CODE 3
Mariana
I glanced at the wrist comp and saw CODE 3 in glowing red letters. Glancing towards the tent clearing I was looking for Andy as I was running down the bluff. Predictably he was nowhere to be seen; I hit the medical tent yelling over the wrist comp for Kurt to get the OR ready. Grabbing up the instrument kit I saw Sally exiting with the Shock / Trauma kit. We started running for the rescue boat.
Andrew
I had just finished handing the mug back to Hanna when my wrist comp went off. The glowing CODE 3 was as big a shock as I had felt lately. Dropping the drag straps I went to speed for the run to the tent. Once there I ditched the Springfield and grabbed the thigh pouch went out of the tent and back to speed. I caught up to Mariana and Sally just as they were scrambling in the rear hatch. I slid in through the command hatch and into the right seat just as Bart was starting the count. As we rose up in height we picked up the line of sight beacon that someone had put in place.
Seeing that Bart was easily clearing any obstacles in our flight path, I reached in to the thigh pouch and pulled out the goggles, toggling them for night vision I synched them to the control panel. As we began to approach a sandy spit with Rocco gesturing us in, I could see that Bart was having trouble seeing through the increasing darkness and light rain.
“Bart, I have night vision up, want me to take the bird?”
His reply was heartfelt, “Yes please, this is a bear!”
“OK, hands on; my bird, now!”
I landed us about 40 Ft. away from Rocco and as I heard the rear hatch bang open, I reached into the pouch and handed Bart one of the two Surefire lights.
Going out through the passenger / cargo area, I grabbed three of the battery spot lights stored back there and moved to the spot where Thompson was down. With Rocco and Bart’s help we had the three spots up just in time to see Sally try to jump start Thompson for what appeared to be the second time. Just then Marina grabbed Sally’s shoulder.
“Don’t knock yourself out, check this EEG!”
Sally nodded and leaned over the display, “Wow, we never had a chance; what happened to him?”
Mariana looked at his hand and then his feet and said, “Somewhere between 2 and 3 Amps right through the Central Nervous System. Fried idiot on the spot!”
From that statement there was nothing left to do except photograph the spot, plant a return marker and pack up the body. Even Histy agreed that further investigation would have to wait till morning.
As we were bagging the body, I happened to notice his shoes.
“Travis, Bartlett; come take a look at this.”
They both looked and gave me quizzical looks. “Hard leather guys with metal brads no less. This dummy was the shortest path to ground!”
It takes all kinds to try something like Alchibah and Mother Nature had just culled one who could not cut it!