“What’s going on?”
“Allison doesn’t know how severe your peanut allergy is. She had packed lunches for the road. Two peanut butter sandwiches. That’s what you saw us eating as you walked up a moment ago. I didn’t tell you because you didn’t have to worry since they were gone now and we were leaving anyway.”
The symptoms for me can come on as quick as the speed of sound.
“I had just taken a drink from that Pepsi,” Scott continued to explain. “When you grabbed it, I forgot, and I, oh man, this is not good.”
I wiped the sides of my mouth and came away with a tiny brown smudge. I brought it up to my nose and smelled the distinctive aroma of peanut butter. When I tried to stand, my legs went out from under me.
“Get me to Tabitha. She knows how to use the Epi-Pen. I need a shot of epinephrine.”
Scott leaned down and supported me until I got to my feet. With an arm wrapped around his shoulder, the two of us headed for the cabin. Halfway there I heard rustling in the bushes. Oh, great, a bear is coming and we’re all going to die , I thought.
Fear enveloped me. That was the first symptom of my anaphylactic reaction: fear, along with abdominal pain. But now it was mixed with what I just saw watching us from the bushes.
Goatee’s eyes. He was smiling.
My face felt flushed, my lips itchy. I heard Scott shouting Tabitha’s name. My mouth grew tight. I couldn’t warn anyone. Liquid began dripping from the corner of my lips. When I tried to speak, my voice sounded different. I suddenly felt tired, even though my heart was racing. The setting sun was on my back, but I had chills. My nose fought the air that struggled to enter it.
I was dying, and my friends would too if I couldn’t warn them.
When I opened my eyes again I was on the cabin floor, looking at the wood that formed the ceiling. Tabitha ran by me, shouting something about the medicine bag and that it was still in my Buick. The last thing I remember was Scott shouting into his cell phone for an ambulance.
Then a spurt of red shot out of his chest like a small fountain. Then another. I heard a cannon roar somewhere in the distance. I heard screaming. I couldn’t keep my eyes open. I shut them as Scott fell beside me.
I walked to the front door. When I looked back, I saw myself on the floor of the cabin. Scott lay beside me.
The three Vago’s bikers from the liquor store were standing over the two bodies. Tear Drop leaned down, a white bandage on his cheek. He put his gun in my face and checked my neck for a pulse. He looked up at Goatee and shook his head. Then he checked Scott’s pulse and shook his head again. I was dead, and so was my friend. I felt weightless, emotionless. It was an empty feeling, but at the same time I felt like I had more life in me than at any other time.
All three men moved away from the bodies and disappeared into the rooms at the back of the cabin.
Tabitha ran back in, flipped the cap off the Epi-Pen, and prepared to inject me with it, but stopped and stared at Scott. She screamed and jumped back, her head spinning around to see if anyone else was in the cabin.
All three Vago’s MC members stepped out of the back rooms. They all had guns out and aimed. All three were smiling.
Then Tabitha did the smartest thing she could think of at the time. She dropped to her knees and rammed the Epi-Pen into my thigh. She needed me and knew that sometimes it could work fast.
I blinked and the cabin disappeared. Tabitha and the bikers were gone.
I could feel pain in numerous places as I struggled to breathe, and I felt a gentle shaking. At first I thought my headache had rhythm, but then I identified the drilling sound in my ears as a siren, and the shaking as the movement of a vehicle. I was in an ambulance.
I fought the weight of my eyelids and struggled to open them. The paramedic told me that everything would be fine and
“Allison doesn’t know how severe your peanut allergy is. She had packed lunches for the road. Two peanut butter sandwiches. That’s what you saw us eating as you walked up a moment ago. I didn’t tell you because you didn’t have to worry since they were gone now and we were leaving anyway.”
The symptoms for me can come on as quick as the speed of sound.
“I had just taken a drink from that Pepsi,” Scott continued to explain. “When you grabbed it, I forgot, and I, oh man, this is not good.”
I wiped the sides of my mouth and came away with a tiny brown smudge. I brought it up to my nose and smelled the distinctive aroma of peanut butter. When I tried to stand, my legs went out from under me.
“Get me to Tabitha. She knows how to use the Epi-Pen. I need a shot of epinephrine.”
Scott leaned down and supported me until I got to my feet. With an arm wrapped around his shoulder, the two of us headed for the cabin. Halfway there I heard rustling in the bushes. Oh, great, a bear is coming and we’re all going to die , I thought.
Fear enveloped me. That was the first symptom of my anaphylactic reaction: fear, along with abdominal pain. But now it was mixed with what I just saw watching us from the bushes.
Goatee’s eyes. He was smiling.
My face felt flushed, my lips itchy. I heard Scott shouting Tabitha’s name. My mouth grew tight. I couldn’t warn anyone. Liquid began dripping from the corner of my lips. When I tried to speak, my voice sounded different. I suddenly felt tired, even though my heart was racing. The setting sun was on my back, but I had chills. My nose fought the air that struggled to enter it.
I was dying, and my friends would too if I couldn’t warn them.
When I opened my eyes again I was on the cabin floor, looking at the wood that formed the ceiling. Tabitha ran by me, shouting something about the medicine bag and that it was still in my Buick. The last thing I remember was Scott shouting into his cell phone for an ambulance.
Then a spurt of red shot out of his chest like a small fountain. Then another. I heard a cannon roar somewhere in the distance. I heard screaming. I couldn’t keep my eyes open. I shut them as Scott fell beside me.
I walked to the front door. When I looked back, I saw myself on the floor of the cabin. Scott lay beside me.
The three Vago’s bikers from the liquor store were standing over the two bodies. Tear Drop leaned down, a white bandage on his cheek. He put his gun in my face and checked my neck for a pulse. He looked up at Goatee and shook his head. Then he checked Scott’s pulse and shook his head again. I was dead, and so was my friend. I felt weightless, emotionless. It was an empty feeling, but at the same time I felt like I had more life in me than at any other time.
All three men moved away from the bodies and disappeared into the rooms at the back of the cabin.
Tabitha ran back in, flipped the cap off the Epi-Pen, and prepared to inject me with it, but stopped and stared at Scott. She screamed and jumped back, her head spinning around to see if anyone else was in the cabin.
All three Vago’s MC members stepped out of the back rooms. They all had guns out and aimed. All three were smiling.
Then Tabitha did the smartest thing she could think of at the time. She dropped to her knees and rammed the Epi-Pen into my thigh. She needed me and knew that sometimes it could work fast.
I blinked and the cabin disappeared. Tabitha and the bikers were gone.
I could feel pain in numerous places as I struggled to breathe, and I felt a gentle shaking. At first I thought my headache had rhythm, but then I identified the drilling sound in my ears as a siren, and the shaking as the movement of a vehicle. I was in an ambulance.
I fought the weight of my eyelids and struggled to open them. The paramedic told me that everything would be fine and
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