Page 101 of Doing Life

Brick. Okay, he knew Brick.

“It was your own fault. Boone told you not to tie it on with the reins.”

“Shut up, Chris. I’ll fucking?—”

Oh for fuck’s sake. “What do you mean Boone is out?”

“He hit his head, he’s bleeding, and he’s totally unconscious. You’re the only one of us with real medical experience, man. I need you to wake the fuck up and help.”

“I’m awake. I’m— I’m good. I mean, I, I can’t see.”

“Big shock.”

“Shut up, Chris. I don’t suppose you can walk again, asshole?” He called over, and Chris cracked up.

“Nope, still a paraplegic. Sucks to be me, man. Not as much as it sucks to be you, but still.”

He stretched and stood, sluicing the mud off his jeans. Gross. “All right. Where are we?” He held up one hand before anyone could get all sarcastic and psycho. “I mean, I know that we’re on the ranch. I know where I am, but I’m asking are we under the trees? Are we out in the open? Does anybody know what happened?”

“We were heading down the hill to the trees. It’s like a lightning bolt hit, literally right in between you and Boone, and all the horses went absolutely batshit crazy. You went flying, and Boone went ass over teakettle, and then Chris wentwhoosh. I just got tossed over one side and lost my arm.”

“Well, that sounds like you.” Lance grinned to ease the blow of the words. “All right, so are we under the trees now?”

“No, I didn’t know if I should move Boone. I mean, it’s still raining.”

“Does it look like it’s gonna ease up? Can you tell? Doesanybody have our phones?” That would be a light source, even if they couldn’t use them to call out.

“We all do, but we got no signal.”

“Yeah, but can you look at the buffered weather app? Just enough to give us some kind of an idea about what the weather was going to be? Do we have an emergency blanket in your pack, Chris? Somebody get me to Boone.” He had to take control of this situation sooner than later.

The irony here did not escape Lance. Blind dude with medical training. Still, he figured people had been medics in the dark for a lot of time. He could do this, but it was still a little bit aggravating.

Not to mention the fact it was damn near impossible to figure out what was blood and what was rain and what was mud in this fucking weather.

“I’ve got a basic kit in my backpack,” Chris called out. “I couldn’t use the saddlebags because of the legs. I don’t know what’s in it, though.”

“Well, get with the program, soldier. Try to keep everything as dry as you can and tell me what you’ve got. Water, food, any kind of covering, any kind of first aid. I need to know what’s in your backpack.”

“Okay. Yes, sir.” He swore he could hear Chris’s salute.

He knelt next to Boone, fingers searching carefully over the man’s skull. Boone had a huge lump in the back of his head, but it didn’t seem to be open. Boone’s eyes were closed, but moving underneath his eyelids by the feel of it.

“Brick. Come here. I need you to look. I’m going to open up his eyelids. I need you to tell me if his pupils are the same size. You can do that.” Lance got Boone’s eyelids open, trying hard to gentle.

“Yeah, yeah. I mean, he’s not in there. He’s not like looking at us, but they’re the same size.”

“Well, that’s good. We’re making progress.” He closed Boone’s eyes. “Chris? What’s in the backpack?”

“I’ve got an emergency blanket—no, there’s two of them, two bottles of water, three granola bars, and like your basic first aid kit. I mean, it’s got some bandages and some gauze-type thing.”

Better than nothing. “Okay. All right, how far are the trees?”

“Thirty feet?” Brick answered. “Not far.”

“Fine. I think we have to move him so we can get him dry, because one of us is going to have to go back toward the house. You’re going to have to keep walking until you get signal or a person whichever. I’m assuming we’ll get signal well before we get to the house, but I don’t know.”

“Well, what? Are you going to do it?” Brick muttered under his breath.

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