There was so much blood.
She thought of Donald, bleeding in the garage all those nights ago. She had wondered then, too, how someone could bleed so much and still be alive. It had turned out Donald wasn’t alive for very long, and looking at Luke now, she wondered how long he was going to last.
Probably not very long, either.
Will hovered over Luke, looking at his wound, oblivious to the blood gushing out as he touched and prodded. “Large caliber,” he said to no one in particular. “Looks like a thirty-aught-six. Entered his side from the back and went clean through the front, so that’s the good news. The bad news is that he’s lost a lot of blood. A lot of blood.”
She sat quietly and watched Will continue to poke around Luke’s bloody mid-section. A moment later, Danny came back out of the backroom with a first-aid kit and more white rags that he put on Luke. The rags turned a bleak red as soon as they touched the teenager’s body.
She flinched.
“There should be more inside the closet,” Danny said to Carly, who hurried into the back room, her hands covered in blood.
Will was still poking at the wound, and Kate wanted to shout at him to stop. Didn’t he see that it was just making it worse?
“How’s he looking?” Danny asked.
“I’ve seen worse,” Will said.
“Jackson in Kabul?”
“Close second.”
“Well, at least Luke still has his legs.”
“Captain Optimism,” Will grunted.
“Someone’s gotta be. What about the shooters?”
“We’ll deal with them later.”
She reminded herself that Will and Danny were Rangers, that they were trained for this. Or something like this. Weren’t they?
Luke would be fine. He would live.
He had to.
She wasn’t sure what happened, or how, but she felt a slight bump on the back of her head and then everything went black.
When Kate opened her eyes, she saw spiders dangling from cobwebs along the blades of a fan on the ceiling, visible over Will’s right shoulder. She felt like crap, and trying to sit up sent stabbing pains through her body.
“Easy does it,” Will said and helped her up to a sitting position in the booth.
“What happened?”
“You keeled over backward and hit your head on the seat and somehow managed to knock yourself out.”
She looked over to the counter, but Luke wasn’t there anymore. Instead, there was a thick pool of blood where he had been lying. There was blood all over the countertop and on the floor. Like the leftovers of a gruesome crime scene.
Suddenly, the worst-case scenario washed over her. “Is Luke…?”
“He’s in one of the back rooms,” Will said. “We managed to stop the bleeding and patched him up as best we could. Good thing we found that animal clinic last week. The morphine and gauze tape came in handy.”
“He’s okay?” she asked, almost afraid to hear his response.
“I don’t know. He lost a lot of blood. We managed to get him stable, but… He’s lost a lot of blood, Kate.”
“I heard you tell Danny you’ve seen worse.”
“I have. But war wounds are different from getting shot by some dick with a hunting rifle on the road.”
“How is it different?”
“It just is.”
She felt faint again. Seeing her expression, he quickly handed her a bottle of water. She took a big gulp, somehow exhausted and wired at the same time.
“You did really good back there,” Will said. “You and Ted. You saved our lives.”
“Thanks.” She didn’t really feel all that heroic. She only recalled wasting two magazines by firing into the trees.
She looked around the empty diner.
“Ted’s on the roof,” Will said. “In case our friends decide to follow. I doubt they will. Guys who set up ambushes along country highways don’t usually have the balls to attack where you can see them. And Vera is in the back room with Carly, watching over Luke in case he wakes up or needs anything.”
“Where’s Danny?”
“He should be on his way back about now.”
“Back from where?”
“Up the road.”
“You mean back there? By himself?” She felt panic rising. “How could you let him go by himself, Will?”
“He’s safer by himself.” He looked amused. “Relax, he’s just doing a little recon. He’ll be fine. I’m more worried about you.”
“I’m just a little light-headed.” Standing up took a lot of effort, and she had to fight against her wobbling knees.
She wondered if he noticed. If he did, he didn’t say anything.
She looked out the window, at the road beyond the dirt parking lot and gas pumps. “How long has Danny been gone?”
“Kate, he’ll be fine. I just heard from him five minutes ago.”
“Five minutes ago?”
“Relax, Kate, this is what we do for a living, remember? Besides, he’s only supposed to make contact every five minutes.” Will glanced at his watch, then cocked his head, listening to something. “Speak of the devil.” He nodded to no one in particular, then clicked the PTT dangling from his Motorola radio. “Roger that. Get back here.”
“Was that Danny?” she asked.
“He’s on his way back now.”
“What did he say? Did he find them?”
“He found where they were camping out in the woods. Looks like we might have hit one or more of them. They’re bleeding, leaving a pretty big trail to follow, too.”
“So what now?”
“We wait until Danny comes back. In the meantime, we have five hours until sundown. We need to get ready for tonight. We’re not moving from here for a while, not with Luke in his condition.”
She glanced toward the back of the diner, where Luke was…
“You should go see him,” Will said. “He’s sleeping, but he’s stable.”
“Tell me the truth. Is he going to live?” She didn’t look at him, because she was afraid she would see his eyes when he answered and she would know he was lying. She didn’t want to know.
“If he doesn’t bleed again in the night, yes,” Will said.
“And if he does?”
“He’s already lost a lot of blood. Right now, we’re at the mercy of his body. But he’s a young man, and they tend to heal fast.” He hesitated, before adding, “Truth is, we won’t know for sure until tomorrow morning if he’s going to live.”
They heard an engine approaching and looked out the windows to see Danny coming back on his ATV, kicking up a cloud of dirt and dust behind him as he entered the parking lot.
A few seconds later, Danny entered the diner. “Three, maybe four or five.”
“How many wounded?” Will asked.
“If it’s just one of them, then he’s a real bleeder.”
“What now?” Kate asked.
“Now, we get you guys ready to spend the night here,” Will said. His face darkened. “After that, Danny and I will go find whoever put a bullet through Luke and return the favor.”
“Good thing we have a lot of bullets to spare,” Danny said.
“Good,” Kate said somberly. “Make sure you kill them all.”
They chose the auto body shop next door. Or to be more precise, the garage. There were only two entrances in — the garage door itself and a door that led into the office. The garage door was made of heavy sheets of steel and it would take more than a dozen ghouls all night to break through with their bare hands. Kate remembered the last time she had found herself in a garage alone. The night of The Purge. Maybe this was a good sign. At least she wouldn’t be alone this time.