Chapter Nine
Brooke laid unconscious on the concrete, her head lying in a puddle of blood which extended down to her waist, the top of the light blue tracksuit she was wearing had begun to turn a crimson red as the blood pumped through her veins and from her body with every heartbeat, Joey stood watching through a haze as the colour drained from Brookes face a little bit more every second, as Mel ran over to Brooke grabbing her hand then beginning to cry, while Frankee knelt down opposite Mel just staring at Charlie, Joeys face began reflecting Brookes as she realized that she was the only one not helping out, the haze began to fall from her eyes, she pulled her phone out of her pocket dialing triple zero,
"Yeah, I need an ambulance, it's my cousin she's been attacked...I don't know there's blood coming from her head...I don't know...yeah its eleven Wellston drive Summer bay, thanks and please hurry"
She placed the phone back in her pocket then rushed over to where Charlie was kneeling down grabbing Brookes free hand she squeezed it as hard as she could hoping that the pain would bring Brooke from the unconscious state she was in. She looked up at Charlie, she looked down at Brooke when all of a sudden she felt a cold sensation around her knees when she looked down she saw that the puddle of blood coming from Brooke had flowed to where her knees were, she looked at Charlie noting the sorrowful look on her face she finally managed to speak,
"She's losing too much blood isn't she?" Charlie merely nodded in reply "So what do we do?"
After a slight silence Charlie looked at Joey her face reflecting that she had an idea "We stop the bleeding, do you have any cloths or towels unpacked?"
"Yeah there all in the kitchen" Joey quickly replied
"Okay get them as many as you can...now"
With that Joey ran into the kitchen, rummaging through the drawers until she found what she was looking for, grabbing as many clothes and towels as she could hold she ran back outside, handing the clothes and towels to Charlie who then began placing them carefully over the wound on the back of Brookes skull.
"She must be bleeding from somewhere else this is too much blood for the head wound she has" Charlie stated to everyone, with that she began to visually examining Brookes body and clothes from head to toe trying to find any sign of where the rest of the blood could be coming from.
After looking at Brooke several times and finding nothing she began looking at the area around them, as she was returning her focus to Brooke she noticed a piece of metal sticking out of the wall on her left side, she got up and walked over to the wall upon getting closer she noticed that about three inches of the metal was sticking out of the wall and the it was also covered in blood so much so that the blood was dripping of the metal on to the floor and had formed a tiny puddle of blood underneath. Looking at the position in which Brooke was laying and then looking at the angle of the wall she moved quickly back to Brooke and kneeled down into the position she was before, she then placed her right hand on the towel covering Brookes wound then placing her left hand on the side of Brookes head she looked up at the others who were staring at her in confusion
"We need to turn her over, I think there may be a wound in her back" Charlie stated as to answer their looks of confusion "Everyone grab a part of her body" She paused waiting for everyone to grab a part but nobody moved "Look I know your all worried about her and so am I but if we don't turn her and check for another wound she could bleed out and die and nobody wants that"
After a couple seconds Mel looked from Brooke to Charlie and then to Joey and Frankee, Joey's eyes were locked on the puddle of blood around Brookes head and shoulders, whereas Frankee was glaring at Joey watching her every move, wiping the tears from her cheeks she reached over a lightly touched Joeys arm, Joey immediately pulled her arm away and glared Mel as if warning her not to touch her. Mel looked at Joey wondering why reacted the way she had, ignoring her feeling to ask what she did she grabbed Frankee's arm causing Frankee to look up at her, "We need to do as she says, I can't lose her Frankee" Mel stated more tears running down her face, Unknown to her Joey was looking at her with a look of disbelief before Joey could say anything Frankee responded,
"Okay, calm down, Joey put your hands in the same place as Mel's on your side, I'll grab her legs, then turn her towards the wall, okay on the count of three ready...1...2..."
They all readied themselves to turn Brooke on three when Charlie realized that there was a problem "Hang on, one of us needs to look at her back...I don't think it should be Joey"
"I agree" Frankee quickly replied "Me too" Mel added
"I'll do it I know what I'm looking for " Charlie continued without waiting for an answer "Joey place your hands exactly where mine are, and I know it's hard but ignore the blood and keep the pressure on the wound okay" She watched as Joey moved towards her and then knelt down next to her so close that theirs arms we touching causing goose bumps to raise on both their arms, "Okay, slowly slide your hands undermine but apply pressure" Joey did as Charlie said and placed her hands slowly under Charlie's and applying pressure to the wound while also trying to block out the feeling of the blood seeping through the clothe onto her hands covering the blood that was already there.
Joey stared at her hands she tried even harder to ignore it, trying to stop the tears escaping her eyes, but the moment she returned her look to Brookes face she lost all control of her emotions and the tears began to fall down her cheeks rapidly, the tears rolled down her cheeks and onto Brookes cheek, forgetting everyone else she lowered her hand so that her and Brookes foreheads were touching and whispered "Please don't die, I need you Brooke"
"Jo" Frankee called out to Joey, but got no response from "JO" she tried again raising her voice hoping that Joey would answer to her and nobody answer, she was just about to try again when she was stopped in her tracks
"Joey" Charlie called out placing her hand on the back of Joey's head, the contact causing the goose bumps that had just vanished to reappear. "Joey, listen to me, I know you love her and you want her to live but for that to happen you need to help us lift her...Joey every time her heartbeats she loses more and more blood and with it we lose time to save her" As the last word left Charlie's lips Joey took a deep breath in then rose up on to her knees "You okay to do this?" Charlie asked staring into Joey's eyes ignoring Mel and Frankee awaiting Joeys answer...
"No, but we need to help her" Joey replied a tears falling down her cheeks as she said it
"Okay, everyone ready..." She looked around at everyone and when they all nodded "Alright on the count of three...1...2...3" They all turned Brooke's body until she was on her side and held her on her side so Charlie could see if there was another wound on her back, they all knew something was wrong when Charlie didn't speak she just looked at Brookes back her face showing that something was wrong
"Charlie what is it what's wrong?" Joey asked breaking the worry filled silence, when Charlie didn't answer she raised her voice "Charlie, we have a right to know what's wrong"
Charlie looked up at Joey and spoke directly to her "She has a wound in her back which is probably why there's so much blood, it's about three inches deep"
"So what does that mean?"
"I don't know Jo, but all I know is the sooner the ambulance is here the better" Charlie placed clothe on the wound and held it in place "Okay, roll her slowly onto her back" When Brookes back was on the ground again she carefully removed her hand being extra sure to not move the clothe out of place, after a couple moments staring at each other they heard a knock at the door, Frankee being the closest to the door jumped to her feet and ran to the door, seconds later a she reappeared with two paramedics behind her one with long brown hair and the other with short black hair Charlie and Frankee moved out of the way whereas Mel and Joey stayed where they were Mel holding Brookes right hand and Joey with her hands on the clothe placed on Brookes head wound, the long hair paramedic kneeled on Brookes right side next to Mel, and the short haired paramedic moved to Brookes left side both looked at each other after acknowledging the amount of blood that was on the concrete
"Okay, I'm Andrew and that is my colleague Brad" Stated the short haired paramedic "What's her name?" He said looking at Joey who seemed to be the one most fixated on Brooke
"Her name is Brooke" Joey replied not taking her eyes of Brooke
"Okay that's great is there any more information you can give us, her full name, her Date of Birth, any illnesses and so on"
"Umm yeah sorry, her full name is Brooke Taylor Carter, she was born on 11th April 1985, she's asthmatic and she's diabetic she has to inject insulin, and she's from England she flew over here with her mum when she was younger and fell ill so she might be on the files...is that enough information?"
"Yeah that's fine, and not to be rude but who are you?" Andrew asked
"Joey Collins, she's my cousin"
"And the other ladies are they all cousins too"
"No, ummm, that's Mel, and they are Frankee and Charlie, look it doesn't matter who they are is she going to be okay"
"She's lost a lot of blood, I can't tell you anymore until we get her to the hospital and the doctors have a proper look at the wound on her head"
"What about the one on her back?"
"Once we get her in the ambulance I'll examine her and see if there are other wounds"
"There is on her back, ask Charlie she saw it"
"Which one of you ladies is Charlie?" Andrew asked looking up at Frankee and Charlie, when Charlie raised her hand, he got up and called her to the side "What's the wound like?"
"It's about three inches deep judging on the metal on that wall, but...it's between her Shoulder blade and her spine"
"Okay thanks, I take it that you are the one that helped her survive this long" When Charlie nodded he continued "Congratulations you may have just saved her life" With that he turned his attention to the other paramedic "Brad get the gurney, we need to get her to hospital now"