I'm working on a scene in a sci-fi story with a heroine that I'll call "J" and a torture victim that I'll call "K." J and her friends have discovered a mad science lab that they can't bring down themselves, so J frees one of the test subjects while her friends get their ship ready for a get-away so that K can show the authorities what has been happening to people like her. PROBLEM: J is a genetically enhanced super-heroine who can run 5 miles in 15-20 minutes, but K is so weak from years of inactivity that she pulled her hamstring (Grade 2-3) from trying to run to hard. I'm wondering how J would carry her to the ship, and the Army Study Guide has helped a lot with the general options, but I was hoping for some more specifics. I could just tell the readers "J carried her," but I want to show J's emergency training with a little more description than that. The Support Carry requires the casualty to hop on her good leg, and super-weak K wouldn't be able to keep up with J going super fast, so J wouldn't be able to run at full speed if they did this. Given the time constraints and differences of athletic ability in this particular scene, it seems like J would worry about this one slowing them down too much. Likewise, the Arms Carry says that it should only be used for extremely short distances. J might be a great deal stronger and faster than the people the guide was written for, but she had also exerted herself a lot in the scenes before this one, so I don't think that she would have the energy to manage this carry as well as she could normally. The absence of 21st century weapons available also makes the Pistol-Belt Carry impossible, and the Saddleback Carry looks like it would be more painful for K's leg than the others would. As far as I can tell, that leaves the Fireman's and Pack-Strap Carries. Should J specifically use one over the other, or would either of them work well enough?
Depending on the amount of danger (hostile forces chasing after them, for example), the situation may require a person to use practices that are less than optimal, because of the impending threat. Just like marines withdrawing from a battlefield, the best way to transport a wounded man (helicopter med-evac) is used if the area is secure. If the battle is still going on and the fighting is too heavy to get a helicopter in without getting it destroyed, sometimes marines may have to drag, carry, etc. a wounded man out of the line of fire and back to the safety of their secured positions, even though such action may aggravate the injury and make it worse. The nature of the injury, combined with the level of threat, results in having to make a decision of either wait until the fighting is over (if the wound isn't that serious), or if the wound is serious and life threatening, you have the choice of (a) moving the patient, making the wound worse (lowering the overall chance of survival, but still having a chance to survive...or maybe losing a limb, depending on the nature of the injury), (b) doing nothing and allowing the patient to die from lack of treatment or (c) abandon the patient and hope the enemy is civilized enough to take him prisoner and send him to a prison camp infirmary, instead of making an internet video of themselves sawing off his head. Tough choices, but all of the factors of the situation have to play into it and there may not be a "good" solution.
If it's just a pulled hamstring, I'd say go for saddleback: it'll be painful but it's just pain. Also, the adrenaline of the dangerous situation will dull the pain to bearable levels even if they haven't had the common sense to tote a first-aid kit equipped with mid-level painkillers like codeine (I wouldn't waste morphine on an injury like that). Besides, enduring a bit of pain is a cakewalk compared to getting captured / killed. For perspective: I know a guy (in addition to Jerome Le Banner) who got his arm broken from blocking a kick but still kept on fighting (in the ring), another who finished a boxing bout despite a broken finger (reported noticing the pain, but that all the excitement and adrenaline dulled it so much that he wouldn't have believed it was broken until after the fight), one guy suffered a dislocated hip and put it back in place on his own, and while it's a much lesser feat, I've attended grappling class with a badly sprained back after I pulled a trapezius muscle the previous day while training outside on a cold autumn evening. It hurt like fuck, but nothing a bit of tiger balm and jaw clenching couldn't overcome. Regardless, I'd wager being carried in saddleback with a pulled hamstring is less painful than any of the abovementioned situations, i.e. it's perfectly doable.
Thanks, everyone! Especially @Morbius . I'm not sure what happened to my reading comprehension at the time I wrote that , but thank you for reminding me that other kinds of belts could be used. Had this been a real emergency, you might have just stopped me from killing somebody by reminding me of an important option I had neglected. On that note, this is a line I have planned as part of the dialogue... "K, I'm going to put you on my back, and I need to know if you feel strong enough to hold on to me. If you can hold your arms together around my neck, then my arms will be free to support your legs, but if you can't, then I'll have to hold your arms over my shoulders and leave your legs hanging." ...and am I completely misunderstanding the anatomical mechanics involved in a decision like this? Is there anything else I need to consider?
Do they have enough time to make a splint? Does the healthy person have a back pack? It would be quite a hindrance for someone to run a long distance with someone hanging around their neck. It would cut off a lot of the air supply. Carrying them like a sack of potatoes over the shoulder or across the shoulders would be easier to run. Other than that, if the person has a back pack they can use the straps to carry them on their back, back to back, and the person being carried could even fire a gun .
Well, how can J run fast? Is it because of stronger muscles? If so, she could simply throw K over her shoulder and leg it. Basically. I've carried my mate, who's 100kg, in near running speed, jogging i guess. It was a bet at a party, don't ask... But point is, the leg muscles in a human body are incredibly strong. They do, together with out bones and joints, support our whole body easily basically. And in a crisis situation you would have adrenaline pumping and that would make you even stronger.
If the MC is strong, a door or some poles and some rope or torn shirt/dress could form a usable sort of travois. She wouldn't need to carry the friend and could drag her pretty fast.
