Chapter 16 #3
Tamsyn made a mental note to check on Helena if she didn’t get a report in a few minutes but she hoped the girl would come through for them.
She grabbed a mop and cleaned the floor before rushing off to do her rounds of the whole place again.
It was chaos and probably the worst situation she’d ever been in her entire life.
She had a hard time focusing on what needed doing to support Melly and the others in their life saving efforts.
Already several patients had been moved into the cubicles.
Patched up as much as they could be for now and stabilized.
Two guards dragged in a man with his hands tied behind his back and a yellow mark on his forehead.
“What’s this?” Tamsyn asked, stopping their forward progress.
“One of Ruger’s men. Found him out there in front of the wall, dazed. Your man outside told us he goes to the yellow to be patched up,” the man on the left told her. “Mayor Wyler wants to question him and then later he’ll be put on trial and executed.”
Tamsyn stared at the face of the enemy and gulped. “Not sure what kind of care he’ll get but take him over here and wait.” She led them to an empty wheelchair at the edge of the yellow area and went to tell the man in charge of yellow what the situation was.
Incoming, Trent said from outside to her and Melly. Apparently one of Ruger’s mortar rounds hit inside the cleared area of city and destroyed an apartment house. They’re digging out the survivors now and sending them over. There’s a couple of kids, I’m told.
Can this day get any more awful? Melly responded. Keep me posted. Remember any babies will be red status automatically.
There was shouting and Tamsyn sprinted to the yellow area in time to see the two guards pulling a man with a knife off their prisoner, who now had a gaping wound across his chest where he’d been slashed.
“You bastards killed my brother,” the man shouted brokenly as the guards wrestled him away. “You don’t deserve to live!”
“He’s a red now,” Tamsyn said, watching in disbelief as the prisoner slumped in the chair, blood seeping rapidly from the new wound. “Take him over there.” She pointed to the red staging area and the remaining guard steered the wheelchair in the direction she indicated.
“I’d have killed him myself,” the guard muttered as he passed Tamsyn, “But the mayor was adamant we need to be able to question him and make him pay publicly for his crimes.”
Shaking her head, Tamsyn moved away to deal with the first arrivals from the collapsed buildings.
These injuries weren’t too bad, mostly broken bones.
She dreaded the next set of patients who would have been buried further in the debris.
There were two children in this first group, holding onto each other, dazed but determined.
The younger one was crying for her mother and the older sibling was attempting to comfort her despite being in pain himself.
Tamsyn was surprised by the wave of hatred toward Ruger which swept over her as she went about getting them into the green area and making sure they were cared for immediately.
How could anyone wreak so much havoc and pain on fellow humans in the midst of the infected apocalypse?
How could one person’s greed cause so much suffering on innocents just trying to survive?
She grabbed one of the white-faced teenage runners.
“Go out to the waiting room and tell Mrs. Tommlin if there are any relatives of those kids who show up, to send one to be with them.”
“Got it.” The runner darted off.
Got a bite wound from an infected out here, Trent reported. No other injuries but this looks bad. Already showing the black lines.
Tamsyn, get him in an isolated room, in restraints. I’ll check him as soon as I can but there’s not much I can do for him. Melly’s voice in the subaural com was regretful but clinical. Contract the mayor and see if he wants to authorize me to give mercy.
I’ll handle it, Trent replied. Jeff is with the mayor so I’ll relay the request to him.
How in the seven hells did he get bitten? Tamsyn wondered, forgetting she was on the comlink.
He was on the team clearing the battlefield and got too close to the edge of the swarm we stopped with the fuel fire.
It’s not important, Melly said. Focus on the task at hand, please.
Tamsyn coordinated getting the bitten man into a room and restrained. His buddies who’d brought him in were upset and grief stricken but agreed to stand guard until the mayor got back to them about putting the man out of his misery before he turned.
“And if he turns,” Tamsyn added, “You know what has to be done, right?”
The two soldiers nodded. “Can’t take a chance on Carl getting loose in here,” one said grudgingly. “He didn’t deserve this.”
“No one deserved what we’ve got right now,” Tamsyn replied, already moving away.
Tamsyn, need you out here now, Trent said. A baby’s been brought in from the collapsed building.
Any visible injuries? Melly asked.
None I can find. The men who brought her in said she was in her crib and a beam fell across it but the crib held together enough to create a space where she was untouched.
They’re anxious to get back to the collapse and find more survivors.
They say they can hear voices further into the rubble zone calling for help.
I’m coming. Tamsyn had no experience with baby humans but she’d seen plenty of animal babies on the ranch and she was confident she could manage at least initially.
She rushed outside to find two men in torn and stained clothes standing beside Trent, one holding a dust covered, screaming baby.
“Well her breathing’s okay, that’s for sure,” Tamsyn said as she held out her arms to take the child.
She’d grabbed a blanket on her way out of the ER and wrapped the child in it and she re-entered the hospital to take the baby to Melly.
The baby quieted as they walked, maybe soothed by the swaddling or perhaps the fact she was in a woman’s arms. As she navigated the chaotic scene heading toward the red zone, she grabbed one of the runners. “Find out if there’s any synthcaff yet and bring a cup for Dr. Jericho.”
“Yes, ma’am,” the boy said, eyeing the baby. “That’s the Sampson’s kid.”
“We’ll take good care of her,” Tamsyn assured him.
“Thank the Lords of Space you were here today,” the boy said as he rushed away to find the requested synthcaff.
I wish I could do more, Tamsyn thought to herself, careful not to activate the subaural com.
I wish I was a doctor. But someone had been needed to organize the operation of the makeshift ER.
The nurse was busy assisting Melly with surgery in a cubicle and trying to keep tabs on the medical situation, not logistics.
I have the baby, she said to Melly on the com.
I’ll be right there.
There were no empty gurneys so Tamsyn stepped into one of the empty cubicles and waited, rocking the baby gently in her arms.
Melly bustled in, her scrubs covered in blood. She ran the decontam unit over her hands. “Put the baby on the bed there.”
As Tamsyn complied, Melly stepped to the bedside, slipped on a fresh pair of gloves and waited while Tamsyn unwrapped the blanket.
She did a quick but thorough exam, running the medsensor over the baby who seemed to think it tickled and squirmed but not in displeasure.
“She’s fine,” Melly reported, with a large sigh.
She stroked the baby’s cheek. “Lucky girl, that’s you. ”
The teenaged runner Tamsyn had sent for synthcaff rushed in, holding two mugs. “Got it,” he reported with pride. “There’s more if you need it and food too.”
Melly took one of the mugs and immediately drank about half the contents. “I needed this.” She sank into the chair, hands curved around the warm mug.
“How are you doing?” Tamsyn asked as she refastened the baby’s diaper and rewrapped the blanket.
“Practicing medicine in a way that would get me thrown out of the medical profession,” the doctor said. “Probably worse than what the ancestors did on Old Terra but it’s all I can do in these conditions.” She finished the synthcaff and rose, setting the mug on the supply cabinet.
“A lot more people would have died if you weren’t here,” Tamsyn said, positive she was right.
Melly flashed her a tired smile that didn’t reach her eyes. “Can you keep an eye on the baby?”
“Sure. I’ll send a runner up to Pediatrics and see if there’s a portable crib. Let me know if you need anything else.”
“Thanks for the synthcaff.” The doctor stepped through the doorway without another word and was immediately drawn away by frantic calls for her assistance.
Tamsyn fashioned a sling out of the blanket and carried the now quiet baby with her as she continued her efforts to manage the unmanageable.
More survivors came in from the collapsed building, as well as a few bodies which were taken straight to the morgue.
Many of the walking wounded were able to leave once their injuries had been patched up.
Trent came inside, saying there was no more need for triage and went straight to work in the red zone.
Melly was operating on a ruptured spleen in a cobbled together OR created during the day as there was no power to the upper floors of the hospital so the regular OR’s were unusable.
Tamsyn checked on Helena and her blood donor operation, finding the girl finishing up the next to last person standing in line. “You did great,” Tamsyn told her. “Dr. Jericho and the others have put all the blood you drew to good use.”
“The machine does all the work,” Helena said. “It checks for blood type and all the known contaminants and disease indicators automatically. I don’t even have to touch the patient, just decontam the machine in between donors.”
“Yes but there had to be one person to step up and run the operation,” Tamsyn said. “And you did.”
“She did a great job, doc,” said the burly man who’d finished donating as he rolled his sleeve down. “Didn’t even hurt.”
Tamsyn didn’t bother to correct him about her status, merely nodded. “We can use a few more units just in case if you can find any more volunteers to donate. We’ve got the stasis keeper running in the ER now so the blood won’t deteriorate.”
“I’ll spread the word,” Helena said. “A lot of people came in already, from the town I mean. They want to help. Is that the Sampsons’ baby?”
“So I’ve been told. She was found uninjured in the rubble.”
“Lucky kid. How about her parents?”
“No news yet,” Tamsyn said, wondering what would happen to the baby if her parents hadn’t been as lucky as she was. Surely a family in the community would adopt her? There was no way they could take her with them in the APC’s when they left. Cross that bridge when I come to it, she decided.
Things were definitely quieting down in the ER now, for which Tamsyn was grateful. She sent the crew out in shifts to get synthcaff and food. Melly finished one operation and immediately started on the next, a person with a partially collapsed lung and broken ribs.
Jeff and Cody came in through the doors, both covered in dust, Cody with a nasty scratch on his cheek. The two men were supporting a disoriented woman whose arm was obviously broken. “We got her out a few minutes ago,” Jeff said. “She was pretty far under the building but in a void.”
“Take her to the red zone,” Tamsyn said, pointing. She followed along until the men laid the woman on a gurney. “Dr. Jericho will be with you in a minute,” she told the patient.
She grabbed Tamsyn’s arm and hung on tight. “Have you seen my baby? Any news about my child?”
“Are you Mrs. Sampson?” Tamsyn asked.
The woman nodded, tears making tracks through the gray dust on her cheeks. “I’d just walked away from putting her down for her nap. I was visiting with Mrs. Petrie from next door. She—she didn’t make it. I saw her, she was crushed—”
“Well I have the best news for you,” Tamsyn said, undoing the sling.
“Your baby was brought in earlier. The doctor checked her out and she’s fine.
Missing her mom though.” She lifted the child and placed her in the crook of the woman’s unbroken arm.
Tears were making her nearly blind as the mother burst into huge sobs and did her best to hold the baby close.
Glancing up, she saw Jeff and Cody having a hard time with their emotions at the reunion.
Melly bustled up. “What do we have here?”
“I’ll take the baby while the doctor does her exam,” Tamsyn told Mrs. Sampson. “I’ll stay right here where you can see us, okay?”
She stood patiently holding the baby while Melly did her exam and then the treatment.
Mrs. Sampson barely flinched, all her attention on the baby.
Tamsyn was happy to hand the child over once the mother had been cleaned up and taken to a bed in one of the cubicles.
A volunteer came to stay with them, to ensure if Mrs. Sampson grew fatigued the baby would be safe.
Emerging into the ER, Tamsyn took a deep breath, glad for one happy ending and made her way to where Jeff, Cody, Melly and Trent were talking.
“There won’t be any more building collapse victims coming,” Jeff was saying as she walked up.
“How can you be so sure?” Melly asked.
“I ran a few of my drones all through the wreckage,” Cody said. “There’s no one else left there alive.” He glanced at the bystanders working in the ER and switched to subaural. I had to use my cyborg strength to get Mrs. Sampson loose and she’s the last one.