Stephenie Meyer - The Chemist

“Is that the all clear?” she muttered.

He kept wagging.

She leaned in for a closer look. It didn’t take long to see all there was to see. Impressed, she turned and walked back to the Humvee. Daniel was standing beside the open driver-side door, looking unsure what to do. He still didn’t appear to be having any kind of shock reaction.

“Nice shot,” she said. One bullet, literally right between the eyes. It couldn’t have been more perfect.

“I wasn’t very far away.”

He stepped toward her, closing the distance, and his gloved hands wrapped tightly around the tops of her arms. Then he gasped and spun to the side, wheeling her around so that the light was no longer behind her.

“How much of this blood is yours?”

“Not much,” she said. “I’m good.”

“Your ear!”

“Yeah, that’s not going to help anything, is it? You handy with a needle and thread?”

His head jerked back in surprise. “What?”

“It’s not hard. I can talk you through it.”

“Um…”

“One thing first.” She shook out of his grasp and ran back up the porch stairs. Lola was still curled in the same spot. She raised her head and thumped her tail limply when she saw Alex.

“Hey, Lola, good girl. Let me take a look at you.”

Alex sat cross-legged in front of her. She stroked Lola’s side with one hand while searching for the wound with the other.

“Is she okay?” Daniel asked softly. He was on the other side of the porch banister, his elbows resting on the edge of the floorboards. He seemed unwilling to get any closer to the house. She didn’t blame him. Lola whimpered as Alex felt along her legs.

“She’s lost some blood. It looks like the bullet went through her back left leg. I can’t tell if it hit bone, but the bullet definitely passed through. She was lucky.”

He reached through the slats to rub Lola’s nose. “Poor girl.”

“The stuff in the back of the Humvee must be in total chaos. I’m going to hunt up the first-aid kit. Keep her calm, will you?”

“Sure.”

Einstein followed Alex back to the vehicle, just as he’d trailed her to the porch. It surprised her how the silent support buoyed her, made her feel safe despite all the evidence to the contrary.

She opened the back of the Humvee, and an impatient Khan almost knocked her down. She dodged out of his way just in time as he sprang over her. She imagined the cargo hold was tight for him, though she had plenty of space as she crawled inside.

Guns and ammo were strewn haphazardly, loose bullets rolling under her knees. There wasn’t time to organize. Her conversation with Hector had been cut short; she hadn’t been able to ask one last vital question. What happens when the job is done? Who was expecting a call, and when? At least there was the third house still waiting. Unless Hector had made a call between the first and second stops.

Had he called his manager, told him which address had been cleared and which he was heading to next? Was the manager waiting for another call? Would he have realized that the call was overdue?

She located the duffel that held her first-aid kit. There was nothing she could do now except move fast and make the right decisions. The only problem was she still didn’t know exactly what those right decisions were.

“Okay,” she huffed as she and Einstein arrived back at Lola’s side.

She knelt beside Lola’s legs and quickly realized it was too dark for her to see what she was doing.

“I need you to bring the Humvee around and give me some light,” she said.

Daniel lurched away from the porch, a massive shadow hulking beside him: Khan still on duty. She wondered how Khan and Einstein had decided to switch assignments. She pulled off her tactical gloves and replaced her bloody latex gloves with a fresh pair. She was just injecting Lola with a mild sedative when the brilliant lights of the Humvee came shooting through the banister slats. She adjusted her position so the glare was out of her face and on the wound. It looked like a clean through-and-through. She waited for Lola’s eyes to droop before she started cleaning the wound. Lola’s leg twitched a few times, but she didn’t cry out. Antiseptic, then ointment, then gauze, then a splint and more gauze. It should heal well, if she could keep Lola off it.

She blew out a sigh. What were they going to do about all these dogs?

“What’s next?” Daniel asked when she was done. He was on the ground beside the porch, rifle in hands, scanning the dark plains around them.

“Can you throw a couple of stitches in my ear while I’ve got the stuff out?”

He balked. “I won’t get it right.”

“It’ll be easy,” she assured him. “Haven’t you ever sewn on a button?”

“Not through human flesh,” he muttered, but he slung his rifle over his shoulder and started up the stairs as he spoke.

She lit a match from the kit and sterilized the needle. It wasn’t the highest standard of medical technique, but it was the best she could do under the circumstances. She waved the needle quickly back and forth to cool it, then poked the suture thread through the eye and knotted one end.

She held it out to him along with a fresh pair of gloves. He put the gloves on and then reached slowly for the needle. He didn’t seem to want to touch it. She tilted her head back and poured antiseptic across the wound, waiting for the scorching sting to run the course of the cut all the way to her ear. Then she angled her jaw toward him, making sure she was in the brightest beam of light.

“Probably just needs three little ones. Start at the back and pull through.”

“What about a local anesthetic?”

“I’ve got enough painkiller in me already,” she lied. She could feel the slash across her jaw like a brand. But she was out of Survive , and anything else she could use would incapacitate her at least partially. This wasn’t an emergency, it was only pain.

He knelt down beside her. He put his fingers gently under the edge of her chin.

“This was very close to your jugular!” He gasped, horrified.

“Yeah, he was good.”

His face was out of her sight, so she couldn’t interpret the little hitching sound in his breath.

“Do it, Daniel. We have to hurry.”

He sucked in a deep breath, and then she felt the needle pierce her earlobe. She was braced for it – she kept it off her face and didn’t let her hands clutch into fists; she’d learned to localize her reactions. She clenched the muscles in her abdomen, letting the pressure vent there.

“Good,” she said as soon as she was sure she could keep her voice even. “You’re doing great. Now just fit the pieces together, and stitch them in place.”

While she spoke, his fingers moved quickly through the task. She couldn’t feel the needle in the severed bottom portion of her earlobe, so she only had to deal with the pain when he perforated the top half. Just three little stabs. It wasn’t too bad after the first.

“Do I… tie a knot or something?” he asked.

“Yes, in the back, please.”

She could feel the pull of the thread tightening as he worked.

“It’s done.”

She looked up at him and smiled. It tugged at her slashed jaw. “Thank you. I would have had a hard time managing that on my own.”

He touched her cheek. “Here, let me bandage this for you.”

She held still while he covered the wound with ointment, then taped a strip of gauze to her cheek. He wrapped her ear front and back.

“Probably should have cleaned it first,” he muttered.

“It will do for now. Let’s put Lola in the Humvee.”

“I’ll get her.”

Daniel gently lifted the sleeping Lola into his arms. Her long front paws and ears dangled out from his arms and wiggled with every step he took. Alex felt a bubble of inappropriate humor rising in her chest, and swallowed against it. There was no time for hysteria. Daniel laid Lola in the space behind the passenger seat. There were only the two front seats in the Humvee. Kevin had removed the rest to leave room for cargo, she guessed.