There Was No M

While the weather was still terrible, her boys were still fighting pretty much every day. They were exhausted and Gene, Spina and herself weren't much better off. Gene tried to make them take shifts going to the line and 2 staying at the aid station but Flo just always went to the line. She always said when Gene complained, "I know where my strengths are and I won't be able to do my job properly knowing that your in danger". Poor Gene couldn't really argue with that, so he let her do her job, mind you, he was rushed off his feet as well, man after man came in with all sorts of injuries or other ailments. Flo when the men were not in battle spent all her time in the aid station, treating the boys for trench foot, shell shock and bullet wounds. But some of the lads came to the hut for a chat, to talk about what they're struggling with and Flo was always ready with a cup of watery coffee or tea and a friendly ear to listen. What she didn't realise was this kindness was all that kept some of the men going, all the men knew she truly was the heart of Easy.

The men noticed their medics draining and running on pure adrenaline. In the field it looked like they could run up Currahee to the original Toccoa men, but in the aid station their movements were slower and they took more time to react in their sleep-deprived state. Yet all the men were sleep-deprived, with constant artillery barrages, battles and guard duty the men were only sleeping a couple of hours at most during the entire 24 hours of the day. Flo and Gene were faring slightly worse, obviously in battle they couldn't sleep but then there was the patients who needed round the clock care and then the evacuee's paperwork and making sure the men were taking care of themselves, well with all this to worry about Flo didn't even have time to write a letter to her family, let alone time to sleep. She and Gene would take it in turns in shifts when they could snatch a few minutes. Even when she did close her eyes and drift off, Flo kept seeing her friends injured or dead and hear the dreaded "MEDIC" call in her sleep and she would wake up clutching her medic bag ready to run to the man's aid.

She just sighed and got on with her job. Helping people was her job in this war and sending men home to their families was what she was going to do, not caring the personal cost. Except her boys didn't really accept this philosophy she had given herself and they made sure she at least ate once a day and drank enough to keep her going, but if they fussed she would get annoyed and snappy, so they kept it to a minimum to keep her in a somewhat good mood. One day Bill told her "Flo if we're worried about you we can't do our job properly". To which she replied "Bill, the same goes for me with you, I'm fine, I do not want special treatment because I'm a girl. I am simply doing the same job as Gene, yet I don't see you all fussing over him". Bill left it that, he couldn't argue with her logic.

Gene watched her with fascination, she had a runny nose and a hoarse voice but still carried on like there was nothing wrong. She was moving boxes and checking their stocks while talking to the men on the beds who were waiting to be moved back from the line. One afternoon she did Gene's job for him while he was sleeping for once and took the clipboard with the stocks lists to the CP, she was becoming slightly worried about the lack of medical supplies getting through to them due to the roadblocks, but she just had to make do and mend.

She opened the door and noticed Winters sat at a desk with a typewriter rubbing his forehead, she quickly saluted as he nodded at her and she continued her way to the main office where she found a Col Dobie commanders talking to Sink, Nix, Strayer, and Heyliger. "The boats are set and ready to go, but we don't know where to put the men when we bring them over the river,they need medical attention really" Dobie was saying. As the rest of the officers had clueless looks on thier faces, Flo spoke up and said "Sir, if they need medical attention then me and doc roe would be happy to help, bring them to the aid station. How many men do you have?"

Dobie stuttered for a minute "Umm 149, thank you Pvt...?"

"Hilton Sir"

"Hilton, yes they've been hiding in German-occupied territories across the Rhine since the battle of Arnhem. You certain?" he studied her face "You don't look too clever," he said noticing her voice kept cutting out and sporadically returning and she kept wiping her nose on her sleeve.

"Yes Sir I'm certain I'll go and start preparing for the men, do you need a medic to go down by the river?"

"No Fizz, the fewer personel down there the better" Nix said while looking over the map.

With that Flo left the room to return to the aid station, while Dobie said "Fizz? That her nickname?"

"Yeah, she's been with us since Toccoa" Heyliger replied

"Suits her" Dobie mused before they got back to business at hand.

***

The first wave of men arrived off the boats, Flo, Gene, and Spina were there ready. Flo took one of the men who was being supported by another soldier and set him down on a bed. She scanned him and noticed a bloody bandage around his thigh. "Hello, my name's Florence, I'm gonna look after you. What's your name?" she asked as she loosened the bandage to have a look at the wound. "James Mulqueeney" he replied wincing. As she saw the wound her heart sank, it was infected. "Damn it" she muttered. She ran to the stock piles and quickly drew up a syringe of penicillin, 'if this doesn't work I'll have to cut his leg off' she thought and this panicked her but she calmly continued and administered the drug. She wouldn't know if it had worked until tomorrow at the earliest, so she just poured sulpha on the wound and rebandaged it with a clean bandage. She checked his temperature and found it was normal and he wasn't sweating, 'thank goodness, no fever yet' she said in her head.

The rest of the night was the toughest thing she had ever done in her life. Man after man came in and most had serious problems with infection, bullet wounds, burns and shell shock. But the worst came when Flo had lost her voice fully and communicated through smiling and nodding/shaking her head, her nose was red raw with all the wiping and Flo hadn't eaten or drank in 16 hours. She was exhausted but the hut was calming down and most men had been taken care of, then shouting was heard in between the artillery blasts, suddenly Buck and Lieb appeared carrying a man who looked like he was fitting, Flo motioned to them to bring him to the only empty bed and Buck then said "Flo he's choking!". Her eyes widened and she started banging his chest, but nothing was coming up, she looked at Gene who joined and in her eyes he could tell what she was saying. "I'll go get him" Gene ran off and she continued trying to open his airway, she did all the usual procedures but nothing would move whatever was stuck in his throat.

Gene came running back with the surgeon, Arthur Park, who started taking over and re doing all the procedures Flo had already tried. Flo and Gene stood back glancing at each other, then Arthur said "He needs a tracheostomy, quick take him through, Hilton, you are going to assist", Gene cut in saying "Park I can easily assist you instead". Arthur looked at him "we don't have time to argue, as ranking medic, you're needed out here and i don't see Spina anywhere, now quick". Flo shot a 'sorry' look at Gene and quickly hurried to the surgery room and put on her 'sterile' gown. The patient couldn't be given anesthisa and so she gave him a syrette of morphine and hoped it would help him. Park came in and immediately started cutting the man's throat, but to Flo he looked shaky and a couple of seconds after he cut and Flo went in with the swab the blood started spouting out of the cut and went all over their faces, Flo  looked with her tourch into the man's neck and nodded her head towards Park who looked as well and took his forceps to pull what looked like shrapnel out of his throat. When he'd pulled it out the blood still spurted but slowed down and Flo thought this man should be okay as Park started to patch him up now the man could breathe on his own.

As she helped Park the man suddenly vomited all over her and started to look like he was fitting again, Flo was filled with fear and u did her belt and it over his tongue so he wouldn't choke while Park held him down. She gave a questioning look to Park who said "I think he's gone into anaphylaxis". Flo looked down and knew there was no hope for the man. She felt tears spring into her eyes and with one hand she held the belt and the other held his hand until he was no longer breathing. Park simply said "Time of death 6:47am".

Flo flew from the room blood all over her, as she ran past she heard Buck and Lieb asking what had happened, but she didn't stop she ran and ran until she was in a grassy field and there she tried to scream but no sound came out. She didn't care that she was in a dangerous position, being in the middle of a field, unarmed and maybe unclaimed territory, all she cared about was that she had failed. Sobel was right.

How could she think she could help people? She wasn't even clever enough to recognise that the man had a reaction to what she guessed was the morphine. They would have given him morphine if he wasn't allergic before he reached the aid station yet he hadn't had an M on his forehead and his medical bracelet had ripped during the battle. Flo started banging her hand against her head in frustration. She felt tears slip down her cheeks and she wiped them away quickly. She couldn't do this. She had promised herself 'I can't have a meltdown' she said to herself, but seeing so many of her friends dead or have to leave the company meant she was struggling to keep her promise.

But she still wouldn't cry.