Addicted to You

In Need

            "Nelly! We need you over here!" A panicked voice called out. She set down the notebook she was taking inventory over and came out of the white square tent she lived in. She entered another tent that was set up with a rolling stretcher and some medical equipment they had managed to scavenge.

The scene in front of her made her heart beat faster and sweat break out over her brow, but she took a deep breath. She set down the stethoscope that was around her neck so it wouldn't get in the way and quickly walked over while covering her mouth and nose with a mask. "Jessica! I need you in here!" Nelly called to her assistant. "Tell me what happened, also, gloves. Now." They obliged, putting on the disposable gloves and handing her a pair. After she put them on she examined the wound.

One of the men answered her with a shaky voice. He seemed to be the only who wasn't in shock of the men that carried him in here. "We were scavenging a house, but he didn't know the guard rail on the stairs was loose. When he leaned against it he dropped two stories and landed on that." He motioned to the man's leg.

The man was breathing harshly through his teeth and gripped the other two other men so hard that his knuckles were white. He kept looking at his leg and then throwing his head back. "Get it out Doc."

"I will, don't worry." Okay, the legs not broken. Lucky, just went through his calf tissue. Just then the flap of the tent opened and her young twenty year old assistant walked in. When she saw what the problem was she dropped her clipboard and gasped. Nelly turned back to her. "Jessica." When Jess didn't look at her, Nelly harshened her tone. "Jessica, look at me." When Jess did, Nelly held her eyes firmly. "I need you to get me field dressing for this wound. I also need you to get me fifteen milligrams of morphine in an IV drip, just how we practiced. Are we clear?" Jess nodded her head, but didn't move. "Now!" She jumped and immediately left the wound. "Alright, John, I'm going to need you to bite down on this, okay?" She handed him a solid rubber mouth piece. "It's for the pain, don't worry."

Nelly eyed the piece of wood that had perforated his leg clean through. Luckily, the wood was sealed with a finish, so she didn't have to worry about splinters infecting the area. She grabbed the medical scissors off of her tray and started to cut his pant leg. She cut the cloth off and pulled it away, exposing the wound.

Jessica came back in. "We are out of pads, but here is the gauze, and the IV ready to go."

"Get him set up with the IV and after go get the woman's hygiene products, quickly." After a minute, Jessica was gone again. After two counted minutes, Nelly asked. "How do you feel? Is the pain ebbing?" He looked more relaxed, but Nelly waited for his nod. She gripped the wooden rod and looked him the eyes. "On three, you ready?" A flash of fear swept across his eyes, but he nodded. "You two, I need you to keep his shoulders down." Just then Jessica returned. "Jess, help them, I want you across his chest holding both down, you got it?" She nodded and found her place. "Alright, brace. One, two-" She suddenly pulled it out and his torso jerked with it.

She heard. "That wasn't three you fucking bitch!" yelled but muffled from the patient.

She saw Jess squeeze her eyes shut as she pushed against his mass as best she could. The other two men were struggling as well to keep his adrenalized muscles down. "Jess, I need you here." Jess looked at the two men who nodded to her and she let go. Nelly continued to disinfect the wound. "Give me those pads." Jess handed them to her and they both started unwrapping the feminine products. They laid it on each opening and kept them pressed down firmly. After a minute, his muscles relaxed again, but he kept swearing. "Jess, hand me the clean cloths over there." With one hand she motioned towards the other side of the tent.

"Yeah, okay." She nodded and lunged for the cloth and handed it to her.

"Help me wrap this tightly around these so they stay put. If it starts bleeding through we have to have this extra layer of protection.

Jess suddenly stopped. "Y-your hands."

Nelly looked down at her blood soaked hands. After she had pulled the wood out it had gushed blood. "Not right now, focus on my voice, now start wrapping."

They both wrapped the wound over three times before putting the gauze over it. "He's going to need antibiotics, puncture wounds get infected often, and especially with this equipment we need it." Jess nodded and got into drawers on the other side. She came back. "Thank you." She turned towards the patient. "How you doing John?" He gave her a weak thumbs up. One of the guys helped get the gag out of his mouth.

His voice was hoarse as he spoke. "Never felt better. Just a little tired."

"We'll let you rest in a minute. Now, are you allergic to Penicillin?"

He shook his head. "Never been. Took it before for strep throat."

"That's good. I'm going to give you this if the wound starts to swell greatly or you get a fever or anything, alright? I just want you to know." She looked at the two guys on either side of him. "Will you move him to the recovery center carefully?" They nodded and wheeled him away. "I need that stretcher back!"

"You got it Doc!" She heard distantly.

She wiped her forehead with the back of her wrist and smiled to herself, proud she could help. She looked at Jess who stood there disbelievingly. "You did well Jess. That was a nice IV you did there. I want you to be his nurse, alright? Look for signs of infection in the wound, make sure he gets enough pain killers because that's going to be sore for a while. Just stay with him, alright? I'll tell you when I need you. Also, make sure Helen knows he is here if you see her before I do. She should check him out too, doesn't hurt to have two professional opinions.

Jess nodded. "Alright, I'll go stay with him." She turned and left the tent.

Nelly waited until she got her stretcher back and cleaned up everything. She disinfected the table and washed the blood off of her hands. She shivered. The temperature outside was starting to drop. It was about to be the first winter after what many called the apocalypse. She gazed out over her set up. Might need to move everything inside one of these buildings soon. Maybe she would talk to Kieran and Callum about that soon.

"Knock knock." Kieran's voice echoed off the plastic tent walls.

"Just the man I wanted to see."

He cocked an eyebrow. "What's up?"

"We had an injury, we got it taken care of, and he is now inside the resting area."

"Who was it?"

"John, but Kieran, I can't do this forever. What if that wooden rod went through his stomach instead of his leg? I need better equipment if you would like me to be affective."

"How do you propose we get this equipment?" He asked and sat down. He rarely ever showed his serious side and she felt it coming on now. When he put his mind to it, he was a great strategist.

"I think we should move. We should clear out Saint Luke's hospital and move everyone there. There's plenty of medicine and shelter and especially with winter coming on, there's going to be a lot more illness. We need to be prepared. If the almanac is correct, we have roughly a month before the first snowfall."

"Everyone just got settled here. Everyone is just starting to call it home Nelly. We can't uproot what little roots we have here. We haven't even been here six months." But his eyes gleamed. He was thinking about it.

"Just talk to Callum. We need to make a run for supplies anyways, maybe he could come with and scope the place out. We could use this month to start making it inhabitable again. Just, think about it, alright? I really think it's our smartest move. We knew we wouldn't be here forever anyways, and that hospital could be our best choice for housing even, those rooms are like apartments."

"Don't tell this all to me, I'm not the one who makes the over reigning decision. I will mention it to Callum, don't worry. Just give me some time."

"Thanks Kieran." She sat down next to him. "So what brings you here?"

"Oh, that's right. We got a new resident, but the room in the motel we gave him is really murky and dusty, it's hard to breathe. I was gonna ask if you could spare some face masks."

She got back up and went over to the supply drawers. "Yeah, no problem. Just return them, alright?"

"Yeah, you got it. Thanks, I'll be off now. I'm going to talk to Callum about that, you get some rest. I'll check on John too."

"See you later, Kieran."

"You too, Nelly." He waved as he left. She stared after him. She wished she could always have that kind of spirit in these kind of conditions.