Chereads / Doctor of the Dead / Chapter 3 - Among the Named

Chapter 3 - Among the Named

"Looks like we got another one on our hands!"

"She got you too?"

A burly man with ebony skin and side chops on his face with a cowboy hat, stood in contrast next to a gaunt-looking woman wearing a wedding dress.

The man shot bullets at the sand while the girl kept crying. Peculiarly, every tear that fell on her expressionless face somehow turned to bullets in her palms; she handed bullets to the man when her hands were full.

"He walked over here on his own just to be tossed in! Does no one else find that suspicious?"

The voice came from a round, ball-shaped woman, wearing ancient Chinese costumes while waving a fan to blow away sand.

What was peculiar about her situation, was that with every wave of her hand, a large gust of wind blew up and made the sand fly away.

A man with wire-rimmed glasses and long hair stood at another end, holding an axe in his hands to slash at the incoming sand and push it back.

"Don't let her swallow you old man!"

The doctor was suddenly pulled back violently, falling into the cushioned arms of the dark cowboy as gunshots rang near his ear.

While he tried to regain his senses from the deafening sounds, he muttered a couple words.

"The enforcer?"

"SEE, I TOLD YOU SHE ACTED LIKE ONE OF THOSE PRICKS AND YOU ALL DIDN'T BELIEVE ME!"

A shorter, dwarf-looking man that the doctor hadn't caught sight of came from around the other side of one of the buildings.

"Cover me, axe-man!"

The bearded dwarf came running over while dragging an over-sized hammer behind him by a metal strap, leaving trails in the sand behind him.

"She said she was an enforcer, right! Are you a doctor? I'll call you doctor then!"

Overwhelmed by questions, the doctor swallowed an imaginary breath, as if his lungs got caught up in his throat.

Confused he asked, "So she wasn't an enforcer?"

"No, she's a named!"

"What do they do?"

The fat woman suddenly interrupted, "They are walking catastrophes! Named things! Phew!"

She spit as if saying the word made her mouth feel dirty!

"Then the enforcers?"

"Obviously they are supposed to stop the named!" The woman sounded just as disgusted with the enforcers that she did when she mentioned the named, but this time she didn't spit.

"Dwarf! Move back to your spot!" The woman turned her body agilely after fanning a rather strong wind at the sand to face the doctor, "What can you do, Old Coot?"

"I can do things?"

"What are you, fresh out of the line?"

"...there was a line, I recall."

A groan escaped her lips as she brought her chubby face closer to his, "The demon said you kept something with you, right?"

Intimidated, the doctor shrank back, "My hands—h-he said I had healing hands."

"Great! Go touch that girl's head over there before she starts crying blood again!"

The fat woman roughly pushed him over to the skinny girl.

"What are you waiting for!" The cowboy grabbed him by the wrist and shoved his palms onto the girl's head, "Heal her or something!"

The old man tried his best to apply pressure to the spot!

"Don't you know what to do?! Heal it!"

Under pressure from the others, he began to think.

[How do I heal! Her eyes aren't broken yet! I don't even know the physical problem!]

[Heal... heal!]

A golden light came from his palms and soothed her. Tears came gushing out like a water fall and new bullets were made in a torrent!

"God! With that golden light? He's almost like a walking Buddha or something!" The woman with the fan's eyes widened and sand almost encroached upon her as she had her back turned, only to be shot away by the bullets.

"That's mighty neat, ain't it?" The cowboy looked over at him with inquisitive eyes before turning back to face the incoming waves of sand once again.