{"id":300,"date":"2013-07-22T13:07:36","date_gmt":"2013-07-22T13:07:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dreamers-sanctuary.com\/undead\/?page_id=300"},"modified":"2013-07-22T13:07:36","modified_gmt":"2013-07-22T13:07:36","slug":"chapter-76","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/dreamers-sanctuary.com\/undead\/story\/chapter-76\/","title":{"rendered":"Chapter 76"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chapter 76<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

When you grow up a hemophiliac, the world around you seems like a dangerous place.\u00a0 Potential accidents and injuries lurk everywhere, waiting to strike.\u00a0 A bad cut or a blow to the gut can lead to a bleed, which, for me, meant landing in the hospital to be pumped full of clotting factor.\u00a0 As a kid, I hated being in the hospital, so I learned to play it safe.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t play sports.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t rough-house with my brother and sisters.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t use sharp tools.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t take risks.\u00a0 Instead, I took it easy.<\/i><\/p>\n

It\u2019s funny\u2026\u00a0 The world we live in now is more dangerous than ever, yet I find myself taking risks every day, doing things I never would have imagined myself doing before.\u00a0 We\u2019re surrounded by death, but in a weird way, I\u2019ve never felt so alive.\u00a0 The daily dangers we face and the risks we take are necessary, in order to better our situation.\u00a0 Just like in business, sometimes the risks pay off.\u00a0 Sometimes they don\u2019t.<\/i><\/p>\n

And sometimes they backfire, leaving us in a far more dangerous situation than we were before\u2026<\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Friday, October 5, 2012<\/b><\/b>
\nWeek Twenty-Four<\/i><\/p>\n

Howard Dorough had lived in Florida all his life, but there had been times when he\u2019d dreamed of moving to one of the big cities up north \u2013 New York, perhaps, or Boston, maybe even Chicago.\u00a0 All of his family was in Florida, though, and they\u2019d meant more to him than he\u2019d let them know when they were alive.\u00a0 They \u2013 especially Barty \u2013 had kept him rooted there, in the SunshineState.<\/p>\n

Not a bad place for a real estate tycoon to make his fortune.\u00a0 The hotel business had been booming in Florida, land of sand and sun, theme parks and palm trees.\u00a0 Tourism once made up the largest sector of the state\u2019s economy.\u00a0 Not anymore, though.\u00a0 The only visitors they got now were the unwanted kind.\u00a0 The undead kind.\u00a0 The Sunshine State had become Zombieland.<\/p>\n

Once again, Howie wished he could go north, somewhere with a real autumn, where the weather grew cool and the leaves changed colors in the fall.\u00a0 Instead, he was still perspiring like a pig under a canopy of green that provided only minimal relief from the unrelenting Florida heat.\u00a0 He had removed his sweat-soaked shirt, and the sun beat down on his bare back, streaming through the filter of leaves to bake his skin to a crisp while he worked.\u00a0 He was tan naturally, courtesy of his Puerto Rican mother, but he had never been so brown \u2013 or so strong.<\/p>\n

Howie had always been trim, but also short and scrawny.\u00a0 At only five feet, six inches, his slight build had earned him the nickname \u201cRunt\u201d from his four older siblings.\u00a0 The kids at school had been crueler, calling him names like \u201cChihuahua\u201d and \u201cMunchkin.\u201d\u00a0 (It didn\u2019t help that he\u2019d once played a member of the Lollipop Guild in a community theatre production of The Wizard of Oz<\/i>.)\u00a0 He had never been able to play sports because of his hemophilia, so he\u2019d never built up much muscle or endurance.\u00a0 Instead, he had surrounded himself with books and, later, computers, developing his brain, rather than his body.<\/p>\n

Over the last few months, though, and in the last six weeks, especially, his body had changed.\u00a0 He had bulked out, built up muscle from all the hours of chopping and sawing, lifting and hauling, hammering and pounding, as he helped the others build the wooden wall along the coastline of the base.\u00a0 He had never been stronger or in such good physical shape.\u00a0 If Bree could see me now,<\/i> he thought, smiling to himself, as he tossed a log into the bed of the truck.<\/p>\n

Without Kevin, Nick, and Riley, and with Brian and Gretchen still gone, Howie made up one quarter of the manpower that remained on the base.\u00a0 He and AJ had taken over the logging duties, bringing fresh lumber for Jo and Gabby to continue assembling the fence.\u00a0 It had been a good bonding experience for both pairs \u2013 mother and daughter, and whatever he and AJ could be called.\u00a0 Two men with nothing in common, brought together by a virus that had killed virtually everyone else they knew, forced to work together to ensure their survival.\u00a0 Friends?<\/p>\n

There had been a time when Howard had felt he\u2019d never, in a million years, think of the tattooed drunk as a friend.\u00a0 He was a loose cannon, unhinged, unpredictable, almost uncivilized, compared to Howard\u2019s straight-laced, practical, businesslike demeanor.\u00a0 They were complete opposites, but oddly enough, Howie had come to feel a sense of kinship with AJ.\u00a0 It was a yin and yang sort of relationship; in a way, their differences complimented each other, made it easier to get along.\u00a0 They didn\u2019t butt heads for power, as Howie had with Kevin; in fact, there wasn\u2019t a leader on the base anymore.\u00a0 Or, perhaps, they had all become leaders, in their own right.<\/p>\n

Of the four, AJ and Gabby were the creative ones; they came up with the ideas.\u00a0 Jo and Howie were the rational ones; they made the plans, divided the work, and organized everything.\u00a0 Even with such small numbers, the four of them had such a balance that they\u2019d managed to keep things running smoothly around the base, holding down the fort until the others returned.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf Brian and Gretch are gone much longer, we\u2019ll have this fence finished by the time they get back!\u201d Howie called to AJ, who was high up in one of the tallest trees.\u00a0 He always climbed up high to start, sawing off the top branches first and then working his way down.\u00a0 They had given up on cutting down whole trees; with so few of them, it was just too tough and too dangerous, so they had settled for smaller logs instead.\u00a0 AJ was like a monkey in the trees; he liked to climb and cut, and being up high gave him the perfect vantage point to watch for the undead, while Howie worked down below, sawing the branches down to useable logs, piling them neatly in the back of the truck to bring back to the ladies.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose slackers!\u201d AJ shouted back, jokingly.\u00a0 Neither of them asked the questions that were really on their minds:\u00a0 What was taking Brian and Gretchen so long??\u00a0 And what about the others?\u00a0 When would they be back?<\/p>\n

Howie often found himself searching the sky while he was working outside, putting his hand up over his eyes to shield them from the sun as they panned the horizon, hoping to spot a plane.\u00a0 He\u2019d caught AJ doing the same thing.\u00a0 Both of them kept their ears pricked, listening not only for the moans of zombies, but the distant rumble of an engine that would signal their friends\u2019 return.\u00a0 With each passing day in which this did not happen, the worry that something disastrous had befallen the others grew, gnawing away at Howie\u2019s gut.<\/p>\n

He was surprised by how much he\u2019d come to care for the other eight survivors in their group.\u00a0 Though he had the social skills necessary to succeed in business, Howie had never been much of a people person.\u00a0 He got along with most people reasonably well and had made a respectable CEO, known for being level-headed and fair.\u00a0 But he was also seen as uptight, and his serious disposition and inclination towards privacy had isolated him from others, kept him from making many close bonds with other people.\u00a0 In his old life, he\u2019d had many acquaintances, colleagues and business contacts, but few true friends.\u00a0 He had been closest to his family.<\/p>\n

His ex-wife, Bree, was one of the few who had been able to pull him out of his shell.\u00a0 But then, he\u2019d always had a way with women.\u00a0 Even though his sense of humor left something to be desired, he knew how to play \u201cSweet D,\u201d as his college girlfriend had dubbed him, and charm the ladies.\u00a0 He had money and style, along with his wink and winning smile, and once women found out he wasn\u2019t gay, they enjoyed being wined and dined by Howard Dorough.\u00a0 That was how he had managed to score a knockout like Bree.\u00a0 She had been a trophy wife, it was true, but she was also the mother of his child, and he had cared about her, even after their separation.\u00a0 And, of course, he had loved his son, in a way he had never loved another person before and would never love again.<\/p>\n

No, his relationships with the others here couldn\u2019t compare to that level of love, but still, Howie cared for them more deeply than he\u2019d ever expected to when he, AJ, and Kayleigh had first arrived on the base.\u00a0 It brought him some comfort, to have companionship in this crazy new world, but it a way, it caused more worry and created more fear.\u00a0 He wasn\u2019t just concerned with his own well-being anymore, but that of eight other people, as well.\u00a0 They had already lost Kayleigh, who had been his closest friend on the base, and the pain of her death still plagued him.\u00a0 He couldn\u2019t stand the thought of losing someone else, let alone five of them.\u00a0 He hoped at least one of the groups would make it back soon and put his restless mind at ease.<\/p>\n

\u201cHeads up!\u00a0 Incoming!\u201d bellowed AJ from up in the tree.\u00a0 Snapping back to attention, Howie looked up in time to jump back out of the way, as a severed branch crashed down through the leaves and landed at his feet.\u00a0 He dragged it into the clearing where the truck was parked and knelt down beside it, picking up the handsaw to whittle it down to a leafless log.<\/p>\n

In between strokes of the saw, he could hear AJ rustling around in the tree.\u00a0 Howie glanced up once and saw that AJ had moved down to a lower perch.\u00a0 He was straddling a tree limb, his legs swinging freely on each side as he happily sawed away at the end of the branch.\u00a0 In his dirty wifebeater and torn camo pants, his rifle holstered to a sling across his chest, he looked more like a guerilla fighter than a lumberjack.\u00a0 Make that gorilla fighter,<\/i> thought Howie, smiling at his pun as he watched AJ\u2019s legs swing.\u00a0 He looked comfortable enough in the tree, but the smile slid off of Howie\u2019s face as he thought, This is dangerous.\u00a0 We really should look for a ladder.<\/i>\u00a0 Neither of them knew what they were doing; AJ was certainly no logger.\u00a0 But he had taken charge of the operation after Kevin and the others had left, and Howie knew better than to try to tell AJ what to do.<\/p>\n

His eyes returned to the fallen branch in front of him, as he went back to his own task.\u00a0 The two of them worked quietly for awhile, the racket of their saws keeping them from talking to each other.\u00a0 It was tough work, and Howie paused often, to rest and to listen for zombies.\u00a0 It was during one of these pauses that he heard an ominous sound\u2026 not a moan, but a creak.<\/p>\n

He looked up again.\u00a0 AJ was still sawing away, oblivious, but Howie didn\u2019t miss the way the bow he was straddling sagged beneath his weight with every stroke of the saw.\u00a0 The branch looked thick enough, but it wasn\u2019t going to support his weight with the added pressure he was putting on it.\u00a0 \u201cAJ!\u201d he called, but AJ either didn\u2019t hear him or chose to ignore him.\u00a0 He was hunched over in concentration, his left hand gripping the tree branch for balance, while his right arm pumped back and forth, sawing hard and fast for a few more seconds.<\/p>\n

\u201cAJ!\u201d Howie shouted again, more frantically this time, knowing what was going to happen mere seconds before it did.\u00a0 There was just enough time for him to realize it, but not nearly enough to prevent it.\u00a0 The limb creaked again, bending lower, and just as AJ lifted his saw and straightened up, looking down in surprise, the wood started to splinter.<\/p>\n

\u201cShit!\u201d Howie heard AJ yell and saw him start to scramble, bringing one leg up onto the branch to boost himself up.\u00a0 But it was too late:\u00a0 a second later, the bow broke clean away from the trunk, and down came AJ, saw and all, hitting the ground at the base of the tree with a sickening thump.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh my god!\u201d\u00a0 Howie rushed forward to where AJ lay in a crumpled heap, sprawled out on his back.\u00a0 The tree limb was on top of him, pinning his left leg underneath it.\u00a0 Even with the branch in the way, Howie could tell it was bent at an unnatural angle.\u00a0 \u201cAJ?\u201d he asked frantically, afraid to touch him or try to move anything, for fear of hurting him worse.<\/p>\n

AJ groaned.\u00a0 \u201cFuck, that hurt,\u201d he rasped, his voice sounding strained.<\/p>\n

It was a relief to hear him talking, even cursing.\u00a0 Hovering over him, Howie smiled hopefully and asked, \u201cWhere does it hurt?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEverywhere\u2026 my leg, mostly.\u00a0 I can\u2019t\u2026 move it,\u201d replied AJ, struggling with the effort.\u00a0 Howie was glad to see him moving the rest of his body, though it probably wasn\u2019t a good idea.\u00a0 \u201cGet this thing off me\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOkay.\u00a0 Okay, I\u2019m going to.\u00a0 Just lie still,\u201d said Howie, bending down to grip the branch.\u00a0 Easy does it.\u00a0 You can do this<\/i>, he coached himself.\u00a0 He knew he was level-headed, good at handling high-stress situations.\u00a0 The sight of blood didn\u2019t bother him; if it ever had, he\u2019d gotten over it a long time ago.\u00a0 It helped when it wasn\u2019t his own.<\/p>\n

That was a good thing, because when he dragged the tree limb off of AJ, there was plenty of blood.\u00a0 It flowed from a gaping wound in the side of his shin, just below the knee, where a jagged piece of leg bone protruded.\u00a0 Seeing the white bone, tinged red with blood, poking through the torn skin, Howie couldn\u2019t help but cringe.\u00a0 He had to look away, but even then, he still saw it in his mind\u2019s eye.\u00a0 It was a sight his memory would never let him forget.<\/p>\n

AJ noticed his reaction.\u00a0 \u201cWhat is it?\u201d he asked, coughing, as he struggled to sit up.<\/p>\n

Howie turned back around.\u00a0 \u201cNo, don\u2019t look,\u201d he started to say, but it was too late.\u00a0 AJ had already lifted his head far enough to see.\u00a0 Maybe he was already slipping into shock, or perhaps it was just the rush of adrenaline that had delayed his response to pain, but it wasn\u2019t until he actually saw his own leg that he started to scream.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh god\u2026 oh god!\u201d he panted, hyperventilating in between heart-wrenching, guttural cries of agony.\u00a0 It lasted only a few seconds, until a fresh spurt of blood from the hole in his leg caused his face to drain of all the color that remained.\u00a0 AJ\u2019s eyes rolled up into his head, and he toppled backwards in a dead faint.<\/p>\n

At first, Howie wasn\u2019t sure whether to be more concerned or relieved that he was passed out cold.\u00a0 At least the horrible screaming had stopped.\u00a0 But then the hairs on the back of his neck stood on end, as AJ\u2019s screams were answered by an even more horrible sound:\u00a0 the ravenous moan of a zombie.\u00a0 It was enough to make his blood run cold; he felt a chill, despite the heat.\u00a0 All the noise had alerted the lingering undead to their presence, and soon, very soon, he knew, the walking corpses would come staggering through the trees to claim the fresh human flesh they craved.<\/p>\n

He was not about to leave AJ lying around to become zombie meat.\u00a0 Forgoing the most basic rules of first aid, he bent down and pulled AJ into a sitting position, sliding his arms under AJ\u2019s and around his body.\u00a0 AJ\u2019s head lolled, unconscious.\u00a0 His body was heavy and limp, dead weight.\u00a0 It was a relief he wasn\u2019t any bigger than he was; otherwise, Howie never would have been able to lift him.\u00a0 But the surge of adrenaline coursing through him, the pure desperation to get himself and AJ away from there, must have bolstered the muscle he\u2019d built up over the summer.\u00a0 Somehow, he found the strength he needed to hoist AJ over his shoulder in a fireman\u2019s hold.<\/p>\n

As he did, he heard another sickening crunch.\u00a0 Broken leg,<\/i> he thought, wincing.\u00a0 He couldn\u2019t see it, but he pictured AJ\u2019s leg dangling like a rag doll\u2019s.\u00a0 It needed to be stabilized; he was going to make it worse, picking AJ up this way.\u00a0 But what other choice did he have?\u00a0 It was too late now.\u00a0 Struggling beneath AJ\u2019s weight, he waddled towards the truck.\u00a0 Thankfully, the tailgate was still down, the bed not yet full with logs.\u00a0 He eased AJ down onto it, climbing up to drag him in further.\u00a0 AJ moaned, his eyelids fluttering, and Howie squirmed as he imagined the pain his friend was in, pain that had probably doubled in his efforts to get him to safety.<\/p>\n

\u201cHang on, AJ,\u201d he whispered.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019m getting you out of here.\u00a0 I\u2019ll take you to Jo.\u00a0 She\u2019ll know what to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

He patted AJ\u2019s shoulder awkwardly, then jumped out of the back of the truck and raised the tailgate.\u00a0 Leaving both saws and AJ\u2019s gun on the ground, he rushed around to the driver\u2019s side and climbed into the cab, just as the first zombie emerged from the trees.\u00a0 Howie didn\u2019t hesitate.\u00a0 The key was already in the ignition, and as soon as he turned on the engine, he threw it into drive and slammed his foot down onto the accelerator.\u00a0 He swerved to plow into the zombie and felt a sickening, yet satisfying bump as the tires rolled over the fallen corpse.\u00a0 \u201cSorry!\u201d he called over his shoulder, thinking not of the zombie, but of AJ, being jostled around in the back.<\/p>\n

He drove more carefully after that, but still quickly, speeding back up the coastline of the peninsula, until he spotted Jo and Gabby working on the wall.\u00a0 Rolling down his window, he slowed the truck and stuck his head out.\u00a0 \u201cAJ\u2019s hurt!\u201d he shouted.\u00a0 \u201cHe fell from a tree!\u00a0 His leg\u2019s broken!\u201d<\/p>\n

Jo came running, Gabby on her heels.\u00a0 \u201cTake us to the medical center,\u201d she said, and without hesitation, she boosted herself up and over the tailgate to get to AJ.<\/p>\n

Gabby climbed into the passenger seat and looked at Howie with wide eyes.\u00a0 \u201cWhat happened?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe branch broke,\u201d he murmured, shaking his head, as he removed his foot from the brake and drove on.\u00a0 \u201cHe should never have been up that high\u2026 We should have used a ladder\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Gabby shrug.\u00a0 \u201cI climbed trees all the time as a kid.\u00a0 I fell out of one once and broke my wrist.\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t that bad.\u00a0 I got a cast that went all the way up to my elbow \u2013 lime green \u2013 and all the kids in my class got to sign it.\u00a0 It was pretty cool at first, except it got real itchy, and that was annoying.\u00a0 And when I got it cut off, my arm was all, like, white and shriveled \u2013 you know, like when you stay in the bathtub too long?\u00a0 And it stunk<\/i>!\u00a0 Eww, it was so gross!\u201d\u00a0 She laughed, then added, \u201cBut it went back to normal.\u00a0 It\u2019s fine now.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 In his peripheral, Howie saw her rotate her wrist freely.\u00a0 He continued to stare straight ahead, wishing he could tune out her incessant chatter.\u00a0 \u201cHe\u2019ll be okay,\u201d Gabby said assuredly.\u00a0 \u201cMy mom can fix him up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Howie wished he had the same confidence.\u00a0 He wanted to tell Gabby, \u201cI bet your wrist didn\u2019t break clear through the skin, did it?\u201d\u00a0 But he said nothing.\u00a0 He had never broken a bone himself, but he knew it would take more than a lime green cast to make AJ\u2019s leg good as new.\u00a0 If the world were normal, AJ would surely need surgery.\u00a0 But Jo was just a nurse.\u00a0 Her medical skills were impressive, no doubt; he would never forget that she had saved his life.\u00a0 Still, he knew there were limits to her expertise.<\/p>\n

He pulled up in front of the medical center, stopping just short of the front doors.\u00a0 \u201cGo in and find one of those gurneys on wheels,\u201d he told Gabby.\u00a0 She nodded and scrambled out of the truck, running into the building.\u00a0 Howie got out, too, and went around to the back, where Jo had already climbed down and was lowering the tailgate.\u00a0 \u201cHow bad is it?\u201d he asked her in a low voice.<\/p>\n

Her face looked pale.\u00a0 \u201cBad,\u201d she whispered back.<\/p>\n

Gabby brought the gurney, and together, they carefully eased AJ out of the truck bed and onto it, wheeling him into the building.\u00a0 It was a mess inside, supplies and equipment thrown haphazardly everywhere, some of it used and soiled with bodily fluids.\u00a0 The air stunk like death.\u00a0 But at least they had cleared the place of zombies.\u00a0 There were no undead around to bother them as they took AJ into one of the rooms to do what they could for him.<\/p>\n

Howie had to hand it to Jo \u2013 she knew what she was doing.\u00a0 At first, she barked out order after order, sending Gabby and him to search for supplies, asking them to hold things for her as she worked on AJ.\u00a0 Howie watched, impressed, as she started a pair of IVs, one in each of his arms, to give him painkillers and antibiotics.\u00a0 \u201cInfection is the biggest problem we have to watch out for now,\u201d she explained quietly, as she tended to AJ\u2019s open wound.\u00a0 He was unconscious, thanks to the combination of shock and sedatives.\u00a0 \u201cWith an open fracture like this, the infection can get into the bone, and if that happens\u2026\u201d\u00a0 She trailed off, shaking her head.<\/p>\n

Howie could guess what she was leaving him to infer.\u00a0 AJ would face losing his leg\u2026 or death.\u00a0 He prayed it wouldn\u2019t come to that.\u00a0 \u201cThat\u2019s what the antibiotics are for, right?\u201d he asked hopefully.\u00a0 \u201cTo keep that from happening?\u201d<\/p>\n

Jo nodded, but she said, \u201cIt\u2019s still a risk.\u00a0 We\u2019ll have to be diligent about keeping the wound clean.\u201d<\/p>\n

He fell silent as he watched her carefully wash out the hole in AJ\u2019s leg, removing fragments of bone with a pair of tweezers and cutting away the ragged edges of his torn skin.\u00a0 She realigned the broken bones as best she could before dressing the wound and stabilizing it with a splint.\u00a0 It took a long time, but Howie was still surprised when she stopped her work.\u00a0 \u201cYou\u2019re not going to put a cast on it?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n

She shook her head.\u00a0 \u201cWe won\u2019t be able to watch for infection if he\u2019s in a cast.\u00a0 The splint will have to do for now, to keep it stable.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe needs surgery, doesn\u2019t he?\u201d Howie expressed his earlier thought.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes,\u201d Jo admitted, looking grim.\u00a0 \u201cBut it\u2019s too risky.\u00a0 I\u2019m no orthopedic surgeon; I don\u2019t know the first thing about pinning broken bones back together, and I doubt they have the supplies here for that kind of operation.\u00a0 I\u2019d probably end up doing more damage than good if I tried.\u201d\u00a0 Her shoulders sagged in defeat.\u00a0 \u201cI think our best option is to keep his leg clean and immobilized, until it heals on its own.\u00a0 He\u2019s lucky in one way:\u00a0 it looks like a clean break.\u00a0 The bones will fuse back together eventually, as long as they\u2019re kept aligned.\u00a0 How much use he\u2019ll get out of that leg, though, I can\u2019t say.\u201d\u00a0 She sighed.\u00a0 \u201cWe\u2019ll just have to wait and see.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wait and see\u2026<\/i>\u00a0 Howie was tired of waiting.\u00a0 Waiting for AJ\u2019s leg to heal.\u00a0 Waiting for the others to return.\u00a0 Waiting for some sign that the world as a whole was not a lost cause.<\/p>\n

The longer he waited, the less hopeful he felt.<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

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Chapter 76 When you grow up a hemophiliac, the world around you seems like a dangerous place.\u00a0 Potential accidents and injuries lurk everywhere, waiting to strike.\u00a0 A bad cut or a blow to the gut can lead to a bleed, … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":8,"menu_order":76,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"onecolumn-page.php","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/dreamers-sanctuary.com\/undead\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/300"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/dreamers-sanctuary.com\/undead\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/dreamers-sanctuary.com\/undead\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/dreamers-sanctuary.com\/undead\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/dreamers-sanctuary.com\/undead\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=300"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/dreamers-sanctuary.com\/undead\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/300\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":301,"href":"http:\/\/dreamers-sanctuary.com\/undead\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/300\/revisions\/301"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/dreamers-sanctuary.com\/undead\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/8"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/dreamers-sanctuary.com\/undead\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=300"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}