A standard warmup exercise that the wrestling team did almost every practice was putting each other in fireman’s carries and running laps around the inside of the school. They’d run the hall then go up a flight of stairs then run that hall and go down the stairs and then switch off for the next lap. Even with the weapons they were both carrying Drew had no problem carrying Bart while he ran down the trail. His dad actually felt a lot lighter and frailer than Drew would’ve ever thought. He’d always looked at the man like he was some sort of indestructible superhero. Worried that his dad might be dying on his back Drew put his head down and sprinted back home.
He pounded up the stairs breathing raggedly in the chill night air. The door was flung open before he’d even made it all the way to the porch. Yue, LeBron and Nancy all getting comically stuck together in the doorway that they all tried to run out of at the same time.
“What happened?” Yue asked loudly stepping back to let their mom go out before her.
“Let him get inside!” LeBron said hustling behind Drew to try and see where Bart had been hurt.
“Is he alive?” A frantic Nancy asked. She was blocking the way inside while trying hard to look at Bart whose eyes were closed. He’d passed out from the shock and pain at some point on the run back to the house.
“Get him inside.” LeBron repeated guiding Drew past Nancy and into the house. Nancy followed along holding one of her husband’s limp hands. She was searching for a pulse but unable to locate one as he was bounced around on Drew’s shoulders.
“Put him on the couch.” Yue ordered Drew. They all helped Drew get Bart off his shoulders and laid out on the sectional. Bright red blood getting smeared all over the back of the off-white leather. Nancy let out another moan at the sight of all the blood.
They worked together to strip him down to his boxers. They got him cleaned up and bandaged as well as they could with band aids, tape and clean shirts. He grumbled and rolled around in pain. Once they’d cleaned him up as much as they could with what they had Nancy shook him until he woke up.
“Is that going to come out of the leather?” Bart asked squinting at the blood everywhere.
“You should’ve splurged on that guard policy.” Yue said with tears in her eyes. It was an old family joke. Bart and Nancy fought over things like appliance warranties and leather protection plans reliably every time they made a purchase. It was so predictable that the kids refused to go with them when they were making those sorts of purchases. They refused because of how awkward it got afterwards when the sales rep inevitably smiled and started talking about the valuable, easily affordable protection plans that could be added on.
“What do we do?” Nancy asked Bart. She was kneeling down by his head.
“Check the holes. Make sure the bullet has an entry and an exit. If it doesn’t you have to get some tweezers and get the bullet out of me before you sterilize and bandage me up. Also, pain killers. The ones we have from when Drew got his wisdom teeth removed. I need those very soon.” Bart said through gritted teeth.
Yue held up her phone to show them all she’d found the directions online for treating bullet wounds. The lights flickered then went out. They’d just lost power. Nancy had her hands pressed down on Bart’s hands. She put her head against the couch and started taking deep breaths. She put her head back up a few seconds later and sent LeBron off to find the pain pills. She got Yue to go look for flashlights and candles. She had Drew shift Bart around so she could check for entry and exit wounds. Bart moaned loudly every time he was moved.
It was going to be a long night.
Chapter 11: Lights Out
By the time the sun came up the next morning they were all completely frazzled. They’d found an entry and an exit wound for two out of the three places Bart had been shot. The third bullet had gotten lodged in his shin bone. The bullet was right where they could see it, so they’d been able to pry it out using a pair of tweezers and a spoon. It’d been holding Bart down while they did it that’d been the challenge. Bart may not spend a lot of time at the gym, but he was able to summon some serious Hulk rage when they started prying around in his shin bone with a soup spoon.
The general consensus was that Bart would probably live if they could find some antibiotics to give him. That meant driving to the local drug store and looting what they needed. Unless the drive through happened to be open and still accepting credit cards. The most likely scenario was having to fight other looters to get what they needed.
The morning had snuck up on them. The removal of the bullet and working to clean Bart’s wounds had taken longer than any of them realized. It was LeBron who noticed the light peeking in from the holes in the plywood covering the kitchen window. It was also LeBron who brought up the fact that if they didn’t leave soon there wouldn’t be anything left for them to loot. Drew was keeping quiet on the looting side of things. Nancy however wasn’t happy.
“Who exactly is going to run over to the pharmacy to grab these supplies? How do you propose to break in? Do
