Chapter 5 #2
Melly came down the turret ladder and motioned to Tamsyn. “Go ahead and open the door. We’ll send Buddy out first since he has the best instincts. If he stays happy then we’ll go out. I’ll go after the dog.”
Impatient as she was, Tamsyn followed Melly’s orders and was the last to exit the APC, to find the group gathered beside the second APC.
“I’m going to have to stun him for us to move him safely,” the captain was saying as she rushed up.
“I want to do an exam first,” Melly protested. “It might not be safe to stun him.”
“No other way to safely transport him to the bunkhouse,” Jeff said. “We don’t have an antigrav litter.”
“I have a couple of antigrav lifts in the barn,” Tamsyn said, repressing a memory of having to use them to move the bodies of her last ranch hand and her foreman. “One of them will work. I’ve done it before.”
“You’re putting him in the bunkhouse?” Melly frowned.
“I don’t want him in the main house with you and Mike.” The captain made it obvious he wasn’t going to change his mind on the point.
“Rasty, my late foreman, had his own private rooms in the bunkhouse,” Tamsyn said. “You can use it for a sickroom and lock the access to the rest of the bunkhouse if you want.”
“I appreciate your help,” Jeff said. “If you could get the antigrav lift you were talking about that would be good.”
She rushed off to the barn, where she’d stacked the lifts after their last use during her sad task of burying the final two victims of the flu at the Double Comets ranch.
Rasty had turned and killed Piers and she’d had to kill the foreman to save herself.
Impatiently she brushed away tears and took a deep breath before emerging from the barn with the lift in tow.
It was designed to move the huge round bales of hay for the horses and cattle so the surface was more than big enough for a man.
Zach took the control for the lift with a murmured thanks. She noticed Mike and Buddy had been exiled to a safe distance on the front porch. Melly emerged from the APC, medical kit in hand. “Oh good, you got the lift,” she said.
“How does he look, doc?” Zach asked.
“Better than I would have expected this many hours after being bitten. High fever, red eyes, some black streaks on his arm but not on the rest of the body as yet. He’s coherent but obviously under strain.
” She gave a weary smile. “I actually observed some signs of healing around the bite wound so I think the nanobots are making a difference but whether they can win this fight, I can’t predict. Best not to get our hopes up too high.”
Tamsyn was sure the last remark was directed to her, even though the doctor didn’t glance at her.
Jeff and Trent carried a bound Cody off the APC and laid him on the antigrav lift, which held steady. The hay bales weighed up to a ton, depending on their composition and size so the body of one man, even a cyborg, didn’t strain the motor.
Hand to her mouth, Tamsyn whispered, “Oh, Cody,” at the sight of his limp body, sweat stained uniform and the ominous black streaks going up his arm.
The marks reached to his elbow, like a thicket of poisonous vines but the site of the wound was illuminated by an intense blue glow, which she guessed must be the nanobots at work.
His eyes opened, completely bloodshot and his head whipped around to her. “Tamsyn, must tell Tamsyn—” His voice was strained and hesitant. He didn’t seem to see her, even though he was looking straight at her.
Ignoring the surprised stares from the others, she came closer until Zach stopped her. She wished she could touch him and offer some comfort. “I’m right here, Cody. Tell me what?”
“Zoo. The animals…all set free…knew you’d be happy…Tamsyn.” He worked hard to get that much of a disjointed sentence out and then fell back on the lift, eyes closed again. His body jerked in a convulsion.
“It’s the fever,” Melly said. “We need to get him to a bed where I can do a proper exam and start the supportive infusions.”
“I’ll go get the room ready.” Furiously brushing tears off her cheeks, Tamsyn wheeled and broke into a run, heading for the bunkhouse.
She hadn’t set foot in it since the events culminating in Rasty’s murder of Piers and her having to kill him to save herself.
Going inside she was surprised to find it swept clear of the three ranch hands’ personal effects, which she assumed the soldiers must have moved.
She’d given them permission to do so and then not given it any more thought.
Now she was glad not to be confronted with the big room looking as if the three men—her friends as well as her employees—would return at any moment.
Vaguely she took in several large containers against the wall which were piled with the items her late friends had owned.
She unlocked the door to Rasty’s private quarters, his by right of being the foreman and came to a halt the instant she stepped over the threshold.
No one had been in here and the air smelled faintly of his favorite feelgood smoking sticks, his expensive aftershave, which had been a rare indulgence for a hard living cowboy, and coffee.
Rasty had loved the real stuff, no synthcaff for him.
A half empty cup with mold growing on the dregs sat on the table next to the big recliner in front of the entertainment/holo center.
“I will not cry, I will not break down—there’s no time,” she said out loud through gritted teeth, forcing herself to move to the alcove where the bed was situated.
His hat sat on the quilts at the foot of the bed and she picked it up with trembling fingers, placing it on the bureau and blinking back more tears. Rasty had been like a father to her.
She threw herself into the task of changing the bed, ripping off the old sheets and getting fresh ones from the linen closet in the apartment’s bathroom.
Through the open door she heard the sound of the guys approaching with Cody and then Jeff came through the door, guiding the lift, with Zach at the rear, Trent and Melly trailing behind.
Tamsyn shrank into the furthest corner of the room and watched as Cody was transferred to the bed.
He must have been stunned after she rushed to the bunkhouse because he lay limp and unresisting as his restraints were removed and he was stripped of his uniform.
She averted her eyes after a quick glance at his muscular frame.
He hadn’t asked her to admire his physique and she wasn’t a medical professional so she didn’t feel right seeing too much.
Trent handed over a set of sweatpants and a tee shirt and after a quick wipe down, Cody was dressed and secured to the sturdy bedframe.
One of Tamsyn’s ancestors had carved it from a massive tree which had fallen during a storm and it wasn’t going to move or fall apart no matter how hard Cody might struggle in the grip of the virus.
The stun blast was wearing off and he pulled restlessly at the padded restraints, muttering incomprehensibly.
”Trent and I’ll alternate,” Melly said. “I want eyes on him at all times and we’re the only two trained personnel.”
“I’ll help, I can take a shift,” Tamsyn said.
“I’ve gotten to be quite an expert at veterinary care over the years.
Have to be on an isolated ranch like the Double Comets.
Not saying treating a human is the same as caring for an animal but the principles are similar.
I can do infusions and injects and whatever else is needed. ”
Melly gave her a long, considering look. The captain stayed silent, making it clear the decision was up to the doctor.
“Tamsyn,” Cody said clearly, startling them all. She rushed to the bedside but his eyes were closed and he didn’t respond to her whispered, “I’m here.”
Dr. Jericho nodded as if the remark had been a request from her patient. “All right, three shifts then. Tamsyn will alternate with Trent and me.”
“And there’s to be an armed guard here at all times,” Jeff ordered.
“It stretches us thin, what with working on the second APC and guarding the house but I’m not having anyone in here with him without backup.
We’ll all have to make adjustments and sleep less until this is over, one way or the other. ”
“Fine. Good precaution,” Melly said. “All right, I’m going to start the infusions now.”
Tamsyn noticed she was carrying a medical kit.
“I’d like Tamsyn and Trent to stay and watch me this time, so we can be sure we’re all on the same page,” Melly said. “I need room to work.”
“Zach, you’ve got the duty,” Jeff said. He gave Melly a quick kiss, patted Cody on the shoulder and said, “Get well, brother. Beat this damn thing.”