AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Nate stood up. “I’ve got this,” he told Alex. “You stay here and keep her as stable as you can.” He picked up his weapon and leapt out onto the trail. “If Killmer comes back, let him know what’s going down. I’ll be back as soon as I can,” and he turned, trotting down toward the ambush trail.
Alex dragged in a ragged breath, moving his fingers against Lauren’s cheek. She was so damned pale. She looked like death. He’d seen it so many times on the battlefield.
“H-how is she doing?” Nik rasped, trying to move closer to them. He was weak, and every effort made him feel weaker.
“Critical,” Alex rasped. Nik was a combat corpsman like himself. He knew what that meant. That she could die if her body couldn’t stabilize at some point. So far, the blood-pressure readings showed her slowly continuing to decline.
“Do you have an oximeter on you?” Nik asked.
“Yes, wait…,” and Alex dug desperately into his pack. He quickly found it and placed it on one of Lauren’s uninjured fingers, his gaze fastened on the oximeter’s small window. An oximeter measured how much oxygen was available to the body.
Fifty! He cursed softly and called it out to Nik, who grimaced. Her oxygen was at fifty percent. Normal was ninety to one-hundred. She had to have oxygen soon or she would die!
“She needs to be on a ventilator. The O2 will make the difference, Alex. You and I both know that…” Nik whispered.
Nodding, Alex’s only focus was on Lauren. His heart ached with fear and terror. She lay still now, her lips parted, her hair badly tangled, thick strands having come loose from her ponytail. He gently tucked her in again, making sure the cammo jacket kept her warm, a nervous reaction, but there was little else he could do. He couldn’t pull Lauren into his arms and keep her warm because it would potentially create more pain, or even lacerate one or more of her lungs by any of those potentially broken ribs. She couldn’t be moved, except on a litter.
Looking around, that was something Alex realized he could do. He moved his ruck aside, getting up. “Nik? I’m going to look for some tree saplings for poles in order to make a litter for Lauren. We are going to have to carry her out of here. They have got a Night Stalker Black Hawk flying in to pick all of us up. We are going to have to transport her and you, and I don’t know how far it will be to get to the helo,” he told him. “Stay with her? Monitor her? If she takes a turn for the worse, yell out for me? I will return.”
“Yes, my friend, I can do that for you. Go make her a litter.”
Alex went, and swiftly searched around, locating some long, sturdy-looking saplings. He took out his combat knife, sawing off branches with its serrated edge, then gathering up the four of them, two for Lauren, two for Nik. He wasn’t sure that Nik could make it out under his own power, weakened by his own heavy loss of blood. Within five minutes, he had four poles, and was carrying them back to the rock. He saw that Nik had inched over to where Lauren lay. His hand was on her shoulder and he was watching over her. Alex’s throat tightened. Placing the poles nearby, he went to Nate’s pack. Inside, he found two reflective blankets. They would do fine for the fabric stretched between the first two poles. Alex went to work with his knife, affixing them, along with some flex cuffs, to the poles to create Lauren’s litter.
He wanted to look at his watch. Urgency thrummed through him as he finished the litter, setting it aside. The only other blanket he had was already beneath her. He hadn’t had a pair of them in his pack. Not like he’d found in Nate’s. Looking toward where the cave lay, somewhere out there in the dark, he resigned himself to the fact that he could do no more for now.
Alex knelt by Lauren’s shoulder. He pulled the stethoscope from his pack, listening to her lungs again. Then, he inflated the blood pressure cuff on her left arm.
“What are the readings?” Nik asked quietly, his gaze on his friend.
“A little better. Two-hundred over sixty. Her oximeter is now sixty. It’s a small improvement, but a good one.” Normal blood pressure was 120/80.
Smiling a little, Nik felt woozy. But he kept his hand on Lauren’s shoulder. He too, knew the value of touch on the battlefield. “It won’t take that Special Forces operator long. He’ll run like hell to get that O2 back to Lauren.”
Alex nodded. “Yes…” He so desperately needed that tank of oxygen for Lauren. Feeling her face and slender neck, her skin was moist and clammy. Signs of deep shock.
“Her body is fighting back, Alex.” And then Nik added, “She told me she loved you.”
Alex snapped his head up, staring at Nik. “She did?”
“Yes.” He shook his head. “She was the one who fought to get back to you.” He swallowed hard, tears burning in his eyes. “Lauren told me everything, begged me to help stop the ambush. I promised her I would.”
“And so, you dressed her in Russian gear to hide her from Petrov?”
“Yes. All our weapons, food and medical are in that cave. We’ve been working out of there for the last six months… after you… well… ‘died’.”
“This Special Forces team found me a few hours later, Nik. Nate is the one who stopped my slow bleed and saved my life.”
“I’m glad, my friend.” Nik closed his eyes. “I missed you. It wasn’t the same in the team without you. It went from bad to worse under Petrov’s leadership,” and he slowly shook his head from side to side, the corners of his mouth deepening.
Alex couldn’t even imagine, remembering the hell it had already been under Vlad Alexandrov.
“He’s the only one left alive. Petrov is wounded, but stable. They’re taking him in to interrogate him once we get back Stateside.”
A sharp smile cut across Nik’s mouth. “Exactly what the sick bastard deserves…”
Alex didn’t allow his gaze to be anywhere but on Lauren. He felt on tenterhooks, knew that her body could crash at any second and there would be nothing he could do about it. He wouldn’t be able to give her CPR, her chest cavity already as broken as it was. If he tried, he’d kill her by pushing down on her fractured ribs, sending them slicing like razors, ripping into her lungs. His only other option was to intubate her, slide a hollow tube down her throat, into her trachea and then use the manual pump to force air into her lungs by hand. He slipped his hand into hers, holding it gently, warming it. She was so cold. He wanted desperately to hold her, share his body heat with Lauren, but he didn’t dare move her any more than necessary.
Alex was agitated inwardly. Restless. He wanted Nate back with those oxygen bottles and a canula for Lauren. And where was Killmer? He had heard neither of their returns. How far were they from the LZ, landing zone, where they could board the Hawk? Had the helicopter encountered terrible turbulence on the way up to them? Alex knew that could happen. That could slow them down. Worse, the helicopter could crash. The scenarios running through his mind were realistic but terrifying to him. Minutes counted where Lauren was concerned. Every second that she spent on the cold wet ground, her low oxygen absorption kept her at risk of crashing. And, once a person crashed, very few survived unless they were in the major emergency room of a Level One Trauma hospital. And here they were out in the middle of a dark, wet jungle.
