alive.
I turned her on to her side, opened her lips and dug my fingers into her mouth. I scooped out a couple of broken teeth, then a big plug of mucus and blood that was blocking her airway. Fuck wasting time finding out if she had a pulse. I needed to breathe for her, fill her lungs with air. Even if her heart was still pumping, it was doing nothing without oxygen.
I rolled her on to her back again, tilting her head back to open the airway. The poor bastard jumped up and grabbed my wrist, pulling it away from his wife. ‘Jerry! Get him back on the bed. Tell him she’ll die if he doesn’t stop fucking about!’
She was warm, but that didn’t mean much. She was probably already dead, but I had to try. The only real dead body is a cold one.
I freed my arm, then eased her head back to open the airway once more. I pinched her nose shut with my right hand and held together the rip in her cheek with my left. Her husband hollered: he was so distressed he still didn’t understand what was going on. Jerry tried making soothing noises.
I filled my lungs and put my mouth over what was left of hers, tasting the metallic tang of her blood. I breathed into her – I could feel some of it leaking through the rip in her cheek, but her chest rose a fraction. I tried again, but it was no good. My left hand was slipping on her blood-drenched skin. I couldn’t keep a good enough seal. Her blood spat out of my mouth as I yelled at Jerry. ‘Get over here! Keep this fucking rip together.’
He came and knelt beside her and gripped the rip with both hands. I took a breath, got a seal, exhaled.
Her chest rose. She was taking in oxygen. I breathed into her again.
The husband started tearing at me. Fuck knows what he thought I was doing.
I jumped up, grabbed him by the ears, and headbutted him hard. I didn’t have a choice. My head spun and my eyes watered as he fell back, arms flailing, on to the bed. Blood poured from his nose. I shoved Jerry in his direction before dropping back down on the floor. ‘Jump on the fucker. Keep him down.’
Tilting her head back, I pinched her nose and gripped a handful of ripped cheek as best I could, forcing the air in harder now. Ten big breaths to get her inflated, spitting out her blood between each one. I could still feel air leaking through her cheek, but it was working. My head was swimming. Jerry and the husband screamed at each other above me, somewhere in the distance. My brain was crying out for oxygen too.
Ten done. I checked for a pulse. Jamming two fingers into the side of her neck, I checked her carotid. Nothing. She was still only getting oxygen from me, and her heart wasn’t pumping any of that oxygenated blood around her body.
Shit.
I hoped nothing was fractured in her chest area, because if it was, what I was going to do next might finish her off.
41
I pulled away the bigger shards of glass from between her breasts, gave her two more breaths, then put the heel of my left hand on to her sternum, and my right on top of that. I leaned over her, straightened my arms and started pumping steadily, counting off the seconds in my head.
Thousand and one, thousand and two, thousand and three, thousand and four . . .
I spat out another mouthful of blood and started to call it out loud: ‘Thousand and six, thousand and seven . . .’
I yelled across at Jerry, ‘Tell him her heart’s stopped and she can’t breathe for herself. I’m trying to do it for her.’
The husband struggled and yelled something back.
‘Tell him to get downstairs and find some help. Ambulances, medics, whatever . . . But fuck him off, I need you here.’
Jerry gave him a torrent of Arabic, pulled the blanket off the bed and wrapped it round him, then virtually pushed him out of the door.
‘Squeeze her face together again – we need that seal.’
He dropped to his knees.
I got my mouth round hers, pinched her nose, and breathed hard. Fuck knows how long it had been since her brain had last had oxygen.
Her lungs fully inflated this time. Once. Twice. Then it was back to fifteen pumps over her heart.
‘Thousand and one, thousand and two, thousand and three, thousand and four . . .’
It was a whole lot quieter now the husband had gone. I could even hear a bird singing on the balcony.
‘Thousand and six, thousand and seven, thousand and eight . . .’
I pumped away, squashing the heart to move that oxygenated blood round her body on its own. A fair amount of red stuff was oozing out of her, but it wasn’t as bad as it looked. If you drop a bottle of Ribena on your kitchen floor it looks like breakfast turned into the Texas chainsaw massacre, but it’s only one bottle.
‘Start breathing, for fuck’s sake! Thousand and thirteen, thousand and fourteen, thousand and fifteen . . .’
Jerry and I bent down and I started to fill her again, one, two, big breaths. Each time, her chest fully rose and fell.
Another fifteen pumps. I checked for signs of life. Nothing. Not a flicker.
Head back, two more breaths.
‘Thousand and one, thousand and two, thousand and three . . .’
Jerry and I exchanged glances. Was there any point?
‘Thousand and four, thousand and five . . .’ I shouted it louder, as if that might help.
Helicopters careered overhead, then came back in to hover.
‘Thousand and fourteen, thousand and fifteen . . .’
There was a small tremor in her good cheek.
‘She’s pumping, she’s fucking pumping!’
I jammed two fingers into her neck as Jerry’s face broke into a grin. ‘Good things, Nick. Good things.’
Her carotid was quick and weak, but her heart was beating. All I had to do now was carry on the breathing for her – she would tell me when to stop.
I did two more breaths and checked. Her eyelids flickered.
Another two, and she coughed. A trickle of blood spilled from her mouth. Jerry was so excited his hands slipped. ‘Keep the seal closed, keep it closed.’
I’d just started to give her another ten short breaths when her hand came up and tried to push me away. She moaned softly, like a baby. She was in a lot of pain, which was a good thing. If she could feel pain, her brain was working.
I opened an eyelid and the pupil reacted. Not a lot, but enough.
‘Talk to her, Jerry. Make her answer. Try and keep her going. Wake her up.’
42
She was still only semi-conscious but uttered another low moan as I turned her on to her side, so her tongue would fall forward and not block the airway.
I rolled away and sat on the floor just a couple of feet away, completely exhausted. Jerry leaned over her, talking into her ear in Arabic, brushing back her blood-matted hair. She moaned a bit louder.
