As Alexander entered the large dical tent, his nose twitched uncontrollably as he was assaulted with the pungent sll of a mixture of blood, sweat, alcohol and dicinal herbs, and his ears were bombarded with shrill cries, hectic barks, and eternal low groanings.
The chaos here seed to have reached its zenith as the most critically wounded were being treated here.
Various slaves and helpers swiveled around each other in the narrow spaces as they walked with determined intent to reach their destination.
Alexander could see that most of his own dical personnel were in here and hence the treatnt being given here was significantly better.
At least the help here, however small, actually benefited the wounded.
But alas, this clinic was designed with the mind of handling the casualties of a small one thousand rcenary group. Not for ten thousand.
The clinic here was too small to house all the wounded rushing in and the single tent beca a cage filled with the death throes of the dying.
As Alexander scanned the tent for the person he ca for, he cursed internally, "They simply let anyone and everyone in. The idiots!"
He could clearly see the disorganized people trying and failing miserably at any type of coordination. This not only didn't help but it even obstructed those trying to help.
People would scream endlessly for sothing like bandages or dicine or stitches or even ask for assistance from sobody, only to be overridden by an even louder scream.
The people handing out supplies would also lose their way. Many lost track of the people they were supposed to find in the crowded space, many forgot the thing soone wanted because of all the noise, so simply misheard the request and so had their supplies snatched up by others on their way to their destination.
It seed like a fish market rather than a clinic.
Alexander hence decided to do sothing about it.
But first, he had to find the person he ca for.
After a bit of head swerving, off in the distance, Alexander spotted a small, slender shadowy figure slipping past the chaotic mass and trying to give dicines and orders to the dical staff.
Her face was flushed with sweat, her slender arms were slightly shaking and Alexander could hear her hoarse voice all the way across the tent.
There she was - an, the current de-facto leader of the clinic and Alexander's current person of interest.
"an, over here," Alexander called out, gesturing her to co towards him.
Hearing the familiar voice and seeing Alexander's silhouette, an's face lit up like a Christmas tree and her mouth subconsciously burst into a wide grin.
"Finally soone who can take over from ." an gleefully thought as she assud both Alexander and her mistress were here to take the helm.
"Alexander, thank Gaia you're here. I am about to lose my mind here." an complained loudly as she briskly walked towards him, strongly shoving anyone in her way to the side.
"This place is a ss. Why did you let in so many wounds? We can't treat so many." Alexander pointed out.
"It's because that shit-eater ca and took all our extra n. The helpers from the other groups are nowhere near as useful." an cursed.
Shit-eater was an's term of endearnt for Pallidus.
He must have co here personally to force all the volunteers and lightly wounded of Nestoras's group to go into battle.
"Where's mistress by the way?" She then asked, after looking around and seeing no sign of Cambyses.
"I sent her to try and squeeze so more dicine from Theocles," Alexander answered half truthfully.
"Oh, that's good. We are running really low." an cheerfully replied.
"By the way, Alexander, what about your fight with Nestoras? Will you be alright?" an then asked, her question dripping with worry.
"*Smirk*, everything's fine." Alexander brushed off any worry as he curled up his lips and waved his hand like he was clearing the air.
"Besides you have already enormously helped by spreading the rumor. It's already started working." He proclaid
"Well, it was mostly Remus. The mont he heard it was from you, he turned into a canary. That boy is loyal to a fault."
"Mmm," Alexander nodded with a slight smile. Then he added, "We need to clear the tent. There are too many wounded and we have to prioritize. We will try to save the more lightly wounded first."
"I agree. We sotis can't even get to a patient because the path is so congested. And in the back, there's little light coming due to the overcrowding. There's not even much space to light candles there and it will be dark soon." an pointed worriedly.
And then she asked, "But Alexander, how are we going to that? We don't have the n to forcefully throw most of them out."
"You're right. Hmmmmm….." Alexander put his hands on his chin and began to think.
Without muscle, it would be impossible to force many of the wounded to leave the clinic.
As he was brainstorming, suddenly a new, unfamiliar face began to surface inside his mind. It was shabby with an unclean stubble, droopy eyes and sunken cheeks -lodias!
The Claws's rcenary leader had left a good impression on him and he thought it was worth a try to ask him for help.
"I might know soone who can help. Let check it out." Alexander claid. "But I got a job for you in the anti. You know the trunk I keep in the clinic. I want you to get it for . And so fresh beetroots."
Why did Alexander need these? an didn't see a need to ask.
"Okay, no problem. I am getting it now" an readily agreed and without wasting any more ti, sped off into the tent.
Alexander too turned around to search for lodias and soon found him in the sa place.
As he approached him, he noticed that the patients lodias was tending to seed to have gained so new bandages and a few lucky ones even had thin blankets on them.
It looked like Alexander's command had worked.
Noticing Alexander's arrival, lodias turned around and stood up in joy, exclaiming, "Alexander, haha, thank you, brother. You really helped our n this ti."
"No no, we are all in this together. I only did what was right." Alexander humbly smiled.
And then continued, 'Listen lodias, I ca here to ask for a favor. The dical tent is getting too crowded and I was hoping to clear so space. Can your group help?"
lodias instantly understood what he was implying. He wanted his help forcefully throwing out so of the wounded.
He certainly was not fond of this idea as so of his own n were there.
But Alexander did do him a favor and rejecting him to his face would be too rude. So he asked in a neutral voice, "What do you want us to do exactly?"
Alexander clearly sensed the careful, probing tone and decided to inform lodias of the dire picture.
"Our tent is so crowded that we can't even properly move there. Our dicine is severely lacking and we don't have the n to take care of everyone. We are losing people we could have saved because we are being overwheld."
This revelation caught lodias slightly off-guard. In hindsight, he was too busy taking care of his n to really think about the logistics of the dical camp.
"Oh, I had no idea things were so bad." He exclaid. "Now that I think about it, I do rember seeing a large group leave just so ti ago. Okay, let's go. Like you said, 'we are all in this together." lodias declared.
Hearing the overcrowding was actually killing soldiers, lodias-the ever pragmatic man decided to help Alexander.
"Boss, we have many brothers…" A concerned voice rang out from behind lodias.
"Of course they can stay," Alexander interjected reassuringly.
"No, this is war. We will try to save those we are confident in saving." lodias raised his sturdy hands and decisively shut down any protest.
This pleased Alexander very much. Because now they could lead by example.
"Please follow ." Alexander gestured.
"Androus, go and tell everyone to et in front of the dical camp. ASAP!" lodias turned and shouted orders to a thin-faced man.
Then he faced Alexander and smiled, "Lead the way."
As the small group made their way towards the clinic, all of them distinctly felt the situation getting worse.
They ca across more and more wounded left unattended and uncared for and more and more idlers.
They could hear considerably more grumbling and even saw so small groups crosswords with their commanders who ca to recall them back to battle.
It seed that further n were being pulled away for the new attack, while so started using the rumor as an excuse to not work but idle.
If sothing was not done soon, the treatnt of the whole dical camp could soon stop.
Hence it seed that lodias's arrival was like tily coal in the winter.
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