Page 30 of Desiderium
“Yes,” I reply. My voice, a mere whisper of trepidation as I nod back, too stunned to argue or debate why I did it at the moment. Too dazed by the sudden events to do anything other than function on autopilot.
He pulls back, pressing his lips to mine quickly, and huffs out a sigh before letting me go, keeping my pace while leading me on to where the other guys are waiting.
Jax is on his back, holding Cole on top of him, chest to chest. I can only assume he’s doing this to keep Cole’s wounds as dry as possible. The back of his shirt is shredded, though, and, through the long tears, I can see a few of his wounds.
They don’t look good.
In a matter of seconds, my vision clears and my hearing sharpens, the sight of his trauma fully bringing me back to the here and now.
“Cole?! Cole! I’m here,” I say frantically.
“Aly?! Fuck, are you ok? Guys, is she ok?” He nearly falls out of Jax’s arms in his attempt to check on me but Jax keeps him still, hoisting him further onto his chest.
“It’s ok, Cole... She’s ok. Just... focus on staying on top of Jax and not moving too much, ok man?” Hawk says immediately, answering Cole and calming his worry.
“We need to get out of the water, follow me, there’s an old swimming dock just over here. Hawk, you stay with Aly and help her. It’s not far, but it’s still a good bit of distance to swim.” Jax instructs us and we turn to follow him.
My adrenaline is just about spent, making my body practically useless with lack of energy, but Hawk helps me with that.
Taking off his pants, he lifts them out of the water and ties a knot in each of the legs. Then, he stops treading the water, allowing himself to sink. It’s murky here, but I can see enough to witness Hawk blowing into the waistband,inflating the pantleg with air. After one is full, he rises, takes another breath, then sinks again, doing the same to the other leg. This time, when he resurfaces, he swims over to me, placing the inflated pant floatie over my head, the knotted parts lying on my chest.
Oh, this is much easier now.
While remaining on my back, floating on the surface and keeping pace with Hawk, I manage to kick over to where the dock is without having to worry about my own exhaustion taking me out on the way. He makes sure I have a firm grasp on the metal ladder before climbing to the top, helping Jax heave Cole onto the creaky, wooden planks.
They do so as gently as possible but Cole still lets out agonizing groans as they jostle him into position. Once Hawk is able to lay him on his stomach, Jax hoists himself and Sadie up out of the water while I climb up the rusty ladder and make my way over to them. There’s no time wasted once we’re all on the rickety old thing. We all converge on Cole, eager to assess his condition.
“Alright, Cole. You know the deal. Give us the damage. Don’t make us work for it.” Jax says as he takes his knife and cuts the remains of Cole’s shirt from his body, allowing us to see the full extent of the trauma that was done. I gasp but manage to hold my hand over my mouth, muffling the sound, at what I see.
His back is covered in hundreds of scrapes and scratches, gouges and tears. Many of them are bleeding but I’m not sure how deep they are—there’s just too much blood in the way.
I can only hope and pray he’ll be ok but there’s one thing that’s niggling in the back of my head that simply won’t shut the fuck up.
We still don’t know the full extent of the virus’ transmission potential. We know that if you’re bitten, you will one hundred percent get the virus. If you breathe it in, you can still get the virus but there’s potential that some might not. There were a few studies, before the world went to shit, that referenced something about blood type immunity or some other such nonsense. In other words, some were immune to airborne transmission but specifics were never given as towhichblood types. As such, we don’t know if we are, which is why we still cover our faces if zombies are present.
Cole’s situation is unique, however. I don’t recall seeing any studies regarding cuts or scrapes and their correlation with transmission. I’m not sure if any of the guys have either.
“My back… obviously. And my ankle… I think my ankle is either twisted, sprained or broken.” He sighs roughly, shaking a little, but continues. “I don’t think I was bitten… but... but I’m not sure,” Cole says breathlessly. I can tell the pain is taking a toll on him, his adrenaline all but sapped away during the event, but it still doesn’t stop him from being the medic he always will be. “How does it look? My back? Does it need any stitches? Do you see anything?”
Jax takes a second look at his back, poking and prodding in certain places before turning him on his side, assessing the rest of him. The blood looks like it’s stopped for the most part but there are still a few places where itcontinues to pool. Particularly along two huge gouges running from his shoulder down to his hip. “Gonna need some stitches in a few places, but… no bites from what I can see, thank fuck.” Jax pats Cole’s hip lightly. “Lift up, Doc, I need to get to your IFAK.”
What the fuck is an IFAK?
Cole winces but manages to arch his butt into the air a few inches as Jax reaches under him, unbuckles his belt and gently pulls the entire thing from his pants. With Cole’s hips still lifted, Jax reaches back under, retrieving a small pouch that must have been attached to his belt.
It’s strange. I’ve noticed it before—the pouch on his belt loop—but never knew what it was for. Jax opens it up and I realize that it’s a small medical kit, just beefed up. It has all of the usual stuff in it like gauze, burn cream and bandages, but also splints, a tourniquet and a CPR mask.
Jax takes out and opens a large package of gauze, which he then layers over the deeper cuts, pinching the skin together before applying them. Hawk, leaning over Cole on the other side, places his hands on them and holds them down, pressing them into Cole’s back as Jax cuts a few pieces of tape, situating them around the wounds.
“Just temporary. I know we still have to clean these up and stitch them properly but this’ll have to do for now.” Cole nods at Jax, giving him a soft, “Good to go,” before grunting to Hawk to help him sit up. Once upright, Cole pulls out a package of Ibuprofen from his IFAK and swallows the pills dry, groaning a bit before leaning down slightly to pull up his pant leg and push down his sock. When he sees thedamage done to his ankle, he immediately takes another package of pain killers and swallows them.
Swollen is an understatement….
“Let’s get that boot off you, bud,” Hawk says before untying and removing both it and his sock. A chorus of profanity echoes at what we all see.
“Oh shit…,” Jax says under his breath.
“Fuck, now that’s a new color of purple I thought I’d never get to see,” Hawk exclaims just before he dips his head, almost close enough to touch it with his nose, while reaching with his fingers to touch the mottled skin.
