Dark Fall

Chapter 49 - Trauma

Neige shouted. "Haze, med kit now! Thorne, perimeter!"

Terra kneeled beside Kori, placing a hand on her shoulder. Face paling, Kori wheezed, gurgling with every labored breath. A growing crimson stain spread across her t-shirt as blood streamed from her throat wound.

Terra locked eyes with the woman and spoke in gentle, but firm tones, "Kori, my name is Terra. I am a psi-surgeon and I can help you. Do you understand?"

Kori nodded, unable to speak. Terra glanced up to Neige, silently asking permission to continue. He nodded, and at Terra's direction, lifted his wife and laid her across the bench seat. A tear traced his otherwise emotionless face.

Haze placed the combat medical kit beside her and opened it. Red rivulets streamed from an upper arm gash, but that would have to wait.

Kori and Neige's daughter screamed for her mother, grabbing a leg. The little girl's shrill, trembling terror cut into Terra's heart. Will picked up the little girl, cuddled her in his arms as she reached out toward her mother. With a teary-eyed glance back to Terra, he slid out the back of the truck carrying the sobbing child.

Kneeling on the floor, Terra put her hands on Kori and closed her eyes while guiding the aura view into the wound. A dart had ripped across her trachea, entering from the front and exiting out the back, causing heavy bleeding. Fortunately, other vital parts were unharmed. A centimeter or two in any direction might have been instantly fatal.

Terra leaned over, catching the wounded woman's desperate eyes. "Kori, your windpipe is torn. The good news is that the major arteries and spinal column are undamaged. But the trauma is making it hard for you to breathe. I am going to make a temporary hole in your lower neck so you can get some more air. I will be as gentle as I can, but it will hurt. Okay?"

Kori firmed her lips and made a curt nod as Neige squeezed her hand.

Digging out a length of sterile tubing from the medical kit, Terra handed it to Haze, instructing, "Cut me a piece of this for a trach tube, about ten centimeters long."

With focus on Kori's lower neck area, Terra located the area for an incision. Narrowing her force to a razor point, Terra pierced the skin. Kori stiffened from the sharp pain, but could not cry out beyond a burbling gasp. Terra inserted the tube and let the incision seal around it, then secured it with pieces of white tape. Air whistled through the tube while color return to Kori's face.

"Kori, that part is done," Terra said, moving strands of hair from Kori's face. "Next, I am going to seal off the bleeding and drain some of the fluid in your lungs. Are you with me?"

Kori nodded.

Terra slid back into the aura, narrowed her focus, and searched the wound area, carefully sealing off the bleeders one-by-one. Next, she collected excess fluids in the lungs and trachea, then telekinetically pooled it in one small area. With a tiny incision, she pushed it out of the lungs and into the body cavity, finally sealing the hole. Visibly relieved, Kori relaxed her body and face.

"Okay, Kori, last part. I am going to fix the windpipe itself. We are almost done."

Back in the aura, Terra closed rips in the trachea and some of the surrounding cartilage, cauterizing them with micro-focused heat. After inspecting her work again, she backed out of the aura. She braced herself against the bench seat and took a deep breath.

"Kori, we are done," Terra reported with a satisfied smile. "You are going to be okay, but we still need to get you to a medical facility. I'm going to leave the trach tube in for now till we are sure your windpipe will hold up. Don't try to talk, you won't be able to."