(Chapter 15) Alex & Lee
The following interview was transcribed verbatim from a recorded session and written alongside several personal observations.
Another couple, which is always pleasing to see in such trying times. I understand that my next guests are the primary medical component of this town, which is interesting as I've also heard that they are not necessarily general practitioners. They've done a great job keeping this town running either way.
AA - Good afternoon, thank you so much for making the time! I know you must have your hands full.
AB - Actually not so much!
LB - Yeah, you'd be surprised how easy our jobs have become.
AA - We'll get to that in due time, but firstly, for the record would you both please introduce yourselves?
AB - Doctor Alex Booth, female, age seventy.
LB - Doctor Lee Booth, male, age seventy-two.
AA - Excellent, very concise. Now, you've already partly answered my first question which is, what do the two of you do in town?
AB - Well we're the closest thing this town has to doctors, for the time being.
(Lee looks somewhat tense at the statement.)
AA - Are you alright, Doctor Booth?
AB & LB - Which one?
AA - Ah, yes, well I can see how that could get confusing. I suppose that's one problem to overcome before anything else.
AB - We're not so formal around here, to be honest. We did use to insist that people just call us Alex & Lee but…
LB - The whole 'Doctor' thing seems to make people more comfortable. Nightmare!
(The last word was tinged with sarcasm, but not in a vindictive way.)
AA - That's fair, I suppose. Not only is it a remnant of the past but it does give people a familiar authoritative feeling when it comes to their health.
LB - Yeah, we just go by Doctor Lee or Doctor Alex now.
AA - Gives the whole affair a nice country vibe to it I think.
AB - That's what I said! I love having that feeling, this quaint little village, out in the country, everyone knows everyone else…
LB - If you just ignore the collapse of society outside the palisade, we're living the dream! Well, we don't get paid either but...small price to pay for our lives!
AA - An interesting point I'd never thought to ask actually, how does the town economics work exactly?
AB - It's...a little odd to explain.
LB - I suppose it's back to how things used to be before we had currency. Even simpler than that really, as we form our little ecosystem.
AB - Yeah, everyone pretty much gets the same stuff when it comes to food or clothing. What you brought in to the village is yours, but everyone can choose to share.
LB - On paper, it works a little like communism I guess, but without the stigma and all the...red.
(They both chuckle, I think they've had this conversation before.)
AB - Sometimes people try to give a little extra to people with more…responsibility.
LB - Yeah, like with us they give us extra little bits. Especially grateful patients.
AB - But we turn them down, we don't have a need for it all, to be honest.
LB - No, it sort of just works on a case by case basis. Once a week the entire town eats together.
AA - That sounds like a fun event, is there any reason?
AB - Never needed one, personally!
LB - Yeah, it's just to celebrate being alive or having our own little community. We do it extra-special when a new survivor joins us.
AA - Do you recall the special touches on your arrival?
AB - Well, admittedly ours was a little...different.
(She looks somewhat abashed.)
LB - The town hadn't seen a doctor since the setup. A few people knew some basic first aid, everyone knew how to stay clean and all that. But with what they'd been up to before we arrived…
AB - Needless to say, they were very grateful to have two experienced Doctors join their fold.
AA - I can imagine. Now, when you say 'what they'd been up to'...
LB - Well, you've been around for a little while now. I assume you know who the hunters are, who the salvage teams are etcetera?
AA - You may.
AB - Imagine the craziness they see! The salvage teams are bad enough, they can get into some real trouble poking around crumbling buildings or booby-trapped military bases.
LB - But the Hunters are probably the worst. Don't get me wrong, they keep us safe and they do a damn good job at it.
AB - Very personable too!
LB - But if they're not careful...well the worst I saw was a woman who was jumped by some kind of highly-evolved wild dog.
AB - Massive, it was. Took a hefty chunk out of the poor woman's shoulder.
AA - And how is she now?
LB - Oh, that was months ago. She's better now, kept full use of her shoulder, but that's just one example out of many.
AA - I also happen to know that the two of you aren't doctors in a...traditional sense.
(They stiffen again, as with the first mention.)
AA - It's quite alright, given the work you do around here I think it's safe to assume you're not incompetent.
AB - You're right. By training, we're actually...dentists.
LB - But, but, we did go through medical school! You learn all the basics and-
AB - Alright Lee, chill.
AA - Yes, I didn't mean to cause any offence or alarm. I wasn't aware it was a secret.
AB - It's not but…
(She sighs heavily.)
LB - It just gets in our head a little from time to time. We know they aren't in a position to turn our help away, and yet…
AB - Sometimes we feel like we get odd stares or...it's just a feeling, you know?
AA - I understand how you feel. Were you like this before the collapse?
AB - Yeah, we're both quite anxious people so…
LB - Mix that with a defensive personality and you've got an uncomfortable situation for the both of us.
AA - Has anyone ever confronted you about this?
AB - Oh no, nothing so serious.
LB - We were perfectly upfront when we arrived. Everyone keeps telling us we've proved ourselves and no one has an issue coming to us.
AB - But as we said before unless it's an animal attack or a careless worker, we're not too busy most of the time.
AA - Yes, you mentioned before about the wild dog, would you be able to elaborate on that for me?
LB - Anything, in particular, you'd like to know?
AA - Just what you've seen or heard around the campfire so-to-speak.
AB - Well, what we've seen and what we've heard at this point are two very separate things.
LB - You know how people like to dramatise, or how the eyes can deceive you in the dark when you're afraid.
AA - Yes, human psychosis is a hard thing to grasp.
AB - Luckily, we're not those type of doctors.
LB - We travelled with a convoy before we arrived here.
AB - People refer to it as the 'Medical Convoy' now.
AA - Oh?
AB - Well, the best working vehicles we could find were ambulances mainly, one emergency operating theatre which was mobile. Throw in a few trucks packed to the brim with all of the medical supplies you can salvage from an old hospitable and, boom. Medical convoy.
AA - That's reasonable. Please, continue.
LB - Well we had decided to travel south for...some reason or another, I forget at this point.
(LB rubs his head, as if in pain or discomfort. AB soon does the same.)
AB - Anyway, the roads were mostly overgrown at this point, but still usable for rugged vehicles like ours.
LB - We came across a stretch that must have been close to a forest before...before shit went mad.
AB - We instantly just got...that tense feeling you get when you know something is just watching you.
LB - There was definitely something there, just staring at us through the trees.
AB - You can imagine what a mind conjures up in that context.
LB - We all played those video games. Bands of wild scavengers, proto-humans, crazed survivors, mutated monsters.
AB - We've sort of seen all that and more, but we'll stick to the animals for the time being.
AA - That's appreciated, please go on.
AB - Well, we heard this...this primal howling sound.
LB - Like a pack of dogs or wolves, but much more terrifying. Such bass, such animal rage.
AB - Before you knew it, we were surrounded by an entire pack! We were paralyzed with fear and no one knew what to do.
LB - They started jumping at the trucks, even as we sped up to get away.
AB - Like when dogs used to chase cars in those films, but this time they just wouldn't stop.
LB - We didn't really have the tools to defend ourselves, so we just kept driving.
AA - Where were you headed?
AB - I don't think we even considered where, just so long as it wasn't there!
LB - We were driving the lead truck, you see. Figured if we just got out of the forest they'd leave us alone.
AB - That's when we saw them in the distance, another group of survivors.
LB - We didn't want the first people we met out of our sleep to be mauled by a danger we brought down on them!
AB - I flicked on the siren to warn them, hopefully, scare them off or at least get them to turn around and see what was coming.
LB - That's when we noticed these animals, dogs I think, didn't like the sound the sirens made.
AB - Not sure why maybe it was the pitch or just a volume they weren't used to.
AA - And these were dogs that, and please excuse the pun here, hounded your convoy?
AB - That pun cannot be excused.
AA - I promise it was unintentional.
LB - But yes, they were dogs. Or at least what dogs are supposed to be or would have become without generations of human interference and breeding.
AB - Monstrous things, back to being the predators of old.
AA - And the survivors on the horizon?
LB - Hm? Oh, them. Turns out they were a group of hunters from this very town.
AB - Yeah, turns out they were trying to figure out a way to make a boundary to keep that same pack of beasts away from their steads.
LB - We seemed to have solved that problem, haven't heard a bark out of them since.
AA - But you've seen other injuries from them? How far do these hunters venture?
AB - Well, it's not just the dogs that are the problem.
LB - No, there are wild cats that catch you unaware, other roaming packs of dogs, even birds that have developed to cope with the other threats. There's a lot of danger out there now, that's why everyone just avoids the forests altogether.
AA - I can most definitely see why.
AB - But, we still do what we can. We have plenty of supplies and the scavenging teams always bring back something for us. Even a basic first aid kit helps.
LB - It's mostly being aware of infection, but every team that leaves this village now has at least one person with advanced first aid training.
AB - Dressing a wound, disinfecting, signs to look out for, that sort of thing.
AA - Sounds like you've definitely made an impact.
AB - Yeah but…
(AB shudders.)
AB - Just thinking about those animals again has gotten me a little rattled, to be honest.
LB - Yeah, just to think of what human interference has done in their lives. All of this gone in the, what, fifty or so years that we've been asleep?
AB - Is that all it takes? Take us out of the picture for a while and...well...look around!
LB - The forests have grown back, the air seems to taste fresher and the animals are back to a more primal state.
AB - It's...unpleasant for us now but I suppose it just goes to show what we'd done to this planet, our home.
LB - Well, the power of hindsight is a useful tool.
AA - I was just having a similar discussion with some of your neighbours.
AB - Can't say I disagree.
LB - We know where we went wrong now, with the added benefit of being able to scavenge some modern technology, we can really have something going on here.
AA - I can certainly see the future of the human race is in good hands here.
AB - You flatter us!
LB - Please, do go on!
(We all enjoy a little chuckle before a bell rings somewhere off in the distance.)
AB - Ah, duty calls!
LB - We're usually not busy, but when that bell rings it's usually something serious.
AB - We've done our best to train some nurses and other staff but, nothing beats us for now!
AA - Quite so, well please don't let me hold you. Many thanks for stopping by!
END
They both left in rather a hurry after that farewell, but I did have an opportunity to catch up with them later that night. A hunter had been dragged back to town after a particularly nasty wild dog attack. Nothing too bad and they expect him to make a full recovery, but it just goes to show that one can never get too comfortable in this new world.