AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Jake knew something was wrong even before anyone uttered the words. Even before people started rushing around in a frenzy.
He couldn’t have said how he knew or, more to the point, he didn’t want to acknowledge how. That icy wash that poured through his veins with no warning, and for no apparent reason, an hour later.
‘Acidente. Accident,’ Raoul growled as he raced by.
‘What kind of accident?’ Jake demanded. ‘Where’s Brady?’
‘He’s fine—he’s with Fabio.’ But Jake couldn’t shake the sick feeling in his stomach as he fell in behind the running Raoul. ‘Flávia?’
He knew.
‘Flávia? Sim. Flávia is collecting o veneno. Venom.’
‘She was bitten?’ He yanked open the door to the medical room, all but pushing Raoul ahead of him with the medical supplies.
‘Sim. Yes. The idiota government official—he go into enclosure because he see no snake. Flávia, she try to stop him. She get the bites.’
An overwhelming sense of horror swept through him. Filling every last dark corner and jagged crevice inside of him. Snuffing out all the little atoms of light she had begun to leave there.
He’d never known anyone like Flávia. The thought of losing her was almost too much to withstand. Following Raoul, they entered where Cesar had Flávia on a table.
‘Is she okay?’ His tongue felt too thick for his mouth, his lips numb.
This was why he didn’t do emotion. This was why he’d carried on the harsh lessons having parents like his had taught him, and kept himself detached.
Because he had no doubt that he had never felt worse than he did, right at this moment.
‘No.’ Cesar looked up, his face grim, his eyes flashing with a combination of fear and fury as he took the supplies from Raoul.
Disastrously, it was the fear that seemed to be winning out. Though he knew Cesar would never succumb to it.
‘Antivenom,’ Cesar demanded urgently, all but snatching the vials that Raoul presented to him. ‘I can’t stabilise her blood pressure.’
Jake advanced into the room, his eyes trained on Flávia.
‘What can I do?’
‘I need to administer an initial bolus dose of AVS, and immobilise the affected lower limb.’
‘You deal with the limb, I’ll get an intravenous catheter for the AVS.’ He quickly picked up the kit he needed.
The medical bit was something he could do eyes closed. And it made him feel as though he was acting instead of simply watching. Dreading.
Jake efficiently inserted the catheter so the AVS could be administered continually, before checking the bandages Cesar had applied. They were tight, but not so tight that they threatened too-tight arterial compression.
‘Good,’ he muttered, stepping forward to perform a fresh set of obs.
‘We have called ambulância aérea?’ Cesar asked.
‘Air ambulance?’ Jake nodded and looked towards Raoul. ‘They’re on their way?’
‘Sim.’
That was good, at least.
‘You will travel with Flávia?’ Cesar asked Jake quietly.
He wanted to say yes. He’d never wanted something so much in his life. Flávia looked so small, so fragile, that something in Jake’s chest seem to crack wide open. He could hardly bear to see her there. But he had Brady to think about.
