Rusted Roses - Survivor00 & Romantic[Dream]

[Survivor00]

Spring 1867, Southern Anceria

...---...

Olivia Hawthorne pushed aside the heavy canvas tent flap, smearing blood over the tan fabric as she staggered over to the medical washbasin. Her hands trembled as she thrust them into the warm, red-tinted water, furiously trying to wash the clumps of viscera from her arms. She scrubbed and scrubbed until the coarse washcloth began to rub her skin raw, but she couldnâ??t stop scrubbing. She had to wash all of it off! Her smock too was stained with the crimson fluid, drying fast in the baking midday heat. She choked back heavy sobs, and the underlying want to lose the weak breakfast sitting in her stomach.

She pulled her hands from the water, the droplets falling to the baked, dusty ground where they were quickly sucked up by the thirsty earth. Olivia felt a sob crack within her throat, and dropped to her knees, burying her face in her hands. How were they expected to save these soldiers? Every time they figured out how to properly treat one wound, something would come around that wounded them twice as horriblyâ?¦

The ground beneath her shook faintly, and she could hear their distant field cannons opening up with their hourly bombardment. She wiped her reddened eyes, looking out towards the fortress city of Landclaw. Towers of dirt and smoke erupted around the city as the first shells hit. They had been trying to take the city for weeks, trying to push into the underbelly of Anceria, but each wave was repulsed by their repeating rifles and multi-barreled gun stations â?? ones that could fire more rounds in a minute than a whole platoon of soldiers. She knew what that bombardment meant, and she dreaded it.

â??Oliviaâ?¦â? A calm, but tired voice spoke from behind her. â??Another wave is going out, weâ??re going to have casualties coming in, and we canâ??t afford to be short-handedâ?¦â? She looked back over her shoulder, towards the elderly doctor that stood behind her. He was disheveled, his arms and smock covered in even more blood than hers. â??Iâ??m sorry, but I need you to hold it together.â? Olivia wiped her eyes again, sniffing back tears, but forcing herself to stand. â??Will you be alright?â?

She stared out at that damned city on the horizon, watching a line of their Battle Carriages rattling towards the city, followed by groups of soldiers as they charged down the flat, blood-soaked plain. She squeezed her eyes closed tightly and nodded, â??Iâ??ll be fineâ?¦â? She lied, but she turned around anyway and walked back into that blood-stained tent.

â?¦---â?¦

It was near dusk before Olivia would leave that tent again, walking numbly over to the washbasin and plunging her arms into the water again. She wasnâ??t thinking. She couldnâ??t think. If she thought about it, she probably wouldnâ??t ever be able to do her job ever again. So many young menâ?¦boys, younger than her, torn to ribbons, screaming, crying, bleedingâ?¦God there was so much blood! She stood there quietly, not even feeling the pain as she scrubbed at her raw skin. The air was sharply cooler than what it had been during the day, and she even found herself shivering in the cold night air.

In the distance, Landclaw still stood, the lamplights mocking her from miles away. The smoldering wreckage of their Battle Carriages littered the desert landscape, bleeding black smoke into the purple sky. She gripped the side of the table tightly, arms shaking as she tried to come to grips with herself, the carnage that she tried in vain to relieve. With a frustrated cry, she tipped the table up on two legs, the metal washbasin grinding along the wooden surface, bloody water splashing over the lip before it all spilled and crashed to the ground.​

 

[Romantic[Dream]]

So many things came back as scrap. The carriages weren't working, and no wonder, considering they were just being thrown at the defensive line faster than they could be built. The carriages were originally blue, now dyed red with blood and black with ash. The war either needed a revolutionary new weapon, or a swift end. This battle had been pointless with so little progress into that defensive line.

It was always brutal being the aggressor.

Karis was hard at work, as were many of the battle mechanics. Every fixed battle carriage would be sent back the next day with three more, but it was their duty. So she had a side project going. She loved building thing, but hated seeing them come back in pieces every fifteen minutes. A battle carriage wasn't the solution for this war. Too many people inside, not enough armor. And that was why she worked an extra few hours every night, assembling the next great weapon in war. Unmanned, and capable of wiping the floor with every other weapon out there.

As she cranked a wrench around a massive bolt on a cylindrical armor piece, the grease-smeared woman slipped, her hand colliding with the armoring, getting her own red on the rusty scrap she was building this out of. Uttering a silent curse, she shook her hand, noticing the blood was flowing a bit more than a normal small cut. It was nurse time. Poor things were overworked as it was.

---------------------------

When she got to the medical tent, she looked around. Not wanting to bother the medics for more time than necessary, she got up the courage to shout just a tiny bit. "Hey! Can I get some bandages? Need to wrap a busted knuckle."

 

[Survivor00]

Olivia calmed down after a few moments, suddenly rather ashamed at her emotional outburst. She justâ?¦wasnâ??t cut out for this, the hurried surgery, amputations, the gangrene that often followed... These men were passed through the tent so fast, she was never sure if she really got everything. She hadnâ??t even finished her schooling before she had been whisked off to serve as a nurse. She was most thankful though that she had not been sent out as a field doctor, trying to treat wounded soldiers right in the middle of a battle. They were often brought back as casualties just as often as the soldiersâ?¦

Embarrassedly, she placed the toppled washbasin back on the table, using the spigot on one of the water casks to fill it back up. She doubted that they would be sending out another assault tonight, or at least she prayed they wouldnâ??tâ?¦ Olivia sighed and rubbed her forehead, figuring that the best thing she could do was to get some sleep, try to refresh herself and prepare for the next day. She turned to head towards the nurseâ??s tent when she heard the voice speak up. She turned back to the tent, slipping through those tan fabric flaps to look at the grease-covered woman, one of the machinists from the repair yard. She raised her hand slightly.

â??I can take a look.â? She said tiredly. It was such a simple task. She grabbed a roll of heavy gauze, returning outside quickly and scooping out a small tin of water before returning to the tent. She walked over to the machinist and set the items on a small table. She shuddered as she stepped around the accumulated blood stains on the floor, shaking her head and instead focusing on the hand of the woman before her. She lifted the womanâ??s hand with her own, dabbing a cloth in the water and washing away the blood and oil from her hand and the relatively simple wound.

â??This may stingâ?¦â? She said, squeezing the cut a little bit, trying to push some of the detritus from the cut, as well as some of the old blood, hoping to lessen the chance of infection as much as possible. She looked back up at the womanâ??s face as she wrung out the cloth and re-soaked it. â??I wish this were the extent of the wounds I had to treatâ?¦â? She said with a tired chuckle.

 

[Romantic[Dream]]

Karis was silent as she watched the woman do her work. She didn't want to impose, but she certainly didn't ant to get an infection either. It had been deep enough that it would be likely if she did her own patch up job. Plus, being cared for was kind of nice. And while the wound did sting, she only gritted her teeth through it. After all, she had to be tough. She lifted the heavy metal and made it into a real terror on the battlefield. And hopefully she'd finish what would end the battlefield.

"You seem really tired Nurse." It was kind of obvious, really, but she was trying to sound a bit more... Innocent? "When do you have your shift rotated out? Even the wonderful nursing staff needs to relax and get work off their minds, yes?"

((Sorry for the shortness))

 

[Survivor00]

Olivia dunked the cloth back into the bowl of water beside her, just observing the cut for a moment, to see just how badly it was bleeding still. It had slowed significantly, and she nodded softly, reaching over to take the cloth strips and wrap them around the mechanicâ??s hand, making sure to wrap them tight enough to prevent the cloth from falling away, but loose enough to keep the blood flowing.

â??My shift?â? Olivia asked softly, as if she didnâ??t know what the mechanic was talking about for a second. â??Oh! Oh, sorryâ?¦wellâ?¦usually we leave when thereâ??sâ?¦no more wounded. But, we also have to clean off our tools before the next dawn. Before the next attackâ?¦ I was just off to catch a few hours restâ?¦â? She finished wrapping the cut, tucking the bandage under itself and pinning it in place, careful not to prick the mechanicâ??s hand. â??Okayâ?¦thatâ??s thatâ?¦Iâ??d say take it a little easy, lest you open up the wound again.â?

She smiled softly up at the mechanic, relieved to see a face other than a Commander, Doctor, or screaming patient. She was a welcome reliefâ?¦ â??Well, Iâ?¦hope to see you again, just maybe not under these circumstances.â? Olivia glanced around the tent and sighed a little. â??Good night, Missâ?¦?â?