Apologies for the delay in this next chapter. Hope you will all enjoy it. All favs, follows and reviews are still highly appreciated.
Next chapter will be up asap ;-)
It took Claire about 20 minutes to get the generator going and return to the control room. On her way back she found a fairly untouched supply of bottled water and sweets, which might still be edible after all this time, and took them with her. They might come in handy later.
Claire re-entered the control room and sealed the door behind her. She had expected Owen to make a comment about her return, but found him lying unmoving and silent.
"Owen?" Claire said a little uncertainly. She quickly dropped the things she was holding and made her way over to him. He lay as she had left him: flat on his back and head resting on her jacket.
"Owen, talk to me". Claire kneeled down next to him. The ranger was sweating and the front of his shirt was stained by his own blood. She could only conclude that he had lost consciousness somewhere during her absence, since he was undeniably still alive.
For the first time since they had gotten themselves to the relative safety of the indoors, Claire had the opportunity to have a better look at Owen's injuries. She carefully assessed the damage to his shoulder where the bullet had hit him. The wound was still bleeding, but it had already slowed down mostly on its own. She could, however, see that the bullet was still embedded in his flesh. Claire did not have an extensive medical knowledge, but simple common sense was enough for her to realize that the bullet needed to come out, and that she would have to be the one to do it…
Claire quickly gathered some supplies from the well-stocked medical kit that was kept in the control room.
"Sorry about that" she mumbled as she ripped open Owen's shirt and bared his shoulders and chest. The damage from the fall out of the helicopter was now, too, visible on Owen. Bruises had started to appear all over his chest, and most likely his back as well, varying from light-blueish to almost black. Claire could only imagine how much pain those were causing him and how much willpower Owen had had to muster to be able to walk all the way from the beach to the resort.
Claire could not linger too long on Owen's bruises and turned her attention back to treating the gunshot wound. She found a pair of large tweezers in the medical kit and doused them with disinfectant. Her hands were trembling slightly when she brought the tweezers to Owen's shoulder.
Claire hesitated. She had never done something like this before and she feared the pain she would be causing Owen. Hell, how was she even supposed to do this?!
A deep rumbling sound from the volcano outside shook the entire control room and pulled her out of her stupor. Claire brought the tweezers yet closer to the wound and ground her teeth together to muster up the courage.
"Oh, come on!" she reprimanded herself, "you have to do it!"
Claire took another deep breath and finally plunged the tweezers into Owen's shoulder wound. It wasn't long before she felt the metal of the bullet underneath the instrument. She twisted the tweezers to get a better grip at the bullet, an action that made a shudder go through Owen.
Claire had to wriggle the tweezers around some more, because she could still not get a good grip at the smooth and slippery bullet.
"Stop..." Owen suddenly groaned painfully, trying feebly to move his shoulder away from her hands. The renewed pain of the 'treatment' had pulled him back to consciousness.
"No" Claire tried to sound determined, but her voice shook anyway, "this bullet needs to come out".
"You're hurting me" Owen mumbled through gritted teeth.
"I know, and I'm sorry" Claire answered frantically, "but if this thing doesn't come out, it'll get infected and you'll be hurting a lot more".
"Claire, don't..." Owen almost begged her.
"Owen, please don't make this any worse for me to do" Claire snapped.
Owen remained silent after that, knowing perfectly well that Claire was right. He stared tensely up at the ceiling, occasionally wincing or taking in a sharp breath, but not daring to utter a word.
Claire was finally able to extract the bullet from Owen's shoulder. She triumphantly took the little piece of metal between her fingers and held it up for Owen to see.
"Splendid… don't cheer too soon, though" Owen said wearily, "you need to rinse the wound out, make sure there are no fragments or dirt left in it".
"How do I do that?" Claire asked, the elation she had felt evaporated instantly. Owen lifted his hand slightly and pointed to the bottles of water Claire had found earlier.
"Wait, but that..." Claire started.
"Yeah, it's going to sting like hell" Owen interrupted her.
Claire was on the verge of outright refusing to do it, but she knew Owen was right and that the wound needed to be completely clean.
As if in slow motion she reached for one of the bottles and unscrewed the cap. The idea of causing Owen pain yet again did not sit well with her. She caught a glimpse of Owen's tense stare, before she slowly poured the contents of two full bottles over the wound. Owen grunted in pain, breathing hard and his hand gripping at Claire's shirt for support.
"All done, you're okay" Claire soothed. She used some gauze to dry the wound, before bandaging it up to the best of her ability. The wound had started to bleed anew, but Claire was hopeful that the bleeding would once again stop on its own.
"Are you holding on in there?" Claire caressed Owen's jawline with one of her fingers. Sweat was covering Owen's face and his breathing had not yet calmed down altogether. He had his eyes closed, but Claire knew that he was conscious.
"Yeah" Owen mumbled, although it did not sound overly convincing. He opened his eyes to give her a pain-filled look.
"I'm sorry I snapped at you just now" Claire said.
"That's alright" Owen answered, "you had every right to".
"Are you hurting anywhere else, apart from your shoulder?" Claire asked.
"Where am I not hurting?" Owen sighed, "my entire back feels as if it's been under a train. Plus, I'm pretty sure that I cracked a rib and my left hand keeps aching".
Claire's gaze automatically darted towards Owen's hand. The back of his left hand and two of his fingers indeed looked quite severely bruised.
"It looks like you might have broken some bones" Claire examined Owen's hand.
"Yeah, I figured that too" Owen mumbled.
Claire rummaged around in the medical kit. Owen tried to see what she was doing, but couldn't get a clear view without moving too much.
"Well, it's not much, but it might just be enough to make a makeshift splint". Claire held up something that much resembled a bundle of ice-cream sticks and two pieces of cardboard.
Claire carefully took Owen's hand and spread it out on her leg. She placed the sticks on either side of the injured fingers and used the pieces of cardboard to stabilize the hand, before wrapping a bandage around the hand, wrist and fingers to keep it all in place.
"Thanks" Owen mumbled, laying his now splinted hand across his chest.
Claire sat back, resting her back against one of the old working stations. The screens surrounding them had started up when the generator was switched on. Most of them were showing static, but some of the cameras were apparently still working, and snippets of the park and the resort were shown on some of the screens. From the sparse images shown they could at least discern that the volcano had not fully erupted yet.
"What are we going to do?" For the first time Claire sounded scared.
"We can't stay here" Owen answered wearily.
"But this room is built to withstand…." Claire began.
"Sure, it'll get us through if that volcano fully erupts, but it doesn't keep up from being buried under a mountain of stone once the lava cools down" Owen broke in.
"So, what do we do?" Claire looked down helplessly at Owen.
"We need to get off this island" Owen said. Claire snorted at his answer.
"How, exactly, will we manage that?" she said sarcastically, "we can't swim our way back to Costa Rica!"
"Look at the top right screen. The one with the feed from the docks" Owen said.
Claire stood up and walked closer to the surveillance screens to have a better look. Slowly, a smile spread across her face as she started to understand what Owen meant.
"Oh, yeah…."
