Page 42 of Desiderium
Aly’s eyes dart between the two, knowing not to get involved while also knowing Hawk’s eventually going to get his ass handed to him. I rock back on my heels, witnessingthe interaction and letting it happen. Hawk’ll learn one of these days not to tempt the bear.
Cole’s mouth shuts tight, his eyes narrowing with vengeance. “I’ll give his ass,Good boy,” he rasps under his breath. “I’ll remember this. Don’t you worry. Steel. Fucking. Trap.” He taps his temple, actually fitting the role of a threatening villain even as his face pales further and his shoulders slump slightly.
Oh, shit.
Hawk, oblivious to the thoughts strolling through Cole’s darkened mind, pulls out his pistol, checking the magazine before he moves up the steps. “Anyone alive in there?” he yells, receiving no answer in return. He tries the door handle, wiggling it for a second, but when it doesn’t budge, he steps back, lifts his foot and kicks the door in. I’m not sure if the owners are still alive but given that we haven’t seen anyone else since the extermination of Earl’s crew, I think it’s safe to say they’re not.
Hawk’s aggressive nature with the door draws a gasp from Aly. I look over to see her staring at where he went, her cheeks pinking up, her breaths quickening. After a few moments, she blinks a few times, returning to the world around her, only to see me smiling knowingly in her direction, still naked as the day I was born. Dick and balls straight up enjoying the breeze. I wink in her direction, fully aware of her growing arousal, which makes her blushing cheeks darken even further as she turns to hide her face.
I love it when she’s confident. The work that Cole has done with her in that respect is commendable. She’salmost a brand-new woman compared to how we first found her, but sometimes her shy, coy side takes over and makes my flesh burn for her just as much. Seeing such a strong person turn submissive, I see the appeal as Cole does.
I take a step closer to her, wanting, with everything in my soul, to lift my hand to her cheek and turn her face to look back at me, but I’m still janky as fuck and covered in zombie guts, so I refrain. My one taunting step is enough to grab her attention, however.
“Be right back, baby. Gonna grab the med-kits and bags.” I leave them and jog the short distance to the car, grabbing the gear but also taking a second to find and put some shorts on. Now’s definitely not the time to be naked.
There...Good enough.
I’ll find some time in the very near future to scrub my skin off to rid myself of the stench but we don’t have time right now. Even though he’s putting on a strong front, Cole’s fading. Fast.
A few minutes later, Hawk returns from the house. “All clear! I also checked if they had running water and, thank the fucking town reservoir and water lines, they do. It’s cold, but I started a bath for him,” he shouts, or at least he attempts to with what little remains of his shattered voice.
I don’t waste a second, giving the med kits to Aly to free my arms and turn to Cole. “Let’s get you inside, Doc.” He nods and lifts his arms without objection, allowing myself and Hawk to seat carry him the rest of the way.
With his arms behind our necks and his legs hoisted up in ours, putting him in a seated position between us, we’reable to move him quickly without jostling his wounds too much. Hawk directs us past a large living area, complete with oversized couches, a pool table, dry bar and floor to ceiling windows overlooking the lake. It’s beautiful, but we don’t have time to fuck around and look at pretty shit right now. We press on further until we come to a bathroom where Hawk started running water in the oversized whirlpool tub.
Two large guys squeezing through a tiny bathroom door is difficult enough. Two large guys trying to fit while also carrying another fairly large guy in between them is damn near impossible, but with some careful twists and turns, we manage to all file in. It’s easier to move once we’re inside, thankfully, because, for a guest bathroom, it’s fucking impressive.
The room is spacious enough for all four of us to fit comfortably. There’s a huge walk-in rainforest shower occupying the left side, and, at the back, a tub that’s probably large enough to fit half a football team. Directly behind the tub are floor to ceiling windows that, thankfully, let in a ridiculous amount of natural light, illuminating the entire room for what we need to do. The vast emptiness occupying the rest of the space almost makes it feel like a lounge area fit for a spa rather than a bathroom.
I turn towards the toilet and shut the lid before we set Cole onto the seat, his front facing the back. He looks wrecked. I noticed he was paler than earlier when I saw him outside but shit… he’s waning quicker than I thought. We need to get him cleaned up as soon as possible so he’s able to rest and recuperate properly.
Iturn to the sink to wash myself up so I can attend to Cole but Hawk’s already there, shirt discarded on the ground as he splashes water on his chest, face, arms and hands before liberally using the soap on the counter.
Leaving him to it, I take the med-kit from Aly and set it on the counter next to the toilet, pulling out and staging the items we’re gonna need. The antibiotics are first. I fish them out of the bag and hand them to Cole just as Aly hands him an opened bottle of water. He opens the container of pills, takes out what he needs and downs them in one go before reaching for the entire bag and taking a few more items out. I notice one is a large container of pain medicine and watch him swallow a handful without even flinching. I know he’s in a shit load of pain and I’m not about to stop him from taking what he needs to curb it.
While he’s busy doing that, I go to the bug-out-bags and take out two headlamps. There’s still quite a bit of light coming in through those giant windows, but the sun’s setting and I’m not sure how long this is going to take. I set them both down on the counter and turn back to Cole. With a heavy sigh, he hands the med-kit back to me and slumps back onto the toilet, barely moving again once he settles.
Resuming my preparation, I place a bottle of isopropyl alcohol in front of Hawk to douse his hands with and a package of gloves for after. I can see Cole shaking a bit from the corner of my eye, his eyes squeezed tightly as he clenches his jaw, a muted groan escaping. It’s not necessarily cold in here, but he’s been through fuck all today. We need to hurry the fuck up and finish this.
Hawk finishes sanitizing himself as best as he’s able, places the headlamp on his forehead, and takes a position kneeling on the floor behind Cole. Somewhere along the way, he found a clean washcloth, soaked it in the soapy water and is now dabbing away the dirt, debris and blood from around Cole’s wounds. Good, we need to see a full, unobscured picture of what we’re working with.
I make a quick trip to the kitchen to find a large bowl. Within a few seconds of rummaging through the cupboards, I manage to find one and run back, scooping some water from the tub into it before coming to Hawk’s side. It takes a bit with Hawk having to continuously rinse out the washcloth in the bowl but after a few minutes we can finally see the extent of the damage.
Cole’s back is absolutely covered in cuts, scrapes and bruises, but for the most part, nothing too crazy to worry about. It’s just the two large lacerations spanning from his shoulder blade down his ribs and ending at the top of his hip on his left side that worry me. They’re not too wide and not so deep to need to worry about internal damage, but they were enough to be the cause of so much blood loss.
Without pause, Hawk continues, focusing on prepping the two large jagged lacerations. He pours fresh, clean water to rinse away any remaining debris and soap, and then dumps a large amount of isopropyl alcohol all over the area as Cole muffles a strained moan. I very rarely see Hawk this serious, this focused, but he’s zeroed in on Cole’s back as he meticulously cleans every bit of his trauma away.
I turn and quickly wash my hands before I pick up and open a gauze packet, smothering the cotton squares inantibiotic ointment before placing them in Hawk’s awaiting outstretched and freshly gloved hand. As gently as possible, he smears the ointment all over Cole’s back, focusing on the small cuts and abrasions, as well as thoroughly covering the larger, more concerning looking ones.
When we’re both satisfied, I turn and grab the suture kit out of the bag, thanking Cole for being so fucking thorough with his med-kit restock. Normally, his IFAK doesn’t contain sutures. Neither does a typical med-kit. But over the past year or so, Cole, during his many trips into town, collected all kinds of medical grade shit and stock piled it just in case. Including this suture kit. It’s been a while since I’ve needed to do this, but Ihavedone it before. That’s all that matters right now.
I hear a soft whimper and turn my head to the corner of the bathroom where Aly’s sitting on the floor with Sadie’s head and paw propped on her lap, comforting her while we work on Cole. Sadie’s a good pup. She’s always been there for me when I’ve had my episodes or just needed to calm down. Even though I hate to see that Aly needs it, it’s good to see Sadie helping her get through this.
“It’s ok, baby. He’s going to be just fine.”
She gives a small nod of acknowledgement as she continues to pet Sadie and I turn to get to work on Cole, but when I go to put a set of gloves on, Hawk stops me.
“Uh uh, Jax. Go on and fuck off. I’ve got this.” I look at him, confused at his outburst. “You smell like dead ass…Literally! Go. Take a shower. You’re not the only one who’s had to do this before and you’re not about to gocontaminating him all over again with your zombie jizz covered ass.” He side-eyes me, making sure I take the order before turning to Aly. “Aly, sweetheart, come here and hold this for me?” She seems confused, scrunching her nose and fluttering her eyelashes while looking between the two of us.
