Dark Fall

Chapter 13 - Triage

Ginny led Terra to the trauma center at the hospital. A group of medical personnel, all wearing blue surgical scrubs, gathered around a middle-aged woman with long red hair tied in a ponytail. The name tag identified her as Dr. Liz Gaer.

Ginny caught the doctor's attention. "Liz, this is Terra Lorr."

Liz stepped over and shook Terra's hand with vigor. "Terra, thanks for agreeing to help us. I understand you have skills in psi-surgery?"

"Yes," Terra replied. "I completed medical school and most of an internship."

Liz took her into the circle. "Everyone, this is Terra Lorr. She is the one who delivered the Borne baby along the highway." Several nodded in admiration. Liz turned to Terra. "Terra, I would like you to work with the triage team. Zoe, get Terra some scrubs and help her get set up."

Liz continued her pep talk. "This is going to be a big event. Remember, we are in it for the long haul. Take breaks as needed. I don't want anyone flaming out. The party should start any time now. We've got this."

After the circle dispersed, Zoe found Terra and directed her to a small changing area lined with metal lockers, and pulled out a set of surgical scrubs. "Here, put these on and then meet me outside under the awning." She extended her hand. "Oh, I am Zoe Bliss. I normally work as a trauma room nurse, but I was a combat medic, so Liz put me in charge of the triage team."

Terra placed her clothes in a small empty locker, put on the scrubs, tied her long hair back in a ponytail, then walked outside the emergency room entrance. The area pulsed with activity. Dozens of people rushed about with grim expressions, preparing for something dire. Zoe directed the set-up of what would be the triage in an open area near the sliding glass door. Several other nurses and medics positioned gurneys and carts of medical supplies in orderly rows.

The efficiency of the triage team impressed Terra, but also induced a shiver. They've faced mass casualties before.

Terra observed Zoe for a moment. She was short in stature, with chopped curly brown hair, but with an athletic build and a take-charge demeanor very much consistent with combat experience.

Zoe motioned Terra over. "I would like you to stabilize the worst of the cases. Don't worry about the minor stuff. Just keep 'em alive 'til we can get them to the surgical wards. Liz will come out later to help us prioritize the cases." She lifted one corner of her mouth in a half grin. "Oh, and by the way, awesome work delivering that baby boy. I was here when you came in, and from what they described, you probably saved two lives that day."

Terra dipped her head. "Thank you. What can we expect here?"

"We will have projectile and shrapnel wounds, along with blunt force trauma, broken bones, and some burns. Most of your tasks will be to stop internal bleeding. From what Liz told us, this is going to be huge." Zoe pointed towards two large muscular men in white uniforms standing off to the side. "If a patient causes problems, just signal one of these guys and they will put a stop to it real fast."

"You've done this before."

Zoe shook her head."Far too often." A rumble caught her ear, produced by a caravan of vehicles that came along the main road. "And so it begins."

The wounded included all ages and severity. The trauma team worked with practiced efficiency, loading the wounded onto gurneys and wheeling them before Zoe for initial evaluation. Moans of pain and cries of grief rose above the din, but most were silent, with cold, shocked expressions on their faces. Liz came out to direct the most urgent cases to the waiting surgical and emergency treatment rooms. Less severe cases were directed to chairs and cots in the emergency room visiting area where nurses monitored them and provided initial treatment. A partitioned area off to the side became a temporary morgue, and soon white sheet covered bodies appeared, lined up in straight rows. But there was no time now to mourn.

One medic motioned Terra over. A young woman laid unconscious on a gurney, suffering a bloody gash on her side, her face pale. The medic hooked up an IV port while Terra placed her hands on the woman's abdomen and shifted into the aura. Mentally, she followed the injurious path made by a jagged piece of metal into her liver until she found the source of the internal bleeding. Closing her eyes, Terra used her psi-surgery abilities to locate and pinch closed three ruptured blood vessels, cauterizing them with focused heat. She pulled out of the aura, took a deep breath, and noticed Liz standing beside her.

Terra said in an even voice. "This one is critical. Lacerations to the liver from a piece of shrapnel about five centimeters in size, but there could be more. I pinched off the main bleeders, but she has already lost a lot of blood and is going into shock."

The medic and Liz wheeled off the young woman for emergency surgery.

Next, Terra came to a young child who struggled to breathe, pulling deep wheezy breaths. With blued lips and nearly unresponsive, he wore an oxygen mask, but even that was soon not going to be enough to sustain his life.

His mother trembled as she held him close in her lap. Dried blood caked her cheek from a head wound. "Please," she pleaded with moist eyes. "Can you help him?"

"I am a psi-surgeon," Terra replied in a soft voice. "Here, let me see what I can do." She placed her hands on the boy and went again into the aura. A partially crushed windpipe made breathing difficult, and one of his lungs filled with fluid. As gently as she could, she directed lines of force to expand the windpipe. Next, she made a small hole in the bottom of a lung, forced out much of the fluid into the body cavity, and then sealed up the hole. Terra came out of the aura and took a deep breath. The boy breathed easier, and the blue color around his lips faded. Terra looked up to Zoe. "Crushed windpipe and fluids in the left lung." Terra then turned to the mother and placed a hand on her arm. "I think he will be okay now." A medic wheeled the boy off to a treatment room with his mother at his side.

The wounded continued to come in sporadic waves through the night. Finally, just before dawn, the flow slowed to a trickle. Terra had tended the worst wounded. Most she could save, but some she could not. With a deep cleansing breath, she backed up against an outside wall near the emergency room door and slid down to the grassy ground in a sitting position. Blood splotches on her scrubs filled her nose with a slightly-sweet metallic scent.

As she wished for Will's presence, his earlier words came back to her. How did this happen to these people? Is the Blue Uprising somehow responsible?

Ginny walked up and sat down beside Terra, leaning against the same wall. "How are you holding up?"

"Long night. I'm exhausted." Terra took a deep breath. "Is Will around?"

"Last I saw, he was fixing an electrical problem on the other side of the hospital. He was up all night too."

Terra paused, then asked that which plagued her mind throughout the night. "So many people from that village were hurt. Ginny, most of the injuries were from shrapnel or building collapse. Who shelled that village?"

Ginny turned to peer directly into Terra's eyes, and her voice carried a cutting edge. "The village was called Norhold. I do not know who did it, but what does it matter to these people? They were just caught in the middle of this damned fighting."

Terra bowed her head and covered her face with her hands as guilt shadowed her heart. Am I somehow complicit?

Ginny placed her hand on Terra's shoulder and softened her voice. "Terra, you've done great things tonight, and I thank you. But you are too good a person not to know the truth of what happens out here. I've known you were a Blue Uprising agent for some time." Terra jerked her head up and widened her eyes. "Don't worry. Only Will and I know that, and your secret is safe. There will come a time, though, when you will have to make a difficult choice."

Ginny stood up and walked away before Terra could ask the obvious follow-up question. How do Will and Ginny know I am an agent?

Terra staggered to her feet and pushed back the strands of dark hair from her face. As she returned to the triage area, something shiny caught her eye. Discarded in a flower bed was a stamped metal tag on a fine steel chain, an identification tag of some sort with the name partially obscured by a smear of dried blood. She kneeled down and picked it up, turning it in her hand.

It belonged to a Dynasty soldier. He must have come here with the wounded, and he may have seen her perform psi-surgery. The skill was rare enough that it attracted attention.

An electric jolt pulsed down Terra's spine. If he reports my presence here, Dynasty forces may invade this town.