Skinny opens his door that protested with a loud groan. He stumbles slightly and sways. I know he’s hurt, but typically, he worries more about me. When he puts his hand to his head and then pulls it away, I see the blood coating his fingers, and I reach for him, snagging the torch from the cubbyhole where I’d seen Shadrack put it earlier when he was looking for something.
Brushing his hand away from his head, I flick the torch on, and my stomach rolls at the amount of blood covering the side of his face. Intellectually, I know head wounds bleed a lot, but seeing the deep gash on his head has me tensing with worry. Not letting it show, I check him over and note all the common signs of a concussion. There isn’t much we can do in the middle of nowhere; I know he’d packed a first aid kit, but to distract him, I ask anyway before turning back to the vehicle and looking for our backpack, and of course the man is worried about me hurting myself on glass when he has a bleeding head wound.
When I turn back around, I notice the cries from the back of the vehicle growing louder, and I sense someone is more seriously injured than Skinny. I feel torn between needing to care for Skinny and helping whoever else is hurt.
Skinny has a compress held tight against his head to stop the flow of blood. When he sways slightly, I stop worrying about stitching his head, wanting to get him to sit down before he falls down.
“Here,” I tell him as I help him lower to the ground. “Sit down and don’t move. You have a concussion. I’ll be back, but I need to check on the others first.”
He warns me to be careful, and I would be; there was no way I was putting myself or our baby at risk. I’d checked our phones when I was looking for the first aid kit, but there was no signal all the way out here. I’d taken our handguns from the pack, knowing Skinny would feel better knowing we were both armed.
Kissing him, I leave him leaning against the back tyre of the four-by-four we’d been travelling in. Hustling over to where Shadrack was kneeling on the ground, surrounded by his recruits, I see what I could do to help.
When I see the bone sticking out of the recruit’s leg, I know there’s nothing much we can do except make him comfortable and keep the leg as stable as we can and as clean as possible, considering we’re in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by bush. There are no emergency services out here. I’ll do what I can to keep him comfortable until we can get him the help he needs.
The recruit’s quietened down as I check him over. I look up to check on him but see immediately that he’s passed out, likely from the pain and blood loss.
Turning towards Shadrack, I tell him, “We need to stabilise his leg as much as possible and keep it clean. I’ll do what I can with what I’ve got, but he needs surgery as soon as possible.”
Shadrack runs a hand over his face, “I know, but I’ve got no signal on my phone and the radios won’t work at this distance. It’s too dangerous to be walking around in the bush at night. That’s just asking for trouble. We’ll have to do what we can until we can walk out in the morning, unless your people get here first.”
“I agree with you about walking out. Isn’t it the first rule of survival? Stay by your vehicle?”
Shadrack shrugs slightly. “Maybe in a world where you have rescue teams, but here we have to rescue ourselves most of the time. What do you need to help him?” he asks, nodding his head towards his young recruit, who is starting to stir.
“Something to stabilise his leg on either side as well as something to tie them to his legs. He’ll need to be held down because this is going to hurt. We also need to move onto something cleaner than the ground, maybe a tarpaulin if you have one. And can we get a fire started so that we’ve got some light?” I say to Shadrack. My hands are clammy with nerves—working on humans has always freaked me out, and I just hope that I don’t do more harm than good, but I can’t in good faith leave him like this when we can make him more comfortable.
Shadrack nods his head and turns to bark orders at his recruits in their local language. I have no idea what he’s saying, but they hustle to do what he’s asking, so I’m assuming they’re getting what I’ll need, and I’m right when one hands me a folded-up tarpaulin. It’s not the cleanest, but it’s better than lying on the dirt. Another one hands me a blanket, and I wonder where they had this. Shadrack divided his recruits with different tasks: some removed the bench seats from the back of the vehicle, others gathered firewood, and some began butchering what I understood, from their conversations, to be a buffalo at the front of the vehicle. Shadrack seemed to think it was a lone cow that was either too old or had been injured and couldn’t keep up with the herd. One thing I’d learned since living here was that there was very little waste when it came to food. I look over to the vehicle and note that Skinny hasn’t moved. He’s still holding the compress to his head, and I can see his chest moving in the dim light from the headlights that are still on.
There’s not much I can do for him, as Shadrack’s recruit needs me more right now.
Opening the first aid kit, I thank God that the Crow MC was always prepared for an apocalypse because it contains everything I need except a saline drip, which would have been helpful right now for the recruit. Unfortunately, the only painkillers are regular paracetamol, but they're better than nothing, I suppose. There are also several packets of disposable gloves, and I take a couple out.
Shadrack comes back, and I see the pile of stuff next to me, and a fire is already being built a little way back from the truck and in the middle of the dirt road we were on.
“What do you need us to do, Josie?” he asks.
“We need to open the tarpaulin. Once I’ve strapped up his leg, we’ll move him onto it. I’ll clean what I can and cover it to stop it getting any more dirt in. If we can move him closer to the fire after that. One of your guys has found a blanket, but I don’t want to cover his leg because I’m not sure how clean it is, but we can cover the top part of his body.” Hesitating, I look up at the big man because he needs to know my limitations. “I’m out of my comfort zone here, Shadrack. I’m not really sure what I’m doing, and I’m worried about infection. He may still lose his leg. I’m used to working on animals; humans, not so much.”
Shadrack reaches over and squeezes my shoulder, “I understand. Do what you can, and we’ll make the hard decisions when we get him to a hospital.”
“Okay,” I agree. Shaking some paracetamol out of the bottle I’d found, I hand them to him, “Can you give him these? They won’t help much, but they’re all I have.”
“No problem,” he agrees, taking them from me and waking his recruit. He helps him drink them down, then explains whatwe’re going to do. My heart hurts for the young guy. I hope he gets to keep his leg after all this.
It took what seemed like hours, but I knew it wasn’t much longer than an hour before we got his leg stabilised using the triangular bandage that I’d cut up and used to secure the straightest sticks they’d been able to find in the dark on either side of his leg. It wasn’t the best, but it was better than nothing.
I clean and pack it with the antibiotic cream I found in the first aid kit. I cover the wound with the sterile gauze pads and secure them to his leg. When I’ve done what I could, I cover him with the blanket and leave him in the care of his friends, then walk back to Skinny, stripping off my gloves and throwing them in the fire before cleaning my hands with wipes and adding them to the flames.
Skinny is sitting exactly where I left him. Warmth flows through me as I watch him. It wasn’t often I got to do this. He always seems hyper-aware of where I am. He has a quiet strength about him that not everyone sees. I love him deeply, and I hate that his injuries were from protecting me. But it was his nature to protect, and I’d not change anything about him. He was the perfect man for me, and I never, not once, regretted that he’d made me his. Cupping his cheek, I tilt his head slightly and whisper softly because I know his head is probably pounding, “Shh, it’s only me,” when he startles.
I go on to fill him in on what is happening while putting on another pair of gloves so that I can treat his head wound and make him a little more comfortable. I switch on the torch that I’d strapped to my head. I’d been so happy to find it in the bottom of the backpack because it made it easier to work with both my hands free, but I can still see.
He moaned slightly when I switched it on, but there’s nothing for it. I need to see what I’m doing. That doesn’t stop me from apologising, though, because I hate that I’m causing him pain. When he wraps a hand around my thigh, anchoring me to him even with everything we have going on, it doesn’t stop the little flutter of need that runs through me.‘God, I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of this man,’I think as I concentrate on cleaning him up and stitching up his head. I’m sure a doctor or a nurse would have done better, but it wasn’t looking too bad.
To take his mind off the pain of me shoving a needle through his skin, I tell him what we hit and Shadrack’s thoughts. I know I’m rambling, but he’s answering me, which goes a long way to making me feel better about his concussion. At least he’s lucid and not slurring his words. He laughs when I apologise for my stitching but doesn’t waste any time in downing the painkillers that I hand him, along with one of the ginger sweets that Rochelle had given me. I wasn’t sure if the painkillers would help his concussion-induced nausea, but I think it was worth a shot because I know Skinny will assist as soon as he feels well enough, regardless of his condition, and this proves correct shortly after Shadrack and I guide him to the fire.
I’m exhausted and a little cold. I know it was partly adrenaline, partly being pregnant, but mostly it was exhaustion. I pushed myself hard today. Skinny takes the backpack from me and insists that I eat the breakfast bar in there while he finds the thin blanket I’d forgotten about that we kept in the bottom of the bag. My eyes are already closing when he wraps it around my shoulders, pulling me into his chest. I let out a little sigh of contentment at his warmth. I’m so warm from Skinny and the fire that I can hardly keep my eyes open. Sleep claims me, and I don’t fight it, knowing it’s what my body needs. I’m sleeping so deeply I don’t stir as Skinny lays me down and stands up, norwhen he pulls the blanket, making sure it covers my entire body. I don’t stir until I’m woken up by Skinny sitting down next to me. My gaze zeroes in on the tiny kitten that he puts down on the ground in front of the meat that Shadrack’s cut up for her. She’s gorgeous, and my heart aches when I find out her mother’s been killed. We’ll take her back with us and look after her until she’s ready to go out on her own. Living on the reserve had its advantages. When the kitten is done eating, she curls up to sleep between my leg and Skinny’s. I guess she knows she’s safe for now.
