is nothing you can do. She's already gone."
Jack shoved the doctor to the side and wrapped his arms around Mary, "No, we'll be together. Me and Mary, together in love forever. She promised. I promised." Gently, he lifted her up into his arms.
Basil groaned, "Stop him!"
Duke spoke out, "No, leave him be before someone else gets hurt. Now isn't the time. Let him go for now."
"But my daughter–"
"–is dead, and nothing will bring her back."
Jack held Mary close to him in his arms, cradling her, oblivious to everyone else. All that mattered was him and Mary. "Don't worry," he whispered to her, "I won't leave you alone. I won't abandon you."
He kicked the door hard, breaking it's already strained latch. Bursting inward, wood shards from the broken frame became deadly projectiles in the wind. Someone screamed as one particularly large shard sliced through their arm.
"Everyone into the cellar!" Duke ordered.
Basil hollered over the roaring wind, "But what about my daughter?"
"Basil, she's lost already. Mary wouldn't want you to die foolishly over her."
Jack strode purposefully into the storm, "Come on Mary. We'll be together. We'll always be together."
The storm's power was rapidly increasing. What had battered him before tore him apart now. Repeatedly he collapsed in the mud, only to stiffly rise again, reassuring Mary the whole time. slowly but surely, he made progress through the storm. Unrelenting, he forced his way forward.
His felt hard ground underneath his shoe. Jack sighed with relief as he stepped up into the brick laid Rose Square. Water rushed around his feet in miniscule waves. The going was much easier now that he was out of the mud.
Almost effortlessly now, Jack carried Mary over towards the short stairway that lead to the beach. The ocean had risen high. The whole beach was underwater. Large waves crashed over the stairs easily, rushing across the cement gleefully.
"I'm sorry Mary. Sorry for what I did. I'll seek penance, like you wanted me to. I'll change it. You were right. It is never too late."
Jack walked down the submerged stairs, the water come up to his chest. The rushing waves crashed over his head. He kept Mary close to his body as he walked outwards. A wave knocked him back, only to drag him outwards again.
Bubbles burst from his mouth, his breath escaping him as he was pulled underwater. He held her close, embracing her tightly. He was rapidly drawn into deeper waters as the hurricane took him in. The shore was left behind and he could no longer feel the ocean's floor beneath him. He kicked weakly with his feet, trying to swim out and away as he sank into the depths.
"I'm coming Mary, my love," he thought to himself, "We'll be together. I'm coming to join you..."
The End