bowl, 'Yep, blood in the urine, figured that, but had to check it. We will need to keep monitoring it and see if it stops.'
Hank held up one of his hands, 'Wait doc, uh, lets say it doesn't, what can we do?'
The doctor looked frustrated, 'Good question, normally internal bleeding requires some tests to see what we can find out. Obviously you are not dying from internal injuries yet, you are still walking around breathing and all. If it keeps up though maybe I could go in…I am not a surgeon… Still you never know if one is going to come in off the street. I should keep gathering information if I can, just in case. So we have a history to tell the surgeon.' The doc muttered something under his breath.
Hank grumbled a bit and the doc asked, 'What was that? Stool samples?'
'Yeah I would like those too, if you don't mind.' The doc crossed the bathroom and dumped Hank's urine into a toilet before coming back to the sink and rinsing the bowl out. 'Speaking of people coming in off the street, we have gotten a few more this afternoon, about half of them are kids. No sign of Michael and his crew yet.' Michael and his friends had been at the clinic the day before and had refused to travel with Hank and Juan, saying they needed to get to where their parents worked and check on them, if they could. They promised they would come to the Mike's club and join Hank when they were done. The teenagers were unique in that they had been members in some sort of fantasy group and they had 'suited up' before leaving home, they wore steel mail and carried swords and axes in addition to baseball bats. The other people at the doctor's clinic had included a police officer and she had given the older kids a couple of hand guns and ammunition too.
'Well that is too bad. I don't know how much longer their armor is going to be useful, but I suspect they will do better than most people.'
'Anyway, we got these newcomers coming in and we are going to have to move to, or expand to a different base of operations, maybe the sports stadium or someplace huge like that.'
'Geez doc didn't you watch that whole Katrina thing? There ain't no food in a stadium, we gotta stay around grocery stores for now, so we don't end up starving anyway. Plus I don't mean to sound bad, but I bet the flow of survivors starts to trickle off pretty soon. Any sign of Dave or any other smart zombies?'
'You have only been out a few hours Hank, nothing yet. Okay so no stadium. What about a hospital? It has kitchens, lots of private rooms and we could use the medical equipment. Hank, the stragglers, they have some bitten among them. The boys won't let them in, they are keeping them in the parking lot away from everyone else.'
'Shit.' Hank thought for a moment, then said, 'Shit. Okay who is kinda leading the men at this point?'
'Jack.' said Doc and Juan at the same time.
Hank's eyebrow went up, 'Really? Talk about rising to the occasion. Well have him come talk to me if he wants to. The bitten are probably dead doc, unless you managed to whip up a cure in the last few days?' the doc shook his head 'no', 'Well we heard nothing new on the radio either. Kevin, he knew an old man who had been bit and didn't turn, even after a day or two so there might be a chance for some of them.'
'Someone survived? How many days exactly? Is he still alive?'
'Ah, well you might want to talk to Kevin about that, say where is Kevin?'
'He was on the other side of me, when I fell asleep next to you Hank.' said Juan.
'Yeah, he only slept a couple of hours and then wanted to see the sights a bit. One of the boys is probably still showing him around. The younger guys have broken out all the video games and they have some sort of tournament going on, he might be over there.' said Doc.
'Well, you might ask him about it, I can't remember if he told us how long the guy lived, but he is not alive now. Just 'cause you got bit doesn't mean you are safe from them. All I know is the guy's wife got bit and she died and turned.' Hank shrugged his shoulders, winced in pain and then said, 'Ask Kevin.' The doctor nodded, then checked Hank's bandages before heading off to try and find Kevin.
Hank and Juan made it back to their chairs and Hank was surprised to see the little girl and boy they had pulled out of the SUV sitting in their chairs, the other kids were not really playing with them, not ignoring them, but just kind of holding back. Both kids were dressed in clean white t-shirts, gray sweat pants and were bare foot. Hank could see that they had been cleaned up and outfitted from the club supplies, as he recalled though the place did not stock a lot of children's clothing. The t-shirts looked like women's smalls to him, they were just a little too big. The boy would probably die of embarrassment if he were told he was wearing a girl's t-shirt. Seeing them Hank raised his eyebrows to Juan, who shook his head, unknowing as to what was going on.
The girl spoke up as they got close. 'Hi Hank, hi Juan.' Then she couldn't say any more, but started crying and ran over and hugged Hank tightly.
Wincing again in pain Hank said, 'Oh girl! Oh girlie, hold on a minute here, you are hurting my ribs!', the girl heard him and softened her embrace, she did not let go or stop crying. Her brother, seeing his sister cry, started crying himself. One of the women nearby came up and picked him up and held him while big, silent tears rolled down his cheeks.
'Shh, shhhh, you will be okay now kid, you will be okay. I am sorry. I wish we could have saved your mom and dad, we just got there too late, I am so sorry!' Hank whispered to the girl. She continued to cry, while Hank shuffled over to his seat, 'I gotta take a load off girl, will you help me sit down again?'
The girl helped Hank sit and lean back before asking if she could sit with him. Hank reluctantly agreed, soon enough she was joined by her brother and all three of them made the chair positively full, it was not completely uncomfortable, just a little awkward when any of them shifted position. Hank learned the boy was named Cage and the girl was Sylvia. After crying for awhile Sylvia said, 'I'm sorry. I'm sorry, I am just so scared. And sad, I have never been so sad before.'
Hank nodded agreement to that, 'You are going to be sad when you think about this for the rest of your life Sylvia. No one can make that go away, but you'll have good times again too.'
'I don't want good times! I should have helped dad when they got him, then helped mom, and all I did was hide in back of the car, I should never have good times again ever.'
Putting his hand on her back and rubbing it Hank said, 'No you did what your mom wanted. You saved your little brother and yourself. I bet she told you to hide I the back of the car, didn't she? Sylvia?'
Nodding, Sylvia, said, 'Ye-yeah, but I could have done something! They took off my mom's clothes! And she was bleeding! And her arm! Her arm was gone after the accident, they bit off her arm!'
'No, no dear, try not to think of it, you just don't think of it like that. The zombies, the bad guys, they didn't bite your mom's arm off, it happened in the accident, we think, when the car rolled over. You did what she wanted, she must have known Sylvia, she must have known Juan, Kevin and I would be along to save you. That's why she told you to hide, so she and your dad could fight the bad guys off until we got there. Only something went wrong and the bad guys got them too soon, before we could save all of you. I am so sorry Sylvia.'
Sylvia seemed to digest the lie, she wanted to believe she had done the right thing, but even at eleven years old she knew a lie when she heard one, if only she could believe she had done the right thing, maybe then she could forgive herself for not dying alongside her parents. Not admitting Hank was right, she gave him a curt nod that seemed to say, 'I will think about your explanation of events and regard them as true until such time as I can come up with a better argument as to what really happened.' Of course Sylvia did not say that, Hank just took it that way, then nodded back and pulled her close in another hug. From an aisle over Evaine was watching Hank intently, even though he could not see her, she smiled slightly to herself as she walked away to help the women with lunch.
Cage was not arguing any points with Hank, he was just keenly aware that his mother and father were gone and would never be back. Thankfully, he did not carry any survivor's guilt on his conscious.
Juan, meanwhile had safely settled back into his chair and was surrounded by kids again, mostly boys and younger girls. The kids all had hand held game players and were eager to show Juan how they could all play together wirelessly. Juan watched them for a minute or two coaching them when he noticed Cage watching them with interest. Juan tousled one boy's hair and whispered in his ear that he should go and get Cage a game too. Eager to please the boy ran off and was back and showing Cage how to play in less than five minutes. They had a little bit of a language barrier, the boy was Hispanic and not yet in school, and spoke little English, however video game playing would not be denied and through gestures and much button poking the boys got Cage playing the racing game they were all in. This made life easier for Hank as Cage soon wandered off with the pack of boys, who were already teaching him to say things in Spanish. They didn't go far though, just over to an outlet where they could all plug in their games instead of running off battery power. They sat on a carpet, which had been
