Jack who had been turning to leave, turned back and looked questioning at Hank.
"You are going a good job with the cars and keeping things going, thanks. Watch out for any super fast zombies, they will eventually get guns, we didn't have any problems finding some."
Nodding Jack waved and headed off towards the front of the store. Juan sat looking at Hank and eventually Hank stopped ignoring him and turned to look at him. Juan had a huge smile on his face. "Cut it out Juan, you are right here with me and don't think for a second I will ever forget you getting me into this mess."
Juan gulped, then recovered and grinned again and said, "Sì amigo. You know we almost had some racial problems?"
"What? Already? Don't people have better things to do? What happened?"
"You are tired, I should let you rest, but I gotta tell you, it is a good story really and ends well. We had us eighty people in here, then all the others started showing up, from what I was told, a mix mostly of whites and Hispanics, a couple Black people. Well they started settling in and gravitated toward each other, like, you know, white guy comes in, heads towards white people, Hispanics did the same. Jack noticed, got a little pissy about it. Went and talked to everybody, made them mingle. You know what happened then?"
"Fist fight?"
"No! They did it! They picked their shit up and crowded in as a group. You believe that?"
"Not for a minute. What did Jack really do?"
"Really he just talked to them. I could not believe it myself. Now when people come in, they can stay with people they came with, but are mixed in with everyone else. Jack is pretty good."
"Sounds like he should be 'Jefe' to me, think I can dump it off on him?"
"No, no way, he made that pretty clear, he said he likes the idea of being a warrior, head of the military, but he thinks our government did that right, at least, put the civilian head of the government in charge of the military. He doesn't want anything to do with policing people though, 'infringing their rights' he called it."
"I think he means soldier, not warrior. A warrior fights on his own, like a gladiator, a soldier fights as part of a unit. Which is why soldiers win battles and warriors, individuals, lose them. Still I could have protested louder than him, had I been given the chance. That is pretty good about him and the police force, doesn't he realize he just became 'the man'?", Hank grumbled sleepily.
Juan nodded, then said, "Oh we know Hank, we know you can get loud, that is why we elected you how we did, amigo."
Cage had settled in for a nap and Hank roughed his hair up a bit and leaned back himself.
Chapter 10
Twenty minutes later when the Doc came around he found the pair sleeping, Juan motioned him over closer to the televisions to talk.
"Heard the 'Jefe' wanted to see me?" Doc asked Juan.
"Yeah he had some questions about Sky Ridge and about cleaning the wounds of the guys in the pen. Maybe get the nurse to break out all the Hydrogen peroxide to clean up those with bits."
"Clean up the….no that wouldn't work. Their wounds are already infected, cleaning them out now would not do much goo…" Doc stopped as Juan shook his head.
"No Doc, it ain't for them, it is for everyone else, to make sure it looks like maybe we are at least trying to do something, besides maybe it will help someone, you never know. Could Betty take some of the boys around, show them how to clean up the mess and let them take over after that?"
"Oh I get it, yeah, my bedside manner has gotten kind of worn thin in this world of 'managed care', I can see how it would be a comfort to everyone else at least. Beth, my assistants name is 'Beth', not 'Betty'. Another nurse came in too, Charlie or something, a guy." Juan raised his eyebrows, "Yeah, I am 'old school' enough to still find that odd too, a male nurse, still there are, were, more and more of them lately, and the women nurses loved them for their muscles when dealing with unruly or unconscious patients. What did Hank want to know about Sky Ridge?"
"How big a place is it? Could we all fit? I don't think you are gonna find many of the people here have ever been there."
Doc knew what Juan was saying, the people holed up in the Mike's club were predominately from Juan's old neighborhood, which was in the bottom of the income bracket for the metro area, not quite the very bottom, but not high enough up the chain to have gone for treatment at a hospital like Sky Ridge either. "Well I worked a few shifts in their ER when they first opened, it has about eighty beds, but they don't have much in comparison to Denver General or even University Hospital, I suppose the place might do. There is only one main road going by the place and it is backed onto the highway, big fences just went up there last year, that would be good to keep any zombies on the road from seeing us. We could block the street off pretty easy. Easier than securing this place, there is no creek out back at Sky Ridge to contend with either. We'd have to move though, all these people and we need the food and stuff here, the generators would be handy but any hospital with a trauma center has generators. I will have to tell Jack to look out for a bus or two, plus semi-trailers to haul the food out of here. Maybe we keep this place as an outpost to guard the food and goods? Move the families over to Sky Ridge and clear the roads between the two places?"
"The highway is open, it looks like the national guard already went through there, maybe yesterday and opened it up. How many other rooms does the hospital have? How many floors?" asked Juan.
"I don't know, I went to a a few meetings, they have a chapel, a cafeteria, the place is huge, it sits on thirty acres of land, and has tons of parking. Sky Ridge Hospital is definitely geared towards higher class clients. Eighty beds means they have about sixty rooms, 'cause some of those were double occupancy. But as I remember the rooms were good sized and the place is big. I suppose it would be okay if no one else got there before us. I'll talk to Jack, if the highway is open all the way there maybe we could send a couple boys up there to scout it out?"
"Nah, we are council member now Doc, I'll talk to Jack and get him on it, tell him to find the buses and semis too. Plus we are going to want more guns and ammo. Thirty acres of land is quite a lot, we could see zombies coming across the yard, that is even better. What was it like working there? Why did you stop?"
Juan didn't say it but the Doc knew what he was aiming at. When they had first met the Doc had been holed up in a small clinic in a poorer part of town, not exactly in the same category as a hospital built to serve the upper echelon of Denver's society. The Doc thought about it for a second and replied, "I had some trouble Juan, I had some procedures reviewed and lost the appeal, the rich fucks at Sky Ridge let me go pretty quick after that. I turned to private practice and had to start small." he held up his hand to forestall Juan's questions on the subject, "It was five years ago and I don't want to talk about it. All you need to know is I am licensed to practice, so is Beth, and I think this Charlie guy is too, though he didn't have his paperwork with him." He rubbed his hands together like a greedy pirate, "Okay I say we get our guys moving and use this warehouse as a supply outpost."