Chapter 16
Alex’s heart was pounding as she tore through the camper’s storage area for the first aid kit. It had to be Quinn. If Dara was yelling and Cooper was driving, it had to be Quinn who was shot. Her hands finally landed on the white box with the Red Cross on it and she ripped it from the cupboard. A mantra of “He’s okay, he’s okay” kept playing through her mind as she rushed out and around the van. She climbed up into the back of the truck and froze.
“So much blood, how can there be so much blood?” was all she could think.
Dara was only wearing her bra. Her t-shirt was wadded up and pressed to Quinn’s leg. Cooper was struggling with Quinn’s belt, trying to get it free from around his waist. It finally pulled out of the last loop and Cooper slid it around Quinn’s upper thigh, pulling it tight.
Alex could see that Dara was yelling, her face white and full of panic, but Alex couldn’t hear her. She couldn’t hear anything. She was lost in pain. She saw the serious little face of Quinn sitting on his grandpa’s tractor when they first met. She saw the time she had caught a huge fish and Quinn was there, giving her a huge grin and hug. She saw Quinn in the stands cheering so loudly for her when she won her first gymnastics meet and so many other times that he was there for her. It wasn’t until he opened his eyes and lifted his head, looking straight into her eyes and trying to give her a reassuring smile that the world snapped back into focus and her hearing returned.
“Alex, give me the fucking case!” was the first thing she heard. Dara was yelling at her for the first aid kit.
Alex stepped forward and dropped to her knees beside Dara. She quickly flipped the case open and pulled out thick squares of gauze. Dara snatched them from her hand and replaced her blood soaked t-shirt with them. Alex reached over and placed her fingers against Quinn’s throat, checking his pulse. She could feel his heart racing. In a complete turnaround from her panic attack, she felt herself settle and go calm.
In an authoritative voice, she addressed everyone. “Alright, everyone settle down! Quinn, Quinn open your eyes and look at me!” He had his eyes squeezed shut in pain but at her tone, he opened them. “Okay, I know it looks bad and it hurts like crazy but you need to calm down. It’s far from your heart and you will be just fine after we bandage you up. You need to get your heart rate down. So just breathe deep and try and calm yourself. Dara, change that gauze and then wrap his leg with the tension bandage. Not too tight! Cooper, good thinking with the belt, we need to move him into the camper and then get somewhere we can take a good look at him so let’s move this stuff out of the way and slide him out the back. Do you think you can carry him or should we get Josh?”
“I can put him over my shoulder and get him to the camper if you’ll hold his leg still.”
They jumped down and moved supplies out of the way making a path to the end of the truck to slide Quinn out. Dara finished wrapping his leg and helped slide him from behind. They tried to keep his injured leg as steady as possible but he still let out groans of pain and they could see he was clenching his teeth against screaming. Cooper pulled Quinn over his shoulder in a fireman’s carry and Alex tried to keep the leg still. Quinn was a big guy and Alex was surprised at Cooper’s strength, carrying him to and up into the camper. They laid him on the floor and Alex was scared to see that he had passed out from the pain. Josh ducked down from the roof and went white at the sight of his unconscious and bloody friend.
“What are we going to do?” he asked the other three. They all looked to Alex and she tried not to panic.
“We need to find a house or a store that we can look at his leg properly. Better yet, a town with a doctor. Grab the map and let’s see where we are.”
“Alex, I already know. We are hours from anything. We picked this route so we wouldn’t be anywhere near a town, remember? I don’t think he can wait three hours for us to get him to a town that might not even have a doctor and where we might end up in a fight for the trucks and supplies we have,” Dara told her in desperation.
Alex thought hard about what to do. She was so scared for her friend. They were on their own. “Okay, let’s brace him with pillows and blankets to keep him warm. We need to go. Dara, watch for a place to stop. It’s the best thing we can do for now.”
Cooper and Dara grabbed pillows and sleeping bags while Alex checked the gauze. It was spotted but the bleeding had slowed. She helped cover him up and then they all went back to their vehicles.
As Alex followed the truck and van she kept an eye on Quinn in the mirror. He was so pale and dark circles were already forming under his eyes. Her hands shook on the steering wheel at the thought of losing him. He was one of her best friends and even though there had never been any romantic moments between them, Alex always felt it was there under the friendship just waiting to develop. She was still unsure about her feelings for Cooper. There had been many times on this trip when she had caught him looking at her that made her stomach flip in confusion, but the possibility of a future without Quinn made her even more unsure of how she felt.
They had been traveling for thirty minutes with nothing to see but forest when Dara slowed down and turned off the road they were traveling on. They went for five minutes before she turned again into a long driveway and through a pair of gates with a sign that read Griffin’s Veterinary Services. The driveway opened up into cleared land with three beautiful buildings on it. They were made of river rock and weathered wood that suited the natural setting perfectly. The first building was the vet’s office with a matching barn behind it and the third was a house further up the hill with a wraparound porch.
After scanning the area and seeing no one, Josh dropped down into the camper and stepped over Quinn, who was still unconscious.
“Sit tight, Alex. I want to check the building for anyone before we move him.” He was out the door and racing towards the office before Alex could reply.
Cooper joined him and they both went into the building with guns raised. They were back in minutes with a stretcher. Dara met them at the camper and Josh told them, “It’s empty but for the love of God, don’t open the door in the back! There must have been no one here since it happened because there are dead animals in cages back there and it doesn’t look or smell very pretty. There’s an exam room with big windows so it’s got lots of light. Let’s get him in there and take a look at his leg. I want to check out the house and make sure it’s empty.”
The two boys went into the camper with the stretcher but the girls stayed outside to give them more room. It was tight and awkward in the confines of the camper and they realized right away they wouldn’t be able to take him out the side door on the stretcher. They had to keep it straight out the door and move Quinn on to it. If Quinn had been awake, he would have been screaming in pain from all the jostling of his body but they got him on the stretcher and out of the camper. Alex rushed ahead and held the door for them.
There was a slight stench of rotting bodies but Alex had smelled a lot worse living on a farm. There was a light coating of dust on all the surfaces telling her that no one had been here since the lights went out. The exam room was bright with natural light from the two big windows but not as bright as it would have been with the fluorescent lights on.
They left Quinn on the stretcher on top of a large exam table. Dara grabbed a pair of scissors and started cutting up Quinn’s cargo pant leg so they wouldn’t have to try and wrestle them off of him. Alex unwound the tension bandage and removed the gauze padding. Dara cut the rest of the pant leg away but there was so much blood they couldn’t see the bullet wound. Alex looked around the room and saw a bottle of sterilized water on a counter with drawers and cupboard under it. She grabbed the water and poured it slowly over the bloody area. He had been shot on the outside of his thigh. Once the leg was clean and they could see the wound, she stepped back.
“Oh shit,” she whispered. Quinn didn’t have a bullet wound, he had two. She looked at her friends and saw Dara crying and shaking. Cooper and Jos
h were both pale and looking helplessly at Quinn’s leg.
She took a deep breath and said, “There’s no exit wounds, both bullets are still in his leg.”
Josh turned and left the room for a moment and when he returned he told them, “There’s two holes in the side of the truck. He was shot through the wood so it would have slowed them down. They can’t stay in his leg or he’ll die of infection. Someone has to take them out.”
Alex looked at the others but they were all looking at her.
“Me? You want me to operate on him? Are you crazy?” she said in a panic.
“Well, you’ve got some training and you said you want to be a doctor so you’re the best one to do it,” Josh told her.
Alex just stared at him in disbelief. “What training? I volunteer at a senior’s home! I change bed pans and feed them applesauce! I have no training, and yeah, I want to be a doctor one day but that’s in like, ten years!”
“Come on, Alex, you’re always watching that show on TLC about operating and what about that other show you love? You know the one with McStinky or whatever his name is? You’re the closest thing we have to a doctor here. Quinn needs you,” Josh argued.
Alex shook her head. “It’s a TV show, Josh, not medical school. Just because I watch Grey’s Anatomy doesn’t mean I’m Christina Yang! Seriously, seriously?” Only Dara got the reference and gave a small snort of laughter. She stepped over to Alex and put her hand on her arm.
“I’m sorry, Alex. I can’t do it. I’m ready to puke just looking at his leg. I don’t do well with blood.”
Alex nodded in understanding and looked at the two boys. Josh was shaking his head. He held up his big hands, “Look at these, Alex. Do you really think I should stick these big suckers into Quinn’s leg? Give me a hammer and I’ll pound something for you but not this, sorry.”
Alex huffed out in frustration. He was right. She looked to Cooper who was already backing away.
“Oh no, not me! I’ll steal you an operating room but I can’t work in one!”
Alex glared at him in disgust. She knew by now that his bad boy reputation was a sham and that he was a really good guy.
“Damn it!” she stomped her foot in frustration. “You know who could do this? He could!” She pointed to Quinn who was starting to come around.
When he groaned in pain, she knew she didn’t have a choice. Alex glared at her friends and started barking out orders. “We need to get supplies. This place should have everything we need. Cooper, look for a drug cabinet. He’s going to need something stronger than Aspirin. Josh, look for surgery stuff. Scalpels, sponges, clamps, retractors and stuff like that. I’m not sure how to use that stuff but we should have it here. You’ve seen stuff on TV and in movies too. We’re all going to pretend we know what we’re doing. Dara, find reference books, like drug dosage and operating books. Maybe we’ll get lucky and find a manual,” she joked sarcastically.
It was easier for Alex to be mad than scared of what she was about to do, so while her friends scattered through the building, she started to rip open drawers and cupboards angrily.
“Alex?” a hoarse voice asked behind her.
She whirled around and saw Quinn looking at her in confusion. “Where are we?” he asked.
Alex went to him and held his hand. “We found a veterinarian’s office. How are you feeling?”
“It hurts, feels like my leg is on fire. How bad is it?”
“You were shot twice. The bullets went through the wooden sides of the truck bed wall so they slowed down enough to not go through. Both bullets are still in your leg.” She took a deep breath and told him “I’m going to take them out.”
He gave her a faint smile, “Good. If you’re going to be a doctor one day, you’ll need the practice.”
She gave a half laugh “Oh God, Quinn, I’m so scared! I don’t know if I can do this.” Tears started to run down her cheeks as she bowed her head, all of her defensive anger gone.
His hand tightened hard on hers and she looked into his eyes. “You can do this. I trust you with everything. Remember back when we were twelve and that fool of a dog, Duster, broke his leg? You splinted it up with a stick and my T-Shirt and made me carry him back to the farm from the back field. You were like a little General, barking orders, you were so sure of yourself. You need to be like that now. I believe in you, Alex.”
“Oh, Quinn, that was nothing like this! I’m going to have to cut your leg open to get those bullets out. It’s so not the same,” she almost wailed.
“I believe in you, Alex,” Quinn said again. “But before you start, do you think I could have a Tylenol?” he tried a joke to cheer her up.
Dara came back into the room with two thick books, “Got it Alex. The top one is a reference guide to different medications and dosage charts by weight. The bottom one has different minor surgeries on animals. There’s a section on bullet wounds. I don’t know if it will help but take a look anyway. Hey, Quinn, ready to be Alex’s guinea pig?”
Alex snatched the books and started to look up different pain killers. She didn’t want Quinn to feel what she was about to do to him. She set it aside when she realized that she needed to see what Cooper found in the drug cabinet first. The other heavy textbook had a bookmark at ‘Gunshot Wounds’ and she started to pore over it. There were sections for dogs, cows, horses and other animals. It was a basic guide to bullet removal and directed the reader to other texts for more invasive procedures. Alex was happy to have some guidance but knew there was a big difference between a dog and a human.
Josh came in pushing a rolling cart piled high with packages, linens and a few different bottles. “Hey Alex, there’s a supply closet that has a ton of stuff in it. It even has a bunch of these packages with sterilized instruments ready to go. There’s disinfectant and scrubs and surgery drapes. Look this stuff over and see if there’s anything missing.” He was pleased with his find and gave a big grin.
Alex was still pissed off that she had been nominated to do the surgery so she barely looked up from the textbook when she said, “Right. Great. Thanks. Now go boil some water.”
Josh didn’t seem to mind her attitude and gave her a salute with a quick, “On it, boss!” as he rushed back out.
Cooper came in with a pan full of bottles and plastic wrapped syringes. “Sorry it took so long, the door was locked and I had to get the crowbar to open it. There are some painkillers that I recognise and some antibiotics, I think. Their names end in ‘cillin’ so I’m guessing that they are a type of penicillin. I grabbed some needles too but I have no idea how much you would dose him with.”
Again, Alex didn’t look up just pointed to the counter beside her. They all kept saying things like “Alex’s guinea pig” and “what you need” and “you would dose him” and the pressure of responsibility was squeezing tighter. She tried to focus on the dosage chart but had to turn and ask Quinn, “How much do you think you weigh, Quinn?”
He opened his pain-filled eyes and told her, “Around one-eighty, I think. Why, did you find me some good drugs, Alex?” he asked hopefully.
It was too much. It was all just too much for her to handle. She gave him a tight smile. “Yup. Be right back,” and turned and fled the room. She hit the front door running and whipped around the side of the building. Alex came to an abrupt stop and doubled over puking her guts out. She heaved painfully until there was nothing left in her stomach. She stayed bent over with her arms hugging herself while she sobbed.
She just wanted to go home. She was only sixteen, just a kid. It wasn’t fair. She had been hung from a wall to be raped. She had shot and killed people and now she was supposed to perform surgery on one of her best friends. Why did this have to happen to her? She just wanted her mom and dad. She wanted to go home.
When her sobs subsided, she stood back up and looked out over the fields. The voice behind her didn’t jolt her but the words did.
“There’s a reason why we all think you should be the one to do this, Alex.
You’re our leader. You always have been. Right back to when we were kids and you marched us into the forest and bossed us around to build our clubhouse. You’ve always taken the lead. Quinn might be the responsible one but you are our glue. It was always you that held us together and organised all the adventures growing up. You have the biggest heart and you are one of the strongest people I know. I wasn’t surprised a bit when you came through that door at the biker’s house. I knew you’d find a way to get free. You’re a hero, Alex. We trust you to do this.”
Alex shook her head in denial. “I’m scared out of my mind, Josh! I’m not a hero!”
He smiled a compassionate smile. “Don’t you know, Alex? That’s what a hero is. Someone who’s scared out of their mind and does it anyway.” He opened his arms wide and she rushed into them. He held her tight and said no more.
After a few minutes he pulled back and gave her the trademark devil grin of his. “I brought you something.” He pulled a bottle of rum from his back pocket. “Cooper grabbed it from that grocery store, remember? A little bit of liquid courage to steady your nerves.”
Alex took the bottle and studied it thoughtfully and then shrugged. “What the hell. It sure can’t hurt,” and she took a big gulp. Josh howled with laughter when her face turned bright red and she started to wheeze. In a choking voice, she said, “As they say in the movies, let’s do this!” and they both went back in to help their friend.