The way that the tree fell, it was almost in slow motion as they all dived out the way, with Jorge barely escaping. A second later and his legs would have been crushed. They all got up and dusted themselves off, or so they thought. They had all dived in different directions and as three of them got up and waited for the adrenaline to stop pumping inside them. Thomas and Brenda had dived near Minho and they both stood up looked at each other, nodded and turned to Minho before they noticed that Minho had dived straight onto a large stick, the end of which was impaled through and through his left calf. Brenda and Thomas both swore when they saw what happened.
'Fucking hell' they said, almost in unison.
'Watch your language' said Jorge, walking round the base of the tree, having not yet seen Minho. However, when he did see what had happened, he doubled back a second. Minho during all of this, had just stared at them.
'What are you three looking at?' he asked. 'My diving makes me look extra heroic?'
'Minho, your leg' Thomas said. 'Don't move'
'What do you-' he began, before his eyes fell on his injured leg. 'Oh, my fucking God!' he screamed.
'The pain must not have registered with the adrenaline' Thomas said. Thomas' assumption was correct as now that Minho was aware of what had happened, and his adrenaline levels were falling, the pain kicked in. He screeched in pain as blood seeped from the open wound.
'We need to take him back. Now!' said Brenda.
'Agreed' said Thomas.
Minho was not a small guy; he weighed a considerable amount. They were unsure of how to transport him back.
'Do we remove the stick from his leg?' asked Thomas.
'No!' exclaimed Jorge powerfully. 'That stick is the only thing keeping the blood from coming out even faster. It's almost like a plug. If you take it out, he will almost certainly die of blood loss before we get back. We need to cut the stick from under his leg and take him back with it still in his leg Hermano.'
'Okay' said Thomas. 'We need to carry him back, the three of us, or at least support him while he walks on his unaffected leg.'
'We'll do that,' said Brenda. 'If you two boys can support him, I'll go ahead and get the medics and a stretcher for him.'
'Sounds good' said Thomas and got to work cutting the stick from underneath Minho. After a few good, but carefully avoiding Minho, strokes, the stick was removed from its roots, and they wrapped up the wound with a torn off section of Thomas' shirt. Brenda left to go get help and Thomas and Jorge slowly helped Minho back onto his feet as they got ready to help him slowly but surely back to camp. Because they had been so preoccupied with helping Minho, they hadn't stopped to consider how the tree fell and so perfectly onto them as well. It couldn't have been a coincidence, surely it couldn't have been…