Kurt’s trek down the mountain went by with the only things of note being rocks, more rocks, and the occasional stick. That was if you ignored the ominous sounds that filled the mountain forest.

As the sun began to fall below the horizon gifting the mountainside with its last few rays a cold fear began to set in with the coming darkness. In spite of the failing light Kurt’s watch stubbornly read 4pm adding to the growing sense of wrong that had begun when kurt found that strangely blue colored bush.

Kurt stopped and took a few steps back. He had nearly missed a small group of people in a small clearing not far from the stream. Kurt began walking towards the group and his steady pace began to give way to a cautious run. Kurt was about to dismiss this as a response to the quite dread that had been building in him since he had pulled himself out of the water. Then he noticed the blood as his cautious pace turned into a reckless sprint.

When he arrived in the clearing Kurt forced his panic to the side and silenced his emotional response with a show of willpower he would have thought beyond him. He began assessing the scene using the meagre medical skills he could assemble from watching medical dramas.

Two dead or beyond hope. One with an amputated limb. Another had a severe abdominal wound. The fifth was seemingly uninjured but was suffering from anaphylactic shock.

Kurt quickly removed his first aid kit and administered the epipen. The next task was less clear. He decided that applying a tourniquet required less thought than treating gut wound.

Once the tourniquet was in place Kurt took a breath and beat back another wave of panic. The first thing Kurt noticed was that something was wrong about the situation. Utterly wrong. Between the pressing his panic and the pressing need to treat the injured person, man, in front of him Kurt didn’t have the time to ponder this thought. Still, his intuition told him he needed to take proper care of the man in front of him.

Kurt reached into his pocket and pulled out a bottle of hand sanitizer that had gone unnoticed when he was going through his gear. He also pulled out the pressure bandage, his towel, a bottle of water, some antiseptic salve and took a deep breath.

Kurt cleaned his hands before rinsing out the wound. He dried the skin around the wound and applied salve to the wound before applying the bandage.

By the time he was finished Kurt was shaking and the dam holding back his panic burst.