by P. A. Piatt
“Nobody said you couldn’t take it, Kilfoy. You’ve humped further than most men could with two good legs, but enough is enough.” Hawkins turned to Winaki. “Go cut some poles and cordage for a litter. I’ll help Lily clean and dress this wound.”
He looked up at the rapidly darkening sky. “We need to hurry. None of this will be easier in the dark.”
Hawkins and Lily exchanged knowing glances as Lily cut away Kilfoy’s bloodstained bandages. The twin odors of rotting meat and severe infection made both men gag, and when they got the bandages free, Hawkins had to choke back a scream.
The purple-black bruise at the top of her wound had swelled and split open. The flesh had pulled away and left a gaping hole the size of a small child’s fist. Green-yellow pus leaked from the festering hole. The puncture wounds around the bruise were now angry red pustules that threatened to explode at the slightest touch.
Below the bruise, infection had eaten away at edges of the shredded flesh, and the entire wound was a gray mass of necrotic meat. When Hawkins pulled the bandage clear, a long strip of orange gristle pulled away with it.
“Look at her thigh.”
Hawkins looked where Lily pointed and saw twin fingers of a blood infection moving up her leg.
“She needs a lot more that we can give her, Gunny.”
“Yeah.”
“Hey, Kilfoy, we need to put a tourniquet on this leg. You’ve got a hell of an infection, and we need to stop it.”
Kilfoy didn’t respond, and when Lily checked he discovered that she had passed out.
Hawkins grabbed the tourniquet out of his first aid kit and positioned it up high on Kilfoy’s thigh, four inches above the creeping infection. He twisted it tight and secured it, then took out a grease pencil and put a “T” on her forehead.
Lily treated the wounds with another round of antibiotic powder and another layer of elastic skin before he wrapped it up with fresh gauze. He sat back and inspected their handiwork.
“Best we can do, Gunny.”
“She’s going to lose that leg.”
Winaki returned with the poles and cordage for a litter. The trio worked wordlessly in the encroaching darkness. By the time they finished, Hawkins had made up his mind.
“We’re about four klicks from Mineshaft Number Two, and five klicks from home. It’s going to take us all night to hump home through this bush.
“Lily, I want you to haul ass straight for camp. When you get there, tell Fortis to send Doc Kramer and a squad of guys to Mineshaft Number Two. Make sure you tell Doc what’s happening with Kilfoy’s wounds so he can bring whatever he needs to treat her there. Me and Winaki will hump the litter to Number Two and link up with you as soon as we can.”
* * *
“Look! Hotspots!”
High above the jungle, the infrared sensor picked out two bright heat sources in the rapidly cooling jungle. The resolution wasn’t good enough to identify them, but there were no wild animals on Pada-Pada, and the bugs were cold-blooded.
“Any more communications?”
“No, sir, not since the burst.”
Pell pointed at the infrared display. “What’s going on there? It looks like they split up.”
“I can’t really tell, Warrant. It could be anomalous.”
“Where is this?” asked Fortis.
“Four klicks northeast of here, sir.”
“I think you’re right, Warrant. It looks like there are two different parties here. Hey, Trenas, zoom in on the southernmost one. Does it look like it’s headed our way?”
Trenas got the southern blob framed on the display and they watched as it crawled across the screen toward the bottom of the display.
“That’s no anomaly, and it’s definitely headed this way.”
* * *
Fortis and Pell stood in the sandbagged fighting position atop the command mech and stared out at the northern perimeter. Somewhere in the darkness, the mystery blob approached. Fortis’ low-light optics cast the entire compound in an eerie green glow, and he could see Marines shift around as they prepared for whatever was coming.
“Sir, the sensor belt is picking up sound and movement that correlates to the infrared from the drone. It’s very close.”
The command net crackled in Fortis’ ear. “Command, this is Lily. Do you copy?”
“This is Command, we copy. Send your traffic.”
“This is Lily, I’m approaching the northern perimeter.” A ghostly green figure emerged from the tree line and waved his arms overhead. “That’s me, waving.”
“This is Ystremski. We have visual.”
Fortis watched as a group of Space Marines climbed from a hole and approached the minefield. They assisted Lily through the minefield as Fortis and Pell climbed down from their perch and went to the perimeter. Lily sank to his knees from exhaustion, and even in the dark Fortis could make out severe damage to his armor.
“LT, I need Doc Kramer and a full trauma kit, ASAP. Kilfoy needs immediate attention.”
“Where is she?”
“Hawkins and Winaki are carrying her to Mine Shaft Number Two. Hawkins sent me straight here to round up the cavalry and meet them there. No way we could bust through that bush in the dark with a stretcher.”
Kramer joined the group and dropped next to Lily. “What happened? What kind of shape is she in?”
“She fell through a bug hole and one of them got her through her armor. The little bastard chewed on her leg and the infection got into her bloodstream. Hawkins put a tourniquet on it, and we used all our antibiotics, but it’s touch and go.”
“Oh my God.” Pell buried her face in Fortis’ shoulder, and he instinctively wrapped his arm around her.
“Corporal, take a squad and go with Doc Kramer to Mine Shaft Number Two. Take whatever you need. Keep in contact.”
Five minutes later, Lily was leading the group into the trees to their rendezvous with Hawkins. After they disappeared, Fortis was heading back to the command mech when he saw Trenas and Strickland erecting a tall net where the launch rail had been.
“We have to recover the drone, LT, or it will come down all by itself.”
Their ability to focus on the mission impressed Fortis. From Lily’s description, their friend and fellow Marine, Kilfoy, was barely clinging to life, yet they could concentrate on the task at hand.
“When they finish erecting the net, Trenas will take control of the drone with a local controller,” Pell explained. “She’ll bring the bird in low and slow and cut the engine somewhere out over the trees. The drone will glide in, and Trenas will execute a net capture.”
“You do this a lot?” Fortis asked as they took cover in one of the sandbagged fighting holes.
“Sure. During the day. Never at night.”
The low buzz of the drone’s engine caught their attention, and Fortis watched as Trenas piloted the aircraft through two practice approaches. She almost clipped a tall tree on the first approach and narrowly averted disaster on the second when the belly of the drone skipped off the top of the net. Trenas steered the drone in a wide loop over the jungle before bringing it back toward the clearing. The engine cut out before Fortis caught sight of it again, and it surprised him when the drone swooped in over the tree line and straight into the net.
* * *
As the medical team bulled their way through the dark jungle towards Mine Shaft Number Two, Kramer fixed his mind on one thought.
I’ve got to get to Maya.
Very few of their fellow Marines knew that Kramer and Kilfoy had a relationship that extended beyond their International Space Marine Corps duties, and even fewer knew that Kilfoy was the reason Kramer had refused the promotion and transfer he and the ISMC had agreed upon. The ISMC strictly forbade captain-sergeant romances. Had Kramer accepted the promotion, the ISMC would have ordered him to a Fleet hospital ship, and the pair wouldn’t have seen each other again.
“Not much further,” Lily’s voice crackled over the circuit. “Maybe fif
ty meters.”
The Marines responded by increasing their pace, and they were practically sprinting when they arrived at Mine Shaft Number Two.
“We’re in one of the mechs,” advised Winaki upon detecting their arrival. Kramer caught sight of a figure waving at them from the hulk of an abandoned mech, and he ran toward him.
“Where is she?”
“She’s inside with Gunny Hawkins, Doc,” replied Winaki.
Kramer entered the mech and found Kilfoy stretched out on a makeshift table. Chem lights illuminated the space with yellow light, but Kramer noticed the unnatural gray pallor of her face. Someone had removed her battle armor, and Kramer saw the tourniquet tied over her skin suit and the wad of stained bandages below.
“Get those lights set up, stat! I need my kit over here.”
The Marines scrambled to follow his orders, and the harsh glare of the portable lights soon flooded the compartment. Kramer took Kilfoy’s hand and leaned over her as he smoothed her hair away from her face.
“Kilfoy, can you hear me? Kilfoy?”
“She’s been unconscious for a while,” said Gunny Hawkins. “She was up and moving, and then we had to go back to the litter.”
Kramer turned his attention to her leg. “What’s going on here?”
“She fell into a bug hole and one of them latched onto her leg. She got a suction wound and some heavy lacerations. We got the bug off quick, but the topical antibiotic didn’t do a fucking thing for her.” He pointed to the deep red lines on her thigh below the tourniquet. “I had to tie that on to stop the blood infection.”
Kramer grabbed a pair of heavy scissors and began cutting away at the bandages covering her wounds.
“Doc, make sure you’re ready for this.”
Kramer’s stomach lurched, and bile burned the back of his throat when he caught a whiff of the fetid stench. He steeled himself and peeled away the final layers of gauze to reveal the stark reality of her injuries. Hawkins gasped and stepped back, one of the other Space Marines gagged and rushed out through the hatch.
Most of the flesh of her upper calf was a spongy gelatinous mush. The necrosis had spread down her leg and was threatening the ankle joint, and her tibia and fibula gleamed dull white through the horror of the surrounding flesh.
Kramer fought to maintain his composure as he worked. He’d seen other grotesque injuries and afflictions during his career in the Space Marines, but this was different.
Focus on the task at hand. Focus on the task at hand.
The suction wound just below Kilfoy’s knee gaped open and thick pus oozed from deep within. Kramer examined the surrounding pustules and recoiled in horror.
“They’re moving!”
Hawkins leaned forward and watched as Kramer prodded one of them with his finger. Under the skin, something squirmed in response.
“What the fuck?”
Kramer picked up a scalpel and made a small incision next to a pustule. The cyst erupted as a small larva wriggled free. It was the size and shape of an adult meal worm, with a gaping mouth on one end and fluttering legs on the other. Kramer and Hawkins watched in horror as the bug rolled over and latched onto the diseased flesh around the wound.
Kilfoy made a mewling noise and Kramer turned away from her wounds.
“Maya, it’s me. Can you hear me?”
She groaned in response, and he stroked her hair again.
“Look, baby. Your leg. It’s—well… it’s bad, and there’s nothing I can do to treat it.”
“Fucked up,” she mumbled.
“Yeah, it’s fucked up. You’ve got an infection that we can’t stop, and if it gets to your heart, you’ll die. Do you understand?”
“Don’ wanna die.”
A sob caught in Kramer’s throat. “We don’t want that,” he croaked. “Maya, listen. I can save you, but to do that, I’ve got to amputate your leg.”
Kilfoy moaned and tried to twist away. “No,” she slurred.
Kramer pushed her back down on the table. “There’s no choice,” he said as he blinked away the tears that blurred his vision. He turned to his medical kit and pulled out a syringe. “Just relax and get some rest.” He swabbed her arm and pumped the syringe into her vein.
“We can’t get her back to camp?”
“Gunny, I’m surprised she’s lasted this long. The necrosis is advancing and that tourniquet won’t stop it. I’ve got everything I need to do it, and every second counts.”
“How long is this going to take, Doc?”
Kramer thought for a moment. “I’ll give her fifteen minutes to make sure she won’t wake up and get my stuff organized. Another thirty minutes for the procedure itself, as long as everything goes right. Probably an hour, ninety minutes on the outside. After that, she’ll need several hours of recovery time before we can move her. I don’t see any reason to move her before daylight.”
“Okay. I’ll go see if I can contact Command.” He staggered a bit when he turned for the hatch and Kramer grabbed his arm.
“Are you okay, Gunny?”
Hawkins let out a deep sigh. “I’m okay, Doc. It’s been a long two days, and now this.”
“You want a boost?”
Hawkins nodded. “Yeah, yeah I could use a boost.”
Kramer dug into his kit and came out with a pill bottle. He shook out two amphetamine capsules and handed them to Hawkins. “You know the drill. Plenty of water and don’t operate heavy machinery.”
* * * * *
Chapter Twenty-Nine
“Command, this is Hawkins. Do you read me?”
Fortis sat bolt upright in the seat he’d been dozing in.
“Gunny, this is Command. We read you loud and clear. Lieutenant Fortis is here.”
“Hey, Gunny, it’s good to hear your voice. What’s your status?”
“We’re laid up in the abandoned mechs at Mine Shaft Number Two with Doc Kramer.”
“How’s Kilfoy?”
“She’s hanging on. Doc Kramer is prepping her for surgery. He can’t save her leg, and if he doesn’t take it off, the infection will kill her.”
“DINLI.”
“Yeah.” Hawkins sounded deflated, and Fortis suddenly remembered that Hawkins and his team had been on mission for two days.
“Okay, Gunny, let us know if there’s anything else you need up there. Call ahead when you’re on your way back.”
“Will do, LT. Doc says we should wait until daylight to move her, so it’s going to be a while.”
“Roger that.”
* * *
Hawkins returned to the makeshift operating room and found Doc Kramer and Corporal Ystremski prepping Sergeant Kilfoy for surgery. They had cut away the remnants of Kilfoy’s body suit and swabbed her leg with disinfectant. The tourniquet had stopped the fingers of infection from climbing up her leg, and Kramer had another strap looped loosely around her thigh a few inches higher.
“Before we begin, I will tighten the top tourniquet to stop blood flow to the surgery area. I will peel back the top layers of dermis to form a flap, and then I’ll start on the leg.
“As I cut, I have to locate and tie off the major blood vessels before they collapse or roll up into her leg. I know where they’re located, but it will take time to get them closed. If I can’t find them, she will bleed out. Ystremski, stay on top of blood leaking into the incisions. Keep it as clear as you can.
“Gunny, I’ve got the surgical implements sanitized and laid out in the order I expect to need them. It’s a straightforward procedure that surgeons have been doing successfully for hundreds of years, and there’s no reason we can’t succeed.”
The three men traded glances over the prostrate Kilfoy.
“Do you have questions?”
Hawkins and Ystremski shook their heads.
“All right. Let’s scrub up and get started.”
* * *
The amputation was almost anticlimactic. Once Kramer started cutting, he found and dealt with the critical blood vessels qui
ckly. The only problem Hawkins had was when the corpsman sawed through the femur. The sound of the saw chewing through bone made Hawkins’ stomach flutter, and even Ystremski gagged.
When Kramer finished, they eased the pressure on the top tourniquet and watched for leaking blood vessels. There were two, which he dealt with quickly. Satisfied, Doc sewed the skin flaps over the open incision, covered the entire area with a powerful antibiotic, and wrapped it tightly.
“She gonna make it, Doc?”
Kramer snapped off his surgical gloves. “I did my best, Gunny.” He put his hands on the table next to the unconscious Kilfoy, lowered his head, and started to sob. Gunny Hawkins put his hand on Kramer’s shoulder.
“You did good, Doc. You did real good.”
He looked at Ystremski and nodded toward the door. The pair left Kramer alone with his thoughts and his unconscious lover.
In the mech next door, Hawkins slumped down to the deck, exhausted. Sleep tugged at his eyelids despite the amphetamines Kramer had given him an hour earlier.
“It’s been a long fucking day,” he mumbled to Ystremski as he toppled over. “Wake me up in a couple hours, would you?”
He was asleep before he hit the deck.
* * *
Fortis sat at the keyboard and stared at the flashing cursor. The command circuit came to life, and he scrambled for a handset.
“Command, this is Ystremski.”
“This is Lieutenant Fortis. Go ahead, Corporal.”
“Doc Kramer wanted me to report that the surgery was successful, and Kilfoy is stable. If there are no complications, she should be ready to travel in eight hours.”
Fortis let out a long sigh of relief. “That’s great news. We are standing by to provide any help you need.”
“Roger that, sir.”
“Where’s Hawkins?”
“He’s curled up on the deck next to Lily and Winaki. He said something about needing a nap and that he’s too old for this shit.”
