It was a lot cooler now, the sun was hidden behind the buildings, and dusk
was just setting in. Only the Militia were still out fighting us off, many
of the skinnies had gone home for the evening, still it was quiet as they
were all at prayer.
We'd just come out of a side street and had finally spotted the heap that
used to be a Black Hawk. We ran low to the ground, towards a burnt out van,
it was always a blessing these hunks of junk, on nearly every street there
was a burnt out automobile of some kind that we could use as cover. I was
so busy looking around me that I missed the curb and fell flat on my face,
I tasted blood where my lip had hit my gun, and Nelson pulled me up.
I reached for my walkie talkie and hissed into it for D'Tamissi, there was
a crackle and then the damn thing went dead. I cursed it and reached over
and pulled Nelson towards me, remembering that his was tuned in for
Eversmann.
"Eversmann it's Cody, I've got Nelson and Twombly with me. We got the
chopper in sight. Where are you?" The radio crackled and buzzed.
"We're on the south west corner. D'Tamissi's on the northwest. Where the hell have you been? Are you ok?"
"Yeah." I noticed the body of a guy and reached down taking his ammo, mainly to disable the gun; the magazine wouldn't have fitted mine. "Hold your fire, we're coming in." I turned and crouched facing Nelson and Twombly, "We gotta go." Twombly took charge of explaining to Nelson what was about to happen; I guess he felt responsible for him, as he was the one who had deafened him in the first place. "Shawn, Shawn listen. Cody's gonna run, when she gets across the street she's gonna turn and cover you. Listen closely, when you get there your gonna turn around and cover me, ok?" Nelson nodded. "Hey, your not just gonna run to Eversmann's position. Your going to stop, your going to turn around and you are going to cover me. It's important you understand that." Nelson nodded again. I looked from one to the other, it was now or never. "Let's go." First, I ran towards the end of the closest building, checked there were no bad guys about and waited for the other two to catch up, then I ran for the wall of the gateway that surrounded the open market place where the chopper had crashed. Using the arches as cover I could just see the guys of Chalk 4. "Can you cover us Sergeant?"
"We got 'ya." Nelson smiled at me, I nodded and ran towards the Chalk. They'd occupied a large building, right on the corner facing the chopper, there was a lot of rubble surrounding it and I had to pick my way through, finally getting to the safety of four walls. I turned and watched Nelson taking the same route as me and he ran pass me through the doorway. I must have turned my back for a second as Twombly ran because I didn't see what happened. There was a shot and he was flat on the floor, smoking. Then I heard Jamie shout "Twombly!" and run forward. By then the firefight had started up again. I was rooted to the spot, watching as Twombly tried to stand and Jamie grabbing and pulling him up. Twombly ran, smoke poured from behind him, then Jamie fell, his legs gave way beneath him. Twombly by then was beside me trying to rip off his harness. "Get if off of me! Get it off!" He shouted, throwing his gun down. Twombly, my Twombly was all right, I smiled, a flare, the damn bullet had hit a flare. Twombly, my Twombly was just on fire. Then Jamie's cries hit my ears, Eversmann was holding him up, trying to move him into a back room, his voice shouting "Schmid! Get me Doc Schmid!" Twombly's harness was out; I followed Eversmann and watched as he and Schmid lifted him onto a table "Your alright, your alright." Eversmann reassured Jamie. Schmid started looking through his medical pack, "I need pressure on this wound."
"Ahhhh...... My right thigh."
"Pressure."
"Yeah." Eversmann held onto Jamie's leg.
"My balls OK?"
"You still have your balls. I need more men in here."
"Twombly, Nelson!"
"Move him down there." Schmid and Eversmann pushed him further down the table, Schmid then looked over at me. "OK, I need that chair." He waved over to wall, "That chair....... Direct pressure on it."
Jamie was still crying out, as I lifted the chair. "Let me see it."
"Alright." Eversmann held Jamie's shoulder as he writhed about on the table. Twombly and Nelson were trying to hold him down, looks of panic on their faces.
I placed the chair down next to Schmid; he tapped the hand Eversmann had on the wound. "Right, let me get a look at that." He ripped at Jamie's trouser leg and blood spurted all over us. It was dark, too crimson; I knew then that the bullet had hit an artery. "ARRRRRR........ ARRRRGH..... What was the fuck was that?!!" He screamed.
Schmid was calm and collected, wrapping a dressing round his leg. "Hold that down, I need a medievac now." He looked earnestly at Eversmann.
"GALETINE!" Schmid shoved some more dressing into the wound and as Eversmann went over to use the radio held down Jamie's leg. I started searching through my pack for an IV, Schmid glanced down at me "Yeah, yeah set up the IV."
Ev, by then was talking to Captain Steele, I half listened as I took Jamie's arm, as he was thrashing about, and tried to find a vein. "Captain Steele, Captain Steele I need a medieval in here now, Corporal Smith has been hit, Captain Steele, he's hurt pretty bad."
There was silence as Captain Steele relayed the JOC, and we waited those few precious seconds for the news. Schmid turned to Eversmann, "If he doesn't get to a hospital in a half hour he's in trouble." The Eversmann's face dropped as he heard the news from Steele, Schmid watched as Eversmann slowly shook his head. He handed back the radio to Galatine and came back over to the table "I got him." He took over from Schmid.
"I want direct pressure on the wound."
"Your gonna be alright. It's gonna be OK."
I was standing in the doorway, watching Schmid and Yurek with Jamie, my head was pressed against the wooden frame I heard someone approaching and turned, it was Eversmann, he stood just behind me and I looked back at Jamie. "Yurek take over from me... Both hands" Schmid said softly, and he made his way towards Eversmann and me. "It's the femoral artery, but I can't see it, which means it's retracted up into the pelvis." He explained to us, "Which means that I have to find it and clamp it, the only way to stop the bleeding, I got no more IV's." He made eye contacted with me then, "So, I'm gonna need you to assist, OK?" I nodded.
It took us five minutes to prepare for the field surgery, Twombly came and was sat at Jamie's head, Eversmann stood at his side next to me, Schmid stood on the other side and Yurek stood at his feet. We waited as Schmid explained to Jamie "Now listen Jamie, I gotta do something, it's gonna hurt, OK? I gotta cause you more pain but I have to do it to help you, alright, you understand?"
Jamie nodded before whispering, "Morphine?"
"I can't, it'll lower your heart rate too far, I'm sorry. Here Twombly, why don't you take his hands there." He then reached to the table and picked up the clamp, which he then handed to me and told me what I needed to do. "I need you to hold the wound open, keep pressure on the top of the leg." I nodded and put the clamp between my teeth, so I could hold the wound. "Yurek, your gonna take the feet and the flashlight." He paused. "On my count." Jamie murmured, "Alright Jamie?"
"Mmmm." He squeezed his eyes shut.
"One...... Two....... Three." I pulled open the wound and he pushed his hand up Jamie's leg, Jamie cried out before passing out. Schmid face was screwed up. "Wait, wait.... Wait. I feel it, I feel a pulse........ I got it."
"You got it?" I spoke through the clamp.
"I got it, yeah. I got it. I got it."
"You got it?" I removed the clamp from my mouth.
"I got it........ Clamp."
"Yeah." I could just see the artery between his fingers; I placed the clamp round it. "I got it clamped."
"You got it clamped? Hold it."
"Here, gab it..... It's tearin'."
"Hold it..... I got it, no."
"Doc, it's goin' , it's goin' back in."
"Hold it."
"It's tearin'."
"Hold it." The artery broke away and shot back up the leg. "OK, get out.... Get out..... Hold the wound."
I did as I was told, "OK, OK, I'm holdin'."
He pushed back up the leg, "Move your hand." The seconds ticked slowly by as Schmid's hand searched in vain for the artery again. He looked at me and shook his head.
"What?" He tried again, but we knew now that it was over.
Jamie opened his eyes slowly, "You fix it?" His voice barely a whisper, Schmid looked up from his watch, then over at Eversmann. Ev lent forward and squeezed Jamie's shoulder, smiling slightly, "yeah, yeah, we got it." Jamie closed his eyes again.
(***)(***)(***)(***)(***)(***)(***)(***)
We were all sat around him, Schmid was still holding his leg, it was quiet no one spoke, no guns sounded, it was perfectly still. It was dark and I couldn't see very well, but Jamie's pale, grey face stood out vividly, still covered in streaks of blood. "I can't die here, man." His voice croaked out to the darkness.
"You're not going to die, alright? You're not going to die." Schmid calm voice replied.
"I'm sorry." Jamie croaked again.
"You don't have nothing to be sorry for." Eversmann leaned forward as he spoke, his eyes sad even through the smile on his face. "You saved Twombly, you did perfect."
Jamie tried to look around, "You OK Twombs?"
"Yeah, I'm OK Jamie." Twombly reached out for Jamie.
"You did what you were trained to do. You should be proud of that. Be proud of that." Eversmann's deep voice carried the words to Jamie.
"Ev?"
"Yeah?"
"Do me a favor."
"Yeah?"
"Can you tell my parents that I fought........ Well today, that I...... That I...... That I fought hard."
"Your gonna tell 'em yourself, OK, you hear me? Alright."
"The humvee's here?" Jamie's head tried to turn.
"They're coming, Jamie, they're coming, you just gotta hang in there a little bit."
"I can."
"You can hold for just a little bit, you can."
"I can........ I can..... It's nothing."
"It's nothing.... it's nothing." Eversmann smiled at Jamie's saying.
"Nothing."
"It's nothing."
"Nothing." Jamie looked up and smiled, his gentle eyes stopped.
"Oh shit, hold the wound." Schmid started CPR, and I slowly stood and applied pressure to the wound, watching as Schmid fought the save Jamie's life. The determination in Schmid's eyes, he wouldn't let Jamie go. Ev reached out and pulled Schmids hands, "no, stop." Schmid tried again, but there was nothing.
** ***** *** ***** **** *****
I went back to the corner where I'd been sitting, sliding down the wall I put my head into my hands. I'd been so caught up in everything I hadn't noticed how tired I felt, how my body hurt, the blisters rubbed on my feet. Now everything was so painfully obvious to me, Jamie had died slowly and I wondered who else had died. Twombly sat down next to me and I let my head fall onto his shoulder, we sat like that for a time, until the gunfire flared up again. The Little Birds kept flying over the buildings raining bullets down on the enemy, then the humvees arrived. It was about 3 in the morning when they finally pulled up, and with them the gunfire also increased. The wounded were loaded into the UN tanks and we covered them as the pilots were cut out the Hawk. It took along time, the sun slowly climbed up, we were impatient we wanted out, and I guess I was getting careless. I was squatting behind the wheel of one of the trucks, firing at the rooftops, I stood slightly to move to a different angle when I suddenly felt something hit my abdomen, it felt like someone had shoved a hot poker right through it. I cried out and looked down, soaking through my fatigues was blood, "Shit." D'Tamissi, who was near me at the time grabbed my harness strap and dragged me round to the hatch of a tank before I could speak. "In." he indicated with his head. "Medic."
"I'm fine." I said, "I'm still in the fight."
"No, you're going back in the tank."
"But Serg....."
"Where you hit?"
"Huh?"
"Where you hit?" Wilkinson was beside me, I hadn't even noticed him.
"I dunno."
"Let me get a look." I lifted my shirt and winced as he stuck in his fingers, "Nice," He pulled a dressing out his bag and patched me up, before pushing me into the tank. I sat, painfully, next to someone, it was dark and it stank of blood, sweat and urine, people were groaning and I became aware that I was sitting in something wet. Then another person was thrown in, he lay awkwardly on top of me and the person sitting next to me, there was hardly any room. I could hear the ring of bullets hitting the armored plating and I became nervous, now I really wanted out.
"We're on the south west corner. D'Tamissi's on the northwest. Where the hell have you been? Are you ok?"
"Yeah." I noticed the body of a guy and reached down taking his ammo, mainly to disable the gun; the magazine wouldn't have fitted mine. "Hold your fire, we're coming in." I turned and crouched facing Nelson and Twombly, "We gotta go." Twombly took charge of explaining to Nelson what was about to happen; I guess he felt responsible for him, as he was the one who had deafened him in the first place. "Shawn, Shawn listen. Cody's gonna run, when she gets across the street she's gonna turn and cover you. Listen closely, when you get there your gonna turn around and cover me, ok?" Nelson nodded. "Hey, your not just gonna run to Eversmann's position. Your going to stop, your going to turn around and you are going to cover me. It's important you understand that." Nelson nodded again. I looked from one to the other, it was now or never. "Let's go." First, I ran towards the end of the closest building, checked there were no bad guys about and waited for the other two to catch up, then I ran for the wall of the gateway that surrounded the open market place where the chopper had crashed. Using the arches as cover I could just see the guys of Chalk 4. "Can you cover us Sergeant?"
"We got 'ya." Nelson smiled at me, I nodded and ran towards the Chalk. They'd occupied a large building, right on the corner facing the chopper, there was a lot of rubble surrounding it and I had to pick my way through, finally getting to the safety of four walls. I turned and watched Nelson taking the same route as me and he ran pass me through the doorway. I must have turned my back for a second as Twombly ran because I didn't see what happened. There was a shot and he was flat on the floor, smoking. Then I heard Jamie shout "Twombly!" and run forward. By then the firefight had started up again. I was rooted to the spot, watching as Twombly tried to stand and Jamie grabbing and pulling him up. Twombly ran, smoke poured from behind him, then Jamie fell, his legs gave way beneath him. Twombly by then was beside me trying to rip off his harness. "Get if off of me! Get it off!" He shouted, throwing his gun down. Twombly, my Twombly was all right, I smiled, a flare, the damn bullet had hit a flare. Twombly, my Twombly was just on fire. Then Jamie's cries hit my ears, Eversmann was holding him up, trying to move him into a back room, his voice shouting "Schmid! Get me Doc Schmid!" Twombly's harness was out; I followed Eversmann and watched as he and Schmid lifted him onto a table "Your alright, your alright." Eversmann reassured Jamie. Schmid started looking through his medical pack, "I need pressure on this wound."
"Ahhhh...... My right thigh."
"Pressure."
"Yeah." Eversmann held onto Jamie's leg.
"My balls OK?"
"You still have your balls. I need more men in here."
"Twombly, Nelson!"
"Move him down there." Schmid and Eversmann pushed him further down the table, Schmid then looked over at me. "OK, I need that chair." He waved over to wall, "That chair....... Direct pressure on it."
Jamie was still crying out, as I lifted the chair. "Let me see it."
"Alright." Eversmann held Jamie's shoulder as he writhed about on the table. Twombly and Nelson were trying to hold him down, looks of panic on their faces.
I placed the chair down next to Schmid; he tapped the hand Eversmann had on the wound. "Right, let me get a look at that." He ripped at Jamie's trouser leg and blood spurted all over us. It was dark, too crimson; I knew then that the bullet had hit an artery. "ARRRRRR........ ARRRRGH..... What was the fuck was that?!!" He screamed.
Schmid was calm and collected, wrapping a dressing round his leg. "Hold that down, I need a medievac now." He looked earnestly at Eversmann.
"GALETINE!" Schmid shoved some more dressing into the wound and as Eversmann went over to use the radio held down Jamie's leg. I started searching through my pack for an IV, Schmid glanced down at me "Yeah, yeah set up the IV."
Ev, by then was talking to Captain Steele, I half listened as I took Jamie's arm, as he was thrashing about, and tried to find a vein. "Captain Steele, Captain Steele I need a medieval in here now, Corporal Smith has been hit, Captain Steele, he's hurt pretty bad."
There was silence as Captain Steele relayed the JOC, and we waited those few precious seconds for the news. Schmid turned to Eversmann, "If he doesn't get to a hospital in a half hour he's in trouble." The Eversmann's face dropped as he heard the news from Steele, Schmid watched as Eversmann slowly shook his head. He handed back the radio to Galatine and came back over to the table "I got him." He took over from Schmid.
"I want direct pressure on the wound."
"Your gonna be alright. It's gonna be OK."
I was standing in the doorway, watching Schmid and Yurek with Jamie, my head was pressed against the wooden frame I heard someone approaching and turned, it was Eversmann, he stood just behind me and I looked back at Jamie. "Yurek take over from me... Both hands" Schmid said softly, and he made his way towards Eversmann and me. "It's the femoral artery, but I can't see it, which means it's retracted up into the pelvis." He explained to us, "Which means that I have to find it and clamp it, the only way to stop the bleeding, I got no more IV's." He made eye contacted with me then, "So, I'm gonna need you to assist, OK?" I nodded.
It took us five minutes to prepare for the field surgery, Twombly came and was sat at Jamie's head, Eversmann stood at his side next to me, Schmid stood on the other side and Yurek stood at his feet. We waited as Schmid explained to Jamie "Now listen Jamie, I gotta do something, it's gonna hurt, OK? I gotta cause you more pain but I have to do it to help you, alright, you understand?"
Jamie nodded before whispering, "Morphine?"
"I can't, it'll lower your heart rate too far, I'm sorry. Here Twombly, why don't you take his hands there." He then reached to the table and picked up the clamp, which he then handed to me and told me what I needed to do. "I need you to hold the wound open, keep pressure on the top of the leg." I nodded and put the clamp between my teeth, so I could hold the wound. "Yurek, your gonna take the feet and the flashlight." He paused. "On my count." Jamie murmured, "Alright Jamie?"
"Mmmm." He squeezed his eyes shut.
"One...... Two....... Three." I pulled open the wound and he pushed his hand up Jamie's leg, Jamie cried out before passing out. Schmid face was screwed up. "Wait, wait.... Wait. I feel it, I feel a pulse........ I got it."
"You got it?" I spoke through the clamp.
"I got it, yeah. I got it. I got it."
"You got it?" I removed the clamp from my mouth.
"I got it........ Clamp."
"Yeah." I could just see the artery between his fingers; I placed the clamp round it. "I got it clamped."
"You got it clamped? Hold it."
"Here, gab it..... It's tearin'."
"Hold it..... I got it, no."
"Doc, it's goin' , it's goin' back in."
"Hold it."
"It's tearin'."
"Hold it." The artery broke away and shot back up the leg. "OK, get out.... Get out..... Hold the wound."
I did as I was told, "OK, OK, I'm holdin'."
He pushed back up the leg, "Move your hand." The seconds ticked slowly by as Schmid's hand searched in vain for the artery again. He looked at me and shook his head.
"What?" He tried again, but we knew now that it was over.
Jamie opened his eyes slowly, "You fix it?" His voice barely a whisper, Schmid looked up from his watch, then over at Eversmann. Ev lent forward and squeezed Jamie's shoulder, smiling slightly, "yeah, yeah, we got it." Jamie closed his eyes again.
(***)(***)(***)(***)(***)(***)(***)(***)
We were all sat around him, Schmid was still holding his leg, it was quiet no one spoke, no guns sounded, it was perfectly still. It was dark and I couldn't see very well, but Jamie's pale, grey face stood out vividly, still covered in streaks of blood. "I can't die here, man." His voice croaked out to the darkness.
"You're not going to die, alright? You're not going to die." Schmid calm voice replied.
"I'm sorry." Jamie croaked again.
"You don't have nothing to be sorry for." Eversmann leaned forward as he spoke, his eyes sad even through the smile on his face. "You saved Twombly, you did perfect."
Jamie tried to look around, "You OK Twombs?"
"Yeah, I'm OK Jamie." Twombly reached out for Jamie.
"You did what you were trained to do. You should be proud of that. Be proud of that." Eversmann's deep voice carried the words to Jamie.
"Ev?"
"Yeah?"
"Do me a favor."
"Yeah?"
"Can you tell my parents that I fought........ Well today, that I...... That I...... That I fought hard."
"Your gonna tell 'em yourself, OK, you hear me? Alright."
"The humvee's here?" Jamie's head tried to turn.
"They're coming, Jamie, they're coming, you just gotta hang in there a little bit."
"I can."
"You can hold for just a little bit, you can."
"I can........ I can..... It's nothing."
"It's nothing.... it's nothing." Eversmann smiled at Jamie's saying.
"Nothing."
"It's nothing."
"Nothing." Jamie looked up and smiled, his gentle eyes stopped.
"Oh shit, hold the wound." Schmid started CPR, and I slowly stood and applied pressure to the wound, watching as Schmid fought the save Jamie's life. The determination in Schmid's eyes, he wouldn't let Jamie go. Ev reached out and pulled Schmids hands, "no, stop." Schmid tried again, but there was nothing.
** ***** *** ***** **** *****
I went back to the corner where I'd been sitting, sliding down the wall I put my head into my hands. I'd been so caught up in everything I hadn't noticed how tired I felt, how my body hurt, the blisters rubbed on my feet. Now everything was so painfully obvious to me, Jamie had died slowly and I wondered who else had died. Twombly sat down next to me and I let my head fall onto his shoulder, we sat like that for a time, until the gunfire flared up again. The Little Birds kept flying over the buildings raining bullets down on the enemy, then the humvees arrived. It was about 3 in the morning when they finally pulled up, and with them the gunfire also increased. The wounded were loaded into the UN tanks and we covered them as the pilots were cut out the Hawk. It took along time, the sun slowly climbed up, we were impatient we wanted out, and I guess I was getting careless. I was squatting behind the wheel of one of the trucks, firing at the rooftops, I stood slightly to move to a different angle when I suddenly felt something hit my abdomen, it felt like someone had shoved a hot poker right through it. I cried out and looked down, soaking through my fatigues was blood, "Shit." D'Tamissi, who was near me at the time grabbed my harness strap and dragged me round to the hatch of a tank before I could speak. "In." he indicated with his head. "Medic."
"I'm fine." I said, "I'm still in the fight."
"No, you're going back in the tank."
"But Serg....."
"Where you hit?"
"Huh?"
"Where you hit?" Wilkinson was beside me, I hadn't even noticed him.
"I dunno."
"Let me get a look." I lifted my shirt and winced as he stuck in his fingers, "Nice," He pulled a dressing out his bag and patched me up, before pushing me into the tank. I sat, painfully, next to someone, it was dark and it stank of blood, sweat and urine, people were groaning and I became aware that I was sitting in something wet. Then another person was thrown in, he lay awkwardly on top of me and the person sitting next to me, there was hardly any room. I could hear the ring of bullets hitting the armored plating and I became nervous, now I really wanted out.
