The inside of the building was a residence.
Whether the owner had already fled, there were no signs of anyone on the first floor.
There was no way down to a basement.
Then it had to be the second floor.
Tatadak!
Taesu took the stairs two at a time.
The second floor seemed to consist of two rooms and one bathroom.
From one of the two rooms came a muffled groan.
“Grrr.”
“You’re holding up well. Though you’ll have to hold out a little longer… Rachel, how much longer on the gauze?”
“I’m preparing it now.”
“I told you to practice laying out gauze. You’re damn slow.”
It was Kim Hyeokgwon’s voice, and Private Rachel’s.
Taesu’s ears pricked sharply.
There was no reason to listen any longer.
Tadak!
He immediately rushed toward the room where the voices were coming from.
The door was open, so entering took only an instant.
The moment he crossed the threshold—
Click.
“Freeze.”
A cold voice and the sensation of a gun barrel greeted him.
Taesu quickly raised both hands and glanced at the other man.
It was an unfamiliar white soldier.
He was clearly under tremendous tension, enough that his lips were dry. Seeing the insignia with four stripes stacked on it, he was a sergeant.
Just as Taesu was about to answer—
Sergeant Ryan’s voice came a beat sooner.
“Gibson, lower your weapon. That’s Doctor Choi.”
At those words, Sergeant Gibson quickly lowered his gun and saluted.
Snap.
“My apologies.”
“It’s only natural that you be on guard against anyone.”
“Thank you for understanding.”
“No, thank you. Sergeant Gibson, thank you for enduring and holding out.”
Thud.
Taesu grasped Sergeant Gibson’s saluting hand.
Sergeant Gibson’s eyes, on his gaunt, dried-out face, reddened slightly.
Taesu’s words and actions seemed to have touched his heart.
He held himself together with all his might as he replied.
“Thank you sincerely for coming to such a dangerous place.”
“Let’s save that greeting until we get out of here safely, and do it again with a hug.”
“Sir. I’ll do that.”
“Then, there are emergency patients, so excuse me.”
Pat.
Taesu lightly patted his shoulder and moved again.
It had only been a brief greeting, but Sergeant Gibson watched Taesu for a long while.
In the meantime, Taesu took in everything inside the room.
The emergency patients came into view first.
Judging by the drainage tube Kim Hyeokgwon was connecting to the abdomen of a black soldier, that seemed to be Private Black.
And Private Rachel was assisting beside him.
Sergeant Ryan had his back turned.
He was carefully examining the grotesque calf of a white soldier.
From that, it had to be Corporal Aiden.
What else stood out was the state of the building.
As he had seen from outside, one wall had collapsed inward.
But the sight was not natural.
The debris was not scattered widely, but piled upward. And there was a space between the debris and the other wall.
Only after seeing that space did Taesu guess.
‘They made cover and stayed inside it. Smart.’
Because it was on the second floor, it couldn’t be seen from outside, and the only entrance was the door he had just come through.
That meant it was good for hiding, and even if discovered, somewhat more ideal for defense.
While Taesu was looking around like that—
Kim Hyeokgwon’s irritation-laced scolding rang out.
“If you’re here, hurry up and get involved. What are you looking at?”
“I need to know what kind of environment they were hiding in to understand the progression of their symptoms.”
“So how long are you going to look?”
“I’m done. I’m getting involved now… Ryan.”
Taesu called out to Sergeant Ryan as he approached.
Kim Hyeokgwon said nothing more after that.
It was obvious he had grumbled because he was glad to see Taesu first.
Even with that brief look around, Taesu could instinctively tell the patients were in bad shape. Kim Hyeokgwon must have felt helpless on his own.
Taesu was fairly broad-minded about such things.
So without complaint, he approached Sergeant Ryan.
Sasak.
Taesu quickly lowered himself and first opened the house-call bag, dusty here and there.
At the same time, he asked Sergeant Ryan.
“What emergency treatment has been done so far?”
“Morphine injection administered three minutes ago, and we were irrigating the wound.”
As he said, the area below the patient’s knee was soaked.
Taesu examined it with his eyes while his hands moved, beginning preparations for emergency treatment.
Splash, snap.
First with saline, second with alcohol, third with antiseptic—he cleaned his hands in three stages.
It was thanks to Sergeant Ryan having bought him time.
If there was even the slightest leeway, it was only natural to prepare more thoroughly for hygiene and infection control.
Lastly, as he put on surgical gloves, he called to the patient.
“Corporal Aiden.”
“Ugh. Sir.”
“I’m not a military doctor, so you don’t need to be so stiff. How bad is the pain right now?”
Snap.
Taesu asked as he pulled on the surgical gloves.
Without turning his head, Corporal Aiden answered only with his voice.
“The overall pain has been reduced by about eighty percent. Even so, below the knee, I sporadically feel tingling sensations.”
“You really are a soldier. Your report has structure.”
“Thank y—ugh. Thank you.”
It seemed a sporadic pain had struck in the middle of his reply.
Taesu’s eyes gradually narrowed.
The calf was in exactly as bad a state as he had expected. As was characteristic of gunshot wounds, the exit wound was far larger than the entry wound.
Analyzing the injury, he pictured the situation when the shot had occurred.
‘A bullet fired while he was running struck the calf of his trailing leg directly.’
The type of gun used was a rifle, and the distance was estimated to be roughly a little over one hundred meters.
In terms of a rifle’s effective range, that was close range.
That was why the entry and exit wounds differed by several times in size.
Taesu said with a regretful expression.
“Even if you were in a hurry, you should have run in a zigzag.”
“Hup!”
Flinch.
Corporal Aiden was visibly shaken.
It was as though a secret had been exposed.
Taesu continued without concern.
“And you wrapped the wound with whatever you could grab. That was good, but it would’ve been even better if you’d used something cleaner… Tsk.”
In the end, Taesu clicked his tongue.
He was not scolding him for an emergency measure that wasn’t even in first aid manuals.
He simply felt a deep regret that the wound could have been managed a bit more carefully.
It was then.
Swoosh.
For the first time, Corporal Aiden turned his head.
His pale skin was drenched in cold sweat to the point of shining.
It was impossible to describe how much pain he must have endured all this time.
Perhaps that was why he had not shown his face.
As if that no longer mattered, Corporal Aiden stared at Taesu with wide eyes.
Taesu felt that gaze as well.
Clatter.
Setting up the surgical instruments, he asked.
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
“How did you…”
“I think you’d better ask Ryan that.”
“S-Sir.”
His reply was awkward.
Taesu paid it no mind and spoke to Sergeant Ryan.
“Ryan, please wipe the cold sweat off Corporal Aiden’s face first.”
“Understood.”
“And he’s likely dehydrated, so relieve his thirst with saline.”
“Yes. Anything else?”
“That’s all for now.”
Splash.
Taesu finished speaking as he poured antiseptic over the wound.
Sergeant Ryan immediately moved according to Taesu’s orders.
Soon, saline flowed into Corporal Aiden’s mouth.
“Mm? Mmph! Gulp, gulp!”
“Aiden, slowly.”
“Gulp, gulp!”
Corporal Aiden, who had seemed puzzled at first, was soon gulping down the saline ravenously.
Even Sergeant Ryan’s attempts to stop him were useless.
Just from the sound, Taesu could tell what was happening.
Corporal Aiden must have been too tense to realize it until now. But the moment fluid entered him, the urge to quench his thirst must have surged up.
Because something similar had happened yesterday, Taesu could guess.
It was a bleak memory.
Shake, shake.
Taesu shook it off and focused on the present.
Perhaps because Sergeant Ryan had cleaned it once already, the wound was clear.
So Taesu sharpened his gaze further and examined it in detail.
First, the bleeding had stopped.
That was a good thing.
However, blue bruising was spreading from the tips of the toes.
‘It’s a symptom of tissue necrosis.’
Taesu recognized it immediately.
That was an external symptom apart from the wound itself.
The condition of the penetrated wound was far more serious.
To begin with, the tissue around both the entry and exit wounds had necrotized black. Not only that, but the inside of the penetrating wound, where the bleeding had stopped, was the same.
A considerable amount of skin and muscle would have to be scraped away.
Fortunately, it seemed the major arteries and veins of the calf had been avoided.
If there were problems with those blood vessels, to put it coldly, he could not have survived until now.
But it was too early to think luck had been on his side.
Thud. Thud.
Taesu slowly palpated from the thigh down to the calf.
The more he did, the darker his expression became.
‘There was a lot of bleeding.’
The muscles had shriveled.
That kind of bleeding could not be ordinary.
After figuring that much out—
Taesu was not in a situation where he could focus only on this side.
He had to take care of Private Black as well.
Tap, tap.
So Taesu prepared bupivacaine as he called out to Kim Hyeokgwon.
“Hyeokgwon, how is it on your end?”
“For now, I’m draining the intraperitoneal bleeding.”
“What about the damaged organs?”
“I don’t have the skill to determine that much. Unless we just go ahead and do an abdominal section.”
Kim Hyeokgwon spoke boldly without hesitation.
But Taesu nodded, understanding.
“Then what about the blood drainage volume?”
“Right now, what’s accumulated is coming out, so I think we’ll need several paper cups’ worth. We’ll only know properly once the pressure goes down.”
“Okay. Medication?”
Taesu asked as he administered bupivacaine broadly around the calf.
Kim Hyeokgwon’s reply came immediately.
“Morphine administered. That’s it.”
“Clean and good.”
“I’m someone who lives by orders too, you know.”
“Then please add the basic three-piece set: hemostatic agent, antibiotic, and lidocaine.”
Taesu was not merely giving orders.
He was also preparing the drugs he had ordered.
Click.
Breaking open an ampoule, drawing it into a syringe, finding a vein, administering it.
The three steps repeated continuously.
A short distance away, Kim Hyeokgwon was moving exactly the same way as Taesu.
It was then.
Sergeant Ryan, who was wearing an in-ear device, suddenly shouted.
“Three, get down!”
The moment those words rang out—
Everyone’s eyes changed.
They were in the middle of emergency treatment, but they had maintained tension on the other side of their minds.
Thanks to that, their reactions were fast.
Taesu and Kim Hyeokgwon quickly lifted surgical drapes, each covering a wound, and threw themselves over them.
Sasak!
Sergeant Ryan and Private Rachel each protected the patients’ faces.
Sergeant Gibson, who had been standing by the door, also dropped down with agility.
“……”
Silence fell.
One second… Two seconds…
Time was passing.
Bang!
A single gunshot rang out.
And a moment later—
Kwa-gwa-gwang!
The sound of an explosion followed with a slight delay.
It wasn’t here.
But it was by no means the sound of an ordinary explosion.
‘What is that now?’
Taesu, and everyone else as well, were bewildered by the unfamiliar sound of the blast.