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Coral noted that the back room was now full of dead people or murderers who were hogtied. Pax laid the man down on his stomach, his hands secured in Mark’s handcuffs, and shrugged a little at Coral. “His pupils aren’t the same size. I think the cop hit him pretty hard.”

  “Well, he shouldn’t have been hitting people with a brick.”

  “I agree.”

  “Nothing we can do but defend ourselves.”

  “If we can. When we can.”

  Chapter 16

  The town nurse, Marnie, had set up a triage station with help from Annie and Dana, using the diner’s first aid kit and some make shift supplies they had found. Cloth napkins made clean, soft bandages and slings. Vinegar was fine to wash with. The older man with the slice to his belly died quickly and was put into the back room while his wife sat at a table with others and cried softly. Of the rest, the worst of the injuries were a broken arm that Marnie wrapped lightly and set as best she could, and a few nasty cuts and scrapes that she coated with cream and gauze but that would scar if they didn’t get infected and kill the patients.

  A make shift triage and vinegar weren’t a decent substitution for real medicine and real doctors and nurses.

  Carrie’s parents were both suffering from light shock. Her mother, Susie, was able to talk and follow instructions even though she was cold and pale, but Carrie’s father was distant, uncoordinated, and more confused. He wasn’t able to tell them about how wet his arm had been with rainwater.

  The tines of the fork had slammed right into the bone of Carrie’s arm; the wound was painful and needed to be watched for infection but wasn’t serious.

  Marnie used the cream and bandaged her arm, telling her that she would have to take antibiotics to make sure she healed without becoming infected.

  Lydia sipped hot tea and shivered beneath the tablecloth; she and Ronnie were both suffering mild shock.

  Marnie’s main patients were three people who had suffered when Chris, Lydia’s man, had come through with a huge Bowie knife. One patient needed to be in the little hospital that Cold Springs had, and although it wasn’t fancy, it was big enough to give the young woman antibiotics, something for pain, and suture deep cuts on her hands and arms. The immediate concern was two long slashes, one along the woman’s neck that had missed the artery but still bled heavily and gaped at the edges. The other was a long cut from the woman’s temple and across her cheek and was so deep into the chin that Marnie had to keep the section of flesh in place with gauze and a lot of tape. Finally, Marnie wrapped the woman like a mummy from the neck to hairline.

  The second wound was a slash into the belly of another man Chris had tried to gut. The knife had nicked the stomach itself so that digestive fluids leaked out and burned, causing incredible pain. Marnie was unable to relieve the pain, so she stuffed cloths close to his belly and allowed the man’s wife to hold the bandage securely.

  Lydia was the third patient that Marnie worried about. While she had suffered only a slash on the palm of one hand, Lydia was shivering from the shock of seeing her long-term boyfriend on a murderous rage.

  “Breathe slowly,” Marnie ordered.

  “That wasn’t Chris.”

  “I know it wasn’t.”

  “It looked like Chris,” Lydia said, “but it didn’t do like him.”

  “He’d never have attacked anyone,” Marnie said. She patted Lydia’s arm. “His mind was gone, Honey.”

  Annie held a cup of hot tea for Lydia to sip.

  “Just drink it. It’ll help,” Annie snapped. She knew it didn’t taste very good, but it was very strong and had sugar and lemon, so it would help.

  “Why would Chris…Ronnie…she….”

  “Ronnie had to. That wasn’t Chris. He was soaking wet and sick with whatever is in the rain. You know that, Lydia.”

  “He was sick.”

  “Ronnie had no choice. You have to be strong so that we can go get Sammy.”

  While Marnie had patched up patients and the men had removed bodies and the culprits to the back room, Coral locked the doors and turned the lights way down low so that the front was dark. Maybe no one would know they were in the diner.

  “How’s Chris?” Lydia asked again, probably the fifth time.

  “Lydia, we talked about that,” Annie said again, worried about her friend’s mental state.

  Seeing Ronnie unholster her weapon and fire into Chris’s head had been the most horrible thing they had ever seen. Ronnie was curled up in a corner, shaking; she had never had to fire her gun on duty, much less shoot anyone. And she had killed a man she knew and liked.

  “He’s dead. He was sick,” Lydia repeated.

  “And you have to focus,” Annie said.

  “I’ve gotta get to Sam,” Lydia said again.

  Annie petted Katie as the dog ran from person to person, presumably checking on each. “Okay, you and I will go. Here, pet Katie. Katie’s worried about you.”

  Lydia did as asked, rubbing the dog’s fur and then hugging her while Katie licked Lydia’s cheek gently. Amazingly, Lydia’s face began to take on more color, and the terrible shaking abated. Annie had heard that petting animals lowered blood pressure and helped a person’s health. She would get Ronnie to hold Katie next.

  “We will go,” said Pax as he interrupted, “I’ll run for the Jeep and pull right up next to the back door, and you two jump in. When Lydia is feeling better,Lydia, you have to get your shit together, or we’re not going,” Pax said.

  “I have to get over to my mom and dad’s place,” Dana said. “I can run for my own car, but maybe we can all go together.”

  “What is about to happen is everyone in here is about to panic and decide he needs to be somewhere else like cats, all of a sudden, bolting out of a room, running. And when that happens, we’ll have wrecks and mistakes, and it’s gonna end badly.” Coral came over, speaking low, “I’d offer my Explorer, but it’s a bad plan if we all go running out into this rain.”

  Lydia didn’t know how to explain that getting to her daughter was far more important than Dana’s mission to get to her parents. The man with the stomach wound groaned, reminding Lydia and Dana both that he and a few others needed to get to the clinic quickly.

  “Are you doing okay?”

  Annie grasped the hand Pax laid on her shoulder. “I think so. Wow, I guess you picked the wrong time to come visit me, didn’t you?”

  “Imagining you here alone…I mean without me…no…that’s far worse. I’d rather be here and doing what I can. Annie, I’m gonna do everything I can to get us out of this safely,” he paused. “I picked the perfect time to be here with you.”

  “I’m sorry you are suffering through this, but I am selfish, Pax. I’m so glad you’re here with me. I’d be scared out of my wits without you.” She meant it. [She wanted to say much more and hear him say how he felt, too, but the situation didn’t work out, as they wanted}.

  He looked around a little dramatically, giving her a chance to back out, but she still kept her gaze on his eyes, and he leaned in to kiss her. After months of chatting, the reality was as perfect as he had imagined. He hated to break the kiss. “Love you lots,” he said, just as he had said every time they logged off the Internet, but this was in person.

  “Me, too. Love you lots.” She was about to say something else. Probably as sappy, but Pax had his head cocked to the side with his eyes bright and flashing.

  “Grab pencils, as many as you can.”

  Chapter 17

  Annie looked at him as if he were crazy, and she chuckled, “That’s romantic.”

  Pax grinned and patted Katie as she ran by him. “I have a weird idea, but it might work.”

  “What?”

  Pax motioned Jobie over to the butcher’s block to get a big piece of butcher’s paper. “Can you draw an outline of the town? I need the blocks and streets, and make ‘em true to size to each other and give me the names. I need to know how long the blocks are, so add the squares for stores or whatever; get some pe
ople to help you if they’re good at drawing. I need details and details.”

  “I’m on it,” Jobie said, grinned proudly.

  “We can plan to get people to the hospital, but I want to see it: the town and how it is laid out.”

  Pax spoke quickly, describing a crazy idea he had to George and Dan and Jake. The three men got it at once as only men can who are apt to build off of structures. “You want a big ole open box with a giant upside-down, squared off U shape at one end, hanging way out, and yeh, that could work.” They began sketching and arguing as they worked.

  Pax gathered supplies with Coral’s help. The other men excitedly built what Pax had envisioned, and after they looked at the simple open-ended boxes, they said they were perfect.

  “We have to weigh them down back here to offset that over-hang.” It was just that: a big open box, but at the far end, they had an over-hang that would give them cover from the rain. It was junk and wouldn’t hold up long, but they only needed it for a short amount of time.

  “What is that thing?” Annie asked, “are you making a fort to play in?” she grinned at Pax.

  “Imagine we set it right outside under the awning in the back and you walk into the box; that over-hang is gonna keep rain from blowing at the sides and from pouring off the top so that people can get into vehicles.”

  “We can staple some big trash bags on top.”

  Annie looked at them, flummoxed, “You big idiots. You have to keep it off of you totally. That means in the car, too.”

  “So we stay wrapped in plastic. Once we’re wherever we’re going, we strip it all off. We can get new bags; people have trash bags. Shower curtains…think outside the…ummm…box.” Pax looked at the structure they were nailing and stapling together.

  “This is the most idiotic idea I have ever heard,” Annie said, “someone has to run for the cars. I said I would go with Lydia. You don’t have to make it…all this.”

  “We have to keep you safe. You can’t stay dry unless we prepare.”

  “Gus did it. He used a slicker and umbrella and stayed dry, and he’s sane, right?”

  “As sane as Gus has ever been,” Coral said.

  He walked around, checking on Marnie and her patients and looking over the front of the diner which was dark and locked up, but if someone wanted inside badly enough, he could use a brick, bash in a hole, and climb inside.

  Even though they had moved the attackers and the injured and the dead, blood was all over, tables were on their sides, plates, food, and silverware littered the ground, and it would take a lot of scrubbing before the diner could be reopened.

  Maybe he was selfish, but Coral felt sad for his diner and would hate to be out of business for the days it would take to clean everything up after the investigation.

  “I should get the car,” Dan said.

  “It’s my slicker; it won’t fit your big ass.” Gus covered himself again as he had before and took Jake’s keys to his big SUV.

  In a few minutes, he pulled the vehicle right up to the weird box that Pax had made. Dan and Jake helped Marnie load the little girl with the broken arm into the car, her mother, the man with the stomach wound, and his wife (all covered in trash bags taped together), and three more with cuts and scrapes. They worked slowly, alert to even a drop of water that might fall from the sky.

  Gus got back into the driver’s side by scooting over so that he didn’t get soaked again, and Marnie slid into the passenger side, crinkling with baggies from head to toe. She cracked her window.

  “How do you feel?” Pax asked.

  “I feel normal. Sweaty in this, but normal,” Marnie said. She asked each of the passengers and got the same response. “I think we’re okay.”

  “Gus?”

  “Feel like myself.”

  “No worms in the brain? Itching…weirdness?”

  “No more than normal.” Marnie shrugged.

  At the hospital, a nice dry over hang was at the emergency room, and they could unload there while staying totally dry. “Good luck, guys.”

  They waved Gus and Marnie away.

  Pax watched them go and looked at Annie, “Our turn, and I think the rain is a little lighter; let’s get covered, and go get Lydia’s daughter.”

  Part 2

  Chapter 1

  Annie taped the legs of the pants she made for Lydia from a black trash bag. Lydia already wore a top with the plastic tight about her wrists and neck and a plastic hoodie over the top that draped down. There was only a small slit to peek out from. Pax and Annie wore the same suits. “I could be a fashion designer,” Annie said.

  Under the baggies, Annie had a little fanny pack with more tape and baggies. Dana adjusted her hood and then reached over to help Dan cover himself fully. The five planned to go check on loved ones and bring them back.

  “Katie,” whispered Pax as he knelt to look into her eyes, “you know Coral, and he’s a good cook and a nice man. I’m gonna come right back, but if anything goes south, would you take care of him for me? He will need you for protection; you can do that, huh?” Pax swallowed hard.

  Coral looked at Pax and gave him a slight nod and told him, “Katie will take great care of me. Don’t worry about us. We’ll hang together.”

  “Thanks.” Pax rubbed Katie’s head, hoping his eyes would clear of the teary blur fast. Coral would take care of her if he didn’t make it back, but there was still a lump in Pax’s throat.

  “We’ll be right back, Katie, beautiful girl. You could go, but we have to keep you safe. Okay?” Annie sniffed.

  Had Pax not already been crazy about Annie, he would have fallen in love with her right then as she reassured his beloved dog.

  When Dan ran for his big Bronco, he slipped on the gravel, teetered for a second, his arms wind milling, and his friends held their breaths until he righted himself and went on. Had he fallen and torn the plastic, he might have reacted to the rain, if that were the cause of the aggression.

  He pulled around under the new over-hang. The others piled in and fell back against the seats in relief. Pax said they should wait a few minutes and make sure they were all still okay and not dangerous to the rest.

  “Feeling aggressive? Angry?” Dan asked them.

  “Nervous and scared,” Lydia said, “I’m dry.”

  “All of you feel okay then?” Coral asked them. He was almost shaking with nervousness. “Annie?”

  “I feel fine,” she said.

  Dan pulled out of the parking lot with a thumbs-up signal to Coral, and they got a better look at the town. They could see up and down Main Street through the rain, and it looked as if there had been a few wrecks.

  “Pull in there. It’s dry under the side, see?” Annie pointed Dan towards the church across the street. “We need to check on them. They’re looking out at us.”

  Her words were lost as Dan pulled into the intersection. A terrible, rocking thud hit the Bronco, and they thought a car had crashed into them, but a man was screaming and beating at the driver’s side glass with both of his fists.

  His mouth was drawn back in a snarl as he roared and slammed his hands into the glass. They knew this man: He was Isaac, an old man who haunted the streets, dug through trash bins, and slept where he could find a place. Homeless by choice and always refusing help, he roamed the streets of Cold Springs, and this night, he was soaked by the rain and was full of fury.

  Rain twinkled on his faded beanie hat and tight grey curls of hair. {The town’s people treated Isaac almost like a favorite pet}.

  “Oh, my God,” Lydia shuddered, “go; go.”

  “Isaac….” Annie let her fingers trail down a window, as she looked at the man, mild by nature, usually harmless, but now violent.

  Dan stared another second at Isaac’s angry face and then pulled away so that the man fell onto the road behind them. Dan looked in the rearview mirror and saw that when Isaac picked himself up, he headed down the street towards the river, watching for movement that indicated there was someone he
could take his anger out on.

  Father Tom met them in the driveway of the church, avoiding the water, speaking to them as Dan lowered his window a little. They traded information quickly, and Dan warned them not to go into the rain.

  “It’s dangerous out there.”

  “Keep everyone here until the rain stops for good and the ground dries a little. Keep everyone calm, and let each know that some of the police are handling things,” Pax told the priest. “If someone attacks, you’ll have to fight back. A lot of murders have happened tonight, Father.”

  “We’ll be on guard,” said Father Tom as he let Annie introduce him to Pax; then, he nodded. Annie had shared with the priest that she liked a man she spoke to on the Internet.

  While he had been a little skeptical and protective, Father Tom hadn’t criticized Annie. At least the mystery man was staying calm, was being helpful, and was brave.

  Father Tom listened to some people behind him who were speaking up, and although he argued with them, he relayed that two of the people in the church were asking to get a ride to their neighborhood.

  The young priest might have ignored the pleading and soothed them, but the two who wanted to go along lived exactly where Lydia lived, on the same street. He shrugged.

  After a few whispered comments, the people in the Bronco said they would take the two along with them but couldn’t be responsible once they were dropped off. They had to scoot over and crowd in as two of the parishioners prepared to go along.

  “They have to cover up,” Pax explained to Father Tom, “head to toe with bags and tape. We have water on us, and they can’t get wet.” He regretted that they had come over here now. The more people with them, the more chances for problems.

  Some of the people grabbed bags and tape and went to work on the two that would ride along. Both looked strange in the shining plastic.

  Miss Jolene was an older lady and worried about her cat, Penelope. She lived on the same street as Lydia. Charles was the other who crowded in; he was concerned about his mother being alone, and he, too, lived on Grande Street.