John called up Alexis, “We need to leave right now. William was on his way today and they got ambushed by a sounder of warthogs. They have some wounded and need some help. Get your gear together and I’ll collect Mike, Carmen, Lucy and Miguel. The rest should stay and keep busy.”
Alexis was tired, she had less than an hours sleep and was grumpy as a result. John also had dark rings under his eyes and in general looked like death warmed up. However, needs must and she wasn’t the person to leave someone in pain suffering unnecessarily, not if she could do something about it. Before John could leave she asked him if Michelle had mentioned what kind of injuries she could expect, to which John replied that it would probably be massive gashes on their lower limbs.
By the time she had got together her kit and joined the group downstairs everyone was ready to leave, which they promptly did. It took them less than an hour to reach the scene of the battle, the sight of the dead hogs on the road the clear marker. John turned off the road and crossed over the flattened fence into the bushveld, heading toward the lonely hill rising to the east. It wasn’t necessary to follow any tracks, their target had been described clearly and John thus approached it openly, shouting a greeting when he reached the bottom of the hill.
Alexis could see William heading down through the bushes, shouting a greeting in return. He gave John a quick pat and then approached her for a hug. Once done, he asked her if she was ready for some field medicine and led her to Michelle. The girl was leaning against the trunk of a tree, skin pale and sweaty, her right leg stretched and raised on her backpack. Her calf was wrapped in a bandage soaked in blood. Alexis carefully unwrapped the bandage, Michelle hissing through her teeth, obviously in pain. The wound looked severe, the tusk had gashed through her upper calf, leaving a gaping wound.
Determining that it could wait for a bit longer and that Michelle would be better served if Alexis had a proper table to operate on, she just injected a local anaesthetic and an antibiotic. She then spread a topic disinfectant over the wound and wrapped it tightly with a new bandage.
Rising from her crouched position, she followed William to the next victim. It was Ryan, Ryan the cool older brother. She hadn’t seen him in years, not since long before he had lost his fiancé. She wondered if he remembered her, a quiet girl in William’s group of teenage friends. Ryan was also pale and sweating, leaning against another trunk, eyes closed, furrowed forehead. William coughed softly, announcing their presence. Ryan just growled, keeping his eyes closed.
“Mind if I have a look at it?” her calm tone surprised Alexis. More surprising was Ryan’s meek “Please, do. It hurts a bit.” Once again Alexis carefully unwrapped another bandage soaked in red. Another vicious wound, not as wide as Michelle’s, but clearly deep. Without cleaning it she couldn’t determine its severity so she decided to ask Ryan how the bleeding was initially. What surprised her once again was his concise answer, clearly describing the slow flow of blood and that it had most definitely missed the femoral artery.
Alexis made the same determination she had made with Michelle, Ryan however refused the anaesthetic, insisting that they would need to preserve their stocks for the future and that he could handle the pain for now, explaining that he would also prefer to feel something in the area to avoid unduly stressing it. He did however accept the antibiotic and disinfectant, clearly aware of the risk of infection. She asked William to get both patients down to John’s trailer as they would both have to be transported to the house.
Her next patient, Roland, showed clear symptoms of a severe concussion. Carefully palpitating the site of his cranial injury, Alexis determined that no bones were broken. Without an x-ray machine, she couldn’t determine for sure and was worried about a possible intracranial haemorrhage but the only thing she could do for now was keep him under observation. Roland should definitely not be put on a bike either, his worrisome lack of balance and co-ordination the major problem, in addition, Alexis didn’t want him to physically exert himself by walking either.
Because John’s trailer could only fit two patients, and that at a stretch, they needed to find a solution for the three patients they had. Nobody was willing to split the group at this stage but they needed to return to the house, preferably sooner rather than later. In the end, it was decided to put Roland on a bike, to be pushed in turns by the stronger members of their group who could keep him balanced and prevent a fall. The rest would take turns pulling John’s trailer and pushing the extraneous bikes, hopefully resulting in a fast overall pace.
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Aware of the group’s vulnerability, they did keep up a high pace, all the while carefully observing their surroundings, worried about further incidents with the local wildlife. They reached the house in the early afternoon, forced to move slower during the sweltering midday hours. Alexis was getting increasingly worried about Ryan’s and Michelle’s wounds. She regretted her decision to not thoroughly clean the wounds on site and just superficially disinfecting them as she hadn’t expected so much time to pass before reaching the house and being able to properly treat the wounds.
Warthogs were omnivores by nature and their tusks and mouth could carry a wide variety of germs, the injuries they caused as prone to become infected as any carrion eater’s bites. She was well aware that such infections, without proper treatment, could often prove fatal. It would be best if she could disinfect the wounds quickly and prescribe a course of antibiotics for the two.
Ryan groaned in pain while William helped him into the house and onto a table where they fixed his leg in place with two ratchet straps. Michelle was on the table next to him, similarly secured. Alexis offered them some pain meds, before explaining that she would operate under local anaesthetic, cleaning up the wounds. She didn’t look comfortable with the situation, but they all knew that she was the only one remotely qualified to treat their wounds.
It was interesting watching Alexis operate on Michelle, her movements were calm and precise, the scalpel cutting through the ragged flesh and cleaning the wound, disinfectant spread throughout it before she had William forcibly pull together the muscle tissue, suturing the wound closed layer by layer. The girl was a born surgeon, her initial nervousness disappearing once she started working.
The moment Alexis moved to his table he tensed up involuntarily. His leg was numb, the shot administered before Alexis started working on Michelle. Ryan could see that she was approaching his wound with more care, clearly worried about damaging his femoral artery. She carefully unwound the bandages and started removing the partially clotted blood from the ragged gash. It wasn’t painful per se, rather a deep uncomfortable tugging sensation. Ryan watched in fascination, following her every action as she slowly and carefully cleaned the wound. The gash wasn’t nearly as large as Michelle’s, but the tusk had penetrated nearly to the bone.
Alexis mumbled quietly while working, Ryan could only parse that he had gotten incredibly lucky, the tusk opening the muscle next to the femoral artery, but failing to nick the rubbery tube. When Alexis took out a tube of betadine and squeezed the brown paste into the wound Ryan knew that the operation was nearly done, all that was left to do was to close the wound. She informed him that the wound, provided it didn’t get infected, should heal without long term loss of function of the leg, but that he would be hobbled for at least six weeks.
Without further conversation, Alexis left to check up on Roland while William unstrapped him and helped him of the table, offering his shoulder to support Ryan while they moved off to the lounge. Before they even reached the door out of the room Ryan’s interface started flashing, the insistent ringing off a call droning in his ears. Johannes was trying to reach him. While he mentally accepted the connection, Ryan once more considered how weird it felt to have a telephonic phone call, considering that the Interface probably translated the function at the closest analogue he was familiar with.
William, upon his signal, guided him back to the table while Ryan initiated the conversation. “Hey Johannes, what’s happening?” The sobbing reply caught Ryan totally off guard, “They’re all dead!” The broken conversation of the next few minutes shed light on the situation. According to Johannes, a congress1 of baboons had attacked the farmstead during the night and managed to kill everyone except Johannes, Gabriel and Katrina, who had managed to kill the last of the troop before they managed to break into their room too. When they had investigated, they only found the shredded remains of the others intermingled with numerous corpses of baboons.
Ryan didn’t know what to say, feeling awkward beyond reason. Except for Josefina and Johannes, he had never had a tight bond with the community and was now at a loss on how to express condolences. The only contribution he could make to their plight was a practical offer which he, by all rights, should discuss with the entire group at the house. Nonetheless, he suggested that Johannes, Katrina and Gabriel grab their gear and join the group. Although the journey might be dangerous, remaining at the farm long term would be an untenable situation for the three.
Johannes grabbed onto the offer, clearly desperate to chart any course from the disaster, following any suggested way forward. Ryan and Johannes sorted out a few practicalities before Johannes terminated the call. While William again helped him off the table Ryan informed him off what had happened at the farm, and that the survivors would join them here, if they made it that was. Ryan also expressed his suspicion that the mutated wildlife was becoming increasingly aggressive and hostile. The possible implications something that would also need to be discussed by the group, another point to their agenda for a meeting that now seemed increasingly urgent.
1 Yes, yes, Ryan knows that it’s actually a troop of baboons and not a congress