Chapter 15
Back at the Mike's Club warehouse Hank was not happy. The doc told him he was going to have to lay low for a couple weeks, take it easy and concentrate on mental tasks while his body repaired itself, however with his best friend out running around clearing zombies from a hospital he could not 'rest easy'. One thing Hank had learned in his years was that good friends, truly good friends, could never be replaced. It had taken Juan and his family a long while to convince Hank that just because he had been through hell once, not everyone was like that. The funny thing to Hank was he didn't think all people were bad, or evil, only that a very small percentage of people were, maybe one in ten thousand. No, the problem with Hank was not that he believed most people were good, his problem was he no longer trusted implicitly his ability to tell the good people from the bad ones.
When he was a young pup he was more than happy to choose and stand by any of his friends and family, until death if need be, he was that sure of himself and that sure that he was bullet proof. Then came his ex-wife, after that mess it was a wonder he didn't spend some time in a sanitarium somewhere. Not that Hank ever would have admitted anything in so many words, hurting was not something he had been raised to share around. Now when he was stuck sitting in a lazy boy discussing work shifts of the people at the club with the Doc, or reading the kids stories, or snoozing like he was supposed to be.
When he woke from his nap and found that Juan had gone without him, well that made him feel…lost, almost. He and Juan had been together for a long time almost inseparable for the past three or four years and now Juan was gone, and Hank might not ever see him again. Nancy was on the edge too, and Evaine was trying to keep both of them sane, but really only made matters worse. Hank had to give her credit, because she then did the only thing that could have helped, she backed off and left them to stew alone. Cage and Sylvia came by, Sylvia had their shoes, Cage wouldn't put his on, he said the other boys weren't wearing them and he liked the way the concrete kept his feet cool in the hot warehouse. Hank held on to both of them for awhile, shoes or no, but they only stayed with him for a little while before being caught back up into the pack of tweens running wild through the warehouse. Well, not quite true, they were still being shadowed by a group of older girls, who were quick to step up when any of the kids tried to do anything the adults wouldn't like.
This left Hank alone to think, old man Gonzales was handling most of the current moment to moment things. Everyone could tell Hank was in a funk, heck, Hank figured they could even have handled the rotating shift problem without his input, but he thought they wanted to make Hank feel a little better by giving him something to do. Feeling useless was new to Hank and didn't care for it. Worse his side itched, under the bandages, itched something fierce, but every time he moved around to scratch or touch the wounds, he writhed in pain. The Doc just told him to pop another pain pill.
Finally Kevin stopped by. He plopped into the seat next to Hank and said, "I think we feel the same way. You stuck on your chair, not out bashing heads with your friend, me not able to do much outside, Doc ordered me inside, said to rest. So I have to rest, but Juan can go shoot zeds? What is up with that? I mean, we all three came in together and only you were really busted up a bit. I was just tired and slept most of the morning away. Been playing video games with some of the other teens."
"Winning?" asked Hank.
"Sure, I schooled em good, an old timer like me, that surprised 'em too." Kevin snorted, "Me! An 'old timer'! Still I got their respect at video games. Probably the last generation of games out now, huh? I mean we ain't gonna be seeing a new Playstation or Xbox anytime soon now are we?"
Hank slowly shook his head, "Even if I knew what you were talking about I would have to say, 'No, I guess not'. So you even beat old man Gonzales's grandson? I heard he was pretty good."
It was Kevin's turn to shake his head, "No we haven't played yet. And yeah the dude's practically a legend, the older boys all talk about it and want me to play him, to see who is better, we are gonna do five matches tonight, ten minute rounds, go three out of five. They have some system worked out, like, so if I own him most of one match it counts as more or something. I don't care, I play the game, I win the game, plus this Al, right? He is like old, twenty or something, his reflexes gotta be giving out by now."
"Twent..twenty or some… Old!" Hank sputtered.
Kevin started laughing, "Gotcha! See your girl, she is good for something, told me to come over and wind you up a bit, take your mind off Juan being gone."
Hank laughed, "Oh, okay, I get it now."
"I did want to go with them though, the doc told me to stay here and get some rest, he said I was beat down hard and needed a break to recover, at least a day, maybe two. You know what the worst thing is Hank?"
"No, what?"
"The stupid doctor is right. My legs are sore, my back is sore, my mind is still running at a hundred miles an hour, I can't stop thinking about my mom. My family. Everything that happened. I don't know that I ever will. You're lucky you know, you got your best friend and your neighbors, who care about you a lot." Kevin held up one hand in front of him in a stop gesture, "No, I ain't going down pity road or telling you to 'man up' or anything, I just think you are lucky and I am happy to know you. And thanks, really, thanks for giving me a hand up with I was just spent. I wouldn't have made it without you and Juan."
"Aw, well, you seemed like a pretty nice guy. I mean there we were on top of the gas station, there you were running in the alley away from a few fast zombies, heading right towards the pack that had us treed. I said to myself, 'I could just let him run into the pack, distract them so me and Juan could get away.' But then Juan, that old softy, said, 'Give him a hand up Hank'. So what could I do? I didn't want to look bad in front of Juan."
Kevin snorted, "Yeah right old man, I don't believe that for a second!"
Hank smiled, "Oh no? You don't think I can be ruthless?"
"Oh no Hank, you can, but not to anyone younger than you are, which is most of the population now." that brought another laugh to Hank and after awhile they started chatting about what they were going to do if the hospital was clear and what they would do if it wasn't. Eventually word reached them that the scouting party had found survivors in the form of doctors and nurses and new mothers, and there were babies who could not be moved from the hospital.
The doc, old man Gonzales and Beth came over to talk to Hank about it. Kevin stayed in his lazy boy, so he could add his two cents in and Evaine was shadowing the group, keeping one ear on them while both eyes were on the toddlers in their makeshift pen.
Doc started the conversation off, saying, "They found eleven survivors in the hospital, and an unspecified number of babies, we have to decide what we are going to do. It took them about an hour to go the four miles and lead a pack of slow zombies away from the emergency room entrance. I think we could send a relief force to them with some of the able bodied men and women, plus all of our walking wounded, food and ammo. No kids or anything yet, just people to clean out Sky Ridge and hold off any hordes of zombies. The rest of us lay low here, even if we send out fifty people there will be over two hundred and fifty of us left, and at the rate survivors are trickling in we'll replace the fifty by sundown. Those are my thoughts, anyone else got an opinion?"