Hell Fire MC

Chapter Three

“Hang in there, Axel,” Linc said as his friend writhed and cried out in pain.

Murphy stood above them, breathing hard while tears spilled down his cheeks.

“See if our phones have service yet,” Linc said as he tried to put pressure on the wound in Axel’s arm.

Murphy looked over at it.”Looks like the damn thing nearly bit clean through.” He sounded like he was in a trance, and he couldn’t take his eyes away.

“Murph!” Link yelled, pulling him out of his reverie. “We’ve gotta get help!”

“Right,” his friend said and finally turned away. He ran back to the bikes and dug around for Linc’s cellphone, but there was still no service. He growled and threw it back in the bag. Then he ran back to Axel’s bike, which was lying in the middle of the road.

The Softtail was on its side, but didn’t look too damaged. He dug around in the packs until he found Axel’s phone.

“Nothing!” he yelled out in annoyance.

“s**t,” Linc hissed. “Bring me one of his shirts or something,” he yelled out to Murphy. “We’ve got to stop this bleeding.”

When Murphy came running back with a t-shirt, Linc made a makeshift tourniquet and tied it around Axel’s arm. The bleeding seemed to slow.

“I think we have to loosen that now and then,” he said.

“You think?” Murphy replied.

“Hey, I’m not a doctor, okay? All I know is you can’t cut off the blood supply forever.”

“Alright, alright,” Murphy said, holding up his hands. “You do look like one, though.”

His friend smirked and rolled his eyes.

“So, now what?”

Linc looked around and said, “We should get out of the middle of the road.”

“Right, because traffic has been so heavy around here,” Murphy mumbled.

The two of them carried Axel to the side of the road and gently set him down on a patch of grass. He was in and out of consciousness. Then they moved all of the bikes and sat down to wait. After twenty minutes, they loosened Axel’s tourniquet for a little while and then tightened it again.

“He’s still bleeding quite a bit,” Murphy said and then blew into his chilly hands.

“I know,” Linc replied, worry in his voice and on his face.

“Do you think one of us should ride ahead for help?”

He thought about it for a moment and then shook his head.

“If we knew how far it was, maybe. No, at this point, I think we’re just going to have to figure out how to get him on a bike.”

Murphy scoffed. “How are we gonna do that?”

“Very carefully.”

Linc loosened Axel’s tourniquet again, and once it was tightened back up, they got him to his feet and over to the motorcycles. Luckily, Linc’s bike was a larger, touring model, and they could put Axel on the back seat.

“I’m gonna have to tie him to you somehow,” Murphy said.

“Is your belt long enough?” Linc asked.

Murphy’s eyebrows shot up, and he quickly took it off. I was thick leather, and just barely made it around Linc and Axel’s waists.

“It’s a good thing he’s that small,” Murphy said.

Linc nodded and put on his helmet. “Let’s get the hell out of here.”

“Further up the mountain or back to that little town at the bottom?”

“We’d better go back to the village,” Linc answered and started up his Harley.

Murphy followed suit, and they roared back down the road, leaving Axel’s bike in the hopes it would still be there when they got around to calling a wrecker.

Luckily for them, the gas station was still open, and even luckier, the village wasn’t as small as they thought. They had the gas station attendant call an ambulance and then followed it to a nice-sized, brand new hospital.

It was only a couple of miles from the gas station, but it felt like the longest ride of their lives. They watched the ambulance pull into the bay and then parked their bikes and rushed into the emergency room lobby.

The receptionist at the front desk looked them over and then said, “What can I do for you this evening?”

Linc took his helmet off and set it down on the counter. “They just brought in our friend,” he blurted out.

The receptionist checked her computer and nodded. “Motorcycle accident?”

“Well, no, not exactly.”

“Something attacked him on the road,” Murphy said.

The woman glanced at him and pushed up her glasses.

“He has a large bite wound on his arm,” Linc insisted.

“Okay, I’ll let them know. You can wait here,” she said and updated her computer records.

Axel’s mind was full of fur and teeth. They were the largest teeth he’d ever seen, dripping with saliva. The air was full of hot breath that stank of rotting meat. He tried to scramble away, but it was as if the creature was everywhere, and he couldn’t escape.

His eyes flew open, and he thought the creature was still attacking him. Only there were more of them.

“It’s alright,” someone reassured him, and pushed him back onto the gurney.

Axel’s head whipped in her direction, and he stared at her, wide-eyed and breathing frantically. After a few moments of her holding his hand and whispering to him, he began to feel safe. He glanced around and realized that he was surrounded by doctors, not monsters.

“Sir, Sir,” one of them said, “I need you to hold still. You have a severe injury, and you’ve lost a lot of blood.”

“Where…where’s Linc and Murphy?” Axel asked weakly.

“Are they the ones who came in with you?” the nurse asked. When he nodded, she nodded back. “They’re in the waiting room.”

Only then did he put his head back down and relax. His arm screamed in pain, and it felt like pulses of electricity were shooting out from it to the rest of his body.