AGAINST HOPE

by:  PEBBLES

Part 4

~~^~~^~~^~~^~~^~~

Doug looked back up the steep sides of the ravine that he had just descended.  The top was still shrouded in fog, although at the bottom a full moon bathed the scene in an eerie light.  There was no sign of Kovac on the slope.  He must have fallen all the way to the bottom.

Doug turned towards the river, which was lined with the same kind of stunted trees that he had encountered on the way down.  Picking his way carefully over the rough ground, he made towards the riverbank.  It was really no more than a fast flowing stream, strewn with rocks, which created mini pools and waterfalls.

Just a few paces upstream and he found Luka.  He had landed on his side - his body contorted; half in the water and half on the rocks.  Adrenaline started to pump through Doug’s veins.  He crouched down by Luka’s side, his first concern to check that his face was clear of the water, which it was.

“Kovac! Speak to me man”.  Doug started to check his vitals.  His pulse was fast – 110. Resps: normal.   He was not fully conscious – blood oozed from a gash on his head.  Doug felt over his skull.  There was a slight swelling under the wound, nothing too alarming.  “Open your eyes, Kovac!  Come on.”  Peeling back his eyelids Doug struggled to ascertain the pupil response in the dim light.

Moving his attention to the rest of Luka’s body, Doug quickly discovered that his left thigh was swollen and distorted.  “Femoral fracture. Damn!”   Doug quietly muttered to himself.  He immediately checked the pulses in the leg, which were okay for now.  “Come on, Kovac, stay with me.  I’m going to fix you up and then were going to get out of here.”

Glancing back at Luka’s face he saw that his eyes were now open and his lips were moving.  Doug bent closer.  Luka was muttering something in his own language.  “Speak English, Kovac!”  He watched the injured man struggle to find the words; pain and confusion written all over his face.

“I said, call me Luka.”  The accent was thick but Doug could make out the words and he grinned.  “Yeah, now we’re getting somewhere.  Now, tell me who I am.”  Luka frowned as if searching the very depths of his memory.  Then a spark came to his eyes and he actually smiled.  “Doug Ross.”

The smile soon evaporated from his face as his features twisted in a grimace.  A groan escaped his lips.  Doug kept eye contact with Luka.  “Luka, you’ve fractured your left femur.  There’s quite a lot of swelling and you’re a bit tachy but your pulses are good.  You hit your head and were unconscious when I found you.  I need to know if you have any other injury.”

“The femur again, huh?”  Luka pulled a face.  “I have dislocated my left shoulder.  My head hurts but not so bad.  And I’m cold.”  His lips twisted in a half smile.  “But otherwise I’m just fine!”

“Can you feel this?”  Doug stuck Luka’s good leg with a tie pin that Carol had bought him for his last birthday.”

“Yes!”  Luka affirmed to this and every other test that Doug made.  Within minutes Doug was satisfied that it would be safe to move Luka – and it was urgent that he get him out of the water.  It was freezing cold and Luka had been in it for some time.  “Okay, time to move.” He got behind Luka and eased him up into a sitting position.  Luka yelled something in Croatian.

“You can swear in English, you know.   I won’t be offended!”

Something like a smirk crossed Luka’s face.  “I could get to like you.”  His voice was soft but Doug heard him.

“Yeah, we didn’t get off to a very good start did we!”  Doug wrapped his arms around Luka clasping them together across Luka’s chest. This provoked another torrent of Croatian obscenities.  “What?” Doug started to release his grasp.

“No, it’s okay.”  Luka tried to put on a brave face.  “I’ve got to get out of this water.”  Doug was glad that he was still lucid and thinking like a doctor.  “All together then, push!”  Doug pulled for all he was worth and Luka tried to push himself along with his uninjured leg.  It was an agonising process but after four laboured heaves, Luka was out of the water and onto a level piece of grass.

“Now that wasn’t so bad.” Doug let Luka gently down.  He noticed however that Luka had passed out again.  “Hmm, well this might be a good time to reduce that shoulder dislocation.”

~~^~~^~~^~~^~~^~~

Carol froze as the two glowing lights came towards her.  They stopped within feet of her. Thank God, it was a car.  Even better, Carter stepped out of the driver’s side.  He bent down by the side of her car and she wound down the window.  “Carol?”  His face was a picture of concern.  “What happened?”

She opened her mouth to explain but all that came out was a huge wracking sob.  Carter pulled open the door and crouched down at her side.  “Hey, what’s the matter?”  She struggled to control her emotions.  “I’ve lost them!”  She cried, her voice breaking into sobs again.  She let Carter help her out of the car and hold her tight, his hands rubbing her back.

“What’s happened?”  It was Kerry’s voice.  Something in it’s inherent authority helped Carol pull herself together.  She pushed out of Carter’s embrace. 

“I’ve lost Doug and Luka.  They were fighting in the car and I threw them out and…and then I drove off and left them!”  Her eyes pleaded with them to understand her.  “I only drove a short way but when I went back I couldn’t find them!”  The tears overtook her again and she leant her head against Carter’s chest.

“How far away was this?”  Kerry persisted in her questions. 

“Um, well, it was four miles since I turned around. I guess I let them out about 2 miles back. But the fog is so bad you can’t even see the edge of the road.”

“The hotel is just a hundred yards back, so we better go back and get some help.”  Kerry motioned for Carter to get Carol into their car.  “I’ll drive this one and you bring the other, John.”

~~^~~^~~^~~^~~^~~

When Doug yanked Luka up into a sitting position to start moving him out of the water an intense pain from his shoulder momentarily eclipsed the sensation from his fractured leg.

Luka could not help but cry out with the shock of it.  What he said was obscene but he was not swearing at Doug.

He had to admit that Doug was doing everything right.  Having done his utmost to be sure that there was no spinal cord injury it was now imperative that Luka get out of the water before hypothermia set in.  His leg and shoulder injuries would have to wait.  There was no denying Doug’s ability as an emergency physician and his manner was reassuring.  Luka could see how children would put their trust in this man.

But every tortuous movement brought new heights of excruciating pain.  As bone ground against bone Luka fought to keep down the bile that rose in his throat.  The scene before his eyes would darken as he almost fainted and Doug’s voice fade away so that all Luka could hear was the pounding of his own blood in his ears.   

Doug would keep bringing him back from the edge with encouraging words and Luka knew that he must fight the temptation to let himself slip away.  Doug would find it almost impossible to shift his dead weight.  Just the slight assistance of him shoving with his good leg against the ground made enough difference to keep them going.

With the final heave, blackness overtook Luka and he surrendered to oblivion.  But even there he could not hide.  A searing pain in his shoulder brought Luka back with a vengeance.  “My God! What are you doing?”  He shouted.

 “Sorry, I don’t carry any Morphine on me, Bud.”  Doug looked a little apologetic. “But at least I got that shoulder reduced and if I can get this leg splinted it should help some.” He looked around for inspiration.  A couple of straight branches would be good but there was nothing remotely like that as far as Doug could see.  All the trees seemed to grow in a deformed and twisted fashion.

Doug stood up to better look around.  Across the other side of the stream was a broken down post and rail fence.  Now, if he could just wade across and get one of those rails he might be able to help Luka.  “Don’t go anywhere, Bud. I’ll be right back.”  There was no response.  He bent down again.  “Luka! Wake up!”  Luka’s eyes flitted open again.  “I said I’ll be right back – I’m just going to get a piece of wood.  Okay?”

 “Sure.” Luka breathed.

~~^~~^~~^~~^~~^~~

As soon as they entered the hotel, Kerry made a beeline for the manager’s office.  Rapping loudly on the door with her crutch, she barged in without waiting for an answer and was soon explaining their predicament.

Carol sat with Carter in the lobby staring blankly into space.  She had an overwhelming feeling of doom.  She would never forgive herself if anything happened to Doug.  It was her fault that everything had turned sour this evening.  How was he to know that nothing had happened between her and Luka?  If only she had taken the trouble to explain.

She realised now that other people had assumed that there was something going on between them.  Of course Luka had thought so, too.  She had just been too wrapped up in her own misery of trying to deny that she loved Doug to notice the devastation that she had caused.

Meanwhile, Kerry was having trouble convincing the manager to take the situation seriously.  “Look it may be only just an hour but the conditions out there are terrible.  Have you been outside?  No, well then maybe you should go out and take a look!”  Kerry raised her voice another degree and stared down the man sat behind his desk.

“Well, I could phone the emergency services, Madam but I can’t guarantee that they will see the situation any differently.”  He persisted in trying to stall her.

“Just give me the damn phone and I’ll convince them!”  She moved up into full alpha-bitch mode.

The manager dialled and then mutely handed the receiver to Kerry.  “Hello? Yes this is Dr Weaver calling from the Ponsworthy Hotel near Widecombe.  We have an emergency here.  Two men are missing on the moor in the fog and we are very concerned for their safety.”  She glared at the manager as if challenging him to butt in.

“Yes, that’s right. Yes. About an hour.”  There was a pause whilst Kerry listened to an argument from the other end with increasing irritation.  “Yes, but if you would let me explain. One of the men was exhibiting symptoms of hypoglycaemia and I am very concerned that he may have lapsed into a diabetic coma.”  She smiled at last.  “Yes, I thought you might see it differently. Yes.  It’s ‘Dr Weaver’. Thank you.”  She put the phone down.

“They’re on their way.  I shall be waiting in the lobby.”  Kerry allowed a note of triumph to creep into her voice as she strode out of the office, barely leaning on her crutch at all.

Carter, who had heard all of Kerry’s side of the conversation through the open door, gave her a puzzled look.  “Doug’s not diabetic and I don’t think Luka is.  Is he?”

“Well, there’s plenty of people that confuse hypoglycaemia with drunkenness.  Even doctors have been known to.”  She grinned at Carter and then turned to Carol.  “I’m sure they will be fine. They probably just got a bit disorientated in the fog.”  She leant back against the soft cushions of the armchair wishing she really felt as confident.  She just had a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach and it wouldn’t go away.

End of Part 4

to part 5

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