Jimmie stood frozen in place, arm reached out and quivering, his lips opened in an almost comical way. Chris stood in front of him, staring down at his stumps of arms in disbelief, screaming from the pain and shock.

“Fuck! Jimmie get your medkit!” Dick screamed, turning around and waving at the group who had turned to seek the source of the screaming. Wearing shocked and disbelieving faces as they saw Chris.

“JIMMIE!”

Jimmie shook from his thoughts, letting his arms fall down, gawking at Dick instead of Chris.

“uuuuh” Jimmie got out, brain having a hard time processing what was happening.

“Shit! RICK, WE NEED YOU!” Dick screamed, running up to Chris and pushing him down to the ground, Chris didn’t object, but the second he hit the ground he screamed even louder, his legs kicking at nothing and his head whipping around.

The stumps of arms were bleeding profusely, not squirting blood, but enough to create a small pool of it.

Rick ran up, momentarily stopping as he saw his comrade bleeding on the ground, but shook himself out of it as he took off his bag and reached for his medkit.

“Hold him down!” Dick yelled at Jimmie, and Jimmie mechanically bent down and pressed at his shoulder, garnering a scream that made him inch back, releasing his hold.

“HOLD HIM DOWN!” Dick screamed louder, grabbing what looked like a needle. And Jimmie bent down to push down Chris' arm.

Rick jumped down on his knees, holding what looked like a small pistol, with a elongated muzzle that was wider than the rest of the pistol.

“Have you given him painkillers?!” Rick yelled out, moving the pistol closer to Chris stump of an arm.

“Not yet!” Dick yelled back.

“Fuck! Jimmie, hold his arm” Rick screamed pointedly at Jimmie.

“Wait!” Dick tried, fumbling with the needle.

“I CAN'T! HE’LL FUCKING DIE, JIMMIE GRAB HIS ARM!” And Jimmie did, and the gun was firmly pressed against the open wound and an unpleasant sizzling noise came through, followed by burned meat.

Chris screamed even louder, fumbling, turning, trying his best to escape the devastating pain. Tears flowing like a river, blood trickling down his open mouth.

Jimmie pushed Chris down weakly, but the more Chris struggled, the more Jimmie had to push, and eventually used his entire strength to hold him still. Mind still not keeping up with the events unfolding.

“FUCK! BILL-BILL! GET YOUR FUC-“

“I’m here! I got it!” Bill quickly said, grabbing a hold of Chris’s torso, pressing it down gently but firmly, Chris struggling weakly against Bill’s strong arms.

“Piernov, bandage this arm,” Rick said, moving around to get to the other arm.

“Jimmie, hold his arm still! Fucking hurry!” Dick yelled. And Jimmie moved to the other arm, holding it firmly against the ground, blood gushing out.

Dick pressed the needle in, and just a few seconds later, Chris scream faded, his eyes turning into a blank stare. His body stopping its struggle and Bill letting go. Jimmie still held him down, his mind moving slow.

Rick pushed the pistol against the other arm, and the noise of burning followed up by the smell of burnt meat entered Jimmie’s mind. Rick then threw the pistol away, pulling out a bandage that he swiftly wrapped around the now closed wound.

Piernov and Rick finished quickly, the rest staring at the process weakly.

“Help me get him up,” Dick said, eyes focused on Chris, but voice directed at Jimmie.

“I got him” Bill said, reaching down to grab Chris, getting interrupted by Dick.

“No, the enemy will get here at any moment, you already have that heavy gun. Jimmie, help me”

Dick pulled at Chris' shoulder, pulling him up. Jimmie followed a moment later, grabbing the other shoulder and helping. Once up on his feet, the two wrapped the stumps of arms around their shoulder, awkardly holding it.

“Chris, can you hear me?” Dick said.

Chris nodded, eyes blank and staring down at the ground.

“You must walk Chris, we’ll help me you but we can't drag you”

Chris nodded, followed by an uneasy step. Jimmie held him weakly, then looked over at Dick, seeing his rifle wrapped around his back.

“Uuuh. My rifle” Jimmie awkwardly said, his voice feeling foreign, dreamlike. Dick looked over at him, face squinched down into a mess of chaos. Blood and dirt smeared all over. Dick looked over his shoulder, then forward, looking for someone, stopping at Piernov.

“Piernov, grab Jimmie’s rifle”

Piernov whipped his head back, narrowing down on Jimmie’s rifle and running up to it. Jimmie’s eyes followed behind his shoulder, seeing a pool of blood and the outline of several bodies near it, the commander sat beside the pool, rifle pointed upwards at the hill. Jimmie looked forward again, then looked at his hand, bloody and dirty. He stared at his hand as they moved.

Rick would glance back worriedly at Chris, face sad and fearful. Piernov walked behind the group with two rifles strapped on his back. The commander even further behind, taking rear guard duty and walking backwards, rifle pointed up, ready to shoot at anything that comes. Bill walked in front, keeping the pace at a fast walk, enough to get the group out of there, but not too fast for Chris.

Jimmie looked away from his hand and down at Chris, he couldn’t see his face at this angle as Chris face was pointed down. But he breathed heavily, and felt weirdly acute, strangely focused for what had just happened to him. Dick saw Jimmie’s face.

“It’s the painkiller, it's only used in emergencies. Keeps a man working, but the pain doesn’t just go away, he’ll feel the after effects later.”

Jimmie didn’t react to Dick’s words, and Dick didn’t seem to be expecting a response, his face determined, holding Chris firmly. And Jimmie’s mind started coming back together, his adrenaline fading.

But yet, everything felt so unreal, so picturesque, as if he was watching a movie in high definition, in slow motion. He remembered everything so perfectly, he could still see Chris face in front of him as he looked down at his bloody arms.

Jimmie felt hollow, and weirdly okay with everything. As if a new focus had come to him, and his steps got firmer, more determined. He held Chris more tightly and shared the burden with Dick. Dick gave him a cursory glance but didn’t ask.