All or nothing

They live in a rural farming community where healthcare is minimal. Sometimes it feels like you could get better healthcare in the eighteen hundreds, when leech sucking was the normal.

When his wife got sick with RSV it got very scary she would do nothing but cough, it sounded like she had pneumonia. He thought at any time she would die. She would cough and gag so much that she was out of breath and wheezing. He didn't know what to do, no one would help.

The nearest hospital to them was fifty miles away and it was a bandage hospital that treats more drug overdoses than anything. They would give her some IV meds and what they called breathing treatments. After taking chest scans, they said ok go home, but offer no long term help. They would just say "she has too much mass around her middle." That was a cop out because they didn't know what to do.

They ended up at the doctor's office in a small country town where they lived. It had a small clinic that treated the local people. An elderly nurse practitioner treated her saying "you need to take her to the big city hospital. I've done all that I can do for her here. I know it's over a three hour trip but they have more resources than we do. They may even have a cure."

She helped him get her into the van and just as they were about to leave the nurse came running out with a small oxygen bottle and said take this you might need it.

Driving up highway 88 was scary with listening to her gasp for air while coughing and gagging, her oxygen was set for 6ml, the highest that it would go.

So many big trucks, it was like playing bumper cars, dodging truck after truck. The truckers think they own the road and don't care if you're in their way. It's known for all of the truck fires and accidents that stop traffic for hours shutting down the highway.

They were almost there, shit, the exit they needed to take was closed for repairs! He would have to take the next one and back track to the hospital. That was some of the worst area in this god forsaken city.

He believed in the conceal and carry right and exercised it, but he never took it to doctors offices or hospitals. Boy was he glad that he had it today.

The neighborhood that is behind the hospital is very poor and known for its high crime rate. Block after block of buildings in many stages of disrepair along with many falling down. Not counting the buildings with boarded up windows. Every other yard had weeds growing higher than the front door. How could anyone live here?

As he pulled up to an intersection the light turned red and he stopped. From his left he saw a group of youths getting up and moving toward them. He looked left and right making sure there wasn't anyone coming and ran the red light, he could see them laughing from his rearview mirror

After going a few more blocks they were at another red light, this one had a lot of cross traffic so he couldn't run it. He had to sit and wait and wait, growing more impatient.

Again from the left he saw a youth walking towards them carrying a AK47, pulling his Taurus G3, unlocking the safety he held it just below the window. The youth tapped on the window with the rifle yelling "hey boy I want your ride."

Since the windows were one touch, all the driver had to do was hit the button to roll the window all of the way down. While the window went down he lifted the gun into view saying "here's the way it's going to go, I have to get my wife to the hospital. You shoot, I shoot, and we both shoot again and again. It all depends on who gets shot the most. I die trying to save my wife, you die trying to steal a piece of shit minivan. Your choice."

"Make it quick!"

After staring at each other for the longest time he lowered his rifle and said "get outa here, don't want no piece of shit minivan."

He drove on making it to the hospital, hoping that they would be able to help his wife, but as they pull into the emergency room entrance she started coughing and gagging worse than ever.