Bang!
ImpressedWho: Anna and open
Where: Between the house and the chapel
When: 6am
Anna had eventually gone to the chapel and had her name ticked off, but after that nobody seemed particularly bothered about her. She wasn't injured and everyone was too busy either organising stuff or being hurt to really pay any attention to the young girl. She wandered round the chapel for a bit, watching people, but that was boring after a while. And she wasn't much of an organiser, so in the end she'd found herself back outside and walking up to the house.
She'd settled herself down on the lawn some distance away from the burning building - she couldn't get as close as she'd been before, the fires were too hot now. It really was fascinating - the whole damn place was going to go up. Already was going up. There was no saving it now. She wondered absently if it would burn right down to the foundations.
She didn't expect the explosion and when it came it knocked her over - she was lucky she was already sitting, but even then she went flying as flaming debris rained down on her. The last thing she thought before she lost consciousness was 'I wonder if this is what dying is'.
- Login to post comments
.
Laila wasn't the type of person to just sit around when things needed to be done, so after checking in at the chapel she'd gone right back out to see if she could help round up any stragglers. She was trying to think of the big picture, too - with the house and everything in it likely trashed, they were going to be stuck out in the wilderness, no telling how long because the scientists were dicks. On the plus side, at least there was plenty of fresh water, the weather seemed okay, and they did have shelter. She was cool with camping; she'd used to go all the time with her dad when she was younger. On the bad side, they had no food, no clothes in case if sudden bad weather, and likely no tools unless there was stuff in the shed they could use. She sure hoped someone was skilled at wilderness survival and hunting, because while she was capable of cleaning and dressing small animals like rabbits or fish, she sure as hell didn't know how to catch them.
It was while pondering all this that she noticed the girl sitting and watching the burning house - probably thinking about all she's losing right now, Laila thought to herself, trying not to do the same. "Hey!" she called out, though she was still about forty feet away. "Have you--" The rest of her sentence was lost as the house exploded. Laila would have already been diving for the ground if the force from the explosion hadn't knocked her over, curling into a fetal position and protecting her face and neck with her arms. She could feel small glass shards slicing into her arms and something burning landed on her leg, but she knocked it off and stood as soon as she thought most of the debris had settled - or that she was outside the range of. "Someone get over here!" she yelled towards, well, anyone who was still outside, hoping someone would hear her as she ran towards the girl on the ground. Oh, God, please don't be dead, she prayed as she approached.
Anna was very definitely
Anna was very definitely unconscious, sprawled on the ground, bleeding from several cuts to her face, arms and legs. There was a large shard of glass lodged in her upper right arm and probably several other pieces in other lacerations over her body. Luckily, though, she'd been far enough away not to get hit by anything more and her face seemed to have survived major damage, though there was a bleeding cut on her right cheek which seemed like it might need a couple of stitches. She was breathing, but showing no signs of waking.
Joy had just stepped outside
Joy had just stepped outside again. She had wanted to ration her limited cigarette supply, but the urge was too strong to ignore anymore. She'd sat around the chapel for a while, but it was just too boring, and right now she was far too sober and crabby from a lack of nicotine to stay in one place for too long. She especially didn't want to watch people fussing over her unconscious sister. She'd taken stock of the people in the room- boy, there were a lot of people she didn't know. But she was finally giving in to the urge to have another, this time to wander off by herself for a little while, just to gather her thoughts.
She looked over at the burning house. It was kinda pretty, really, in a horrible way. Obviously, she wasn't the only one who thought so. Another little girl was just sitting and watching the fire by herself. Joy had just turned to shield her lighter from what little wind there was, when she heard the explosion. Milliseconds later, she found herself face down on the ground, the wind momentarily knocked out of her. Gasping, she tried to roll over, her ears ringing, her ankle and chest hurting. Some debris had landed around her, but she had been far enough away that glass had not reached her. She looked up in time to see that the little girl was now lying on the ground, and another woman was shouting something and running towards her. Grunting and limping, she started running as fast as she could in that direction. She had no clue what condition the chapel was in right now, but she had a feeling that she was the closest person that could help right now.
.
She wasn't dead, thank God. Laila dropped to her knees beside the girl - who she didn't think she'd met before - trying to recall the first aid classes she'd taken. She didn't look as bad as Laila would've figured considering she'd just been in a house explosion, but her wounds were nothing to sneeze at - and Laila didn't know if there was internal damage or broken bones. First things first, though - ABCs. She'd had a pretty funny guy as a first aid instructor, who had told them that first aid basics could be summed up in thirteen simple words - Air goes in and out. Blood goes round and round. Variations are bad. She was breathing, which made things easier, and while none of the cuts looked to be bleeding heavily, there was all that glass. Laila knew better than to try taking it out without someone who knew more than she did (read: a doctor or nurse or other qualified professional), but moving her could potentially be a very, very bad idea if there was spinal damage or other serious things that she probably couldn't imagine.
Thankfully, there was a woman running towards her. Laila headed out a few steps to intercept her. "Go get Dave - the doctor," she clarified, because she didn't know this woman either. "He's in the chapel. Tell him a girl was caught in the explosion and is unconscious but breathing fine. She's got several big cuts from glass and I don't want to move her because I don't yet know if there are any broken bones or anything more serious. If he says move her, bring two or three people with you because I can't lift her myself." She might have been if her shoulder hadn't been weakened, but she wasn't wasting time on what-ifs. "Run," she added, as she headed back to the injured girl. She was only wearing a long t-shirt and slippers, but another shirt could be found (or stolen from a guy), so Laila set about tearing as many strips from it as she could while still maintaining the girl's dignity to try and stop the bleeding from the cuts that didn't have glass in them while she waited for more help.
One look at the girl told
One look at the girl told Joy that this was not good. She had to hold back the nausea as she saw all the blood the girl was leaking. "Doctor. Got it." She turned around, putting maybe a little too much pressure on her twisted ankle, trying not to injure it worse. Finally looking at the chapel, she was relieved to see that it seemed, although it looked like some of the windows might have broken. Running in slippers was hard. She decided she didn't like it very much. She arrived at the chapel and, leaning on the doorway, shouted inside to whoever would listen. "Hey, Dave! Doc! We need some help out here! There's a girl- she got caught in the explosion and she's hurt bad!" She didn't want to actually go in yet. As much chaos as had occurred outside, she could only imagine what was happening inside.
.
Dave was all the way at the other end of the chapel busy treating patients and he missed the call over the general hubbub.
Joy waited for a moment,
Joy waited for a moment, hoping someone would come out. After a moment, she figured out that no one had heard her, and if she wanted to be the hero and help save that girl's life, she had to go in. Squeezing through the crowd, she finally made it to the makeshift O.R. "Hey, doc," she yelled, trying to get Dave's attention, "we got a girl out there bleeding to death! Someone needs to get out there!" She looked over and saw her sister apparently unconscious, off to the side. At least one of us is doing something, freak.
Dave looked up - his
Dave looked up - his attention firmly gotten by that and he nodded, finishing off with his current patient and grabbing his medical kit. "Okay, I'm coming," he told her. "Lead the way - what happened?" He'd heard the explosion, but hadn't had a chance or luxury to stop and wonder what the hell it had been.
Joy led him back outside.
Joy led him back outside. "The house- something exploded, and the house went up like an a-bomb. I was way over here and got knocked over by the thing, but the girl that got hurt was just sitting there and watching the fire when it went. She looks bad, but I'm pretty sure she's alive. Some other chick was checking on her and sent me after you." Her ankle was killing her now. She was pretty sure that had gone from twisted to sprained at some point. It didn't help that she was starting to wheeze a bit now, thanks to years of smoking. "They're just over here," she said, pointing to where she'd left them a moment ago. Debris was littering the ground around them. She wondered if people would start finding remnants of their belongings lying around in a little while.
"Okay, thanks," Dave said.
"Okay, thanks," Dave said. He'd noticed that the woman was limping, but almost everyone had some form of injury today. Still. "You should get yourself checked out - go and see Millie," he told her. Now that he knew where he was going, he didn't need her with him anymore.
He walked towards the girl on the ground, who he recognised as one of his neighbours, and Laila, who he already knew. It didn't take a genius to realise what had happened. Must have been the oxygen tanks, he thought. Nothing says 'highly explosive' like compressed oxygen, after all. "How's she doing," he asked Laila, squatting down by them.
.
Joy nodded and hobbled off. She still wasn't entirely sure how she had done it in the first place, but her ankle was really throbbing now. She knew she had to have done even more damage running to get the doc then running back. She headed back to the chapel and found herself a seat near the nurse, propped her right foot up on the bench, and waited for her turn. Her ankle was already nice and swollen, and was starting to turn a little purple. FUCK. She looked over at Janie, who still seemed unconscious. "This is all your fault, you know. They never woulda called me here if it wasn't for you." She flipped her sister off, then leaned back and waited.
.
"Well, she's breathing," Laila said, looking up from where she was trying to keep pressure on the worst of the cuts with strips torn from the girl's shirt. Problem was, she only had two hands, so she'd had to choose the two worst and go from there. She wasn't about to tie any tourniquets - the girl wasn't bleeding that badly. "Which is pretty damn good for being this close to an exploding house, I guess. I was all the way over there and still got knocked on my ass and caught glass." She gestured with her chin. "Unconscious, but her breathing's been steady, pulse feels okay. She's got a couple big cuts with glass still in them, but I didn't want to pull it out or move her until someone who actually knew what they were doing checked her out. I don't know if she broke anything in the blast; she was already sitting when the house went, but she caught the brunt of it, I think."
They were still a distance
They were still a distance from the house in any event and Dave shook his head. "Good job she wasn't any closer," he muttered. Stupid girl, but at least she'd had the sense to keep back - or possibly it was just the heat of the burning building that had stopped her getting any closer. He looked at Laila. "Okay, I'll check her out. What I need you to do is go and find me something long and flat - a board of some description. A door if you can't find anything else. And two more people - we need to check her for spinal damage and I'm not happy to lift her any other way until she wakes up."
"Sure thing," Laila said as she relinquished the cloth she was holding to the girl's cuts, keeping the bit of blood she had on her hands well away from her own cuts, the glass she'd neglected to remove (if she could; she hadn't bothered to look at herself after the blast in her rush to get to the obviously more wounded girl) stinging and making her wince as she stood. "A board and two people. Back in a sec." Ignoring the twinges from her own injuries (time enough for that later, she wasn't dying), she set off in the direction of a pile of large, promising-looking debris that had been thrown in the blast. Digging around for a second yielded a long, flat... half a door, actually, she realized upon spotting the half with the doorknob attached a few feet away. Hefting the half-door with a grimace at the twinge from her shoulder, Laila set off to round up two people who weren't doing anything. The bastards.
It didn't take long to find two such people. The first was a girl, made noticeable by the tattoos covering almost every inch of her body (and in a tank top and underwear, there was a lot showing). What was better was that she was tall and looked strong. Laila snapped her up. "I need your help," she said. "A girl's been hurt, we need help moving her." Ren, bewildered but not doing anything, just shrugged and followed along. She did, however, wonder why this chick was carrying a door. Laila moved on with the girl in tow, beelining towards another tall, strong-looking guy who didn't seem to be doing anything, either. "I need your help to move a hurt girl," she said, echoing her previous spiel. "This way."
Gwil had been doing not a lot, as it happened - he'd spent a great deal of time comforting a distraught Sally, who entertained him muchly by literally crying on him - he did so enjoy a woman who had a good cry - but eventually she'd gone, curled up with her little cat and actually gone to sleep in between the pews. The poor woman looked exhausted - though how she could sleep in this place, he had no idea. of course, he'd encouraged her in it, offering her his shoulder at first, until she'd fallen asleep and then wriggling his way out from under her afterwards. He wasn't just going to sit there whilst she slept - that would be boring as hell and there was drama going on! He'd hardly stood up when he was tapped and Gwil was never one to refuse to help out - especially not when someone was hurt. "Lead the way," he told her, not even asking questions.
"Over here," Laila said, leading her two volunteers (sort of) out to where Dave was waiting with the injured girl. "Half a door," she said as she reached him, then indicated Gwil and Ren. "And two others to help. How's she doing?" For the girl's sake, she hoped she wasn't seriously injured beyond a concussion and some cuts and scrapes. They sure as hell didn't have the facilities or the supplies to care for anyone seriously, seriously injured. Unless the scientists were hiding another basement infirmary under the chapel or somewhere, which she highly doubted.
"Holy shit," Ren said, looking at the house and then to the chick bleeding on the ground. "What happened?" She'd heard the explosion, but hadn't gone to investigate because she definitely wasn't keen on hanging around things that exploded. "What made it blow?"
Dave looked up and moved to Anna's head. "I would imagine the oxygen tanks on the med level blew," he told Ren, before looking to Laila. "Great, that'll be fine. Right, what I need you to do is for you two-" he indicated Ren and Gwil. "-to get on her right side. And Laila, if you can take the door to her left side." He shifted his position to hold Anna's head and neck and waited for them to do that. It was important they got this right.
Gwil did as he was asked, moving to Anna's torso on her right and waiting expectantly. He'd actually done this before - growing up he'd done some work with mountain rescue and spinal injuries were common when walkers and climbers got stuck or fell. But that had been a long time ago - a lifetime away really.
Ren had never done this before, but she'd seen ER and Rescue 911 enough to be able to guess what was coming. She took her position next to Gwil but didn't touch her yet, just waiting for further instruction.
Laila nodded and hefted the door around to the left, setting the closest edge down near Anna's side but didn't let go or drop it entirely; she assumed Dave would want her to slide it under Anna's body as their two volunteers rolled her. "All set," she said, kneeling.
Dave looked at Gwil and Ren. "Right, now what we're going to do is, on three, we're going to roll her towards you and then Laila's going to slide the board underneath her, and then we're going to roll her back. We're going to do it slowly and it's very important we keep her spine in a straight line. So Ren, I need you to put your hand on her thigh and lift her leg slightly as we roll her, okay? Any questions before we start?" he asked.
"Under like this, right?" Ren asked, sliding a hand on the inside of Anna's thigh so she'd be able to lift - or more like keep it in line with her hip - as they rolled. She certainly didn't want to be the one responsible for paralyzing the girl. Laila, for her part, just shook her head. She already knew what she had to do.
"Yup, just like that," Dave confirmed, before looking at Gwil. The other guy just nodded and Dave surmised from the way he took his position that he'd done this before at some point. A glance at Laila told him the same thing. That was all good - very good, in fact. "Right, okay. Everybody ready? Then on three. One. Two. Three," he said, steadily, then began to roll her, turning her head and neck, keeping them perfectly aligned with her body as Gwil took care of her torso and Ren her legs.
Ren kept her movements slow and steady and in line with Gwil and Dave, making sure she kept Anna's legs in line with her hips and spine. Once they'd gotten Anna onto her side, Laila slid the door into place, making sure it wouldn't move all over the place when they lowered her back down. At least she'd picked competent helpers, and thank God for that. She could think of a couple morons she wouldn't want helping out.
"And back again," Dave instructed once the door was in place. He'd check her back properly once they'd gotten her into the chapel and away from the burning mess of building. It was doubtful there'd be another explosion, but the doctor really didn't want to be taking any chances with that.
Ren did the same thing in reverse, keeping Anna's legs in line with the rest of her body as they rolled her back down. She figured they'd have to carry her back to the chapel to be looked at, since Ren was none too keen to be hanging out around a house that could potentially explode again. She was all for getting this chick up and getting the hell out.
Gwil let Anna go as they rested her back on the board. "So I guess we're at a corner each then?" he asked, looking towards the doc. It'd be easier going that way that just two of them trying to carry her and the door would be rather unweildy. Dave nodded his assent and they swapped positions to carry her back again.
Ren and Laila adjusted themselves accordingly, each taking a corner as well. Laila was glad there were four of them to carry the slender girl; she couldn't weigh much to start and with four people there would be hardly any strain at all on her shoulder. "Say when," she told Dave, she and Ren waiting for his signal to lift. She knew they'd have to do it as carefully as she'd been rolled, lifting slowly and in unison, and carrying her as gently as possible back.
"On three again," Dave told them. "One, two, three." He lifted on the third count until they had her level, then started back off towards the chapel. Dave moved carefully, but as quickly as they could away from the burning building.
Laila had a little difficulty navigating the debris-covered ground in flip flops and Ren a little more in bare feet (because stepping on some burning remnant or something sharp was not on her list of things that would be awesome), but they managed to keep up and to keep the door-turned-backboard level and unjostled. They were both rather happy to be moving away from the burning house, if only because looking at it really, really sucked.
It didn't take them long to get the unconscious girl back to the chapel and Dave navigated them though the people to the altar at the front, before coordinating the four of them to lay her down on the floor. He'd tend to her visible wounds before they did anything else - get the glass out and stop the bleeding. But at least they were all safer here.