Coming soon - Get a detailed view of why an account is flagged as spam!
view details

This post has been de-listed

It is no longer included in search results and normal feeds (front page, hot posts, subreddit posts, etc). It remains visible only via the author's post history.

5
Improvised Stretcher Making - 13/04
Post Body

Another attack on the camp a few weeks back was certainly a harrowing ordeal. Jonathan was at the camp long enough to know that wouldn’t be the last. He got his hands full with a supporting role behind the line, and it was probably for the best. Zach was unharmed as well. Thank gods.

After lunch, Jonathan went to inspect what he had prepared and moved them to an opening near the strawberry field. Apparently, there were still a few Titans’ footprints remaining there. So that’s why they invented the word ‘Titanic’. He tried not to get distracted and played catch with Leman while waiting for the camper

“Thank you for coming, everyone. Please make yourself comfortable.” The boy tossed a toy bone to keep the dog occupied. “The lesson today is about making a stretcher from material we could easily find around the camp. See, some of you probably know that moving someone injured is not a good idea in most scenarios, but it’s still necessary since we would need space, equipment, and help to treat an injury. Sometimes, carrying makes the injury worse, so a stretcher is the answer when we need to move an injured person quickly and minimize the movement on their part.”

The boy walked over to the pile of material. “What we need first and foremost are poles. Doesn’t matter if they’re plastic, metal, or wood. As long as it’s strong and flexible enough.” He took a pole into each hand for all to see. “There are many materials we can use and they are quite common in a household: duct tapes, blankets, and jackets. The blanket one is probably the easiest one, and you can make it on short notice.”

“Select 2 poles with the same length or just close enough like I just did.” Leman grabbed a blanket by his mouth and dragged it to Jonathan who chuckled in response. As he was explaining, Jonathan also performed so the campers could see what they needed to do. “Spread out the blanket and lay a pole down at a position about roughly 2/3 of the distance between the edges. Like this. Fold the short side of the blanket back over the pole, then lay the other pole down on the top of the previous fold, at the edge. Fold the remaining section of blanket over the second pole. The weight of the victim on the stretcher will hold it in place, so don’t worry if it might become loose.”

Setting the first stretcher aside, Jonathan grabbed a few duct tapes and moved to another pair of poles. “Let’s move on to the duct tape version of it. Again with 2 poles. Make four evenly spaced duct tape straps running perpendicular to the poles. 2 feet width should be good. To make the straps stronger, press the sticky side of the tape together.”

“Now, we’ll need to support these main straps to hold them together and be able to support the weight of a person. Make a long strap to tether these four from the top down to the bottom.” He lifted the half-done stretcher up in order to allow the campers to see how he attached the tapes. “We’re almost done. Make diagonal straps between the attachment points of each perpendicular support. Annnd it’s done.”

“About the jackets. First thing we have to do is pull the sleeves inside the jacket. About almost or the whole sleeves all the way down. Don’t forget to zip the jacket up.” Jonathan made sure to lift the jacket up for a better view before zipping it as he explained “Thread the poles through the jacket sleeves. If the victim has a small to average height and weight, 2 jackets should be enough. Otherwise, use 3 jackets. If you want to stabilize your stretcher, use diagonal lashing to attach cross members at the end of the stretcher. Take a closer look, come.”

He then stepped back to allow the campers to get the materials to work with. “Anyway, feel free to test it with someone if you’re not sure you did it right! I’ll be here if you need anything.”

Comments
[not loaded or deleted]

"None taken, it isn't everyone's thing I guess. But yeah he was always beat as hell after work. But he was always there when it mattered."

She gave a half-smile as she spoke, still feeling just a little sore over the way things went before she ended up living with her aunt. Still, Keri tried her best to keep a good mood. "Anyway, cherries are great. You ever make anything with 'em, or just eat 'em on their own?"

[not loaded or deleted]

"Oh dude the ambrosia is the best part of getting beaten to shit like that, not that I wanna like... get the crap beat out of me again. But its pretty great. What does yours taste like?"

She was genuinely curious since everyone seemed to have a different taste to theirs. With more supplies in her arms as well, Keri walked alongside Manon, equally ready to relax and eat.

[not loaded or deleted]

"Uhh... I'm not exactly sure. There wasn't a set limit, at least not as far as I remember."

With a sigh, Keri rolled over, trying her best to land softly and get up to her feet quickly. Dusting off her hands on her jeans, she said, "That's about long enough for me. Barring rocks or holes in the ground it went fine enough. Guess I've gotta get mine finished now, anyway."

[not loaded or deleted]

Keri grimaced for a moment as she raised her elbow to check out where it had landed, but it didn't look like more than a scrape. Nothing that couldn't be taken care of easily.

"Yeah, no I'm good. Guess we'd have to watch out for those too." She laughed as she took in the absurdity of it, laying back on the stretcher for a moment. "At least the stretcher held, that's a plus."

[not loaded or deleted]

Having laid down on the makeshift stretcher, Keri was ready to get moving. Unfortunately for her, getting moving also happened to include a harsh drop once Manon's strength failed her. She didn't have the positioning to see what had happened, only that one second she was up, and the next she was down.

"What the- ow!"

Keri's arm had moved off the edge, and her elbow bumped into the ground as Manon fell. "Shit, dude you okay? What happened?"

[not loaded or deleted]

She took a moment to try and get an idea for the flavor Manon had described. Hot cherries? She'd never had any pulled straight from the ground, at least not so soon after they'd been in the sun. "Can't say I've ever had hot cherries like that, but cherries are pretty great. My dad used to bring 'em home when it was the season and he was working picking them. Strawberries were my favorite though."

Keri grinned, recalling her own favorite flavor, which was neither of the two. "Anyway, mine tastes more like banana candy. Not actual banana though, the candy flavor, you know?"

[not loaded or deleted]

With a shrug, she replied, "I'd rather get stuck on it than roll off."

Keri moved over then, taking a long look at what Manon had made and comparing it to her own. It wasn't the same style, so she couldn't compare too much, but it was all worth a shot. Even so, she could see a couple small areas of bottom-side tape facing up, nothing large at all, as she made to lay down on it.

"I should probably get into character. Oof, ow, I'm hurt so badly," she said as she laid on the stretcher, trying her best to sound injured but coming off more annoyed than anything.

[not loaded or deleted]

"Yeah I think I saw that one, before I mean. That thing was HUGE, man, I don't know how the hell you guys managed it. Honestly I got caught off guard, so like if I had some time to actually get ready for a fight, I might have been a little more useful."

It was what everyone told themselves after losing a fight, and Keri hoped to never be caught like that again.

[not loaded or deleted]

Keri had been working on one of her own, the blanket version of it, and wasn't quite getting it. Thankfully she spotted someone nearby who seemed to be having a better go of it all, and she peeked over as the brown-haired girl a few feet away stood up, trying to see if she could get an idea of it all.

"Not gonna lie, if I got carried out on something as rickety as these things, I'd just be glad not to fall off and crack my skull or something," she said as she gave up and stood, still looking at Manon's makeshift stretcher. "Yours at least looks a whole lot sturdier than mine."

Letting out a sigh Keri glanced over to hers, only half-made. "If I volunteer to go on that, will you help me out with mine?"

[not loaded or deleted]

"Keri," she replied as she gave Manon's hand a shake. "Yeah same here, not that I'm really much use in a fight. I showed up here just in time for those bird shits and got knocked out by a bunch of them pretty much right away, so if anything I'll be the one needing a lift out."

[not loaded or deleted]

"Totally normal stuff to carry onto a battlefield, right?"

Keri couldn't help but grin at the suggestion, her mind traveling to the idea of a designated stretcher-maker carrying a ton of random crap around during a big fight in camp. Not that that was how things would likely go, but it was a funny thought. "Maybe instead of poles you could like... use two spears? I dunno man, seems like it could work."

[not loaded or deleted]

"Yeah probably not, the bumps and stuff will be hell on a broken leg and just make it worse. Or like someone with a head injury, too."

After a few seconds longer she stopped, easing the stretcher down to let Manon get off. "Okay, so it looks like we've both got it down. At least with my fall it wasn't the fault of the stretcher, so yeah. Good job!"

With a laugh, she gave Manon a thumbs up.

[not loaded or deleted]

She watched as Manon put it together, moving the edges around in a way completely opposite to the way Keri had done it. But that was just part of the whole game, she figured. Can't learn how to do something if you don't mess up at least once, right? Before long it looked... well solid at least.

With a nod, she replied, "Yeah, lets give it a shot."

Crouching down to grab the poles, Keri readied herself for the added weight before gripping hard and lifting with her knees. Manon didn't look like she weighed much, and she was pretty used to carrying weight anyway, so she gave it her best as she began to pull the stretcher and hoped it would hold.

[not loaded or deleted]

"Well for the life of me I can't figure out how the folds are supposed to hold anyone up since they keep slipping when I move the sticks apart," she said with a huff as they got closer to her unfinished junk pile. "Poles, sticks, whatever they're called. Am I supposed to like tie the corners off on each end?"

Author
Account Strength
80%
Account Age
4 years
Verified Email
Yes
Verified Flair
No
Total Karma
313
Link Karma
85
Comment Karma
168
Profile updated: 1 day ago
Child of Apollo

Subreddit

Post Details

We try to extract some basic information from the post title. This is not always successful or accurate, please use your best judgement and compare these values to the post title and body for confirmation.
Posted
2 years ago