Hayley nudged James who opened his eyes sleepily. "Can I check your shoulder?" James nodded. Hayley knelt down and began to unwrap the gauze around his shoulder.
The wound was still bleeding slowly and was very pink around the edges. Hayley sighed and shook her head sadly. "We need to take the bullet out of his arm" she stated,wrapping the gauze back around the wound.
The nervousness in the room grew and I asked "How?" "I've never really done this before but I would take some tweezers from the first-aid kit and remove it like that. However, we don't have anything to numb it so it would hurt like hell and probably make it bleed a lot more. We would need to stop the bleeding so he doesn't die."
The risks of this sounded horrible. However, keeping the bullet in would give him an infection and we didn't have the medicine to treat that.
I had my eyes closed in concentration and my breathing was shallow. "I'll do it" James said, his voice shaking but strong. I gasped and looked up. "No, no James you can't! What if you die?" James turned to me and replied "This at least gives me a chance." I blinked sadly and nodded.
James gave a sigh of relief and turned to Haley. "Alright, now what do I do?"
We ended up tying him down to a table in the fast-food area. "It's a necessary precaution" Alex said as he tossed rope to me. "He's not gonna be able to move while Hayley does this."
Once he was tied down, Hayley removed the gauze and tossed it to the ground. " Do we have the extra gauze and cloth standing by?" she asked. Alex nodded. Hayley took a deep breath and extracted the rubbing alcohol and a spare cloth from the first-aid kit. "Are you ready, James?" James nodded, closed his eye, and took a deep breath.
The alcohol was first, to sanitize the wound. James clenched his fists and color drained out of his face as Hayley did this but he didn't let out a sound. Then, hands shaking, Hayley grabbed the tweezers and began to slowly push them into James' wound and grab for the bullet.
James screams were deafening and blood seeped from the wound. "Bring me some cloth!" Hayley yelled to Alex. Alex grabbed some cloth and began to soak up the blood from the wound alongside his sister.
The screams only got worse. James was in complete agony and yelled at the top of his lungs. Hayley's hands were shaking up she worked determinedly, trying to extract the bullet.
As I watched James shout, blood pour from his wound, and him arch his back violently, I suddenly felt sick. I ran from the room and outside where I fell to my knees and emptied the contents of my stomach.
I didn't have the energy nor the will to go back into the facility. I could still hear James' screams but the cold numbed all my senses.
Sounds were faint, my vision was blurred, and, even though I was in the snow with only tights, a skirt, and a long-sleeve shirt, I wasn't cold. It seemed like hours.
I sat there and cried, unable to move, until I heard footsteps. I turned quickly and immediately felt dizzy. " Hey, be careful" Nick said, wrapping a jacket around my shoulders and helping me to my feet. "Come on back in. Hayley got it out." And sure enough, the screams had ceased and silence had fallen.
Nick walked me back inside and sat me down on the ground. "You might not want to go in now if you're sensitive to blood." I shook my head and pulled the jacket tighter around me, pulling my knees to my chest. "It's not that" I mumbled, "It's just... I can't see James like that, it's terrifying and horrible and..." I shook my head and closed my eyes.
"I understand" Nick said. "Seeing Cammie like that would be torture." I nodded and opened my eyes again. Alex walked out of the fast-food area toward me. "You ok?" he asked. "I saw you run out of there but I couldn't really do anything." I nodded and satyed silent.
Chapter 5
Start from the beginning
