Northwest of Eden by Yancy Caruthers

Author:Yancy Caruthers [Caruthers, Yancy]
Format: epub
Published: 2020-12-05T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER ELEVEN

“What’s this supposed to be?” I asked Koen as we approached the waiting ambulance.

“Gunshot wound to the chest,” he answered as he opened the back door.

There was only one patient, a Hispanic Marine with a shaved head. The guy looked up at us, wide awake and in no immediate distress.

“So I don’t suppose you’re the guy who got shot in the chest?” I asked sarcastically.

“Yes, sir, that’s me,” he said, and pointed to a field dressing in the center of his sternum. A tiny spot of blood had soaked through it.

“Where is your IBA?” Koen asked. The individual body armor was supposedly able to stop an AK-47 round. I had no desire to test it.

“I wasn’t wearing any.”

Koen and I just looked at each other. He shrugged. Both of us had seen some pretty unbelievable stuff in our careers, so maybe this was one of them. We hauled the guy inside to the trauma bay to check him out.

Sure enough, there was a neat bullet hole in the center of the guy’s chest, and from there to his shoulder was one giant bruise. We couldn’t find an exit wound, but he was breathing just fine.

As he gave us the rest of the story, it started to make more sense. The Marine had been welding something on top of a Bradley, but hadn’t thought to clear the machine gun first. One of the sparks had ignited a round and caused it to explode. The projectile had hit the Marine in the chest at a very low speed, just enough to break his skin and track around to lodge in his armpit. To his delight, the doc told him it was more trouble than it was worth to remove. The Marine winced as he found the bullet with his finger, but braved the pain to touch it again, smiling. We covered the bullet hole with a small piece of gauze and a band-aid.

He grinned at me as he shook my hand.

“You’ve got some time to make up some bullshit story, but there’s no Purple Heart with this one,” I said. Hopefully there wouldn’t be one in his future, either.

“Lunch?” Maria asked as she stepped into the trauma bay. We would leave Kaupa to cover. He was a quirky fellow, but smarter than two of me.

Maria and I walked together, discussing the section issues and of course complaining about the two millstones in the nursing office.

“It’s like childbirth,” she explained. “It’s just something one has to endure for a time, and eventually it will be over.”

I stopped just then, a sharp pain tearing through my flank. I must have grimaced more than I realized.

“Speaking of childbirth, you look like you were trying to have a baby just then,” Maria observed.

“I probably just pulled something.”

My boss didn’t look convinced. “I don’t need you going down for the count. I couldn’t do this without you.”

“Thanks, but I’m fine.”

When we reached the chow hall, we each pulled our pistols and pointed them at the clearing barrels, racking the slide to ensure that they weren’t loaded before walking into the building.

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