Ch. 30 – Not Alone

Derrick and the White Leopards hoisted Tony off of the operating table and onto Hack Alley’s front door, which Ping had carried over from the shop’s entrance. They would be able to keep him lying flat this way, and minimize disturbances to the sutures that Derrick had just finished putting along the incision line on Tony’s torso.

Ping, who was holding one side of the door by himself, grunted as Tony’s weight shifted from the mens’ hands to the door.

slowly,> Derrick said, grabbing a hold of the medical IV pole.

The group of Leopards shuffled toward the entrance to the shop, one step at a time to avoid jostling Tony, and Derrick followed closely behind them with the medical IV pole, watching the IV line to make sure it had enough slack. Ideally, they would have had a specialized cart with a miniature IV pole attached to it, but they could only improvise an alternative with what they had.

As they approached the entrance to the shop, it was obvious that the makeshift stretcher wouldn’t fit through it horizontally.

Derrick said, remembering the large White Leopard’s name.

Ping grunted, and the table creaked as they tilted it just enough to bring it through the entrance to the shop.

The shop was once again a mess. Parts were scattered all over the floor spilling from boxes with dented sides and cracked lids, from when Alan had torn through the shelves, looking for the cochlear implant receiver: the very one that Theo had ‘retrieved’ from Alan during the interrogation.

Theo directed a few White Leopards to clear a path for them, kicking boxes and parts out of the way. The materials crunched and snapped, splitting into even smaller and more useless pieces, but Derrick joined in with them; they were racing against the clock after all.

The sound of the rain got stronger and stronger, as they moved toward the shop’s front door. The high beams from the White Leopards’ van reached into the alleyway, illuminating the many drops of rain that came down from the sky like a curtain, and the large, rippling puddles.

Derrick asked.

Theo nodded and pointed beyond the door, where, standing behind the beams of light were a few Leopards holding umbrellas.

The Leopards came to the front entrance, and held their umbrellas together, forming a makeshift canopy that would shield Tony from the worst of the rain.

Derrick said. He looked back at the group of White Leopards carrying boxes of equipment and consumables.

one of them said.

The medical IV pole clattered over the threshold at the shop’s entrance, and splashed into a puddle. The pole’s rusty old wheels were half-submerged, and the water muted their grinding across the asphalt.

This was the alleyway that had seen Tony in the highs and lows of his life: haggling with a patient, bringing back a bargirl, and shit-faced drunk. And now it would watch him, unconscious and face pallid, getting carried out the shop on his own front door.

Ping and the Leopards loaded Tony into the back of the van, and Derrick climbed in right after him, hoisting the medical IV pole.

Someone closed the trunk. The Leopards piled into the front of the van and slammed the doors.

Theo said to the driver.

the driver growled. The van pulled out of the alleyway, and into the street. The rain splatting on the van’s windshield sounded like the beating of a thousand drums as its wheels cut through the slosh of water on the streets, and headed towards the highway.

Derrick said to the White Leopard holding the IV pump, as the van passed over a pothole. Water squished out of Derrick’s wet socks as he re-positioned himself, so that it holding the bag over the IV pump was bearable.

The blood replacement flowed from the bag into Tony’s arm, and throughout his body, but it was leaking, somewhere inside of him, and Derrick had no way to know how bad it was.

He was blind, without the monitoring equipment that he had no choice but to leave inside the shop. He could only sit, and hope they got to the hospital in time.

#

The van pulled up to the entrance of the hospital. It was large and well-funded: one of the best in the area. Derrick’s heart jumped a beat upon seeing the watery outline of the trauma team through the back window, waiting with a stretcher near the entrance. Yes! They were ready!

The trunk door opened, and Derrick sat up and crouched, looking back at the IV line to keep it from getting too taut.

Ping was the first one to get out, somehow managing to get stuck on the opening to the trunk a few times before hitting the ground and holding his hands out to receive the door Tony was lying on.

The team of healthcare providers from the hospital rushed over with the cart, helping the White Leopards heft Tony from the door onto it.

Derrick felt someone tug the pump and the bag from his hands. His right hand released, but his fleshy left hand was cramped up from holding the bag for so long, and he had to force it open.

“We got the call ahead of time,” a nurse said.

“Okay, good.” Derrick said. He talked as they rushed to the operating room, explaining what he had done to Tony so far. “I’ll stay with the patient until I meet the doctor. I know the patient, and I don’t need to leave the hospital.”

The nurse nodded as they burst through the doors to the lobby. “Everyone else has to stay here though.”

The rest of the White Leopards—besides Theo—fell behind the group transporting Tony. By the time they reached the start of the hallway to the operating room, there were none left.

Theo had grabbed a pretty, young nurse by the hand, who was looking at the floor signs he was pointing at. “We came here earlier, and some of my men are still in the hospital room. Where is it? I don’t remember. Actually, just take me and my friend there after we get this man to the operating room.”

They made it to the resuscitation room, and were greeted by a sea of blue gowns. An entire trauma team was waiting for their arrival. What seemed to be the trauma team leader came up the nurse. He was bald, with piercing eyes, the rest of his face concealed behind his surgical mask. He was the real deal. Educated, licensed, and certified as a traditional physician.

“Run through the ABCs with Doctor Peterson,” the doctor said, talking to the nurse. “And you,” he said, turning to Derrick. “I’m Doctor Adebayo, I’m the trauma team leader for this case. I’m told you treated the patient during the golden hour.”

“Yes, sir,” Derrick said.

“Give us a rundown of what you’ve done so far.”

Derrick explained the most essential information about the multiple stab wounds to Tony’s torso, how he’d done a sloppy, but hopefully functional, repair to the damaged organs in the abdominal cavity, and how Tony was still hemodynamically unstable, implying there was an issue in the chest that he didn’t have the equipment to diagnose. He glanced back and forth at Tony and the doctor leading the survey team, who was running through the ABC’s with the nurses, moving efficiently from one stage to the next.

Doctor Adebayo nodded along, and glanced at the diagnostic screens as the nurses finished hooking Tony up to the monitoring devices. Could he be trusted with Tony’s life?

“Okay, I’ve got it. We’ll confirm the situation in his abdominal cavity via ultrasound before we start doing more radiology.

“Thank you, Doctor Adebayo,” Derrick said, a lump building in his throat. Finally, someone was here to help. “Thank you for treating him, and putting him at the front of the line.”

Doctor Adebayo grimaced. “It’s a busy night, so we’re buying his life with those of many others. But it’s not like we had a choice; these gangsters insisted.”

Theo cleared his throat. “Alright, thank you Doctor Adebayo. Now Derrick, it’s time for you to go oversee Ah Jun’s surgery. Nurse, would you please bring us there?”

Derrick glanced back at Adebayo as he turned around to leave the room. The doctor’s grimace was firmly fixed to his face. What would Tony think, about the people who’d died so he could have a chance at life? Tony’d probably drink himself under the table, but Derrick could handle the alcoholism. He couldn’t, however, handle losing his mentor and friend. So Derrick gave unspoken thanks to the people who Tony had cut in front of, and then locked the guilt deep into his mind. He could feel sorry for them another day.

The nurse led them through the hallways into another room, where an anesthesiologist, and a few other nurses were already waiting.

Ah Jun was on a table, already hooked up to monitoring equipment.

“Hello . . .” Derrick said, glancing around, meeting the wary gazes of each of the hospital staff in turn. “. . . Where’s the doctor?”

Theo held up a finger, and knocked on the door to an inner room. “Our back alley doctor’s here. Bring out Devito.”

The door opened, and a pair of men walked out: one dressed in scrubs with his hands bound in front of him, and another holding a gun to the first man’s head.

“God, finally,” the man said. “Can you take these off now?” He shook his bound arms, and held them out in front of him.

“This is Doctor Devito. Devito, this is Derrick,” Theo said. “You two will be working together to fix Ah Jun’s head pain, and give him a working cochlear implant.”

“I swear, I didn’t have anything to do with it,” Doctor Devito said, shrugging his shoulders. “Alan was the one who coordinated everything. He just wanted to pretend I was in on the plan.”

“Unfortunately, we can’t take your word for it,” Theo said. “You two need to work together, and his receiver better be functional by the time you’re done, or we’re going to have a pretty big problem. Now, get to it.”

Derrick took a deep breath, and walked up to the team members, who were transfixed by the sight of Doctor Devito being held up at gunpoint. “I’m Derrick. I’m a mod-doc, so it might be a bit different, but I’ll be working with you today.”

They glanced at Derrick, and the anesthesiologist, a wrinkled man with thick glasses spoke up. “Welcome to the hospital, kid. Let’s see if you can get us all home in one piece.”