Creepers

25

"Okay, everybody, listen up," Balenger said.

As the professor's thigh oozed more blood, Cora turned away in horror.

"Forget what you're feeling. Do exactly what I tell you," Balenger ordered.

Rick put a hand to his mouth.

"We don't have time for this," Balenger said. "Everybody, pay attention. Do what I tell you." He unclipped his knife and cut the professor's jeans from the groin to the cuff. He spread the fabric. "Who's got the first-aid kit?"

Conklin squirmed. There was a deep, four-inch-long gash in his thigh, blood spreading from it.

"Who's got the first-aid kit?" Balenger repeated.

Vinnie blinked in shock. "Rick. I think Rick has it."

"Get it out. Now." Balenger tugged the rope around the professor's thigh, tying it above the wound. "Who's got the hammer?"

Cora forced herself to look at the blood. In the headlamps, her red hair contrasted harshly with her pale cheeks. "I do."

"Give it to me!"

Cora forced herself into motion, unholstering the hammer from her equipment belt.

Balenger wedged the handle under the rope and twisted, tightening the rope around Conklin's thigh. The blood stopped flowing. "Hold it like that."

Balenger took the Pro Med kit from Rick. "Your water bottle. Get it out. Rinse the wound. Who's got the duct tape?"

"I do." Vinnie came out of his shock.

"Get it ready."

"Duct tape? We use it for covering the sharp edges of pipes so we don't get cut. How's it going to-"

"Just do what I say."

Balenger unzipped the Pro Med's bag and opened its two compartments. About to reach in, he frowned at his dirty gloves and replaced them with latex ones from the kit. "Cora, your right hand's free. Aim your flashlight toward the kit."

He pulled out packets of alcohol wipes and ripped them open. "Rick, pour water on the wound. Cora, aim your flashlight toward the gash."

Using his jacket sleeve to wipe sweat from his eyes, Balenger stared at the water rinsing the wound. With the bleeding temporarily stopped, he saw the jagged flesh. "The artery hasn't been cut." He used an alcohol wipe to clean dirt from the edges, then leaned close, staring hard at a piece of wood projecting from the wound. "Who's got the Leatherman tool?"

"I do." Rick freed the snap on its pouch and handed it over.

Balenger opened it to the pliers mode. "Keep rinsing the wound. How are you feeling, Professor?"

"Sore."

"Is the rope cutting into you?"

"Yes."

"If that's your only pain, you're doing well. The rope not only stops the bleeding, the lack of circulation numbs the wound. But we can't keep it like that too long. Swallow these." Balenger tore open two Extra-Strength Tylenol packets and gave him four pills. "They're not Vicodin, but they're better than nothing."

Conklin shoved them into his mouth. Rick gave him a drink of water.

"My flashlight. I dropped it when the stairs collapsed." The professor sounded as if he blamed himself. "Vinnie lost his, also."

"We still have three." Balenger used an alcohol wipe to clean the end of the pliers. He smelled the sharp fumes. "Here we go. Cora, keep your light steady."

Balenger inserted the pliers into the gash and gripped the splinter just above where it was embedded into flesh. As gently as possible, he pulled it out.

The professor gasped.

"The worst part's almost over," Balenger tried to assure him. "Keep aiming the flashlight, Cora. More water, Rick." As blood was rinsed away, Balenger saw another piece of wood, smaller, almost hidden in the flesh.

Working to steady his hand, he probed the pliers into the gash, heard the professor moan, and tugged out the splinter.

He stared into the wound, searching for other debris, then picked up his open knife and cleaned it with an alcohol wipe. He inserted the tip and moved it back and forth over the raw flesh, feeling for any resistance, anything hard within the flesh. He exhaled, then set down the pliers and the knife.

"That wound needs stitches," Cora said. "A lot of them."

"We'll have to make do with what we've got. Rinse it again," Balenger told Rick. He ripped open four packs of triple antibiotic ointment and squeezed their contents into the wound. "Doing okay, Professor?"

"Feel sick."

"I don't doubt it. You're on the verge of shock. Vinnie, get over here and kneel beside me. Good. Now take off your work gloves and put on gloves from the first-aid kit. Excellent. Now squeeze the wound together."

"What?"

"Squeeze the wound together."

"Are you crazy?"

"It's the only way to do this. You need to hold it together while I seal it."

"For God's sake, seal it with what?"

"The duct tape."

"You have got to be fucking kidding me."

"Never mind. If you can't do it…" Balenger turned. "Rick, get over here, put on latex gloves, and hold the wound together."

"All right, all right, all right," Vinnie said. He squeezed the edges of the wound together.

As ointment and watery blood oozed out, the professor screamed.

"I know this is tough," Balenger told Conklin. "I promise it's almost over. But first, I need to ask you to do something really hard."

"What?"

"Keep your knee straight while Rick lifts your lower leg."

"Yes," Conklin said, "that's going to be hard." He closed his eyes and fought the pain.

"Ready?"

The professor nodded.

"Rick," Balenger said. As Rick lifted Conklin's leg and Vinnie held the wound together, Balenger peeled duct tape from its roll, the silvery strip reflecting the lights. He pressed it over the bottom of the wound and began wrapping it around the professor's thigh. As more of the wound was covered, Vinnie shifted his hands up, still squeezing the edges together. The professor sounded as if he was about to weep from the pain.

Balenger kept winding the tape around the wound. He put on a second layer, then a third, a fourth. "Okay, Rick, you can lower the leg."

The professor shuddered.

"Now let's find out if anything leaks. Cora, untwist the rope."

The group tensed as Cora removed the hammer's handle from the rope, creating slack. Balenger aimed his flashlight at the duct tape. They stared.

"Pins and needles," the professor said.

"That means the circulation's returning."

"Throbs. Hurts. God."

Balenger kept staring at the duct tape and silently prayed. He watched for blood to leak from the edges and the seams. "Looking okay." The tape remained silvery.

He grabbed the professor's wrist and again checked his pulse. One hundred and twenty. Lower than it was. Not good but not terrible, given what the professor had been through. Still no blood seeped past the duct tape. "Yeah, looking okay."

He pulled his cell phone from his jacket.