Chapter Ten

Day Eighteen

Travelling in the armoured car they quickly made their way back to the bunker, hopeful that their friend had survived the night but knowing the chances were low.

In the back seat Marie was crying in the short periods she was conscious. Knowing her eldest grandson had died had aggravated her heart condition and she was gasping for breath, even more than previously. Next to her Luke cried gently as he hugged his grandmother and Max held on to his head at every bump and turn in the road, groaning in pain. Lars and Lewis glanced at each other then, knowing the day would likely become a lot worse before it was finished.

Bursting through the door of the medical room Eli made both Paul and Louise jump. They had been sat there for several hours, quietly observing Viktor for signs of trouble. Louise had drawn as much blood from Paul as she could safely do so. Any further donations would endanger Paul's life too and for as much as the man was willing to risk it she wasn't.

"They're back. The car just pulled up outside. I'm going up to give them a hand and I'll be back soon." Eli told them, nearly bumping into his sister as he turned around to head for the exit.

On her best behaviour Rina had been making frequent visits to the sick room to bring snacks and drinks for Paul and strong cups of coffee for Louise who had now been awake for 26 hours straight.

"Any change?" Rina asked as she handed Louise the steaming cup.

"Only for the worse. I'm glad they are back but at this point I'm not sure there is anything I can do. He is just too weak and the blood loss too great for him to survive this. Probably a one in ten chance, if that." Louise replied, checking Viktor's heart rate and blood pressure for what must have been the thousandth time since he had first been placed on that table.

"Take more blood." Paul whispered, looking pale and sweaty from the chair where he had been sat for several hours.

"Yeah that's not going to happen, sunshine. One patient is enough for me thanks, I don't need another one at risk of heart failure. If the others are back then someone is bound to have the right blood time. With any luck it will be Lars and I can inflict a bit of pain on him." Louise told him, sardonically as she imagined the look of pain as she jabbed a large thick needle into Lars's wrist.

"Even if he had the right blood type that is never going to happen, and I know he is B+ too." Paul said, a small amused laugh escaping his lips.

"Oh? And why is that?" Louise asked him as she took a sip of her coffee, suddenly intrigued.

"He has a major needle phobia."

A nasty little grin spread over Louise's face, she knew exactly who the next blood donor was likely to be now. Any opportunity to make the great Viking uncomfortable was something not to be missed. She just had to convince the other men to risk his wrath and help her get the donation on the way.

Sitting in the couch next to Marie and Luke, Rina couldn't help but giggle as she watched the drama unfold. She knew Louise had hoped to bleed Lars dry of the blood they would need to attempt to save Viktor but she had no idea just how well in their favour things would turn out to be. In the dining room Louise sat on the table, her legs crossed while she tried to hide the smile on her face. Next to her Lewis stood, holding her hand, a look of horror spread in his face as he realised the battle they were about to face.

"You are not sticking me with a fucking needle and the first person who comes near me with that damn thing is going to be stabbed in the eye. Do we understand each other?" Lars said between gritted teeth, in a scarily calm and collected voice which just make him look even more homicidal than usual.

"I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news Lars," Cassandra interrupted, "But either you buck up and grow a pair or one or more of your friends is going to die. Paul has donated over 4 pints of blood so he cannot possibly give any more before his internal organs start to fail. The other alternatives are Max and you. Since Max has a severe concussion and lost a large amount of blood himself then that leaves you. If you do not donate blood Viktor will die. If you force Max or Paul to do it then Viktor and the donor may die. So... what's it going to be?" her arms crossed in front of her as she tapped her foot in irritation.

"I could give you a sedative to make it easier." Louise offered. "But I'm afraid it comes in liquid form with needle required. I swear it's only a little prick!"

On the couch Rina giggled, hearing the double entendre in what Louise said. On his part Lewis stood straighter, exchanging a look with Paul and Eli. They had left Max asleep in the bedroom after Louise had administered several drugs to sedate him and alleviate the swelling on his head. The decision was up to the three men and the results too.

A look was all it took and Louise quickly excused herself, explaining she had to go check on Viktor for his 15 minute heart and BP check.

She ran straight into the medical room, grabbed two syringes and a bottle of Propofol, an IV sedative they had grabbed on their clinic run. Often used on dogs she could see how poetic its use on Lars would turn out to be since the Viking was more than a bit of an animal. All Louise could hope is that she wouldn't overdose him on it since she wasn't absolutely sure on the dosages required since they hadn't done the Coroner's Library run yet.

Having guessed Lars weight at around 215 pounds she drew two lots of 25 ml of Propofol. Hoping one dose was enough to make Lars docile but quite prepared to use the second dose if required to fully knock him out. She heard Eli and Lewis' voices as they led Lars to her.

"He has been in and out of consciousness all night. We didn't have much we could give him until you guys came back." Eli explained opening the door for Lars. "He asked to see you earlier, last time he was awake."

Louise hid the syringes under a towel on the counter and saw Lewis and Paul standing behind Lars. They were playing it calm, like nothing was going to happen. Passing Lars the pale looking Paul swayed on his feet, holding onto Lars. It was realistic enough seeing as how pale and unsteady the man really was.

Helping his friend distracted Lars enough and as he carefully lowered his friend to the chair he had occupied most of the night Eli and Lewis took the opportunity this presented. They each grabbed an arm and wrestled Lars to the ground.

Grunts of fury echoed in the room as the men struggled to contain the enraged Viking.

"You touch me with that needle and I will kill you both." Lars shouted from the ground.

"I'm sorry but that's a chance we will have to take." Lewis replied, signalling to Paul.

Standing up the man looked at Louise. "Give me the sedative. Better me than you doing this."

Since she wasn't about to argue and Lars had just punched Eli in the face, Louise handed the first syringe to Paul. Eli tackled Lars again as Lewis struggled to hold on to the Viking and in a tangle of arms and legs Paul jumped forward and stabbed Lars in the neck with the first syringe.

"Jesus he fights like a bear." Lewis muttered, as Lars still struggled on the ground, albeit not as strongly.

"Give him the second dose." Louise said as she held the second syringe for Paul to grab.

"Fine by me." Eli replied and Paul bends over again and stabbed the second dose into Lars neck. It didn't take long for the sedation to work and Lars was now totally knocked on the floor of the medical room. Paul collapsed on the ground, the exertion too much for him; Lewis rubbed his arms where Lars had grabbed him muttering something about bruising in the morning and Eli rubbed his jaw line and stood up leaving the room in search of something cold he could use.

Cassandra entered the room then, holding a blanket and several pillows. She placed them under Lars, using one to elevate his arm and covered him with the blanket. On her side of the room Louise was already sorting out the empty IV bags and kit she needed to draw blood from him as quickly as possible.

Doing the deed was relatively easy and fast and she left the room to Cassandra and Paul while she went to check on Marie. She didn't know what the damage was for Viktor in terms of internal injuries and bleeding and so she wasn't sure how long the operation would take to rid him of the shrapnel still imbedded in him. Checking on Marie and hoping the woman didn't take a turn for the worse when she was elbow deep in Viktor was the best she could hope for.

Finding Rina giving Marie sips of sweet water had not been what Louise had expected. It was strange to see the young woman being kind instead of bitchy but she wasn't about to complain. She took a seat on the coffee table near the elderly woman.

"Could you get me a coat hanger from the bedroom please? I need it to hold the IV up." She told Rina as she fiddled with the IV in her lap and injected something into it.

Rina did as she was told and returned with an old fashioned metal coat hook. She watched as Louise used plastic tubing to restrict blood flow to the left arm of the elderly woman in order to find a vein. She inserter a canula into the back of her hand and connected the IV bag to it before slipping it into the coat hook and hanging it from the ceiling rafter.

"What are you giving her?" Rina asked Louise.

"It's a standard IV but I loaded it with a mix of pimobendan and a bronchodialator. One helps her breathe; the other relieves the heart problems. They use them in dogs in heart failure and I can only hope it works on her. I'm just glad Lars grabbed the Veterinary Almanac along with the medication or id be stuck with all these meds and no way to know what they all did. Cassie will swap places with you in ten minutes or so. She will keep an eye on Marie while you give me a hand with Viktor."

"Do you think you can save him?" Rina asked quietly as Louise connected a heart monitor to Marie's other hand.

"I don't know. I'm not a surgeon so I hope he doesn't have serious internal injuries." She replied, standing up and returning to Lars to swaps the blood bags.

Half hour later Louise had collected three pints of blood from Lars and one from a sleeping Max. She knew the Russian would likely lose more blood during the operation and she needed very last drop if she was to try and save his life.

Lewis and Eli had placed Lars in the sauna in a spare mattress they had moved in to the structure and locked him in until the sedation had worn out and he wasn't quite as upset about the whole needle drama.

Cassandra had swapped places with Rina and was now babysitting Luke and Marie, and Lewis had been drafted in to help with the operation on Viktor as the less squeamish of the remaining men.

Viktor has been stripped naked, given a sponge bath and covered in disinfectant before anything else had been done to him. When Louise, Rina and Lewis were ready they washed themselves before donning latex gloves and getting ready to proceed.

Viktor had been heavily sedated with Propofol like Lars, ensuring he was immobile for as long as necessary and he had been intubated and connected to a hand held respirator which Lewis was in charge of. Blood IV had been connected straight into his main neck artery which they had used until now for the transfusions he had received and next to him a myriad of instruments were resting. Louise had forceps, needle and thread, tweezers, gauze and lots more.

When she started cutting into Viktor both Lewis and Rina visibly paled at the sight but they stood fast in their resolve to be as helpful in the dire situation as they possibly could. Taking a deep breath Louise started removing the first shard of metal that had embedded itself into the body of the Russian.

Three hours had passed and they were barely half way through dealing with the operation. Louise had administered further sedation along the way and they had already used half of the blood supplies they had collected.

The superficial shrapnel had been easy to deal with needing only minor stitching. Louise had been forced to go well into the abdomen of the Russian, though his back. Metal shards had travelled deep into Viktor and with Rina's help they had managed to place some very fine stitches into delicate areas. Using a Benson burner Louise had been forced to cauterise several large bleeds they had encountered and she was preparing herself to deal with the most severe injury yet. The cause of all their worries. There was a large shard of metal embedded into the Russians kidney and it was bleeding heavily.

Using vast quantities of gauze Rina tried to clear the blood from the cavity Louise had created to access the damaged kidney. It was a challenging task and much harder work than Rina expected. Try as she might the blood just kept on flowing while Louise carefully removed the metal.

"Almost done. When I pull it out I need you to stuff a square of gauze straight on top of it until I can have another look. It's going to bleed like a bitch." Louise told Rina before looking at Lewis. "With your spare hand I need you to squeeze the hell out of that blood bag when I tell you to. We need to replace the blood as quickly as he is losing it. Okay?"

Lewis swallowed and nodded, holding onto the blood bag and getting ready for Louise's signal.

Taking a deep breath Louise grabbed the metal with the tweezers and held onto the kidney with her spare hand. "Now." She told them.

Rina stuffed a gauze on top of bleed the moment Louise cleared the shrapnel out of the cavity and Lewis squeezed the blood bag for dear life.

The damage turned out to be more severe than they thought and all Louise could think to stem the flow was to cauterise the kidney. She didn't know if it would work or if it would be enough to stem the bleed but it was all she could do. Burning the blade over the Benson burner until it glowed red she told Rina to remove the gaze and quickly placed it into the damaged area of the kidney. A smell of burned flesh filled the air and Rina heaved, struggling to not vomit.

Taking control of herself, Rina placed clean gauze over the kidney while Louise prepared the blade again. This time she cauterised the outside of the kidney until the cut had been sealed shut. When she was done all three people stood there, looking inside the gapping hole in Viktor's body to stare at the kidney and see if the cut would burst open or hold shut.

After a couple of minutes they each breathed easier, the kidney giving no signs that it would burst open and start to haemorrhage again.

"Right, now to put him back together again. Lewis, swap the blood bag like I showed you and gently squeeze it again. We need to start replacing as much blood into him as we can." Louise told him before indicating a separate tray to Rina. "Can you start threading the suture like I showed you earlier? I have some gluing to do!" she added, for Rina's benefit.

"What do you mean gluing?" Lewis asked, puzzled.

"Super gluing to be precise. It was created as a field means to deal with injuries that medics could not suture. It is very good for internal usage in delicate areas that may not hold sutures." Louise explained.

"Oh. And what exactly are you gluing?" Lewis asked again.

"Well his kidney for starters, then the fine membranes. After that I can suture the muscle like normal and close him up."

It took them another two hours of careful stitching, monitoring and checking before they had closed Viktor up completely and were ready to say the operation was finished. Of course they still had to monitor him and there was always the chance they would have to open him up again if he showed signs of internal bleed again. Louise had decided to keep him under light sedation to allow his body to heal itself without stresses of pain. What she didn't look forward to was explaining to Lewis why she had to manhandle the Russians genitalia and insert a catheter for the duration of his recovery.

"Do you know how to put in a catheter?" Louise asked again. "Because as far as I know I'm the only person close enough to being a doctor in this bunker. And I'm pretty sure when he wakes up he's going to be happier knowing I gave him a bed bath and touched his bits than you." She added one eyebrow lifted in a mixture of annoyance and enjoyment.

"Are you sure you aren't just curious about what he has in his pants?" Lewis replied to her, feeling decidedly uneasy about this. He had watched as she held Viktor's kidney in her hands for the best part of two hours and now he was unhappy about her holding his dick for two minutes.

"Oh just go call Eli and he can help me. Go check on Luke and Marie for me please." She snapped, wishing to get this over and done with and rest for a while.

Lewis stormed out of the room and within minutes Eli was back, giggling to himself as he entered the room before being greeted by the huge Russian naked on a table. It sobered him enough that he soon stopped laughing and with Rina he turned the Russian over so that Louise had access to his front and could insert the tubing for the catheter. It was over in a couple of minutes and they soon rested him flat on his stomach again.

They removed the respirator from him after a while when the sedation had worn off to the desired amount and he was breathing by himself. Both women walked out of the room, blood stained their clothing, sweat coated their brows and a look of relief plastered on their faces. They had done it; together they had saved his life at least for now. Eli was sitting in with Viktor with firm instructions to run checks on BP and heart rate every 15 minutes while the women cleaned themselves up.

Rina showered first since Louise still had to check on Marie and Max. The medication she had given them seemed to have helped and she breathed a sigh of relief that the day had ended without anyone dying. Outside night had fallen already and Louise realised just how long they had been in that room. Finally she was able to shower herself and get changed, being greeted by the smell of food as she walked out of the shower room.

As agreed Lewis had moved Marie and Luke into the guest house Cassandra and Louise had been using. They would share the double bedroom and Cassandra would sleep on the couch and keep an eye on them. On her part Louise was needed in the main house to monitor Max's head injury and the sedated Viktor until further notice so it was easier for her to sleep there, on her own mattress next to the giant Russian.

As Rina and Louise finished their meal they heard shouts from the outside of the main house and looking at each other they burst out laughing. They knew exactly what was going on. Finishing their food they walked out to watch the fireworks that ensued.

"I'm going to fucking kill you. If you don't open this door you will suffer before I kill you, I swear to god. Let me out Lewis!" Lars shouted.

Lewis took several steps back, away from the door to the sauna, knowing that Lars was well able to break the door down without any huge difficulties. Sitting on a deck chair Paul drank a cup of sweet coffee and tried to not laugh.

"Lars, calm down. I have good news for you." Paul finally said, feeling pity for the visibly shaken Lewis who looked like a mouse ready to face an entire pride of lions.

Inside the sauna Lars stilled. "Did he make it?" he asked quietly.

"Yes Viktor made it. It took them just over 6 hours of surgery but he survived. He had serious damage to his kidney and internal bleeding but they got him through and Lewis helped so give the man a break and stop saying you're going to kill him. I know you are unhappy but the 4 pints of blood they had for Viktor barely sufficed." Paul told him as he stood up and walked to the door of sauna.

"You bled 4 pints of blood out of me?" Lars shrieked from inside the door.

"No we did not bleed 4 pints of blood out of you, we only bled 3 pints. Max donated 1 pint from his unconscious bed which was all he could do considering how much blood he had already lost." Paul told him with a smile on his face. "How can such a big badass like you be so much of a coward when it comes to needles?"

"Screw you and open the door." Lars replied.

"Will you spare Eli and Lewis? They only held you down; it was me who knocked you out."

"Fine I won't kill them but I reserve the right to torture them slowly for the foreseeable future. And you too!"

As Lewis made a fast exit from anywhere near Lars, Rina and Louise took a seat in the remaining deck chairs where Paul had been seated and watched as he opened the door to Lars.

An extremely pissed off Viking left the sauna, taking his time to stare at each and every person who was brave enough to remain in his presence before storming off into the office.