Practicing Medicine // Complete

Chapter Eighteen: The Fire

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HOLLOW TAPE LOADED: "THE-FIRE"

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STATUS

Battery Level: 100% (CHARGING)

Wireless Signal: (?)

Operating Temperature: 92F

HEALTH

BP: 180/90

SPO2: 98%

Temp: 99.5F

RR: 26

HR: 150

TIME

Day: 30 SEP. 2279

Time: 15:54

CLIMATE

Current Temperature: 62F

Atmospheric Pressure: 762 mmHg

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Diaphragmatic Parietal Pleura, left lung,

Costal Parietal Pleura, right lung,

Anterolateral Wall, left Ventricle,

Anterior Antrum, stomach...

Those are the places where father was shot. For half a minute, father had drowned in his own blood, thrashing and choking against the stained brick wall before finally succumbing to the blood loss.

I wasn't shot in any of those places- the hole was too low for it to be in my lungs or heart, and I was sure that I'd be puking if my stomach was shot. Still, I couldn't help but run those pictures through my head as I watched the blood streaming out, the same color and consistency as the gutter-fluid shit that had poured out of dad's heart, pulsing with each beat...

"Jesus Christ Isaac, why!? Did I not just tell you that I didn't want you doing any more dumb shit for me!?" shouted Savanna. The pain and adrenaline had made my vision sharp, so I could see the tears coming out of her eyes as she gripped me around the chest and stared down into the hole. Now I wanted to cry.

"I Didn't... Didn't think I was gonna get shot," I muttered, rolling over to put my back up against the car door and pressing my coat against the wound as hard as I could. The dark red blood just kept streaming out, welling up around the edges and spilling over my coat. All that I could feel now was the sharp, inescapable pain in my stomach.

"You'll be alright- it's just one hole, right? I'm not seeing an exit wound! There's no exit!" said Savanna, patting down my back and peeling my bloodstained shirt off of the wound. I didn't dare to look down, but I could feel that my whole chest was covered in blood.

"How much issit' bleeding? Be honest, is it- is it bleedin' bad?" Savanna didn't answer. Carefully, I lifted my hand off of the hole, and watched as the blood burbled out of the wound, staining my skin as it splashed across my stomach. I clamped my jaw shut and closed my eyes.

"It's, it's, it's my liver- Its my liver that's bleeding! Ah, shit...!" There was blood slipping out the corner of my mouth now, because I'd bit my tongue so hard. Savanna was shushing me and trying to wipe it off my cheek, which just smeared it all over my face. She started shaking her head.