“Hey, I need some help in here!” Daisy yelled as she turned to look back. She was startled when she was face to face with the SEAL named Mozart.
“No need to be yelling. We will help you,” Mozart replied with a smile when he saw the surprise on her face. Daisy noticed movement behind him and saw the whole SEAL team had climbed back into the craft to help with the extraction of the wounded.
“We have to get this guy out of here ASAP,” Daisy informed the men. “If you can get the pilot out, I will begin working to free this guy. He’s pinned.” The SEALs moved around her in the cramped space. Cookie and Benny assisted the pilot out of his seat and carried him back to the exit. Once they were out of the way, the Wolf, Abe, Mozart, and Dude began working to free the co-pilot.
“I’m afraid there is no way to get him free,” Wolf replied sadly, several minutes later. The SEALs were covered in dirt and sweat. They tried without success to free the man from the mangled metal. “The metal from the chopper is wrapped tightly around his legs. We don’t have the equipment needed to extract him.”
Daisy knew that time was of the essence. He was losing too much blood. Daisy hated to do it, but a field bilateral amputation was the only option to save the man’s life. It would end his military career, but it was the only way to keep him alive.
“Alright, then clear a path. I’ve got work to do,” Daisy declared. The men raised their eyebrows in surprise, but they moved to comply. Daisy crawled to the co-pilot. She slipped the backpack off her back and began to pull supplies from her jump bag. She quickly tied tourniquets around both thighs just above the knees. Mozart moved up to assist her. He started an IV and hung a bag of fluids. As Daisy began to cut the flesh away from the bones just below the knees, the poor man awakened with a blood curdling scream. Mozart gave him a small dose of Morphine at Daisy’s command. Then she pulled out the portable saw for just such situations. It took several minutes to cut through both legs, but she worked as quickly as possible. Once the man was free, Daisy tried to pull him from his seat, but Wolf and Abe urged her to move back as they took over and carried him from the wrecked craft.
Once he was freed, Daisy quickly covered his open wounds. It was only a patch job until she could get him in the chopper where she could do a more thorough examination and treatment. She followed the SEALs carrying the wounded to the waiting aircraft. Once they had settled him on the stretcher in the craft, Daisy quickly assessed the SEALS for injuries, but no one else was severely injured. There were a few cuts and bruises, but the men dismissed the need for medical attention. A second bird was landing to take the less injured soldiers back to base.
“Thank you for your assistance,” Daisy told Wolf as the SEAL team began to move toward their waiting chopper. “I couldn’t have gotten them out so quickly without your help.”
“We should be thanking you for coming to our rescue,” Wolf replied. “It’s not every day a doctor comes into the field on a rescue mission. Thank you, that man would have died in that chopper if you hadn’t been here.” Daisy nodded in agreement. She knew that the man may never thank her. For some there were things worse than death, like never walking again. As the thought crossed her mind, Daisy was again racked with the guilt she had carried for more the last twenty years.
Daisy climbed in the back of her bird with the two injured pilots. She waved to the SEAL’s as they headed toward the second chopper. Daisy worked to keep the wounded alive long enough for the 45-minute flight back to base. Due to their injuries and the need for space to work, Daisy and a single gunner were the only passengers in this transport besides their pilot and co-pilot. The chopper lifted off into the bright morning sky to head back to base.
Daisy had two units of O negative blood running into the co-pilot. She worked to tie off any remaining bleeders. She then began to redress his stumps to prevent infection. The bleeding had slowed down after she had put sheets of Surgicel dressings over both wounds. Daisy was too busy working on the patients to notice what was going on around her. Out of nowhere a loud explosion rocked her world. Suddenly, the chopper veered sharply to the right. Daisy was thrown against the side door. Thank God it was closed. She hadn’t bothered to teether herself when she had climbed on board. Daisy rushed to rectify the situation. The chopper began to spin to the right over and over. She could hardly move due to the centrifugal force against her. Déjà vu hit her as she recalled her recurrent dream over the past few months. It was finally happening. Would she survive the crash? Ace flashed into her mind. Was this how her life would end? Never having achieve her heart’s secret desire? A home and a family.
Chapter 6
After several minutes of the spinning out of control, the chopper crashed down hard. Daisy was thrown around like a rag doll. Only her tether kept her from flying out the open door on the far side of the chopper. Pain shot through her head, shoulders, and hips as she made contact with the chopper. She was momentarily disoriented. Once the dust settled, Daisy shook her head to clear her vision.
“Are you alright, Dr. Robertson?” the gunner asked. Daisy looked up at him.
“Yeah. I was about to ask you the same thing,” Daisy grimaced as she assessed her injuries. “I’m fine, just a little rattled. That was a hard landing. What the hell caused us to crash?”
“I’m fairly certain it was a SAM,” the service man replied as a matter of fact. “Most likely a Russian SA7. Which means insurgents are in the area. We need to get on the move ASAP.”
“Agreed. What’s your name?” Daisy asked as she realized she didn’t even know the man’s name.
“I’m Daryl, but my friends call me Locust.” Daisy’s eyebrows raised in question.
“When I was in basic, I was always hungry. I would take any food the others didn’t want to eat. They all said I was like a locust eating everything in sight,” Daryl shrugged his shoulders. “It just kind of stuck.” Daisy grinned as she shook her head again. The crazy nicknames these guys came up with could still surprise her.
“Do you think the other chopper saw us go down? Will they come back for us?” Daisy asked as they began to extract the wounded from the craft.
“I don’t know,” Locust replied. “I hope so, but we can’t hang around here waiting. If the insurgents catch us, we are toast.” Daisy knew the man was right. She knew what happened to Americans taken by ISIS. They ended up dead, beheaded. ISIS thought it helped their cause, but America refused to negotiate with terrorists.
Once they had gotten everyone out of the craft, the pilot and co-pilot came to in a matter of minutes. Daisy quickly assessed their cognition and determined they would be able to assist in the evacuation of the two other more severely injured men. The poor men had been in two helicopter crashes in a matter of a few hours. Obviously, someone still has big plans for these men since they were still alive despite the two crashes. Daisy and Daryl worked quickly to evacuate them from the wreckage and into the mountains. They needed to find shelter to hold up in until the Calvary could arrive.
It took several hours to find a safe place to make camp. They tried to not leave any evidence of the direction they had gone. If the insurgents found them before help arrived, it will be death for all of them. Once they had gotten the injured secured and Daisy was satisfied, she had done all she could for the time being, they made a plan for what they would do if they came under attack. They weren’t able to carry many supplies with them since they had carried the injured men. Daisy and Daryl decided they needed to go back to the crash site and get as many supplies as they could carry. It would be the key to their survival. It would be dangerous, but it was worth the risk.
“He’s stable for the time being,” Daisy told the pilot and co-pilot of their downed chopper, regarding the severely injured co-polit of the first chopper. “I have given him a sedative. He should sleep until we can get back.” The men nodded their understanding. “Keep an eye on the fluids. I have another bag here if this one runs out.” Daisy showed the men how to hang a new bag of fluids. When she was confident the men would be able to attend to her patient, she readied herself to leave with Daryl on the trip for supplies.
Daisy was armed with an M4. She checked to make sure she had additional clips at the ready should she need to use them. Daryl insisted on leading the way since he had combat training and was a male. Daisy rolled her eyes, but didn’t argue. Daisy knew she had to have his six if they were to make it back to the wounded alive. They managed to make it to the crash site without running into any enemies. They quickly packed as many supplies, weapons, and ammunition as they could into the packs they found on the chopper. Unfortunately, the radio was damaged beyond repair and they would not be able to call for help with it.
Daisy located her jump bag that had been thrown around during the crash. She quickly gathered up the scattered supplies. The first co-pilot would need all the antibiotics and pain killers she could find to keep him comfortable until help arrived. As they made their way back to the camp site, gun fire erupted around them. Daisy dove for cover shoving Daryl to the ground as she went. She felt a searing pain in her left arm as she fell but didn’t have time to see how badly she was injured. She immediately returned fire in the direction the shots came from. Daryl moved to position himself where he could assist in firing at the enemy. They took their time, waiting for the enemy to fire first so they could ascertain their location. Daisy saw one of the insurgents as he fired his weapon. She took aim and fired. The insurgent dropped where he stood. Daryl took out another a short time later. They waited for several long minutes, before they attempted to move from their location.
Thankfully, they were not fired upon anymore. Apparently, there had only been two insurgents and Daisy and Daryl had managed to take them out. Once they arrived back at base camp, Daisy discovered she had been hit in the left arm. It didn’t hurt very much, but she was bleeding quite a bit. She began to worry she might have left a trail to their location. She quickly prepared a bandage for her wound. Daryl helped to secure it. Luckily it was a through and through wound. Daisy decided to wait and see if any infection formed. She wanted to keep the antibiotics for the others.
Daryl set up watch while Daisy made sure the patients were comfortable. There would be a long night ahead. Daisy wanted to keep watch over the injured, but also needed to take her turn on watch. Hopefully the other chopper saw them go down and would have help on the way, sooner rather than later.
Chapter 7
Back in the U.S. Ace woke with a start around 11:30 PM. He had had a dream that Daisy was in trouble and needed him. It was almost like he could feel her fear. He knew it was only a dream, but he couldn’t shake the bad feeling from himself. He had a hard time falling asleep again, and woke several times during the night. The bad feeling remained as he went about his day. The other team members seemed to sense he was struggling with something. Ace was moody and made some simple mistakes as they ran through mock training sessions.
