Chapter 2: The Reality of things
“Thank you guys for helping me out, the villagers are indebted to you” the doctor said. “My name is Rooney Ingram. I am the head doctor at this nice facility we have running here.”
“Well the lady that greeted us had seemed to have lost her hope doc” Alan said. One thing I did notice was that she still hasn’t lost her beauty; I thought to myself that even in bad times that beauty can still shine through the ugly of this earth.
The doctor sighed and grabbed his glasses and cleaned them and put them back on. “A tragic thing happened just a few weeks ago, she lost her sister during an assault upon this small town. Those bullet holes on the hospital are fresh both for this building and in our minds. Ashley was a great doctor and always somehow cheered everyone up when things seemed bleak. Amber still hasn’t gotten over the loss of her sister.”
“I am deeply sorry for your loss doctor.” I said.
“Any assistance would be greatly appreciated as we are short staffed because of the latest shooting.” Dr. Ingram said.
I checked my watch to see the time, it was 11 a.m. and the deadline that we needed to be in Nairobi was tomorrow at 12 p.m.
“We will do anything we can to help doctor, but please be aware that we cannot give you any more blood or medical supplies.” Alan said. Looking behind him looking at the grey concrete wall that had chips in the wall.
“Of course, I am sorry but I didn’t catch any of your guys’ names.” The doctor asked.
“My name is Alan Arshavin…” he grabbed my arms and a grin developed on his face. “My athletic buddy over here is named Shaun Gray.”
“Well, we need a lot of things done around here but we need you to go outside to one of the tents and get a patient in here who is too heavy for me to lift. The stretcher will be located on the second floor of this hospital.”
“How will we know where he is, there is a good amount of tents behind this hospital.” I asked, staring down at the doctors black shoes that had looked like they have been over-used.
“Amber will show you where he is, once you’re finished with that. I have one more thing for you to do.” Ingram said.
We grabbed the stretcher from the second floor. A loud scream came from the south corridor of the second floor. My curiosity got the best of me.
“Yo bro, I’mma check something out give me a second.” I said.
I began to walk the ghostly hallway and there was a presence in the air but I couldn’t figure out what it was. Another loud groan came from the South corridor. I approached two doors that had two small windows in them. I put my hands on top of the window and took a peek through the window. It was a big room with patients lying on beds.
One patient caught my interest which had his neck completely wrapped around but no blood on the bandage. His head slowly turned to look at me. I jumped to see that his skin was pale white and that his mouth was open with orange like teeth. Not wanting to see more I quickly turned and headed toward the stretcher.
We grabbed the stretcher and headed downstairs to find Amber talking to a little girl. She hugged her and the little girl ran down to the street and into her house. It was the only house near the hospital.
“Amber, Doctor Ingram instructed us to put a man on the stretcher that needed to be moved.” I said.
“Oh yes, thank you so much for helping us. The man is over here, follow me and I’ll show you” she began to walk to the tents and we began to follow her. Mud was eating our shoes from the amount of rain from the last two days.
As I entered the tent his arm was mauled with three bullets he was rolling around somewhat in an attempt to prove that he was still alive. His roommate wasn’t as lucky as I stared into his eyes. Nothing but darkness and despair was left. I had to quickly look away before it consumed me.
“Could you get me out of this tent please? I’ve been here for two days and I am afraid the infection might spread as it has to my friend.” the man pleaded.
“What happened to him? I don’t see any marks on him at all.” Alan said.
“Check his back and you will see.” The wounded man said.
The man was on his side with his back facing the back of the tent. Alan and I leaned over to see that his entire back was bandaged except his lower back which was nothing but jet black skin and three inches of nothing but infested termites and other unclean creatures that tore through his back and killed him. I noticed flies were tearing apart some of the flesh. Alan quickly ran outside and threw up on the muddy ground, the smell reached me and I was feeling it coming up my throat but quickly prevented it from coming out of my mouth.
I remembered that back in second grade when Chase claimed he was sick, and began to throwing up all over his desk with Alan following him and me as well.
I quickly ran outside to catch my breath then re entered the tent. Alan had gained his posture and was rolling the guy onto the stretcher. Alan and I both knelt down to our knees preparing ourselves to the lift him.
“One…..Two….Three!” I said
We lifted the body; it felt as if we were lifting a bolder. We left the tent and the mud became like quicksand and consumed Alan’s feet. I became two inches taller than Alan when he stepped into the mud. He then proceeded to lift his foot and began to move backwards step by step.
“Turn left as soon as you enter the building the Surgery room should be the next room to your right.” Amber said she then trotted off attending other patients.
There was Doctor Ingram waiting on us.
“Thanks gents, If you won’t mind I need you to do some more work, we have lost a few patients out in the tents, I need you to bury them. A grueling detail I know but we need to prevent infection as it seems an outbreak has started. If you would please, put a cross on their bodies. Doctor Plumm has lost some patients please go visit him first.”
“Why a cross doctor?” I asked.
“When this town was converted to Christianity they use to put pagan symbols on the dead to prevent any evil presence to enter the body. Now instead of pagan symbols they use a cross.” Doctor Ingram explained.
We found Dr. Plumm outside looking at the ground seeing two lifeless forms.
“Doctor Ingram sent us to bury some bodies to prevent the infection from spreading.” I said as I cleaned some dirt on my jeans.
“You will see over there that there is a white bag leaning against the hospital. In that bag are wooden crosses grab the white bag of crosses. I have 3 shovels for us.” Dr. Plumm said as he crouched down and grabbed the shovels. They had a wooden handles. A bit of mud was on the edge of the shovels.
I went to the edge of the hospital grabbing the white bag, and headed toward the dig site. Clouds were forming as I walked to the site.
“Start digging right here” Dr. Plumm said pointing toward the designated spot.
I stuck the shovel into the earth-driven ground far enough to get into the earth that wasn’t completely drenched in water. You could hear metallic stabbing into earth. Once we got 3 feet deep I could hear the pinging sound of rain rubbing against the metal part of the shovel. The rain slowly rolled down my air as I took another stab into the earth. Dr. Plumm leaned toward me and stretched out his hand. I threw the shovel onto the ground listening a plat sound as the shovel hit the ground. I clinched the grip of Dr. Plumm’s hands; I was surprised at how much strength he had. I slowly crawled my way back on the surface. I stood up from the ground, rubbing my hands on my somewhat clean shirt that wasn’t plagued with mud yet. We grabbed the end of the sheet that contained the lifeless body and threw the body into the hole. I reached into the white bag and grabbed a cross. The cross left my hands and twirled in the air and landed onto the white sheets.
5 hours had passed as we did that deed; I knew it had to be done in order to save lives. Amber showed us were we would be sleeping for the night. The house was inside the town unlike the hospital and was small. I looked to find a mattress on the ground. Dirt was scattered along the concrete floor. A little boy said he would give me his bed and he would sleep on the ground. I refused and instead went to the van. Alan and I grabbed our air mattress with our charged Air pump. We gave the air mattress to the young boy seeing that the mattress he offered us had broken springs and almost looked worse off than sleeping on the floor.
I couldn’t sleep that well thinking of the patient on the second floor, remembering the yellow tinted eyes. “Maybe,” I thought to myself, “I’ll ask Doctor Ingram tomorrow what is wrong with that patient.” Soon my eyes shut and I was sounds asleep.
“Hey, wake up Shaun. We gotta start heading to Nairobi.” Alan said.
“Alan I’ll drive man, don’t worry about it. Looks like you could use some more sleep.” I said. I stretched, giving out a big yawn.
He threw the keys at me and I grabbed the keys in the air. Off in the distance I heard the sound of trucks and bullets; I knew one thing: a rebellion looking for recruits. I knew we had to get out. We went back in the house and told the family the horrific news. We started sprinting to the hospital.
My heart was racing and adrenaline was already flowing through my body, I wondered if it was true that if your body had adrenaline in it all day, where you will severely hurt yourself. Enough thoughts about that, as I needed to get the car started and for us to get the medical supplies into the van. Away from the distance we could hear the roar of the vehicles catching up with us and my stamina was already wearing thin. We reached the hospital and told Amber the news.
She said they take the supplies from the hospital for their army. We quickly grabbed the plasma and any other supplies we could carry and said to the doctor there is enough space for two more people.
Doctor Ingram declined saying he will deal with the rebels then looked at and told Amber to join us along with doctor Plumm.
“Listen I lost my sister only just a few weeks ago, I refuse to leave without you father” Amy insisted, as she pouted
“I’m not giving you a choice I’m not going to lose 2 daughters in one month.” Doctor Ingram said. Gun shots could be heard out in the distance, I knew that they were attacking the town.
“We can’t stay here forever if we don’t leave now we never will!” Alan cried.
“I agree, we will take anyone, patient or doctor.” I said getting a bit nervous as we wasted more time.
“Amber just go with them there is nothing you can do here, the town is lost.” Doctor Ingram said.
We entered the vehicle and bullets sprayed toward us hitting the van, the boy came along and sat on Amber’s lap up front. We started the vehicle and the Rebels noticed our cross on the side of the van as we departure and now two trucks were gunning toward us. I had to think fast as bullets were screaming by us.
Out of desperation I got off the paved road and into the grassy turf, I was thankful that this was a 4 wheel drive. I remembered the first time that I started working here that there was a road not too far from here that would lead us to Nairobi. Zigzagging around trying to avoid the bullets the trucks entered the mud running adventure; one of the pursuer’s vehicles wheels slowly sank into the mud and the vehicle became like a sinking ship and was stuck.
“Good we are down to one.” I whispered with some hope still getting to the city unscathed.
We hit the rough, dirt road and I took a sharp right turn heading toward Nairobi. I looked in my mirror to see the truck was still chasing us and took a sharp right turn but then flipped while in the process and began to catch on fire from the multiple rolls. When I looked in the back of my mirror I noticed Alan had his arm over his body. I couldn’t stop driving because they were still shooting at us and trying to flip over the truck after the fire stopped.
“Alan you’ve been shot” I said looking at the blood.
“It’s no big deal I’ve gone through worse.” He said grunting in pain.
Guilt hit my stomach like getting sucker punched as I remembered that he was sick before we left for the town. Complaining that he was weak and tired, I remember telling him that some fresh air and some sleep would help him. When we were kids he would always miss a few days of class. He always got sick toward the end of the year for a few days. Unfortunately this sickness has been a few weeks. Focus, you need to worry about getting everyone safely to the city.
“Doctor Plumm can you look behind you and grab the first aid kit? There should be something to wrap it. There is some morphine back there too.” I said worrying about my friend.
Just beyond the overhanging tree limbs the City became visible: our safe haven. Feeling multiple emotions course through my limbs, mostly relief, I turned my head to Alan.
“We’re here, you’re gonna be all right.” I said in relief.
But the doctor leaning over Alan seemed less than satisfied. When his gaze met mine, it became quite evident and clear. The reality of it was immensely surreal. Alan was dead.
In the few seconds I was given to realize my best friend ceased to exist, his lifeless corpse lying limp before me, it was enough agony to fulfill a lifetime of disappointment. It happened so quickly that what I felt at that moment was a mystery to myself, because whatever emotion I conveyed, it held no sense of relevance to the most unfortunate occasion.
I bowed my head and looked out the rain-pattered window of the ambulance beyond the tree-limbs, beyond the village. The swift flashes of lightning cast a malevolent appearance to the landscape and the thunderous “booms” echoed within my eardrums. This was my dream of helping others being reduced to an empty nothing. This is where my best friend dies and the story alters for the remainder of the telling. This is where the nightmare begins.
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