Page 83 of Lies That Bleed
She was lying flat on her back, which was the perfect position for this.
“I know this is an awful scenario, but if anyone wants to learn how to relocate a shoulder, come watch,” I yelled to everyone present.
Half a dozen bystanders, including Tetra, suddenly stood behind me, and I gazed down at Meera. “You’re going to teach all these cadets how to do this so thatthey can help someone else someday. Okay?” I asked her.
“Okay,” she managed to mumble around the stick.
I grabbed her floppy dislocated right arm with my uninjured hand and laid it flat out beside her as if she were a child making a snow angel.
“Lay the dislocated arm out at a ninety-degree angle away from the body,” I told everyone, and then I grabbed her wrist. “And slowly pull.” I began to pull on the arm, catching Kohen’s gaze. He pinned her good shoulder and hip to the floor.
Meera screamed suddenly as I pulled her wrist firmly, causing tension in the shoulder. I gave it a tiny yank then and heard the click that the bone had returned to the socket. She exhaled in relief, her head lolling to the side as she spit the stick out, panting.
“You good?” I asked her.
She nodded. Then she lifted her arm slightly and wiggled her fingers. “Still sore but manageable. Thank you, Aisling.”
I reached out with my good hand and tapped her thigh. “Glad to help.”
I stood then, facing Alek. “Who else needs treatment? I can do sutures and?—”
“You have a broken wrist,” Kohen said, coming up beside me.
Alek frowned, his gaze going to my injured hand, which I clutched to my chest to protect it.
It hurt like hell, but I would suck it up.
Alek sat down and opened his medic kit. “Let me splint that until we can get you properly seen at base.”
I flicked my gaze to Kohen and he walked away. Why did I equally love and hate how protective he was over me? Why was I thinking about kissing him in the middle of a horrible tragedy? Why couldn’t I stop thinking about him telling me I would one day be his? That I was his best friend and he knew when our first kiss was. That I would beg for his protection and make love to him under a bed of stars. All of these future things were messing with my head and making me wonder if he was implanting feelings in my mind.
I hissed as Alek delicately placed my wrist in the splint.
He winced. “Sorry.”
“It’s fine, I wasn’t ready,” I told him, not wanting to appear weak.
“It looks like a bad break. Even with your rapid healing, you might need a cast to keep it from setting wrong.”
Just like Kohen said.
I simply nodded.
This was my proof. My proof that everything Kohen said was probably real. I didn’t know what to do with that.
Kohen stood at the center of our little shitshow, peering out at all of us bloodied and bruised with creatures that had limps and other injuries.
“As far as I am concerned, the simulation is still on.We still need to make it to base camp with the cargo to graduate,” he called out to everyone.
Silence.
“We were attacked by Luskin insurgents. If we wait here, won’t the instructors come look for us?” Summer asked.
“Yes they will.” I stood. “There is a protocol in place for this type of thing, but it doesn’t include us graduating. They’ll make sure we are safe and have a ride back to campus, where they will probably release us back to our parents as failures.”
Groans rang throughout the group.
“Being in the Imperial Fleet means you are ready to die for your country!” I shouted. “For your emperor! It doesn’t mean if something goes wrong you wait for help and ask for a ride back to mommy.”
