Page 31
Bullshit.
Brax thought about how Nolan must be feeling in the van with Jase. Jase, who had lost so much blood that he needed two transfusions and the bullet had hit his femur. Brax’s gut clenched. What was his teammate going to do if he ended up permanently injured?
Stop it!
One bite of the elephant at a time.
One step at a time.
He helped Jenny roll over so she could spit up in the towel. He did more percussion on her back to help her get up even more mucus. He kept the taps against the side where her ribs weren’t either broken or bruised. Finally, she stopped. He looked down and saw blood on the towel. As he rolled her over, blood had dripped from her nose, over her mouth, and down her chin. He spoke into his mic.
“Nolan, she has a bloody nose again.”
“Brax, I don’t know what to tell you. Put a cold cloth at the bridge of her nose; that will help stop the bleed. With everything else, she can’t afford to be losing blood. What’s her temp?”
Brax looked around and found the thermometer. “Same as last time. One-oh-three point six.”
“Wash her down with cold water again.”
Brax closed his eyes for a moment. “Will do.”
He felt the SUV strain as it pulled the tree. “How we doing, Ryker?”
“It’s not good. We’re over three and half RPM. Three RPM should be our max.”
“Kostya?” Ryker asked.
“The tree is moving. We’re pushing it out of the way as you’re moving it. It’s working. This is the biggest tree. After this one, it will be easy.”
Smart man, start with the biggest when the engine had the most power.
Brax moved and lifted the tailgate window, filling up the two water bottles he’d turned into cups. He moved back to Jenny and went back to the process of stroking the wet t-shirt over her body. Her shivering continued, but she never woke up to tell him to stop. At least that was something.
“Stop!” Kostya said firmly into the comm. “This tree is out of the way. We can move to the next.” Brax heard Ryker’s sigh of relief.
“How close?” Brax asked.
“We were at four RPM. I was afraid the tow hook might have sheared off,” Ryker answered. He started backing up so that they could play the game again. Brax played the same game and wiped Jenny down. This time she did wake up, but she didn’t plead for him to stop. He saw her close her lips so tight that they were rimmed with white.
“Almost done,” he promised her.
She nodded, finally letting her teeth chatter, but still no words.
“Jenny, you with me?”
The truck jerked again.
“Kostya, how many trees?” he demanded to know.
“Just three. We’re hoping when they’re moved the water will disperse.”
“How high is the water?”
“Don’t ask,” Kostya responded.
Fuck.
Stop it, Walker. Focus on the good. Nolan’s got Jase stable. Jenny’s fever has never exceeded one-oh-three point six and we’d found tow straps.
