"What are you looking for?" Penn's words were soft and weak. She shifted her head slightly to one side in order to get a clearer view, but the little movement was exhausting, taking far more energy then it should have. A small moan of pain escaped her.
"Stop moving!" Olivia spoke from a distant corner of their prison.
"You should heed that advise yourself." Penn retorted. Olivia did not respond but simply returned to what she was doing. In one hand she held her cellphone, flashlight on, and in the other hand she held the field knife from the EMS bag.
"I'm looking for a weak spot in the metal." Olivia answered.
"What for? Do you plan to tunnel your way out?" Penn asked. "Because if you are you should know the container is likely sitting on concrete so you'll have to dig through that as well." Penn's words continued to weaken.
"I'm looking for options." Olivia answered in a harsh tone. "I can't just sit around waiting for help to come or you to die. If I can find a weak point in the metal, create a big enough hole then tie some IV tubing to my phone and feed it out as far as possible. Hopefully some one will come across it and trace the tubing back to the container." Olivia was making the plan up as she went along but she was surprised to hear how good it sounded.
"Alright MacGyver." Penn responded. "Just don't hurt yourself." As she spoke Olivia screamed out in obvious pain. Penn immediately tried to sit up for a better look but stopped when a crushing pain shot through her body causing her to almost black out. Unable to open her eyes momentarily she lay back down and called out.
"Come here? What did you do?" The light from Olivia's cell phone started moving closer; a moment later she dropped down to her knees next to Penn's head.
"Wow! You did a hell of a job." The cut was deep and jagged, running from her thumb to the center of her palm. Deep crimson blood ran down her wrist onto the floor. Penn tried to stay calm watching more blood appear with every heartbeat, she had hit an artery. Summoning what little strength she had left Penn managed to prop her self up a little higher then went to work attempting to control the bleeding.
"Olivia this is really deep. You may need a tourniquet." Penn struggled to suppress the panic that was rising in her chest as she wrapped bandage after bandage over the wound, but the blood continued to seep though. With every bandage Penn caught a glimpse of Olivia's skin watching as it turned whiter and whiter.
"I'm really light headed." Olivia said.
"I know just stay awake. That is really important ok. Stay with me. " Penn pleaded. Olivia managed to nod, but grew whiter still.
Penn struggled to do what she needed to do. Every move coasted her what precious little energy she had left and brought her closer and closer to blacking out. As she moved around her breathing became more and more ragged with every breath. Finally after several more bandages and minutes of applying pressure the blood slowed and appeared to stop, but the damage was done.
"Tourniquet? Or no tourniquet?" Olivia asked quietly.
"No I think your good. You need fluids though." Penn was continuing to struggle to stay conscious. Olivia looked around the floor at the scattered mess of EMS supplies.
"We seem to be out of IV bags." She said. Penn was already aware of this but she had an idea and was putting the idea to work.
"I am aware of that. What we do have is bottled saline. All I need to do is get the bottled stuff in to a used IV bag." Penn replied. "Problem is I am not really sure how to do that."
"Why cant I just drink the stuff?" Olivia asked.
"You could, but it tastes awful and because of the salt your mouth would dry before you finished an eight ounce cup." Penn explained. "Plus IV is faster. We need to replace your volume not rehydrate you." Olivia ferreted at this explanation. "So much for the easy way." Penn's face was suddenly alight.
"That's it! Simple. Keep it simple." She exclaimed.
"What did you come up with?" Olivia asked even more softly; she was fading fast.
"Stay awake Olivia. Instead of trying to get the saline into the bag I am going to create a bag out of the bottle. Just hang on ok. Give me a few minutes." Olivia watched in awe as Penn skillfully punctured a hole in the sealed cap of the saline bottle then inserted a piece of IV tubing through the hole. With the help of tape she managed to seal the hole off to prevent any leaking.
"That should do it. Give me your arm and I'll hook it up." Penn instructed. Olivia did as told but seem to lose more and more color with every movement. Penn did not look much better and was clinging to the edge of consciousness.
"Here rest this on your shoulder." Penn said handing her the saline bottle. "You should start to feel better here any minute." Olivia took the bottle and Penn laid back down closing her eyes devoid of any remaining strength.
"You ok? Still with me?" Olivia asked. Penn managed to nod slightly. Content and tired Olivia laid her head back against the cool metal surface staring up at the celling.
Neither spoke for several long minutes. Olivia, although still weak, was feeling the effects of the fluid and felt as strong as she had before the cut on her hand and the subsequent blood loss.
"You know I think even with a weak signal we may get a phone call out." Penn said breaking the silence. Olivia rolled her head to towards Penn who was still lying with her eyes closed. She was shaking again.
"You think? I guess we need to try. We've waited two long already." Penn opened her eyes a sliver and looked at Olivia.
"You mean try something that wont worsen our situation, like trying to dig through metal." She said. Olivia rolled her eyes. She reached for her cell phone but before she could unlock the phone the screen flashed a battery with an X than went blank. Without power the flash light turned off plunging them into darkness.
"DAM IT!" Olivia shouted. "I should have been paying attention to the battery! Why did I leave it on for so long?" How could I be so stupid?" Although Penn could not see her she could hear the increase in Olivia's breathing rate and knew she was coming undone.
"Olivia calm down please. You've held it together for this long, don't lose control now. " Penn said encouragingly. "Check the EMS bag for those neon glow sticks." Olivia knew Penn was right. She needed to keep her composure, for both their benefit. Blindly she began feeling around for the bag. Once located she felt through every compartment occasionally, fumbling with a zipper. "This provides some incredible insight into how difficult it is to be blind." She said into the darkness. "Ah ha! I think I got it." Olivia felt her hand close on a stiff plastic package. Pulling it out she managed to open the wrapper despite her damaged hand and wrist, than with one final snap the immediate area was bathed in neon green light.
"That's one problem solved now how about that phone call?" Penn urged. Olivia located Penn's smashed phone and turned it on again.
"So who do we call?" Penn asked. "I vote we order pizza from Salazar's." Olivia started cracking up at this and Penn couldn't help but laugh to. Suddenly Penn's laughs became violent coughs causing her to gasp for breath.
"What's wrong? Are you choking?" Olivia asked panicking.
"Uhg…. hard…to…. breathe …" she winced in pain with every word. "I…think…. uhg." Anguish rippled across her face as she clutched her chest with her right hand. "Uhg…hurts…cant…bre…blood…" she gasped. Olivia was in full panic mode as she watched Penn gasp for air.
"What is it? A blood clot?" Olivia asked. Penn managed to nod her head in between gasps. "What do I do?" Olivia asked desperately. Penn shook her head this time. "I can't do anything?" She was helpless sitting there in their prison watching a fellow cop, no her partner, gasp for life.
"Make…make…th...th…call…uhhg." Penn gasped. Olivia quickly turned on Penn's iPhone and waited for it to boot up than started dialing a familiar number. One she had dialed many times and although she had deleted his name from her contacts list his number would forever be ingrained in her memories. He was always there for her when she needed him. Just before she pressed send she came to her senses. He was gone, retired from the police force. What if he didn't answer? She would waste her only phone call. Penn gasped again. No this time Elliot was not the person to call. He couldn't help them. She quickly deleted his number and replaced it with three numbers, nine one one, and pressed send.
"Alright hang in there I'm ordering that pizza." Olivia said as the phone rang. "Ba…ba…bacon…on…m...my side." Penn coked out. Olivia managed to smile. On the brink of death and still a smart ass. The phone stopped ringing and a voice answered.
"Operator four three one nine with the city of New York. What's your emergency?"
"Badge number four zero one five, trapped, location Staten Island, shipping…." The phone beeped dropping the call and then went blank. Olivia spoke as fast as possible trying to get out as much information. The call had been recorded so she wasn't concerned with the operator being able to understand her. She looked at the blank phone for a moment hoping she had gotten out enough information then returned the phone to her back pocket. She looked over to Penn.
"How are you doing?" she asked. Penn had stopped grasping and coughing but her breathing was far more ragged and labored.
"Wont –last-much-longer." Olivia had to lean in extremely close to hear her.
"Don't say that ok. I called for help someone will be here soon." Olivia said trying to hold her voice steady.