Kara was pouring out rounds when she heard the two explosions and knew more could be coming. She tried to get more info over the radio.
“Heidi!”
No answer.
“Heidi!”
No answer.
“Karen?”
No answer. Damn!
“Andrea!”
No answer. Double damn!
“Kevin?” A scratchy reply came back.
“Here, what was that?”
“Big trouble. Get down to the other end and check on Karen.” Kara was afraid of what he might find.
“Karl, don’t worry about the radio, when they get here, I can hear them on mine. I need you to come down here and relieve me so I can go check on Heidi.”
Paige’s voice came over the radio.
“Karl, swap with me instead. Kara, I can run her weapon when I get there.”
Kara thought hard on their situation. She was about out of solutions and Bekka and crew were probably at least an hour and a half or more away. She had no bad guys coming into her position right now. She keyed her radio again.
“Penny, David, consolidate to the infirmary. I’ll meet you there.”
Kara passed Karl in the hallway.
“Keep a close eye. I think they are hoping the grenades will do the job and might hang back for a few. Give a shout if you see anything and I will come running.”
Kara didn’t wait for a reply, just continued down the hallway. When she came into the den/makeshift infirmary, she was startled by the sights before her. Sabine was slid off the table and kneeling on the floor, leaning onto Karen who now occupied the coffee table.
Sabine felt the shaking, heard the explosions. She opened her eyes in time to see a man carrying an unconscious woman into the room. Call it instinct, call it conditioned reflex, call it whatever, the medic in Sabine commanded her body. It was like she was back in Iraq or Afghanistan all over again. She pulled herself to the left off the table.
She couldn’t even hear her own voice but somehow the man did.
“Put her here.” She waved to the table she was so recently on. The man looked at her with wild eyes, then over her head at something behind her. Before she could manage to turn her head to see who or what he was looking at, she heard a woman’s voice speak.
“Do what she says. We will be fine. You have other things to do, Kevin.”
“OK, Mom.” He gently laid the woman on the coffee table. He looked at Sabine.
“Help her, please.” Before Sabine managed to say something, Kevin ran down another hallway.
Sabine managed to glance over at the couch where an older woman sat with a child in her lap. The child had a large bandage wrapped around her shoulder. The child looked hurt and half conscious. The woman was staring into Sabine’s eyes. She spoke to Sabine.
“Please save her if you can. She is my daughter. Just let me know how I can help.”
“I’ll do what I can.” Sabine said as she started her trauma assessment of the woman on her table. She saw no major leaks on first sweep, so she knew she had to expose and look deeper. She was on her knees, leaning onto the woman with her rescue hook poised when Kara came into the room.
“Sabine! What the **** are you doing?”
Sabine’s soft wispy voice answered her from what sounded like a thousand miles away.
“I can’t fight much, but I can medic some.”
Kara saw the iron determination in the set of her jaw and the sheer deliberateness of her movements. She looked so much like her brother right now Kara almost cried.
“Don’t tear your wounds open! Be careful! Where’s Kevin?”
“I sent him towards your end since you were coming this way.” Sabine said as she was slowly checking Karen out. Kara didn’t see any major wounds but she was unconscious.
Kara looked over at Isadora sitting on the couch with Hera cradled in her lap.
“Keep an eye on her and don’t let her overdo it.”
“Like I can stop her” was Isadora’s reply.
Kara looked around as David, Penny and Olivia came into the room.
“Guys, it’s looking pretty rough right now. I’m going to need one of you to help down at Heidi’s end of the house and I need one of you to cover me as I go back out to the Suburban. I need to start it so I can use the more powerful radio this” she pointed to the one on her belt “is linked to.”
David started shaking his head. Kara hadn’t talked much with him. He was a very quiet, reserved kind of guy from what she has seen in the little time she has been here. He was talking now.
“You can’t go out there. You are our primary medic right now and we have wounded. Since the radio you have is linked to the one in you're truck, all you need is the engine running, right?”
“Yes, I just need it started.” She wasn’t sure she liked the idea of David going out there. She needed him at one of the firing points.
“Keys.” He said with a small twinkle in his eyes and a bit of a grin. Kara tossed him the keys. Quick as a whip, he turned and tossed them to Olivia. “You know what to do! Go!”
“NO!” Both Penny and Kara screamed. Olivia didn’t stop.
“My brother was younger than her when he was sneaking out at night to get us water in Sarajevo. She is almost ten years old. She can do this. At thirteen, my oldest brother was in the block militia, fighting in the inner trenches in the schoolhouse defending our apartment building. Our Olivia is a strong and capable farm-bred girl. Your radio will be on in a moment.”
Penny was glaring at David, hot enough Kara was surprised he didn’t burst into flame.
“Penny, you know she will get it done.” He said hoping she would understand.
“Olivia is my daughter!” Penny almost screamed.
“And my daughter is lying unconscious on that table in front of me.” Isadora’s voice came to them from the other side of the room. “We have to do what we can to get us all out of this trap. Trust David. I do.” Isadora went back to rocking a semi-conscious Hera while another explosion rocked the house.