The Emperor's Men 4_Uprising by Dirk van den Boom

Author:Dirk van den Boom [Boom, Dirk van den]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Atlantis Verlag Guido Latz
Published: 2018-05-30T00:00:00+00:00

22

When Volkert awoke, he felt hot.

In front of his eyes, only shadows were visible, and it was obviously dark. When he breathed in, he felt a stinging and burning pain in his chest, which involuntarily lead to painful cough. The pain became more and more intense, and he immediately lost consciousness.

When he woke up the second time, he recognized the contours of a person beside him. He remembered the pain and tried to breathe very shallow. It was tolerable. Then he felt a wet, cool cloth on his forehead. He relaxed involuntarily. The image in front of his eyes became clearer.

“Quiet, my friend,” a voice muttered. “Do not get excited. You’ve survived the worst.”

Volkert recognized the man. It was the medic of the German unit. He didn’t make an overly anxious impression.

“How … what …?”

The paramedic looked at Volkert comically, then leaned forward and took the wet cloth from his forehead to wring it, moisten it, and to put it back.

“A Hun got you in the chest,” he said. “You were carried from the battlefield, unconscious. We took care of you in the field-hospital. You have lost a lot of blood, but the internal bleeding was limited. You were unconscious for a long time, and you had fever, but refused to die. The good news is that I suspect you have no infection and that everything will be okay. The bad news is that you will never have the same power in your lungs like you had before. You will have to live with it.”

“Ah, shit.”

The paramedic looked at Volkert again quite strangely, then nodded.

“It will still be painful for a long time. I have hardly any drugs I could give you. Some morphine is still available. But there are other legionaries with more painful injuries, too, and I want to …”

“No problem,” Volkert groaned. It was very difficult for him to speak, and it hurt. But he had seen himself with what kind of injuries legionaries were carried off the field, still alive. If the medic was able to save some of these human lives, then surely under great pain. Volkert longed for relief. Morphine seemed to him like a promise, and he almost wanted to take his rejection back, but before he could open his mouth, he was again completely exhausted and fell into a deep slumber.

When he awoke for the third time, everything was still there: the pain, the burning, the difficult breathing – but the rest of his body felt quite good. His gaze, too, was clearer and no longer so vague. He noticed that he was lying in a building, a wooden hut, and not alone. Beside him, he realized, Bertius rested with his arm-stump. The otherwise well-nourished and healthy man had a pale face and lied motionless with his eyes closed. Volkert couldn’t see whether he was asleep. But he breathed deeply and regularly, and there was no sweat on his forehead, indicating that he wasn’t suffering from any fever. To Volkert, it seemed as if Bertius would survive.

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