Ryan Westfield - Final Chaos

Four hours later, it was Jessica’s turn to rest. But there wasn’t any rest to be had, since there were chores to be done. She had to feed Aly, for one thing, not to mention make sure they were consuming their food at the right rate. They had a little ration chart that Jim had drawn up, and it needed to be diligently kept up to date, or else they might burn through more of their food then they realized.

They were hoping to start fishing soon enough, to stretch out their supplies of packaged food, especially now that they’d already finished the perishables. But with the Carpenters as a very near and very real threat, spending hours at the lake dangling a fishing line didn’t seem like a good idea.

But life had to go on, despite the heightened security. Water had to be fetched and boiled, with the hopes that the gas tank wouldn’t run out on them any time soon.

The shifts of rest and watches began to blur together, and before Jessica knew it, a few days had gone by.

She was more exhausted than ever. Running on little sleep and few calories.

It was three days after the Carpenters had shot Aly that Jim came up to Jessica with a worried look on his face.

She was standing outside the house, her eyes scanning the surrounding trees, looking for anything suspicious. For any movement.

When Jessica glanced at Jim’s face, she saw his sunken and blurred, bloodshot eyes. But that was normal. She knew she looked the same. But there was something else in his face. His mouth was twitching at the corners.

“She’s worse,” said Jim. His voice was low and level. But crystal clear. There was no mistaking his meaning. “The wound isn’t healing.”

That wasn’t news. Jessica had seen it herself over the last few days. It hadn’t healed as it was supposed to.

But what Jim said next was news. “It’s infected,” he said.

“Infected? Are you sure?”

Jim nodded. “It’s red and inflamed. Parts of it are purple and swollen.”

Jessica thought for a moment before responding. “What are we going to do?”

“We don’t have any antibiotics,” said Jim.

Jessica nodded. It was one of the most useful medicines missing from their otherwise very complete stockpile.

“Couldn’t we give her something else? Some of the corticosteroid creams?”

“Those will just make the infection worse,” said Jim. “They’re not used for treating something like that.”

“So what are we going to do?”

“I thought we could wait it out,” said Jim. “I noticed it yesterday, but it’s worse today. The only thing to do is to get some antibiotics.”

“But how?”

“I’m going into town,” said Jim.

“It’s too dangerous,” said Jessica. “We have no idea what’s going on out there.”

That wasn’t entirely true. While there’d been no news from the outside world, they had seen more plumes of smoke rising over the trees.

Whatever was going on in the outside world, it wasn’t good.

“I’ve got to do it,” said Jim. “She’s not going to survive without antibiotics.”

Jessica knew Jim well enough at this point to know that he meant what he said. And there wasn’t any changing his mind.

“I’m going with you, then,” said Jessica. “Who knows what you’re going to find out there. You’ll need backup.”

Jim shook his head. “I can’t ask you to do that. Plus, I need you here. You and Rob need to protect Aly. The Carpenters are coming back. It’s just a question of when.”

“Probably when they get more desperate from starvation.”

“Exactly,” said Jim. “And desperation will make them all the more ruthless. Rob’s not going to be able to defend the place by himself.”

“When are you leaving?”

“In an hour. I’m already packed.”

“You’re taking the Subaru?”

“It’s going to be faster. But I need your help with something before I leave.”

“What’s that?”

“I don’t know if I have enough gas to get there and back. Especially if something happens and there’s a delay. So I need you to get that bike of yours ready for me to ride. I’ll bring it with me and ride it back with the antibiotics if something happens. Aly can’t wait long and I’ll need to get back as fast as I can.”

“Sure,” said Jessica. “You keep watch while I work. It shouldn’t take me long.”

Jessica went inside to grab some tools. The door to Aly’s bedroom was open, and Aly lay there on the bed. She didn’t look good at all. Her face had lost all its color, and she breathing slowly and shallowly.

“You doing OK, Aly?” said Jessica.

Aly didn’t answer. She just shook her head ever so slightly, and stared at Jessica with barely opened eyes full of pain.

Jim was right. If Aly didn’t get the antibiotics she needed, she wouldn’t make it. And even if she did get the medicine, there was still a chance she’d die.

Jessica tried to put all that out of her mind. And she set to work. It was the only sensible course of action, after all. The thing to do was just to keep going. To push on through it all.

Jessica didn’t have all her bike tools with her, but she did have a small multi-tool designed specifically for bike maintenance. It had the hex wrenches on it, as well as a couple other odds and ends.

She’d done enough roadside maintenance in her time to know how to improvise when the right tools weren’t available.

The bike wasn’t in terrible shape, but it wasn’t rideable right now.

One of the tubes was punctured. That was an easy enough fix, and it only took her a couple minutes. After all, she was a pro.

The chain had been knocked off the gears. This was normally an easy fix, but some of the links had been bent beyond repair. There was no way to get the chain back onto the gears.

The only solution, in the absence of a replacement chain, was to remove some of the links. Shortening the chain meant that Jim wouldn’t be able to change gears. He’d essentially have a single speed bike. Using sewing pins and a lot of swearing, Jessica got the links removed and got the chain reattached around the middle gears.

The bike’s frame was cracked near the bottom bracket. Normally that meant it wasn’t safe to ride. But there wasn’t any way to fix it. Jim would have to hope that the crack didn’t get worse.

Jessica raised the seat since Jim was taller than her, and took the bike outside to him.

“How long you think it’ll take you?”

“Dewittville is only two hours away by car. But who knows what the roads are like. And if I have to bike back, it’ll be even longer.”

From the end of the driveway, Rob came walking quickly. He’d been patrolling the wider area.

“We’ll take good care of her, Jim,” said Rob. “Just try to stay safe yourself.”

Jim nodded. His had an expression of grim determination on it as he lowered himself into the Subaru.

No more words were spoken as Jim cranked the engine and backed slowly down the gravel driveway.

“You think he’ll make it?” said Rob, as they watched the Subaru disappear behind the trees.

“Yeah,” said Jessica. “He’s got to. Now let’s talk about what we’re going to do if the Carpenters return while Jim’s gone.”

Aly’s pus-filled infected wounds were weighing heavily on Jim’s mind.

But he had to push them to the back of his head. There were plenty more immediate things that he needed to worry about.

The Carpenter’s house was up ahead. If he didn’t make it past there, Aly wouldn’t get her antibiotics. And she’d die. There were no two ways about it. And Jim didn’t believe in sugar coating anything, even to himself.