Locked Down With The Army Doc

CHAPTER FOUR

HE WASN’T ENTIRELY sure what was going on. Maybe he’d been too forward with the woman who’d shared his bed last night. He’d wanted to envelop Amber in a hug, but her demeanor had told him not to, and he’d ended up just pulling her toward him and gently touching heads.

He still couldn’t work out what had possessed him. He hadn’t held a woman that close in...how long?

Two years. Two long, hard years.

One minute she was there. Next minute she was gone.

Jill Foster had been a bright-eyed medic he’d met in Afghanistan. She was one of the best he’d worked with. As a teenager she wanted to be a doctor but couldn’t afford to go to university, so she joined the army instead. Her skills and natural talent were picked up and she excelled in her role.

They worked side by side for six months. And as soon as he got home he missed her. By the time they redeployed again they were dating. Right up until the day he was felled by abdominal pain. The bothersome ache that had been distracting him had turned into an acute pain and he’d collapsed after finishing a long emergency surgery. Twelve hours later he’d woken up and life had changed.

Life had changed completely.

He’d had an appendectomy. It seemed that the army doc hadn’t recognized his own appendicitis. But in that twelve hours there had been an emergency—a group of soldiers had been caught in some cross fire and had needed to be retrieved. He was usually part of the emergency call-out team. But, when he’d been under anesthetic, Jill had taken his place. And it had cost her her life. While going to pick up their injured comrades the vehicle had driven over an IED, the effect instant.

Gone. Just like that.

He’d never forget the face of the base commander who’d been there to tell him as soon as he came around from anesthetic. The guy looked ill, his face pale underneath his tanned skin. The other soldiers had been retrieved, but Jill and three other members of the team Jack normally worked with had been wiped out.

The numbness spread through his body immediately. He pushed up from the gurney, ignoring any wound pain, and staggered across the compound toward the mortuary. Two squaddies saw him and ran over to help, throwing their arms around his waist to keep him steady.

But no one would let him see Jill.

And he knew why. He did. Surgeons knew better than anyone what the effects of an IED could be.

So, he sat on the floor of the mortuary for the next six hours and vowed to make his time in Afghanistan meaningful.

Everything after that became about the wound dressing.

Wartimes were tough. Surgeons dealt with explosive injuries that no normal surgeon would ever see. And because of his postings he’d grown familiar with the faces around the camp. The cheeky squaddie in the armory. The quiet Yorkshire lad who liked to read books. The gung-ho female sergeant who could give any guy a run for his money. All of them had ended up on his table.

Not all of them had lived. But Jack had done his best. He agonized over any person that he lost. Replayed everything in his mind, wondering what he could have done differently—could have done better.

Once he was in the desert setting, work was everything. He became almost obsessed. The research too was entirely in his focus. He quickly realized how good their dressing worked and what the life-saving implications were. It was everything to him.

It gave him something to focus on. It allowed him to build a shell around himself and close out the rest of the world. He still went above and beyond for his colleagues—he always would. But he’d lost the connection, he’d lost the emotion and empathy that he’d always had within the job.

He’d lost a little part of his heart.

And now? He had no idea what he was doing—in more ways than one. He wasn’t worried about helping after the hurricane. The infectious disease stuff was beyond his professional expertise. But if he had to hunt down people to deliver emergency antibiotics, he could live with that.

What he wasn’t so sure about was the fact that the first woman he’d held in two years had just blanked him and walked away. Was his heart so numb that he couldn’t pick up on female cues anymore?

Amber looked as if she was sucking in some deep breaths as she scrubbed her hands at one of the sinks. The noise seemed to echo around them in the basement. He couldn’t stand it. Should he apologize for holding her?

He shook his head and stalked across the corridor to the other room. The IV antibiotics were feeding slowly through to both Zane and Aaron. Both of them were still sedated and ventilated. He glanced at the monitors and then at their charts. The nurse came over and stood with him at the end of Zane’s bed. She gave her head a slight shake. “I still don’t know if he’s reacting to the medicines. He still seems so flat.” She gestured toward the rise and fall of his chest.

Jack nodded. He understood what she meant. All of Zane’s accessory muscles were working around his chest area. With ventilation and sedation he should be in a much more stable position. It was almost as if his body was fighting against everything.

Aaron seemed much more settled. His heart rate, temperature and blood pressure were good. It seemed that he was reacting better to the treatments and medications.

The lights flickered again and the television monitor in the room across the hall shorted out. The nurse’s face paled. “This is it,” she said warily. “The TV signal is gone. The hurricane is about to hit.”

Amber appeared back in the doorway. She looked awful. “What do you do next?”

The nurse gave the briefest shake of her head. “Hunker down.”

* * *

For the next four hours they held their breaths as they waited to see if they would come out the other side of the hurricane. It didn’t matter they were in the basement with no windows or possibility of flying glass. At times the whole foundation of the building seemed to shudder and Jack wondered if the whole hospital could end up on top of them. Doors and windows throughout the hospital must have been affected as the doorway to the stairwell at the end of the corridor continued to rattle incessantly. It was impossible to stay still for four hours. They had patients to look after, and Jack couldn’t help but worry about the patients above them and the people outside. They tiptoed around each other in a kind of unspoken frustration. The phone lines had died. Between them they’d managed to reach fourteen of the local people who had stayed overnight in the same accommodation as Zane and Aaron.

“I thought the eye of the hurricane was supposed to be silent. Quiet even,” he said to one of the older nurses.

She shook her head. “Maybe in a movie. Or in a fairy tale. I’ve only seen two hurricanes. And there was no silence. Except when they were over. We’re being hit by the fiercest part of the storm right now. Anything or anybody out there right now probably doesn’t stand a chance. Anything not anchored or cemented to the ground will likely never be seen again. Or end up on one of the other islands.” She sighed, and he realized she must be thinking about her family on Oahu. He put his hand on her arm.

“I’m sure they’re safe. Just like we are.”

She gave the briefest of nods and then marched over to the monitors and started pressing buttons again. Jack was exasperated. He needed to be doing something. Anything. But he’d done everything he could down here.

Ty had been started on the antibiotics too. And he, in turn, had been concerned about his employees with young families.

Amber took the time to explain how meningitis passed from person to person and how, at the moment, unless an employee showed signs themselves, their families weren’t at risk.

She seemed to circumvent Jack wherever he went. And that was fine. If he’d overstepped he was glad of the message.

They monitored Zane carefully, watching his limbs closely for any visible signs of septicemia. Eventually, Jack finally made his way up the stairwell to see if he could be of assistance in any other part of the hospital. He’d only made it to the first floor before he could hear the rattle throughout the building. The door at the stairwell had been juddering loudly, obviously being buffeted by wind that had found a way inside the hospital.

Jack stuck his head through tentatively. No patients should be on the first floor or the top floor. Flash flooding and roof damage were two of the major probable issues. The evacuation plan dictated that most patients were moved to central areas on the second and third floors.

“Hello?” he shouted. He concentrated and listened hard. All he could hear was the wind whistling through the building and the sound of thudding rain.

He pulled his head back in and started up to the second floor. There definitely would be patients and staff up there. There was a crowd of people in green scrubs standing at the entrance to the stairwell on the second floor. A few glanced in his direction as he pushed through. He held out his hand to the nearest member of staff with a stethoscope around his neck. “Jack Campbell, Senior Medical Officer, British Army. Can I do anything?”

He could see a myriad people in the corridors with swabs held to arms and heads. The man gave a brief nod. “Oh, yeah, the army guy. I heard about you. I’m Ron Kekoe. Head of the ER. We’ve had to move upstairs in case of flash flooding.” He glanced at his watch. “We’re going to give it a few hours then move back down, and send out teams as required.” He pointed toward a makeshift desk just along the corridor. “Phones are down but we’ve got radios to contact other emergency services and the evacuation shelters.” His face was serious. “We’ve already had a few reports of winds up to one hundred and eighty miles an hour and roofs being torn off buildings. There will be casualties.” He frowned for a second and Jack realized someone had appeared beside him.

Amber, breathing heavily. She must have run up the stairs after him. His first thought was for the teenagers. “Zane? Aaron?”

She shook her head. “No. They’re just the same. But I realized I probably wasn’t much use down there. One of the residents is staying with them. I thought I should probably come and help.”

He could hear it. That little edge of nerves in her voice. It was clear, however, that Ron didn’t hear it. He just gave a nod. “The infectious disease doctor?”

Amber didn’t seem to mind the label and held out her hand. “Amber Berkeley, DPA.”

Ron gave her a half-suspicious look. “Someone mentioned you wanted to take antibiotics out.” He shook his head fiercely. “No way. Not anytime soon. First vehicles that go out will be heading up portable trauma bays. If it’s near to where you need to be, you’re welcome to tag along—provided you do some doctoring.”

He didn’t even wait for Amber’s reply. Jack got that. Everything about this was familiar territory to him. This was all about triage, all about prioritizing. Ron gave them both a nod. “Can you deal with some minor injuries? There’s nothing too threatening. Just flying glass and debris. A few staff were caught. If you could clean and stitch that would be great.”

Amber gave a quick nod of her head and walked around Jack, heading toward the first person with a bloody wound pad pressed to their forearm.

He watched for a few seconds as he could see her swallow nervously. This was different for her. And he got that.

He moved on over and started treating the next member of staff who had a cut on their forehead.

He was methodical. And he was quick. All the injuries were relatively minor.

But as he worked steadily he noticed the continued chaos around him. Although the external phone lines weren’t working, the internal phones rang constantly. Staff seemed to be disorganized, and Ron, as Head of the ER, seemed out of his depth.

Jack couldn’t help himself. He walked over. “How about you let me do some of this?”

Ron looked up from a prescription he was writing. Three other members of staff were waiting to talk to him and the radio was crackling constantly on the table.

“What can you do?”

Jack pointed to the desk. “I have experience of crisis triage. How about I field all the radio calls? I can take the details and liaise with the other agencies. We need to know what’s needed and where. As soon as the winds die down we could have teams packed up and ready to go. What do you say?”

He was trying so hard not to overstep. He could see Ron was struggling with the volume. He might not know Jack, but surely he would let him help?

Ron only paused for a few seconds as the radio continued to crackle.

“Perfect. Let me know if there’s anything major.”

“You got it.” Jack settled at the desk and picked up the radio. There were a few notes already about building damage—but no reports about casualties. There was a footnote querying whether a home with disabled residents had been evacuated, with a note to check with the nearest evacuation center. There were a few other notes from a care agency who had several housebound residents that they hadn’t been able to get to. Chances were they were safe. Most Hawaiians knew about the potential threats and what to do. But the infirm or frail would probably not have been able to put all preparations in place without assistance.

There seemed to be no standard way of keeping track of all the information, so Jack added all the names and addresses to a list for checks and pulled out a citywide map to start charting where everyone was.

Some staff were reporting that the sky was almost black now. No one with any thought to safety could possibly go outside.

The chatter on the radios was constant, along with the background noise of the hammering winds. Even though they’d been told not to, some of the staff squinted past mattresses at the windows and let out squeals and gasps. “Did you see that?”

“That car just flipped!”

“Oh, my, look over there. The roof’s coming off that building like a tin can!”

“Those trees are bending like drinking straws.”

“That one’s going to snap for sure!”

The rain thudded off the windows, battering down in among the wind’s fury. Debris flew through the air, randomly hitting windows and shattering glass.

Jack tried to tune it all out, focusing on the task he’d been given and trying to keep a clear head. But even though he tried, his eyes were distracted by the woman who’d pulled her hair back into a ponytail and seemed to be cleaning and stitching wounds precisely. She had a quieter nature when working with staff who were patients, and, even though he’d seen a smattering of nerves earlier today, he would never question her clinical skills.

Reports continued to come in and his list grew longer and longer. By the time Amber came over and sat down next to him, he’d started to separate out all the calls by seriousness and area.

She looked down at the lists and charts he had spread across the table. “Wow. You’re really keeping on top of this. How many teams do we have?”

“Probably less than we actually need.” He didn’t mean his answer to seem quite so brusque.

Amber shot him a strange sideways glance. “Do you know how many staff we have, and how many transportation vehicles?”

He glanced over at Ron, trying to hide his frustration. “Ron hasn’t told me yet. Search and Rescue say no one leaves unless they deem it necessary. There can be risks of flash flooding.”

Ron appeared next to Jack and blanched when he saw the list and map covered in colored dots. Jack stood up. “The eye of the hurricane has passed. How about we send staff back down to the first floor to reopen the ER? It’s important that people have a central point to come to.”

Ron nodded in agreement.

“Makes sense.” Amber pulled a crumpled piece of paper from her pocket and smoothed it out in front of her. “So, do any of the areas where teams will be sent have patients we’ll be looking for?”

He could tell she was trying to sound reasonable. He knew perfectly well that as soon as the winds died down she wanted to find a car and get around all the contacts immediately.

He pulled out his own list. He hadn’t forgotten that he’d offered to help her. “Trouble is, it’s so dark out there now. With all the debris, the roads will be hard enough to maneuver along. What with no street lighting, things will be much worse.” He pointed to colored dots he’d stuck on the map. “The blue dots are addresses where we need to give people antibiotics. What complicates things is that some of these people might not have stayed in their own homes. The statewide evacuation shelters are all based in high schools or elementary schools. Chances are, some of them might have gone there.”

“We have no way of telling?”

Jack shook his head. “Not right now. There could be thousands of people in each of the evacuation shelters. With limited communications, there’s no way for us to find out.”

“Any news about Aaron’s parents?”

Jack shook his head again. “I’ve not heard a thing about them. If I do, I’ll let you know.”

He could see her swallowing nervously as she pointed to another part of her notes. “These people, there’s fourteen of them. That includes the three close contacts who had traveled internationally. We’ve contacted Florida, Texas and New Zealand. It’s up to their own public health departments to make contact and issue the antibiotics. We also had four kids go back to Oahu. Honolulu staff are coordinating for them. Another two kids are on Maui and one more on Kauai. Local doctors will deal with them.”

“So that leaves us the kids and staff from the Big Island. How many do we need to still track down?”

“Four. That’s not too many. Hopefully we can coordinate with any team that’s going out.” She was toying with a strand of her hair. It must be a nerves thing. But it made him feel instantly protective.

“We still have the other six teenagers that were still staying at the surf school. Ty hasn’t been able to get hold of anyone else, but he’s pretty sure they’ll have been evacuated to the Deltarix High School. Six close contacts in one trip. That should make things a bit easier.”

Amber bit her bottom lip. She looked over at the map. “So the red dots are the reports of damage or destruction, and the blue dots are the places we still need to go for contact tracing?”

“Yellow are the people that need to be checked on. That doesn’t necessarily need to be medical personnel, but since that information is being passed between agencies, I thought it wise to keep it up there.” He sighed. “We still have no idea if there’s a threat of flooding, or what the roads will be like.”

Ron pointed to a part to the north of the city. “During the last tropical storms, these roads were impassable between mudslides and flood damage.”

There was a blue dot very close to that area. Jack leaned forward. “Where’s the nearest evacuation center to there? Maybe because of what’s happened in the past, the residents will have evacuated anyway?”

The radio next to Jack crackled and he picked it up. “Reports of major incident at Deltarix High School.”

Amber glanced at the list on the wall and her face paled. “That’s one of the evacuation centers. The one we were just talking about.”

Jack’s pen was poised. “Can you give us some more information?”

“Roof’s been torn from the high-school gymnasium where hundreds of the evacuees were waiting out the storm. Reports of serious injuries and multiple minor injuries.”

Jack glanced over toward Ron. He waved his hand to attract his attention. “Do you have any idea of numbers?”

The voice crackled at the end of the radio message. “Around six serious. Two head injuries, three with chest injuries or breathing difficulties and another with multiple fractures. Also a number of children with fractures, and another child reported to be seizing.”

Jack ran his fingers through his hair and looked at Ron. “It’s time. We’ve got to load up and get out there.” He didn’t want to be at the end of a radio, manning a desk. He’d never been that type of guy. He’d been asked to triage. Well, the time for triage was over. It was time to get out on the ground and use the skills that he’d been trained in.

Right now he wasn’t afraid of the hurricane. Right now he was afraid that people would die if they couldn’t get the medical attention they needed—people like Jill.

And no matter what, he couldn’t let that happen.

He was trying so hard to give Ron his place. He handed the lists he’d made to him. Jack had been watching the staff in the department for the last two hours and could guess exactly who’d be sent on the teams. “How about you call everyone together and let them know?”

* * *

It was the first time since she’d got here that Amber’s head had really cleared. She’d stopped thinking about Aaron’s parents. Her brain had already worked overtime on that one, imagining a million different ways they could have been injured trying to get to their son. She hated the way her stomach churned over and over. The logical part of her brain just couldn’t override the emotional part.

She had patients to seek out—people who were at risk of developing meningitis. And she had other patients to help. Cleaning and stitching had almost felt therapeutic. Getting back to basics. She’d even reviewed a few elderly patients on the medical ward who had taken a downward turn in the last few hours. She was almost sure one had a chest infection and the other a urinary tract infection. Because of the hurricane, X-rays and lab tests would likely be delayed, so she’d ordered antibiotics and IV fluids for them both.

She’d felt useful. She’d felt part of something. And it had sparked something inside her. Which was why she’d finally found the courage to sit down next to the guy who had sparked something else inside her earlier.

Now was not the time to get freaked out. Now was not the time to worry about someone breaching her inner shell.

There was too much else to worry about. There was too much else happening. She wanted to move back into the tough and sassy woman he’d met at the bar last night. Was that really only twenty-four hours ago?

Jack grabbed some tape and put up the map on the closest wall. He started moving sticky notes around at lightning speed. Ron was at his shoulder.

“We definitely need a team at the high school. There are twenty known casualties, with probably more.” Jack looked over his shoulder at the melee of staff. “Another team here.” He pointed at a care home. “We know that seven elderly residents were unable to be evacuated along with three members of staff. Red Cross have reports of injuries of a group of tourists on a bus tour.”

There was a flash of frustration across Ron’s face. “Why on earth didn’t they take shelter as instructed?”

“The radio on the bus wasn’t working, they didn’t hear the alerts, and once the driver realized there was a storm, he pulled over to the side of the road. That bus has overturned just outside Kona.”

Ron threw his hands up. “Well, too late now. Any more information on the numbers?”

Jack shook his head. “No. The mobile masts must have gone down just after it was called in. Apparently the caller was given standard advice about sheltering, but there wasn’t time for anything else.”

Ron had his hands on his hips as he shook his head. “The tour buses are pretty standard—usually single-deckers with around fifty passengers.” He ran his fingers across the map, paying attention to the notes Jack had given him and then looking back among his staff and nodding. Jack pressed his lips together. It was hard not to try and take charge. His army ranking meant he was usually the one in charge of any emergency planning.

It was almost as if Ron sensed his thoughts as he gave Jack a sideways glance. “Okay, army doc. Which team do you want to lead?” Jack felt Amber flinch next to him. He knew that her eyes were currently fixed on the blue dots on the map, while her brain did the countdown in hours. The residential home was closest to a few addresses they had to visit, but the nearest evacuation center could also house some of their close contacts. No matter the temptation, he kept his mouth closed.

He wasn’t the boss. This time he was only here to assist. He didn’t know the area and he didn’t know the skills of the staff. This was Ron’s team. Not his. He turned to face Ron. “I’ll go wherever you need me. Just let me know how I can help.”

There was a glimmer of amusement on Ron’s face—almost as if he knew Jack was trying to resist interfering.

Ron glanced around, whistled and then put his hands about his head, clapping loudly. “Right, everyone—pay attention. We have work to do, so listen up, people. Okay, Marie Frank, Akito, Sarah, Leia and Tom, I want you all back in the ER with the doors open to receive casualties as soon as we have the all clear. Abram, Jess, Sito and Amal, you’ll be team one.” He pointed to a position on the map. “I want you out here. Collect your emergency kits. There’s an overturned bus with an unknown amount of casualties. Coordinate with the Red Cross. They gave us the initial information. They may also have some staff that can assist.”

He turned to face Jack and held his hand above his head. “People, some of you might have already met this guy. This is Jack Campbell, an army doc from Scotland who has offered to assist at this time. In an emergency, we take all the international help we can get. Follow his instructions as you would mine.”

He turned toward Amber. “And this is Dr. Amber Berkeley from the Disease Prevention Agency. We have two teenagers in the basement with a strain of meningitis W. Before the hurricane, Dr. Berkeley identified a number of key contacts who require antibiotics. At the moment we only have a rough idea of where those people might be. Dr. Berkeley will give you a list of names and addresses, and some spare antibiotics. If you come across any of these people at evacuation centers, or you are near to the addresses and it’s safe, feel free to try and make contact. In the meantime—” his pale gray eyes turned to Amber “—Dr. Berkeley will also be assisting in the field.”

Ron pointed to two other members of staff. “Dr. Campbell will be leading team two along with Dr. Berkeley and Lana and Jamal. Guys, show our new doctors where they can pick up supplies and radios. You guys will be covering the high school where the roof has been damaged. Team three.”

He pointed to some other staff and shouted names. “You’ll be covering the elderly care center, and also check on the additional needs facility nearby. After that, head to the high school with team two.” Ron stopped and took a deep breath. “As soon as we get radio confirmation it’s safe to go outside, the police will be here to assist us. Chances are, none of us are going to get any sleep anytime soon. Stay safe, people. Now, let’s do what we’re trained to.”

* * *

Amber hadn’t even realized she was holding her breath as Ron spoke. It was almost as if he flicked a switch. The buzz began immediately. But instead of more bedlam, it was like a weird kind of organized chaos.

She’d recognized something in Jack during Ron’s talk. She could see how hard he found it to defer to someone else. How had that really worked for a guy in the army? An army was all about rank and discipline.

But she’d seen him swallow and tell Ron that he’d go wherever he was needed. Ron must have recognized the struggle too, because he’d almost laughed out loud, then decided they should go to one of the most challenging areas.

It was clear he had faith in the skills of an army surgeon.

But would he have the same kind of faith in her? Her stomach twisted. That awful feeling of having to prove herself all over again.

“Let’s go,” said Jack. He was already following the two staff they’d been assigned to work with. Amber gave herself a shake and pushed everything else from her head. They followed Lana and Jamal tentatively down the stairs, and after a quick check through the doors, they braced themselves against the continuing wind sweeping through the building and headed toward the ER.

All the staff who arrived in the ER moved seamlessly, locating emergency packs and handing out tabards for all staff. Amber found herself wearing a bright orange vest over her jacket with the word “DOCTOR” emblazoned across it in fluorescent white letters.

It was odd. She’d thought she might feel more awkward than she did. But she seemed to find her place and slot into it. Maybe it was the complete air of calm around Jack. Or the sideways glances he kept shooting at her when he thought she wasn’t watching. She tried to keep her professional face in place. There was so much going around about her, it was easy to follow every instruction given and pay attention to the briefings about equipment they could carry, potential patients and what they might face outside.

Lana and Jamal seemed confident in their roles. Lana showed Amber where everything was in her pack and handed her an emergency supply of drugs. They’d moved down to the ER and other staff ensured the department was ready to open. The wind was still fierce outside but the intensity had started to diminish. Eventually, they heard a set of sirens outside. Jack appeared at her shoulder, stuffing something in the bag on her back. She tried to turn around. “Wh...what?” she asked.

“Extra pads,” he said casually. Somehow the sense of him beside her was reassuring. It didn’t stop her head going to the place it wanted to be—finding a way to the patients she was supposed to see. Finding out where Aaron’s parents were. Keeping to her mission.