Extreme Medical Services Box Set Vol 1 - 3

by Jamie Davis

  “That is what he has done in the past,” Ashley said. “Every time his previous plans have started to crumble, he cuts out and leaves his followers to take the brunt of the response to his machinations. At least, that has been my experience.”

  “What about you, Ashley?” Brynne asked. “Can you sense anything new, now that Dean is back on the street?”

  “All I can say, based on what I can feel, is that you are all on the right track here,” the Eldara Sister said. “It also feels closer, somehow. The turning point or event or whatever is on its way. Maybe not tomorrow, or even next week, but soon.”

  “Well, I guess that’s good to know,” Brynne said. She didn’t seem too convinced of what she was saying.

  “It is,” Ashley confirmed. “If you look at these as a timeline and progression of events, we have pushed the events forward in a way that seems to be in our favor. I think that if we continue on this path, we’ll come up with a further solution and draw this situation to a close.”

  “I don’t think Artur is the type to give up on this without a fight,” James said. “He will have something else in his plans, I’m sure. He is not stupid, or without significant resources.”

  Dean considered that and wondered what else The Cause had planned now that they had stopped the Unusuals from calling 911 for help. He and his undercover medical team could fill some of that gap, but there were people out there in trouble, and they were doing without help out of fear, and that was not right. It all had to stop. They had to finish this and draw Artur out somehow, to make him show his hand so they could expose both him and his helpers in the Fire Department headquarters. He looked at his watch. It was just after eight in the evening. He had told Gibbie to pick him up at nine o’clock tonight to allow time for this dinner meeting.

  Just then his phone buzzed in his pocket. In fact, everyone’s phone went off within seconds of each other. He looked down and saw it was Gibbie calling. He picked up and heard Gibbie’s frantic voice on the other end.

  “Fire, Dean. There’s a fire. A really big fire.”

  “Hold on Gibbie. Slow down. Where is there a fire?” Dean asked.

  “The Barrens, Dean. The Barrens is on fire,” Gibbie said.

  Dean heard the others talking earnestly, each into their own phones. He took the phone away from his ear to listen to what the others were saying.

  “… I’ll be right in, see if the chief can free up a second ambulance for us to staff,” Brynne said.

  “… I can be at the ER in about twenty minutes,” Ashley said.

  “… Tell August I’m on my way,” James said. He must be talking to the leader of the Barrens, Dean thought.

  They were all getting calls about the same thing. A massive blaze at the trailer park would have multiple injuries and need a ton of resources to treat those injured, both on the scene and at the hospital. This was serious and had many implications. Many of those who inhabited the Barrens were fairy folk. It would be hard to hide their true nature from the uninformed among the EMS, fire and hospital staff if there were a lot of injured. A distant shout coming from his own phone brought him back to the conversation with Gibbie.

  “I’ll meet you down in the garage as soon as you get here. Do you have Marian with you?” Dean asked.

  “I have Marian, and I’m picking up Wim, Dora, and Kristof on the way to you. I figured we needed all hands on deck for this one,” Gibbie replied.

  “Good idea, Gibbie,” Dean said, commending the vampire’s forethought. “Okay, I’m getting finished now, so head to the garage at the Nightwing building and I’ll meet you there.” Dean hung up the connection as the others were doing the same.

  James looked around at all of them. “I assume that all of you were alerted about the fire at the Barrens?” He waited for the nods he anticipated before continuing. “That was August, the fairy leader of the Barrens. Three SUVs pulled up about a half hour ago, and about ten humans jumped out with Molotov cocktails. They used them to ignite every trailer they could reach quickly and then took off again. The trailers are packed so close together that they are all starting to burn. There are a lot of injuries.”

  Ashley nodded. “I heard from the hospital. They are calling in all the staff they can and holding others past their shift in anticipation of the injured arriving there. If the injured arrive in large enough numbers, there’s going to be no way to hide their nature from the nurses and doctors who are not aware of Unusuals living here.”

  “Chief Ari is sending regular ambulances in addition to the Station U crew,” Brynne said. “He wants the off-duty Station U paramedics to come in and help run interference and talk the other paramedics through what they see with the injured so that everyone gets the care they need.”

  “Gibbie has gathered the entire CERT team and is on the way to pick me up,” Dean added. “We will be able to help, too. We can’t worry about hiding things. We need to focus on patient care and getting the worst injuries to the hospital quickly.”

  “Agreed,” James said. “We have to assume that there could be more incidents tonight. I’ll get Rudy to alert the pack in case there are other attacks. We can’t let this happen again if we can help it. I’ll meet you all over there as soon as he and I hook up.” Rudy was James’ second in command and the werewolf leader for the Elk City pack. “I’ll have Celeste remain here and coordinate. If any of you need more resources, call her, and she’ll know where to reach me.”

  They all stood as a group. Dean and Ashley headed to the elevators and downstairs to their apartments to change. He gave her a quick kiss at the door of her place. She hugged him briefly and urged him to be careful, then went in to change into her scrubs. Dean quickly changed into his EMS gear, the navy pants with pockets to hold his assorted small tools like his trauma scissors and penlight. He grabbed his stethoscope from the counter, went back into the hallway, and headed down to the elevators.

  Once he got to the garage, he didn’t have to wait long before Gibbie arrived. The beat up white van pulled to a screeching halt in front of him, and he climbed inside, barely closing the door before the vampire pulled away, peeling out of the garage in a screech of tires. They were still too far away. This was always the worst part of responding to a known serious injury. You could only drive so fast, especially in a civilian vehicle like this one. The problem was, the patients often couldn’t wait.

  Dean turned in his seat to see the rest of the team seated behind him, all grim-faced, though Marian bounced a little in her seat in anticipation of the excitement to come. She gave him a little smile when she noticed him watching her. He returned the grin, trying to reassure her before he returned his attention to the road in front of them as Gibbie drove into the night to the outskirts of town. The Barrens housed the poorest and most vulnerable of the Unusual community. They couldn’t defend themselves and offered no threat to anyone. He hoped they weren’t too late.

  Chapter 68

  As they got closer, Dean could see the glow of the fire over the trees, and they all started to smell the smoke from the burning house trailers. Gibbie pulled into the gravel parking lot and dodged the van around the fire engines there to park on the far side of the lot. Dean took in the scene. There were trailers on fire as far as he could see. Figures darted in the shadows, outlined in the night against the flames. The firefighters were hard pressed to address even the closest of the mobile homes’ flames. There was no way to get all the way into the woods and deal with the blazing homes towards the back of the trailer park.

  Dean saw the Station U ambulance parked near the chief’s vehicle. The doors were open, but the crew was nowhere in sight. As he watched, another two ambulances arrived. They would be regular crews and unprepared for patients with wings, fangs or any other type of Unusual signs. He turned to his team seated behind him. Their eyes were wide as they took in the scene through the windshield.

  “Okay,” Dean said, calming his voice to help calm them. “This is bad, but it is not hopeless. Our job is to br
ing some sort of order to the chaos. The first thing we need to do is separate the injured into groups like we taught you in class. Work in teams of two. Send those who can walk out to the parking lot. Have them gather here near Gibbie’s van. Gibbie, you will stay here and check people in as they arrive. That will keep them out of the normal responders’ way. If you find someone who is too injured to move on their own, have one of the uninjured stay with them and then seek out one of the paramedics or firefighters. I’ll be roaming and checking on you after I check in with the chief on the scene. Got it?”

  The team nodded back to him. They got out. Wim and Dora heading off with their responder bags in one direction, while Marian and Kristof headed in the other, circling the outskirts of the fire ground. Dean looked at Gibbie. The vampire nodded in assent. Dean turned and headed over to the command vehicle to check in and tell the on-scene chief that his team was there and what they were doing.

  Dean waited while Chief Compton, the deputy fire chief for the whole department, gave a few orders over the radio. He cleared his throat behind the chief to announce his arrival. The deputy fire chief looked over at Dean, surprise showing in his eyes and he spat on the ground.

  “What are you doing here, Flynn,” Chief Compton growled. “Haven’t you caused enough trouble with the department? You’re supposed to be suspended.”

  “I brought the CERT responders that Brynne and I trained. They know the community and might be able to help out with getting them to seek help and medical attention,” Dean replied.

  “I don’t care what these freaks decide to do. I’m just here to put this fire out before it sets the whole forest ablaze,” the Chief snapped back. “I don’t want to risk good firefighter’s lives here.”

  Dean was taken aback by the vitriol in the Chief’s response. He was saying that property was more important than the lives at risk here. The incident commander turned his attention back to the radio and barked another command while Dean considered what was happening.

  “Don’t worry about response teams, Operations,” the Chief said. “I have it on good authority that most of these trailers are abandoned. Just surround and drown the flames, so they don’t spread to the woods. Also, return the other ambulances, we won’t need them here. One ambulance from Station U is enough.”

  Dean was shocked. If the Chief wasn’t trying to save lives with his crews and telling his firefighters not to search for survivors, the number of injured and dead residents would soar. He looked at the Chief, the incredulous look on his face evident because the other man just leered in response and turned back to the command table deployed from the back of his SUV. Dean was pretty sure he had just found the leak in the fire department that was helping The Cause. The deputy fire chief was perfectly placed to listen in to every 911 call and radio dispatch. It would be easy for him to send The Cause to the scene to intimidate the Unusuals who called for help.

  He backed away, then turned and walked back to Gibbie’s van. He grabbed the trauma bag and started back towards the blazing trailer park. Gibbie began to ask him what was going on, but his stark stare stopped the vampire’s words with a look. If the Chief wasn’t trying to save lives, he would have to tell the other paramedics from Station U what was going on and try and come up with a plan with them. As he got closer to the flames, he found the Station U crew from the ambulance. Brook and Tammy were soot-stained and haggard already from caring for their patients. They had spread out a large tarp on the ground and had their patients spread across it.

  Tammy looked up and surprise registered on her face in the darkness as he walked up to her. He set his bag down. She was trying to comfort a crying fairy girl of around twelve. Her wings were badly burned, the fragile insect-like membranes charred and melted from the heat she had encountered escaping from her home. She sobbed in pain as Tammy used some sterile water to try and douse the ragged edges that were still smoldering.

  “What can I do?” Dean asked. “I just talked to the Chief, but I don’t think you’re going to get much help from him. He’s written off the whole scene as a loss, the residents included.”

  Shock and anger showed on her face as she realized what he was saying. “I’m just trying to deal with the ones we have here. These are the ones who can walk themselves out. I haven’t even tried to go into the scene and try and treat anyone else,” Tammy said.

  “I have my CERT trained team here. They are circulating around the edges and sending the walking wounded out to Gibbie’s van over there,” Dean said. “The Chief returned the other ambulances, you know.”

  Brook came over to get more supplies from their bags. “We heard over the radio. We’re on our own, I guess.” Dean could hear the bitterness in her voice. “We need to get some of these to the burn unit, but I don’t want to leave the others here.”

  “Brynne is supposed to bring another ambulance. Chief Ari was going to let her sign one out from the motor pool. I can’t believe she’ll just turn around, no matter what the radio response says. I’ll call her and tell her to proceed in,” Dean said. “We can also load some others into Gibbie’s van. He can carry six or seven.” He took out his phone and dialed Brynne’s cell phone. She didn’t pick up, so he left a message with the details of what he knew and told her to proceed to the scene.

  He watched as Brook and Tammy moved from patient to patient there on the tarp. Then he looked into the nearby fire scene. He knew where he was needed.

  “I’m going to head in closer and see if I can round up any others who can get out to you. There might be others who need care but can’t move, too,” he said. “Gibbie has more supplies if you need them, over in the back of the van. We loaded up from the stash at the Nightwing building.”

  Dean turned and started walking carefully towards the burning buildings. The heat coming off of them was intense. He didn’t have any kind of protective gear so he couldn’t enter any of the smoldering ruins, but he could look for survivors who might have made it out. As he was walking through the edge of the scene, he encountered August Beche and his wife, Helena. They were standing there, looking at the fire with tears in their eyes. He laid a hand on August’s shoulder as he passed. Their eyes met, but Dean had no words to counter the sorrow and fury he saw there. He gave a grim smile and continued his search.

  He was picking his way past one smoldering building when a groan to his left drew his attention. He trained his flashlight on the area and saw a blackened hand reach out from what he thought was a pile of rubbish. Dean rushed over, picking his way around the smoldering patches of grass. He carefully pulled a blackened blanket from the lump on the ground and saw a figure curled in a fetal position. It was a fairy woman; he could tell because of the wings that were wrapped around her. The male fairies didn’t have wings. There were bad burns all over, and the wings were blackened and charred even through the blanket. She must have used it to shield herself from the flames while escaping the home.

  “My name is Dean,” he said, kneeling next to the woman on the ground. “I’m a paramedic, and I’m going to try and help you.” He wasn’t sure there was much he could do. The burns were extensive, and he surprised she was alive at all.

  “Paramedic Dean Flynn,” the gravelly voice rasped. “It fits that it is you who found us. Little Flynn will be glad that you are here to save her since I will not be able to be with her much longer.”

  “Nura?” Dean asked. He knew this woman. It was the fairy woman whose child he had helped deliver. It was the first baby he had delivered, and it had been a fairy girl. It was one of the proudest moments so far in his short paramedic career. The family had named her Flynn after him and declared that she would grow up to be a paramedic like him. He looked around. Where was the baby? She would be about three months old by now, not old enough to crawl away yet. He gently reached out and rolled the charred figure onto her back. The wings crumbled away where they were wrapped around her abdomen, exposing the baby she held there. The child wasn’t moving.

  Dean reached out and
checked the infants pulse along the upper arm. There was a pulse, but it was too slow, and the baby didn’t appear to be breathing. He carefully picked the fairy infant up, wary of the wings on her back and leaned forward. He tilted the head back slightly to open the airway and covered her mouth and nose with his mouth, blowing life-giving air into the infant’s lungs, one puff at a time. He continued for a few minutes and felt the infant stir in his grasp. He checked the pulse, and it was stronger and faster now. His intervention had done the trick.

  “I brought her back, Nura,” Dean said. There was no answer, and he looked over at the mother lying on the ground next to him. She was staring vacantly at the dark, cloudy sky overhead. She didn’t blink. Shifting the baby in his grasp, he reached over and checked the mother for a carotid pulse on her neck. He detected nothing. Sighing, he gently slid the eyelids closed and stood with the baby. Flynn started to cry a little. Dean’s experience with babies was limited, but he knew he needed to get her somewhere warm and dry.

  He started back out of the charred trailer park towards the staging area in the parking lot. The movement seemed to help soothe the baby. He checked her over while he picked his way around the charred obstacles in his way. She might have some minor, first-degree burns, but her mother had done a good job of protecting her from the heat. Aside from some smoke inhalation injury that would be expected in a fire, she appeared to be fine. Holding her close, he reached the parking lot and the area where Tammy and Brook were tending to the injured.

  Brynne had shown up and brought two other Station U paramedics, Bill and Lynne with her. Chief Ari, the director of EMS for the fire department was there as well. He was arguing with the deputy fire chief, probably about the decision to turn around the responding ambulances earlier. Their shouts were audible to anyone within fifty feet of them. It didn’t seem as if the EMS chief was getting anywhere with his points. As Dean walked up to the others, he saw Chief Ari storm off, back to his SUV.