Chapter 37
I ran upstairs to see if I could find what was making the high-pitched whining that had set the dogs off. I cracked the window open only to hear Sgt. Cahill yelling, “Is that ours?!”
“No Sir!” one of the men answered followed by some cussing. “I think it’s an enemy Fire Scout! The damn thing has a lock on our drone! Jackson, Dundee … get out of the …!!”
I hope to never see something like that again. The whosiwhatsit they called a Fire Scout looked like a mini helicopter with no one driving it, and spit out what I thought at first were bullets. I found out that they kinda were but they were more like darts in that they didn’t have their own propulsion the way a bullet does. The Fire Scout used air propulsion to “throw” the metal piercing darts.
The drone wasn’t the only thing the darts hit. Both Jackson and Dundee were down before they could fully exit the jeep. According to what I heard later it was a “new and improved” version that was only 12-feet long and could fly as much as 100 miles at 100 knots before running out of juice. It is why it is called a Fire Storm 100. The only thing we had on our side was that it was supposedly only designed to target other drones and not people by International Agreement Number Something or Other. I knew instinctively that we didn’t want that thing to fly home and tell where we were.
I got my bow – stupid, stupid, but it was all I had – and that thing was still flying around making sure that our drone was completely disabled. There was movement and the thing spit more darts. So surprise, surprise, it doesn’t just target drones but uses a limited repertoire to target any movement within so many yards of its primary target.
I ran upstairs to the attic, crawled over all the flotsam up there, and went through a window to lay flat on the roof. The Fire Scout was flying so low at that point that I was above it. The main set of blades were hardened off and I couldn’t do anything, but the blade on the back, what Sgt. Cahill later called the tail rotor, wasn’t as protected. I got what Mitch called “ungodly lucky” and was able to put a carbon bow shaft so that it caused the tail rotor to malfunction. And with no tail rotor the mini helicopter started spinning like a top. It didn’t take long for it to crash just on the other side of the jeep. Unintended consequences however was that the thing had plenty of fuel still in it and I got back inside and started running down, slamming the door on the dogs and then running to the barn to get shovels.
“What the hell?!” I hear someone yelp when I throw shovels down and Mitch grabs one and we both take off. We had to dig a fire break to keep it from spreading. The field where it fell was too dry to just hope a fire wouldn’t spread. The shovel was ripped out of my hand by Sgt. Cahill and he yells for me to go help with the wounded. The other guy was there with one of the other shovels so I yell to Mitch, “I’m gone!”
I see the third guy on the ground beside the jeep trying to figure out how to help Jackson and Dundee. “Grab him under the arms and drag him towards the porch! We gotta get him out of the way just in case!”
I grabbed Dundee and started pulling her back. I know it hurt because she screamed but we couldn’t leave them lying in the dirt where a fire could spread any second.
“Where are you going?!” Guy’s name turned out to be Jarrell.
“Tarp, water, and other yada, yada. You got a first aid kit?”
Before I could run Dundee grabbed my ankle. “Jeep. Field kit.”
I turned and sprinted for the jeep and grabbed the kit – thank goodness for red crosses being universal so I didn’t have to dig around through the rest of the stuff around it and waste time – ran back to find Jackson going into shock. “Crap!” I snarled. “Keep him still.” I grabbed a piece of wood that I’d been chopping earlier and used it to elevate his feet a little. Then I grabbed the field kit and pull out the pressure bandages. There were scissors in there too which is what I used to cut away the uniform around the wounds.
Dundee was with it just enough that she told me how the new-fangled, military-grade, field trauma pressure bandages worked and where to place them so I didn’t cut off all the circulation to the arm and leg wounds he had. She tried to put her own on but I had Jarrell help her when I noticed she was shaking. Then I got the wounds elevated and supported. Before I could elevate Dundee’s leg wound I had to splint it to stabilize the leg because it was turned just funny enough that I thought it might be broken. I’m moving at ninety to nothing but it also felt like things were in slow motion and too slow. Next, out came the crinkly emergency blankets.
Jackson started crashing. “Yo, yo, yo Jackson! You do NOT stop breathing on my watch!”
Right before the forced evacuation I had renewed my CPR certification so I was all trained up. It only took a few rounds for Jackson to breathe on his own and boy was I thankful. They never tell you just how gross real CPR can be.
I loosened all their restrictive clothing including belts, bootlaces, and on Medic Dundee I cut the sports bra she was wearing so I didn’t have to worry she couldn’t breathe.
“Dammit that was a new one,” she cussed at me.
“You have my sympathies but if you were in my place you’d do the same thing. Are you cold? Dizzy?”
“Cold,” she said with a shiver. “Blood loss and reaction. You need to monitor Jackson’s vitals. There’s a bad and stub pencil in the side pocket of the … yeah. Is he in shock or unconscious?”
“Yo! Jackson! Roll your eyeballs if you can hear me!” He didn’t just roll his eyeballs, he grabbed me. On the right arm where I was still healing.
I yelped. Loud. I felt myself pulled backwards and Jackson let go before I had to break his hand.
It was Jarrell and he asked, “You hurt?”
“Previous ouch. Jackson just grabbed it. Do me a favor and try and get him to calm down. His breathing is getting funky again.”
I held my arm to me trying to make the pain subside enough so I could do what needed doing.
Unbelievably Dundee was trying to sit up. “And they call me hard headed. Lay down will you?” I snapped at her.
“What’s the injury?”
“Mine? Shallow puncture. Kinda thing happens on a farm. And yes, I have an up-to-date tetanus shot. And before anymore weird questions, I have Wilderness and Remote First Aid Training, am a certified Wilderness First Responder, and have certs in WALS, TMFR, and was working on my CRFA. So I’m not going to accidentally cut a body part off and sew it back on in the wrong place.”
“Why?”
“Why what? And you need to stay calm and quiet.”
“If you get to ask me why I get to ask you why. And humor me. It’ll keep my mind off what is going on and that’ll make me calmer.”
I decided to answer her questions while I checked over her wounds just in case she wasn’t blowing smoke at me. “When you are the only girl and the little sister of a Venture Crew you have to find some way to prove yourself. I was our crew’s medic, forager, and cook. I just use the guys as mules and a labor pool.”
She snorted a surprised laugh. “You’re really a Scout?”
“Really. Or was. Still am until I age out at twenty if our Crew is still registered. Right now …” I sighed. “I got separated from my immediate family. My big brother is … or was … our Crew Leader.”
“Where is he at?”
“He played hero and rescued our cousin that was in rehab. Didn’t end well for either of them and they were medicav’d out where they could meet our parents. They … I hope … are all together someplace taking care of each other inside a Safe Zone. I had to escape another way and came here to my second home.”
“So Decker really is your temporary guardian.”
“Yeah,” I said without giving any more detail.
I jumped when Jarrell said, “He ain’t breathing!”
Back to the CPR and this time it took longer to get Jackson breathing again.
Dundee said, “Check the pressure bandages. He’s bleeding out someplace.”
I added another pad to his leg and pulled it tighter and added a splint in case something was going on inside I couldn’t see. I was trying not to panic because I’d been taught that panic was the enemy, but I was up to my armpits in fear. Taking classes and having certifications is a lot different than using what you know with real live humans that are hurt.
For the next thirty minutes I went back and forth between Jackson and Dundee. Jackson didn’t stop breathing again but his color was very bad, and he wasn’t responding like he should, though I could get him to roll his eyes around under his eyelids, he just couldn’t open his eyes. He could grab my hand and squeeze but it was weak. Dundee was better but had started to fade as well. But that is when I heard a thwack-a, thwack-a sound and looked up to see another helicopter, one with a red cross on the side, land a little further along the road.
I had Jackson’s and Dundee’s vitals pinned to their uniforms when real live military medical personnel arrived like the cavalry. They were putting them on stretchers when one of the medics noticed what I’d done and told me, “Good job kid. Make sure you wash your hands with soap and water and change out of those bloody clothes as soon as possible.”
I looked for Mitch but he was in the middle of a bunch of soldiers and I wanted nothing to do with the testosterone I could smell from where I was at. “The girl” was once again left to clean up a mess and I started picking up all the bloody bandages and papers and carted them to the burn barrel. I had just come back from checking the dogs when Mitch found me.
“Dammit Nannette, let me know where you are next time.”
Having already had my own reaction out of sight of all the he-men I told him, “Don’t yell Mitch. I’m this close to turning into a real, live girl and if I let loose you’re going to have a mess on your hands.”
“I …”
“Please God don’t let there be a next time but if there is, I’ll try and tell you where I’m going. I thought that guy Jarrell noticed but I guess not.”
And then he spun in a different direction causing me mental whiplash. “Dammit, you’re arm is bleeding. Did you hit it?”
“Uh uh. Jackson – the wounded guy – freaked and grabbed it. I’ll clean it as soon as I get all the stuff picked up. Where does Sgt. Cahill want what’s left of the first aid bag thing,” I said, nudging the pack at my feet.
“It can sit there until they notice it. C’mon and sit up on the porch until you get some color back in your face.”
“Okay, sounds good. What about you? You … you didn’t get hurt did you?!” It was the first time the thought had leaked into my brain and I stumbled.
“Whoa Nann … I didn’t get hurt and I’m not going anywhere. C’mon, that’s right.”
“I can’t leave you to deal with that mess out there.”
Mitch shook his head. “We’ll worry about that in a little bit. Just sit in the swing. You did good Nann. You did real good.”
“I almost missed.”
“Huh?”
“I almost missed. The stupid thing wouldn’t fly straight.”
“Nann?”
“Huh?”
He tilted my chin up to get a good look at me and then let go. “Explain it to me.”
“Oh. I went on the roof and shot the back propeller thingie with one of my carbon arrows … then it started spinning and that’s about it.”
“You were on the roof?” he asked like he didn’t quite believe what he heard.
“Yeah. It was the only way to get above that mini helicopter drone thingie. I was hoping I could do something to the main propeller blades but it was all armored up. But I was able to hit the back one and I think the shaft of the arrow must have jammed the thing that lets it spin. It made a funny noise and then the drone started spinning out of control. I didn’t think about it causing a fire when it came down. Sorry.”
“Liquid fuel spill,” Mitch said absently. “Sit here for a sec. I’ll be right back.”
Well he didn’t come right back exactly and I remember kinda listing over and leaning my head back. I jumped when I felt someone touch me. It was Sgt. Cahill checking on me. “Easy there.”
“Where’s Mitch?!”
“Helping to get the jeep operational.”
“He’s gonna get a headache.”
“Medics have given him something for it already. And some drops for his eyes.”
“What about Jackson and Dundee?”
“They are already back at base and I’m told they’re both stable.”
“Oh,” I said relieved. “That’s good.”
“It is.” It lifted something and I realized it was what was left of the arrow.
“Well that sucks,” I muttered. “I only have a couple of carbon arrows left.”
“Young lady, that was a hell of a shot. This thing was round around the tail rotor shaft.”
“That’s what I meant to happen. It’s not like I could do much by poking a hole in the thing. It was all armor.”
“Exactly. You may have just found its Achilles heel. That particular drone has become a problem in the field, but if you can take one out with a bow and arrow …”
Mitch ran up and said, “Hello Bright Eyes. How ya feeling?”
I knew that tone and needed to put a stop to it without showing it made me angry. “Please don’t start treating me like I’m two years old again. Please?”
Sgt. Cahill chuckled. He turned to Mitch and said, “She’ll be fine.” And to tick me off he added, “Might need to put her to bed early. She sounds a little cranky.” Grrrrr. So not funny. Then he got serious once again and told Mitch, “Just got confirmation that the mobile drone base has been destroyed. Expect within twenty-four hours for there to be some assets in the air. The Brass for this Zone has officially gotten PO’d and with targets acquired intends to move on them. You know what to look for during and after such operations. Keep your eyes peeled. You also have the charts so you should be able to identify any birds in the area. If you see enemy troops do not engage, send an emergency report. You’re free to deal with salvagers or mercs as necessary, no legal repercussions federally or criminally but we can’t help if you wind up in civil court so make sure of the facts before you act and keep any and all evidence that supports your side.” He glanced briefly my way then told Mitch, “It’s up to you but I wouldn’t consider it a problem if you trained her on the radio and codes so you can have a back up. And I’ll think on the other you brought up as well. Might be able to do something with it but not until after we see how the next sortie or two goes.”
“Yes Sir.”
Sgt. Cahill walked off and I wanted to stand but Mitch had his hand on my shoulder. “Just stay put. We’re gonna give them some room to get gone.”
“I need to check the dogs. And will it be dangerous for them to be out because of all the splodey things?”
“They’ll stay in the yard when I tell ‘em to and we’ll bring them in at night. Top of the list is to set the radio up then I’m going to run a magnet to get any loose bits and pieces of metal. After that comes reinforcing all the outbuildings. Gonna need your help Nann. Sounds like there will be more bombing runs here shortly. I think they are trying to avoid putting boots on the ground but that could change.”