Hi all,
I'm working in a novel wherein one of the characters gets severely burned by fire while being in the midst of nature. So, since he is far away from the 'civilised' world, he needs to tend to these wounds with natural means, available in the immediate surroundings. My quesntion is thus: which material and techniques can he use?
For clearity about his situation, I describe here what the character has been going through (since the book is not in english, this is not a part of the book, but just a situational scetch) :
He is in a campement with rudimentary wooden shacks. while wondering through nature, he got himself in this place, which is inhabited by a rough gang that lives from robbery of nearby towns. apparently these towns have organised themselves, since suddenly the campement is being attacked, with bullets flying everywhere. The character dives under one of the shacks, where he previously made a hollow wherein he's been keeping dried meat, a knife and so as preparation to escape the place.
He digs himself in. One of the tugs tries to pull him out to use the hiding place for himself, but gets a bullet and dies. The character then takes the rifle the tug had with him, takes it apart, drags the body over him, and covers himself as best as possible with the claylike soil. He uses the barrel of the gun to breath through.
At some point the shack falls apart above him, ripping the barrel out of his mouth, thereby wounding his lips. he is without breath, panicks, searches and finds the barrel again and takes a strong suck of air, only to find that the barrel got filled with hot ashes, burning the inside and outside of his mouth. he stays under for about 12h to make sure that he will not be shot.
He reappears by pushing the coaled, stenching body above him away, and crawls out of the clay. but his clothes have been partly burned in the clay, so they get ripped off his body, opening the 2th degree burnwounds on his skin.
It is close to winter, and he's far away from any town he can show himself without getting shot before questions asked.
So, I guess I should first ask about opinions whether this situation is not to harsh to make his survival plausible? Secondly; what techniques and materials he might use to survive, and 3th; what sort of consequences this ordeal could have, both those that dissapear after time, and those that might be permanent.
I'm aware that It is quite a lot I ask, and that it probably needs some time to 'grow' into his situation, but thorough comments to help me make the situation more realistic are very much apreciated. (might even mention you in a thankword if the book gets published!)
greatings,
Guf.
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