Code Zulu Alpha: Nerd in the Apocalypse!

I quickly disregarded all thoughts despite what I'm seeing since we really need to stop the bleeding in his leg. The kid named Michael who is in front us is still screaming in pain and Kaley and I were holding him in place. I'm on his right side where I could see the wound and he's lucky that it's a few centimeters to the right and only flesh was hit and no arteries were nicked. He would've bled out in seconds if that was the case. Despite that, the wound came at a downward angle and it seemed that he shot himself just from drawing the gun while his finger was on the trigger and it went straight for his leg. The woman which I assume is Irene was holding Michael's other leg in place while Arturo was rummaging through the packs we gave him.

"DO YOU HAVE A FUCKING TOURNIQUET IN THIS MOTHERFUC- oh, here it is. HOLD STILL YOU LITTLE FUCKER!!!" Arturo immediately placed it on the kid's leg to put some pressure.

"IT HURTS!!! IT FUCKING HURTS!!!" Michael shouted.

"Oh~ you don't want it to hurt? THEN FUCKING BLEED OUT!!! IT'S SUPPOSED TO HURT YOU STUPID FUCK!!! HELP ME RAISE THIS IDIOT'S LEG!!!" Arturo pointed to the other guys to help him.

"W-we have something for the pain in the pack. There's a small bottle of Morphine inside-" Kaley tried to help but Arturo cut her off.

"No! This fucker's allergic to that shit. We learned that the hard way. Ah! GINA! GRAB THAT BOTTLE AND LET THAT KID HAVE A FEW SWIGS!!!" Arturo explained while turning to the younger lady.

"Don't give too much." I added.

"..." Arturo glanced at me before nodding at the lady named Gina.

Arturo is examining the wound closely with a scrunched brow. He's shining a light to it even if there's several lamps above his operating table. Michael's leg is now elevated above the heart and they're putting even more pressure to the wound to completely stop the bleeding. It would take a bit of time normally and I'm almost questioning why he placed the tourniquet but he's in charge this time around. I usually avoid it unless medical care would be delayed for several hours.

"Irene! Tell me what happened, I thought you're not using guns unless absolutely necessary. It's partly my fault why he managed to get my gun in my drawer but let's deal with that later." Arturo looked at Irene's worried face.

Irene is wearing a bloody plaid shirt, blue jeans, and leather boots. She has black hair tied tightly behind her head and she looks to be around the age of 40-50. Looking at Arturo closely, they seem to be siblings and Arturo seems to be the older one.

"It was- it was a stupid decision. We're about… we're about to head back when he asked if he could fire your gun at one of them. He told me you let him borrow it but I know that's impossible. I told him to give it to me but I didn't think that he would shoot himself just by drawing it." Irene explained with regret.

"Borrow?! You know I never even let our neighbors borrow our scissors, much less my guns you fucker, FUCK!!!" Arturo looks frustrated by what's happening.

Arturo grabbed the antiseptic ointment when the bleeding was controlled but I stopped him.

"You need to wash it first, right?" I grabbed his arm.

"FUCK! You're right, you're right. HEY!!! GRAB THAT THERMOS OVER THERE AND THAT POT AND- where is the- do you have soap here? Is this- no. I think I saw a..." Arturo started rummaging through the packs again.

"Wait a sec, it's in the other pack." Kaley replied and she asked Ilya to hold Michael's arm.

"Just hold him? I don-" Ilya said but Kaley cut him off.

"Just hold him down!" Kaley snapped.

"Alright, alright! Damn, I thought Tatiana was the scary one..." Ilya muttered.

Ilya glanced at me but I just shrugged my shoulders.

"Here we go~" Arturo washed the wound thoroughly and he would glare at Michael everytime he made a peep.

The atmosphere started to calm down when Arturo started on closing the wound with a few stitches and this time, his needle work is spectacular. He placed a few dabs of antiseptic ointments and covered it with adhesive bandages. Michael also calmed down a few notches and we didn't need to hold him down. He was almost thrashing around earlier but now his breathing is just a bit hurried but he would wince a few times.

"Okay, we're done here finally." Arturo removed his gloves and he sat down on his chair.

"It's f-finally done?" Michael muttered.

"Yeah. It's fucking done. WANT ME TO AMPUTATE IT?! HUH?! YOU DO KNOW YOU ALMOST DIED YOU- Hah~ I'm too old for this shit. You're fucking lucky it's the .38 you took. Next time, if you want to shoot your leg, bring my fucking shotty so all I have to do is burn you when you shoot your leg off, got it?!" Arturo grabbed the bottle of alcohol and took a swig himself. He offered me and Kaley but we politely refused.

"Eh? Suit yourselves, how about you little sister? Hmm?" he waved it around and Irene took a much larger swig compared to him.

"Hah! That's the spirit!" he chuckled.

"Is he gonna be fine?" Irene wiped her mouth and handed the bottle to Ilya in which he also drank a few.

"He'll live, he'll be out of commission though." he replied.

The residents gave a sigh of relief from Arturo's words and the situation finally calmed down.

We tidied up our packs but I took out all the bandages we have, a few painkillers and a few more things that they might need.

"Who's gonna be the one to take care of him?" I asked.

"Umm, I-I will watch over him while the Doc is busy..." Gina stepped forward.

"Okay, here are all of the bandages we have and make sure to clean his wound everyday and change the bandages every time you do. If it's getting redder, sweller, or if it has drainage- you know, if pus-like drainage is coming out. Tell your doc immediately so he could take a look at it. Even if he has fever, chills, or anything else- make sure you tell him. These bottles have a few Paracetamols and Ibuprofens, it could help with the pain and such. Well, that's all I think he needs for now." I instructed her.

She nodded a few times and Arturo looked at me.

"Hey, you a med student or something? You don't look like it, heh. No offense, your getup and shit makes me think you one of spec ops, only younger. Not only you, but her too. Wait, what do they call it in the- oh! Combat Medics or something, I forgot." Arturo commented.

"We're not, we just know a few things here and there." I replied.

"Ah, so that's it. Great catch earlier." he praised.

"How about you, are you the only doctor in this place?" Kaley asked.

"Doctor? Hah! I'm fucking not as you can tell from the few blunders. Let's say I'm the same as you two." he replied.

"That explains a lot but raises a few more questions." I thought to myself.

Arturo made the crowd scatter so he could have some peace and quiet and now only a few people remain. Ilya, Aurora, Gina, Irene and a few more relatives of Michael were left along with Kaley and I aside from Arturo himself.

It was then that Irene approached us two.

"Thanks, you two. Are you part of Ilya's comrades? You two look young." Irene shook our hands and I felt her rough palms.

"Not exactly but you could say that. You're Irene, right? Can I talk to you for a few minutes? I think we could work something out. You have a few things here that I want and I have things that you need. Do you have the time now?" I asked.

"Sure, sure, we need all the help we could get. As long as it could benefit my group, I'm all for it. I don't know what you'd like from this dump aside from our animals but just from helping patch Michael up, I would spare you a few already. If you'd like, we have several cuts of cured meat in our storage." she replied.

"Cured meats are great for a while but I'd like alive ones so I could make them reproduce. We have that helicopter parked in the convenience store so I'm thinking about a few dozen guinea pigs. A few males and a lot of females if you could. We can't exactly fit a couple of cows in our chopper, right?" I chuckled.

"Oh! Aurora has several cages of them. You should talk to her about that. I don't want to bring this up now but you're taking Ilya back, right?" Irene has a solemn expression and Aurora was about to cry.

"About that, it's up to you." I replied as I looked at Ilya.