Extreme Medical Services: Medical Care On The Fringes Of Humanity by Jamie Davis Read Free Book Online Page B

  There was a tap on the doors to the back of the ambulance. Dean looked at Brynne and his patient. The younger paramedic got up and opened one of the doors partway. A woman’s voice from outside was heard.
        “Is everything okay?” A woman’s voice asked.   “I just got off work and saw you here with your lights on next to my boyfriend’s van.”
        “Brenda,” Gibbie cried. “Don’t come in, I don’t want you to see me like this.”  
        “Gibson, is that you?” Brenda stuck her head into the doorway, looking past Dean. “My dearest, what happened?” She pushed the door open and climbed in, rushing over to sit on the cot next to Gibbie. She looked from Dean to Brynne with raised eyebrows. “Is he alright?”
        “It’s nothing my love, just an allergic reaction to something,” the vampire told her as he reached out to hold her hand. “I was being foolish.”
        She looked around at the glitter, coating everything in the back of the ambulance, and what little remained on her boyfriend. “Did you do this for me?”
        Gibbie nodded sheepishly.
        “How romantic,” she said throwing her arms around him and showering him with kisses, oblivious to the awkwardness of the situation and the two onlookers. “You don’t have to dress up to be my man, Gibson Proctor. I love you just the way you are.” She looked at Brynne. “Is he okay now, can I take him home?”
        “I think he’ll survive,” Brynne said. “There’s some paperwork to fill out, but I think he’s on the mend.” She winked at Dean as the two lovebirds embraced.

    ———

        Dean and Brynne watched the minivan drive away followed by Brenda, in her little hatchback. Brynne playfully punched Dean in the arm. “Well, that’s part of your initiation done with at least,” she said with a grin. “You’ve now met Gibbie.”
        “I take it we see him a lot?” Dean asked.
        “Often enough,” she answered turning to climb back in the unit and put things away. “Put us back in service and then come back here and help me get the rig back in order. We’ve got to get this glitter cleaned up.”

    They returned to the station and signed off the shift. Dean headed home to his apartment, musing about his first week on the new job. He was surprised as he thought back about the week, that he was smiling with a sense of accomplishment. The new paramedic was sure he wasn’t going to like the new assignment out of school.  
        Dean spent his three days off refreshing his knowledge base. Mike had always impressed on their paramedic class the need to continue learning after they graduated. He sure hadn’t thought he’d need the refresher so quickly, though.    
        This wasn’t actually a refresher since learning about the quirks and lore surrounding the populations of Unusuals was kind of new to him. Sure, he knew the big stuff that everyone knew like how vampires can’t be out in the daytime and werewolves shift on the full moon, which wasn’t true. Brynne, though, had told him to focus on the little details in the books that weren’t such common knowledge. It was that little-known information that might be the clue to figuring out a medical issue or how to treat a specific kind of Unusual in the field.
        Dean sat with his laptop and began to search the net to see what classic horror films there were. Brynne had told him to concentrate on them since the newer versions of monsters, vampires and werewolves took too many liberties with tradition. The new producers and scriptwriters tried to make up new legends for the stories. The older ones seemed to stick to the most common, and therefore probably truer legends of monster stories.   Dean stopped and thought about it for a moment and made a mental note. They weren’t monsters, they were Unusuals and, based on his limited experience so far, people just like him.
        He typed classic horror into the search box and