Disclaimer: I obviously don't own any of these characters, don't sue me.
When Carol Hathaway agreed to go on a ride along with Shep, she didn't expect to end up here, standing just outside the haphazard barrier set up by campus security. Carol watched the police officers slowly approach the building.
The smoke from the flashbang thrown into the library seconds earlier was already dissipating, revealing the gunman standing with his gun pointing into the crowd, obviously dazed but with a look of determination on his young face. Then he fell, downed by numerous shots fired from the guns of the law enforcement officers.
Leaving the dead boy, two officers ran into the building - a few seconds later Carol heard the yell; "CLEAR!" and watched two other officers enter the building, ushering her and Shep, along with three other EMT teams into the building.
$#!t. There was blood everywhere.
The next few minutes were a blur. Carol ran to each of the prone figures, checking pulses and shouting instructions to the other techs, who rushed behind her to try to stabilize who they could.
"Where are those other units?!"
"Five minutes behind us."
One by one the victims were rushed out of the library, each strapped to their own gurney. Police officers rounded up the walking wounded and unharmed and gently ushered them out of the building. The building was cleared in under ten minutes, and tight knots of terrified students were left standing outside, giving statements to officers.
One of the students, seeing that Hathaway had taken control of the situation, jogged over to her.
"Excuse me, but is Dr. Carter OK?"
"What did you say?" Carol breathed, hoping she had misheard the question.
"Dr. Carter. He was tutoring us when the shooting started…" She faltered. "He helped us hide. I don't think we'de be alive if it wasn't for him."
Without responding Carol ran at breakneck speed back into the building.
"John! Carter! Dang you, Carter, answer me!"
She ran from room to room in the small library, calling his name. Then she saw it. A trail of blood, so much blood, beginning in the middle of the room and leading underneath a desk in the corner.
"Dang it, Carter! SHEP! We need a backboard in here!" Less than a minute later Shep came running in, carrying a backboard in one hand.
"Oh, $#!t."
Pulling Carter from beneath the desk as gently as possible, Carol felt his neck for a pulse. "It's thready, but it's there." She breathed a small sigh of relief.
"Let's get him on the board." Carol said as she gently slipped a neck brace beneath his head.
After getting Carter's unresponsive form into the waiting ambulance, Carol began her assessment.
"Two GSWs to the torso, one to the upper right, no exit, one to the lower left flank. Decreased breath sounds on the right." Carol listed off stats as if the young man on the gurney was any other patient, knowing that emotion would do more harm than good.
"Looks like he did a good job slowing down the bleeding. Think it hit his spine?" Shep asked, clearly concerned. It took a lot to concern Shep.
"Depends on the angle." Carol replied, trying not to dwell on the possibility.
Carol turned back to Carter's pale face, starting when she saw that his eyes were open.
"Carter, John, can you hear me?" His warm brown eyes, usually so full of life stared unfocused at the ceiling of the ambulance. After a second, he gave Carol and almost infinitesimal nod. "Good, John, good. Focus on my voice. Can you feel any pain?" The tiniest of shakes of his head. Suddenly, his eyes rolled up in his head, his body convulsing. "Dang it, he's seizing! Ativan, quickly! And get me a bite bock!" "Dang it, he's bitten the tip of his tongue clean off. We need to turn him before he suffocates on all this blood." Yelled Shep, the words somehow registering in Carol's shellshocked brain.
Hold on Carter.