Mark Clodi - Undead Advantage, a Zombie Chronicles Novel

Juan's eyebrows raised up, "sì? Really why don't you think anyone is coming for us?"

"Come on Juan it has been what? Since Monday or Sunday when this thing happened? Today is Thursday, and we have had no word at all from anyone. You know why?"

Juan shook his head.

"'Cause we are poor, they don't care about us, we didn't elect them, we didn't vote for them, we are no one they need. How many rich people you run into while you were running around?", Jack over road Juan's protests, "No, no I mean really rich people? They knew this was coming and they got out to where it was safe. If we are going to survive we gotta do it on our own, using our own heads, no more government shits telling us what to do. It is the way a lot of them feel too, we have been hung out to dry for a long time, the lower class has gotten larger, the middle class has shrunk to a pittance and those lucky few with money rule us, but are above the laws themselves. It has been happening for a long time and this is the rich man's way of wiping out the 'untouchables' of our country."

Looking at him Juan replied, "I don't know much about that Jack. I know we don't have no help, but if they wipe us out, who does the work? Some old rich dude gonna get his hands dirty fixing his own car? His rich son gonna grow his own chronic? I dunno, I can see us getting ourselves out of this mess though, I really can. The zombies, they ain't that smart."

Looking in Juan's eyes Jack conceded the point, "Maybe, maybe man, they could keep a few of us around to take care of the work. Not much better than slaves. But not here, not in Denver, we have been written off. Everyone still here has."

Hank groaned and started flailing around as the doc probed his back and Juan went forward towards his best friend. Jack clapped him on the back and called after him, "I'll tell everyone about Dave, Juan. I'll pass the word along."

The doc was sponging off Hanks back with the assistance of his nurse and several of the women. Small kids were poking curiously through the mother's legs and perched atop the fiesta looking down at what was going on. Juan called out in Spanish for the mothers to get the little kids out of here, calling to Nanci to take the gringo kids and get them cleaned up and in new clothing and not to leave them alone. Jack called out to the men to leave Hank and Juan alone and that he would come talk to them out in the main store in a few minutes. As if by magic the two men's words cleared the garage out, all that were left were some older 'grandmas' and one woman Hank had actually dated more than once, Evaine, who was holding Hank's hand while the doc and nurse cleaned him up. One of the old women made room for Juan by Hank's head and another one was taking the bloody rags from the doctor while the nurse handed him clean gauze.

The doctor was working feverishly, trying to stop to get a good look at the damage as he controlled the bleeding. Eventually he looked up at Juan, "Hm what happened?"

"He got into a fight with a super zombie and the thing bum rushed him into a car. The zombie hit him hard enough to break the car windows."

"Hard enough to break his ribs! He is damn lucky he didn't get his back broken in the process. I don't see any bubbles, but there is no way to know if his diaphragm was ruptured, the wound is pretty low so I am betting there is damage, at least a tear."

"So what does that mean? Is he gonna make it?" Juan asked nervously.

"Hm, should. He should, if his wounds don't get infected. He should be up and running around in couple of days, if it is just his ribs anyway, he is gonna be sore for a long while until they heal up. That is a best case scenario though, he might be down for months. This place has a pharmacy, but you know, I am not a pharmacist. Me mixing up antibiotics might not be such a good idea." The doc paused in his bloody work, holding one gloved hand up against the gauze on Hank's back he gestured for Juan to pull the pen out of his breast pocket, "Get the pad too. Beth write this down." He then listed off several medicines and told the nurse to hand the list to Juan, "You get into the pharmacy and see if there are any pills with those exact names already made up, I have been here a few times and they had the meds in white plastic bags hung with magnets near the 'pay here' sign, on the inside of the pharmacy above the counter. If there are any pre-made medicines with these names on the bottles and you bring them to me, okay?"

Juan nodded, said, "sì." And took off through the door where he ran into a crowd of people looking anxiously on. He rapid fired a few words at them and two younger men ran off back into the warehouse store and one accompanied Juan over to the pharmacy, which was still locked up.

A metal grate was pulled down over the front of the entire store front, next to the open 'cafeteria' style service counter was a metal door, which was locked. The two younger men Juan had sent out had returned, one hefting an acetylene torch, the other had a pair of bolt cutters. Juan took the bolt cutters and broke the pad locks holding the metal grate to the floor. The grate came up. The man with the torch set it down and scrambled into the pharmacy over the counter, he then unlocked the door and let them all in. The four of them looked at the white plastic bags arrayed on a metal strip and held up with magnets, right where the doctor said they would be. Juan put the list of names up on the 'upper' counter top so everyone could read the four drugs the doctor had written there and the three of them started sorting through the bags. They ended up with seven bottles of medication that matched what the doctor needed.

Rushing back to the garage Juan pushed his way through to the door, quite a few of the men were still there, however enough were gone to make Juan think that the building would be well watched.

Inside the shop Kevin had taken his place by Hank's head. Juan held out the bag to the nurse who rifled through it and said, "Yeah one of these will do just fine, probably no worry of infection if he takes these."

Juan watched in fascination while the doctor stitched up Hank's back, nothing like how he thought stitches would be applied. After he put in a half dozen he looked up and said, "I think that will do Beth, six should hold him together until he heals up, even given that I bet he will be moving around more than a normal patient." Looking at Juan he said, "Think we can convince him he needs to sit around for a few days?"

"Only if he can drink a few beers and watch television." Juan joked.

The doc laughed, "Hm, normally I would say 'no' to that, but you know we might not have many ways to manage the pain, alcohol and some time in one of those high end lazy boys out there might be all he gets!" Turning more serious he continued, "We have to get these ribs wrapped though, not much else for it, Juan and, excuse me, what is your name son?" asked the doctor towards Kevin.

"Kevin."

"Kevin, okay, you and Juan are going to have to help me with that, Hank weighs too much for me to handle by myself. Let me get him bandaged up first then we wrap him like a mummy. Almost."

Another half hour and Hank was wrapped up from his nipples down to his belly button. The doctor had Juan call through the door for someone to get some orange juice out of the cooler, one of the gallons, which he had them set by one of the recliners, then he called in a few men to move Hank gently to a blanket. Three men lined up on each side of the blanket and gently lifted Hank up to carry him over to the chair, where they sat him down. Turning the chair towards a nearby television they pretty much formed a circle around Hank, watching him and waiting.

Juan started to ask the doc a question, the doctor spoke up first, "I don't know Juan, he probably passed out from a combination of pain and blood loss. Not to mention I bet he has not been sleeping all that well the last few days, I know I haven't. His body, like yours, needs a break. We need to get some juice into him, plus one of each of these pills, this one for pain, this one for infection. I would start an IV, or rather have Beth start one, but we don't have the equipment, unless you boys want to head to a hospital and scrounge some supplies up? I don't know if we need to yet, time will tell. I will say this, I have been practicing a long time and I have seen a lot of wounds from my time in the various emergency rooms I worked in, I think he will be fine. A good sleep and he will wake up screaming in pain, give him some pain killers and let him sleep another day and I bet he will be up moving around, that is what my gut is telling me. Meanwhile, you and a…Kevin, is it? Yeah, Kevin, should probably sit down in chairs on either side of Hank and take a load off for awhile, okay? Let me take a look at the two of you first, make sure you aren't hurt or anything."