The Thoughts Between Us // CHALEX

Thirty-Six

Alex

Charlie continued applying pressure to the wound but the bleeding wasn't stopping. I quickly grabbed the provided bandages and started to wound them across the body of the victim.

"The bullet wound is directly in the stomach." Charlie said, as I nodded. "Not to stress you but we have very less time left."

I already knew that as Coach Kerba wouldn't stop counting down the seconds to zero.

I could also hear Justin screaming Clay's name continuously but didn't wanted to distract myself from my victim. Charlie and I worked together to first aid the victim, and when the Coach yelled Time, we sighed in relief because we have successfully stopped the bleeding.

"We did good." I stated, as Charlie nodded and smiled. We relaxed ourselves as Coach began to look over everyone's work.

"You guys clearly struggled." Coach stated as he stood over our dummy with somewhat bloodied bandages. "But you still managed to stop the bleeding so, good job!"

He moved towards the next team as Charlie and I gave each other toothy grins. 

"We make a great team." My partner stated. "You & Me."

"That, I can't deny."

"I'm afraid your victim didn't make it, guys." We turned to see that Coach was evaluating Justin and Clay's dummy. 

Their dummy was very much still covered in blood and they haven't even managed to start with the bandages. Clay was looking shaken, while Justin looked irritated. 

As the Coach moved towards the next team, which happened to be of Tyler and Tony, Clay quietly apologized to Justin who shook his head.

"Wow. You guys really nailed it, huh?" Coach Kerba stated, looking over our other friends' dummy. "Really nice work on the bandages too."

"I just figured close range with a clean exit point." Tyler started talking while Tony observed. "Probably best to apply constant pressure with a compress. It would really be more realistic for us to deal with a high-velocity, high-impact wound, like a .223 from an assault rifle."

"Those are illegal in California, no?"

"No, yeah, they are."

Charlie and I looked at each other with wide eyes, clearly shocked over the conversation that just happened.

"Hey, great work, everyone." Coach Kerba started saying, and moved towards the centre. "Look, I know this can be a tough exercise, but it only takes two to five minutes for someone to bleed out from a gunshot wound. Right?"

After more two to three exercises of stopping a bleeding wound, we were let go of. 

Everyone was still confused over why we were being trained in this. Instead of training students to stop bleeding, why can't they just see how they can help students to not shoot down someone. There's a very less chance of it happening but looking at our past, I will not be surprised.

"Hey, Alex!" Charlie snapped me out of my thoughts as we made our way out of the gym locker rooms. "You good?"

"Yeah, yeah," I stammered. "Just thinking about homework."

"Okay." It was clear Charlie didn't believe me, but before he could say anything else, we heard our names being called.

"Mr. Standall, and Mr. St. George." An unknown man walked towards us. "Heard a lot about you two. It's great to finally meet you."

Charlie and I gave each other questioning looks, making it clear we don't know this person.

"Not to be rude, but," I started. "Who are you?"