Mutual Aid for Magical Creatures

The Good Work

Max smoked a cigarette in the alley way next to the Midtown blood bank, resisting the urge to pull on his new scrubs. They were the same teal color as the blood bank nurses, but if anyone looked at them closely enough they would see the costume shop logo on the sleeve.  The scrub were a close enough fit though that Max thought he would look like everyone else. After staking out the Midtown Blood Bank for a week and a half, he knew the look and habits of everyone coming in and out of this place. 

Max took another drag and checked his watch - it was 1:57 PM: three minutes until the blood delivery truck was supposed to arrive. Three minutes was a long time to idly smoke while preparing to commit a felony. He had already thought through all of the consequences of his actions if he was caught. From his late night Google-ing spirals, he knew charges included theft, impersonating a medical professional, and endangering others. Max was terrified to carry out this plan, but he knew he couldn't back out. His brother's survival depended on it. 

The NYC Blood Bank truck beeped aggressively as it backed into the alley way. Max looked up, nodded hello to the driver, then stomped out his cigarette. 

"Good morning," Max said. "I'm here to take Thursday's delivery." 

The driver looked at him skeptically. "Where's Carrie?" she asked. 

Carrie must have been the name of the nurse that Max saw meet the driver every day when he was watching how the blood bank operated. She was notoriously late to get the deliveries, and frantically quick from what Max thought must have been a severe understaffing problem. Typically, the driver had to wait between seven and ten minutes for Carrie to pop her head out of the door and get the box. Max figured that if he was here early enough, he could meet the driver and finish getting the blood before Carrie even showed up. 

"Carrie's busy but she sent me out here. I'm, uh, Bruce. It's my first day." Max said, sticking out his hand for a shake. 

The driver shook Max's hand and smiled. "I'm happy  Carrie's finally getting some help here. It's a madhouse!" she grimaced, "I mean, it's a good job but just a lot of people need this blood, you know?" 

The driver pulled her hand back and touched her cross necklace. "You're really doing the good work being a nurse here." 

Max swallowed his guilt. This driver couldn't be farther from the truth. Do this for Ben, he thought. Do this for Ben. 

"It's just a job, but I appreciate it." Max said instead, gritting his teeth through the lie. 

The driver smiled, then opened the door to the truck. Hopping up, she walked into the back of the refrigerated truck. Large shelves were built into both walls and several coolers sat on each of the shelves. The driver found the cooler marked "Midtown" and brought it down to Max. 

"Here you go," she said. "Please sign the receipt on top of the box, rip it off, and hand it back. Then you'll be good to go!" 

He forged a signature, a sloppy version of Bruce Wayne  (the first name he could come up with) and handed the receipt over.  He looked up at the driver, this nice woman with several heart-shaped charms in her Crocs, and felt another wave of guilt that clenched his stomach and heart. He had to steal this blood though: it was the only way his brother would feel alive. Not alive, Max corrected himself, because Ben could never be alive again. This blood was his brother's ticket to feeling better, he thought.

"Who the hell are you?!" a voice called out.

Whoops! Max didn't need to look in the direction of the voice to know that Nurse Carrie, the actual recipient of that blood bank delivery, was here. His time was up. Max wrapped his arms around the styrofoam cooler full of blood and ran. He sprinted out of the alley way and into the street, running too fast to think of where he was going. The driver and Nurse Carrie were only a few steps behind Max. They followed each zig and zag he took through Times Square with their arms outreached to grab his fake scrubs as soon as they could reach him. 

His legs burned and his arms shook from the weight of the cooler. Max was was embarrassingly out of shape. Getting chased was his first work out in years. Even with the adrenaline pumping, he knew he could only run a few more minutes. I need a place to hide in plain sight, he thought. Max rounded the corner past Howdy's restaurant and found his  dream hiding spot: a thin alley way filled with dumpsters. He fled into the alley, picked the first dumpster, and hopped in side. 

"Blegh!" Max dry retched. 

Everything around him stank. The thick, hot air reeked of a revolting mix of rotten meat and bleach. Max clutched his tshirt around his face. He could barely breath through the smell. To stop himself from jumping out and sucking in fresh air, Max counted to twenty, then counted to twenty again. He kept repeating this ritual for what felt like hours, even though a part of his brain knew it had only been a few minutes. Eventually Nurse Carrie and the driver would give up and go back to the blood bank. All Max had to do was wait. 

Suddenly, the dumpster door opened. Max froze with his cooler in front of him, unsure of what he could do next to protect the blood he'd stolen. But it wasn't his pursuers. Instead, it was a brunette woman wearing a purple button down laced with rhinestones and fringe. One arm held up the dumpster lid and in her other hand she clutched a greasy trash bag. Her eyes widened with shock, but as soon as she opened her mouth to speak, Max heard the voice he feared would appear outside. 

"Hey, did you see some guy run by here with a cooler?" the driver asked. 

The brunette looked away from Max and smiled. "No, I haven't seen anyone like that yet." she said. 

She gently placed the trash bag next to Max and closed the dumpster lid. He could barely hear their muffled conversation through the metal door, but he caught fragments like "stealing our deliveries" and "I'm just a waitress." After a few agonizing minutes where Max was shaking with curiosity, the dumpster lid opened again and the brunette popped her head back over the opening. 

"They're gone," she said. "Now, do you want to get out of here?"