Dresden: For God and Country

Chapter 2

The steel door swung open and two guards entered, dragging Parker's limp body between them. His forehead was cut and bleeding, red streaming down his face and dripping on the floor. I jumped to my feet, anger and fear coursing through my body in equal measure.

"What did you do to him?" I demanded hotly, taking his face in my hands. They looked at me uncertainly.

"Wasn't us." One muttered as they started lowering him to the floor. I clicked my tongue and gave them a sharp look. I jerked my head toward the cot in the corner. To my great surprise, they obediently moved him to the makeshift bed. I was careful not to let the anger slip until they had retreated from our cell. As soon as the door slammed closed behind them, I turned and fell to my knees by Parker's head. The cut on his head was not as bad as it had at first appeared to be. It was long but shallow, the bleeding beginning to taper off. All the same, I ripped a piece of fabric from the ragged blanket they had given us and pressed it into the cut.

Another piece served as a rag to clean the blood from his face. Underneath, his skin was grey and clammy. I peeled back one eyelid. His eye was half rolled back. His pupil was too large and its response to light was sluggish. I looked again at the cut on his forehead, but it was not enough to have caused this serious of a concussion. It was only then that I noticed the dampness of his hair and the red on the fabric of the cot. Gently turning his head, I found a smaller cut, not as large or as bloody, on the back of his head. This one appeared to have been caused by blunt force trauma and would more than account the signs of concussion he displayed. Underneath my softly probing fingers, his skin was swollen and tight, but the bleeding had nearly stopped. What had been going on? I tried to wake him, but without success. I returned to cleaning his face, telling myself that he would wake up when he was ready. I examined the cut on his lip he had sustained yesterday. It had begun healing nicely though still looked sore. No sign of infection as of yet which was a good sign. After that there was nothing I could do but wait and watch.

After fifteen minutes, he finally responded to my efforts to rouse him. He opened bleary eyes and then scrunched them closed again, hands going to his head.

"I suppose asking you if you're alright would be a dumb question." I said ruefully. The corners of his mouth twitched up for a moment.

"A little bit, yeah. Where are we?" He asked looking around with a puzzled expression. I must have looked confused because he amended the question. "Why did they move us to another room?" A sick feeling started in my stomach.

"They haven't moved us." I said carefully. "I think you have a concussion. Do you mind if I check a few things?" Looking a little bemused, he shook his head, then seemed to regret the motion as pain lanced through it. He put a hand to his forehead.

"What's first?" he asked me.

"Well, a lot of serious concussions affect your pupil's reaction to light so that's the first thing to check." I stood and moved so that the ceiling light was over my shoulder. "Look at me please." He did and I put my hands over his eyes. I counted to twenty and then removed them and watched his pupils. They contracted unevenly and rather sluggishly. I repeated the test two more times to be sure, with identical results. Next I checked his heart rate which was a little fast.

"Stand up" I told him and he did so, grumbling only a little. I had him try to walk a straight line and he nearly managed it, but he was unsteady on his feet. I had him do a couple of coordination exercises, which he failed. I asked him to tell me everything we had done since we got off the plane. He got events out of order and left out a few. He seemed to realize this as he went along growing more uncertain and confused. He trailed off into silence.