He tried to get up, but his body struggled.He heard his old drill sergeant yelling at him in his head.“A downed man is a useless man.Get the fuck up.”
He tried to catch his breath, but his lungs screamed in pain.Realizing he’d likely broken a few ribs, he prayed none had punctured his lungs in the process.He coughed, and the metallic taste of blood filled his mouth.Fuck.Never a good sign.
Rocko heard people yelling and felt the weight lifted off his back, but the pain was so overpowering that his vision blurred, and his ears rang; he’d be unconscious within seconds.
“Hang on, Rocko.We’ve got you,” Griffin said from somewhere above him.Not the person he’d expected.
“Is… is Renee…k?”he asked.
“Yes, lie still.”
“K.”Like he had a choice.Reality hit.Rocko was likely going to die lying face down in the mud surrounded by strangers.Huh.Feels about right for me.
Everything went dark.
***
Apollo
“Who the fuck left those shingles there?”Apollo shouted as he knelt beside Rocko.He swallowed his horror at the state of the man.
“Shit, I didn’t realize I laid those last bundles of shingles so close to the edge, man,” Hendrix said in horror.“I saw food and booked it down the ladder.I’m sorry.Shit.What can I do to help?”
Apollo glared at him.“You know better,” he growled, itching to punch Hendrix’s lights out at what he’d done to Rocko.
“Rocko pushed me out of the way,” Renee said.“Or that would have landed on me.Move.I need to heal him.”
Apollo heard Rocko’s labored breathing and saw the blood flowing from his nose and mouth.It didn’t look good.
Renee’s hands hovered over Rocko’s back.“Shit, he’s got four broken ribs, and both lungs are punctured.Two discs in his spine have been crushed, and he’s bleeding internally.I’ll stabilize him, then we need to move him to a bed where I can continue.”
“Do it,” Apollo ordered, and Renee’s hands began to glow over Rocko’s back.
After roughly ten minutes, his breathing eased slightly.Hendrix stood by anxiously.
“Okay, we can move him now.Careful,” Renee instructed.
Apollo gently turned Rocko over to reveal the blood pooled under his head.As gently as possible, he slid his arms underneath the still-unconscious man and lifted him into his arms.He headed straight for the main cabin.Apollo had the largest bed on the property due to his size, and that’s where he was heading.It would be the most comfortable place for Rocko to heal and give Renee room to move.
No one argued with him as he went, and Griffin ran ahead to open the doors.Renee stayed by his side with a single glowing hand over Rocko’s chest.Apollo barely felt the weight as he took the stairs two at a time.
Griffin opened Apollo’s bedroom door, and he brought the severely injured man inside and laid him on his bed.
“I need a better look at his back,” Renee said.
Griffin extended one sharp claw and quickly cut Rocko’s shirt from his body.With Griffin and Hendrix’s help, Apollo rolled Rocko onto his side while Renee placed her hands along his back, where they began glowing again.Without his shirt on, it was easy for Apollo to see the misshapen bones and swelling bulging under Rocko’s skin.Shit.He grimaced.It had to be incredibly painful.He was glad Rocko was unconscious.He wanted to reach out and comfort the man, tell him he’d be okay, but the words wouldn’t come.
Ellen ran in with a bowl of water and towels.“What can I do?”
“Take his boots off for me.The more we can make him comfortable, the easier this will be for him,” Renee answered.
“On it,” Ellen said as she undid his boots and pulled them off.
“What’s the prognosis?”Apollo asked, nervous at the pained expression on Renee’s face.
“Pretty banged up, but I think I’ll be able to fix him,” Renee said.“It’ll take some time to go through the many damaged layers of tissue and bone.My main concern is stopping his hemorrhaging and repairing his lungs enough so he can breathe easier.”
Apollo knew if Renee wasn’t a healer, Rocko would likely have died from such severe injuries before they made it even close to the emergency room.Even then, modern medicine wouldn’t have been able to fix the damage fast enough to stop his lungs from filling with blood, choking him until he stopped breathing entirely.
