his head. It became too much, the pain, the idea that he might be leaving Valerie behind, but what could he do for her when he couldn’t say anything. He looked back, tears blurring his vision.
“My friend,” he gently sobbed.
Officer Adams seemed to have gathered what he meant by that and nodded.
“I get it you have a friend down there somewhere?” Officer Adams asked.
Charlie nodded slowly, “Valerie.”
“Okay, that’s okay, I’ll call in someone to come and get her. What I need to do is get you out of here; it isn’t safe for us to be standing here,” Officer Adams said.
“Car,” Charlie muttered, talking only became more and more difficult.
“Okay, good, your friend will be fine as long as she remains in the car. As soon as we get you in my car I’ll call it in and get someone else out here. Sorry son, it’s not how we usually do things, but something is going on and I’m needed elsewhere. I’m sure your friend will be just fine.” Officer Adams said. He couldn’t keep his eyes on Charlie, constantly surveying the landscape, watching for some hidden danger to pop out.
It worried Charlie. He didn’t want to leave Valerie behind if there was something out there that would put her in more danger. Promises had been made and they were supposed to take care of each other, but he didn’t see how he had much of a choice. They both needed help and to get that help he was going to have to leave her and go with this officer.
He nodded and staggered over to Officer Adam’s car. Officer Adams helped him, but barely, by taking his left elbow and steering him in the right direction. Once inside the car, Charlie lie down on the hot pleather seats and felt as if he had just lain down in heavenly clouds.
Officer Adams had never turned his car off and as soon as Charlie comfortably situated himself in the car Officer Adams jumped in and drove off, the door closing as he pulled rapidly away. The angry sound of the siren caused Charlie’s head to throb and he wished Officer Adams would turn the siren off just until they reached their destination.
Of course he understood the necessity of the siren, but that didn’t mean the sound hurt any less. Charlie realized he had no idea where they were going; he could only hope that they were headed to the hospital. Then again, where else would Officer Adams take an injured young man?
“I’m sorry son; I know leaving your friend had to be terrible. As soon as I get you to the hospital I’ll send someone back for her. I’d do it now but no one back at the station is answering the radio. It’s been one hell of a day and now you are just stuck in it.” Officer Adams rambled.
Charlie wasn’t sure if he was talking to him or not, Officer Adams seemed to be talking to comfort himself. There must be something really bad going on somewhere to make an officer of the law so flustered and panicked. The car smoothly rounded corners and sped towards whatever their destination would be, it was such a smooth ride Charlie almost allowed himself to relax, almost.
Officer Adams kept talking about something but Charlie only caught a few words here and there: dead, walking, babies, attacking people. With these few words Charlie wasn’t sure he really needed to know what was going on. As long as he got some drugs to kill the pain, or at least dull it, he would be a very happy man.
Charlie looked up and out the window as they sped past tree after tree, and he thought about the town they might be in. It looked like it could be one of those small roadside towns where you could still find a soda shoppe. When he was younger he dreamt about small towns, of course that was only because they contrasted every place his parents and grandparents took him for vacation. His family enjoyed luxury with wine, fine fur and butlers. Growing up all he wanted to do, in the summer time especially, was ride a bike to the corner store and buy a Slurpee.
Finally they reached their stop and Charlie, startled by the slew of curses that fell out of Officer Adams mouth, smiled. Working through stabbing pain, Charlie sat up and looked around at the horror playing out in front of them. It was chaos.
Apparently they had arrived at the hospital, but it was a mess. Cars were jammed at the front entrance, people were shouting and screaming at each other, a few were involved in fighting matches.
Charlie waited patiently for Officer Adams to open the back passenger door. Once the door opened Charlie felt the portly man’s sweaty hand wrap itself around his throbbing forearm.
“Look son, I want to help you, I really do, especially since it looks like you’ve had a hell of a time, but you can see what I’m dealing with here.” His free hand gestured grandly towards the mess in front of the hospital.
Charlie didn’t know what could be going on, or what he now needed to do. Valerie had been left in her shattered car with a promise that help would be sent as soon as they got to the police car, when that didn’t work it was promised as soon as they reached their destination, he needed this big, dumb cop to get help back to her. Instead he got a shove towards the hospital and a wave.
“You’re on your own. I have to take care of this. I promise you I will send help back for your friend as soon as I can, but son, I have no idea when that will be, so I hope to God she is still alive, but if not I’m so sorry.” Officer Adams did seem genuinely sorry for leaving Valerie and for ditching Charlie, but in he ran into the crowd anyway.
Charlie could do nothing but watch as Officer Adams ran towards the throng of people and the chaos at the emergency doors in the front of the hospital. He decided to limp his own butt into the hospital to seek help, with so many people clogging the emergency entrance Charlie wasn’t sure he could get into the hospital, or even had the energy to do it. As an afterthought Charlie dug into his left black jean pocket in search of his cell phone, which of course wasn’t there.
Damn he thought, he couldn’t remember when he last saw it but wondered briefly if he had been holding it in his hand when they had crashed. Now his cell phone could be anywhere in the woods surrounding Valerie’s car.
With no way to reach Valerie he thought about how he could get back in touch with her or what he was even going to do about getting her help. Obviously there wouldn’t be much help from the police, and by the looks of the hospital it might be just as hard to get an ambulance out to her. Well, he would have to figure out what to do when he got to that moment. Right now all he needed to do was to get into the hospital and get some help.
Thrusting his body forward with each agonizing step Charlie thought two things, he could do this and he hoped to never be in another car accident. Maybe he should take advantage of all of the money he had at his disposal. Why was he wandering the country trying to “find” himself when he already knew who he wanted to be? This was just stupid.
Best friends were wonderful, but he had let Valerie talk him into too many things and going to a bunch of random concerts and living like a bum, well it didn’t seem like his idea of fun anymore. He wanted stability, and maybe even, gasp at the idea, a college degree. Valerie should just to go back home, face her plastic mother and try to figure out how to live with the money she grew up with, instead of trying to be this granola, blue haired, rebel, which never really fit her.
All of these thoughts ran through Charlie’s head as he made his way towards the hospital, they took his mind off of the pain pulsating through his body and the blood that now steadily dripped down his face. After gently touching his face he wondered if he had broken his nose, of course that lead him to freak out a little about what internal bleeding he might be suffering.
Charlie raised his head as he got a few feet from the front doors to the gleaming white hospital. He had no idea what to do next, it really was a mess.
Cars had been packed in so tightly that there were some people who couldn’t even get out of their cars. An older woman with dyed pale orange hair banged her liver spotted hands on the driver’s side door of the maroon sedan she was trapped in. Panic written all across her face, increasing with each pound of her hand on the glass, a brilliant purple bruise shadowed her left eye and ran down her
cheek just barely kissing the corner of her lips.
Near another car a young woman with bright blue eyes and a ripped white peasant top screamed for someone to help her. One of her red hands held her neck and blood dribbled through her fingers, staining the neck of her shirt and the pale yellow bra that peeked through. The young woman kept gesturing towards her car screaming something about a baby and a bite. Charlie couldn’t understand everything she screamed over the screams of others.
Two men, one middle aged and one fairly young, fought near the front door, the older man with a boxing stance and the young man a street fighter. They weren’t hitting each other very effectively, and they both looked extremely tired. The boxer had deep, dark circles under both of his eyes, a bloody lip, and some weird dark sores on his right forearm. The street fighter had his black hair pasted up in a Mohawk, his dark, polarized sunglasses hid his eyes, and his torn black tank top looked like it had been designed with rips and tears. Although the street fighter looked in better shape Charlie could see a cut in the man’s black jeans and the lower half of those jeans glimmered in the light looking as if it had been drenched in something wet.
Charlie saw his chance to walk through the hospital doors. The men were the only thing in between him and the