Ascension

Indiana

I walk over to Elijah. He definitely wasn't doing so hot. He got caught in a loop. It happens to the best of us. When I sit down next to him he is rubbing his red, raw hands again and again in the water.

"I can't stop." Elijah whispers looking hauntedly at his hands.

I grab them and pull them away from the water. I hold them in my lap for a second and then lead him away from the water's edge. I look at them and then raise and eyebrow at him. They are all dried out. My guess is he washed out all of the natural oils.

"This is going to hurt tomorrow, you realize this right?" I ask.

"Yes." Elijah admits solemnly.

I take him to my tent and give him moisturizer to put on his hands. He winces as it touches the dried out parts of his hand.

"How did you get stuck?" I ask him.

"I went to the water's edge to get Lorelei's blood off of my hands and I couldn't seem to get it off right. I kept seeing it on my hands so I kept washing them." Elijah explains shakily.

"Well it's okay. Everyone reacts to fighting differently." I tell him.

"How do you know this?"

"Did you not know I was a doctor before landing?" I ask.

He shakes his head. I don't think many people actually knew.

"Hey Elijah, would you be okay if I left to go help the doctors with taking care of the injured?" I ask.

"Yea. And by the way, thank you for helping me. You know get out of the loop."

"No problem." I smile.

I run off to the medical tents and believe me it was a doozy. I stepped into a surgery of removing a bullet. Three bullets actually.

"Do you have a medical background?" One of the nurses asked me.

"Yes."

"Then what are you doing just standing around? Help me." She commanded.

I went to work. I had never done surgery before so I handed the doctor who had the tools. I don't think I have ever been this bloody in a long time.

I wasn't even doing the surgery. It was kind of gruesome. We didn't have any anesthesia so we just had to trust that the patient would black out any minute because of the pain.

They did for a while but every few minutes they would wake up and scream in pain while the nurses scrambled to keep them down. It must have been a rude awakening to have something inside your body trying to get out a bullet.

I'm so thankful I didn't get shot. I'm not sure I can handle it. I can handle other people's blood just fine but if it's my own I can't keep conscious. Strange I know but seeing blood just makes pain that much more real to me and I just can't handle that so I collapse.

In about an hour or so we have gotten two of the three bullets out of this man.

The third one is in his abdomen right where his spleen is. The bullet damaged the spleen to much and we cannot fix it so we are pulling it out as well. I feel for the man. He has three holes in his body that we cannot close up right now. Our more advanced doctors are preparing to fill the holes up with metal but we can't right now.

"Hey Indiana. We got this. How about you go see if any other surgeries need you right now." The doctor tells me and so I go out of this medical tent and to others.

Being around camp is making the soldiers nervous, I can tell. They are running around to do things around camp that don't necessarily need to be done. I guess it is weird to hear screams every few minutes.

I wish I could be doing that right now but I can't so I just sit on the log. Then I remember I could wash all the mud and dirt out of my hair. I get up and go to where the water near the swamp is the most clear. I rinse and rinse my hair until I can kind of see the original shade it was supposed to be. I start washing my torso when I see it. It is a welt the size of my thumb nail.

I look at it wondering where I got it from. I cup water in my hands to wash it since getting dirt in it wouldn't help anything. I was trying to wash the welt but it hurt like tiny knives when I touched it.

I was getting more worried now. I didn't touch the welt again. I just finished washing up and put on my uniform once again and went back to the colony.

I tried my best to forget about the tiny welt on the side of my chest but I can't. No matter how hard I try to force the puncture wound from my mind it always seems to find it's way back. Then it started stinging a little. Then it really wouldn't leave my mind. I made a promise to myself. When all the surgeries were over I would see a doctor.

I sighed. It was probably nothing serious, maybe a harmless bug bite. That thought seemed to ease my anxiety a little bit but the thought that it was more always seemed to be in the back of my brain.

"Hey Indiana." A voice greeted me.

I turn and see silas walking up towards me.

"Oh hey sir." I greet him.

"I just wanted to thank you for your service." Silas sighed.

"Why do I feel like that is a bad thing?" I ask.

"Seven people died today. Five on the battlefield and two on operating tables. More will follow." Silas explains.

"But we took out countless Brights today sir."

"I understand but it won't always be like today." Silas rubs his temples.

"I understand but you will help us and guide us." I assure him.

"Every time I go out on the battlefield I feel the weight of the soldiers I have lost. Each battle the weight gets heavier. You don't understand now but believe me, you will." Silas groans slightly like he has a headache.

"I'm sorry sir." I whisper.

"It's not your fault soldier. I just want you to watch out for those types of things and you need to remember it's not your fault. Do it before the weight of everything presses down on your back."