Andrea, Paige, Kara and Heidi were all standing inside the kitchen by the back door. Heidi was the first to speak.
“Somebody got a towel? I don’t want to drip on everything.”
“Holy Shit! Are there only two of you?” Andrea blurted out. “It sounded like a full-scale assault force out there!”
“Yeah, only two of us, kid. Which one of you is Sprout, I mean Paige?” Kara answered.
“I’m Paige.”
“Great! Glad to meet you! So, you have bad guys surrounding you, and wounded in need of treatment. We are here to help. I’m Kara and my vicious sidekick here is Heidi. She is an Airbase Ground Defense and Combat Specialist. I’m a medic. So, Heidi is going to make the most of keeping the bad guys from getting us while I work on the casualties. We have reinforcements coming, we just have to hold on until they arrive.”
Paige heard the same forceful overwhelming attitude she heard over the radio. These two seemed to have it all figured out. While Kara was talking, Paige got a better look at their equipment. These two were a strange mix of full-on combat gear and something else she couldn’t put her finger on. None of that mattered right now though. They were here to help, and Kara said she was a medic. Paige turned to Andrea.
“Andrea, show Heidi around and make introductions. I’m taking Kara to the wounded.”
Kara had her aid bag on her shoulder as she followed Paige to what turned out to be the den just off the kitchen. In the den was an older lady holding a child and a woman lying on the coffee table. Kara heard Paige speaking but her eyes were on the casualties.
“Kid took a round in the shoulder. We packed it with combat gauze and she seems stable. The other one, she is a lot worse. Took several rifle rounds to the side, lots of torn stuff on their way out. I got it packed off and wrapped up but I’ve had to needle decompress four times, each one hasn’t helped as much as the one before. We remembered how to do IVs and got some fluid in, but she is hurt really bad. Tell me you can do more.”
Paige was looking at Sabine while she described her injuries. When she was done, she looked over at Kara hopefully. Kara was just staring down at Sabine. The room was silent for a few awkward moments.
Kara knelt down gently then pulled back the casualty blanket from Sabine, a very focused and unreadable look on her face. She placed one hand flat on Sabine’s chest just below her throat. After a few seconds, Kara looked over at Paige.
“As soon as Heidi gets a snapshot of our situation, I need her here.”
Kara dropped the med bag down on the floor next to Sabine and started flinging open pouches and compartments.
Heidi was trying to take in all the names and people she was meeting. No, correction, she was trying to look like she was taking in all the names. What she was really doing was trying to boil everything down to things like how many adults, and of these, how many combatants. She was evaluating as much of the layout as she could as they went. She was looking into their faces, trying to gauge …. something? Their resolve, their fatigue factor? In a moment of clarity she had it. She was trying to measure their usefulness for the coming fight.
Each exhibited their qualities in different ways. Karen was full of rage and viciousness, Kevin’s anger is different, it’s mixed with resentment and some other emotion she wasn’t sure of. David has that European strange dichotomy of seeming reservedness yet she could tell he was ready to unleash given the opportunity. Penny was out of her depth for most of this so was resorting to the ‘how can I help’ coping mechanism for the most part, she has a redhead’s temper but doesn’t know what to do with it. Isadora is trying to be the rock, the foundation. Right now she is trying to help with the wounded granddaughter so the others can do other things. Heidi knew she would probably shift Isadora to something else for a bit since Paige is in with the wounded now.
Karl is trying to be the solid patriarch. He was trying to keep people thinking and quell the panic. Heidi could see it in his eyes Karl was scared and working hard not to show it. Andrea wasn’t sure what to do or which direction to go but was ready to fight or anything else they needed.
That left Paige. Paige… The whole reason they came out here. Paige was trying to maneuver things and people by doing everything she could for them. She had a very matter-of-fact flat presence Heidi wasn’t sure about. She had seen this before in a few, very few, people she had been in combat with. It was a strange sense Paige was disconnected from the effects of the events going on around her. Not oblivious, more like resigned and unconcerned about herself, only about her people determined to protect her people and getting them out alive.
Paige came up to her while she was finishing her tour and told her Kara needed her with the casualties. Not a good sign thought Heidi as she cut her tour short.
When Heidi walked in, the first thing she noticed was it looked like Kara’s aid bag had exploded all over the floor.
“Good you’re here. I need two things from you.” Kara started without even looking up.
Heidi looked around. Kara and her patient were the only ones in here.
“I thought there were two casualties?”
“I sent the other one with the grandmother to another area. We are going to be doing some invasive and disturbing things they didn’t need to watch.” Kara said as she set out a couple vacuum-packed bundles.
Heidi knelt down next to Kara.
“How is she doing?” Heidi asked while stating at the patient.
“Horrible. I have a lot to do and it may not work.” Kara stopped talking and sat up.
“But we will save her. Period.” Kara’s voice sounded angry now.
“What do I need to do to help?”
“First, hold her still while I put a chest tube in. She has a collapsing right lung. They darted her four times and she is leaking air and blood. Once I get the tube in, we can relieve the pressure. Then we need to give her some blood. We can start with two units from me while we find out if we have any other O- donors.”
“Any other blood type work?”
“No, has to be O-, that’s her blood type. I know mine will work, that’s why we start with mine. The kits have Elden cards so we can test anyone else to make sure before we give her anyone else’s blood.”
“Did you already test hers?”
“No, checked her tags.” Kara pointed to the casualty’s dog tag bundle on her chest.
“So, chest tube. What help do you need from me? I don’t know how to do one of those.”
Heidi was still trying to process everything Kara was saying, on top of the major part of her brain working out how to defend this place.
“The big thing is to hold her still when I cut and place the tube. After I get the tube in, I’ll need you to hold it in place while I secure it.” Kara was talking while she laying her equipment and painting the casualty’s side with iodine.
Heidi following Kara’s instructions knelt next to Sabine’s left side and reaching across her body, held her hip in place and pulled her right arm across her chest towards her, exposing the incision site. She knew when Kara cut because this unconscious person twitched and pulled against her trying to get away from the pain of the knife.
The incision was between the ribs followed by Kara using forceps to hold the incision open enough to pass the chest tube into the pleural space. She looked over at Heidi.
“Good, now you can let go of her arm and hip. I need you to hold this tube in place and not let it move at all. I need to suction and secure it.”
Heidi fumbled to find the tube, fighting her position and her small wing span. Soon she found her hands guided by Kara‘s. Heidi ended up leaning across and half on Sabine, at least that’s what Paige said her name was. Once again Heidi felt she was holding someone’s life in her hands.
She saw Kara with a turkey baster looking thing with a bag attached. She guessed it was the suction she was talking about. She placed a one-way valve on the end of the tube, followed by the giant bulb syringe suction device. It didn’t take Kara long to get it hooked up to the valve thing and started squeezing vigorously. The tube got warm in her hand and she could hear a wet, slurping sound.
Kara cut a super sticky chest seal to wrap around and secure the tube in place.
Heidi looked at Sabine’s face. She seemed to be more relaxed now. Her face was less pinched.
She looked over at Kara’s face. She still looked worried until she saw Heidi watching, then a grim smile was plastered on her face as she spoke.
“One thing down, a thousand more things to go,” Let’s get this blood drawn so you can get back out there and hold the line.”