Project Rescue - A Shifter Novel (NaNoWriMo19)
Chapter 30 - A Cut of Thread

We made it back to the bunker, waiting on Matheus to drop the false wall on the inside, setting the inside locks - ones which couldn’t be cut. We walked back over to the table and sat down - each of us in our own thoughts.

“Alright,” the General got everyone’s attention. “We need to get to our guys and Matheus’s friend away from Barbosa, any thoughts?”

I had a lot of thoughts but nothing concrete. I couldn’t think of a good plan right then. I was still hung up on not getting the monster and I was still mad about it. I waited for someone to say something but everyone was quietly thinking. I was trying to think of a way to trip up the monster up.

Dragon moved around in his chair and spoke, “How about we throw out some ideas. I have a few but I’m not sure. So, here goes nothing.” He paused for a minute. “If we give him someone he wants we will have another person on the inside. I don’t know if he would kill the person on sight, it’s just a thought.

Madrid stood up and walked to the monitor as we all joined him. He turned on the microphone and listened. “Open up quickly, go-go gadget, or else we will be dead in a few seconds.”

Manuel looked up and I gasped. “Open up, Matheus, I need to treat him quickly.”

“Password?”

“Mighty mouse,” Manuel whispered.

Matheus opened the doors wide enough for the two and helped pull them in. “How did you get out, Mateo?”

“Well, duh, I broke us out after Antonio gave up some sturdy wire. I’m afraid I killed the jailers who were supposed to watch us. Hell no, I’m not sorry,” Mateo explained as he held up the wire still gripped in his hand.

I ran over, grabbing Manuel and laying him on the table. I went into the bathroom cabinet and pulled out some medical supplies. When I opened the first aid kit I was happy to see needle and thread. I ran out of the bathroom, grabbing towels as I went through the door. Matheus had already grabbed a big pot of water and cut Manuel’s clothes off of him, covering Manuel’s lower half.

I washed Manuel’s knife cuts and checked his bullet wounds. I checked to make sure nothing was broken around the bullet wounds, noticing a bone out of place. “Does anyone have any pain medication?′

“I do,” Claw answered. He went to his pack and drew enough pain medication for Manuel. “Are you allergic to morphine, Manuel?”

“No,” Manuel weakly answered.

Claw gave Manuel the pain medication, noticing the effects almost immediately. “I can help you. I’m the medic in our group and have a lot of training.”

“Yes. Please help. He has a broken bone in his left leg we need to set as fast as possible,” I responded. I placed my hands on Manuel's leg, pulling the leg and hearing a satisfied sound escape Manuel even in his drugged state. “One part down.”

Claw shook his head. “Matheus, do you have another needle and thread?”

Matheus went to one of the foot lockers and dug around for a couple of minutes. He walked back over and handed them to Claw. I could tell Claw wanted to help me by contributing to the care of Manuel. He grabbed the rubbing alcohol, splashing it into the cuts and dabbing them to make sure everything was cleaned out.

I was working on a knife wound in Manuel's thigh. I knew the monster had tortured him, driving the knife in and twisting it. It was the worst wound he had and I was bound and determined I was going to fix everything then go and do the same to the monster.

I poured rubbing alcohol into the wound and let it sit for a moment while I threaded the needle. I dabbed the cut and was surprised to replace one of his arteries was cut. Someone had done a piss poor job of sewing it up but it did save his life from bleeding out.

“I need one of you guys to come help me. Wash up and pour some alcohol on your hands afterwards. Come on if you want to save his life,” I ordered. Matheus ran over and washed his hands, pouring the alcohol on his hands. “I need you to hold both sides of the artery, the ones that have thread on them. Try to block the ends as much as you can. I need to sew them back together right.”

Matheus held the artery exactly as I asked him to. I snipped the thread and slowly starting fixing artery. I had to pull hard, half of the artery closest to his thigh wanted to draw up. Once I was able to get the pieces to line up I started the intricate stitches to close up the artery. I had to move slowly so I wouldn’t miss any bleeding. I finally had Matheus let go of the artery as I cleaned the inside the wound, flushing the inside out. I looked back inside and noticed the artery was holding and I started on the stitches to close up his wound. I knew he would have to have everything fixed again. I wasn’t using surgical sutures to work on the inside of a body. But, I did what I could with what I had. After about four hours later Manuel was cleaned up, sewed up and drugged up. He would sleep for awhile.

I cleaned up, washing my hands as Claw bandaged up Manuel and Dragon wrote up a report of everything we had done to save Manuel’s life. I guess it was part of the military. I couldn’t understand why they needed reports for everything. The morphine I understood. It was something they needed to keep track of. I turned around to grab the first aid kit when everyone started clapping.

“What?”

Madrid walked over to me and hugged me. “Fine job, Selina. Where in hell did you learn the medical training you just completed?”

“Uh, I learned by sewing up his men he would interrogate. He would go too far and he wanted me to sew them up so he could start again. I learned quickly. I learned by watching internet surgeries,” I explained completely embarrassed by the accolades.

“You are self taught?” Digger asked incredulously.