Chapter 14: “Got Your Six” Five Finger Death Punch
The plan is easy. Well easier said than done. We are all suited up. Ky has me wearing a bulletproof vest under tons of leather. I may sweat to death before we ever get there. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him nervous but he was even quieter than his usual twenty words a day max self. He walks me to the van and gives me a brief kiss before closing the doors. Knocking the side to let the drivers know we are headed out. Seconds after the thunderous rumble of engines roar around us, we begin to head out.
Three hours later I feel like I’m a kid about ready to ask if we were there yet when we finally pull onto a dirt road. That's when Linx tells me to get down on the floor of the van and gives me a run through of what's about to go down. They are going to enter the compound and surge on where they know Dante is held up. Ky has called in all six other chapters to surround the compound so this time there is no escape for The Devils Posse.
It’s quiet for what seems like an eternity. Then there’s nothing but the sounds of bullets flying, men yelling, and glass breaking. The windshield of the van I’m in explodes around us, and I feel the weight of someone crashing down on top of me.
“Stay down!” Linx Yells over the noise, I wasn’t struggling. I was just lying there. I couldn’t find the courage to say anything. Everything was so loud, bangs and pops, followed by my screaming, all of it vibrated through the van’s metal floor. Every once in a while a larger bang would sound off rattling the vehicle. Slowly the noise eases down. I wait for it to stop. Finding myself more worried about Ky than anything else I’m experiencing at the moment.
I can hear Linx’s radio going off and tell him to get off me to answer it. He doesn’t move. It takes me seconds to realize Linx isn’t breathing and I do my best to shrug him off me, I ignore the wet hot blood covering my back. Its warm stickiness seeping around me onto the floor.
Suddenly, there’s more gunfire outside of the van. I look him over trying to see if I can find out where he was hit and stop the bleeding. I find the wound between his vest and armpit, and immediately apply pressure as I check for a pulse. I find one. It's weak but it's there wound is still bleeding even with the pressure I’m putting on it so I do the only thing I can think off at that moment and shove my fingers into it.
Linx doesn't move but through the wound I can feel his pulse again. I do my best at one handed chest compressions till I can feel him take a shallow breath. I feel a moment of triumph. Just before I yell at him, cursing and begging him not to die over and over.
The radio on his hip goes off again and I try and grab it with my free hand, his blood making the device slippery. Without waiting to hear something other than stations. I press the button down and speak unsure of what protocol I’m braking.
“HELP! Medic! I need a Medic! Linx is shot! I have a pulse but he’s bleeding to death!” I scream into the radio. It takes a few seconds but Pinky comes on.
“Lex, keep working on him. We will be there as soon as we can.” I can’t respond. I’m crying because I’m worried that it wasn’t Ky that responded I’m worried that I'm going to lose this guy and he tried to save me even after he knew he was shot. And I feel this is all my fault. The noise around us is slowly dying down or just moving further away. Linx has turned a weird shade of gray but I can still feel a pulse and he’s warm. As long as he stays warm I won’t lose hope. The radio is only noise I hear now. Other than Linx’s shallow stuttered breaths.
“Lex, we are on our way is Linx still breathing?” Ky’s voice comes over the radio and I cry into it.
“Yes! Yes he’s still breathing! Please hurry!” I drop the radio in relief and begin to cry as I hear them approach the van their rushed footsteps over the gravel and voices now audible. The doors open allowing bright light to pour in.
Ky:
We open the van doors to find Linx on the van floor in an unnatural position on his side and back with Lexi’s knees propping him up and her fingers shoved into a wound on his chest. “I can’t get the bleeding to stop. I couldn’t get his vest off and it took me awhile to get him breathing again. Every breath is so shallow you can barely tell he’s breathing at all.” Cross and I enter the small space at the same time.
“He saved me Ky, I didn’t realize he was shot till he didn’t respond to me.” She’s close to tears again.
“He’s not dead yet. You are doing all the right things. Braver than most men sticking your fingers in his chest like that.” All the guys hovering around the doors agree. Cross and I pass equipment back and forth till we have everything we need. “Lexi we have oxygen on him. On the count of three I need you to remove your fingers so we can clamp the artery.”
Alexis:
They count and I do as I’m told feeling a slight sucking sensation as I pull my fingers from his wound. Cross finds the artery and closes it off quickly. Ky handing him the equipment and supplies he needs. As I watch everything going on my stomach decides for me that I’ve had enough. “Move him off me or I’m going to puke on him!”
“Puke on the floor.” Cross says still focusing on his patient.
Ky looks up at my face of terror. “We have to get his vest off anyway. Let her up.” They shift him off my legs quickly as possible as I lurch to my feet heading for the door. Pinky catches me and helps me down, grabbing my hair and pulling it out of the way just in time for everything I had in my stomach to come up. The heaving slows and I finally get my bearings again. I’m almost scared to look up, I figure puking makes you some kind of pussy in this group. But no one's paying any attention to me.
Ky and Cross are still working on Linx. The other guys are discussing everything that went down on their end. Like I wasn’t loudly emptying my stomach a second ago. Pinky is the only one focusing on me.
“Sit back against the bumper for a sec and chill.” He hands me a water canteen off his vest.
“Thanks,” I say and I mean it, washing the taste of bile out of my mouth before I down the rest of the water. Still slightly embarrassed I hand him back the canteen without looking him in the eye.
“Lexi. We’ve all puked. You’re good okay?”
A few minutes go by and we finally hear from Cross and Ky. “Linx is awake. Blood pressure is holding and he looks like he’s going to make it.” Cheers all around followed by slaps on the back. “We are going to have The Prospects take him back. Lex are you still good on the original plan?” Ky asks. My mind switches gears. Locking back onto the anger I’ve felt since the kidnapping. Now ten times stronger since I almost lost someone who had just tried to save me. I pull my hair back braiding it quickly and speak over my hair tie in my teeth.
“Let's do this.” More cheers. There’s no going back now.