Dogtag (completed)

3. emergency

The vehicle which took the injured men, including Richard, from his unit back to base arrived almost at the same time Dei’s group arrived. Dei and 7 other people flew to the clearing, a few yards away from the main headquarters of Camp Sikatuna.

Without further instructions or briefing, Dei’s group were immediately ordered to assist in bringing the injured soldiers to the hospital tent.

Those who needed immediate surgery were brought to the surgical unit, while those with minor injuries were treated at the emergency bay and released immediately.

Having assisted in bringing the seriously injured to the surgical unit, Dei was made to assist in the surgery done on Richard. Her companion, Nina, assisted another surgery on the next table. After surgery and in the recovery unit, the new staff were brought to their quarters. There, they freshened up and told to head back to the conference room for further instructions.

“…ganito pala dito…” Nina quipped, looking around as she sat on her bed, watching Maine change her scrubs.

“Ano kala mo, St. Luke’s?” Maine giggled and shook her head. She adjusted her scrubs and headed out the door, Nina scrambling off her bed to follow Maine.

Orders were given in the conference room. “…Mendoza, Alcala, beds 1, 2, 3, 4…assist each other…”

“Yes, Sir” Maine and Nina said in unison. After all of them were given their assignments, they filed out of the room and proceeded to the ward.

Patients in beds 1, 2, 3, 4 were all sleeping when Nina and Maine approached to check their charts.

“Hati tayo, primary mo si 1 & 3, akin si 2 & 4…” Maine told Nina who just nodded while staring at the patients.

“Kawawa naman…”

“Ganun talaga...malas lang sila at napaaway sila…”

“…oohh..”

“Bakit?”

“…sa ‘yo pala ‘to…” Nina handed Maine two charts. “…leader pala nila yang si Faulkerson…yung nasa bed 2…galing sila sa taas…mukhang siya ang napuruhan…” Nina cocked her head towards Richard’s bandaged leg, arm, and head. “…ang pogi sana…”

“...'wag ka na mag-pantasya at mukhang nagigising na rin yang mga alaga mo dyan..” Maine said. The patients on the opposite row of beds were slowly waking up.

Maine turned to look at Richard and Ramirez beside him. Except for a bullet wound to the shoulder which was extracted, Ramirez was “better” than Richard.

Richard’s left arm was in a cast, his forehead has a big wound, he had scratches on his face and arms, and his right leg was badly hurt by the IED which sent shrapnel flying and embedding themselves on Richard’s leg. The doctors tried to remove most of it but there was great damage to the leg.

“Superman?” Maine chuckled when she noticed a slight curl of hair above Richard’s bandaged forehead.

Hours later, Maine rushed back into the ward when Richard started screaming. The morphine he was given was wearing off.
“Adjust the morphine and adminster it through IV…” the doctor instructed while checking Richard’s chart. “No amount of screaming will help…”

Richard nodded and gripped on the sheets as a wave of pain hit him. Sweat beaded on his face so Maine wiped it off before adding morphine to his IV line.

“…magpahinga ka na muna, Superman…the morphine will help you…” Maine said, smiling.

“Hindi..hindi ako si Superman...”

“…yung buhok mo kasi” Maine gently brushed her fingers through Richard’s hair.

“…hindi…”

“Huh?”

“…hindi ako si Superman…ako si Ironman…idol ko si Robert Downey, jr…” Richard said through gritted teeth as the morphine slowly took effect.

“Ahh…okay, Ironman, matulog ka na muna. Babalikan kita mamaya…” Maine said as Richard began to close his eyes.