Forgetting the Apocalypse

54. Recovery

Roone's Pov*

It's been two weeks since we stopped here after the house fire and we lost Boaz. It was the longest we've ever stayed in one place but we needed to take the time to heal. Fredi had really messed up his feet because of the poor condition of his shoes and to top it off the bastard somehow dislocated his knee. How, I do not know but after running with it like that it was going to take more than just a couple of nights for him to be able to even bend it. I was grateful that Mara wasn't as bad as his. She had a few scrapes and blisters on her feet but not to the extent he had.

I was msot worried about Kailee. I was not about to risk moving her. Finding this clinic and then finding how well stocked it was was nothing short of a miracle. It was the miracle of miracles. I pretty much had all the tools I needed to perform surgery to fix her arm.

I know that this was going to be my profession if the world hadn't gone to shit, and that human clinics are not that different from animal clinics, but I was sweating bullets every secod that ticked by. This was totally different than the times I had to patch up Mara. Kailee had lost at least thirty percent of blood. She had been fighting me when were running from the house but only seconds later was she going in to shock. Within a minute she was getting confused and losing consciousness.

By the time we got to the clinic her pulse was weakening and I'm sure her blood pressure was decreasing. It had me shaking and some part of me had me getting angrier with every move I made. It wasn't just anger. It was the same feeling I had when I was at my parents funeral. Anger mixed with sorrow.

She didn't deserve this. It was bad enough that she had to see her brother get torn apart but to lose her arm as well? Part of me was saying that she wouldn't survive. Her blood pressure dropped dangerously and she had lost a lot of blood. The other part of me was doing everything it could to rationalize her chances. When we shaken and tossed around, the force caused her elbow to come out of the socket and then it was torn off. Damn lucky too because it was at the same time the crawler bit into her hand.

She would have turned on the first night here if the infection was in her system. That was the only thing that kept me saying. However that didn't mean she was out of the woods yet. She could still develope an infection at anytime, just the non virus one. I just had to watch out for the major things. Redness, fever, swelling, puss and the sort. As long as I could do what I can to prevent her from developing those things then in theory, she should be fine.

What would be a real blessing right now is if we had some clean water to spare. This clinic had a small case of water bottles but I had to use at least half to make sure that my hands, tools and her wounds were clean.

When I set the last stitch, for a brief moment all I wanted to do was collapse. I tossed the clamps on the table and that was when I felt Mara behind me. This is one of the many reasons why I loved Mara. I hadn't even spend two seconds getting her shoes off, which I'm sure I was being rough about, and everything decided to hit me at once. I don't know how long I held her. She didn't question me, judge me or anything. She just held me and cried with me.

Not even Fredi said anything but I'm sure that the whiskey he downed and his exhaustion played a part in the old man snoring already. Even if he did, I know my woman would've smacked him up side the head.

With Fredi and Kailee knocked out, my brother with the dogs, despite everything it felt nice just it being the two of us. Silence was never an issue with us. Having her over my legs as I tend to her injuries reminds me of old times. Of when we were first getting to know each other.

"Are you done yet?" she sighed.

I froze when I heard those words. Looking up at her eyes, seeing a small smile making an appearance. Yeah, just like old times.

***********

"Easy, easy. Small, slow movements Fredi." I instructed him.

Two weeks and the man is either trying to push himself to run a marathon or refuses to move his leg. No in between. Mara helps by stretching out his leg gently for him. In his defence though, as much as he needs to start putting weight on it, it also happens to be the foot he had cut.

The cut itself wasn't as bad. My woman did a really good job in stitching him up, best work she's done if you ask me. The problem is where the cut was. Right on the side of the foot leaning more towards the bottom. So, any amount of pressure would cause discomfort. And that's not having put shoes on yet, which we still have to find.

"Don't think I'm not checking on you ma'am! Get over here so I can check your bandages."

Mara has taught Kailee many things. One of them has been to postpone me looking over them for as long as possible. Thankfully, this time Riva is actually on my side instead of instigating the situation as he's done in the past.

"Any pain?" "Any pain?"

I looked at her with my brows raised.

"Kailee.." she rolls her eyes at me. She sits up and turns her side to me. I use the last of the rubbing alcohol to wash my hands and hand her the bottle of whiskey. She takes a small sip and hands it back to Riva. It almost makes me laugh at the amount she drank.

"Alright, please please be honest without any sarcasm, tell me if it hurts or anything."

Slowly, I unwrap the gauze and lift her arm to see how the stitches are holding up. I don't like how red it is but there's no fever, swelling or funky smell to it. I don't see it leaking anything either. Still, I don't like it.

"Any tightness? Does it feel like your skin is being pulled too hard in this area?" I ask her. Maybe I did the stitches too tight or something.

She shakes her head, "No. Honstly, besides the obvious ache from it, it kinda feels like my arm is still there. It's not until I look down at it do I know it's not true." Her voice cracks at the end. I can't imagine how hard this is for her.

"Phantom limb, that's very common with those who lose a limb. Your mind still sends signals to that part of the body which is why it feels like you can still move it or if you feel like it gets itchy. Speaking of which, are the stitches causing you any itchiness?" That could be another sign of infection if they are. I mean regular itchiness is a sign that your body is healing. Like the way a scab gets itchy after a while but full on sensation of wanting to take a cheese grater to the area is not good.

"No, no itching at all. I just feel like I still have my arm and I've been extremely thirsty now that I'm more awake."

In that case, giving her some whiskey wasn't the best idea. "Well, for the most part this looks like it is healing quite good. I don't see any of the major indications of infection except maybe the redness but for that I think I'll just give your arm a little break from the gauze. Maybe it just needs to breath a little."

I move on to my favorite patient just as she sighs dramatically and props her feet on the table for me.

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