The Paramedic's Doom Page 10

  “Barry, over here,” Dean called, motioning to his partner to return to the entry area to talk.

  Barry picked his way across the debris to Dean.

  “What’s up?”

  “Hazmat will be here any minute. We need to be ready to decon when they get here which means we’re done with patient care. We should give Bill a report now with anything else we know before we hand over care to the hazmat medics..”

  “I was checking on the rashes on each patient again. It seems the closer they were to the center of the room, the more pronounced the rash and blistering are. Hyacinth is, by far, the worst case and she’s dead though I don’t know what killed her. Then Jesse is next. The other three seem to have made it to the front of the house and were pretty far away from the central location, which I’d guess is where that portal opened. They all say they have a light rash and itching but it doesn’t seem to be getting any worse. Without being able to see all of their bodies under the collapse, I have to take their word for it.”

  “It sounds like some sort of infectious disease or maybe a caustic gas release. Proximity to the portal and whoever came through is the key.” Dean looked around, readying his thoughts for the report to Bill. “Can we get the other three free? I know Jessie is going to require some time to dig out.”

  “They all are reporting minor injuries but are trapped beneath a section of the collapsed porch roof. That’s why we didn’t see them right away. I think the heavy rescue can use airbags lift it far enough off them to provide them an avenue to crawl out.”

  There was a commotion out front, where the entire lawn was lit up with floodlights on stands from rescue truck. They were set up in an arc around the front of the home, filling the front of the collapsed structure with light. Dean couldn’t see past the bright lights very well, but it appeared there was an arrival of another large vehicle. That would probably be the Hazmat team in their converted school bus.

  His guess was confirmed when he spotted the first of the figures approach the house in the bright orange plastic suits. Dean waved and the figure headed his way. Dean sent one last message to Bill with the updated information they had and waited for the hazardous materials tech to reach them.

  Dean was surprised to see Brynne’s face inside the transparent plastic window on the front of the hood.

  “What are you doing here?”

  “We decided it was unlikely that any infectious disease would affect a vampire so I was allowed to suit up first. I’ll take over patient care. You two head straight out into the yard and towards the command post. They have set up the portable showers there. You two will disrobe and scrub down per protocol then we’ll take you two in to the hospital to get checked out.”

  “We don’t need to go to the hospital. We’re fine,” Dean protested.

  “No arguments,” Brynne said. “Until we’re sure you’re clear, you two get checked out by a doc. Now tell me where your patients are and then go get cleaned up.”

  Dean pointed out the locations to Brynne then he and Barry headed out to the yard, leaving the hot zone of the hazmat scene behind them. As they got closer to the perimeter lights, Dean spotted a trio of small tents erected just past the semicircle of lights. That would be the showers and transition area from the warm zone into the safe cold zone.

  Two figures dressed in orange suits like Brynne’s motioned them over to the first tent.

  “Go inside here, guys. Strip down and put all your clothes in a plastic bag. Your radios, phones and other personal items can go in one of the small ziplocks you’ll find inside. Put everything in the first bin by the door and go get showered. There are scrubs for you on to wear in the third tent after you dry off.”

  “I don’t suppose you guys have hot water in these showers?” Barry asked.

  “Nope, the shower’s being powered by the tank of water on the engine,” the guy in the suit said, shaking his head inside the plastic hood. “Just tough it out and don’t rush the process. Make sure you’re clean before you come out. There are soap and scrub brushes inside.”

  “Oh, joy,” Dean said. “Come on Barry. Let’s get this over with.”

  The two of them headed inside and went through the steps of the decontamination procedure, shivering under the cold water but taking their time and doing the job right. Once finished, they moved at last into the third tent.

  Shivering from the combination of the cold air and cold water, Dean toweled off as fast as he could and pulled on the blue scrubs and socks and slippers provided.

  Bill waited for them outside.

  “I’ve handed over medical command to the deputy EMS chief. I’m supposed to drive you two over to ECMC to get checked out in the emergency room. They have an isolation room set up to bring in patients and clean them up before entering the hospital.”

  Dean didn’t want to leave the scene. He had a feeling something significant had happened here. There was no bucking the system, though. He had to get checked out. He reached for his phone to text Jaz and tell her what was going on, then realized it was bagged for decontamination back in the first tent.

  The hospital had a few of the new ultraviolet light decontamination cabinets in the ER. Their phones would be taken there and placed inside after they were wiped down. Once the UV light did its job, he’d get his phone back.

  Sure enough, someone handed them their bagged phones and personal items. The hospital staff would take care of decontamination after they determined what type of infection was involved.

  At the hospital, Doc Spirelli, their medical director, did the exam on both of them. A tech drew a few tubes of blood samples from both medics. Dean waited in an exam room, watching the TV on the wall while he waited for the doc to come back and tell them what was up with them.

  It was nearly five in the morning when the door opened and Dean expected the doc to come in the room. He was surprised when Gabe walked in, wearing scrubs and a stethoscope around his neck. He even had an ID badge on, though it wasn’t Gabe in the picture.

  “Oh, it’s you. Did you use your Eldara mojo to get your disguise or did you knock some poor nurse over the head and take his badge and stethoscope?”

  “You know better than that,” Gabe replied. “I don’t harm innocents. These were easy to come by in the staff locker room. By the time the owner discovers they’re missing, I’ll be long gone.”

  “Look, I don’t want to talk with you. I thought I made that clear last night.”

  “The events of last night at the Wiccan temple have forced me to accelerate my plans. Tell me what you saw and learned at the temple. I need to know if one of the Agents of Chaos has arrived or not.”

  “If you mean a tall thin, very pale guy, then yeah, I think one of your demons has shown up. He seems to have brought some sort of disease with him from the netherworld.”

  “Malificar.”

  “What?”

  “It’s Malificar, known as Pestilence in some legends. He’s one of the horsemen and it confirms what I’d feared.”

  “Let me guess; it’s the end of the world as we know it.” Dean shrugged and laughed. “I feel fine.”

  “You are correct, Dean,” Gabe said, either not getting the reference or glossing over it. “The Agents of Chaos are coming. One of them is already here. Now they are going to try once again to force an end to this world and bring on the final battle.”

  “You’ve beaten them before and avoided the end of the world. I heard all about it from someone who’s seen it and lived through it several times himself.”

  “Your vampire friend may have given you some insight into the past visits by the horsemen but that doesn’t mean he understands what this occurrence means.”

  “Why not? I mean, the forces of good arrive and send the demons back to hell and everything goes back to normal again.”

  “It’s not that simple. The Agents learn from their mistakes and try something different each time they return. We must be equally clever and use our foretelling to help us find a champion on earth to push them back and counter their plans.”

  “Champion,” Dean said. He didn’t like the sound of that and leveled a stare at Gabe. “Now you’re going to tell me how I’m some sort of ‘chosen one’ or something like that? Save your breath.”

  “Just because you don’t like what someone tells you doesn’t mean it isn’t true. The first of the Agents is here. It won’t be long before the others fight their way through to this world. When the last of them arrives, they will put their plans into effect. Will you let that happen?”

  “No. I told you earlier. I’ll do anything I can to stop them. But I won’t play by your rules either. I refuse to accept their’s no way out other than a full-on war signaling the end of the world. If they can be sent back to hell once, then they can be banished once again. Better yet, let’s find a way to kill them once and for all and stop this cycle from repeating itself in a few hundred years.”

  “Dean, even if you could find a way to kill one of the Agents, it would be unlikely to unravel their whole plan.”

  “I don’t play by the rules, none of us do. You’ll learn, Gabe, that paramedics like me find a way to defeat death and impossible odds all the time. If I can fight off the grim reaper when death is all but certain, I can find a way to stop this, too.”

  They were interrupted by a phone buzzing in Gabe’s pocket. Dean stopped and looked at the archangel.

  “This thing has been vibrating like that off and on for an hour.”

  Gabe took a smartphone out of his pocket. Dean recognized it as his own right away. His custom Star of Life phone case was easy to pick out.

  “Where did you get that?” Dean asked, holding out his hand.

  Gabe handed it to Dean. “I overheard one of the staff say they’d cleane
d it and had to return it to you. I picked it up when they weren’t looking and brought it with me.”

  Dean looked at the screen. Jaz had left two voicemail messages for him over the last hour. She’d called a total of four times but had likely given up on leaving a message. He tapped the screen and put the phone to his ear to listen to the first message.

  “Dean, I just got word of a Demon incursion from one of my informants. I’m assembling a team and meeting Rudy and some of his werewolves at an abandoned building downtown. I’ll call when I know more.”

  Dean tapped to play the second message.

  “We’ve got this demon trapped inside. I sent a remote drone on wheels into the building. It looks like there’s just one of them. He’s assumed the guise of a tall, pale man but it’s got to be the one we’re looking for. I suppose he’s disguised as a human so he can mingle with the rest of us and not be noticed. Rudy is here now and we’re going in after him. I’ll call when the operation is over.”

  “Dean,” Gabe said. “I overheard what she said. She cannot face one of the agents alone. She’s no match for one of them on her own, even with her enchanted sword and other hunter enhancements.”

  “We’ve got to get to her before they go in,” Dean said. “I can’t wait around here. I’ve got to get to her.”

  “I can get you out of the hospital. I’ll cast a glamour on us so no one notices our passing. I have friends waiting with a car outside.”

  “Friends?”

  “You seem surprised. You are not my only resource in the area.” Gabe stopped in the doorway and looked back at Dean. “Are you coming or not?”

  Dean didn’t have to think twice. He knew he’d catch some flak over leaving without permission but he also knew he was clean. If he wasn’t, Doc Spirelli wouldn’t have let him just sit in one of the ER’s exam rooms waiting for tests to come back.

  “Let’s go. Do what you have to do, Gabe. I’m right behind you.”

  Chapter 12

  Dean followed Gabe through the ER. He avoided making eye contact with any of the nurses or doctors, afraid they’d stop him and ask where he was going. They were much too busy, though a few did nod a greeting in his direction as he passed.

  Wending his way through the waiting room, stepped outside, the skin on his arms suddenly covered in goosebumps from the cold pre-dawn air. He should have tried to find a coat or something to keep warm. Wearing nothing but scrubs was going to be uncomfortable.

  Rubbing his hands on his exposed arms to warm up, Dean looked around.

  “Where’s your ride?”

  “It’ll be here in a few seconds. Follow me down to the corner. We’ll meet them there.”

  Dean followed Gabe along the sidewalk in front of the ER entrance. An ancient, rusted-out white Bronco pulled up to the curb. Gabe pulled open the front passenger door and climbed in.

  Dean chuckled as he climbed into the back. Gabe’s friends apparently didn’t have a lot of resources if this was the best they could come up with. A dark-skinned man of about thirty sat behind the wheel. Another, this one of Asian descent, sat in the back seat with Dean.

  “Where to, my Lord?” The driver asked.

  Gabe turned and looked back at Dean. He pulled out his phone from the pocket in the scrubs and opened up the find friends app. Selecting Jaz from the short list of people he shared locations with, Dean prayed her phone was on and she hadn’t masked her position.

  A blip popped up on a map and zoomed in until Dean could see the location precisely.

  “Do you know where High Street and Beacon cross?”

  The driver nodded.

  “Head there and turn left down Beacon. I’ll be able to give you better directions as we get closer.”

  The app would get him close to her location. Hopefully, he’d be able to spot her SUV when he got there.

  Dean tried Jaz several more times on the way to the building on Beacon Street where the icon blinked on the screen. Each time, the phone went to voicemail. He hung up the last time to see them turning onto Beacon from High street.

  “There,” Dean said. He pointed to their left about a block ahead. There were three black SUVs pulled up in front of a five-story building with a brick facade. The doors were open on one of the vehicles but nobody was in sight.

  This wasn’t good. They wouldn’t have left the vehicles completely unattended.

  “They must’ve gone in after him. Hurry, there still might be time to stop her from confronting Malificar.”

  The Bronco had barely slowed to park in front of the lead SUV when Dean jumped out.

  Gabe called out something to him but he didn’t hear or care what the archangel said. He ran to the building’s entrance, pulling at the doors.

  The one on the right popped open and Dean went inside. Very little light filtered in from the streetlights outside and he had to pause to let his eyes adjust to the darkness.

  He knew the lack of light was of little concern to Jaz. The family amulet she always wore granted her the vision of a cat in low-light conditions as well as other protections she might need in her work as a demon hunter. Rudy and his werewolves would have no problem in the darkness either.

  The door opened behind him and Gabe arrived with his two friends. Each of them carried assault rifles with flashlights mounted beneath the barrels.

  The beams of light swung around illuminating the dark corners of the building’s lobby. A central hallway stretched out to the left and right from his position by a counter that must’ve been an information desk at one time in the past.

  “Your friends come well equipped, Gabe.”

  “The Knights Templar are always prepared to lend the Eldara aid in their work on earth.”

  Dean shook his head.

  “You’re not kidding, are you? These guys are real Knights Templar, like from the crusades.”

  “The order was officially disbanded by the Pope in the early fourteenth century at the urging of the King of France who owed them a lot of money. Since then they’ve operated from the shadows. They still prove useful at times like this.”

  “My Lord,” the lead Templar who was their driver called out from down the left hallway. “I’ve found the stairs up. The dust is disturbed. I think our quarry went up here.”

  Dean and Gabe rushed down the hallway.

  “You guys know there are friends of mine in here. Don’t just shoot the first thing you see.”

  “We care not for your earthly associates,” the driver said. “We are here to protect the Archangel.”

  “Thaddeus, you and Sebastian must show more respect to my son. He is important to my mission here at this time.”

  The two knights didn’t hide their shock though they regained their composure soon enough. Thaddeus did offer Dean a nod of deference before turning his attention to the open stairwell door.

  The gesture made Dean uncomfortable for some reason, perhaps because it acknowledged something he didn’t want to believe, even though he knew it to be true in his heart.

  The four of them started up the stairs, Thaddeus in the lead, followed by Gabe, Dean, and Sebastian bringing up the rear. A groan of pain from up above on the second-floor landing stopped them for a few seconds.

  Dean darted past Gabe and Thaddeus. Someone was hurt up there, it didn’t sound like Jaz but it could be Rudy or one of his team.

  The werewolf security team he led was a pretty decent tactical team according to Jaz’s professional estimation. It was probably why she called him for back up when she knew her own teams were tied up. You couldn’t call the police for a Demon kill. They’d want to arrest the creature, especially if they looked human.

  Reaching the landing, Dean found a man curled up in a fetal position. He flinched and looked up at the paramedic, the eyes so wide with fear, it seemed as if the pupils and irises had shrunk in the center.

  Dean knew this man, he was a werewolf and definitely one of Rudy’s team. He was the father of one of his CERT responder students, a teenaged werewolf named Marian.

  “Mr. Gregory, it’s me, Dean Flynn. I taught your daughter’s disaster first aid training.”

  “Don’t touch me. That demon did something to me, to all of us.”