ETHAN: REAPER-Patriots: Book Fifty-Three by Mary Kennedy

Author:Mary Kennedy [Kennedy, Mary]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-03-25T18:30:00+00:00

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

“Did you find anything on the dive?” asked Koana.

“Well, we didn’t not find anything,” said Ethan, grinning. Koana frowned at him in confusion. “We found some shards of pottery, some old wooden planks that could have been from a ship, and a few other things. There’s no way to tell whether or not it has anything to do with our cave, but it’s worth exploring further.”

Poa came walking up to the group, limping. His leg was wrapped, but it was the sweat rolling off his face and the anguish that had Koana worried.

“Poa! Are you alright?” she said, running toward him.

“Not sure,” he said, shaking his head. “I don’t think I cut this on coral. It’s killing me, and I think it’s infected.”

“Sit down,” said Cruz, pushing him into a chair. “Kelsey! Doc! Lena! I’m gonna need all of you. When was your last tetanus?”

“My last what?” he frowned.

“Tetanus shot,” said Cruz. “When was your last tetanus shot?”

“I-I don’t know. It’s really hurting,” he said. Cruz cut away the bandage and saw the oozing wound filled with puss of green and yellow.

“Shit,” he muttered. “This is seriously infected. Are you having any trouble eating or drinking? Turning your head?”

“Yea,” he said. “I can’t seem to open my mouth very wide, and I have a terrible headache.”

“Brother, you should have come and seen me sooner,” said Cruz.

The big islander stared at the other man. They weren’t so different. They both fought for a land they believed in. They were willing to sacrifice anything for family. Lena looked at the wound and then at the man, frowning.

“Unbelievable,” she muttered. “How long were you going to let this go?”

“Hey, I…”

“Never mind, that was rhetorical,” she frowned.

While she and Cruz cleaned and debrided the wound, Kelsey drew up a stiff shot of penicillin, and Doc drew some bloodwork. As Cruz slid the scalpel across the wound, the drainage was excessive. It seemed never-ending. Once they felt certain it was cleared, they cleaned it again, leaving it open to continue to drain into the gauze. Doc came back and nodded.

“Positive for clostridium tetani.”

“What the hell does that mean?” asked Poa.

“It means you have a tetanus infection from a bacteria called clostridium tetani. If you’d let this go any longer, you would have died,” said Lena.

“I don’t understand,” said Poa. “I surf those waves in that exact spot all the time. I’ve never hit anything before. Never.”

Ethan stared at Luke and Cam, then back at his wife’s cousin.

“Poa, how far out were you?” asked Ethan.

“At least two hundred yards. I was directly in front of the banyan tree. I remember looking up at it and thinking I saw Liani standing beneath the tree. I took it as a sign that she was watching over me, but maybe she was pissed about me eating the last of her cake before she died.”

“I think we need to investigate that area,” said Ethan.

“I agree,” said Luke. “We’ll try to go out there again tomorrow.”

“No,” said Poa. “We’re expecting a big storm.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.