THEM (Season 1): Episode 2 Read Online Free PDF

it in a metal emesis pan with a loud ping.
    “Now why in the hell would someone shoot another human with a silver bullet?” I wondered aloud.
    The look the doc gave me said she knew something I didn’t. “Maybe that’s all he had on him at the time.” I found that hard to believe, because silver was getting harder and harder to come by these days. Lots of people started hoarding it after the War, thinking it was going to be good for trade, which made it difficult to find unless you came across a cache. Turns out, it ended up being pretty valuable, just not for the reasons people thought it would be.
    So, I wasn’t buying it. Those punters that were with Pancho Vanilla knew they were chasing humans. Silver rounds were something you only loaded when you thought you were going to be coming up against one of the more powerful occult species, since regular deaders could be taken out with lead bullets. Unless they suspected there might be a rev’ or a nos’ hiding out in the settlement, it didn’t add up.
    It looked like someone had taken a pot shot at her through the boat hull, which must have slowed the round enough so it didn’t do any significant damage. The doc said if it’d hit any vital organs then she might not have made it. Mostly what she had was muscle and connective tissue damage, along with a nicked small intestine. In less than an hour she had stitched Gabby back up, and we left her on the table with a fresh wound dressing and another IV bag hanging from the wall.
    Just as we got done with Gabby’s surgery, I heard several voices coming from the road that ran in front of the clinic. Whoever it was, they were being loud and apparently didn’t care who heard them. That meant a large group, maybe scavengers, probably punters. If they were scavengers we were screwed, because they’d be sure to check this place for supplies, and not all scavengers were friendly when it came to staking a claim. But if they were punters, well, they’d probably just move along to the Corridor and miss us completely.
    I looked at the doc in disbelief. “I thought you said hardly anyone came out this way!” I whispered as I tore off my surgical gloves and mask.
    She looked at me with concern in her eyes and pulled her mask off. “Normally, they don’t. I have no idea what would bring someone out here, but whatever it is it can’t be good.”
    “I’ll go check it out—just stay here with Gabby, and make sure you lock the back entrance.” I grabbed my rifle and gun belt, and sprinted to the front of the clinic.
    - - -

[4 ]

PARTING
    W hen I got to the waiting area of the clinic, I put my back to the wall next to the doorway and took a quick look outside. What I saw made my blood boil; it was a large group of punters coming down the road, about a dozen, and they were hauling along a kid of maybe fifteen or sixteen years old. They had him chained to four saddled horses with a collar around his neck. Every so often, one of the horses would get out of sync, and he’d get dragged off his feet. It looked like they’d been at it quite a while.
    As they got closer, I could see that the collar was made of thick leather with metal spikes on the inside. The kid had to keep his hands on the collar to keep it from digging into his skin; otherwise every time he got yanked off his feet he’d get stabbed by the spikes. Apparently he’d only been partly successful, because there was dried blood running down his bare chest and arms. He was dressed in an old ratty pair of board shorts, of all things, and his feet were bare. “Poor miserable son of a bitch,” I said under my breath.
    As soon as I spoke, the kid’s head swiveled around, almost like a dog listening to a noise in the distance. Then, he looked toward the clinic, and I could swear his eyes locked with mine. I could see the desperation in his eyes, like an animal with its leg caught in a trap that it couldn’t escape.
    I heard Captain Perez come up behind me. “Doc, you