21- body horror (tattoo gun / spirit possession / let the bedsheet soak up my tears)
As the soldiers calmed their giggles, TK looked at the stopwatch, catching his breath. If reinforcements arrived as planned, they had another ten hours to go.
"How long do you think the door will hold?" he asked.
He was thinking about the care the two wounded men needed and how to proceed. He wasn't a doctor, and he wasn't sure of himself. He was afraid of doing more harm than good by removing the pieces of metal from their limbs, but he was certain they couldn't stay like this.
"You want to know how long we have to fuck?
"Shut up Matt," Steve interjected as TK felt sick. "You owe him your life here!"
"It's okay, it's just a joke!"
The paramedic's unease didn't abate; he'd clearly seen the lecherous gleam in the man's eyes and for nothing in the world would he like to be alone with him. Jim had told him that Matt had never hesitated to satisfy his desires among civilians in the countries where they went on missions, and TK had guessed that he hadn't always asked his partners for their opinion.
"If they don't bring anything bigger to attack it, it'll take them between five and seven hours," Jim replied.
"Is that to get you organized for care?" asked Danny.
TK nodded, still wondering how to proceed. He had neither his equipment nor enough information about the rest of the care to make up his mind.
"Jim, do you have a way out?" asked the commander.
"There's a tunnel through the floor and walls, but it's not thick."
"TK, can you get the metal off them?"
"There's a risk of bleeding, for both of them."
The fatal risk was clear to all and Steve hesitated, but it was Will who decided.
"I was ready to die out there, I'm willing to take the risk."
"Without anesthetic, you're going to go through hell," insisted the paramedic.
"I'm ready."
TK nodded, grabbing the first-aid kit, all the clean cloths he could find and the containers. He invited Will to lie down and asked Steve and Danny for their help. He put on a pair of gloves as the couple took hold of the injured man's arms and shoulders, and hesitated. He hesitated between starting with the small pieces or the big one in the eye, but it wasn't a real question, the only emergency was the eye.
TK took a small towel and handed Will a wooden spoon. Will nodded, looking impressively calm as Steve slipped it between his teeth. There was no visible apprehension in his able-bodied eye. The paramedic exchanged glances with the commander, then with Danny, and positioned himself one knee either side of his patient's head. He wrapped the towel around the piece of metal, holding it with his right hand, put the fingers of his left hand around the spike to try and preserve the eyeball and counted to three.
He gave a sharp tug. Will's body tensed, a howl of pain passed his lips despite the spoon and a fountain of blood gushed from his eye. TK saw the length of what he'd removed and thought that the eye was lost - the spike must even have pierced behind it. He immediately realized that there was no point in trying to disinfect it - there was far too much blood. He had nothing to cauterize or close the wound. So he put several compresses directly on it, the pieces of terry towel he'd cut out in advance and held it all together with a bandage.
He hesitated to give the soldier a few minutes to recover from the pain, but once again, Will intervened.
"Go on, take the others off."
TK then took a pair of tweezers in one hand, a disinfectant-soaked cloth in the other and removed, one by one, the metal splinters.