Page 58 of Trusted Instinct
Chapter Eighteen
Creed
A long moment went by, then Mandy was back in his ear, “Creed, I’ve added Tamara Bailing to our Parker team. Be advised, I have communicated the situation to Striker. He has sent two teammates to your location with a stretcher. I’m handing you over to Tamara.”
“Creed? Tamara here, I’m on the engineering staff. That’s a vintage trap from around the nineteen hundreds. They are generally more dangerous than modern traps because they lack contemporary safety features. Mainly, the problem was that they are indiscriminate, catching anything that walks over top. And looking at the images, it’s hard to see the damage to the victim’s ankle. Is the trap attached to something?”
Camera in hand, Creed followed the chain to a stake that had been driven into the soil, and a tree had formed around it. “I have cutters that will probably go through this.”
“That’s the question. Hey, Doc,” Tamara called, “I need you here for decision-making.”
“What are we looking at here?”
Came a fourth voice.
“Creed, Cerberus team Charlie. I was on a search and rescue for a middle-aged male. He stepped into the trap that you see on your screen. He’s wearing hard-soled shoes and dress pants. There is blood being absorbed by the pants. The question is how do I move forward, being of the most help and causing the least amount of trauma.”
“Tamara,” the doctor asked, “what can be done about getting the man out of the trap? What are the risks?”
“Looking at it, obviously, it's rusted. Medically, that can be handled when Parker gets to a hospital. Structurally, though, it makes opening the trap risky. My concern is that those old steel parts may be brittle, and an attempt to open the jaws may cause them to snap back, creating more damage.”
“What kind of force are we talking about here?” Doc asked.
“One that size was made to hold a large animal,” Tamara said. “Given the location, I’m assuming it was set out for a bear or a wild boar. The closing mechanism can crush bones, dislocate joints, lacerate muscles and tendons, and break the skin. Creed sees blood.”
“Can you tip the phone up, please, Creed, and let me see the man’s face?” Doc asked.
Creed thought the guy looked like he’d left his body. That happened sometimes on the battlefield. When their teammate Deep dove out of the way of the grenade and he was burned over much of his body, he had the same look on his face. It wasn’t shock; shock had its own white-faced, slack look. This was like the man’s body was vacant. Like his soul slipped away from its earthly vessel and was sitting off on a tree stump somewhere, watching.
Rou had settled with her chin draped over the man’s shoulder, and Creed thought that if this was shock, his doggo’s body heat would help.
“Given your present situation, you and your team will have to carry this guy out. Any instability of the trap can further damage the leg. I think if Creed can get it off, it’s best that it come off. Creed, you’ll want to have your first aid kit out. Any bleeding needs to be packed. The foot and leg need to be immobilized. Emergency management is bringing in lighting systems because they plan to be at this all night, so you won’t get much help up on the road. Don’t wait for the ambulance crew. If you can get him into a civilian car on the other side of the pile-up, he needs to be treated quickly. We need to get hands-on to preserve his future mobility. Tell his transport to take him to a hospital in D.C. Give Mandy a rundown of what you’re finding, so they can get staff prepped for his arrival. Does he have support there?”
“His grandmother is among the wounded.”
“Doc!” The call was urgent from the other side of the room.
Creed now had Mandy and Tamara as his support.
“Here’s what you’re going to do, Creed,” Tamara said. “Go ahead and get your first aid station set up. Then get your leather gloves out. I’ll hold.”
“Tamara, if it’s helpful,” Mandy said. “My search indicates that’s probably a vintage Bradly-McGuire long-spring bear trap.”
“Let me read that,” Tamara replied.
Creed worked on pulling his equipment from his bag and setting it up for a one-handed grab. “I’m prepped.”
“This is going to take significant force,” Tamara said. “You’ll want to make sure that your body mechanics are on point. Make sure that there’s nothing that’s going to stab into your knee, nothing that is going to come loose and make you slip, or the ground give way. You’ll want to position yourself straight on so that either arm of the long spring is lined up with your hands. Imagine that you’re going to perform chest compressions. Straight arms, using your body weight as well as your strength. Do you think the victim will be able to pull his foot free once it’s open?”
“No,” Creed still thought Parker’s soul was floating out in the tree branches overhead, watching all this.
“And no one’s there who can assist? The grandmother?” Tamara asked.
“The team will be here soon. Parker’s losing quite a bit of blood between his head wound and the leg.”
“Give me a second, let me think this through,” Creed said. “I need to rig something.”
Creed and Parker were the only humans around, but he had Rou. In his mind, Creed went through the various skills that Rou had been developing with Cerberus, trying to figure out which ones could be combined to work in this circumstance.
