Free Valkyrie: Rat in the Dumpster by Tony Bowman Page B

of the ambulance. He nodded toward the man on the ground, “You get close enough, he’ll bite you.” The man in the ambulance wore the blue overalls of a paramedic. ‘Carter’ was stitched above his left breast.
    “Did he bite you?” Rat asked.
    “No. I ran over him. He bit my partner when he tried to help the guy,” Carter said.
    “Where’s your partner?” Rat asked.
    Carter pointed to a body lying on the road shoulder, “He went crazy. I had to cave his skull in with a fire extinguisher. If they bite you, you go crazy. Like instant rabies or something.”
    “Like zombies?” Rat asked as she stared at the crawling man in the gray suit.
    “No. Zombies are dead. Pretend zombies, I mean. These people are alive,” Carter moved and winced. Rat could see blood dripping down his leg from a tear in his overalls.
    Rat slid across the Camaro and edged toward the guardrail. “I thought you said it didn’t bite you.”
    “It didn’t. One of the winged things clawed me,” Carter said. He smiled, “Relax, sweetie, I’ll be okay if I don’t bleed to death. I’m Jack Carter, what’s your name?”
    “Rat.”
    Carter laughed, “Rat?”
    She nodded. “Rat.”
    Carter shook his head, “It’s okay. I’m pleased to meet you, Miss Rat. Very pleased, actually. I’m going to need your help.”
    “With what?”
    “The claw’s still in my leg.”
     
     
    Rat stared at the locking needle nose pliers in her hand, “Why don’t we wait until we find somebody qualified to do this?”
    Carter smiled, “Look, Rat. We can’t stay here. It’s going to be dark soon… well, darker, anyway. We have to walk out of here. This claw is like a razor. If I try to walk on it, it could cut into an artery. You have to pull it out.” He used a pair of scissors and cut the hole in the thigh of his overalls wider. The black stub of the claw protruded about an inch from the dark skin of his thigh.
    “Gross. Is there going to be a lot of blood?”
    “I don’t know. I hope not,” he said as he took the pliers from her hand. Carter poured alcohol over the pliers, and then held them next to the end of the claw. He turned a screw in the handle and adjusted the plier jaws so they were a little smaller than the end of the claw.
    “You’ll have to push down on the handles hard until the jaws lock,” Carter said as he put the pliers back in her hand. “Pull straight out, try not to let it move around. One steady motion, okay?”
    Rat’s eyes were wide, but she nodded.
    “Listen, now. There’s a possibility it already cut my artery. The pressure from the claw might be holding the wound closed…”
    “That would be bad, right?” Rat whispered.
    He nodded, “Yeah, that would be really bad.”
    “Shouldn’t you have a tourniquet or something?”
    Carter shook his head, “Look around. Everything’s burning. We’re not going to find a surgeon to help me, sweetie. If I start spraying blood, just walk away. There won’t be anything you can do for me. Okay?”
    “I wouldn’t leave you.”
    Carter smiled, “I’ll be the one leaving, Rat. Trust me. It’ll be over really fast.” Carter lay back on the ambulance deck. “Okay, lock the pliers.”
    Rat gritted her teeth and put the pliers on either side of the claw. She pressed the handles together, tentatively at first.
    Carter gasped.
    Rat released the pressure, “Did that hurt?”
    “Hell yes, it hurts. Press harder and lock them in place.”
    Rat wrapped both hands around the pliers and squeezed. The jaws popped as they locked around the claw.
    Carter clapped a hand over his mouth to stifle a scream. He was breathing hard. He lowered his hand and perspiration showed on his upper lip. “Good, kid. That was really good. Now, give me a second, okay?”
    “Tell me when,” Rat said. She was concentrating on not letting her hands shake. It wasn’t easy.
    “Okay, okay. I’ll count to three, and you pull it out. Don’t stop, no matter what I say. Just pull it