Free DIRE : SEED (The Dire Saga Book 2) by Andrew Seiple Page B

that Martin had hauled her to my main bedroom area, and put her on the best cot. But I bit back my criticism, as I saw him work, hands stained with blood as he pulled bandages out of the first-aid kit, a laptop open next to him showing a gridsite of medical procedures.
    “Hey,” I said, once he looked like he’d reached a stopping point. “How is she?”
    “Bad. Lost a lot of blood, I think. She’s pretty pale. Hey, this is the badass one, right? The Militia chick who stuck around to train our guys?”
    “And the one who helped Dire take out Stig. Well, sort of.”
    I’d done most of the heavy lifting when we’d gone to kill the Black Blood lieutenant. He’d brought an APC to a power-armor fight. But Bunny and her squad had softened his forces up beforehand, and I owed her for that.
    She’d also joined in on the final assault against the Black Bloods. She was the only one of her gang who had, when the chips were down. I owed her for that.
    Martin nodded. “Okay. Sorry for spazzing out earlier. Yeah, she was cool.”
    “Think she’ll survive?”
    He shrugged. “Gonna try to soak a rag, get it in her mouth so she gets water. Same for broth in a few hours. You’ve got soup or something right?”
    “That can be arranged.”
    “On the plus side, looks like the bullet that hit her didn’t get anything vital. I think. If we’re lucky. And the bullet’s still in there.”
    I frowned. “Isn’t that bad? Don’t we have to dig it out?”
    “Fuck no. That’s some Hollywood bullshit. You dig out the bullet, it starts the bleeding again. Maybe does worse if it’s near an artery or some shit like that.”
    “Ah. Going to have to take your word for it.”
    He moved to the main bathroom, started washing his hands. I followed, pulling at my blouse. More scabs gave, with a tearing tug, and I gasped a bit. He glanced back, saw how stained my own clothing was. Not much compared to Bunny’s, but the back was a mess.
    “Goddamn. Uh. Can you get your blouse off?” He looked sheepish.
    I nodded and went back, tugging it off as I went. I grabbed a swivel chair, turned it around, and sat with my breasts pressed against the back of it.
    Eventually I heard him come in.
    A low whistle. “Wow. They gotcha good, huh?”
    “She did, yes.”
    “Bunny did this?”
    “Let’s just say that friendly fire isn’t too friendly.”
    “Alright. Lemme get some antiseptic, see what we’re dealing with.”
    I gritted my teeth as the wounds burned.
    “Now these, these pellets are close enough to the surface and not near anything big, so we can yank them out. Sorry Dire, this is gonna hurt. Want something to bite on?”
    “Do it.”
    “You’re hardcore. Sure, here we go.”
    Cold tweezers, searing pain, and I thumped the chair repeatedly with a fist as Martin did his work.
    “So you really don’t know first aid?”
    “Nothing medical related,” I confirmed, through clenched teeth. “At all.”
    Clink, clink, went pellets as he dropped them in a jar or bottle or something behind me.
    “Thought you were a supergenius? Uh, no offense an’ all.”
    “None taken. And Dire is, when it comes to machines, or most matters industrial. But organic effects and medical science? No good at all. Attention wanders when she tries to learn, and she can’t seem to retain any useful procedures. Best guess Dire has is that her past self scrambled that part of her brain to prevent Dire from undoing the surgical alterations.”
    Silence for a bit as he worked. A spritz of antiseptic spray later, and I was pounding the chair’s back harder, trying not to scream. But the pain faded to an ache, and I heard paper ripping as he started pressing cloth to my back.
    “There. Okay, we’re good.”
    I sighed. “Thank you, Martin.”
    “No problem. We ain’t even yet, but it’s kind of nice knowing I can be useful somehow, in some way you can’t do yourself.”
    I scooted the chair around to face him, my front still pressed against the chair’s