Ogreness, Black Lake-book5

Chapter 45
~

No matter who claims otherwise, hospitals are not meant to be a place to catch a nap, much less rest up. Maybe if ya’re plying a twenty-hour shift. And I know I had a bunch of pharmaceuticals in me. I guess the stuff they use on humans doesn’t work on us. Ya would have thought in five generations, that would have been worked out.

I hadn’t wanted to spend the night in the hospital. Maybe the drugs made me just woozy enough to finally give in. Otherwise I was stitched up and ready to go to my hotel.

Until a police officer with stars on his collar walked in and said I wasn’t going anywhere this morning, because he couldn’t guarantee my safety. I told him I hadn’t come here with a guarantee so I didn’t need one to leave.

He talked all official at that point, to consider myself under arrest. That amused me. It didn’t amuse Frip or Ponwr. They clearly didn’t like the man. Their chests vibrated just under a human’s range of hearin’, clearly, because the human didn’t act as though they were in the room, nor did he seem to fear for his life. Shoulda.

When he walked out, I pulled all the tape off the thingies attached to my arms and chest. I was done here.

“What are you doing?” Nuel hissed.

Maybe I’d taken a nap after all, because I couldn’t remember when she got here. Maybe she followed us up from the ER. She’d been here since yesterday? The hen should go home.

“Don’t give me that look,” the hen hissed.

Ponwr opened a little cabinet behind me and handed me my clothes. My shirt was in two pieces. Not handy.

“Ya wanna step out?” I asked Nuel.

She glared. So I struggled out of bed. Her eyes traveled down and back up. Didn’t flush or turn red. I was hopin’ my ogre good looks would phase her, but she just shook her head.

It hurt, bendin’ over to pull on my slacks. I should have stuck with cargo shorts yesterday, but I was representin’ the ogre nation. I tucked the hospital nightshirt into my pants. At least it was in one piece.

“You were shot four times,” she said.

“It was a small gun,” Ponwr said. “Barely hurt.”

“Yeah. What he said,” I said.

“I’ve mapped a good way out of here,” Frip said.

Nuel turned and blew out an angry thrust of air at the troll. He didn’t seem intimidated.

“We can still make your other taping, if you want to go for it,” Ponwr said.

“Please.” Nuel had evidently decided to try a different strategy.

“I’m hungry,” I explained. “If I don’t get ogre food, I’ll never recover. Did you see what they left me this morning?”

“It wasn’t much.” She shook her dreads.

“See.”

Frip asked her to ask the officer to step in. I was askin’, What officer. But Frip backed up against the far wall and Nuel walked to the door without answerin’ me, so she must have known what officer.

The idjit walked in without drawin’ a gun. That was a fool move. But he didn’t have a chance. Frip pressed in on his jugulars with a thumb and forefinger from behind, and five seconds later the guy was visitin’ La La Land on the floor.

“Should we put ’im on the bed?” I asked.

Frip and Ponwr were already leadin’ the way out of the room, Nuel mumblin’ behind me. But she followed me, I noticed.

Frip led us to a stairway. I gave him a look. Really? Had he noticed I’d been shot four times? I’d noticed we were on the seventh floor. That kind of detail doesn’t fly over my head.

Frip darted his eyes skyward, so I didn’t say anything. As I tread down every step, a mental thumb pressed into four stitched holes. I somehow didn’t complain out loud. But wait until we’re out of here.

Two floors down we exited the stairs and made it to a set of elevators toward the back of the building. Okay. I wouldn’t beat Frip up too badly.

Outside, a couple folks wearin’ scrubs suckin’ on cigarettes—ya’d think healthcare workers would know those are bad for them—gave us glances as we strolled out a door facin’ a wall hidin’ power-stuff that hummed loud enough to deaden ear bones.

It occurred to me, every place we’d walked thus far we’d collected a lot of attention. How far would we get—

A giant club cab pickup sat idling on the sidewalk to the right. A troll facin’ away, sat in the driver’s seat. Frip pressed Nuel into the front passenger seat, me behind her in the back cab. He and Ponwr curled up and lay in the bed of the truck.

“How’s it going?” the troll driver asked as he pulled for the parking lot sixty feet away.

“Dandy,” I said.

“A bit crazy,” Nuel said.

“Where’d you like to go?”

My mind hadn’t gotten there yet.

“You have all day to decide,” the troll grumbled.

I pulled out my phone and searched for the address of the SBC Network building. We’d be cuttin’ it close.

“Are you serious?” Nuel hissed. “Let me out here.”

The troll must have assumed she was kiddin’ because he hung a left out of the parking lot, without stoppin’.

“We prolly should sneak in the back,” I said.

The troll lifted a portable radio I hadn’t noticed and spoke for a bit in Trollish. When he set it back down I asked if he was still workin’ the beat.

“Zug felt a few of us should hang back and help clear the way.”

“Clear what?” I asked.

“Troublemakers and such,” the troll said.

Nuel said, “Ya’re gonna get yarself killed.” She faced the windshield but I was pretty sure she was talkin’ to me. But it could have been our new troll friend.

“Does Ponwr look all right to ya?” I asked whoever wanted to answer.

“Only shot twice,” the troll answered. “Ain’t nothing.”

That’s pretty much how he was actin’. I felt a little puny with that thought. I rationalized my immunity was down, after gettin’ shot last Saturday. Stuff accumulates.

~ Nuel ~

The bull is a complete maniac. And the two bulls that are supposed to be looking after him are completely incompetent idjits. I mean, they let him get filled with bullets to start with, then help him escape from the hospital, where he should still be, napping.

There is no understanding bulls. They are their own form of being that can’t be explained.

~