Safety In Numbers

RATED: ALS (for a little scary!)


"Hey! I could use some help here!" A policeman was escorting a young man through the ambulance bay doors.

"What have you got?" Mark asked rushing toward the policeman.

"I picked this kid up wandering around, says someone attacked him, and blinded him." The cop said handing off the kid to Mark and Haleh.

"Come on." Haleh said as the kid was moaning.

"The guy was nuts! He put a key in my fucking eye! Look what he did to me! I din't do nothin' man and he takes his fucking key and puts it in my eye!" The kid was screaming as he moved his hand away from his face.

"Yeah, and I'm sure you didn't do anything to him, right?" Haleh said as she escorted him to an exam room.

"No, man! I din't do nothin'!"

"Come on lay down, Mr.? What's your name?"

"I don't gotta tell you nothin'!"

"Okay, get him in a gown, I'll be in in a minute." Mark said.

Haleh got him on the exam table and helped him out of his clothes.

*********************************

Helen was starting to get worried, hours had gone by with no word from John. She knew he needed to get some sleep, and she also knew how little he actually slept. He should have been here or at least called by now. She looked at the clock for the thousandth time that night, and sighed.

**********************************

"Okay, now let's see what we have here Mr.?" Mark asked.

"I don't gotta tell you my name man!" Jose yelled back at him, "Just fix my eye all right?"

Mark looked at the patient's eye, as Haleh went through his jeans pocket, and located his wallet.

"Mark...." She said.

"Yeah, hang on...." Mark was trying to examine the kids eye, while he was hollering and thrashing around.

"Just hold still for a second, I can't see anything while your thrashing around all right?"

"Mark!" Haleh said more forcefully, "I need to see you for a minute, outside."

Mark gave Haleh an exasperated look, "I'll be right back."

The two exited the room.

**********************************

Helen decided to call John's apartment, she hated to wake him if he was sleeping, but she was getting more worried by the minute. The phone rang, and rang, with no answer. The machine finally picked up. "Hi, this is John, you know the drill.....beep!" It said, Helen didn't leave a message, she hung up. She would try again later, he must be sleeping, otherwise he'd pick up.

*********************************

Haleh opened the wallet, and Mark stared in disbelief. The license said "John T. Carter."

"Call his apartment." Mark said, "And keep this at the desk. Then call the cops back."

Haleh went to the desk, put Carter's wallet in the lock box, and called security to post a guard at the kid's door.

**********************************

Mark continued examining his patient, "Now, how did you say this happened?"

"I was just minding my own business, and this crazy guy comes at me with these keys, man, he put the key in my fucking eye! Can't you just fix this! I can't see! This guy tried to blind me!" Jose said.

"Where did you say you were when this happened?" Mark asked.

"I told you, I was just minding my own business."

"Just walking along and what, you got mugged? If you got mugged we'd need to file a police report." Mark suggested.

"I don't want no police! Just fix my eye all right? And he hurt my arm too! See?" Jose held up his arm, it was at a slightly odd angle.

"That may be broken." Mark said matter of factly.

"Hell yes it's broken! He blinded me and broke my fucking arm!"

*************************************

Haleh looked up Carter's phone number on the employee call sheet. It rang several times until a machine picked up. She left a message for him to call when he got the message. She still had a bad feeling about this. She decided to call up to the floor his friend Helen had been admitted to, maybe he was there. Just to ease her own mind, she called. She was told he hadn't been back since Helen was admitted, but was expected. He went home to get Helen some clothing. Haleh thanked the nurse, and tried Carter's number again. This time she got a busy signal.

************************************

John could hear the phone ringing. He started to drag himself into the bedroom. He knew he needed to find a phone. He had left his cell phone in his jacket pocket, and Helen had his jacket. The only other phone he had was in his bedroom. He dragged himself through the short hallway. He could hear the machine pick up, and the click as the caller at the other end hung up. It hurt to breathe, or move. Jose had kicked him solidly in the chest during their struggle, and the last John had seen of him, he had run past him screaming, holding his eyes. "Good" John thought, "At least I gave him a souvenir." He smiled, as he remembered the surprised look on the kid's face as John brought the key down into his eye. He had caught the kid's arm in the door, surprising himself at his fast thinking. The kid was holding that damned blade, why he got that back, he'd never know! You would think the cops would take the weapon away, but I guess they can't hold personal property. Stupid. He saw the kid's hand holding the blade...it came down so fast at him through the doorway, and John made a split second decision, he slammed the door as hard as he could, catching the kid's arm, making a solid crunch as he did, the knife was dropped, and John had kicked it down the hallway. Well out of reach. He quickly had re-opened the door while his attacker was still reeling from the pain from his arm. The kid looked up and John gouged his eye with the key. He had heard that a key made a great weapon, and he guessed whoever had said that was right. He filed that one away for future reference. John moved to run, when the kid caught him solidly with his foot in the chest. The force of which, knocked John into the opposite wall in the hallway. It knocked the wind out of him, and as he slid down the wall, holding his chest, and trying to breathe, the kid ran past him, yelling, "You a fucking maniac! You blinded me! You fucking blinded me!"

John assumed the kid hadn't seen him and he dragged himself back into his apartment, and using the doorknob for leverage, pulled himself up to a standing position. He locked the door, the deadbolt, and placed a chair in front of the door. No way that kid was getting back in. He listened for a moment, and the sound of his screams went away, and he heard the front door to the building open, and slam shut. He was gone.

He reached around his back, something was stinging the hell out of him. His hand came back bloody, and he wondered aloud, when that had happened.

He knew he needed to look at his injury, but he was more interested in making sure the kid could not get back in. He looked out his back window, and didn't see him. He locked the window, and put the stick in it's tract that he kept on the sill. The fire escape stairs were right outside his apartment, and he didn't want any more unwanted visitors.

He was feeling a little dizzy. He was having a hard time breathing. He sat down hard on the floor. He would just close his eyes for a minute, when he woke up the aching would be better. He felt like an elephant was sitting on his chest. He had no idea how long he had lay there. He awoke to the ringing phone. He tried to sit up, and found that was impossible. So, he decided to drag himself the rest of the way to the bedroom, he had a phone in there. He needed to call Helen, tell her he was going to rest a while...he didn't want to worry her. God what the hell did he do with his cell phone? The last thing she needed to hear was that this kid was in their building. He had no idea how long he was "out" and remembered again, that his cell phone was in his jacket, and his jacket was with Helen. "Oh yeah." He muttered to himself.

He decided to rest his eyes a minute, and when he awoke, he again heard the ringing phone. He could hear Haleh's voice....to call the hospital when he got the message. "Great, they want me to work." He thought. He finished the rest of his short trek to the bedroom. He fully intended to call the police at this point. Whatever good that would do. He stopped short of the phone, he was too winded to pick the damned thing up. He'd just stop to rest a minute. He got his bearings again, and lifted the phone off the hook, the motion making his back sear with pain. He had hit the "on" button, and passed out on the floor.

***************************************

Helen finally called downstairs to the ER, maybe they had heard from him, it was worth a try.

"ER" Haleh had answered, she was about to try Carter's number again, when the phone rang.

"Hi, this is Helen Nussbaum." Helen said into the phone, "You haven't hurt from Dr. Carter tonight have you?"

Haleh hesitated, she didn't want to worry John's friend, but she needed to know about the wallet.

"No, and as a matter of fact, I've called and left a message on his machine." Haleh answered.

"I've tried calling several times, I got the machine, and now I'm getting a busy signal, I thought he may be on the phone with you."

Haleh was now on alert. Something was wrong. "Okay, hang tight, I'll send someone over there to make sure he's okay."

"He may just be sleeping." Helen said, clearly not believing her own words.

"I'd just feel better, to know he was all right." Haleh said, thinking about the kid and Carter's wallet, she left her knowledge to herself.

"I'll call you back, or have him call okay?" Haleh said in an overly friendly voice.

"Thank you." Helen hung up the phone, now she was worried.

***********************************

Haleh went to the exam room door, the security guards were both there. "Mark." She said, "Can I see you for a minute?"

Mark finished suturing a cut on the the kid's head, and had call an ophthalmology consult for his eye. "Yeah, I'll be right back." He told the kid.

"Carter isn't answering his phone, I got the machine, and now his line has a busy signal. His friend Helen just called down here and said she's been trying too."

"Maybe you were trying to call at the same time." Mark said.

"No, I hadn't called for a few minutes, and she had just tried. I'm worried." Haleh said.

"Okay, call the cops, send someone over to check on him." Mark said.

Haleh called, they promised her they'd call back and let her know that he was okay once they got there.

*************************************

John awoke to pounding on his door. He knew the kid must be back. "Shit." He muttered. He dragged himself under the bed. He knew he couldn't defend himself at this point, and the best he could do was hide. He had had the phone in his hand at one time, and didn't know what the hell he'd done with it.

*************************************

Officer Rich shined his flashlight down the short hallway outside of John's apartment, the light catching and glinting off the blade of the mother of pearl handled switchblade. He kicked it in his partner's direction, "Bag this for evidence." He told his younger partner.

He banged on the door to the apartment again. "Mr. Carter?" He said loudly, "This is officer Tom Rich, we wanted to make sure you're okay, can you open the door?" He received to response. After a few more attempts to get a response, he decided to kick the door in. He was greeted by a solid object, and the door moved no further. "Geez, this guy's got a fortress in there! Let's go out the fire escape and try the window." The two officers climbed up the fire escape, and John heard someone messing with his window. "Good thing I got that locked up tight." He thought to himself. He saw the kid in his mind, pissed off, with his knife in his hand, unable to get to him. John smiled as his eyes fluttered shut, "won't get me this time."

The cop finally took off the screen to the window, and broke it, climbing through into the disheveled living room. He noted the chair up against the doorknob, and shined his flashlight on the floor. He followed the trail of blood from the living room to the bedroom, where it ended. "Mr. Carter?" He called. "Mr. Carter! This is officer Rich, we wanted to make sure you're okay, are you in here?"

The two partners were quiet for a moment, and they heard it, a mumbling from somewhere. They opened the closets, went into the bathroom, opened the shower curtain, "Mr. Carter?" Officer Rich called again.

"IN HERE!" His partner called, slowly dragging John out from under the bed, taking care not to inflict any further injury.

"This is officer Rich, we need an ambulance at...." He rattled off the address of the apartment building, then called into County to let them know they were bringing their friend in.

John felt himself being dragged out into the open, "oh no!" He thought, "he's back!" John struggled with the officer, trying to kick at him for all he was worth.

"Whoa! It's okay buddy! I'm a cop! It's okay!" John looked at the man, confusion on his face.

"It's okay" The cop tried to placate him, as John tried to sit up. "Stay put buddy, we called an ambulance." John's eyes rolled back as he again lost consciousness.

"Hey Rich! Come here man! I think this guy stopped breathing!"



Part 5
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