Pathogen: Ch. 17

"Jules, stay with me!" Marnie begged, her hands trembling as they pressed tightly on the Latino's injured abdomen. Although she'd wrestled him to the SUV's floorboards in record time, he was getting paler every second. Sweat stood on his brow and upper lip in huge beads, his chest jumping up and down with every short, shallow, labored breath. He had to be in incredible pain, she knew, but it was hard to tell based on the look on his face. If anything, he just seemed dazed; confused. Like he couldn't wrap his head around the fact that there was a bullet hole in his side.

"Not... g-going anywhere," he mumbled, blinking slowly up at Marnie, his brows knit puzzledly. "Pistol... c-can you... turn up the heat? It's so... cold."

"Just shut up," she sniffed, taking one hand off his gut to stroke his hair, "Don't try to talk, okay?! Bianca, floor it already!"

"If I drive any faster, I'm gonna get pulled over!" Bianca snapped, glaring at Marnie in her rearview mirror. "Don't cop an attitude with me like this is my fault! How hard is it to screw up a simple snag-and-tag mission?!"

"It is your fault!" Marnie snarled, too angry to care about the tears running down her cheeks. "The whole stupid heist was your idea, you brainless bimbo! If he dies, I swear-!"

"Marnie... stop," Julian mumbled, his trembling fingers stroking her cheek. "I'll be... okay... promise." He paused for a few breaths, his frown deepening as he raked away one of her tears. "Hey... what's with... waterworks?" he asked.

"I told you to shut up," Marnie sniffed, grabbing his fingers automatically and squeezing them as hard as she could. "Don't talk: just breathe! Eyes on me, okay?!"

Julian wobbled his head up and down, squeezing her fingers back weakly. As Bianca zipped up and down the dark, empty streets like a madwoman, Trevor - her zombified boyfriend - jumped out of the third row again, practically flattening both Marnie and Julian. Marnie tried to shoo him away, but the zombie was simply too worked up to listen to her commands. It must have been the smell of the blood, making him go ape.

Damn, there was so much blood.

"Trevvie, come here!" Bianca cried, patting the passenger seat as she took the next turn, "Good boy; come!"

Zombie Trevor huddled close to Marnie again instead, ignoring Bianca too. With a garbled grunt and a whimper, he bit the hem of Marnie's bloodstained blouse, sucking on it like a toddler with a binkie. It was sort of sweet, if incredibly gross and unsettling. The look in his filmy eyes was desperate enough to break her heart; he seemed able to sense her fear so strongly, the way a Labrador Retriever could sense when its owner was upset. Marnie was touched - really - but she had more important things to do than play nursemaid to her undead classmate. Chiefly making sure Julian didn't wind up dead, too.

"It's okay, Trev," Marnie sniffed, pushing his face away gently with her free hand, "Go sit by Bee, okay?! Go now! Be good!"

No matter what she tried, Zombie Trevor clung to her like glue. Well, more specifically, her shirt. Realizing that he might be hungry as well as upset, Marnie just tore her blouse off and threw it in the front seat. Just like she'd hoped, Zombie Trevor chased after it, nuzzling the stained khaki button-up like a security blanket. Bianca reached over and buckled him in while he was distracted, pulling their last beef stick from the center console afterwards as a peace offering.

"Good boy, Trevvie," she cooed, trying to hide her panic as she scratched his unkempt brown curls, "Pistol, how we looking back there?!"

"Just drive!" Marnie spat. She did a double take right after, staring through the windshield in anxious confusion. Marnie might not have lived in Boston long, but she certainly knew where the local hospital was. Based on the buildings and street signs Bianca blew past, they were nowhere near it.

"Where are you taking us?!" Marnie demanded, "He needs a doctor, Bee!"

"Uh, yeah, I'm aware," Bianca shot back, taking another wild turn down a side street without using her blinker. "We can't exactly waltz into the ER, though! Not while Theater Dork has a bullet hole in him the size of the Grand Canyon! The docs will call the cops, and the cops will ask too many questions! Geez, and you call me a bimbo?!"

Marnie bit back an angry retort, shifting her focus back to Julian. Arguing with Bianca wasn't going to help anything. She had no choice but to trust that the cheerleader knew what she was doing. Then again, trusting Bianca was how they'd gotten into this mess in the first place.

Julian's eyes drifted toward the SUV's carpeted ceiling suddenly, his lids fluttering like he couldn't hold them open anymore. When his head tried to roll over to the side, Marnie grabbed his jaw and held it in place. Slapping his cheek for good measure.

"Hey! I said eyes on me!" she ordered, "Don't you dare try and pass out on me now! If you do, I'll feed you to Trevor!"

Julian blinked slowly a few times at her, his face breaking in a delirious grin. "Hey," he mumbled, giggling like a moron, "tiddies... nice."

Marnie thought he was going braindead for a second - not that it would be that big a change from the norm - until she glanced down at her chest. She'd given her blouse to Zombie Trevor without even thinking about it, only now aware that she was leaning over Julian in nothing but her torn skirt and t-shirt bra. It kept just enough to the imagination, thank goodness, but it was still the most exposed Marnie had been in public. And in front of a boy. With a gasp, she threw an arm over her chest, resisting the urge to punch her injured friend in the face. Even if he was actively bleeding out in front of her, she still might.

"Nobody said you could look there, Dingus!" she snarled, her entire head growing hot from embarrassment. "My face is up here! focus on that!"

"Sorry," Julian's expression softened with sincerity, despite being on the brink of death, "Didn't mean... upset you. Your face... prettier... anyway."

Okay, now Marnie was sure the bloodloss was affecting his brain. She peeled off his fatigue jacket as quick as she could - knowing there wasn't a moment to waste - and tied it around his middle. It was a temporary solution at best, but it would be able to apply pressure to the wound longer and more consistently than her hands alone. Julian growled hoarsely through his teeth as she knotted the sleeves together as tight as possible, wincing at the way he jolted from the pain. If he survived this, she'd beg for forgiveness later. Right now, all she cared about was saving his life.

When she looked through the windshield again, she could hardly believe her eyes: Bianca was steering them into a CVS parking lot. The cheerleader left the car idling in a handicap spot as she jumped out, putting on a pair of sunglasses and tugging up her sweatshirt's hood at the same time. Marnie never had the chance to ask what the hell she was thinking, because Bianca was already jogging into the store when the question crossed her mind.

It felt like Marnie was there for hours, waiting for her to come out. Julian kept trying to pass out on her, no matter how many times she shook and slapped and swore at him not to. Zombie Trevor wasn't in much better shape, chewing and clawing at his seatbelt like a rabid Rottweiler. Marnie hadn't signed up for this. Saving the world was all well and good on paper, but nobody was supposed to get hurt. Nobody was supposed to die. In all her life, Marnie had never felt more frightened than she did in that moment. More vulnerable. She started to believe that Bianca had abandoned her completely, until the petite black girl came racing back to the car; arms filled with paper grocery bags, and a receipt fluttering behind her longer than she was tall.

"Okay, let's go," Bianca huffed, all but throwing the bags at Marnie as she put the SUV in gear.

"What the actual hell?!" Marnie shrieked. "People are dying in here, and you decide to go on a shopping spree?! Are you insane?!"

"Considering my boyfriend's a zombie and I somehow became friends with you losers? Maybe," Bianca snapped, peeling tires she left the lot so quickly. "I'm sorry I took so long, okay? I just didn't want the clerks to get suspicious. We've got everything we need now, though. Hopefully, there's still enough time."

Marnie was too shocked to even ask what planet Bianca was on. Out of curiosity, she looked through the bags to see what was so important that Bianca risked Julian's life to stop for. Beef jerky - not surprising, and excusable given that they were traveling with a zombie - as well as a dozen rolls of gauze... iodine... latex gloves... tweezers... scissors...

The deeper Marnie dug into those bags, the higher her heart climbed up her throat. "What is all this?" she asked, "I thought we were gonna take him to a doctor!"

"Weren't you listening earlier?! We can't risk it," Bianca shot back. Her brown eyes were deeply anxious in the rearview mirror, despite the mask of calm she'd fixed on her face. "We're gonna patch him up ourselves, Pistol. There's no other option."

Yep; that confirmed it. Bianca had definitely taken a swan dive off the deep end. "W-We can't-" Marnie started, but Bianca never gave her the chance to finish.

"Yes, we can," Bianca insisted calmly. "I've binged all twenty seasons of Grey's Anatomy, and most of ER; I'm sure I can figure it out. Besides, I've always planned on going to medical school someday. What better time to practice than now?"

Marnie still thought Bianca was cuckoo for cocoa puffs. As much as she hated to admit it, though, the hard reality was that Bianca was right. DIY-ing Julian's emergency medical care was risky for sure, not to mention dangerous, scary, and an overall bad idea. Still, it was better than taking the chance at the hospital, where they would definitely be handed over to the authorities the second they mentioned Julian's gunshot wound.

Ten minutes later, Bianca was steering them off the road again; this time, into the parking lot of a No-Tell Motel. Marnie shivered at the sight of it: all peeling paint, crumbling cinder block walls, and a flat roof that was most likely 100% asbestos. The vibes were pure ick, like you'd catch three different STDs at once just by looking at it. Bianca didn't seem to notice how grody the place was - or maybe she just didn't care - as she cut the engine as soon as her tires stopped rolling and got out. Less than a minute later, she came back holding an old fashioned metal room key.

"I've got his legs," she huffed, "you take his head."

Despite Marnie's original ick, the room they were given was surprisingly clean on the inside. She still didn't want to shine a blacklight around in it, but she wouldn't mind spending the night there if she was extremely desperate and low on cash. Which, honestly she was. Bianca had the blankets off one of the beds in no time, obviously planning to use it as a makeshift operating table. While Marnie wrestled Julian onto it, Bianca headed back out to the car to get their supplies, and Zombie Trevor of course. Once the zombie was comfortably settled in front of the TV with a bag of jerky - still wearing his leash and collar - the girls got to work.

Julian moaned weakly as Bianca hurried to untie his jacket and cut open his t-shirt, exposing his wound to the air. Within five minutes she had it slathered in iodine, pausing to breathe for a moment before easing her sanitized tweezers into the bullet hole.

"Eww," she whined, her pretty face wrinkling with disgust, "this is so much grosser IRL than on TV! Wait... I think I've got it!"

To Marnie's shock, a tiny, mushroom-shaped piece of lead was clamped in her tweezers when she yanked them back out. Bianca seemed just as surprised - and thrilled as hell - but she tried to keep her cool.

"Hey... I-I did it!" she grinned, dropping the bullet into an awaiting cup on the nightstand, "Okay: now we just need to sew him up, and we're golden."

"Please... hurry," Julian mumbled. It was a miracle he'd stayed awake for this long, but it looked like he was losing the battle with his pain and exhaustion. As Bianca picked up the needle and thread she'd prepared from the nightstand, Julian suddenly turned and looked at her.

"Wait," he gasped, "M-Make sure... it looks... cool."

Bianca just blinked at him for a second. It was possible she hadn't heard him, as his voice was barely audible from mumbling so badly. "Um... what?" she frowned.

"My... scar," Julian answered, flashing her a goofy, definitely dazed grin. "Chicks dig... cool scars..."

Rolling her eyes with an exasperated sigh, Bianca got to work stitching Julian up. It took longer than Marnie anticipated, not helped by all Julian's whimpering and groaning as the thread was pulled through his flesh. She held his hand the whole time for support, squeezing it in small bursts. Marnie might not have known Morse Code, and neither did Julian, but he seemed to get the message she was sending loud and clear: "You're going to be okay; I'm right here; it's almost over."

Between Julian getting shot and Bianca wrapping his wound in gauze felt like a lifetime to Marnie. When she checked the digital clock on the nightstand, though, she was shocked to learn it hadn't been that long at all: an hour and a half, at the most. As Marnie curled up on the bed beside Julian, she still had a hard time believing it. In that short period of time, she felt as if she'd aged ten years. Julian was already sleeping comfortably within minutes post-op, helped by the handful of over-the-counter painkillers Bianca had fed him. Not that Marnie blamed him a bit. He'd just been through hell, and he faced it like a champ.

It was only then that she realized how tired she was herself. This had been one of the longest nights in her life, and dawn was still a long way off. With a heavy sigh, she snuggled closer to Julian and closed her eyes, hugging him like a giant teddy bear while he slept. Tonight was way too close; she'd almost lost her best friend... and she vowed never to let that happen again.