It had been almost ten days since Abhi had been out on the operational reconnaissance (op-recce). His Commanding Officer had spelt out the aim very clearly - to meet all formation commander and explain the operations of unmanned aerial vehicles so that people did not come up with funny taskings. The extent of Western Command stretched from Ramgarh near Jammu to Romeo Sector in Rajasthan. It had taken him ten days to cover the distance back to his base in Rajasthan.
His newly married wife waited for him there. Just before he had left she had shown him the pregnancy test kit with two red lines. He didn't want to be away from her for even a second. This was time when he should have been there with her, humouring her tantrums, food cravings and anything else that he had heard or read about. Instead duty called and he had been on the road for the past ten days along with his driver, Sahu.
As they crossed Majahan, the midway point between Suratgarh and Bikaner, his impatience to reach back home increased. He had picked up some Indian sweets for his wife from different places to give her a feel of where all he had been. As he imagined feeding his wife those, the jeep they were travelling in slowed down to a halt. That damned Sahu couldn't have wanted a break from driving so soon. Abhi loved driving and he had driven half the way to ensure that Sahu doesn't get fatigued.
But it wasn't Sahu. There was a jam on the road which was most surprising. This road was known as a super highway - broad, empty and smooth with hardly any traffic. They waited for five minutes before his patience wore out and he decided to check what had caused a traffic jam in the middle of nowhere.
In the center of the road was an army truck which had crashed into a civil truck. The driver of the civil truck was conscious but in shock and lay on the side of the road. The front of the army truck had caved in. The driver was stuck behind the driving wheel. His co driver's face seem to be falling off from the left side with a solid chunk of his cheeks and teeth hanging to one side. There seemed to be a third person inside but he couldn't make out. The bloody sight brought back images from Kargil when he had seen a young soldier being cut into two.
Surprisingly no one had bothered to rescue them. Surely, pulling out the frame of the front of the truck should not have been so difficult. He ran towards the truck but as he neared some drivers grabbed him and held him back. They pointed to the leaking fuselage which had a steady trickle of diesel flowing from it. A single spark could have lit the pyre of these soldiers trapped inside.
Then the situation hit him. There was no time for him to nurse his PTSD. Abhi pushed the civilians aside and shouted for Sahu to bring the jeep ahead. The army jeep was 4x4 with sand tyres to enable cross country movement. As Sahu ran back to get the jeep, Abhi leapt ahead and grabbed the front panel of the army truck from outside. God knows where he got that strength from but he hung from the solid front panel with both his feet on the fenders and pulled it out.
Abhi got the co-driver out, he was a junior commissioned officer (JCO) whose face had been cut from the left side. A solid chunk of his cheek and his jaws along with teeth was swinging as he moved. There seemed to be some bleeding from his chest but there was no way to access the damage. Abhi rolled his handkerchief into a round circle, pressed the handkerchief on the wound on his chest and tied his belt around it to keep it in place. He took the JCOs hand and pushed the flesh on his face into place with it.
Abhi then took out the driver who had a deep and big gash in his chest and below it. Blood and what seemed to be his stomach were pushing to come out. He was unconscious but had a weak pulse. Sahu meanwhile drove the jeep on the sand and got it near the truck. He told Sahu to hold the driver in his lap keeping the gash pressed and asked to sit behind. the back of the jeep was filled with their holdalls and spare diesel cans. As Sahu struggled with the luggage, Abhi threw out the holdalls to make space. The sweets lay scattered on the ground.
There was a third soldier sitting behind the driver and co-driver. There seemed to be no wounds on his body though he was unconscious. Abhi checked him for a heart beat and was relieved when he found a strong one. He took out the soldier from the truck and lay him down on the scond seat behind the jeep. He then picked up the JCO who was now unconscious and put him in the co-driver seat of the jeep. Taking out his phone, he rang up the army exchange in Bikaner and relayed a message for the Military Hospital asking them to get the OT prepared. He knew that this was the closest hospital which was an hours drive and by the time medics reached here or got them back to surgery, he would definitely loose some.
The next one hour went driving at breakneck speed towards Bikaner with one hand on the steering wheel and one hand holding the JCOs face to keep it stable and to keep the hanging mass of flesh in place. As they reached the hospital, stretchers had been lined up and surgeons stood waiting for him. His timely action and basic first aid ensured that the JCO and the soldier who lay behind survived. Unfortunately, the driver had broken his lungs, lost too much blood and his stomach was almost out of his body, passed away in the hospital.
Epilogue. Abhi was walking down to his office in the unit when a jeep of a Commanding Officer drove in. It was the commanding officer of the troops in the truck. He walked up to Abhi and saluted him before Abhi had a chance to do so, shook his hands and thanked him for saving the lives of the two men. He then outlined the measures taken for the surviving family of the driver - they would be well taken care of. Abhi was later awarded a Commendation for saving the lives of the soldiers....
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