The Ballard of the coward

[shining knight*]

Female 21 Lena Lazarus begins

Lena Lazarus was running. She was scared, disorientated and a bit in shell shock. Kevlar strapped in tight and her running prowess, which won her many awards in full usage. Her throat was dry and her clothes were seeping with sweat.

Her thoughts were only on two things survival and Eoin. Ah, Eoin she would always stare at him during breaks and always wished she could have the courage and fortitude to ask him out for a date. She prays he is well and that she can find him in this terrible place. According to the map, there was an abandoned town close by….kind of reminded her of the doctor who episode the gun fighters and of course, that song became stuck in her mind…

So fill up your glasses
And join in the song
The Law's right behind you
And it won't take long.
So come, you coyotes,
And howl at the moon
Till there's blood upon the sawdust
In "The Last Chance" Saloon.

Continued in Horror Business

[Frozen Smoke]

( Eoin Harper continued from Horror buisness )

He was floating. That was what he was doing. On his back, floating. He saw blue starting to fade into the white, but then he twitched and it twisted back to white. His eyes were wide and glassy as he stared at the white. And floated.

There was wet on him. He wasn't...

Wasn't...

Wasn't...

He didn't know what it was, but something simply wasn't.

His fingers dragged against something rough as he... Moved.

There was another little twitch of his body as the blue leaked through. He didn't like the blue. Blue was bad. Blue meant fuzziness. Like pins and needles, only microscopic, and on every part of his body.

But this time the blue didn't go away. It grew a little more vibrant, and there was silhouette of black interrupting it. It looked like... a head.

He tried to speak, but his voice didn't work, it just creaked like a door that needed oiling. It seemed to get the heads attention though.

He raised up his hand and waved weakly.

[shining knight*]

A rather nerdy looking face was staring up at him. Tears were rolling down her face. “I tried to patch it as best as I could…until we can find someone who is both a decent medic and doesn’t want to kill us…wow almost like tf2...” she laughs and rubs Eoins face tenderly.

“I am not sure if you know me…but I am Lena Lazarus and I am kinda your stalker…forgive me…” she kind of blushed. “I tried to get you away from the madman with the gun…but I think I may have made things much worse…you lose a lot of blood before I patched you,”

She sighed then stared at him again “please stay alive…please…I need help…I am almost useless in this situation…I need help…I need you

[Jadedflames*]

((Samantha Atterman continued from Horror Business))

She had followed the trail of blood to another clearing some ways away. She saw Eoin lift his hand weekly, try to mumble something out.

Start cataloguing, Sam. It's business time. That definitely looks like shock. Not quite sure, but definitely looks like it.

She winced at the awful patching job the girl had done. What was her name? Not important. Eoin was important. There was a sloppy series of bandages plastered across Eoin's chest where the blast had hit him, clearly not doing much more than sopping up the blood. Good for a quick fix, but in the long run would be sure to lead to... complications.

The girl was leaning over him, almost like she was considering kissing him.

Again. Not important, Sam.

Samantha walked straight up, unshouldering her pack, as she came. Best to be direct.

"He's very badly injured, and I can help. I saw what happened. Please let me help him."

[Frozen Smoke]

He watched as she started saying things. He was frustrated. He couldn't seem to take it in. He knew she was saying words, but the words kept on drifting softly out of reach.

He felt really hot. Like, burning hot. The pins and needles had gotten a little better, but his stomach was churning.

And her face was just above his. She rubbed his face tenderly. A smile flickered on his face. Her hand was really cold. Soothing.

Then another voice. Clearer. Commanding.

He turned his neck around to look at her, slowly, as to not to disturb his blood vessels. Or something. He remembered that from something.

He blinked a few times, and tried instinctively to ask what he should do, but he still couldn't speak.

[shining knight*]

Lena stared at Samantha through tears and quickly muttered “Help him if you can and I’ll repay you with hugs and chocolate if we ever get out of this situation alive!” she rubbed Eoins cheek once more then moved quickly out of the way to give Samantha room to work.

“Its going to be okay…I don’t know why…but I trust her…” she smiled sadly and then looked at Samantha pleadingly “Please make him better…please…”

She then just stared sadly, as events unfurled around her. Occasionally saying, “Get better…please” as she watched. Sometimes she bent near him and took his hand to keep him from freaking out.

[Jadedflames*]

Hugs and chocolate.

Simple mind, that one.

Time to work. You know this. Just like the deer. Gloves. Mask. The kits really were well supplied. It looked like the sheriff did not want his little game to be over too soon. She clenched her teeth and pulled off the bandages to look at the wound.

Oh god. Like ground beef. A shotgun blast was an ugly wound, and was even worse on a human. She examined it as best she could, mopping up the blood until she could see each entry from the pellets. Cleaned up, she could see that the wound had not been as bad as she had at first feared. It had almost been a near miss, and had not been the bigger, nastier buckshot. If you had to have a fist full of lead in your chest, the smaller kind was better. She half smiled behind her mask. "Don't worry, buddy. You'll be fine."

The girl was hovering around her, murmuring to him. Finally Samantha got annoyed, and turned to her. "If you want to help, go set up the tent that's in my bag. We'll need him out of the sun as soon as I am finished."

Turning back to Eoin, she was aware that the girl seemed reluctant to leave his side, but she tuned her out, focusing. Breathing? Yes, fine. No collapsed lung. That was lucky. That meant none of the shot had gotten deep enough. Must have been a light load. Bleeding was also not as bad as she initially feared, no major arteries ruptured. Also a miracle. Bleeding was still an issue though. There was a central ring just over his right side which was especially bad off, with satellite wounds all around it. She cleaned the wound as best she could, and then looked in the pack for antibiotics. Wipes... and... Benzoin. Fan-f'ing-tastic.

She looked at Eoin. "This is going to hurt worse than anything yet. Hold on." She used the antiseptic wipes to clean the wound, and added Tincture of Benzoin around the outside to help prevent infection. Pulling out the sterile bandages, she made a neat square and taped it over the worst of the damage. Then she moved onto the more minor wounds. The dressing the other girl had used had actually done a fair job at staunching the bleeding. She gave them a look over, and decided that there was nothing she could really do with what had on hand, and pulled off her gloves. Sitting beside Eoin, she talked to him. "Right. We are going to make you nice and comfy. You are not allowed to pass out until I am sure you are not going to lapse into shock. You still have a good chunk of flesh missing, and a side full of lead. Don't overdo it."

She pulled out the emergency blanket and draped it loosely over him, reflective side out to keep off heat, and put his pack under his feet, raising them up. Then she turned on the girl. "Is the tent up yet?"

[Frozen Smoke]

Girl No.2 seemed to know what she was doing, looking him over calmly, speaking slow and loud enough that he could grasp a few of the words, and it wasn't a tangled mess of syllables and phonemes. She was talking about... Tents.

As it turned out, hearing wasn't better yet.

The she placed something burning on his side. Like, hot, spitting, napalm deep into his side. He sucked in a shocked breath through clenched teeth, noting that the airflow was actually pretty intense in the left side of his mouth. And then more burning stuff was shoveled onto that. The only thing that stopped him from swinging a punch and wiping that shit off of him was the fact that in his head he was listening to his mum dabbing at an ice burn all down his left arm, saying "Don't worry, if it hurts, that means it's doing its job".

Something was working really, really hard then.

Then she started speaking again, clearer and piercing the light tinny buzz that the world seemed to be vibrating to.

"Right. We are going...nice and comfy...not allowed to pass...not going to lapse into shock...chunk of flesh missing...Don't overdo it."

He nodded lightly at the scrambled message, and murmured a light, sleepy "Okay" in response.

[shining knight*]

Lena began to make the tent and listened in on what was being said. She could not shake the horror or the heartbreak when there were mentions of chunks of flesh missing.

“God…will he even survive this…please be better….please!” she hammered harder at the tent putting it up faster than humanly possible until she slumped to the floor and found it hard to breath.

“Um medical girl…your tent is finally up…but I may need some medical help myself,” she was starting to shake as if all energy was drained out of her. She also had a horrible pain inside her chest. It felt like fire was coursing through her.

[Jadedflames*]

Samantha had finished with Eoin, and was standing up.

"Um... Medical girl... your tent is finally up..."

Good. Samantha was about to bend down to adjust Eoin for carrying when the second shoe dropped.

"But I may need some medical help myself."

Samantha turned, at first angry that this girl thought that whatever was wrong with her trumped someone who had taken a shotgun to the chest, but she quickly jumped to concern. The girl was sitting there, leaning against the tent, with her hand over her heart and a sickly pale pallor.

Samantha ran over to her, and put a hand on her forehead. No temperature. She took her pulse, and found that it appeared to be only slightly elevated. She bit her lip and looked up, thinking. Problems. Sudden problems. Exertion. Heat. Stress.

Undiagnosed heart problems? Problems with the lungs? Something else? She never had a chance to watch Doctor Chestnut work on the heart, and she was not sure that even if she had, that knowledge of a dog would help here. There was nothing she could do. But it was best to seem confident.

"It will be okay, hun. Just calm down and take a couple of deep breaths. Here, crawl under the tent, in the shade, and lie down. And drink some water, okay?" She pulled the girls pack under the tent and laid it out like a pillow. There was something padded in there, which would do nicely. She then turned back to Eoin, trying to figure out the best way of getting him inside.

[Frozen Smoke]

He tilted his head to the side, and watched with confusion as the girl that he'd first seen when he woke up (Learning names needed to happen as soon as his brain started firing on all cylinders again), leaned against a hastily constructed tent, her hand clutching her chest. She looked really pale, but that could be just the way he was lying. Everything looked pale, washed out like the old albums of family photos that had been left out in the sun to long.

He wished he could do something, but Medic girl knew what she was doing. He, most decidedly didn't. Best leave that alone.

She looked at him, as if trying to work something out.

He looked back, trying to figure out what she was trying to figure out. How to best do something medical? No, he was pretty sure that everything was done there, there was a bandage on it, and everything. Must be something logistical. How to get all the blood soaked crap off of him? No, that wasn't important, really. It was gross and all, but it really wasn't all that bad, and it had all gone from his major wounds, so no infections. How to get him into the tent? That seemed most likely.

He stared back thoughtfully, tapping his foot against the floor to a rhythm that made little sense to anyone but him as he thought, chewing his bottom lip.

[shining knight*]

Lena listened intently as the medical girl seemed to know what she was talking about. When the possibility of a heart problem was brought up instead of crying, shouting, or even emoting in any way all she could squeak out was “there goes my career as an athlete…” she rubbed her hair and then began to chuck.

She began to lie down as instructed by Samantha and before she returned to check on Eoin casually said “My name is Lena Lazarus, thanks for all the help…you’re a good person. You do not deserve to be in this situation,” she then closed her eyes. Still awake but resting as best as she could. She took a sip of water and said “I know it’s a bit late now…but I have a Kevlar vest inside my pack,”

She smiled and thought of the girl she had met. She wondered if she could be friends…she wondered if friendship still existed in this crazed place of assholes with shotguns.

[Jadedflames*]

Samantha gave her a weary smile. "Good to know. Might come in handy the next time we meet a mad gunman. I don't suppose you have a couple spares? No?"

Samantha sighed. She moved over to Eoin and put her arms awkwardly under his. "Sorry about this." She pulled him under the tent, to the shade, and draped the blanket over the top, hoping the reflective surface would do well keeping the heat off. He miraculously did not seem to be in danger of shock, so she passed him a canteen.

"I'm Samantha. Sam, if you want."

She fumbled for what to say after that, but found she did not have many words left. The last few hours were rushing through her head. The train, waking up, the river, watching Eoin get shot... and now this. There was no way she was prepared for all this. Lena was right, she didn't belong here. Finally, she opened her mouth.

"So what's you guys' story, eh? Young love?"

[Frozen Smoke]

He ground his teeth as she moved him, ignoring the jagged spikes of pain that shot through him as he turned slightly, stretching his damaged side a fair bit. It felt like someone was rubbing salt and chili into the wound.

Medical girl then decided to tell him her name. "Eoin" He replied without thinking. "Spelt the Irish way." He elaborated a moment after.

"So what's you guys' story, eh? Young love?"

"I, uh, ran into Brian, you know him, right? Turns out he's crazy now -Well, crazier- Who knew?" He said, drawing out a little biting edge of sarcasm into his voice as he talked about the bastard. He should've just punched him to the floor when he'd had the chance. "Then, next thing I know, I'm look at you two"

He reached out and placed a hand on what he assumed was the other girls foot, and smiled sincerely.

"Thanks for saving me, guess everyone in our school isn't completely loco and a'holish, eh?" He turned to Samantha aswell "And thanks for patching me up, doc, I 'priciate it!"

[shining knight*]

Lena lay down on her back and listened as Samantha spoke to both her and Eoin. “Nice to meet you Sam,” she said faintly as the pains seemed to be ebbing. She was not sure if this was a bad thing or a good thing.

Sam asked, "So what's you guys' story, eh? Young love?"

Lena blushed slightly and found it hard to talk. Eoins hand on her leg did not help much but eventually she stuttered “W…w…we know each other…”

Upon Eoins show of gratitude, she happily smiled and said, “I would do anything for you Eoin…and for you too Sam…you really helped us both!”