appreciative whistle from Alex broke the downward spiral of Sam’s thoughts that were trickling beneath what she needed to focus on as she carefully made her way down the ladder. Sadly, it wasn’t her skill in managing to keep the ladder so steady during her descent that he was admiring.
‘Will you look at that?’ he exclaimed. ‘I’m beginning to understand why you guys do this stuff.’
‘Amazing, isn’t it?’ But the agreement from their guide was perfunctory. ‘Come on, we need to go this way.’
Sam had only a few seconds to scan what had impressed Alex so much. The vertical drop from the higher-level tunnel ended in a huge cave festooned with stalactites over a black pool of water where massive stalagmites protruded like islands in an alien seascape. Shadows from her lamp cast shadows that accentuated the eerie scene but there was no time to do any more than register and file away the new experience. Not far into the tunnel leading away from the other side of the pool was where the accident had occurred. One man lay unable to move, thanks to a badly fractured leg. Two other men lay either beyond, or beneath, the rockfall, which had been caused by a minor earth tremor. It was fortunate there was no time to dwell on the possibility of another earthquake.
‘Bruce! How’re you doing, buddy?’
‘Thought you were never coming back, Mike.’
‘Sorry, mate. I had to wait for the chopper to get here so I could show them where you were. This is Alex and that’s Sam. They’re paramedics.’
‘Hope they’re good at shifting rock. My leg can wait.’
‘I’m not so sure about that.’ The beam from Sam’s lamp revealed an ominous pool of blood glistening on the dark rock beneath their patient. She stripped off her leather gloves and flexed her fingers repeatedly, but they were still too cold not to fumble with the zip on the pack Alex had brought with them.
‘I heard someone calling. I think it was Tim.’
‘Really?’ Mike’s relief was evident. ‘How long ago?’
‘A while back. I dunno. I’ve kind of lost track of time a bit. Arrrgh!’
‘Sorry.’ Sam had cut and pulled away the remnants of protective clothing over Bruce’s leg. Alex ripped open the packaging for a large gauze dressing and emptied a saline sachet to dampen it. He was ready to cover the open wound with the protruding bone on Bruce’s thigh.
‘We’re going to splint this leg, mate,’ Alex said. ‘We need to control the bleeding. We’re also going to give you something for the pain and start a drip to give you some fluids. Anything else hurting?’
‘No!’ Bruce pushed himself up onto his elbows. ‘Forget my leg. What we need to do is shift some of this rock. I couldn’t manage it by myself but with four of us…’ He fell back with a groan of frustration but the wave of his hand showed the others where he’d been shifting small pieces of rubble despite his injury.
‘There’s another crew coming in to deal with the rock,’ Sam said reassuringly. ‘They’ve got the equipment they’ll need.’
‘Where the hell are they, then?’
‘They have to come in the long way, Bruce,’ Mike said. ‘They couldn’t have got their gear through the “squeeze”. They’ll be a wee while yet.’
It had taken an hour for Sam and Alex to make their way through the underground maze to reach their patient. Another hour had been used in getting to the site after the call had come in and it had taken Mike over an hour to get out by himself and raise the alarm. Bruce had to have lost a significant amount of blood from his fractured femur in that period of time, and he could well have other injuries he wasn’t admitting to due to concern for his missing friends.
The tunnel they were in now was by no means large enough to make for easy working conditions and loose, jagged pieces of rubble from the collapse added to the difficulties presented. Sam bruised her knee when she knelt to try and establish IV access. She shredded a surgical glove and grazed her knuckles a short time later as she slipped a hand behind Bruce to check for any rib injuries.
Alex was as cheerful as ever. You could put that man anywhere and he would still function with a far higher than average level of competence. He would also remain cheerful and establish a rapport with any patient. Bruce relaxed noticeably with the distraction of conversation and became a lot less anxious when Mike decided to use his waiting time pushing as much rubble as he could back towards the cave end of the tunnel in preparation for the upcoming phase of the rescue effort.
Periodic calls to the trapped men quickly became part of the routine.
‘Tim? Can you hear me, mate? Steve? Are you OK?’
‘Keep calling,’Alex advised into the silence. ‘They may be able to hear us and it’ll help if they know there’s a rescue effort under way.’ The lamp beam swung away from Bruce. ‘Check this for me, Sam?’
‘Morphine, ten milligrams,’ Sam confirmed, holding the ampoule up to catch her own beam of light. ‘Expiry date’s fine.’
‘This might make you feel a bit sleepy,’ Alex informed Bruce, ‘and I’m going to give you something else so it doesn’t make you feel sick.’
‘Right. Hey, what’s the time?’
‘A bit after 6 p.m.’
Bruce swore softly. ‘The girls will be frantic.’
‘Girls?’
‘My wife, Lauren. And Steve’s wife, Courtney. They were going to come back and meet us at the tunnel entrance. Hey, Mike!’
‘What’s up, buddy?’ Mike had crawled back ready to start rolling a new piece of rock away.
‘What’s happening up top? Did you call the girls?’
‘They were here already when I went up. It was Lauren’s phone we used to call the emergency services.’
‘Is she all right?’
‘She’s worried,’ Sam told him, ‘but she’s OK. I had a word with her before we came down. She’ll be doing her best to look after her friend. She’s due to have a baby pretty soon, isn’t she?’
‘Courtney? Yeah, she’s due in about three or four weeks, I think. That’s why we took a week off work to come caving. Steve’s not going to get away much for a while after that. He might never get away again after this. Courtney worries enough at the best of times.’
‘Hmm.’ Sam had been concerned about the level of distress the pregnant woman waiting near the sinkhole had been in. How much worse was it going to be to know there were no signs of life yet from the father of her baby? She made a mental note to spend some time with Courtney after they had accompanied Bruce to the waiting helicopter. It was quite likely that it would be rather a long time before they could reach the trapped men and Sam could only hope that when they did, medical intervention would still be of benefit.
It was going to be a long night.
The more easily negotiated route to the underground cave took ninety minutes longer than the path Sam and Alex had taken. By the time the extra personnel and equipment
