“So…” she said slowly, “where the hell are we?”
JT shook his head again. “At a guess, I’d say the Twilight Zone. Damn murder victims coming back from the dead. Cops killing cops. Cops eating cops. How does that make sense? I mean … even if this is a toxic spill or something. ”
“I know,” she said.
“I’m going to either become a serious drunk or I’ll be in therapy the rest of my life. ”
“Fuck therapy. I’m going to get drunk and stay there. It’s safer. The pink elephants and polka-dotted lobsters don’t try to eat you. ”
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A nurse burst out of the trauma room and ran past them.
“Hey!” Dez called as she jumped to her feet, but the nurse never even turned her head. Dez looked at JT for a moment, then without saying a word they both moved to the big vinyl doors and bent close to listen. More medical chatter, but they only caught slices of that between shouts and yells and the constant snarls of Andy Diviny.
The sound of footsteps made them turn and they saw the nurse hurrying back down the hall with an armful of folded hazmat suits. She didn’t want to stop, but JT stepped into her path and blocked the hall.
“Excuse me … nurse? We brought Officer Diviny in. What’s his status?”
The nurse gave him a single haunted look and then a fierce shake of her head. “You’ll have to talk to Dr. Sengupta. ”
She shouldered past him and pushed into the trauma room.
Dez and JT stared at the door.
“That can’t be good,” JT muttered.
Dez sniffed and turned away.
“Hey,” said JT gently, “are you okay?”
She shook her head but said nothing.
“Talk to me, kid. ”
Dez took in a long breath and sighed it out, blowing out her cheeks. When she turned back to him her eyes were rimmed with red and wet with unshed tears. “I’m really scared here, Hoss. ” She pointed at the trauma room. “You saw the paramedics try to take Andy’s vitals. He had no blood pressure, no pulse, and he wasn’t breathing. I don’t watch Grey’s Anatomy but I’m pretty sure what that means. ”
JT was shaking his head. “Can’t be, Dez. Absolutely cannot be. Boy was moving and fighting the whole time. ”
“Yeah? Well that Russian bitch was pretty damn spry, too. And neither of us believe that someone came in and carried off Doc Hartnup. ”
JT said nothing.
“Doc and the cleaning lady were both dead,” Dez growled. “So was Andy. And then they … they…” She waved around as if she’d snatch the right words out of the air.
“And then they were not dead,” JT supplied. “Come on, Dez … if you’re going to try and sell me on some bullshit that they’re vampires or ghosts or something, then I really am going home to get drunk. ”
She wiped angrily at the tears. “Did I say anything about vampires? Andy wasn’t Vlad the motherfucking Impaler. He was Andy and he was dead and he was trying to bite people. ”
“Okay, so what does that make him?”
She chewed her lip. “I don’t know. I guess it makes him fucked up. ”
They both nodded.
“We’d better see about that other bite victim,” Dez said. JT nodded and they hurried off. But the nurse in the ER informed them that the man was in surgery under a general anesthesia. JT suggested that the nurse talk with Dr. Sengupta who was dealing with a similar bite wound. The nurse nodded and headed off to do that.
Dez and JT walked back to the row of chairs.