Kidnapped By Johnnie and Jake

Healthcare

"He'll be all right," said Isaac, dragging over a tatty chair and sitting with us. His breath smelled of weed, and he sort of dragged out his words like he was a bit high. I felt kind of unsure about the fact that he was Johnnie's doctor right now...but, then again, why should I care? "So, how do you know Johnnie?" he asked me.

"I, uh...live with him," I said, trying to think of a normal-sounding way to define my relation to him.

"How long?"

"A couple weeks."

Isaac laughed a bit. "Bet this seems crazy to you."

I smiled. "...Yeah. So, why do you do this? H-how do you know all this stuff?"

"I grew up in gangs, and we never had a place to go when we got injured. I witnessed friends die because of it. So I studied unofficially, with my own books and shit, and made this place. And I don't do gang shit anymore, either, I make enough money from this, and I only charge, like, ten percent of what the hospital does."

"Wow," I said. "But...where did you get it all? Not many people have all this stuff lying around."

"Some of the drugs are leftover from what I used to sell when I drug dealt, and also what I used to drug people with. And the newer ones are from friends in gangs who supply me nowadays. As for the equipment, such as the infusion pump, I took most of it from a hospital I found which was abandoned in the eighties."

"And...do you just help criminals who can't go to hospitals, or normal people who can't afford healthcare, too?"

"I'd help either if they came to me, but I keep it on the low—only my friends know through word of mouth, because a lot of the shit in here, like the drugs I own, could get me locked up, let alone the people who I'm helping locked up. But I doubt many would choose to come here unless they absolutely had to, anyway, I mean...look at it." Then, he turned to Jake. "But how's it going, bro? Who did this?"

"You wouldn't ducking believe," said Jake. "Andrew Tate and his gang. And one of the people in that gang is Johnnie's ex."

"Alex? I remember," said Isaac.

"Yeah. And we killed Tate." Jake grinned.

Isaac smiled in a shocked way. "My brother." He laughed. "That's the wildest shit I've heard all year."

"Tell me about it," said Jake. "And I haven't even had time to think about it."

Neither had I, to be honest. I don't think I'd even processed in the moment that Andrew was dead. Nobody had said it out loud...he'd kind of just been lying there. But, now that I thought about it...that was insane. I was part of the reason Andrew Tate was dead. I guessed that, if people knew, half the population would be overjoyed, and praise me for my involvement, and the other half, the Tater Tots, would hate my guts.

"Why didn't you kill the bitch while you were at it?" asked Isaac. "Alex."

"I had to take our women to the car for safety—they'd been tortured by Tate—and Johnnie was about to shoot Alex, but then one of their members shot his gun out of his hand. He ran before taking any more chances. We still offed most of Tate's gang who were in the building when we arrived, though."

Isaac took a deep breath and shook his head. "All imma say is I'm glad I don't do that shit anymore. How's the rest of your lot doing? Sam, Colby, your bitch, what's her name...Tara?"

"Fine," said Jake. "Andrew had managed to kidnap Sam as well, but he escaped, and helped us find Andrew's location. Colby put up a good fight, actually killed one of them, then got away, granted with some injuries. He's all right now. Tara hid. Johnnie and I were out at the time. We came back to find the house ransacked, but Tara and Colby told us what had gone on."

"What are you gonna do from here?"

"We haven't even thought about it yet."

Isaac paused, then he looked at me. "So, how were you involved in all of this, huh? Just along for the ride?"

"I was one of the girls kidnapped by Tate."

"Ah, shit. You all right?"

"Yeah, I'm fine..."

"Anyway, I'm thinking Johnnie might be here for a while, maybe a few days. It's up to you lot whether you stay or go."

I looked at Jake, because of course it wasn't actually up to me.

"We'll go. You have my number—text me when Johnnie's ready. And I need to go get cash to pay you, anyway," he said.

"All right, bro. I'll see you soon," said Isaac.

My heart sort of lifted. We were leaving Johnnie. I could finally feel a little more comfortable.

I glanced across the room at Johnnie for a long moment as we were about to leave. His hair, wet with sweat, was over his face, falling into his eyes. He glared at me, and his emotion was unreadable. I couldn't understand what he was thinking, but without a word, I turned around and left the room, went back up the stairwell, outside, and back into the car.

That was sort of the first time I'd had control over myself in Johnnie's presence since meeting him. I walked away from him, and there was nothing he could do about it, because he was almost dying in a hospital bed.

"How is Johnnie?" Kaycee asked once Jake and I were back in the car.

"I think he'll be okay," I said.

Unfortunately.

*

Back at the house, I heard voices coming from the living room. When I headed towards the kitchen, I glanced through the living room door to see who it was, and what was going on. It was Tara, Sam, and Colby.

Tara looked her usual self, and when Jake entered the room, her face lit up, and she skipped towards him, throwing her arms around his body. "I was so worried about you," she said. "Tell me everything that happened."

Sam's head was a bit swollen, so I could tell he'd taken a hard hit by Andrew's gang to knock him out. Apart from that, he looked fine—I suppose Andrew's gang hadn't needed to torture him, as he had been unconscious the whole time they'd been around him, until he'd woken up and escaped.

Colby, however, was in pretty bad shape. I could see that he'd put up a good fight with Andrew's gang when they'd come to the house. His face had clearly taken a few blows, and he had a white bandage wrapped around his upper arm, which was stained with red.

Tara's expression turned a little confused. "Where are Johnnie, Kaycee and Brooke?"