"I can't believe we finally got some time off to do this." Deacon grinned as he tightened a couple of straps on his backpack.
Luca nodded, clicking shut the hip strap of his own backpack. Then he rolled his shoulders a few times to make sure the backpack sat well before he clicked the chest strap shut as well.
"Five days, just nature and us…" Hondo chuckled, "Let's just hope we don't end up accidentally killing each other."
Luca chuckled, "Hey man, don't jinx us before we even get out of the parking."
Deacon let out a short laugh.
Hondo smirked.
SWATSWATSWAT
They had trekked for five hours, and was just about to start looking for a camp site for the night.
They had chatted about work incidents for the first hour or so, then they had graduated to family, then to house projects, before they started talking about plans they had for the next couple of months. Then they just talked about everything and anything for a while, old stories and pranks. Literally anything.
Luca was taking point along the trail, talking in his off-work highly animated way about how he had this plan of pranking Street at work one day soon. His arms were guiding him through the explanation, as well as pushing twigs and branches away from his face when the forest went dense. His head was looking back at the two others more often than he was looking forward.
"LUCA! SNAKE!" Hondo barked out, just as Luca was about to step on a coiled up snake.
The way Luca sprung up without even preparing for the jump was impressive. Especially since he jumped about two feet vertically with no preparation, causing him to be able to latch onto a branch above him.
The snake struck after him, but missed. Starting it's telltale rattling.
"Man, I HATE snakes!" Luca frowned.
Deacon couldn't help but chuckle, "Yeah, I do too. Not enough to do muscle ups with a 5-day backpack on though…"
Luca looked back and scowled at Deacon. "It's a freaking rattlesnake."
"You could've just… You know… Raised your legs…" Hondo tried not to crack up, watching Luca who had his weight on his hands and the front of his hips pressed against the branch.
The snake stayed in the ready to strike position for a minute or so, still rattling, before it relaxed and slithered off the path.
"Alright. It's gone." Hondo cleared his voice, "You can come back down now."
"Quit laughing." Luca frowned, "I hate snakes. Especially venomous."
"We get it." Deacon smirked, and watched Luca carefully work himself down from the branch.
The rest of the day, and the next went without incident.
SWATSWATSWAT
Then on the night to the third day, when they were smack dab in the middle of the trail, without cell service, a strong earthquake hit. And a few aftershocks.
It was definitely enough to wake them up. They got up and outside, just to be able to dodge falling branches and trees if necessary.
"Damn, feels like a strong one." Deacon frowned as he kept his flashlight on the trees above them. They didn't have a chance of getting to a place where no tall trees, branches or rockfalls could reach them.
Luca nodded, "Yeah. I can really be certain, but I'd guess it's at least seven point something…"
The heard a massive redwood tree crash down somewhere their flashlight beams weren't able to reach.
"Okay, this actually scares me." Hondo admitted, also searching for dangers in the night.
Luca nodded. "Yeah, earthquakes are no fun in the city, but I feel this is at least just as bad. I mean, buildings are kinda designed to be able to withstand a lot. At least here in California. -We don't know how good the root system of these trees are."
"Or if there's any widowmakers just waiting to fall down." Deacon added.
"Widdowmakers?" Luca looked over a short second.
"Yeah, big dead branches, just waiting to fall down." Deacon nodded, "My granduncle used to work in the timber industry. That's what he always called them."
Hondo nodded.
When it had all calmed down, around six in the morning, they went back into the tent to catch an hour or two more of sleep. After all, they had a hard day of hiking ahead of them.
SWATSWATSWAT
After they woke up better rested, had eaten breakfast and packed up their camp, they started to trek on.
They had kept their eyes on the lookout for dangers, but after a couple of hours they admittedly started getting sloppy.
Deacon and Luca was up ahead, Hondo was a few steps behind.
Deacon and Luca had started walking down a hill when they both just slipped and tumbled down the rest of the hill in a flurry of arms, legs, rocks and sand.
Hondo was left standing on top of the hill, just watching as his two friends tumbled along.
They had to slide and fall about 20 yards in total, and in Hondo's mind there was no way they had both done that without getting injured.
He saw Luca roll onto his back once the two of them had slid to a stop, he looked to be holding onto his arm, while kicking the ground with one of his heels. Deacon managed to sit up, but was hunched over and Hondo couldn't really see what was going on with him.
"Hey!" he yelled, "How are you guys doing?"
"Freaking broke my wrist!" Luca yelled back, his face distorted in pain.
"Yeah, I was going to ask you to pull my shoulder back in, but if you broke your wrist, then I'll wait for Hondo…" Deacon said as he worked on getting to his feet. Then he looked back up the hill, "Hondo, you've gotta find another way down. The hill doesn't look safe from here."
"Well, after you fell down it, it doesn't look safe from up here either." Hondo shrugged, "I'll set your shoulder when I get down. Luca, how sure are you about breaking your wrist?"
Deacon glanced over, and winced for Luca.
"He's sure." Deacon answered before Luca had the chance.
"Is it bad?"
"My right arm's got two wrists now." Luca gritted out, loud enough for Hondo to hear, "Had worse, but I need something to splint it with!"
Hondo nodded.
Deacon did as well, "Preferably before you try to get up, I guess?"
Luca sighed, "Truth is, I'm gonna need help to get up. At least with this backpack still on. And I'm not shimmying out of this backpack before my arm is a little more stable."
The two others nodded.
"Hey, Hondo!" Deacon called, "You've got an axe in your backpack, right?"
"Think so, why?"
"And a saw?"
"Yeah…?"
"Can you find a piece of branch or something, about the length of a lower arm, and split it so it has a flat surface?"
"Yeah, on it!" Hondo nodded, "Gonna be as good of a splint we can make out here, right?"
"That was my thought." Deacon nodded, holding his left arm so it wouldn't just hang limply by his side. "I'll see if I can spot a trail down the hill that looks safe."
"Alright, good!" Hondo held a thumbs up before he disappeared out of view.
SWATSWATSWAT
"How are you doing?" Luca managed to grit out, glancing up at Deacon.
"Better than you." Deacon answered with his best available confident smile, "That shoulder has been out so many times now, it's not as bad as the first twenty."
Luca nodded a little, "Liar."
"Hey, I didn't say it didn't hurt…" Deacon tilted his head, "It does."
Luca seemed a bit more satisfied with that answer.
"How are you?"
"It hurts." Luca pressed his lips into a thin flat line.
"Can you feel your fingers?"
Luca shrugged a little, "Haven't checked. Kinda busy keeping my arm in position."
Deacon nodded, "May I?"
Luca rolled his jaw, before he gave a short, firm nod.
"I'll be as gentle as I can…"
Luca nodded again, looser this time.
Deacon reached out to brush the back of his finger gently against Luca's hand and his fingers.
Obviously gentle wasn't gentle enough, because Luca's eyes squeezed shut and his breath hitched.
"Sorry."
Luca shook his head, as if he'd wave it away if he had a free hand.
"Do you feel me touching your fingers?"
Luca nodded.
Deacon removed his own hand from the scene, and after a short minute Luca managed to relax a bit.
"I felt you brushing against my fingers. Didn't feel as much when you were near my pinky, but still felt it." Luca blew out a breath to keep his voice steady, "But man, even that butterfly touch made it feel like something tried to shift inside."
Deacon frowned a bit, "Well, that's not good."
Luca agreed and shook his head. "You think maybe we should set it?"
Deacon shook his head slightly, "I don't know…"
"Me neither…" Luca admitted.
"Can you feel your pulse in your wrist?"
"Sorry, fresh out of hands to check with." Luca grimaced.
"May I?"
"Give me a minute." Luca shook his head, "Or five."
"Maybe we'll just let Hondo check when he gets down here. He'll probably be less clumsy than me right now."
Luca nodded, "Sure."
SWATSWATSWAT
Not too long after, Hondo was done with his splint mission and had made his way down to the two others.
He had set Deacon's shoulder first, since that seemed to be the easiest and least time consuming task. Then he sat down beside Luca, starting to develop a plan on how to splint his arm.
He took their word for it when they told him that they had checked for sensibility, but not for a pulse. So he checked both the radial and ulnar pulse. Finding both.
"Okay, so good news. The break isn't pressing on your arteries."
"Good." Luca answered through gritted teeth.
"We were thinking that it might be smart to set it, but then we thought that it might also be smart to wait and let professionals do that job…" Deacon shrugged his good shoulder.
Hondo nodded, "I think so… That waiting is the best option."
Luca nodded a little.
"At least if we're able to make a well-functioning splint in the position it's in, and it doesn't get worse before we're able to get you guys to medical professionals."
"Yeah."
"Deac, you've got duct-tape in your bag, right?"
"Yeah, left side pocket."
"And if we use a rolled up t-shirt or something as padding and mould, and something so we're not taping directly on his skin, that should do the trick."
Luca nodded. So did Deacon.
"He probably needs something to act as a sling as well." Deacon pointed out, "He can't exactly just use the backpack straps like I can…"
Hondo nodded, "Do you want to take care of that problem while I try to make a somewhat comfortable splint?"
"Sure, I'll try!" Deacon nodded, and started digging through Hondo's backpack with his good arm.
SWATSWATSWAT
"How does that feel?" Hondo asked as he place the last strip of duct-tape that would secure Luca's arm to the split log.
"Hurts just as much, of course." Luca offered up what was probably meant to be a brave smile, "But I don't feel like I have to steady it anymore, so that's good."
"Good." Hondo nodded, then shrugged, "I guess that's as good as we can hope for right now."
Luca nodded, "Yeah, probably."
"So, you two, are you hurt anywhere else?" Hondo asked as he looked from Luca to Deacon and back again.
"Just a few scratches and bruises I think…" Luca answered.
"Yeah, same thing here." Deacon replied, as he pulled up one of their first aid kits, the one that had been in Hondo's backpack, "There's got to be either some gauze or one of those triangle cloth things that we can use for a makeshift sling in one of these, right?"
Hondo nodded, "Yeah, toss it over."
Deacon did.
And soon enough Luca's arm was resting in what could best be described as a hammock hanging between two tool loops along Luca's shoulder straps.
SWATSWATSWAT
The day after the next day they still hadn't come across any cellphone service, and the trek seemed to be going slower as two of the three were walking wounded.
"I call it, next time we do this…" Deacon looked at the two others as they had a short break to rest a bit, "We're bringing a satellite phone. Way too much stuff almost killed us already."
"Yeah." Hondo nodded, "Good thing we've only got a few miles left before we reach the other end of the trail, and Street's picking us up."
Luca nodded.
"Yeah. I can't wait to get my arm fixed a bit better." he looked down at the two pieced of split log sandwiching his arm and about two t-shirts, "And a hot shower, and a beer."
"Whiskey." Deacon corrected, "Gonna need something stronger than beer after this hike."
Hondo chuckled, "Not the worst idea I've heard, but don't you think you might want to wait with alcohol until after you're both off pain meds again?"
"That's probably a smart move…" Luca agreed, "Getting this thing set will probably hurt like a S.O.B…"
"Thought it already hurt like one…" Hondo shrugged.
"Yeah, it does." Luca admitted.
