The Z Contingency

Chapter 40

“Be careful on this last section, it’s pretty steep, and all that rain has made it really slick,” Bubba called out over his shoulder to the rest of the group. They were descending the last half mile stretch of an access trail back to the trailhead closest to the lot where they had parked their vehicles. The trail was heavily rutted, and mostly mud; proper maintenance of the trails was another casualty of budget battles.

No sooner than Bubba had finished calling out his warning did Roy place his weight down on a large loose stone. Loosened by the rains, the stone rolled out from underfoot, taking Roy’s leg with it. With a sickening crack, his bones in his lower leg snapped just above his boot, and the sharp end of the broken tibia tore through his leg. A crimson fountain matching the color of Roy’s shirt pulsed out from the wound to punctuate Bubba’s warning.

Dean’s quick reflexes kicked in from years of training as a Navy corpsman with the Marine Corps in the war-torn regions of the Middle East. He got to Roy first, grabbed a nearby stick and placed it in Roy’s mouth. With a terse, “bite down on this,” he moved to kneel down at Roy’s feet, grasped the broken leg, and pulled it sharply toward himself. Roy let out a muffled scream as he nearly bit through the stick. The protruding end of the bone disappeared back into Roy’s leg, and the stream of blood slowed to a trickle.

“Come here and apply pressure here,” Dean called out to no one in particular as he pointed to a spot on Roy’s leg. Opening up his pack, he brought out his emergency first aid kit. “Someone go find me some straight sticks I can use to splint his leg.”

After applying an emergency trauma bandage to control the bleeding, Dean secured three strong sticks tightly around Roy’s leg as a splint, then announced “That’s all I can do here. We need to get him to a hospital.” Then turning to Roy, he added with a grin, “well, that’s going to leave a mark.”

“Don’t make me laugh. It hurts like hell when I do,” Roy replied as a thin smile broke his normally taciturn demeanor.

The crew carefully made it down the treacherous trail back to the parking area, with Bubba and Earl supporting Roy between them.

“There’s a small community hospital really close by in Ocoee. It’s the one the 4-H uses whenever they have emergencies at Camp McCroy,” Bubba announced. “Earl and I can take Roy over in Earl’s truck. Whoever wants to join us can meet us there.” Bubba gave directions to the rest of the group as Earl and Dean made Roy comfortable in the back seat of Earl’s extended cab.

“Alright, everybody who’s coming, follow me,” Earl called out over his shoulder. “I used to volunteer here. I’m pretty sure I still remember how to get there.”

Bubba called out to a young man toward the back of the group. “Hey Travis, maybe you should have the docs check you out too. You don’t look well.”

“No, that’s okay. I think I’ll just go home and sleep it off.” Travis called back. “I’ll check in on you at the hospital as soon as I can.