Surgery

The sounds of the waves and sea breeze were quite far from Luo Jun and the others, so they did not disturb Luo Jun's hearing. The cries from the woods could be heard clearly if one was vigilant enough.

This was exactly why Luo Jun had chosen this place to build the shelter.

Luo Jun moved carefully towards where the sound was coming from. Soon, the crying grew clearer and clearer.

Luo Jun hid behind a tree and carefully peeked out, brushing away some bushes in front to get a better view. To his surprise, he saw a woman covered in blood curled up on the ground crying.

"Jenny?"

Luo Jun recognized Jenny at first glance. Her denim jacket and short skirt underneath were recognizable, but she was covered in blood stains all over.

From her appearance, it looked like she had gone through an unimaginable attack.

In her current position, it was difficult for Luo Jun to see if she was injured. He could not tell if the blood on her was hers or someone else's.

Luo Jun looked around to see if anyone was chasing her.

After waiting for a bit and seeing no one coming after her, he carefully moved towards Jenny.

"Jenny!"

Luo Jun called out softly. Jenny was startled and crawled towards some bushes in front. Seeing it was Luo Jun, the terrified look in her eyes faded after a moment.

"Jenny, what happened?"

Luo Jun walked over to ask. Jenny grabbed his arm with her shaky hands.

"Jack...Jack is dead!"

Jenny cried as she spoke. Luo Jun put his hand on hers to comfort her.

"Don't panic, calm down and tell me - were you attacked by someone or some animal?"

Luo Jun urgently wanted to know the source of danger, so he could quickly assess the threat and take precautions.

"I don't know...Jack went to the crashed transport plane to look for supplies...When he came back, he was covered in blood and delirious, couldn't understand what he was saying...His stomach was slashed open, he was holding his guts with his hands as he stumbled back..."

Jenny was somewhat incoherent, but she gave an overview of what happened.

The blood all over Jenny was probably from when she held Jack.

However, that Jack was able to run back after having his stomach sliced open showed two things. One, whoever or whatever harmed him did not chase him. Two, the enemy deliberately let him go back to lure and attack any remaining survivors.

"Are you injured?"

Luo Jun asked with concern. Jenny stretched out her left leg.

When she was crouching in the bushes earlier, Luo Jun could not see her legs clearly. Now that she stretched it out, it made him gasp.

Near her knee was a stab wound from something as thick as a finger.

The sharp wooden stake was about 30 centimeters long, with sharpened tips at both ends. One end was clearly whittled to a point by a knife, while the other end was broken off.

"How did this happen?" Luo Jun asked directly.

"I tripped on a rope while walking. Something shot out from the bushes and stabbed my thigh!" Jenny cried painfully.

"Did you break this end off?" Luo Jun inquired.

"Yes, it was this long originally..." Jenny gestured with her hands, about 50 centimeters.

This was a punji trap!

Luo Jun sucked in a breath of cold air. It looked like there really were others on this island, and traps were set up all over!

He was extremely lucky that he did not step into any traps while tracking that big bear today!

"Let's head to the shelter first and treat your wound."

Luo Jun supported Jenny as they moved. Jenny was also quite fortunate - she somehow managed to stumble in this direction in the woods. If she had gotten lost, death would have been certain.

When Li Shi and Lorna saw Luo Jun helping the blood-covered Jenny over, they were shocked. But they soon reacted and went over to help.

Lorna and Li Shi anxiously asked what happened.

Luo Jun told them not to ask first, and had Jenny lie down while he went to grab the medical kit to treat her wounds.

Impalement wounds were extremely serious. If not treated properly, infections leading to septicemia were almost guaranteed.

Luckily there was a medical kit found on the transport plane. Otherwise Jenny's survival would have relied completely on luck.

Luo Jun took out what he needed from the opened medical kit.

He first took out iodine, alcohol and disinfectants to clean the wound before applying the trauma pads.

He told Jenny not to look at the wound, to avoid added psychological pressure that could raise her blood pressure.

Jenny complied.

Luo Jun examined the wound, unable to tell with his bare eyes whether the sharp wooden stake had punctured any major arteries or compressed any nerves.

"I'm going to touch your lower left leg now. Tell me what you feel."

Jenny gritted her teeth to endure the pain and nodded.

"Try wiggling each toe."

Jenny did so, and each toe could still move normally. This relieved Luo Jun slightly. He then checked if there was any localized paralysis.

Everything seemed fine, so Luo Jun considered Jenny quite lucky this time.

If her leg was numb, there would have been no saving it in these conditions.

Next he had to determine if any major arteries were injured.

Luo Jun had studied anatomy before. He knew the puncture location was dangerously close to the major arteries and veins. Without medical equipment, he could only use primitive means to check for injuries to arteries or deep veins.

"I need to anesthetize the wound now."

There was no lidocaine in the medical kit, only a box of bupivacaine. Bupivacaine was more toxic than lidocaine, with stronger penetrative power - 5-6 times that of lidocaine and 10 times of procaine.

Each vial contained 50 milligrams of bupivacaine. From his special forces training, Luo Jun was familiar with the proper dosage to numb this type of wound.

After injecting the anesthetic around the wound, Luo Jun pressed on it and asked Jenny about the sensation. Confident it was numb,

he gently started pulling out the stake, a centimeter at a time.

Some dark venous blood trickled out initially before stopping. Dark blood meant deoxygenated blood from the veins.

Luo Jun relaxed slightly again, because it indicated no arterial injuries.

"I'm going to pull the stake out now. The anesthetic should help but it might still hurt a little, please bear with it."

Though in tears, Jenny bravely nodded.

Li Shi did not dare watch either, holding Jenny's hand with Lorna to comfort her.

Luo Jun slowly twisted the stake as he pulled, monitoring blood flow and color to check for arterial damage. Though clearly still in some pain, Jenny endured silently.

Obviously, compared to before, she had learned to be strong.

Soon, the stake was fully removed. Luo Jun immediately applied pressure to stop the bleeding before disinfecting and trimming the wound edges.

He filled a small cup with freshly mixed potassium permanganate solution to sterilize the injury a second time.

Only after completing all this did Luo Jun dress and bandage the wound.

Ten minutes later...

"There, try not to get the wound wet before it heals, especially seawater. There are some painkillers here to last 5 days, you'll be fine."

Luo Jun reassured her.

Jenny thanked him tearfully while Luo Jun remained silent as he packed up the medical kit.

He needed to go examine Jack's corpse to determine what exactly attacked him. Otherwise, not knowing their enemy would surely lead to gruesome deaths.

But leaving the three women alone here would also be troublesome.