Earth2Mama: This will definitely put Maria’s mettle to the test!
Roswelllostcause: Thanks for reading!
Eva: That’s high on the list, lol. It looks like the two of them are now necessary to each other’s survival and they’re going to have to work together.
keepsmiling7: Lol, don’t give up on her.
sarammlover: Yes, they do. How? He’s one stubborn cuss. Lol, Maria’s not giving in on that one, is she? Thanks for the compliment!
begonia9508: They have shelter and that’s one thing they couldn’t do without in those temperatures.
They’re going to have to heavily rely on each other now.
Alien_Friend: Thanks girl! We try to keep the moments dull-free.
Let’s check with M&M and Michael’s condition…
Part 17
He had no clue how she had managed to drag his body over the ground they’d covered, but when the uninjured side of his body rested against the wooden outer wall of the cabin she had found, he forced every bit of strength in his body to cooperate. Only a few more minutes and he would be out – until then he’d do his best to give her the instructions she would need to survive.
Fumbling with a pocket knife from his pants, he concentrated on opening the front door with one of the attached tools. As soon as the lock clicked, he pushed the door open and dragged himself inside. His eyes moved over the living area of the cabin. There was a couch and he crashed onto it weakly, groaning when the jerky movement caused pain and sweat broke out on his forehead. “Maria, come over here.”
She pushed the door closed, her eyes quickly moving over the room as she hurried to his side.
“You need to take care of the branch now. Find the alcohol, bandages, needle and thread,” he frowned while he tried to list everything off, “there’s a knife with a broad blade strapped to my right boot, and a lighter.”
“Um... what?” She frowned. It sounded like medieval surgery. Having to get the branch out of his side was bad enough, but what did she know about sewing up a wound? They didn’t even have any kind of anesthetic and she could only imagine how much it was going to hurt.
“Fuck, don’t ask questions, just do it. Most of it you’ll find in our packs. The rest you’ll hopefully find in the cabin.” He dropped his head against the backrest weakly. “Get the superglue as well.”
Her eyes widened. “Superglue?” she questioned as she set about gathering the other things he’d asked for.
“You heard right,” he muttered.
“What’re you gonna do with it?” She wasn’t sure she wanted to know.
“Me? Nothin’.”
She had to grit her teeth. Why did he have to be so obtuse? “What do you want me to get it for then?”
He coughed, holding his side. “Would you just hurry up? What’s with the fuckin’ questions?”
“I get what all the other things are for,” she said as she dumped them on the ugly but sturdy coffee table in front of him, “I just don’t know what the glue’s for.”
He took her hand and dragged her onto the couch next to him. “Disinfect your hands and everything you’re gonna be usin’ with the alcohol, then disinfect the wound before you pull the branch out.” He breathed through a wave of pain and focused again. “There’s a lantern. Use the lighter to light it, then heat the blade of the knife. Press it into the wound when it’s burning hot – from both sides to stop the bleeding. Then you use the needle and thread to sew the wound shut. Use the superglue for the areas that aren’t damaged too deep. It’ll save time and it’s effective.”
“All we need now’s some duct tape and we’d have an episode of MacGyver,” she muttered under her breath.
He snorted. “There are antibiotics in the pack. They’re soluble with water. Get one of the hypodermics Kyle packed and inject the cocktail directly into a vein every four hours.”
“What if I miss the vein?”
“Then it probably won’t be very effective,” he muttered drily. He tore his shirt off of him, then leaned back to grab the cell from his pants. “Valkyrie will call within the next 48 hours. She’s your chance to survive it if I don’t make it.”
“Cell phones have GPS. Can the bad guys find us with that?”
“This one’s a burner. Should be safe.” He unwrapped the bandage from his body slowly, then looked at the coffee table and decided it would be a good place for her to do the surgery. “Make a fire when you’re done. Keep the door locked, lights out.”
“Okay.” She cleared her throat.
You can do this, Maria. You have to or he’s gonna die.
“Okay,” he mimicked her tone and moved everything to the ratty couch and lay down on the table. “Good luck, Deluca.”
“Shouldn’t there be something in here to give you for the pain? Or to at least to numb the area before we get started?”
“Blondie, I’m as good as out,” he muttered.
“Well, how am I gonna know if I do this right? What if I totally screw it up?”
“You won’t.” He looked at her, his dark eyes intense. “I’m dead without any treatment, so all you can do is save my life an’ if it doesn’t work out then you don’t blame yourself.” He rested his head back on the table. “Now get started and focus.”
She grabbed the alcohol and poured it over her hands and the poor selection of instruments at her disposal before dousing it into the wound. She wrapped her right hand around the branch and whispered a quick prayer heavenward that she could do this without killing him before she closed her eyes and pulled as hard as she dared.
She forced down her gag reflex at the sucking sound that accompanied the branch coming loose from his body. She dropped it on the floor and grabbed a towel she’d found, praying it was clean as she wedged it under him and poured more alcohol over the wound. The towel, soaked with a mix of alcohol and his blood was pressed to his side as she quickly lit the lantern she’d grabbed from the tiny kitchen area and she extended the wick so the fire would burn higher. She held the blade of the knife in the fire as he’d instructed, hoping she was doing it right.
She glanced up at him, taking in the closed eyes and the thankfully steady breathing. She turned the knife over, trying to evenly heat both sides of the blade. Once she was certain if was as hot as she could get it she took a deep breath and with her left hand she moved the towel aside and swallowed hard before pressing the blade to the wound as he’d instructed. She had no idea how she managed to keep her stomach from revolting as the smell of burning flesh assaulted her senses as she cauterized the wound.
When she pulled the knife away she moved the lantern closer to inspect the wound and her throat convulsed. She didn’t know if what she was looking at was good or bad but the worst of the bleeding did seem to have stopped. Her gaze dropped to the needle and thread he’d told her to collect and she cleared her throat as she set the knife aside and picked up the small spool. She ran a finger over it, wondering if it had been packed for this type of situation. It didn’t feel like regular thread.
She threaded it through the needle and to be safe she poured alcohol over the needle and the thread as well. She ran the back of her wrist over her forehead as she stared at the wound for a moment, trying to figure out where to begin… how to begin. He’d said to use the glue to seal the wound in the shallow areas so she started where it was the deepest. She rolled her shoulders and took a deep breath before piercing his skin and pulling the needle through. She felt sick to her stomach as she set about pushing the needle through the opposite side and pulling the gaping wound closed.
She repeated the motion over and over until the deepest areas had been closed then she tied the thread off and snipped it close to the skin. She cleaned the wound again and patted it dry before picking the small tube of glue up. She made a face and uncapped it, leaning in close and using it to seal the shallow edges of the wound. She closed it up and set it aside, giving it a few minutes to be sure it was dry before she gave the wound one last dousing with the alcohol and then bandaged it up.
Lastly she pawed through the pack looking for the antibiotics and unhooked the canteen from the pack’s frame. She hoped and prayed she was mixing it properly as she prepared the injection before cleaning his arm with alcohol and trying to pin down the vein. It was creepy the way the vein seemed to roll when she pricked his skin with the needle. She tried her damnedest to hold the vein still and after a moment she felt the needle sink into the vein. Or at least she hoped that’s where it went and she wasn’t wasting the antibiotic.
When everything was said and done, she sank down on the floor, looking at the passed out man on the table in front of her. What would she do if they got attacked? She had no clue how to use a gun and his unconscious body was way too heavy for her to move very far. I’m such a helpless person, she thought and the realization made her eyes water. “God, Michael. You need to pull through this!”
There was no response from him. Not now and not for the whole 30 minutes she sat there just staring at him. Only when the cold crept into her skin did she remember the other tasks he had given her.
Make a fire. Lock the door, lights off. Yeah, she could do that.
Getting up from the hard floor, she pulled a blanket from the couch and wrapped him up in it before leaving the cabin to find wood could throw into the fireplace.
*****
Alex chewed on his thumbnail unconsciously as he stared at the back entry of the small clinic they had been staking out for the past hour. It appeared to be staffed by two people at the moment, most likely due to the time. The place was in a bad neighborhood and honestly he was surprised that it wasn’t busier. In the time they’d been sitting there only a couple of people had come in and none of them had looked like hardened criminals.
He turned his head to glance at the woman beside him. She had insisted she was fine but he wasn’t so sure. He’d had no idea what he was doing when he’d tried to get to the tracker and he knew he’d caused her a great deal of pain with his medically unskilled hands. He was amazed she was still upright after all of that. She’d pushed for him to continue at first, but when she’d nearly blacked out at one point she’d given in and allowed him to quit.
They’d moved on, putting another hundred miles between them and their last location before looking for a medical facility to seek treatment. Dawn was breaking and he knew they couldn’t have much more time to waste sitting there watching people come and go. He sat up straighter when the front door opened and one of the staff exited the building. The woman turned to lock the door before getting into a car and driving off.
“Now we go in,” she said, pushing herself more upright behind the steering wheel. “They’re shutting down for the next couple of hours before the next shift comes on.”
“Alright,” he agreed and followed her. His nerves were showing by the awkward shaking of his hands so he tried to hide them from her. “And what exactly are we gonna do? Force the doctor inside to get rid of your tracker?’
She shot a look at him. “Would you like another go at it?”
“Hell, no. But what if he tells you no?”
She un-holstered the Sig and held it out. “Did you say no?”
“Uh, well...” He couldn’t believe he had gone from innocent college student to criminal all in one night. Alright, maybe not a totally innocent student, but other than a little bit of hacking...
“Alright then, let’s go.”
“Ladies first,” he muttered and followed her when she opened the back door without any effort at all.
Valkyrie snorted and checked the next door, shaking her head at the simple lock and making quick work of picking it. She pushed it open and led the way inside, her hand flexing around the grip on the Sig and her eyes scanning the dim interior of what appeared to be the clinic’s storage area. A sound drew her attention and she turned to search for its origin. There were two doors, both leading out into separate hallways.
She checked both and then chose the first, moving out into the one that was darker. The doctor handling the closing duties was probably in the process of shutting down operations and making sure everything was ready for the next shift. She held her weapon higher as she crept along the corridor, the sound of rustling material letting her know she was getting close. She peered around the edge of a doorway and spotted the doctor, his back to her as he sorted through a locking cabinet full of medicine bottles.
“What’s up, Doc?”
The man whirled around, dropping the bottles he had been cataloguing so his hands could grip the edge of the cabinet at his lower back. His eyes dropped to the gun in the woman’s hand and he swallowed hard. “We don’t have anything of value for you to take,” he insisted, hating the way his voice trembled at the threat the couple posed. It was a lie. The medical supplies and the medicine alone were worth thousands of dollars and possibly more on the streets.
“Nice try, but we already know what you’ve got and we know exactly what we want.” She tipped her head to one side to study the doctor, deciding if he would be a threat. He didn’t seem like a guy who knew anything about self protection though.
“I don’t know what you want, but please, we don’t keep cash here and these medicines and supplies mean the difference between life and death for the people in this neighborhood.” He fumbled in his pockets and froze in the process of pulling his wallet out when she shifted and he found himself nose to barrel with her gun. “I just thought maybe if I gave you the money I have...”
“I don’t want your money.” She nodded to his hands and waited until he brought them back up. “You know about removing foreign objects from the human body? Let’s say close to the spine?”
“You’ve been shot?” His eyes moved over her and he shook his head. She wouldn’t be standing upright if she’d been shot close to the spine.
“No, but she has something in her that needs to be removed,” Alex spoke up.
“Well, we should have a look then.” He nodded at the gun she held. “That really isn’t necessary. I’m used to dealing with no-questions-asked cases down here.”
She nodded, lowering the weapon but not putting it away. “We’ll pay in cash. There won’t be a file and no paperwork.”
“Of course.” He was legally obligated to report gunshot wounds, but she claimed her injury wasn’t of that nature.
Valkyrie nodded and handed the gun over to Alex. “You watch him.” Looking back at the doctor she pulled the zipper of her leather suit down, revealing her naked body beneath.
Watch him, Alex thought with an internal snort. How the hell was he supposed to keep his eyes on the doctor when perfection had been bared before him? He cleared his throat and nodded when she shot a look at him and he quickly brought the gun up to aim it at the doctor. “Got it.”
She walked over to a metal exam table and turned her back to the man. “It’s small, right where you can see the incision. But it’s deep and tissue’s grown over it.”
The doctor stepped forward and had a look at the poorly made incision which had obviously been made by an amateur. “I guess you prefer a light numbing only?”
“No.” She didn’t trust him not to knock her out. “Just get it out.”
He inhaled deeply. “Okay, but this is gonna hurt, Miss...”
“I’m well aware of the pain involved, Doctor. Just get on with it.”
“Okay, sit down on the table and lean forward,” he said and went to get the instruments he would need to remove whatever was inside of her.
Alex kept a safe distance from the doctor just in case he decided to try anything, but his eyes were trained on every move the man made.
“What is it? Some sort of weapon?” He held his hands up when she growled at him. “Just asking if I need to watch what I’m doing.”
“It’s nothing dangerous. Just get it out and if you break it in the process, it doesn’t matter.”
The doctor nodded and began to lengthen the incision. “I really wish you’d allow me to use an anesthetic.” He could only imagine the pain associated with what he was doing without the aid of a numbing agent.
Her hands gripped the edge of the table tightly. She forced her breathing to remain even and deep, pressing her lips together tightly.
“Just hurry up,” Alex told him impatiently. They had been off the road for too long already and they had no idea how long they had before they would be attacked again. Maybe someone was already on their heels.
“Whatever this is, it’s in a very delicate place, and if I rush I could cause more damage at best and paralyze her at worse.” He shot a brief reproachful look at the man holding the gun on him. “I’m gonna assume neither of you wants that.” He carefully spread the tissue and his eyes widened at the small device. He couldn’t tell what it was but it appeared to be intact, which suggested that it had been implanted intentionally.
They let the doctor work in silence for a while and she could feel every touch of the scalpel and other tools he used to extract the tracker from her back.
“There you go,” he muttered after a moment and took the tweezers to pull the tracker out. A sound beyond the room caught their attention and Alex stiffened. “Is anyone supposed to come in at this hour?”
“No,” the doctor frowned. “Maybe someone forget something. I can go and make sure no one sees you.”
“No,” Valkyrie said. “Alex, lock the door and Doc, hurry up. I’ll go and check it out.”
“It’s gonna take a few minutes to close the wound,” the doctor said even as he was working on cleaning the wound and preparing to close it.
Her gaze wandered over the room. There was only one door, no windows. Whoever was here had only one option. “Gimme the gun from the pack,” she told Alex and held her hand out. “Then move to stand next to the door. On the left.”
The doctor swallowed hard and tried to keep his attention focused on the task at hand rather than the fact that there were two armed individuals lying in wait for whoever was on the other side of the door. What if it was one of his associates? Or one of the local kids who had a habit of breaking in? They were a nuisance but they didn’t deserve to take a bullet for their actions.
Suddenly there was a pull on the door. The handle moved up and down a few times and then it stilled again. The only sound in the room was the clicking of the release of the gun’s safety in her hand. “Doc? How long?”
His gaze shot to the door and he swallowed hard. “Not long enough for me to finish before whoever’s on the other side of that door gets inside.”
“You’re gonna have to take a break then,” she told him and hopped from the table, wincing at the pain and feeling blood running down her back. She moved to the door and gestured for Alex to step up behind her.
There was a hardly an audible sound from the other side. A lock pick was pushed into the door’s lock until it released. She held her breath, waiting for the person on the other side to step inside.
Pressed against the wall, she lowered her heartbeat with a special breathing technique, her senses all fully aware. When the door was opened the intruder didn’t stand a chance against her quick reaction. Her hand wrapped around a wrist and she pulled on it, making the man stumble and crash to the floor when her leg offered a barricade against his shin. She was on him, twisting his arm to a painful level.
The man beneath her was armed to his teeth, no doubt set on them but she asked the doctor anyway. “Do you know him?”
The man shook his head mutely. In all the time he’d been working at the clinic he’d never once found himself in a situation like this.
She nodded, holding the gun to the intruder’s temple. “Who sent you?”
“Gotta admit, in all the times I’ve imagined you on top of me this wasn’t one of the scenarios, Valkyrie,” the man rasped.
She smirked. “Now you can say it’s the last scenario.”
“We shouldn’t take care of him here,” Alex spoke up. “The good doctor has an obligation to save lives and he shouldn’t be made an accessory.” He couldn’t believe he was even saying these things.
“He’s already seen too much.” Her eyes narrowed as she looked at the doctor, noting the way he tried to keep his eyes averted. “He can identify us.”
“I won’t be party to killing an innocent man.” He stared at her, his gaze challenging. “And even knowing your line of work, I can’t imagine you doing that either.”
She pulled her right arm back and slammed the butt of the gun into the back of the assassin’s head, knocking him unconscious. “Tie him up, we’ll have to take him with us.” She pointed the Sig at the doctor. “You have a job to finish.”
The man nodded. “Alright, alright. Come over and sit down again.”
Alex searched the drawers and cabinets to find something to tie the guy up and finally found something suitable. He looked at the gun in his hand and started to tuck it into his waistband and then thought better of it. Safety on or not, there was no way he was pointing a gun at his dick. He set it on the counter and pulled the assassin’s arms behind his back, looping the tape around the man’s wrists over and over until he was satisfied he couldn’t move. He stood up again and retrieved the gun, stepping back and watching the doctor as he worked on Valkyrie.
“We’re almost done. Do you want me to give you some painkillers for later?”
“Something without side effects. No drowsiness, no nausea, and none of that no operating heavy machinery while under the influence shit. If you don’t have anything like that, don’t bother,” she muttered as she pulled her clothes back on.
He went to the locked medicine cabinet and searched around for some pills until he found them and placed a bottle in her hands.
“What’s the most secure area in the clinic?” she asked as she shoved them in her pocket after a cursory glance at them.
“Probably the room where we do our x-rays.”
“Let’s go then.” She nodded at Alex. “Keep an eye on our friend.”
“What-”
“Trust me,” she dismissed him, following the nervous doctor into the suggested room. “Cell phone?” she asked.
“Um, yes, yes, of course.” He fumbled in the pocket of his pants and pulled it out, nearly dropping it thanks to his major case of nerves. He’d worked in a rough area of the city for several years, but never once had he found himself facing a gun.
She let her hands wander over his pockets anyway to make sure there wasn’t a second one then gestured for him to stand at the far end. “The next shift starts in a little over an hour. Guess they’ll find you then.” She turned to leave, but stopped. “If you tell anyone we’ve been here, I will come back for you.”
He nodded. “Who are you?” It was a stupid question, but he couldn’t stop himself from asking.
“You really don’t wanna know.”
“You’re gonna kill that man, aren’t you?”
“He came here to kill us,” she told him coldly. “He wouldn’t have blinked twice and he wouldn’t have let you walk away from this, Doc.”
She was right, he decided,
he didn’t want to know. “You’ll want to make sure that wound stays clean. There are antibiotics, fresh bandaging supplies, and antiseptic wash in a cabinet in the supply room.” He pulled his keys off of his belt and held them out to her after selecting one of them. “That one will unlock the cabinet. Take what you need. If that wound becomes infected it’ll spread quickly and as close as it is to your spinal column, the effects could become disastrous in very little time.”
She took it from him and nodded, reaching into her pocket and pulling a wad of cash out. “Here, keep the change,” she said with a wink.
His eyes widened at the amount of cash she had just shoved into his hands, picturing the supplies he could purchase with it. “Th-thank you,” he stuttered out.
“One good turn deserves another.” She walked out into the hallway. “Be safe, Doc.” With that she pushed the door closed and went back to get the things he had suggested before rejoining Alex and their new friend.
“We get rid of him, toss the tracker for a false trace, find food, and then shelter. In that order.”
“Are we still heading to the safe house you mentioned or are we headin’ to another location?” Alex asked as he helped her pull the groggy assassin to his feet. He had cleaned up while she was out with the doctor and the tracker was now sealed up in a small plastic bag marked with the biohazard symbol. They stepped out through the back door and he glanced at her as she looked around before motioning to the waiting car. Luckily they were in the type of neighborhood where people didn’t ask question and no matter what happened no one ever saw anything.
“Probably another. It’s not far away and since he showed up here we have to assume there are more coming and they’re close.” She opened the trunk of their car and shoved the man inside. “We need to contact Bane, but first we get rid of him.”