The Corps of Discovery Trilogy Box Set: Books 1-3: A multiverse series of alternate history by James S. Peet

Author:James S. Peet [Peet, James S.]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Published: 2021-03-07T22:00:00+00:00

43

By late October, they had made it more than 1,200 kilometers up the Missouri. Bill estimated they were at the current location of Sioux City, Iowa, Earth when they pulled in for the evening. As they got out of the canoe, he wondered if this was the same bluff where Lewis and Clark had lost their only member to death.

Dragging the canoe up on shore, Bill thought, Man, it feels good to finally be able to walk without that stupid splint. The bone had finally healed enough that he could walk regularly, but he still needed more time to build up the lost muscle.

For the past couple of days, Karen had been complaining about stomach pain, but they all figured it was just something she had drunk or eaten, and expected it to pass soon.

It was only after camp was established and the wikiup set up that Karen suddenly vomited and collapsed to the ground, holding her belly. Meri rushed to her, placing the inside of her wrist on Karen’s forehead. “Christ, she’s burning up,” she said to Bill.

Mere held Karen’s hair out of her face. “Where’s it hurt?”

“Lower right abdomen,” Karen said through gritted teeth, then vomited again.

“Crap. Sounds like where your appendix is. I’ll need you to lie down so I can check. Can you do that for me?”

With Bill and Meri’s help, Karen was able to roll over and lie down. Meri undid her jacket, shirt, and pants, pulling her T-shirt up over the abdomen and her underpants partially down. Despite all the time the three had spent naked in front of each other bathing, Meri still tried to preserve some of Karen’s dignity. Gently she began palpating Karen’s abdomen, eventually making it to the spot over her appendix. As soon as Meri applied slight pressure, Karen almost bolted upright, screaming in pain. Bill, at her head, caught her and gently lowered her back to the ground.

With a grim look, Meri said, “Yep. Just as I thought. You’ve probably got appendicitis.”

Karen nodded weakly. “Thought so,” she whispered. “What now?”

Considering their location, over 2,000 kilometers from the Initial Point, but still without any hope of rescue, Bill figured Karen was a dead person talking. Looking at Meri, he raised his eyebrows.

“We’ve got two choices,” she said: “hope you recover or I do an emergency appendectomy.”

“What are the odds of recovery?” Karen whispered.

“Straight answer? Zero to none.” Meri wasn’t known for hiding the truth or sugar-coating things, so her blunt assessment came as no surprise to the other two.

“If the appendix ruptures, you’ve got twenty-four to seventy-two hours.”

“Well, shit. Looks like you get to play a real-life Doctor McDoyle,” Karen said, then gritted her teeth through another spasm of pain.

“Doctor McDoyle?” Meri asked, confused.

“Old television series from the ‘60s,” Bill said. “Star Venture.”

“Ah.” Meri nodded, clearly remembering Karen’s fascination with classic television shows.

“Okay, let’s get cracking,” Meri went on. “Get a tarp out so we can put Karen on it and off this dirt. I’ll get a first aid kit.

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