Kombat Kids - 24. Recovery

Due to the size and severity of the storm, the helicopter carrying The Sheriff, the Bateman Brothers, Keener Webb and George Townsend back to Moreland was forced to fly low and slow. They flew low because the cabin of the aircraft wasn’t pressurized and didn’t have oxygen for anyone on board except the crew, so it was unsafe to fly higher than 3,500 meters above sea level and the clouds making up the storm didn’t top out until 6,500 meters. They flew slow because of the various things man had decided he couldn’t do without, power transmission, radio and microwave towers, bridges and more esoteric things like ten meter high metal horses. You know, like the ones that just appeared in front of them out of the blowing snow and caused the pilot to pull pitch to jump the big bird straight up and over them.

“Jesus, I wish this thing had gun pods on her, I’d blow those damn things to hell and gone. Why’d they put them damn things on the crest of that hill anyway?” Groused the pilot.

After Matt was able to swallow enough to get his heart out of his throat and back where it belonged he laughed; “The City Fathers of Royal City decided it would be nice, you know, artistic, to have a depiction of the wild horses that used to roam this area. Some asshole from the site that was older than dirt fell asleep one day while he was driving back to town from ‘M’ Reactor and ran off the road. To save face he blamed it on the wild horses that used to live on the site and surrounding lands. He said they ran across the road in front of him and he had to swerve to miss them. D.O.E. in its infinite wisdom decided that the horses were a safety hazard and had to go, so they rounded them up and held an adoption, actually it was more of a give away. 30% of the horses that were rounded up died in the first six months after capture, another 40% were shipped to Europe and became dinner for the French and Germans and who knows what happened to the rest. All because some asshole old man didn’t want to admit he fell asleep while driving on a back road.

(Author’s Note; The round up of the wild horse population on a D.O.E. Site actually occurred during the early 1980’s. As to why they were rounded up, well.... There actually are metal representations of wild horses located on the south side of I-90 traveling west before the Columbia River Bridge)

After the ‘almost’ run in with the horses, the flight back to Moreland was uneventful. Less than an hour after jumping the horses, the Blackhawk was settling onto the helicopter pad at the Pontac Memorial Hospital in Moreland after dropping Keener off at the house. Tommy Martin was waiting for them with one of the Sheriff Departments Yukon's and asked them how their flight was.

“Other than having to swallow my asshole a couple times, not bad.” Bitched Matt. “We had to dodge a couple obstacles on the way back cause we were flying so low, God damn I’m glad our pilot knew what he was doing. Any word on when the weather people think it’s going to stop snowing?”

Tommy shook his head; “I been watching the local TV stations since early this morning, all any of the TV Weather People are saying is the front stalled right over the top of us. Depending on who you’re watching, it’s supposed to stop snowing anywhere from an hour ago to tomorrow night, actually, none of them assholes are willing to stick their neck out and make a definite prediction. Except of course Channel Nine; they said it was going to stop an hour ago.”

James smirked; “Figures, anyway, how’s everything back at the house?”

“Fair to middling, I did a drive by and didn't see any smoke or large craters, all the doors and windows that I could se were intact and closed.”

Matt nodded his thanks; “Listen we need to get to the ECC (Emergency Command Center) in the Federal building, Will you pass the word to your Deputies that Keener is on his way here from the house and to pass him on through?"

“Sure Matt, that won't be a problem.” replied Tommy

It took them ten minutes to drive the block and a half to the Federal Building, the city road crews weren’t out yet and there was nearly a foot of fresh snow on the roads. Entering the Federal Building and passing through the metal detectors at the entrance to the D.O.E. section of the building, a Medford Site Patrolman directed them to the stairs leading to the basement area where the ECC was located. Entering the command post, they were assaulted by the noise and controlled chaos as fifteen to twenty men and women were working phones and computers, attempting to gauge the severity of the storm and its effects on the site and surrounding area.

The ECC was set up so each member was clearly identified by the red vest he or she wore; each work station had a name plate identifying its area of responsibility. James went over to the station identified as ‘RADIOLOGICAL CONTROL’ and put on a vest, the vest had ‘ASST RADCON’ printed on the back and picked up a wireless telephone with a headset attached; “To all stations, this is James Bateman, I am the Assistant Radiological Control Officer, I will field all radiological control question’s until such time as the Radiological Control Officer is on scene.”

Matt stood to one side of the room, trying to keep out of everyone’s way as the ECC crew bustled about. After standing near the wall for about a half hour, he saw Keener entering the ECC, after greeting each other they leaned back against the wall and stood there watching the activities of the command post, a few minutes later Colonel Moffet of the Medford Patrol walked over to greet Matt and Keener; “Matt, glad you showed up.” Moffet said as he shook hands with Matt.

Turning to Keener he offered his hand; “I’m Gene Moffet, I don’t believe we’ve met?”

Keener snapped to attention and took the offered hand; “I’m Staff Sergeant Webb, United States Marine Corps sir, it’s a pleasure to finally meet you after hearing so much about you from James and Matt.”

“If you heard it from Matt and James, take it for a grain of salt. You’re helping out as the Unit’s armorer, too bad something like the Unit wasn’t started years ago.”

Colonel Moffet’s statement took Keener completely by surprise, he didn’t even consider himself a blip on the screen as far as anyone outside the Unit and the Corps was concerned. The Colonel seemed to know all about him and his assignment to the Unit, he wondered just how much he did know about him and how he felt, if he knew, about Keener being gay.

Colonel Moffet saw the slight frown appear and then quickly disappear from Keeners face; “Easy Sergeant, Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell works here also. In case you’re wondering, we check out everyone who works with or for the Bateman Brothers, as far as you’re concerned, I’m suitably impressed. I personally don’t give a damn what two consenting adults do on their own time in their own homes, so don’t worry about any problems from us.”

Keener could only nod his head; “Thank you Colonel, I appreciate your attitude.”

“No sweat son, the reason I came over to talk to you is we need some help with search and rescue. The weather is just too shitty for flight ops, and neither the local or state law enforcement people have enough four-wheel drive vehicles to do much more than respond to identified emergency calls. James told me you have a large number of vehicles out at the unit that are capable of operating in these conditions?”

Matt nodded; “We've got three more HUMVEE’s, a dozen fast attack vehicles, another dozen four wheel drive ATV’s and if push comes to shove, two LAV’s. The trouble with the LAV’s is that only James, Keener and I are checked out on their use, at least of the people currently available.”

Colonel Moffet nodded his head; “Out-Fucking-Standing, OOOPS, I meant to say excellent.”

After everyone stopped laughing, the Colonel asked; “If you would be good enough to lend us the use of the vehicles, I have access to discretionary funds that I can disburse to you for their use an.....”

Matt interrupted; “Hold on Gene, part of the reason for the Unit’s being, is to help the community, we neither want nor need your money. We’ll be glad to donate their use, for the duration of this emergency, plus Keener and I’ll be glad to operate the LAV’s. You can use all the vehicles you can find operators for.”

Two hours later Matt and Keener driving the HUMVEE in front of a Medford Site motor coach followed a site ten-ton dump truck equipped with a snowplow as it entered the Bateman Brothers Compound. There was already six inches of new snow on the access road and the parking lot. While the bus disgorged sixty two men and women who had volunteered to operate the Unit’s vehicles for search and rescue operations along with an additional ten support personnel (medics, mechanics and cooks) the dump truck quickly scrapped away the new accumulation of snow before heading back to the site.

Matt and Keener got everyone down to the Cavern and showed them the available facilities, including a fully stocked emergency medical center that had been completed in January. Matt accessed the house computer and called up a map of the local area and set about designating search areas for the vehicles and their crews. Luckily the brothers had ordered canvas enclosures for the FAV’s (Fast Attack Vehicles) so the people operating them wouldn’t freeze their asses off. After the men and women were assigned to their vehicles, Matt assigned two of the extra Medford Site Patrolmen that Colonel Moffet had sent along as communications officers. Each vehicle has a two way radio that was monitored by the house computer, after briefing the patrolmen on the systems capabilities and operation, Keener and Matt called the two men who would be riding with them in the LAV’s.

Jeff Marshall and Allen Barton both Operators on the site and had volunteered to help when the call went out for assistance on the local radio and television networks.

“OK Jeff, you’ll be riding with me and Allen will be riding with Keener. This is going to take awhile, but we’ll be in the warmest and most capable of all the vehicles. If you need to use the facilities go ahead, I’m going to pick up coffee and sandwiches to take along, I’ll meet you up in the garage.”

Fifteen minutes later the vehicles of Unit One started moving toward their assigned SAR (Search And Rescue) areas. Because the LAV’s were the most capable, they were assigned to areas that consisted of mainly dirt roads and semi-mountainous terrain.

Matt and Jeff came upon their first stranded vehicle, a new model Ranger four-wheel drive pickup stuck in a dry irrigation canal when it slid off the road. Jeff de-assed the vehicle and checked the cab, no one was in there. Climbing back into the LAV Jeff told Matt what he’d found; “Shit man, I hope they got to shelter before they turned into ‘Corpsickles’.” Jeff called the discovery into the communications center at the Unit and gave them a description of the vehicle and its license plate number.

For the next two hours they found another five vehicles, two of which had people in them. One of them was just stuck in a snow drift and they were able to pull them free with the LAV, the other had suffered damage to the transmission when it skidded off the road. They got the four occupants in to the LAV, two adults and two children under ten years of age. While Jeff called the rescue in and set up a location for meeting a non-SAR vehicle to transport the family to a shelter, Matt gave the family hot coffee and Hot Chocolate. The mother and father couldn’t stop thanking Matt for rescuing them. The boy and his little sister looked around the interior of the LAV with amazement in their eyes; the boy asked if this was an army tank.

Matt laughed; “No son, it’s what is called a Light Armored Vehicle; the Marine Corps uses them for just this sort of thing and to look for the enemy.”

After dropping the Maitland family off with the transport people, they continued the patrol of their assigned area. About a half hour into the run, Jeff noticed a taillight sticking out of a large snow drift. Matt backed the vehicle up and used the roof mounted one million candlepower Klieg light to illuminate the suspected vehicle.

Jeff once again bailed out of the LAV and wadded through the almost waist high snow drifts. Jeff turned to the LAV and made frantic ‘Come Here’ motions to Matt. Before Matt left the LAV, he called in their location and told the com officer that he was going to assist his partner and would be away from the vehicle. Reaching the car Jeff was trying to get in to it, he saw that it was an older model Chevy Blazer, the paint faded and with lots of dings and dents. Jeff yelled to him; “I can’t get this fucking door open, it looks like its jammed closed.”

Matt wadded through the snow to the other side of the Blazer and tried the passenger door, it too was jammed closed. Matt ran back to the LAV and grabbed an entrenching tool off the side of the vehicle; he then ran back to the Blazer and told Jeff to back away as swung the tool at the driver side window causing it to shatter into a million glittering pieces. Reaching into the vehicle, he pulled on the door handle on the inside while Jeff pulled on the outside door handle. After three jerks, the door flew open.

Looking inside, they saw seven or eight people crammed together, Jeff let out a gasp; “Jesus Christ, they’re all dead.”

From the back of the vehicle they heard a low moan; “Didja hear that?”

Both men ran to the Blazer’s tailgate, when it wouldn’t open Matt yelled; “Back off, watch your eyes,” just before he smashed the rear window. Reaching in, he was able to open the tailgate. Lying in the area between the back seat and the tailgate was a body bundled in a light jacket and covered with a thin blanket and rags.

Matt grabbed the body and pulled it out of the truck and handed it to Jeff; “Get em in the LAV, I’m going to check out the rest of the people.”

While Jeff struggled with the body back to the LAV, Matt climbed through the back and checked the carotid artery on the remaining occupants; unfortunately, they were all dead. Matt backed out of the vehicle turned to the side and vomited everything he had in his stomach, he just stood there, taking great draughts of air into his lungs, occasionally spitting to clear his mouth. After a few minutes, he started to walk back to the LAV; he stopped for a minute and grabbed a handful of snow and stuck some of it into his mouth then spit it out.

Getting back to the LAV, he climbed in and got on the radio telling the com center what they had found. After he completed the report, he sat in the driver’s seat sobbing, he had seen death before, but the dead he had come in contact with were all adults, there were five kids who looked like they were under eight years old in the vehicle. Jeff came over to him and put his hand on Matt’s shoulder; “You OK Matt, what happened?”

Matt told him what he had found in the Blazer and about the kids, as much as he tried, he couldn’t help him self, deep soul racking sobs echoed around the interior of the LAV. Jeff had pulled him to his chest and held him close, trying to comfort the man; “Matt.... Matt, listen to me Matt, we still have one alive, but we got to get him back to the Unit and medical help. Please Matt get hold of yourself or we’re going to lose this one too.”

Matt pulled away from Jeff and shook himself, he looked into Jeff’s eyes and said; I’m sorry for losing it Jeff, I never saw kids dead like that and it kinda shook me up.”

“No problem, can you drive or do you want me to?”

“No, I got it.” Matt said as he got into the driver’s seat and put the LAV into gear.

Jeff went back to the kid who was moaning louder, he broke out a mummy bag and got the kid into it, turning toward Matt he asked; “Can you turn the heat up anymore?”

Matt answered; “That’s all we got, the outside temperature is down to -15 degrees C and it’s as warm as it’s going to get. We’ll be back to the Unit in another eight to tem minutes and we can get him some heated compresses. It is a he isn’t it?”

Jeff looked at the body’s face; “I think so, it’s either a very pretty teenage boy or a really ugly girl, we’ll find out when we get him back for sure.”

Six minutes latter Matt was driving up the access road, he hit the garage door opener and he could hear the alarm bell ringing as he drove in the entrance before the door was fully open. Matt hit the button again and the door started closing accompanied by the warning bell. Matt parked the LAV as close to the elevator as he could and de-assed the vehicle through the driver’s hatch, and then ran around to the side access hatch. Jeff was waiting with the body as Matt opened the hatch; he then passed the kid over to Matt who ran with him to the elevator. Just before he hit the Cavern button Jeff got on the elevator.

Arriving at the Cavern, they got the door opened and Matt ran with the kid to the medical room to find it empty.

“Jeff, see if you can find out if we got any other medically trained personnel down here, I going to get the kid out his clothing.”

Jeff turned and left, Matt grabbed some large bags of IV saline solution and put them into the microwave and set it for a minute. He then started to pull the kid’s clothing off, the more he pulled off of the kid the stronger the odor of urine became, the kid was male, about fourteen or fifteen, he appeared to be of Mexican decent but Matt couldn’t be sure. When he got to the boy’s trousers, he found they were soaked in piss. He pulled them off and found that the boy wasn’t wearing any underwear. His un-circumcised dick had a major case of shrinkage due to the cold he had been exposed to; his nice sized nuts were pulled close to his body trying to get as much warmth as possible. The microwave dinged and Matt pulled the warm bags of liquid from it, replaced them with three more bags and started the microwave again. Taking the bags he covered the boy’s abdomen and chest area with a cloth towel and then placed the bags on his body. When the microwave dinged again, he pulled the bags out and replaced them once again; he covered the boy’s groin area with a hand towel and placed one of the bags over the crotch. The other two bags were added to the ones already in place on the boy’s stomach and chest area. Just as Matt finished adding the fresh bags Jeff and surprisingly Doctor Bahari walked into the room.

“Ahh Matt, I see you understand about warming the core area of the body first, good job. I’ll take care of him, why don’t you go and get yourself some coffee and something to eat?”

Matt and Jeff left the dispensary and went to the dinning facility; Matt grabbed a cup of coffee and a sandwich from the serving line while Jeff freshened his coffee. After sitting down at a table, Matt looked at Jeff; “Listen Jeff, I’m sorry about losing it back there, I just never been in a situation where I come across five dead kids, it really freaked me out.”

Jeff sat there not saying anything while giving Matt a chance to calm down. After about five minutes he looked at Matt and said; “What say we mount up and head out, it’s still snowing and there’s bound to be other people too dumb or just plain unlucky enough to get stuck out there?”

“Yeah, you’re right. I think I’m going to go check on our Juan Doe before we head out, I’ll meet you upstairs.”

Matt walked in to the dispensary and found the doctor working on a shivering boy who had awakened while Matt was in the dining facility; “Capaso Dude, how you doing?”

The boy looked at Matt and tried to smile through his shivering and chattering teeth, he settled for just nodding his head. The doctor was feeding him some warm chicken broth, trying to raise his internal body temperature. Doctor Bahari smiled at Matt and said; “I think he’s going to be OK, after I get this warm broth down him, I’m going to have him take a warm shower.”

“That’ll work, but we also have a whirlpool down in the gym you could stick him in, that might be better. You can set the water temperature to anything you want, from tepid to par-boil.”

The boy looked at Matt with huge brown eyes; “Tttthhhaaannk yyyyyoou mis... mis... Mister.”

Matt reached over and ruffled the boys long black hair and smiled at him; “No sweat son, you just get well. I’ll see you both when I get back. Oh yeah Doc, you can put him in one of the Squadie's rooms if he feels like sleeping.”

“Thanks Matt, I’ll do that.”

Matt went up to the garage and he and Jeff left for another sweep of their assigned area.

Justin Tannonligua sat in the wonderfully warm whirlpool located in what one of the people he came into contact with after he had been saved said was the Unit One Gym. Having no idea what a ‘Unit One’ was, he just lay back and enjoyed the warmth that was slowly seeping into his body, replacing the paralyzing cold. The only thing he could remember after waking up was the cold, he and his aunts, uncles and cousins were trying to make it back to their shack in Yakima when his uncle took a wrong turn and got stuck in a snowdrift. He had already fallen asleep before the Blazer ran out of gas, so he was unaware of the fact that once again he had lost a family.

He was fourteen now, he remembered when his mother, father and two younger brothers died in an automobile accident when he was twelve. Then as now, he woke up in a medical facility with doctors and nurses attending him, he had seen his aunt and uncle looking at him through the window in the ICU room he was in before passing out again.

When he regained consciousness this time, none of his family was waiting and no one could tell him anything about them. This worried him a bit, but he tried to be upbeat about the fact that while he was surrounded by strangers, they all seemed to be nice.

The doctor, who had been working on him when he awoke, came and told him to get out of the whirlpool; he had a big fluffy green towel for him to dry off with. His clothes had disappeared while he was sleeping and no one knew where they were. The doctor told him to wrap the towel around his waist and follow him. They had already given him a set of rubber sandals, they called them flip-flops, he had to admit that was a good name for them as they made a noise that sounded just like their name every time he took a step. They walked into a room that looked just like the food court at the Yakima Mall; it even had potted plants positioned in locations throughout the room. The doctor had him go to the food line, but he didn’t have any money, when he told the doctor this, he just smiled and told him not to worry about it. He soon had a tray of food and he was salivating, never having such an abundance and variety of foods. Justin had started working in the fields last year for the first time and even though he was paid, all his wages went to his uncle to help support the family. He sat down at a table with the doctor and started eating, he tried, but he couldn’t finish even half of the food he had on his tray. When he started to look scared and tear up, the doctor asked him what was wrong.

“Sir, I’m afraid I have done a bad thing, I cannot eat all of this food. Please don’t be mad at me, I’ll save it for later and finish it then, please forgive me.” Sobbed Justin.

The doctor told him to never mind, to just leave the tray on the table and someone would take care of it. The doctor got up and took the boy’s hand and led him from the dining facility to another large room. He opened the door and led him in to a room that had four beds and told him to take off the towel and climb in to the bottom bunk. When he got under the covers, for the first time since his mother had died someone tucked him in, and then kissed him on the forehead. Before leaving the room the doctor asked, “Do you want me to leave the light on or do you want it off?”

Justin asked timidly, “Please leave it on for me, I’m not used to sleeping alone.” The doctor said goodnight and closed the door. Justin didn’t think he would be able to sleep, but the next thing he knew, he heard a lot of talking in the hallway outside his door.

Getting out of bed, Justin wrapped the towel around his waist that he had used when he got out of the whirlpool, by then it was completely dry. He had to go to the bathroom but he was embarrassed because he had a boner, and when he opened the door a little, he saw a large number of boys in the hallway some his age, some older and some younger.

The D.O.E. had sent a snow plow equipped dump truck loaded with sand and salt to Ellensburg to bring the rest of the Unit back, James suggested it and backed up his suggestion with the fact that a large number of Site personnel and city workers were basically trapped in Ellensburg. The trip took the convoy 3 hours to make it back; two of the busses went to the Bateman home and dropped off the boys and such parents who would not be of help in the recovery or SAR efforts. The third bus took the parents who would help in the SAR and recovery efforts to the Federal Building.

Even though the parking lot and the front entrance to the house and garage were scraped by the HUMVEE with the snowplow attachment, the continuous snowfall built up fast. Every couple hours the boys would grab snow shovels and clear the lot and the front entrance and then head back down to dining facility for hot chocolate, coffee or tea, depending on their preference.

Mitch, Phil, David, Mark and Carson were standing in the hallway shooting the shit when Phil noticed a door open up a crack and then close quickly. He caught a brief glimpse of the boy in the room but didn’t recognize him. Phil walked over to the door and knocked, no answer, he knocked again, still no answer. “Hey in there, open up, are you OK?”

His talking through the door got the other boy’s attention, David walked over; “What’s up?”

Phil shrugged; “Not sure, some kid I never saw before is in there.” ‘Knock’ ‘knock’ ‘knock’ “open up! I just want to make sure you’re OK.”

After a few seconds the door slowly opened, standing in the opening was a slim well built boy about their same age or a little younger than Phil. He stuck his hand out, “Hi, I’m Phil Martin, I don’t think we’ve met.”

Justin looked at the hand for a second and slowly reached out and grasped it; “Hello, I’m Justin Tannonligua.”

“Glad to meet you Justin, this is David and Mark White, Mitch Babcock, and Carson McMillan.” The boys shook hands as Phil introduced them.

Just then Tyler English walked up; “Hi guys what’s going on?”

Justin just stared at Tyler; he had never seen anyone so beautiful in his life. His heart started beating faster and he broke out in a sweat. The next thing he knew he was looking up at the doctor who had treated him and shaking his head, trying to get away from the nastiest smell he had ever encountered. The doctor snapped his fingers in front of Justin’s face to get his attention; “Justin, Justin, look at me Justin.”

Justin stopped moving his head and looked the doctor in the eye. When the doctor saw that Justin’s eyes focus on his face he grabbed hold of his arm and pulled him to his feet and moved him to the bed and had him lay on his back. The doctor then started feeling the back of Justin’s head and when he found a lump that caused him to groan he stopped probing.

“Look at me Justin, you got a bump on the back of your head, it’s probably nothing, but I don’t want you to go back to sleep for a while, Justin, Justin, are you listening to me?”

Justin looked at the doctor again and nodded yes. He then turned back to Tyler and just stared at him not knowing what to do.

The doctor turned to the boys; “He was brought in here last night suffering from hypothermia and exposure, he still seems to be a little out of it. I need one of you to stay with him for the next six hours and keep him from going back to sleep.”

Tyler stepped forward; “I got nothing better to do Doc, I’ll do it.”

The doctor turned to Phil; “You’re the Supply Officer for the Unit aren’t you Phil?”

Phil nodded; “Yes sir I am, how can I help?”

“His clothing was lost after we got him here, how about getting him something to wear, especially long underwear, and shoes. I want to keep him as warm as possible. Tyler, get him a hot shower and then take him down to the dining facility and get some food in him, any questions? Good, if he has any further problems, page me.”

Phil looked at Justin; “You’re what, about 5’ 5”?” Justin nodded yes, “Do you know your shoe size Justin?”

Justin thought for a second; “I’ve been wearing 9 1/2 shoes, but they been tight on me.”

Phil nodded, “OK.” He turned to Tyler; “After he gets his shower, bring him over to the supply room and I’ll have his gear ready.”

Tyler nodded his head yes; “Come on Justin let’s go get wet.”

Tyler led him to the shower where he took off his clothes and took Justin by the arm and led him into the shower. Tyler stood in front of Justin completely naked, causing Justin to bone up. Turning bright red from head to toe, Justin tried to turn away from Tyler so Tyler wouldn’t see his hard on.

Tyler got the water hot and turned to Justin noting that he had his back to him; Tyler looked at the tight bubble butt and smiled. He reached over and pulled Justin under the spray and chuckled; “You like the hot water or you just glad to see me?”

Justin started to shake and began crying; “Man I’m so sorry, I can’t help it. Please don’t tell anyone I got hard I can’t help being gay, honest.”

“Whoa, calm down big guy, no one’s going to say anything. Look here buddy.”

Justin looked at Tyler and saw he had a hard on too; “Wha... You, you mean you’re gay too?”

“Well if I’m not, I guess I shouldn’t be sucking so many dicks.”

Justin started to feel dizzy, he felt Tyler grab him and start yelling at him; “Justin, hey Justin knock that shit off, don’t make me hit you guy, I’ll hit ya so hard your fucking kids will be born dizzy, come on guy take it easy.” Tyler shook him gently until Justin stood up straight and ran his hand over his face. “I’m OK, it’s just I’ve only known one other guy who was gay and it surprised me, I’m OK now honest.”