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Face as shocked as I still feel, Stealth straps Jud into the stretcher again. This time, every functioning strap is called into service, and Jud’s knife is in a bloody pool on the corrugated floor. No way is he getting out of those harnesses again.
With Jud secured, Stealth grabs Cora around her waist and wrestles her back into her harness, much to her dismay, judging by the frown on her face. Good. If she’s going to do something stupid like unstrap herself from her harness, she needs someone with a clear head like Stealth to look after her.
It’s a damn good thing he was here. I don’t know how long I could have held onto Jud out there.
Thank God for the soldiers. Or thank the Working. I’m beginning to believe that a supernatural entity really is looking out for us. Because what just happened involved more than one miracle.
Chapter 23
Cora
A hospital is a creepy placeto be after a worldwide pandemic, especially one that causes violent hemorrhaging. Many people chose to ride out the Virus in their homes when the CDC announced there was no cure. But there were plenty who swarmed to the hospitals in hopes of relief from the initial symptoms of high fever and fluid loss from diarrhea. Unfortunately, there was little relief to be had, as it turns out, other than IV fluids and fever reducers, which served only to make sure you were fully lucid when the hemorrhaging began.
Yesterday, when we set up base at the hospital in Baton Rouge, the guys kept me in the military truck the whole time. They didn’t want me seeing the bodies everywhere and the residue left behind to mark each place of death. Thanks to their teamwork, a small section of rooms has been cleared of the most unsettling detritus.
Although there isn’t anything disturbing to see, a scent of must and decay hangs in the air.
I can’t stop pacing the room I’m in, which has a plaque beside the door declaring it to be a physician’s lounge. Stealth half watches me, half picks at hangnails while he dwarfs a round table of wood veneer.
Doc is just a few rooms away tending to Jud. Trying to heal his emaciated body and his ruined eyes.
Target has taken up post on the roof of the hospital, where he’s ready to defend us against any survivors getting a whiff of our presence here. To help him, X-Ray is circling the abandoned city in the helicopter. Which Jud threw himself out of to save us all from Raptor.
I wipe a hand down my face. I can’t believe he did that! He sensed Raptor coming before any of us, including the helicopter’s equipment, detected anything. And, seemingly without any concern for himself, he went on the offensive.
If it wasn’t for Doc being harnessed in—thanks to Stealth—Jud would be dead right now.
If it wasn’t for Jud, all of us on board might be dead.
According to X-Ray, Raptor’s talons pierced the helicopter’s ballistic-proof exterior. Either he wanted to tear us out of the sky or he still thought he had a chance at getting to me. I don’t know what his plan was, but I’m thankful it was thwarted.
“That thing started spiraling to the ground,” X-Ray told us once we gathered ourselves after the attack. “He was clearly dead after Jud gutted him, but that wasn’t enough for the huge-ass flock of birds that tore him limb from limb while he fell. By the time he hit Lake Pontchartrain, he’d have been nothing but feathers and bits.”
Good. I hope Bernard got in on that dismemberment action. Raptor deserved it for what he did to Jud. I’m glad X-Ray was able to see that and relay it to us, since the rest of us were pretty much blind to everything below us.
Apparently, Raptor and Lazarus used a hot poker to rid Jud of his Gift. And they did it while Rigor held Jud paralyzed and unable to fight back. Those men were truly evil. I’m glad they’re gone. They abused their Gifts, and they tried to take Jud’s away from him.
But it didn’t work.
He’s still the Judge.
“You’re going to wear a hole in that floor,” Stealth says.
“You’re going to make your fingers bleed.”
He barks a laugh.
We’re both waiting anxiously for Doc to tell us how Jud’s doing. I wanted to stay in the triage room with him and Jud, but he shooed me out. He needed to be able to concentrate. I even tried saying I’d be his nurse. I could bring him what he needed to clean up Jud’s eye wounds. But he shook his head. “I work better alone,chér.”
“I hate the waiting,” I tell Stealth.
“Me too.”
We’re not just waiting for Doc to do what he can for Jud. We’re also waiting for the others to get back. Two of my men are accounted for, and one of them is in rough shape. My worry for the others is a living, wriggling thing inside me. What did X-Ray mean when he said Rev had a close call? Were Shep and Scrap okay after that explosion we heard?
Dawn is on its way, and we still haven’t heard anything more from the others.
“You should rest,” Stealth says. “You’ve been up all night.”
