Saving the Dead Read Online Free Page B

outcome than putting a bullet in her head."
    Justin grunted and said no more.
    They arrived at the hospital and a hazmat team met them in the ambulance bay, where they and their patient were stripped, washed, and examined under armed guard.  Ramirez asked for privacy during his exam.  Seeing that he wasn’t going to budge on the matter, the hospital staff relented.
    “What that all about?” Justin asked.
    Drifts shrugged. “Leo has modesty issues unlike me.”  He stepped forward in naked glory, “All right folks, I’ve been a dirty boy.  Let’s clean me up! He jumped with a shriek. “Hey! This water’s fucking freezing!” 
    Later, the hospital staff took the sedated daughter to a special ward.  The three of them were given paper scrubs to wear as they waited for results.
    Drifts said solemnly. “I’m sorry how things went back there.  That bitch caught me off guard and kicked me in the nuts, and then she head-butted me.  I came as quick as I could, but she had already grabbed that knife from God-knows-where and was almost on you guys.  Scared the shit out of me!”
    Ramirez waved off the apology. “Could have happened to any of us.  You did stop the zombie.”
    Drifts shrugged.  Ramirez sat down by Justin. “Are you okay?”
    Justin shook his head. “I don’t know.”
    “That was the first zombie you’ve ever seen, wasn’t it?” asked Drifts. Justin nodded.
    “They’re a pretty brutal sight,” Drifts acknowledged.
    “That wasn’t the worst part.  I keep thinking about how she lived before she died.  How she was treated by her own daughter.”  He shook his head. “Daughters aren’t supposed to treat their mothers like that.”
    “I know,” said Ramirez.
    “Then we try to save her, and her daughter tries to kill us.  Her mother becomes one of those things and tries to eat her.  We should have let her.  It’s what she deserved, but we saved her.  We gave her medicine took her to the hospital.  For what?  So that she can spend the rest of her life in jail.”
    “Have to agree with the kid on that one, Leo,” said Drifts. “Who wants to live that way?  All those meds you have to take.  Going to dialysis every week.  Then everyone looking at you like you have the plague, because well you fucking pretty much do.”   Drifts looked at his partner. “If a zombie took a big chomp out of my ass, do me a favor.  Put a bullet in my head, and put me out of my fucking misery.  In the end I think it might be kinder.”
    Ramirez shrugged. “It very well might be.  But your solution is pretty permanent.  I would like to give the bitten a choice in the matter.  Who knows maybe they’ll live a life of purpose.”
    Drifts gave his partner a look that said, ‘I doubt it.’, but he otherwise held his tongue.
    Justin said, “I don’t know.  This situation was pretty messed up.  I can’t really find the good in this moment.”
    “I can’t really say I can see it either.” Ramirez admitted.
    Justin looked at him. “What’s the point?  Why even bother?”
    “That’s an interesting question,” said Ramirez. “You know there’s an old EMS proverb that says that we all get into this profession to save the world, but in less than a year, we don’t believe that the world is worth saving.
    “What we do is not easy.  The world that we work in is dark and terrifying, and that’s without factoring in the walking dead.  We operate on humanity’s frontline.  We come in contact with people in their darkest hours and those who’ve succumbed to their darker natures.   I learned a long time ago to never underestimate mankind’s capacity for ignorance and cruelty.   We witness what depths people will go when they are in the throes of fear, rage, ignorance, and pain.  There’s a price for looking at the animal that lurks beneath humanity’s civilized face.  Once you see it you’re often changed in superficial and fundamental ways.
    “Our purpose is in the struggle.