Page 22 of The General's Captive
“Come now, no need to be shy,” I said when he didn’t respond, and finally, he opened his eyes.
“Riley, my name… is Riley.”
I don’t know why I was surprised to hear that his name suited him so well.
“Well, it’s nice to meet you, Riley.”
“I would say… the same but well… this happened,” he joked, making me laugh.
“Well, lucky for you, I’m not completely useless in this department.” I winked at him as I was tearing into a packet of bandages, knowing I would have to use this to pack the wound.
“Okay, so assess the situation, check, determine the location and severity of the bleeding. Double check,” I said, talking through my check list in an attempt to keep him conscious.
“What are… you… doing?” he forced out.
“My check list,” I told him, making his eyes widen.
“Oh dear god, help me,”he muttered, making me give him a wry look.
“Now you wouldn’t want me missing an important step, would you?” I said as I worked. “Prepare materials… and lucky for you, I don’t carry light,” I said, shaking another bandage from my little med kit that I had already fished out of my bag. “Apply direct pressure…”
“Check,” he groaned.
“See, now you’re getting it.” I grinned, taking his unimpressed raised brow as a good sign.
“Right, we have washed away the blood and now comes the hard part.”
“Which is?” he asked, the trepidation easy to hear.
“I have to pack the wound to stop the bleeding and well, I am not gonna lie…”
“It’s gonna fucking hurt, yeah yeah, I know… just do it!” he snapped, making me take a deep breath and do just that.
This time, the sound of his pain echoed around the large building. But I had to be sure that I stuffed the entire wound cavity, making sure to apply consistent pressure as I did. Something that looked, and sounded, like pure agony for him.
“And we are just going to maintain that pressure for a few minutes,” I said, letting him know we were nearly done before he bit straight through his bottom lip that he was currently holding prisoner.
“Do we have to?” he said through gritted teeth.
“Okay, this isn’t a long-term solution, so I hope that wherever it is you come from, they have someone there that can…”
“We have a doctor,” he told me and, again, this was good news and only making me want to go with him even more. I waited to see if the bleeding slowed, before then taking another roll of bandages and taping one end to his stomach before wrapping it around him. Something that wasn’t easy and, most likely, one of the most painful parts because I had to help his heavy body to sit.
“Well, someone has been getting his protein,” I joked because I swear this guy was all muscle. “There, finished. Now let’s sort out your arms,” I said once the other end was secure, keeping the pressure as tight as I could wrap it.
Now as for his arms, I knew at some point they would need stitches… and quite a few of them at that.
“You seem to know… what you’re… doing,” he wheezed out, and I wished I could have helped him with the pain. But first I needed to wrap his arms before seeing if there was anything still left in the pharmacy section of the store. Although I doubted it, because medicine had been some of the first stuff ransacked.
Blood continued to pour from the wounds and parts of them looked so deep that I hoped there was no permanent damage. I cleaned them off, once again, but knowing there wasn’t much I could do other than try and stop the bleeding, I applied the gauze I had. When it instantly turned red, I swapped it out, doing the same on both arms. It pretty much used up most of my resources but finally it started to slow so I could bandage those up too.
“I think it’s time to tell me where your home planet is,” I joked, and he gave me a wry look.
“The base isn’t far from here,” he told me, making my heart hammer faster. A base, like an actual base. One that suggested somewhere safe to sleep and for once not feeling like a rat rummaging for food.
“And I can assume you didn’t fly,” I said, making him huff which ended with a wince.
“I have a car.” Well, wasn’t that exciting, I thought with a smile.
