Tares City

29. Hospital Trips

JENSEN CARTER

Limping towards him was his youngest trainee, Danny. And for a quick moment, Jensen wasn't sure if the teenager before him was the same young boy he'd begun training. Jensen found himself comparing the kid to something out of a zombie movie.  

Flowing from his nose and ears was the darkest shade of blood Jensen had ever seen in person. The shade looked close to black - The scent of it burned Jensen's nose from where he stood, smelling nothing like regular blood. The only word he could think of to describe it was "wrong". The boy's blood smelled wrong.

As Danny moved to him, he let out a pained sigh. "I did something stupid Mr. Carter," Danny cried to Jensen before falling to his knees.

"Shit!" Jensen hisses as he moves to pick up the boy, fighting the urge to gag at the peculiar stench of his blood. Picking him up off the ground, Jensen makes his way to the car.

"Okay, let's hit the road... What the hell," Dalton comments as approaches Jensen's side.

"Help me, we have to get him to the hospital," He says to his friend who was staring at the teen in his arms in shock.
"Dalton, come on man! The car! Let's go!" He shouts, snapping Dalton out of his stare.

"Do you know what's happening with him?" Dalton asks as he runs to open the car door for Jensen.

"Not a damn clue," Jensen replies as he places Danny in the backseat.

~

At Oak Crest Medical, Jensen hands Danny over to the doctors and nurses, filling them in on what he knew, which wasn't anything useful. "He's the second one tonight," An officer standing off to the side comments to them. "I brought in a young girl about his age earlier. A runaway with a taste for drugs. Your kid, he does drugs?" He asks walking up to them.

"Not that I know of. Haven't known him that long though. But he doesn't seem like the type to," Jensen answers turning to face the cop.

"You think a bad batch of something going around on the streets?" Dalton asks the officer.

"It's my first guess. I've seen a similar thing happen before. Have no idea what drug it could be though. Man, I hope I'm wrong! The symptoms that girl was displaying..." He trails off shaking his head as he seemingly recalls his earlier ordeal. A call-in from his radio has him waving goodbye to Jensen and Dalton as he walked out of the hospital.

"Drugs huh?" Dalton says aloud as the two of them stand there looking into the room they took Danny.

"Did you notice the smell?" Jensen asks his friend softly.

"Notice it? I couldn't miss it!" Dalton replies. "It was his blood but, man. Blood doesn't usually smell like that. Does it?"

"Not that I've ever come across. Can't be! It doesn't smell right, or healthy for that matter!" Jensen exclaims.

Just then, a pair of paramedics come bursting through the door with a patient on their gurney. Seeing them head their way with urgency, Jensen and Dalton instinctively take a step back, allowing them to pass.

"Excuse you, gentlemen!" An older man glares at them as they'd inadvertently planted themselves in front of his path.

"Our bad man, just making room for the medics," Dalton comments with an easy smile to the man earning a harsher glare in return.

"One would think you'd be more aware of your surroundings!" He snaps at them before rudely pushing past.

"Mr. Elmaan, you can see him now," A nurse calls to the older man while gesturing to follow her.