SurvivorZ

63

DANIELLE

Maureen ran from the hospital's emergency entrance, pushing one of the wheelchairs they kept stocked inside. She constantly checked over her shoulder on her way back to the car, as if expecting to see something horrific burst through the doors at any moment.

Standing by Charlie's opened passenger door with the shotgun in her arms, Danielle felt a deep sense of foreboding come over her. She couldn't shake the feeling that this place intended to claim her remaining parent, just as Emily's school had done before it. Though worried for Charlie's life, she almost wanted to force her mother into the car at gunpoint, before she ended up like the blood-soaked atrocity hissing at them from the back of Mr. Bentley's parked car.

Her mom warned her during the ride through Northampton that they might encounter Mrs. Bentley still strapped to her seat. What she failed to mention was the state they'd find her in; drenched in her husband's blood and struggling to free herself from her binds. The creature was so alien that she couldn't bring herself to recognize anything of their kindly next door neighbor in its monstrous guise.

Charlie sucked in a pained breath. She looked over at him in his seat. He sat with his eyes closed, pressing his hands tightly against the bandages Maureen wrapped around his injury. There was no exit wound, which meant the bullet was still in there. A foreign invader threatening further damage to his internal organs or perhaps even his spine.

Danielle shuddered. She concentrated on watching out for trouble, rather than obsessing over worst-case scenarios. In the shadow of an oppressive structure filled to the rafters with danger, entertaining a more positive outcome was virtually impossible anyway.

"Here we go," Maureen announced, pushing the chair up to Charlie's door.

"How bad is it in there?"

Her mother patted her arm. "It's fine, honey."

"If it's fine, then why do you look like you've spent the night in a haunted house? Get real. This is way too unsafe."

"Danielle's right," Charlie panted, clutching his stomach. "We shouldn't do this."

"Let's try somewhere else," Danielle suggested. "Maybe there's a clinic or a veterinarian's office that'll have the supplies you need to—"

"Who's the doctor here? Me or you?" Maureen snapped. Realizing the brusqueness of her tone, color rushed into her cheeks. "Sorry. I didn't mean to bark. There is no other way. Charlie needs an x-ray and we don't have time to waste."

Maureen rolled the wheelchair next to Charlie's door. She locked the wheels in place and came around to help him get out. "Easy, now," she urged him. "Try to slide out without turning."

Groaning in pain, Charlie did his best to ease out of the passenger seat. Maureen hooked him under the arms and helped lift him up, setting him gently into the wheelchair.

Danielle watched the procedure with dismay. She hated to see Charlie hurting too, but nothing would convince her that this reckless gamble was worth risking both their lives. Considering the difficulty of the challenge, there seemed to be only one solution.

"I'm coming with you," she declared.

Maureen didn't look at her. She opened the chair's footrests and helped Charlie place his feet. "No, you're not," was all she said.

"Lee and Emily will be safe in the car. They don't need me watching them like you do," Danielle insisted.

"You're not coming inside," Maureen reiterated.

"It's not safe in there. You're going to have your hands full looking after Charlie. You need my help."

Lee popped his head between the seats. "It'll be alright. I'll keep an eye out," he said. "If there's any trouble, Emily and I will duck down out of sight. They'll never know we were here."