by Matt J. Pike
We were soon beyond range of the enemy, but it definitely didn’t feel like safety. Ye-jun was losing blood – it wasn’t life-draining amounts, but it sure was leaving some nice breadcrumbs on the road, which would be more visible by morning. We also had no idea what was happening behind us – whether they would follow on foot or leave us be. And we had to find a way back to safety without giving away who we were and where we’d come from, for anyone who cared to look the next day.
We soon slowed to a walk. Ye-jun was struggling to keep pace as it was and walking allowed us to keep an ear out for enemy movement in case they decided to chase. We walked as close as we could to the eastern side of the road, hoping it was the best place possible to blend into the red landscape as visibility started to obscure us. We kept quiet – even Ye-jun managed to swallow most of the pain. He was amazing.
While we couldn’t hear a thing behind us, which was possibly a good sign, crossing the stretch of road from when we were out of arrow range until we reached the Greenhill Rd intersection was as nervous as I’ve ever been. We were in between two different enemy territories, the sky was lit up around us and we had a man wounded. Worst of all, we really had no idea what was going on around us at that moment. It was a small stretch of road, but crossing it seemed to take forever.
Eventually we hit the intersection and immediately cut right around the corner. Ye-jun slumped into the ash pile by the roadside, exhausted (though probably not ideal for keeping his wounds clean).
After being asked in three different ways if he was alright, and replying with an unconvincing nod, we moved the conversation onto what we were going to do to get back. The direct route across the parklands from where we were was a no-go – we figured there would be eyes all over this place come daylight and we couldn’t leave a calling card like that. Instead, we’d follow the path back to near Osmond Tce, pick a spot where the footprints over the wall were already obvious, cross it there and head west to home.
Shane had two t-shirts on under his black sweater. He stripped down and took one off to give to Ye-jun to press up against the wound to limit the blood spilling out on the street. We helped Ye-jun to his feet again and set off once more.
Before we’d made it even halfway back up Stuart Rd we heard the sound of engines. We stopped again and tried to pick the direction of the noise. We were pretty sure it was coming from the north, which meant the Norwood hubbers – like we didn’t have enough problems. Soon we could make out the distant dance of headlights as they played tricks in the night at the end of Stuart Rd.
At that point the plan went out the window. We bailed out over the wall ash. Shane led the way, stopping at the top to offer a hand to Ye-jun, while Kelly and I pushed him from behind. He was soon over and Kelly followed. I did my best to cover any trace of our tracks and the fresh blemishes in the wall, both before and after I’d made the climb.
We found cover in the first front yard along the side street and waited there as we heard the engines get closer. Not long after, three cars rolled by at slow cruising pace, while a spotlight searched briefly up the street we were on. My heart rate was officially through the roof at this point. Soon, the spotlight chased shadows somewhere else and the sound of engines receded. We waited, without moving, until we were absolutely sure nothing unexpected would greet us when we headed down the side street and back to base. One final check that the coast was clear, then we left, and never looked back.
We made our way west and north as the streets allowed until we reached the parklands. The journey home took well over twice as long as the one out there. Ye-jun was barely with it when we got back – pale and drained.
*
When we did finally arrive, it was late. Well, late for a normal night at the oval. Everyone was waiting for us – everyone. Camp was usually sleepy this time of night but the sound of gun shots and the distant red light show meant they knew something was up. It got pretty emotional when we greeted people – some had definitely feared the worst. Attention soon turned to Ye-jun’s injury. Jan, who was in charge of the medical supplies, and Michael, who was the least unqualified person to deal with the injury, were soon prepping for their first operation.
Shane, Kelly and I tagged along because, well, we had to – we just had to.
They gave Ye-jun some codeine for the pain and cleaned the area as best they could while waiting for the drugs to kick in. The wound was dirty and bloody and, despite flinching a few times, Ye handled it well. He also had a bottle of scotch at his side for extra medicinal pain relief. He took more than one healthy swig – I chose not to count.
They had a bunch of medical equipment, no doubt swiped from one of their runs to the Women’s and Children’s or Royal Adelaide hospitals – they made sure all of it was as clean as possible – sterilising everything as best they could. Soon enough they were ready to start the real work.
That’s when things got hard to watch. Michael told him he wanted to free the barbs on the arrowhead from the flesh before he pulled it out. Ye-jun nodded... but everyone knew this wasn’t going to be fun. There was a huge game of trust going on as well. Michael looked so damn nervous, which didn’t fill anyone with confidence – least of all Ye-jun.
As soon as Michael put his forceps near the wound, Ye-jun writhed and screamed. Michael pulled back, collected himself and tried again. He was talking to Ye the whole time – that was good – telling him exactly what he was about to do and waiting for an acknowledgement before continuing. So, communication was great, but try as he might, he wasn’t getting anywhere near that wound without it causing tap-out pain. I think he had five goes at it before he put the instrument down and started talking about other options.
Those options, as it turns out, weren’t really options at all. Well, the arrow had to come out, so it was either prod around and try to minimise the damage, while extending the pain... or just rip it out.
At that point Ye-jun cried and took another generous swig from the bottle. It was one of those cries that had more than a splash of ironic laugh about it, but yeah, I’ll never forget it. Not only was I almost feeling the pain of injury and the pain of choice myself ... I was also totally aware that the arrow was as randomly likely to have been buried into my body. Can’t quite explain how that was processed by me as I watched Ye-jun have to choose between two thoroughly unappealing options – there was a lot of guilt in there, I know that much.
After what seemed like an age, Ye-jun had made his decision. “Rip it out,” he said, before another swig.
He sounded determined, but looked like he regretted it immediately.
“You sure?” said Michael.
After a slightly shorter pause Ye nodded.
Then all eyes went to Michael, who shared an expression with Ye. He put his hand around the stub of the arrow shaft and swallowed hard as he prepared for the big move.
Everyone braced for what was to come – not just those directly involved.
Michael counted down from three, and when he hit one, he gave the arrow a rip. Ye-jun shrieked in pain but Michael’s grip slipped from the arrow and it remained lodged in place – they both swore. A fresh wave of blood soon oozed up from the wound and Jan padded away at it with some towels.
Ye-jun battled the new dose of pain with some scotch and quick shallow breathing. He seemed to settle somewhat after 30 seconds or so. Michael kept talking to him the whole time. Firstly, he apologised, then he told Ye-jun he reckoned the arrowhead was caught on something and he’d need to manoeuvre it around rather than rip it out on his next attempt.
I don’t think either was looking forward to the experience.
When all had settled they exchanged nods and Michael reached for the arrow again. This time he fixed his grip on it and gently eased it in a few different directions to get a feel for where the impediment was and how he might best free it. They may have been gentle movements, but not for Ye. He screamed again.
Michael felt something he liked, leaned the arrow into the centre of Ye-ju
n body, then pulled and twisted. Ye-jun screamed in new levels of pain. This time it was worth it – the arrow came away in Michael’s hand.
The hole in Ye’s side gaped for a moment before filling with blood; it soon spilled out over his body once more. Jan gently pressed in a new towel to soak it up.
Once Ye had settled a little from the pain he looked at Michael and said, “Thank you.” The conversation turned to what we were going to do to close the wound. Ye-jun had lost a fair bit of blood and there was bleeding coming from deep within, so stitching the surface area didn’t seem like it was a good fit. We gave things a little while to see if the bleeding would settle and give him a chance to recover. It did slow down, but it didn’t stop. We were really in uncharted territory and nobody knew what to do. The options were:
Go exploring in the wound to see if there was any internal damage that could be stitched up before the external wound was stitched.
Stitch the external wound and hope for the best internally
Wait until the morning, see if the bleeding had stopped and make a call from there.
After plenty of debate, and Ye-jun getting final say of course, we decided the latter was the way to go. Jan was going to stay with Ye-jun during the night to monitor the situation – blood loss, pain etc. We would make a call first thing in the morning.
Oh, for a doctor.
***
February 1, 2015
Ye-jun was getting the last of his stitches put in when I got down there this morning. Michael did a pretty decent job of it, actually. Well, they don’t look too much like a Frankenstein creation, so that’s something. The bleeding eased up significantly overnight, so everyone crossed their fingers and hoped an external fix will do the job. Fingers are also staying crossed that he doesn’t get an infection from either the ash he was exposed when he got hit, or the state of our medical equipment.
He’s on a course of antibiotics – he’ll take them for a week or so. If everything’s still good by then, he’ll hopefully be in the clear.
We’ve swiped a fair stash of antibiotics from the hospitals and chemists, which is very handy, because life expectancy would drop pretty swiftly without them. We know that this is our lifetime supply, though. It’s one thing we don’t have the capability to make ourselves and probably never will. Even with our current stash, there’s used-by dates. While they are probably ultra conservative and the meds may work for several years beyond that, it is a very important and very finite resource. Hopefully Kent can come up with something that works longer term – he certainly thinks he can – but it’s going to be more herbs and natural remedies rather than science.
Still, that’s a problem for another day. Right now it’s just great to see Ye-jun pain free (well, compared with yesterday) and hopefully on his way to recovery.
*
The war room was also busy again this morning. We really didn’t get a chance to debrief everyone on the events of last night, given there were more immediate priorities when we got home. This morning we had our chance.
Once we churned all the new information together with what we found out the other day, this is what we’ve come up with:
•Yes, the Fullarton area is an active hub – confirmed.
•Most likely explanation for their readiness is they’ve seen the Norwood crew coming, as the path is being extended down Fullarton Rd. They knew something bad was coming, hence having a look-out on overnight – they thought we were Norwood essentially, and they were ready.
•That means chances are the road down that way is fresh. So, we can guess they were/are Norwood’s next target.
•As for what that means for the other cleared road that seems to be pointing at a flanking move against us, well, not sure.
Originally, our next move was to head back that way tonight, to see where Norwood had extended the trail today and by how much. It would’ve provided us with some really good intel around the potential timing and area of the next attack on us. But everyone was in agreement – it’s far too risky.
Something is clearly on the verge of happening between those two groups and when you factor in everything that’s at stake for us, the best option is to stay well clear.
In terms of how what we now know changes what we do from here, well, it’s significant. Firstly, we need to pay more attention to our southern wall, that is clear. We’ll now post a night lookout on the East Tce/South Tce corner as well. Shane’s also going to set a few booby traps on the two inbound roads they are likely intent on using. He’s going to set up a couple of tripwires across each road, which will set off flares when triggered. He’ll also set up major sections of key roads in the south of the city with enough sharp objects to puncture every tyre that rolls over them (then cover the lot in ash). We have a map and a plan around this and we’ll leave enough room down each road for anyone to drive their way through safely, if they know which parts to avoid.
Meanwhile, Jonesy is moving from car repair to full-time work on the trebuchets. He and Jonah reckon they can get the first one pretty close to being test worthy today, but we’ll definitely need a second in pretty quick time, to put on the southern wall. Then a third, fourth… whatever we can make. But it’s the first one that will take longest. There’s so much detail in how they operate and fire that Jonesy reckons can only be tested on the real sized Trebuchet. So, building it is one thing, learning how to fire it is something else altogether.
Anyway, hopefully we’re starting that process this afternoon – tomorrow at the earliest. And while they’re fine-tuning trebuchet one, another team will be taking out the Thunderbirds and sourcing all the wood they need to build our array of trebuchets.
Finally, ammo has now become mission critical, which means a road trip to Cross Rd Bowls to stock up on bowling balls. So, today’s plan is to head out with Shane and Kelly, booby trap our planned segments of road with a bunch of sharps, then cover them with ash. At that point we’ll loop around the southern wall where it ends past West Tce, drop Shane back up on the other side to do his thing with the flare trip wires, then I’ll head with Kelly down Goodwood Rd to Cross Rd.
*
In one bit of good news, the final parts of the perimeter wall should be going up today. The team has been working overtime on that and the secondary walls in recent days. It’ll be a relief to know it’s done – especially now.
*
Not much to report on the laying of the sharps booby traps, other than it took four hours. We had five separate trap locations, which covered every possible entry point into the CBD, should they flank through the two roads that look most likely. At each location we covered the middle section of the road with sharps, allowing a lane on either side sharp-free as safe passage to anyone who was in the know. We then put up some markers on the road to let us know where they were in future, but nothing that would be noticed by the untrained eye.
In the end, we had the southern ends of Pulteney St, Hutt St and East Tce set, as well as two significant points along South Tce. We left feeling pretty confident we had all the bases covered.
*
We also have another team testing the capacity of the two-way radios. The signal can get very patchy to non-existent in some places when the conditions get heavy. It’ll be great to know our limitations a little more precisely, so we can plan around them accordingly. We already know there can be reception problems on South Tce. And when I say reception problems, the signal can vary from pretty decent, to fuzzy as all hell, to nothing at all. Those last two options are pretty far from ideal given what we’re heading into. So, they’re going to run a few tests to see how we can maximise what we can do when the weather is not playing ball, as it is today.
Like everything in this world, we are very much at the whim of the weather. We already know on those days when the ash closes in, it affects the signal. Of course, the weather can come in just as easily as the ash – the two are often, but not always, connected, so you have to be on your toes about what is really happeni
ng in the atmosphere around you.
Anyway, it looks like it’s going to be one of those days where the signal might be stretched down south. So they’re going to head down and test out a number of points in and around our lookouts to see if they can improve the signal… or, in some cases, just find one.
*
After we dropped Shane off, we followed the wall back down to West Tce again, then headed south. Unlike the trip to the beach, we didn’t need our flag marker system. Goodwood Rd was high enough above the major tsunami damage, with enough remaining landmarks, to help guide our way.
I couldn’t help but think back to the fishing trip as we went, though – these two missions couldn’t have been further apart. The only similarity was covering new territory across the Adelaide plains. It was also ground that had probably not seen human activity in nearly a year.
The trip was just Kelly and I – and conversation was down. I mean, we chatted, but it just didn’t have the same flow without Ye-jun there. And when it didn’t flow right, it was just a reminder of his absence and why.
The fishing trip was also an adventure of discovery and positive futures. Even if we hadn’t caught any fish, we were still setting the agenda for the city and staying ahead of the game. But this trip was all about covering someone else’s game-changer. We weren’t being creative and positive, we were negating someone else’s move.
After about 40 minutes of travelling up Goodwood Rd, we hit the Cross Rd intersection. The main structure of the bowling centre was intact. In fact, it looked like it wasn’t as far from the front of the tsunami line as I had first imagined, given it was a couple of kilometres closer to the beach than, say, Norwood. But, when I think about it, the hill line arc around the city and this place was probably as close to the foothills in the other direction as Norwood. Funny how your view of your own city can change when you’re looking at it in an entirely different way.