Chapter 2
"Hello?" I answered as the phone next to my bed started ringing.
"Good morning! This is the 6:00 AM wake-up call you requested," A cheerful voice greeted me.
"Thank you," I replied as I hung up the phone, threw the sheets and blankets off my body before I got out of bed, and headed towards the bathroom to shower and brush my teeth.
"Jill was right," I muttered as I stepped into the shower. "This is a pretty nice motel. The cost wasn't that bad either." I washed my hair and body with the cheap stuff provided by the hotel before stepping out and toweling myself off before moving to the main room and brushing my teeth.
"How many sets of clothing did I have in here?" I asked myself as I rifled through my backpack, pulling both of my medkits out and attaching both medkits to the Molle section of my pack to free up some space. "Looks like I've got one set of dress clothes and another set of regular wear," muttered as I dressed in a pair of black cargo pants and a tan polo that showed part of the tattoo on my arm.
Now that I was dressed, I put my belt on and tucked my Sig into the holster at the small of my back while concealing my magazine in another area. Twisting to make sure that nothing was tugging on my mobility I reached down and put my boot knife in its place and my pocket knife into the right side of my pocket.
Now that I was properly kitted, I packed the rest of my gear back into my pack before slinging it over my shoulder and heading for the receptionist's desk.
"How was your stay?" The receptionist, a man in his late teens or early twenties asked me with a bright smile.
"It was good," I replied as I finished checking out of the motel. "Y'all still doing the breakfast or is it too early?"
"You should be right on time," the young man replied. "It goes from seven to nine-thirty."
"Thanks," I nodded as I walked over to the small dining room and began to put together a decent breakfast before chowing down on some waffles, eggs, and bacon with a glass of both orange juice and coffee.
"Anyone ever told you that you get up way too early and eat way too much?" A voice asked me from my one blind spot.
"Got to eat when you can," I replied to Jill Valentine with a shrug. "Other than that," I took a bite of a waffle. "Nutrition is just as important as working out is."
"Ugh," Jill scoffed as she picked up her plate and moved to the table I was seated at. "You're one of those people."
"I'm not a health nut," I chuckled. "If that's what you were implying."
"No, you're worse!" Jill moaned as she buried her head into the table while nursing her temples from what appeared to be a hangover. "You're a fucking morning person."
"That, I am guilty of I'm afraid," I laughed as I drained the last of my orange juice. "Been one since high school and never looked back."
"So, no apartment or anything?" I asked. "I thought you'd have found a permanent place of residence by now, seeing as you've been here in Raccoon City for a little while."
"No," Jill grimaced as she drank down her cup of black coffee. "Apparently, you can't even rent if you've never had debt before in your life." She groaned as her headache began to ease off. "They need proof beyond my deposit that I'll pay on time every month, and the only way that they know how to verify that is by pulling up your credit reports."
"And you haven't ever had a credit card?" I asked for clarification.
"Nope!" Jill replied, popping the "p" sound. "But that's what they insist on!"
"Have you tried establishing an alternate line?" I asked with a raised eyebrow. "If you've ever paid a light bill consistently you may be able to utilize that to prove that you can pay faithfully and on time."
"I'll check and find out after my shift today," Jill replied as she polished off the rest of her small breakfast and stood up to leave the dining room. "Thanks for the help!" She called out over her shoulder as I sipped my coffee and began to finish my own much larger breakfast.
Once I had finished the food I placed the disposable cups, plates, and silverware into the trash can before pulling out the map of Raccoon city and fetching a phone book from the receptionist.
"There has to be a day labor place around here somewhere," I muttered as I used the phone book and the map to mark out areas of the map where I might be able to find a decent job for the day or week.
"Thank you again," I told the receptionist as I handed him the phone book that I had borrowed.
I stepped out onto the streets of raccoon city and began to walk the couple of miles that I needed to, halfway zoning out aside from periodically consulting my map and the street names to make sure that I was headed in the right direction. Then, hearing a set of tires squeal I saw a car try to break and swerve to avoid hitting a dog, but instead hitting a curb that sent the car flipping end over end as its tires lost traction.
Tucking my map into my jacket pocket, I ran to the car, taking note of the dog out of the corner of my eye as I broke the glass of the door to reach in and pull the driver out. "You, call 911 and get emergency services here!" I told a man who was gaping at me. "They're going to need it."
The driver was screaming as she hung upside down, nearly deafening me as I used my pocket knife to cut her loose from her seatbelt and pulled her out of the car.
"Ma'am, was there anyone else in the car?" I asked her after I had moved her to the sidewalk.
The woman couldn't speak but just nodded instead.
"Are they in the front seat?" I asked and she shook her head. "Back seat then?" She nodded and I was off to get the other people out of the car. The back door was able to be opened and so I opened it before grabbing the five-year-old boy that was strapped into a car seat and pulling both him and the car seat out of the car.
Taking the kid out of the car seat I went through a brief check to make sure that there weren't any obvious injuries and that he was conscious.
"I want Mom!" The boy cried as I picked him up and carried him next to his mother.
"Ma'am, I'm going to check you for any immediate or life-threatening injuries," I said calmly. "But I need your consent before I begin any checks."
"I think I'm bleeding," the mother said as she unfolded her arms and showed that she had blood leaking out of her left arm. "Can you help?"
"Yes, try not to move the arm for me though," I replied as I grabbed one of my medkits and used my knife to cut the bloody sleeve off of her arm. "There's a big shard of glass here ma'am," I said as I took a look at the arm. "I'm going to leave it in there because if I pull it out it will cause more damage," I told her as I pulled out a set of field dressings and a tourniquet. "This is going to hurt," I told her bluntly as I pulled the tourniquet over the shard and got ready to pull it tight. "But you cannot loosen this until either EMS or a doctor tells you to," I looked her in the eye as I pulled the tourniquet tight and began to wind it until the circulation of her arm was cut off. Checking the time on my watch I wrote the time I had applied the tourniquet on it using a marker and then began to go over the rest of the woman's extremities to make sure that none of her other wounds were life-threatening.
Two minutes later, the wail of an ambulance sounded as the vehicle pulled up and the paramedics got out.
"What injuries do we have?" The lead paramedic asked as he began to check on the work that I had done.
"The child has no obvious injuries," I replied as I packed up my medkit. "The mother has minor cuts all along her face and legs from the glass, with a major shard that appears to be two inches long embedded into her upper bicep."
"Good work," the paramedics praised me as they began to load the woman onto a stretcher. "We can take it from here."
"Mind if I tag along?" I asked. "I'd like to replace some of my gear if y'all don't mind."
"We'll comp you," the paramedics nodded and I helped the little boy into the ambulance to ride beside his mother who was on the stretcher. "Just let us know everything that you used."