They were in the middle of an emergency extraction, doctors and medsestras crowded in shoulder to shoulder to hip and ankle with engineers, and she saw it coming. Just barely, but she had time to get her eyes closed.
Someone else yelped--likely her neighbour getting tagged in the thigh by a chunk of the coolant pipe--as she tried not to scream. Grit her teeth hard as searing-hot-wet-freezing hit her across the face.
She allowed herself a gasp, then said "Get me out right now, eye wash bottle in the secondary kit, now now now--"
Someone hooked an arm around her hips from behind, yanked unceremoniously, and she thanked several saints that she'd been packed in too closely with other bodies to have to worry about getting her head bounced off a piece of the half-shattered horse.
Hoped the casualties from right next to her were going to be low, but she wouldn't be doing any triage until she got whatever horror was currently on her face off her face dear God in Heaven it felt like it was trying to eat through her eyebrows. "Eye wash" she repeated herself, still getting dragged past other people's limbs.
She could still hear the trapped soldiers swearing. That was good.
Hanging half-upsidedown from--someone--'s grip on her was less good, especially when someone who definitely wasn't a doctor said something she was definitely not supposed to understand, then started yelling for a solvent.
"Eye wash bottle, green bag, should be by the strut that was holding when we got in, right now" she said, then snapped her mouth closed and held her breath when the not-a-doctor said "Solvent first, sorry dyevushka, this is going to feel terrible" and splashed a powdery liquid from her hairline to her collarbones.
It felt like she was abruptly covered in extremely angry live bees. She very seriously considered swearing. Kept holding her breath instead, because--yes. There was the second hit, thank you, Engineer whoever-you-are, she would definitely be remembering this moment.
This time there was a cloth involved, dabbing and blotting, and then she heard the seal ripping off the eyewash container.
Knowledgeable hands guided her into position, and she swished. Blinked into the opaque container, trying to feel if there was any actual damage beyond the bees crawling all over her face still, swished again, signaled for the second canister.
Loss of vision/sight - Sibir, Nadya
Someone else yelped--likely her neighbour getting tagged in the thigh by a chunk of the coolant pipe--as she tried not to scream. Grit her teeth hard as searing-hot-wet-freezing hit her across the face.
She allowed herself a gasp, then said "Get me out right now, eye wash bottle in the secondary kit, now now now--"
Someone hooked an arm around her hips from behind, yanked unceremoniously, and she thanked several saints that she'd been packed in too closely with other bodies to have to worry about getting her head bounced off a piece of the half-shattered horse.
Hoped the casualties from right next to her were going to be low, but she wouldn't be doing any triage until she got whatever horror was currently on her face off her face dear God in Heaven it felt like it was trying to eat through her eyebrows. "Eye wash" she repeated herself, still getting dragged past other people's limbs.
She could still hear the trapped soldiers swearing. That was good.
Hanging half-upsidedown from--someone--'s grip on her was less good, especially when someone who definitely wasn't a doctor said something she was definitely not supposed to understand, then started yelling for a solvent.
"Eye wash bottle, green bag, should be by the strut that was holding when we got in, right now" she said, then snapped her mouth closed and held her breath when the not-a-doctor said "Solvent first, sorry dyevushka, this is going to feel terrible" and splashed a powdery liquid from her hairline to her collarbones.
It felt like she was abruptly covered in extremely angry live bees. She very seriously considered swearing. Kept holding her breath instead, because--yes. There was the second hit, thank you, Engineer whoever-you-are, she would definitely be remembering this moment.
This time there was a cloth involved, dabbing and blotting, and then she heard the seal ripping off the eyewash container.
Knowledgeable hands guided her into position, and she swished. Blinked into the opaque container, trying to feel if there was any actual damage beyond the bees crawling all over her face still, swished again, signaled for the second canister.
As the old fluid got vacuum-pumped away, she smelled blood, tried to lift her head, got stopped. "I'll be fine," Heléne Alexeivna said, "you focus on you, Nadyezhda Valentinevna, you're the one who got hit in the face, I just need some glue once we get everyone out of that twice-blessed horse."