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“So I collected the spent rounds to avoid any evidence, covered ourselves with wheat, and waited out the daylight.” Kee knelt beside Archie and watched John redo his bandaging. Archie lay still on the dirt floor of the hut, but his color was good under the flashlight’s beam. It had been a long, brutal walk back, but they’d managed. She’d had to rig a rope from their three rifle straps to get him over the wall.
Beale wanted to come fetch them when they radioed in, but Archie had mumbled that he’d rather walk. They didn’t dare the risk of flying so close to the still humming airbase.
“This is one ugly field dressing, Smith.” But there was good humor in it. Good enough, it had kept the blood in and the arm immobile.
The saline drip feeding into his arm would help more. John poured anti
