Skies of Rain

[Shyrus]

Feli placed her thumb on the other side of the metal disk imbedded in Derek's shoulder and kept applying pressure. She reached for the tape and bandages. "Derek, I know you’re in pain but I need your help. I have to keep applying pressure so while I’m bandaging your shoulder I’ll pass the roll of bandages to you. You pass it to your other arm and other your back to me. Do you think you can do that?"

Feli’s first instinct when she heard the voice was to jump up and find this new person. But she knew she had to wait. She didn’t want to call back either in case she woke Cody up. Sure, he was knocked out but she didn’t want to risk anything.

 

[shadow_claw]

Upon hearing no response, Lani staggered into a clearing. Well, it wasn't really a clearing as it was a camp. Other people were hurt as well, some that looked worse than hers. She reamined silent, her dark eyes darting from person to person. "You were all on the plane, then. My arm...it needs set. If someone can help me, I can help you guys. I'm an engineer, I can help you guys build suitable shelter, make water filters, all that good stuff. I just need Some medical attention, and then I can start helping." Lani was surprisingly calm, even though she was pleading for help. She preferred to have both arms and hands, and if she didn't get help right away, that wouldn't happen.

[Mistress of Whispers]

Karrin looked up at Lani as she tied the last knot in Cody's stitches.

 

"Welcome to Crisis Central." She smiled, but there was fatigue underneath the joke.

 

Her dark eyes took in Lani's wound without blanching, but she didn't like what she was seeing. I'm having a lot of that today.

 

"Feli, it looks like our lost survivor found us. That means you're clear to bandage Cody's leg once Derek's is good. Make sure not to touch the wound, its surrounding area, or the side of the gauze that you'll be placing on his leg. Use all the disinfectant spray you think is neccesary. And change gloves, since you just helped Derek."

 

Pulling off her own gloves and discarding them to the floor before snapping on a new pair, she gestured for Lani to sit down next to Dereccio.

 

"What's your name? Are you allergic to any painkillers, anesthetics, or antibiotics as far as you are aware of?" She made sure to include Dereccio in the latter question, since it would soon be relevant to him, too.

 

Taking Lani's arm, she carefully moved and checked it for additional injuries even as she gave Feli more instructions. The bone was broken badly but at least that seemed to be the only break. Thank heavens for small mercies. Still, Derek would have to wait a bit longer before he received treatment: his wound was bandaged and under control at least and, being bigger and stronger, he could afford to lose more blood than the newcomer.

Edited May 13, 2013 by Mistress of Whispers

[shadow_claw]

Rhodey's eyes darted about the group, before she sank down beside Dereicco. "My name's Lani...and I think the only thing I'm allergic to-" She winced as her wound was touched. "is penicillin." Her first reflex was to swat Karrin's hand away, though she remained her calm enough to do nothing more than stiffen. "This is my worst injury. The rest of them are just cuts and bruises." Injuries weren't the best way to introduce herself to other survivors, but everyone else seemed to be hurt as well.

[Mistress of Whispers]

Karrin nodded and kept her face professionally neutral, but she found little reassurance in Lani's answer; a penicillin allergy ruled out more than half the antibiotics she was carrying.

 

"Well, Lani, I'm going to give you a heavy anesthetic and then I'm going to clean your wound and set that arm. The anesthetic might make you so drowsy that you want to sleep. If it does, don't fight it; just go with it." Normally with the bone sticking out this far, Karrin would opt for putting the patient under completely, but she was short one anesthesiologist. Still, at least Lani was susceptible to anesthetics, so she wouldn't have to employ Derek's special aid again.

 

Pulling a slim steel box from her bag, she opened it and took out one of the syringes and a single glass vial. After drawing the clear liquid from the vial into the syringe, and cleaning a small spot on Lani's arm, she carefully injected the anesthetic. She started counting to give it time to kick in, every now and then asking Lani a simple question to check her response. She wanted Lani drowsy or even asleep, but not all-out disorientated.

 

"What is your name? Where were you travelling to? What year is it?"

 

 

[shadow_claw]

Lani processed this for a minute, nodding to show she understood. "Yeah, okay. As long as I wake up and everyone's still here, I'm fine with it." she agreed. She knew it wasn't too safe to be trusting these people who she'd only bet briefly, but they were her only hope when it came to keeping her arm. A small pain was the only sign that Lani had been injected with anything, until only a few minutes afterwards. A comfotable wamrth spread through her, apparently originating from her arm.

"Lani Rhodes."

The warmth began to intensify, until her thoughts began to get hazy. Drowsiness began to creep in as well.

"I was going to Baleem for a job of fixing boats."

It got kind of hard to recall simple things, until she decided she wanted to sleep. Boy, that stuff worked fast! In probably about five minutes, Lani decided curling up and falling alseep in the dirt was a good idea.

[SkullKrusher]

Dereccio nodded in response to Feli as he stood still, being careful not to move too much so he did not injure himself further. Any more movement, and his shoulder and the whole arm usage were going to become useless. He hissed slightly when Feli applied the pressure.

"Yeah, yeah... that's easy for me. Though I must say, that you could at least decrease the pressure... it's starting to hurt badly." He spoke, struggling not to flinch as the metal slightly moved under her pressure. Meanwhile, his gaze went to the new girl that had appeared. She had a broken arm... ouch, that seemed painful.

"I have got no allergic reactions in my whole life, nor do I know of any allergies that I might have... do you have anything hemostatic? Styptic pen?" He asked because his bleeding wasn't stopping and because of his knowledge. He knew much more than basic medicine yet was still only touching the surface. His experience from the firefights in the deserts of Arabia and what he found from helping out the field surgeon and medic helped him learn a lot, yet still he had some problems with things left and right.

Edited May 14, 2013 by SkullKrusher

[Mistress of Whispers]

Karrin looked at Derek thoughtfully for a while. She had deliberately avoided the use of blood-coagulants since that would make cleansing the wound more difficult. Then again, the bleeding had started again and it would be a while before she could get to him. Reaching a decision, she nodded and took another syringe and glass vial from the steel case. Pulling the liquid up into the syringe, she injected its contends in Derek's shoulder.

 

Thinking another moment, she put her pack in front of him. Thinking another moment, she upended it; she mentally winced at throwing all her supplies on the ground like that, but there were all packaged separately and having them 'lain out' like that would make it easier for Derek to go through them. Handing him the unopened bottle of water she had found on the plane, she rattled off a long list of powders and packets to add to it. The resulting cocktail would be the envy of any professional athlete during half-time or, in a pinch, it might do as a make-shift transfusion for someone who had suffered serious blood loss while in the Amazon with no hospital at sight. It wasn't as good as an actual blood transfusion, but blood packs were one of the few things she hadn't brought. She also made a point to give Derek a fresh pair of gloves.

 

"Avoid using your bad arm as much as possible. If the pain gets worse of if you even think you feel that piece of metal move, stop. It would be nice to have a transfusion pack ready for me when I'm done, but the delay won't kill anyone."

 

 

"Does either of you have another unopened bottle?" she asked Derek and Feli. The first cocktail would be for Cody, but Derek and Lani could probably do with one, too. She had the IV needles to switch between them, but she'd feel more comfortable with one each; after all, in addition to the blood loss, there was also the regular dehydration from their ordeal and environment to deal with.

Edited May 14, 2013 by Mistress of Whispers

[SkullKrusher]

Derek slightly winced when she injecteed the liquid into the tissue of his shoulder, but he nodded to her in response. He took the bottle of water and listened carefully to what she said, slightly nodding to each thing she described before she walked off. Okay, he could do this. He twisted open the bottle and placed the gloves because of how risky the materials he worked with were. First, he ripped open a few packets of many things like nutrients, coagulants and other materials normally found in a transfusion pack. Then, he took a syringe and started injecting many of the remaining things that she had said. Finally finished after five minutes, he switched the needle and turned to Karrin.

"If there was plasma and blood in this thing, it'd be a blood pack... anyways, I'm guessing you don't have any empty IV bags? If you don't, we'll have to improvise. Especially with the 'drip' part. Oh, and I've got a bottle in my bag. Second pocket on the front."

Edited May 14, 2013 by SkullKrusher

[Shyrus]

Feli didn't have any of those items. "I don't have anything. I still have rubbing alcohol and a few band-aids in my back pack but that's about it."

Feli put less pressure on Derek and looked at Cody. How long would he be out? "I know we're in a pretty bad situation here and this is no time for useless random questions but how long will he be out? I mean, what if he wakes up in the middle of everything?"

 

[Mistress of Whispers]

Karrin look confused at Feli's question for a moment, then smiled and gestured to her own belongings, now strewn along the ground.

"You use my supplies, of course. We need them and I have plenty to go around for now. I'm done suturing Cody's leg so the worst of it is over for him. If he wakes while you bandage him... he might panic, given how he went out, so just make sure he does not hurt that leg again. Anything else we can handle."

 

Then she bent to retrieve the second bottle from Derek's pack and pass it to him: "That gives me two thirds for each of you. Less than I hoped, but more than I feared. It'll do." At least, if people stopped bleeding it will do.

 

With Cody's wound stitched and Derek's bleeding slowed, Karrin turned to Lani. By now, the girl was firmly asleep on the floor. Moving her a little so she was in the shade next to Cody, Karrin got to work on Lani's arm. The bone was broken badly and the engineer had been walking through an infect-infested overly-warm overly-humid environment, so Karrin didn't take any risks. As before with Cody, she took advantage of her patient being out cold by cutting away any suspicious looking flesh, disinfecting the wound deeply and carefully picking out any bone-splinters.

Edited May 14, 2013 by Mistress of Whispers

[Shyrus]

Feli finished the bandage. "Okay, Derek. I think I’m done bandaging. Just take it easy, okay? And obviously you know this but don't do something that will make this worse. Take it easy."

Feli picked up the roll of bandages and tape and walked over to Cody and started to bandage up his leg. She just hoped he wouldn’t wake up with a searing pain in his leg. The only thing worse than being knocked out with an injury is being awake to feel it."

 

[Mistress of Whispers]

With Lani's wound thoroughly cleaned, Karrin moved to align and set the two halves of the broken bone. With that done, she once more cleaned the arm and wrapped it in thick bandages. It would need a splint, but she didn't have one handy. Perhaps she'd have the luxury of looking for a suitable stick later, but for now, Lani would simply have to remain still. To that end, she considered letting Lani sleep a bit longer, but decided against it; if there was another crisis, it would be good to have everyone on their feet. The same would be true for Cody.

 

"Feli, I have some smelling salt in my -" she'd been about to say 'bag', but all her possessions were strewn out on the ground; "I have some smelling salt over there. It's in a glass bottle labelled 'sal volatile'. You can use it to wake Cody when you're done."

 

She then injected Lani with something to counter the anaesthetic she'd given to her earlier. The girl should wake up quickly.

[SkullKrusher]

Derek took the second bottle as well, then started repeating the process. Good thing he knew a tad about medicine, or otherwise he'd be clueless by now as to what to put inside without Karrin repeating him the things he should insert. As soon as everything was finished, he sealed it again but first took a look of the thing. It looked like a very syrup-like and yet clear liquid with no smell and a probably horrible taste because of it's ingredients, and yet this was pretty much every single blood bag had - except the plasma and actual blood, that is. After he was done, he passed the bottle back to Karrin's side and hissed loudly as he finally finished his job. His shoulder felt sore and hurt, and he felt strangely dizzy.

"My turn for surgery, miss doctor? Feeling just like when I had two bullets in my body for 30 minutes here - very sick." Asked Dereccio slightly as he struggled to take the pain. At least his blood flow was stopped or maybe slowed or weakened.

Edited May 15, 2013 by SkullKrusher

[shadow_claw]

Lani's eyelids twitched, her features forming into a small scowl. It only took a few moments for her to awaken. Her dark, almost black eyes cracked open, this time actually focused. Blinking a few times, she sat up. "Good. You're all still here." The engineer chuckled. Her gaze drifted to her thickly bound arm. "Thank you, I'll pay you back whenever you need me to. I can make and repair just about anything-just ask, and I'll work on it."

[Shyrus]

Feli finished Bandaging Cody's Leg. Now what was that stuff Karrin was talking about? Some sort of salt?

She looked to the ground, multiple medical objects laid on the ground in a messy pattern. She started to pick up things and examine them. "Stitches, gloves, aspirin, I don’t know what this is, I don’t know what that is..." Feli picked up a small bottle. She turned it over and read the label. This was what she was looking for.

She opened the top and poured some out into her hand. She placed it in front of Cody. She assumed the smell would wake him up. "Come on Cody. Wake up."

 

[Rarek]

Cody slowly began to stir, groaning slightly as the pain begins to register. His vision blurred back into reality, looking up into Feliceia's face. As he began to look around, he saw Karrin a small distance away, with a new female he didn't recognize. He'd have to introduce himself later he supposed.

 

As he regained complete consciousness, he began to breathe heavily, as though he had been choked only a minute before. He held his head with a sigh, a massive headache setting in before he saw Derek's face. A number of images flashed into his head: the bloody knife, the metal from his back, and Derek's pitying eyes as he crushed his throat. He gasped in fear and scrambled backwards out of instinct, looking for anything solid to press his back into. He settled for the ground on a gentle slope slightly behind him, staring at Derek with wide eyes.

 

Calm down Cody...he had to do it. Everything had a reason. His eyes shut and he clutched his leg as pain shot up from his muscles, the act of retreating stressing his newly stitched leg all over again. Luckily for him, it didn't reopen. As Cody stood still, he began to shiver, despite the warmth of the Amazon. His eyes hadn't left Derek's, and he hadn't said a word since he had woken up.

[Mistress of Whispers]

Karrin smiled at Lani. "No need to 'repay' us; we're all in this together. I wasn't able to make a splint for your arm yet, so try not to move it for not. Just take some time for the anesthetic to wear off and ask any questions you might have while we wait."

 

Putting on new gloves and discarding the old ones to the ever-growing pile on the floor, she moved over to Dereccio. "Yes, definitely your turn now. I'm going to give you a local anesthetic for the pain. I don't think I have enough to put a man your size and strength under completely, but local will do for that shoulder."

 

Carefully placing four tiny injections on each side of the wound, eight in total, she examined the wound. The piece of metal was still lodged into it and it looked to have gone in pretty deep. It had also still been hot when it pierced Derek's flesh and the area around the wound showed slight blisters. Making sure she had everything she might need at hand, she cleaned the area around the wound and carefully pulled out the metal piece. As she had expected, it started bleeding profusely again so she worked quickly to clean it (at least the blood was good for washing out the wound) and remove any metal scraps left behind.

 

[Shyrus]

Feli was half startled when Cody's eyes shot open. He looked like he was in panic. Once he got to a sitting position he backed away quickly. Feli followed his gaze to Derek. Her eyebrows knit in a look of worry. She quietly sighed and looked to Cody as she started piecing it together. She gave an apologetic look. "Cody, calm down. It's okay. No one's going to hurt you. I promise..."

Feli looked to Derek, Lani, and Karrin. "Hey guys, Cody is awake!" She hollered. Feli looked back to Cody. "Go ahead and rest for now. I think we have everything under control."

 

[Mistress of Whispers]

Focused on keeping Derek's blood flow under control, Karrin raised a hand in acknowledgement of Feli's announcement.

 

"Was that him I heard scrambling around?" she asked without looking up. "If so, Cody, you're getting a splint too, because I'm not stitching that leg again. Which reminds me, Feli, once Cody and Lani are doing better, could you go look for some nice straight sticks that I could use for that? Strip the bark, clean them with alcohol and if you see any signs that something chewed on it or into it, toss it."

 

Meanwhile she kept working on Dereccio, not at all reassured that she'd made the right decision in having him wait. No, she told herself sternly, Derek was bigger and stronger than any of them. If she had made Lani wait, the woman might have bled out by now. She'd simply have to work extra hard to make up for the loss of time.

 

Satisfied she had cleaned the wound enough, she started to assess the damage. The metal had left marks on Derek's bone, but thankfully not deeply, and it had missed most of the muscle. Once she'd get the bleeding to stop, it wouldn't be all bad. Injecting him with a second dose of coagulant, she made a mental note to give Derek a full transfusion and share the remaining one between Cody and Lani.

[shadow_claw]

Lani listened to Karrin's words intently, taking in every word. She cradled her bad arm to her chest protectivley, as if that would do anything. Yeah, her arm did hurt a good bit. Lani was thankful that someone knew how to treat her injury, though, or she proabbly would've died. Death was still a possibility to start with. The commotion caused by Cody's awakening did cause her to see what was the matter, but everyone else seemed to have it covered. "Yeah, actually, I have a few questions. What's everybody's names? I mean, I know the guy over there is named Cody, but I don't know everybody else's." she asked. Glancing about te camp, Lani was already pictuing simple devices that could easily save their lives. A simple water filter would be the first one they would need. "If anyone could go looking for pebbles, something like a straw, sand, and a large-ish, clean-ish cylinder, that'd be great. I can start working on a filter as soon as possible."

[Shyrus]

Feli stood up. "Yeah I can go look for wood. And while I’m out I’ll go look for pebbles and anything else I find useful."

Feli forgot to introduce herself. Well, more like ignored it. She wanted to mainly focus on getting the items everyone needed. As rude as it was she would have to apologize later. She ran off in search of wood. Wood was her top priority. She decided to go where she had dropped the wood she had already found. She was sure some of the branches could be used as a splint.

Within a small period of time she found her pile of wood. She began to sort through all of it. She discarded branches that had worms inside, had started to decompose, had fungi, or anything of the sort. She found a couple branches that looked okay. They where straight enough without too much damage. She began to strip off the bark with her fingernails. Surprisingly, it plinked off rather easily. Not all of it but large parts just fell. She wondered if this in itself was a sign of Decay but she wasn’t looking for perfectly carved wooden stakes with symbols and strings. Just a few good sized sticks.

She had gotten a few good branches peeled and ready now. She had more then needed, but you never knew when you would need them. She counted about seven branches ready to go, ignoring the fact that they needed pairs.

 

[Mistress of Whispers]

Still not looking up from her 'work', Karrin replied to Lani: "I'm Karrin, this is Derek and the young lady who just ran off into the forest is Feli. Like you, we're survivors from the plane. I'm glad you found us."

 

She had finally gotten Dereccio's bleeding under control, not in the least due to use of the styptic pen, and now carefully started to push the flesh back together and apply stitches.

 

"Normally I'd cauterize parts of it", she told Derek, "but this is not a sterile environment despite my best efforts and if it does get infected, you'd be better off with sutures. So we'll try it this way, but you need to be very careful not to overreach with that shoulder."

 

Satisfied with her work, or satisfied that it was as good as it would get at least, she started to dress the wound.

[SkullKrusher]

Dereccio hissed as she injected almost ten syringes of what seemed like anesthesics and a bit of coagulant. Good thing he was mostly under, or otherwise he'd be screaming at this point. Yes, he still fent intense amounts of pain but at the level it was he could at least take a bit of it - otherwise right now he'd be screaming his throat out as the needle went in and out of his skin. As soon as the 'surgery' or treatment was done and Karrin started wrapping the wound, he sighed softly and drooped his head. Man, that hurt.

"So that means I'm out of order - or, at least, my services as a guard and strong person are out until it recovers a bit... how much time do you think it'll take?" He asked, knowing that the second thing he hated the most was not being able to do much. He'd broken his leg one time, for instance, and he had to stay at home two weeks until he could walk properly.

"Ugh... all that coagulant and anesthetis - can it make me puke?" Dereccio added to his question, as he was feeling quite sick right now.

[Mistress of Whispers]

"It shouldn't make you vomit, but coupled with the dehydration it could make you feel pretty sick", Karrin replied to Derek. "Sit down, stay out of the sun and rest for a while. Strong guy like you should be feeling better in no time. And I'll give you something to rehydrate."

 

Tweaking some of her supplies, Karrin piled several backpacks on top of each other and propped the 'transfusion' bottle on the resulting elevation.

 

"This bottle", she said as she carefully injected the other end of the IV in Dereccio's arm, "needs to be higher than your arm while it runs. If it gets to the last of it, call me."

 

"As for resting your shoulder - a couple of days ideally. You can move and carry things, but no heavy lifting. Sorry."

 

Then she took the remaining transfusion bottle and poured half of it into a sterile bag.

 

"All right", she said to Lani and Cody, "I want to hook both of you up to compensate for the blood loss. I know you must be eager to have your freedom of movement back -" she took a moment to look at Cody's leg "- such as it is - so I'll set the drip to max. No objections?"