The Dubrovzkan Half Breed

VII

Berno showed me to a room made by a divider in the tent where several vrachs were working on a man who smelled horribly of blood and smoke. He cleared his throat and a girl with maple brown hair and brown eyes turned around.

"Rani, this is Sonja; Sonja, this is Rani, the vrach who was recommended by the Home Base Alpha to work with us." he said. "Sonja is leading this operation; you may want to learn from her."

I turned my face to him. "Wait, where are you going, Herr Svetz?" I asked frantically.

He smiled at me warmly, which took me aback since I was so used to Herr Varshavsky's cold glare. "I'll be right here behind the curtain; don't worry, miss." he said, and left the room.

When he was out, Sonja touched my arm and showed me over. "So," she said. "You came from Home Base Alpha? Must be nice."

"I wish it had been." I said. "My headmaster didn't like me, so he sent me here." I looked at the patient.

She looked at me sympathetically. "I'm sorry, my friend. But at least here at Home Base Bravo, you'll be put to good use."

I certainly hoped so.

My eyes widened when I saw the man. The soldier lying on the operation table was bloody from head to foot. His face with streaked with red down to his neck, his uniform was tattered, charred and blood stained. I could hear him rasping down wet breaths; it sounded painful.

"Alright," said Sonja. "This is Drakon Yazhov. He's stepped on a mine and has multiple pieces of shrapnel embedded in him; we need to pull it all out."

"... Ooookay... Oh boy." I said.

A hand tapped my shoulder. It was the boy who had stopped to stare at me earlier. "Hey, don't worry; if you worry, you'll mess yourself up." he said. He might have been trying to help, but I only felt worse.

Sonja pointed at Drakon's leg. "You see the piece sticking out of the outside of his leg?" I nodded. "I need you to, carefully, pull that shrapnel down and out of his leg. Don't pull it straight out or you could sever an artery and he'll bleed to death before we can fix him."

I touched the edge of the metal piece and then timidly grasped it. My hand worked it gently to see if it was loose enough to pull out. It slid perfectly out of a gash in his leg and I dropped the piece into the table, making a clinking sound.

Blood began to gush onto the table and I panicked. "Did I do it wrong?" I asked.

"Not at all!" said the male vrach. "And I assume you know how to sew up a wound, so, hop to."

I rifled through my bag and grabbed a cloth, alcohol, a needle and my thread. I wetted the cloth and dabbed the cut, then threaded my needle and began to sew.

When the wound was closed I knotted the thread and snapped it with my teeth; I rubbed a dry corner of the cloth across my teeth to remove blood. The man groaned and I gently touched the skin around the wound and hushed him. He relaxed and his breathing, after a few moments, evened out.

Sonja smiled approvingly. "Well done. You're very good with the injured."

I was relieved to hear that. "Thank you." The heavy gray cloud of anxiety and depression lifted from my eyes.

Sonja and Maiko, as I found out was the name of the male vrach who had spoken to me, helped me learn to remove shrapnel with ease and by the time we had finished working on the wounded soldier, I felt confident that I could do something like that on my own if I was put up to it. Of course, that was just scenario number one of however many I would end up doing, but it felt like a good start. The last of Drakon's wounds were sewn and bandaged and the poor man's eyes were closed, and his face looked pale. Even though he had been given anesthesia to keep him from feeling much, his body didn't seem to agree that he was fine.

"Don't worry about him. Eva over there will wrap him up in a blanket and when he wakes up he'll be better." said Sonja, motioning to another woman working behind her.

"Alright," I said. "So, now that this is done, is there anything else I could-"

The loud sound of car tires, rattling weaponry and heavy boots rapidly approaching, accompanied by horrified gasps and cries from some of the vrachs sent the hairs on the back of my neck standing on end. I turned around and followed after Maiko who had taken off in the direction of the noise.

My heart beat wildly when I saw multiple soldiers being dragged into the quarters. Everything smelled awful like burning flesh, gore and singed clothing. I stopped beside Maiko and looked about frantically. "What happened?" I asked.

"Gombostonians." said Berno grimly. He was standing beside a table where another man had been laid, and his head was low.

I peered around to look at the man who had been injured. My breath caught in my throat to see a vrach- a woman, in fact- lying on the table, her ribs just below the breast covered in a blood spot. Her dark hazel-gray eyes were open, focused up like she was looking for her forehead and there was a trickle of blood from her mouth and nose dripping along her cheek. Just protruding from her nose was a thicker looking mass of grey-red substance. What scared me most of all was her breathlessly still body, void of life.

"Is she...?" I asked, my throat quickly closing down on my vocal cords.

Berno's head sunk more and he made a hum of agreement. His fingers gripped the side of the table tightly.