Genesis Read Online Free PDF Page B

gurney rattled. Her eyes stared blankly ahead,
unfocussed. She was painfully thin, her skin flaky and dry. "Help . . ."
    Sara stroked back her hair as gently as she could. "We've got a lot
of people here and we're all going to help you. You just hang on for
me, okay? You're safe now." Sara stood, lightly resting her hand on
the woman's shoulder to let her know she was not alone. Two more
nurses were in the room, awaiting orders. "Somebody give me the
rundown."
    She had directed her request toward the uniformed emergency
medical techs, but the man across from her started talking, delivering
in rapid staccato the woman's vitals and the triage performed en
route. He was dressed in street clothes that were covered in blood.
Probably the bystander who had given aid at the scene. "Penetrating
wound between eleventh and twelfth ribs. Open fractures right arm
and leg. Blunt force trauma to the head. She was unconscious when
we arrived, but she gained consciousness when I started working on
her. We couldn't get her flat on her back," he explained, his voice filling
with panic. "She kept screaming. We had to get her in the bus, so
we just strapped her down. I don't know what's wrong with . . . I
don't know what—"
    He gulped back a sob. His anguish was contagious. The air felt
charged with adrenaline; understandably so, considering the state of
the victim. Sara felt a moment of panic herself, unable to take in the
damage inflicted on the body, the multiple wounds, the obvious
signs of torture. More than one person in the room had tears in their
eyes.
    Sara made her voice as calm as possible, trying to bring the hysteria
down to a manageable level. She dismissed the EMTs and the bystander
by saying, "Thank you, gentlemen. You did everything you
could just to get her here. Let's clear the room now so that we have
space to keep helping her." She told Mary, "Start an IV and prep a
central line just in case." She told another nurse, "Get portable X-ray
in here, call CT and get the surgical on-call." And said to another,
"Blood gas, tox screen, CMP, CBC, and a coag panel."
    Carefully, Sara pressed the stethoscope to the woman's back, trying
not to concentrate on the burn marks and crisscrossed slices in the
flesh. She listened to the woman's lungs, feeling the sharp outline of
ribs against her fingers. Breath sounds were equal, but not as strong as
Sara would've liked, probably because of the massive amount of
morphine they had given her in the ambulance. Panic often blurred
the line between helping and hindering.
    Sara kneeled down again. The woman's eyes were still open, her
teeth still chattering. Sara told her, "If you have any trouble breathing,
let me know, and I'll help you immediately. All right? Can you
do that?" There was no response, but Sara kept talking to her anyway,
announcing every step of the way what she was doing and why.
"I'm checking your airway to make sure you can keep breathing,"
she said, gently pressing into the jaw. The woman's teeth were reddish
pink, indicating blood in her mouth, but Sara guessed that was
from biting her tongue. Deep scratches marked her face, as if someone
had clawed her. Sara thought she might have to intubate her, paralyze
her, but this might be the last opportunity the woman had to
speak.
    That was why Will Trent would not leave. He had been asking
the victim about her condition in order to set up the framework for a
dying declaration. The victim would have to know she was dying before
her last words could be admitted in court as anything other than
hearsay. Even now, Trent kept his back to the wall, listening to every
word being spoken in the room, bearing witness in case he was
needed to testify.
    Sara asked, "Ma'am? Can you tell me your name?" Sara paused as
the woman's mouth moved, but no words came out. "Just a first
name, all right? Let's start with something easy."
    "Ah . . . ah . . ."
    "Anne?"
    "Nah . . . nah . . ."
    "Anna?"
    The