Individual Summary: As a wild storm rips through Murwillumbah, Bob soon discovers he has a problem: the boys have gone for a walk on the trails, and are now nowhere to be seen. The problem just gets bigger when - an hour later - Dec sprints into the camp; covered in blood, dirt, and screaming that Ant has been badly injured......
*****
The sound of the thunder overhead echoed the turmoil of worry inside everyone's stomachs. A wild storm had appeared suddenly out of nowhere and the weather had gone from sunshine one minute, to dark clouds that gushed with rain and ominous rumbling the next.
It wouldn't have been so bad, normally - given that everyone was normally finished with their duties for the filming of the show by this time of the day, and everyone was either at the motel, or back at the camp.
This time, though, they had a problem.
Ant and Dec had decided to take advantage of the great weather and had gone for a walk along one of the public trails nearby.
That had been almost an hour ago, and everyone was starting to get beyond worried.
It was now at a point where a small group of them had organised a search party - just as the storm was really reaching a climax with noise and rain-power - and they were just moments away from heading out on the trails to search for their wayward boys.
They had spent the last ten minutes scouring a map of the area, debating on which of the trails the boys had headed, and had finally settled on a roughly five-kilometre round trail that started and ended about two hundred metres from the set.
"Right, let's go!" Chris now yelled over the racket of the storm, and everyone clambered into the two four-wheel drives and they set off down the track.
They only got about a hundred metres down the road before Chris let out a loud exclamation and slammed on the brakes of his car. Bob instinctively grabbed onto the dashboard as the tires skidded along the dirt and gravel and his eyes caught sight of what had caused the sudden need to stop.
It looked like something out of a horror film: through the gentle mist and the heavily pouring rain, with thunder cracking over their heads and the trees being blown in every possible direction, a shadowy figure had emerged from the jungle that sprawled off to the side of the track - soaking wet and covered in mud and another sinister stain coating their hands and the front of their clothes in seemingly random patches.
A deep gash stood out starkly through the rain as it trickled more blood down the figure's face and down the side of their neck, and they seemed to be shaking - though with shock or the cold, Bob couldn't be sure.
As the figure continued to stumble towards the car, their features became suddenly much more recognisable: there was no mistaking the sandy hair that was clinging to their forehead, or the frightened and desperate hazel eyes that flashed in the shimmer of the headlights, and especially not the very familiar yell that somehow managed to reach their ears over the howl of the storm as they raised their arms and waved frantically to get their attention.
Chris immediately shut the engine off as he and Bob leapt out of the car, not bothering with locking the doors as they walked quickly over to the shaking figure.
Without wasting any time, Bob reached out and put a hand each on Dec's soaking wet shoulders, prompting him to look up at him.
"Declan? Are you alright? What's happened?" the medic asked calmly, making sure to speak clearly and not to frighten the younger man further.
Now that he was touching him, Bob could feel him trembling under his hands, and his gaze turned concerned as his eyes took in his appearance.
"Bob, I need your help" came the whimpering reply, a single frightened tear dripping down from his eyes and mixing with the many droplets of rain on his cheek.
"What's happened?" Bob repeated, grateful now that the rain seemed to be dying down a bit.
"We were walking on the path, and then there was a flash of lightning and this big branch from a gum tree came down and landed right on top of us" Dec rambled back in a rush, eyes darting fretfully around as the other crew from the car behind came up to see what was going on.
"Did the branch land on either of you?" Bob questioned, feeling fear rising in his gut as Dec shakily nodded in reply.
"Ant- Oh God, Bob, Ant's trapped under it, and there's a branch in his stomach, he's bleeding everywhere!" he cried, another frightened drop of salty water creeping over his lash.
A chorus of horrified gasps echoed from the group behind them, as Bob pushed his own fear back down into his stomach and took immediate charge of the situation.
"Right: second car stays up here, one of you needs to call an ambulance down here - and tell them they'll need the off-road vehicle."
Ranger Steve - as he was known - nodded worriedly and pulled out his phone as he clambered back into the car.
"Rick, Chris, Marty, and I will go down the trail and suss out the situation" Bob continued, gesturing to each person in turn, "If anything changes, I'll radio one of you guys up here so you can let the ambos know."
The crew from the second car nodded in understanding, before Bob gestured for the other three aforementioned men to gather the gear in the back of their Range Rover. When everyone was ready, he turned back to Dec with a resignedly determined glint in his eyes.
"Lead the way, son" he ordered, gesturing towards the gap in the trees.
*****
It took about five minutes of clambering unsteadily down the uneven path, but eventually the team rounded a corner in the track and were greeted by a horrific sight.
True to Dec's story, there was a sizable gum branch that had been brought down by the storm, and the splintered end was currently resting precariously in a hollow cavity - an abdominal cavity, that is.
Bob took pride in having a strong stomach - he had to, given what he had seen as a paramedic of some thirty plus years experience - but the sight of the sharp end of the eucalyptus branch sticking out of Ant's abdomen, with blood coating the dirt around it and some of it having splashed onto the bark of the branch was enough to almost make him want to vomit.
As they got closer, he also had a rising suspicion of some other injuries. Namely, possible femur fractures - given how he had spotted that both of Ant's feet had been awkwardly rotated and appeared much shorter than usual.
He winced internally at that - femur fractures were bad enough, but bilateral femur fractures? Double ouch.....
Walking around his patient, Bob's keen eye was looking for any evidence of other external injuries. All he could see was the heaviest part of the branch currently sitting heavily on Ant's upper legs (hence the likely femur fractures), and evidence of some type of head wound - given the blood on the dirt surrounding his head, like some sort of macabre halo.
He also appeared - for the most part - to be unconscious.
Bob took out his radio to update the crew back on the main trail, and then sent Marty back up to the car for the chainsaw.
Once he'd sprinted off, he knelt down beside Ant's motionless form and began checking him over.
Primary survey completed - with no obvious life-threats to his airway, breathing, or circulation - he moved straight onto his head-to-toe assessment. This would give him a more thorough examination and a better idea of any injuries that Ant could potentially have.
Taking his time, Bob let his fingers probe firmly into every bone and muscle of Ant's body, checking them for abnormalities and praying that there was nothing major or life-threatening.
Thankfully, that didn't seem to be the case - on his upper body anyway, he couldn't really assess past his stomach while the branch was still in the way.
The solution for that particular problem arrived about two seconds later, when Marty sprinted back down the trail, chainsaw in hand.
"Got it!" he called ahead, slowing down as he neared them.
Bob nodded in approval.
"Good job" he praised, before turning back to the scene and trying to figure out the best way to do this.
"Okay" he decided, about thirty seconds later, "If us two-" he gestured over to Dec at this, keen to get him involved and helping in some way, "hold onto the branch to keep it stabilised, can you cut it above this line?" He pointed to the knot in the bark where he wanted Marty to cut above - it would result in only the part embedded in Ant's stomach being left behind, by cutting about ten centimetres above the injury.
Marty nodded in understanding, though the whole idea made him feel rather nauseous.
Taking Dec's blood-coated hands and showing him where to hold, Bob placed his own hands on the branch and nodded at Marty to start up the chainsaw.
The whole ordeal was over in barely twenty seconds, and Chris and Ricky moved in to shift the majority of the branch off of Ant's upper legs, throwing it clear of the scene at last.
"Alright, hands off the branch now, Dec" Bob instructed, frowning as the younger man hesitated.
"Why are we leaving it in there?" he asked, sounding confused.
Bob bit his lip - there was no easy way to explain this.
"We don't know how much damage has been done inside his abdominal cavity, Declan" he explained carefully, hating the shocked and frightened hazel eyes that stared back into his own, "For all we know, it could be plugging a major bleed that - if we were to remove it - could cause him to bleed out."
Dec pressed a fist to his mouth in shock, eyes widening as the reality of the situation really began to sink in (well, more than it already had).
"Oh my God" he muttered thickly, skin turning mildly green as the thoughts raced through his mind. Before Bob could say anything else, Dec had leapt to his feet and stumbled off to the side of the trail, collapsing to his knees as he vomited harshly into a bush.
Wincing at the sound, Bob heard his radio crackle into life, and Steve's reassuring voice told them all that the ambulance had arrived, and they were on their way down to them.
When the paramedics arrived, they made short work of quickly loading Ant onto a spine board and proceeding to carry him up the trail and back to the truck. The trip took around seven minutes, and everyone was relieved when they finally reached the main trail again.
Setting the board down on their stretcher, the paramedics wasted no time in loading the gurney into the back of the ambulance, quickly muttering something to Bob before one jumped in the back with their patient, while the other walked quickly around to the driver's side and clambered in, the slamming of the door echoing in the jungle air around them.
As the ambulance sped away - red and blue lights flashing through the rain and siren cutting through the silence of the jungle - Bob turned and rested an arm around Dec's sopping wet shoulders.
"Come on, son" he coaxed softly, squeezing the younger man closer to his side, "Let's get you inside and clean that blood off you, hey?"
Dull, shocked hazel eyes shone up at him, before they flickered down to the blood on his hands and clothes - widening as if seeing it for the first time.
"It's Ant's" he whispered brokenly, sounding like a lost little boy - the sound made Bob's heart clench sadly inside his chest.
"I know" he sighed back, as he steered them back around and headed up the trail to the warmth and safety of the cars (and eventually the clinic) - praying that they had gotten there in time.
*****
It was to the sound of a soft beeping and the scratchy comfort of an unfamiliar blanket that Ant next awoke. The pain from his legs and lower abdomen dulled - no doubt - by a combination of very strong painkillers, courtesy of the IV that was currently attached to his left wrist. A simple bandage around his head confirmed the presence of a dressing covering the gash on his crown, and there was the distinct feeling of cotton in his mouth and dirt in his eyes.
Blinking slowly, he wasn't that surprised to find himself in a room at a hospital. His eyelids fluttered a few times as he tried to clear the haze over his vision, and it took about ten seconds to disappear enough to fully take in the sights around him.
The sight that caught his immediate interest however, was Bob sitting in a large, comfy-looking armchair just off to the side of the tiny room - next to the window - and Dec sitting on his lap, fast asleep.
Bob glanced over and smiled when he noticed that Ant was awake, before bringing a finger to his lips and gesturing silently to their sleeping friend.
A tiny, affectionate smile of his own curled Ant's lips as he let his head relax back against the pillow with a sigh.
The medic carefully slipped out from under Dec - who shifted and mumbled something incomprehensible in his sleep, before he nestled into the back of the chair and continued to slumber on - and walked silently over to Ant's bedside.
"He okay?" Ant croaked softly, wincing as his larynx vibrated as he spoke.
Bob nodded reassuringly, turning back to the window with a smile on his face.
"He's just been lightly sedated so he can get some rest - he wasn't going anywhere without you, and it was the only way we were going to get him to sleep" he explained, a fond twinkle in his eyes as they watched their other charge while he slept.
Ant shook his head exasperatedly, knowing all too well what Dec would have been like while they had been split up. He only had vague memories of what had happened in the woods, but he did remember a familiar, frantic voice calling out to him - begging him to stay awake, pleading with him not to give into the unconsciousness that was so inviting. He remembered a flash of hazel - staring down at his face as intensely as he'd ever seen them, a desperation and a determination like almost no other flickering in the blurred gaze. He remembered shaking hands - warm hands, comforting hands - feeling all along his body and gripping his hand as his awareness had wavered, that broken voice again begging him to stay with him, to not let go. He remembered those same hands pressing hard into his abdomen, making him scream with pain while the voice above his head apologised profusely, promising that they were only trying to help.
He knew that, he trusted that voice: he trusted it with his life. Although, he didn't think he'd ever have to put that theory to the test....
"How are you feeling?" Bob's quiet voice startled Ant out of his memories, the medic perching gently on the side of the mattress and raising a questioning look at him.
Deciding to just be honest, Ant took a moment before answering "Like shit," and neither of them could hold back a laugh at that.
After a few jovial moments, Ant's smile became a little less jokey - but no less genuine - and his blue eyes flickered with a deep sincerity.
"Bob, listen; thanks for what you did back there. I honestly don't know if we would'a gotten out of there if it wasn't for you" he whispered, voice turning just a little bit hoarse as the hazy memories flashed before his eyes.
Bob shook his head, passing off the thanks.
"Just doing my job, son" he replied, though he was smiling and there was an almost fatherly twinkle in his eyes.
Ant smiled tiredly back, already feeling the pull of sleep once more.
The medic must have noticed, for he chuckled softly and reached up to rub a friendly hand down Ant's arm.
"Go back to sleep, get your rest. We'll look after you" he whispered, pleased when Ant simply hummed silently before his eyes closed and he fell into the oblivion once more.
*****
END of this chapter.......
*****
Next Time.....
One of the boys is about to become a father back home, and Bob finds himself giving out some very special advice when the last-minute nerves hit......