“Doctor!” the nurse yelled. “His temperature is a hundred and four, and his blood pressure is skyrocketing.”
“What?” the doctor answered in disbelief. “He was just fine earlier.”
The nurse shrugged and quickly led him into the hospital room.
Axel was lying on his back, his face covered in sweat, his head thrashing back and forth like he was in pain. Alarms were going off on his monitors as his heart rate fluctuated wildly. He yelled out and balled the sheets into his fists.
The nurse and doctor rushed over to him, and when they were close, they saw that some of what they thought was beads of sweat were actually blisters.
“Good god,” the doctor breathed.
“Staph?” the nurse suggested as she gloved up and put on a mask.
“Maybe. We’ll have to test him to make sure. In the meantime, let’s get him something for the pain and get him started on some antibiotics.”
Since Axel had been doing so much better, Linc and Murphy decided to meet the rest of the Club at a local diner the nurses had recommended. They wanted to fill the guys in on everything that had happened and eat a proper meal.
When they pulled in, they immediately spotted the three Harleys, and the guys must have spotted them too because they came walking out to greet them as soon as they parked.
The guys were in full gear and colors, which made Linc chuckle and shake his head as he took off his helmet and hung it on his handlebars. He and Murphy walked over to them with smiles and jokes and exchanged various forms of handshakes.
“You look like hell,” Maurice said to Linc. He was a big man, even taller than Linc, and a lot rounder. He and Linc exchanged sarcastic grins, and then he turned to Murphy.
“Of course, you always look like hell, so…,” he said.
“Oh yeah, laugh it up, laugh it up,” Murphy shot back.
“What the hell happened to you guys?” Dominic asked. He was the youngest of the group; a tall, fit black man with a scruffy beard everyone kept telling him he needed to shave.
Linc shook his head, and ran a hand through his hair. “I’m not even sure,” he admitted. “Hey, you mind if we go eat? We haven’t had anything but powdered eggs in about twenty-four hours.”
They all agreed and went inside and found a booth. Murphy ordered a giant stack of pancakes with extra butter and three kinds of syrup, while Linc got a smothered breakfast burrito. The other guys teased them, but then ordered almost as much.
The only one of their group that hadn’t said anything was Maurice’s brother. Unlike his brother, he was small and quiet, always thinking and assessing.
When their orders came, and everyone started digging in, he finally said, “From what you guys said over the phone, you made it sound like something attacked Axel.”
“Attacked?” Maurice said. “I figured he just wrecked his bike. You know how crazy that guy can get.”
His brother looked over at Murphy and Linc. The two of them had stopped eating and were shooting glances at one another.
“Like I said, we’re not sure exactly what happened out there,” Linc replied.
“Something jumped out of the woods and knocked him off his bike. That’s what happened,” Murphy spat out.
They were all quiet for a moment, breakfast forgotten about.
“What was it?” Dominic asked.
Linc only shook his head, but Murphy said, “I don’t know, but it damn near tore his arm off.”
“Look, do we have to talk about this over breakfast?” Linc asked and put his fork down. His mind flashed back to the incident and the things he witnessed in the hospital hallway. He’d had about all he could take of the weirdness.
Murphy glared at him and then threw his fork down, spashing syrup all over the table. He got up from the booth as the other guys complained.
“Y’all enjoy your breakfast. I’m outta here.”
“Murphy,” Linc said apologetically as he walked away, but his friend didn’t look back.
“Man, whatever it was really rattled you guys,” Maurice said.
“Shut up,” Dominic hissed and punched him in the arm.
“Yeah,” Linc said absently and turned back. He stared down at his half-eaten breakfast, no longer hungry.
The guys changed the subject to try and cheer Linc up, and as their President, he tried his best, but now he had Murphy to worry about as well as Axel.
“Since he’s doing so well, maybe we should go see the little shit,” Maurice suggested after they finished eating.
That prospect did cheer Linc up, and he nodded. “Guess I’m paying for Murph,” he sighed.
Murphy’s bike was gone when they walked outside. The four of them mounted theirs and rode off toward the hospital. The scenery all looked very different in the daytime. The trees were green and welcoming, the town like some kind of storybook painting. When they got back to the hospital, though, that illusion was shattered.
Linc checked in with the afternoon receptionist, and the man’s eyes widened.
“We didn’t know how to reach you,” he blurted out.
Linc’s eyebrows knitted together, and he shook his head. “Yeah, I forgot to leave my number. What…”
“I’ll call the doctor. He’ll want to come talk to you.”
The MC waited for a frustrating few minutes before the doctor came through the door to the patient ward. They quickly walked over to him.
“What’s going on?” Linc asked, as politely as he could, after all that had happened.
“I’m afraid your friend has taken a turn for the worse,” the doctor answered.
“What?” Linc said, shaking his head in disbelief. “He was just fine this morning.”
The doctor nodded in calm understanding. “He seems to have developed an infection in his arm. It’s not unusual with a wound of that size or nature. Some animals have a lot of bacteria in their mouths. We caught it early, and we’re doing everything we can to treat it.”
Axel’s friends stared at the doctor, not sure what to say or do. Eventually, Linc thanked him weakly.
“Can we see him?” Dominic asked.
“Not right now, I’m afraid, but I’ll let you know when that changes.”
With that, the doctor disappeared back into the patient ward, and the MC sank into chairs in the waiting room.