In less than ten minutes both Arron and Kix were able to traverse the entire northern streets and alleys of the northwest district.
Arron peered over a low broken wall and looked at a pile of 60 or more dead bodies scattered around in the middle of the street next to the main building where unit 2 was fighting. There were several destroyed Security drones near the pile of dead bodies scattered all over.
“The people that did this must be mental,” said Arron. He could see several of the dead people were security personnel from other buildings that had tried to save the wounded. They had been shot to pieces when they had reached the mass of wounded people.
Arron made sure to place a red X marker on the holo map to mark the remains of dead people. By now his map was filled with Red X’s and nearly a hundred green circles indicating the spots that had wounded survivors who were still alive… for now.
This map was synced up with the rest of the team who also added markers for survivors and the remains of the dead that they found as they searched and cleared out the southern part of the district.
Unfortunately, the map was filled with more red Xs than green circles.
Movement from a destroyed door of the research building caught both Arron and Kix’s attention. They both ducked down and gripped their weapons tightly.
Arron took in a deep breath and looked at Kix whose armored exoskeleton head nodded back. They quickly popped up with weapons drawn and pointed at the door.
Two exoskeletons walked out the building causing them to tense up but when Arron looked closer his visor identified them in a green outline as friendly.
It was Knox and Ward. As they exited the building they could see that they had several wounded survivors draped over their broad exoskeleton shoulders like sacks of grain as well as several hanging from their extended arms.
Besides the two separate groups of separatists inside the building that Unit 2 had taken care of, there were no other enemies that they could find and so they were able to meet up with Arron and Kix.
Arron let out a long breath and lowered his weapon.
“A bit jumpy are you?” asked Ward.
“You could have warned us you were exiting the building,” said Kix.
“The northwest district has been cleared. We will begin moving the wounded survivors. The med-vacs can come and pick them up,” said Arron, reporting the situation to Captain Pointer.
“They have already been notified and are on their way,” said Captain Pointer.
“This is Priss, we will continue to provide over-watch to make sure nothing happens while you move the wounded.”
“Thanks,” said Knox as he and Ward trod down the rubble-filled street using the tight path that was cleared by Arron and Kix.
Arron and Kix moved to the nearest marked survivors and picked up three people who had the worst wounds.
“We’ll be back for the rest of you, just sit tight,” said Arron, gently patting a woman’s shoulder to try and comfort her. She had several broken bones and was unable to move.
She did not respond to his voice or his touch and only stared off into the distance at the hazy ceiling of Level 1 with a blank gaze. Arron was not sure if it was from the shock of the event or the liquid Ethylene that he had given her.
Arron followed behind Kix and carried the heavily wounded people back towards the cleared intersection where the APC was waiting.
There were now around ten wounded people all propped up against a building wall next to the intersection out of the way of the landing zone. Knox and Ward had already dropped off the wounded they had carried and had disappeared into the smoke to gather more survivors.
Arron and Kix had just completed their second trip back to the clearing when they heard the whirring sound of several flying med-vac hovercopters.
Above their heads, three Red Hovercopters were descending towards their position.
As soon as they touched the ground the side doors of the hovercopters slammed open. From each of the hovercopters, two full-body armored med-vac medics rushed out with their rifles ready as they scanned the area for any enemy targets.
Inside each of the hovercopters were three stretcher bunk beds that could hold a total of 12 people.
“All clear!” shouted one of the armored medics. Several medic drone bots began to fly out of the hovercopters and float next to the armored medics.
The group of medics walked over to the now nearly 20 survivors and started scanning their NerViz Cloud chips.
“This one, that one, and those three,” said a medic as he pointed out five of the wounded.
The medic bots picked the five wounded people up off the ground and carried them to one of the hovercopters where they shoved them onto the cramped stretcher bunk beds.
While the med bots were transferring the patients, the armored med-vac medic that had been doing all of the talking walked up to Arron and asked, “Are these all the survivors?”
“There are still about a hundred that we haven’t gotten to yet,” said Arron as he looked at his map.
“Escort us to each of them.”
“Captain your orders?” asked Kix.
“Keep them safe. It will be hell to explain if any of them die,” said Captain Pointer.
“Understood.”
“Follow us,” said Kix as he and Arron led 6 of the med-vac medics into the dusty cloud that still covered the rubble-filled streets.
The first place they stopped had two men laying on the ground. One was still somewhat conscious and only had a broken leg and several minor shrapnel wounds.
The man next to him was in a coma, his two legs had been blown off and were still leaking blood from the makeshift tourniquet that Arron had made by using part of the man’s tattered pants to try and stop the bleeding.
The medic scanned the two men and looked at an opaque list floating above his Wrist datapad.
“That guy.”
One of the med bots flew over and grabbed onto the man with a broken leg and started flying back to the hovercopter.
“Take us to the next person,” said the Armored medic.
“What about him?” asked Arron.
“He’s not on the list.”
“The list?”
The medic did not answer and looked to Kix.
“Arron,” said Kix as he shook his head to tell him to not ask questions.
While they walked at a quick pace to the next survivor’s position. Kix used the helmet’s internal com’s to privately talk to Arron.
“There is nothing we can do about this since time and resources are limited. It’s just the difference between those paying and those that use the free health-care provided by Mother and Father.”
“Paying? Free?” asked Arron.
“There are 3 tiers of hospital treatment.
[Tier 1] Free health care: All D rank SCS have this. They are the last priority for medics. Any field treatment they get, will be from the med bots that will do basic first aid to stop the person from dying. Surgeries are quick and dirty. The meds given are cheap mass-produced synthetics and are highly addictive and are given out freely.
[Tier 2] Normal healthcare: Second priority, Only available to SCS C and above. This tier allows you to go to a hospital and see a doctor. Able to have surgery done by a human if you pay extra. The patient is sent home right after any treatment, no recovery rooms. Free synthetic meds as a bonus.
[Tier 3] Premium healthcare: First priority. Available to anyone from SCS C and above with enough money to pay the massive yearly price. They can have a med-vac Hovercopter with armed medics come pick them up from wherever they are. The medics will keep them alive while they are taken to the hospital to start urgent care or surgery immediately. After treatment, they can stay in the few lush recovery rooms. No addictive medicines are used.”
“So we’re just going to leave that guy back there?”
“No, the med-bots will get to him eventually. For now, he has had enough liquid Ethylene to numb any pain and keep him out of it.”
“What about us if we get hurt?”
“Don’t worry, we have a separate plan since we have doctor Octy and his underlings. M1 can also use its Hovercopters as medical transports. You could say this is a benefit of having a job that tries to kill you every day.”
They led the medics to several other people who were all passed up due to not being on the list. The majority of the people taken back were not as severely wounded as many of the others.
“This is the last survivor we haven’t been to yet,” said Kix talking to the armored Medic.
The medic only nodded his head and tapped a few buttons on his wrist-datapads opaque menu.
“Begin medical treatment of the unlisted,” ordered the armored medic.
The remaining Med bots flew off towards the marked positions of the wounded that had not been taken back to the Hovercopters and began administering medical aid to them.
Medical aid was just an injection of healing serums that stopped the bleeding and began the slow process of healing their wounds.
