Pain throbbed in her head, blazed down her right shoulder and echoed in her right hip. Squeezing her eyes closed, she swallowed the bile roaring at the back of her throat and waited for the nausea to pass. Bit by bit, her stomach settled and she dared to speak. “What happened?”“You screamed ‘no’ then I heard you hit the ground.”Memories surged through Nell: the hospital, the body parts on racks and the Monty Python morgue of the not-dead-yet. She opened her eyes and gasped in horror.A pair of brown eyes in what was left of a tan face stared back. Pale pink lids masked the eyes for a moment before they continued their perusal. His eyes seemed to be the only part of him that remained intact. His bottom jaw had been ripped off, leaving flaps of skin and tissue to curl around his neck. His arms and legs had been cleanly detached at the joints, no doubt to join the heap of limbs for reuse.Nell’s stomach burbled at the sight. What do you call a man with no arms and legs who is treading water?
