Jae
"Thanks, Jae."
Dee takes another load of papers from my arms, adding them to the other stacks already placed upon the surface of the desk. The actual desk of the clinic hadn't suffered any damage, but the desktop computer had been smashed to bits and the filing cabinet had been tipped over with files spilling all over the floor. A lot of them had been covered in dark, foul-smelling congealed blood.
After our walk, hyung had been speaking with Christopher, and a group of others, about cleaning up the clinic. I offered to come, along with Braden. When I first saw the clinic, I was stunned. The front door was smashed and off its hinges. Two of the large window panes were equally destroyed, glass littered the parking lot and the floor inside.
A horrifying mess of blood, glass and papers littered the front lobby. There were several holes in the walls as well. Most of the damage was contained to the lobby, but the first exam room was almost completely demolished inside.
There were about twenty of us volunteering, and no one else seemed fazed, although hyung and Dee were a little more upset. I stood frozen, unable to enter the building, too shocked. Christopher walked past me on his way in and noticed.
"Don't worry about Alec. Braden got him out safely."
Then I was horror struck; my tiny Braden had been there after all. Braden was inside, already preparing cleaning supplies, and I could see him through the open space where the door should have hung. I had to crouch down and calm my breathing for a moment. I knew about the werewolves but I couldn't imagine anything creating that kind of destruction.
Once I'd calmed down, I helped out with the cleanup outside. First, we covered up the windows with plastic and put up a temporary flap over the doorway. Christopher took a small group to town to see about getting replacements.
While I helped outside, disinfection was going on inside. Braden, Dee and hyung took care of most of that mess, cleaning up the bio-hazard and replacing the stench with a heavy, bleach smell. With that part cleaned up, the remaining papers had to be sorted. A few of the volunteers focused on patching, replacing and painting the holes in the drywall.
Alec brought his laptop out to the front desk, for Dee to work at. I guess their records were stored in the cloud, so while Dee went through and checked off which patients they still had a hard copy for, Braden and a couple of others organized them.
I'm having a hard time reminding myself that Dee is a werewolf. She's a tall and slender woman in her late-forties, who has a crazy efficiency with her work. Except every time she speaks to me, she had a wide, caring smile and for some reason reminds me of my own mom.
I'm splitting my time carrying the organized stacks to Dee and helping carry out the wreckage of the exam room. Almost everything needed to be pulled out and hyung was going to replace it all at another time. I thought I'd be helpful there, but the werewolves kept putting me in charge of the lightest tasks. I was slightly offended until I saw a female wolf, the size of hyung carry out the wrecked base of the exam table by herself.
I go back and get another stack from Braden and the others, working in the other exam room. Once that is deposited with Dee, I check in on the clean up again. They are so efficient that there's only a couple of volunteers left sweeping.
Hyung is back in his office, making calls. I hadn't even been thinking how the pack would have to explain this to the town, but Alec had told me he needed to call anyone that might have come by and give them a plausible excuse. He was going to go with an unconscious wild animal being brought in and coming to in the lobby and freaking out. Also, that he had been injured and was resting at home for several days. It seems like it takes a lot of lies to live this life.
