Jim Thorn - Arrival - A Post-Apocalyptic Thriller

The group had disappeared for six or seven hours. Maya’s arms ached and Reno had dozed off a few times, despite the fact that they had been bound to the wall.

Janine led her people back into the space with a silent procession.

“Amen,” Janine said with a glowing smile on her face. “And praise the Lord for our safety. Let’s get some more food in our bellies.”

Everyone stood and went to the side wall to rummage through the food boxes—everyone except Janine, who walked over to Maya and Reno.

“I do hope you enjoyed our service.”

“I did,” Maya said.

Janine smiled warmly. “That’s good. It’s good to know we’ve brought God-fearing people into our home.”

“I prayed for that little girl over there,” Maya said.

Janine looked over her shoulder, following Maya’s gaze. She wore a cloak of tattered t-shirts that had been sewn together and walked with no shoes on her feet. The girl’s stringy hair hung in front of her face in long, greasy strands, and she looked like a stiff wind would knock her over. Sores on the girl’s face festered, and some oozed pus. Her hand moved to her stomach and then over to a spot just off of her right hip. Maya thought the girl looked to be about five or six years old.

“Cassie? She has an upset stomach. She’ll be fine.”

“What do her parents think?”

“Cassie is my daughter.”

“Your daughter has more than just an upset stomach, Janine. She’s sweating profusely, and her condition has been worsening since we got here.”

Cassie was shivering despite her sweat-slicked face, and both her hands clutched the right side of her stomach now.

“I don’t understand,” Janine said.

“She’s sweating, but she’s shivering. A fever.”

“So?” Janine asked. “Children get fevers and flu bugs all the time.”

“Come here, Cassie.”

Cassie ignored Maya until Janine looked at the girl. She stumbled over and rested her forehead on Janine’s leg.

“Touch her stomach. Lightly. Where she has her hands.”

Janine looked at Maya with tight, hard eyes. Then, she used her left hand to pull Cassie’s hands out of the way, and used her right to touch her daughter’s stomach. The girl screamed and collapsed to the ground.

“Your daughter has appendicitis,” Maya said firmly. “If she doesn’t get medical attention soon, she’ll die. We can get her to a doctor.”

Janine pursed her lips. She stared at Maya, trying to read her.

“How do I even know you’re telling the truth? And how do I know you can get her to a doctor?”

“She’s right,” Reno said. “We aren’t surgeons, but we’re paramedics. We’ve been on calls where we’ve helped people whose appendixes have ruptured. Believe me when I say that you’ll be burying your daughter down here if that happens and she doesn’t get medical treatment.”

Janine ran her hand over Cassie’s forehead. She looked at Maya and Reno, and then to the people in the tunnel who had gathered around them.

“I need to ask her some questions,” Maya said. “You don’t have to take off my zip ties. I just need to talk to her.”

The confident grin slid from Janine’s face, replaced with the tired eyes of a concerned mother. She nodded at Maya.

“Hi, sweetie,” Maya said. “It’s Cassie, right?”

The girl averted her eyes and nodded. She had both her hands on the lower right part of her stomach.

“I’m Maya.”

“Maya is a paramedic,” Janine said. “She’s going to ask you some questions. Okay?”

“Does your stomach hurt?” Maya asked the young girl.

Cassie nodded without looking up.

“Can you point to the exact place where the pain is coming from?”

The girl pulled her hands away and grimaced as she pointed to the lower right side of her abdomen. Her hand was shaking.

“On a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being the worst pain you’ve ever felt, what number are you now?”

“Ten,” the girl mumbled.

Maya nodded. “I see that you’re sweating, but you’re also shaking. Are you cold?”

“Yes, ma’am,” the girl said.

“Feel her forehead,” Maya said to Janine.

The woman placed the back of her hand on her daughter’s forehead, then on both of her cheeks. Maya didn’t have to wait for Janine’s reply to know the young girl had a serious fever.

“Have you been sick?” Maya asked. “As in vomiting or diarrhea?”

“I’ve thrown up a few times.”

“All right.” Maya smiled gently, adopting the calm persona she’d used a thousand times before in her job. “Why don’t you lay down and rest while I chat with your mom?”

Head bowed, still holding her stomach, the girl walked away. A woman swooped in and guided Cassie to a corner where a pillow and old sleeping bag had been spread out on the stone floor.

Janine wrung her hands and bit her bottom lip as she waited for Cassie to lay down. “How is she?”

“I’m fairly certain your daughter has appendicitis.”

“If I free you, can you help her?”

Maya shook her head. “Not down here, we can’t. We don’t have a clean operating room and sanitized instruments. And like my partner said, we aren’t doctors. Your daughter needs the kind of medical attention that can only be obtained at a hospital.”

Tears filled Janine’s eyes. “I don’t know what to do. I can’t go back up there. But I don’t want my daughter to die.”

Maya could see the pain in Janine’s eyes, and she felt a twinge of empathy in the way that only another mother could. She knew Reno was skeptical of this entire plan, but he wouldn’t understand the difficult decision Janine faced. He wasn’t even married, let alone a father.

“Look, if I was in your position, there’s no question what I’d do. You have to trust us, Janine.”

The woman looked at Maya with teary, bloodshot eyes. Then she drew a knife from her pocket. And with shaking hands, she cut the zip ties from Maya’s hands.

“This is insanity.”

“What else do you expect me to do, Mitch? Look at her.”

Maya listened to the argument as Reno helped her secure young Cassie onto several 1 x 6 planks which had been strapped together as a makeshift stretcher. Mitch hissed, shaking his head and looking back and forth between Maya and Janine.

“She’ll be fine,” Mitch said. “It’s probably nothing more than a stomach ache. Do you really want to trust these people?”

Cassie coughed and curled into a ball, crying as she held her stomach tighter. The girl moaned, sweat plastering her forehead. Maya suspected that the girl’s appendix had already burst, and if that had happened, she could die soon from the toxins flooding her system. They needed to get the girl out as soon as possible.

“We need to get going,” Maya said as she ignored Mitch and grabbed Janine by the wrist.

Janine nodded and tossed the bag she’d packed over her shoulder. Mitch scoffed.

“This is bullshit. I can’t believe you’re falling for this. They’re using your kid to get you to lead them back to the surface. Then they’re going to tell everyone, and they’ll come down and hunt us like sewer rats. You’re jeopardizing all of us.”

“I won’t let that happen, I promise. But I can’t leave Cassie here like this. I have to try to get her help.”

“Well, good luck.” Mitch shook his head as he walked to the other side of the tunnel and sat against the wall.

Janine looked at Maya and Reno, and then to Cassie. Tears rolled down her cheeks as she stroked her ailing daughter’s hair.