Time Sensitive Target

Part 11 - Cold Ground

Jase watched as Ant stared helplessly for a split second. They all stood rooted to the ground, eyes glued to the scene before them. As Rav launched himself towards the small shaking woman, something clicked and the team remembered themselves. Five of them stood back with torches illuminating Paige's bruised form as Rav worked tirelessly to do... something.

After some time Jase handed his torch to Chris and made his way over to Sonny, who stood guard next to a hooded and bound al-Raheem.

"She gonna die?" Sonny, ever the cowboy, chewed a wooden toothpick as he stood with his rifle.

"I don't think so," Jase shook his head. "Rav said her lung is punctured from trauma but doesn't think the bleeding is from that. He thinks the haemoptysis is coming from her stomach rather than her lungs, said the blood is too dark. He's inserting a tube to drain the lungs for the puncture but he's having to fucking... navigate around bits of broken rib to get to the lung," Jase was exhausted and angry. Where the fuck was their exfil? They had been without comms for twelve hours, and he was worried.

"And the puking blood? That just gonna fix itself or what?" Sonny frowned deeply. Their own medic should have been seeing to her, at least he knew and trusted him.

"Apparently. Biggest risk from it is choking so as long as she's monitored she'll be fine. We have to get that wire off though," Jase watched his boot as he swayed it side to side in the powdery earth like a windscreen wiper. Sonny grimaced and watched al-Raheem. He held him in a stress position and refused to let him sleep. When al-Raheem made no movement Sonny kicked him in the back.

"You ok over here?" Jase looked Sonny in the eye.

"I'm better here than watching that wire get pulled out her neck," he leaned forward and grabbed Bazish by the collar of his robe to pull him back into his stress position. Jase nodded to him and returned to the small circle around Paige.

*

I felt warm. That was different. Comfortably warm and somewhat content. Something felt different. I opened my eyes, fresh daylight streaming in.

"Morning," a voice came from beside me. I froze instantly, heart racing in my chest. Control your breathing, control your breathing. I had forgotten where I was. These men had attacked me and pinned me to the ground. Oh no, I had passed out. I had passed out and they had probably all done as they wished with me. And they'd attacked Jas, I had heard her scream.

A figure walked past my head and the man crouched next to me, his face parallel to mine. I looked at the sky, trembling uncontrollably. Don't cry.

"We need to do some obs, is that alright?" The voice was gentle and accented. A tear slipped down before I could stop it.

"It's alright, we're just going to check your blood pressure," a hand slid forward towards the zip on the sleeping bag. I clenched my eyes shut and more tears escaped; I stayed silent, trying desperately not to hyperventilate.

"It's not gonna hurt," the voice said. Fingers touched my arm and I shuddered, the tremors across my body nearly uncontrollable. I wanted to be sick. My arm was pulled away from my body, my hands coming apart. Had the wire been removed? A cold compress was wound around the top of my arm but all I could feel was the occasional contact of someone else's skin. I tried desperately to grapple with reality but I knew what they were capable of. They may be gentle right now but who was to say that after this they wouldn't begin their fun?

"All done," the voice said. "Paige, can you look at me? Can you sit up if we help you?"

I kept my eyes firmly shut. You don't have to look at them, you don't have to look at them. Take yourself somewhere else. You're not here. This isn't real.