Rescuing the Rain Man

“The passion of rescue reveals the highest dynamic of the human soul.” – Kurt Hahn

It’s been five years since Cooper Mackenzie lost his partner—in life and in love—to a tragic accident during a rescue operation. Shouldering the blame for the accident, Cooper relives his self-identified mistakes with each mission, doing all he can not to repeat the past. His sole objective in life is reduced to never suffering a loss like that again.

Dr. Amanda Pierce has devoted her entire life to being a doctor at the medical clinic in Buffalo Springs, Arkansas. Rarely does she have the opportunity to save someone’s life, but that changes when she is drawn unintentionally into the world of the Ozark Search and Rescue.

In one perilous situation after another, Cooper and Amanda search for the person who needs to be rescued. However, the more they get to know each other, the more they each question who it is that needs to be saved.

Desert Fire, Mountain Rain (Book One) – “Another excellent book by Amy Schisler. Well researched, gripping story. Anxiously await the next book in the Buffalo Springs series.”

Under the Summer Moon (Book Two) – “Another great book full of wonder, family, small town life, travel, adventure, followed by disillusionment, deceit, trickery, distrust, disappointment, ending with triumph, trust, faith, and love.”

Sapphires in Snow (Book Three) – “Sapphires in Snow was such a heartfelt book with a town “adopting” a newcomer…When I read Amy’s book, I find myself slowing down in finishing it, because I do not want it to end. But all good things must come to an ending!”

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Excerpt

Cooper eyed the ledge and made a quick assessment. Could he make the jump? Was it safe? Was his equipment properly rigged? It was going to be close, but experience told him he could do it.

“Cooper, don’t do this,” Lucy urged. “The rest of the team will be here soon with the equipment. They can rappel down from the other side. It’s not worth the risk.”

“They can’t get to her from up there without someone else being down on that ledge to guide them. You see how it juts out right above.”

“Help! Please! I’m scared, and the bleeding won’t stop.”

Cooper’s heart sped up, not from the cries for help, but from the adrenaline that began racing through his veins. They’d found her, and she needed help. There was no time to waste. No more seconds could tick by as he analyzed the situation or waited for the others. It was now or never.

Lucy grabbed his arm. “Coop, if anyone should go, it’s me.”

He shook his head. “Have you ever made a jump like that?”

He waited while she assessed the distance between the ledges before she shaking her head.

“I’m on my way,” he called to the woman, Lacie Grey, who had been missing for three days. She’d identified herself when they heard her screams and answered, and he’d felt relief wash over him. But that relief soon disappeared when he realized she’d gone over the side of the mountain and was perched perilously on a jagged ledge on the other side of the canyon. Cooper would have to rappel down and then jump across the chasm, hoping he could fit on the narrow ledge beside her with his first aid kit and climbing gear.

With a silent prayer that he could make it, that she wasn’t too badly hurt, and that a member of his team would find a way to help them up, he took a breath and began his rapid descent. Rocks loosened and fell each time his feet hit the wall, but he made it to the ledge just above and opposite where Lacie was huddled.

“I’m going to jump over to you,” he told her as he unbuckled his harness. “Don’t move.”

She looked down to the racing water below.

“Can you make it?” Lucy called from above.

Cooper nodded without thinking. He had to make it. There was no other choice. Even with help on the way, there was no telling how long it would take them to arrive or how badly hurt she was.

“I’ll make it, Lacie. Stay where you are so I have room to land.”

He hoisted his first aid pack higher onto his back, inhaled deeply three times as his thoughts automatically pleaded, St. Bernard, pray for us. On his last inhale, Cooper made the leap, crashing onto the ledge, gripping the side of the mountain as his balance wavered. He clutched the rock wall and steadied his breathing until he was ready to let go and turn to Lacie. Her pants leg was covered with blood, and a bone protruded through a tear in the fabric.

“I tried to use part of my shirt as a tourniquet, but I couldn’t get it as tight as I wanted it.”

“You did the right thing. Even if you didn’t stop the bleeding, you probably slowed it down. How long ago did this happen?”

“Not long. An hour, maybe. I heard you calling me, and I tried to follow your voice. I guess I wasn’t paying attention to where I was going. I fell from up there.” She pointed to where Lucy waited.

“How did you end up here?” he asked, reeling with disbelief.

“I, I don’t know. I just did. Lucky?” She shrugged.

Cooper winced. Lucky was an understatement. Visions of another woman on a similar ledge, one who hadn’t been so lucky, filled his mind, but he couldn’t go there. He focused on Lacie, whose voice was weak, her breathing shallow. She was close to going into shock from the blood loss.

“Coop?”

He picked up his radio and answered as quietly as he could, turning away from the young woman. “She’s okay. Protruding tibia. Sizable loss of blood. Shock imminent.”

He carefully removed his backpack and knelt beside her. Dried blood was caked in the dirt around her, and blood continued to drench her pants but wasn’t gushing. He checked her pulse, assessed her pupils for signs of head trauma, and took stock of her condition. She was shivering, but not as much as she could’ve been. He checked the temperature of her skin. Just as he thought, shock was imminent.

“You’re lucky. Temps are dropping tonight, so you would’ve suffered from hypothermia. The nights aren’t as cold as they have been, but the weather is unpredictable around here. No telling how cold it could get. Can you feel your fingers and toes?”

She nodded. “Pretty much. They’ve been numb at night, but I’ve been wearing gloves and warm hiking socks. I tried to keep moving as much as possible.”

Cooper grunted his approval before he gently began cutting away her pants.

“I’m going to try not to hurt you, but I have to see how bad this is.”

“It’s okay. Go ahead and—” she gasped and clutched his arm. Cooper felt her rapid breaths on his face, smelled her stale breath.

With as much tenderness as possible, he removed the fabric but left the wrapping she’d secured around the bone and wound.

“I had an extra shirt,” she said between gasps as he tightened the tourniquet. “The gauze I had was for small scrapes and minor injuries. I didn’t have anything—” she grunted in pain. “To wrap it with.”

“You did a good job.” He wasn’t lying. She’d done just what he—and every other EMT—was trained to do. “Do you have first aid training?” He needed to keep her talking and focused on anything but the pain.

“I used to be. I was a Girl Scout when I was growing up and volunteered at a camp when I was in high school.”

“Well, it shows. You did everything right.”

“Everything except watch where I was going.”

He didn’t argue with her, and he didn’t add that the worst thing she did was go hiking alone. He knew she knew that already.

“Any allergies to medicine?”

She shook her head and said, “No.”

He nodded.

She winced as he added more bandages to the wound. He wrapped them around the bone, trying not to move it but applying enough pressure to stabilize the tibia. He gave her credit for being tough and composed.

“Now what?” she asked as he sat back and breathed a long sigh, her voice fading.

“I check on the rest of the team.” He pulled his radio from his pack and called for a location.

“We’re almost to you,” Lance answered back. “About a hundred yards or so. How’s she doing?”

“Better than expected, but she’s got a protrusion of the right tibia. Significant blood loss. She’s awake, lucid, and stable, but shock is setting in.”

“Copy. See you in five. Is Lucy with you?”

“She’s still above. It was tricky getting down here.”

“Copy that. We’ll assess once we arrive.”

Once the team was there and made a plan for getting the Stokes basket down to the ledge and up again, it took less than twenty minutes to get Lacie up on firm ground and dosed with a mild sedative. Lucy, their medic, was monitoring her until the chopper arrived. The authorities had been notified, and her family was being called. Cooper told Lacie goodbye and gathered the gear he’d left above when he rappelled down.

An hour after finishing his paperwork, Cooper sat at the bar in Rick’s and nursed a beer. It had been one heck of a day.