by Jamie Davis
Dean looked around, trying to see where he could put the infant, or with whom. Bill noticed his arrival first, the grizzled old paramedic chuckled and gestured in his direction with a bloody gloved hand.
“Look what the cat dragged in,” Bill said. “I knew you wouldn’t be able to stay away from the action for long, bud. Where’d you get the baby? Is she okay?”
Brynne looked over and noticed him. She came over after finishing taping off the end of a bandage wrapped to a woman’s arm. She held out her hands to Dean, and he handed her the baby.
“It’s baby Flynn, Brynne,” Dean said. “Her mom didn’t make it, but she was able to get the baby out alive. I had to ventilate her a little bit, but otherwise, she seems alright despite the fire and smoke inhalation.”
“Let’s check her oxygen levels and get her some supplemental oxygen anyway,” Brynne said. “She probably inhaled a lot of carbon monoxide and other chemicals in the blaze. Better to be safe and err on the side of caution until we can get her to the hospital for some lab work. You did good, Dean.”
It felt good to be working alongside all of his Station U colleagues again. This was where he belonged. All he had to do was beat the murder charge, and he could return to his job taking care of his special patients.
“Anything else on what happened?” Dean asked.
Tammy looked up from where she was taking a set of vital signs. “It seems several SUVs pulled up, and men dressed in black exited the vehicles. They were carrying bottles and started running down between the trailers, lighting the cloth wicks in the Molotov cocktails and tossing them into windows and doors before racing back to their vehicles and leaving. Most people were caught unawares, and you know how these trailers are. There’s often only one main doorway out. I’m sure a lot of residents were trapped inside unless they could climb out a window. Who knows how many are dead here in the remains of the trailers.”
“I heard Chief Ari yelling. Are we getting any more ambulances to transport the injured to the hospital?” Dean asked.
“I don’t know,” Brynne said. “Deputy Chief Compton refused to call the Red Cross either. They would be useful to help get shelter for the displaced survivors here. He claimed it was to protect their secret, but I don’t think that’s it.”
“I don’t think so either, based on my earlier run in with him,” Dean agreed. “Brynne, he might be the leak at headquarters. I think he’s the one slipping The Cause their information on our emergency calls from 911 dispatch.”
“That would make sense,” Brynne said. “He has all the access he’d need to get that job done and shut us down with the attacks.” She started back towards the other patients with the baby. “Come on. Let’s get these folks sorted out. We need to decide who has to go to the hospital and who can be treated here.”
Dean followed her into the group of injured fairy folk. He stopped at the first one he came to and started his follow-up assessment, glancing at the triage tag Brook or Tammy put on him earlier. Triage tags had different color strips on them to allow follow-up responders to identify the level of injury quickly for the patients. It gave him the information he needed with its color-coded stripe and the boxes checked off. Dean settled into the familiar patterns of assessment and documentation as he moved from patient to patient. Even with six Station U paramedics on the scene, this was going to take a while.
Chapter 69
The six paramedics, working together, were able to get through the sorting of the remaining patients in about ten minutes. So far, they had ten that needed to go to the hospital in the first load, most of them for severe burns. The challenge was they only had two ambulances and the hospital was 20 minutes away. It would take them hours to ferry all of them there taking them two at a time. Brynne made an executive decision. She said that since this was a major mass casualty incident, normal transport rules didn’t really apply. They could take multiple patients per ambulance and perhaps do it all in two trips. Since he was still suspended, Dean was not eligible to ride the ambulance to the hospital so Tammy and Brook would take one, with Brynne and Bill taking the other. Dean and Lynne would stay behind and tend to the patients remaining at the scene until more help could be rounded up for them.
Right before they loaded up the first round of patients, Dean’s phone chirped in his pocket, and he checked the screen. It was Ashley. He swiped to answer and heard her voice on the other end.
“Dean, what’s going on?” she asked. “We have extra staff here expecting a ton of patients, but no one has arrived yet. Are there no survivors?”
“There are survivors, Ash,” Dean said. “The first round of patients are inbound now. You should be getting a call on the med radio soon with a heads-up on what is coming. We had a run in with a chief officer who didn’t want to waste ambulances on the freaks living here.” He heard her gasp of shock over the phone line. Dean filled her in on his suspicions about Deputy Chief Compton.
“Are you safe?” Ashley asked after hearing his report.
“I am,” Dean reassured her. “It has been touch and go, and we have several severely burned patients here. We figured out how to get the ten most seriously injured and some of the walking wounded loaded up and get them there in two round trips with the ambulances we have.”
“Alright, I’ll tell the team assembled here,” Ashley said. “Be careful. This could be the beginning of a whole shift in what The Cause is doing. This was a pretty large-scale attack and is very different from what they’ve done in the past with just one-on-one attacks for the most part. It could mean they are ready to act against you and the other paramedics directly.”
“I will be careful and keep my eyes open. I’ve got to get back to work. I’ll see you later.” Dean ended the call and looked around as the two ambulances pulled away. They were able to get three injured patients on each ambulance with one paramedic in the back and also putting one of the less severely injured patients in the front passenger seat with the driver. They should be able to get the moderately and severely injured patients into the hospital in two trips as planned. The remaining patients were bumps, bruises, and minor burns. He figured he and Lynne could help them. His CERT team members were there as well, and they were bringing in residents who had fled to the woods surrounding the trailer park during the attack. There were a few minor injuries there too, but the CERT trained folks were tending to their wounds pretty well.
He looked over at the command vehicle with its back lift gate up. The Chief was standing there overseeing the mopping up operations for the firefighters. The fires had died down as they consumed the fuel that made up the wooden trailers. There were some minor patches of flames here and there, but the firefighters in a brush truck could be seen working their way around the perimeter of the trailer park, dowsing areas of flames in the grass and brush as they found them. Some of the responding fire companies were already packing up their hoses and cleaning their gear in preparation to head back to their stations. It wouldn’t be long now until they were left alone with this group of displaced patients and residents - people without homes and nowhere else to go.
Dean was starting to bend his mind around ways to get the remaining people here some shelter arrangements when two dark SUVs pulled into the lot. It was still dark out, and the windows were heavily tinted so Dean couldn’t immediately see who was in the cars in the blinding headlights. He saw backlit figures exit the two vehicles and come towards him and the rest of the team. It wouldn’t be The Cause returning, would it? He was about to assume a defensive stance when he realized it was James and others from his organization in the city. Celeste was there, as was Rudy. The four other large individuals who exited from the second vehicle were probably pack members there to act as security for their leaders. That group spread out and stood guard. Dean sighed in relief.
He walked over and shook James’ hand as the vampire leader approached. James was looking around in the darkness, taking in the smoldering ruins beyond where Dean stood. Dean had to remember that
it was as bright as daylight for James’ enhanced vision, and he could see things the paramedic could not. James stood there and took it all in for a moment then looked at Dean.
“Is it as bad as it looks?” James asked.
Dean nodded. He took a moment and filled him in on their transportation plans for the patients, as well as his concerns for the remaining residents and survivors. James listened and nodded as Dean went down the list of needs. He gestured to Celeste, who was standing nearby, tapping notes into her tablet computer.
“Did you get all of that, Celeste?” James asked. She nodded and the vampire lord of Elk City turned back to Dean. “You all did a good job here, Dean. I think Celeste and I can find places to relocate the survivors in the short term until they can rebuild. Do we know how many perished in the fires?”
Dean shook his head. He looked back at the former trailer park and thought of Nura. How many others like her were lying around and in the remains of the mobile homes? He wasn’t sure they’d ever recover all the bodies or identify them all.
“All we know, James, is that we’ve swept the area several times at this point for survivors, or for those who just ran away from the flames,” Dean said. “There might be a few more we haven’t found, but we can’t be sure. My CERT team can all see pretty well in the dark, and they said they can’t find anyone else. There are about five more severely injured and another four or five who need treatment. They’ll be taken to the hospital when the ambulances return from their initial runs. In the meantime, the rest will all need a place to stay for the rest of tonight and beyond. I estimate that it’s about sixty or seventy people. Where will you put them?”
“There are some motels on the edge of town owned by Unusuals,” James said. “I’ve already been in contact with them, and they have plenty of room open to take the residents in. It will be a little tight for everyone concerned, but it will have to do until they get their homes built again.”
“Who will pay for that?” Dean asked. “These people had little or nothing to begin with.”
“I will,” James said. “I own the land on which the mobile homes rested. It will fall to me to do something with this space now that the existing Barrens is no more. Perhaps I’ll build some affordable housing apartments here to replace the way they lived before. They don’t need trailers and caravans anymore. It is about time they shifted from their ties to the nomadic past. None of them have moved their trailers in years. It’s time they recognize that they’ve put down roots here in this community.”
James looked around at the expectant faces of the displaced residents around him and back to Dean. “Is August Beche or his wife here?”
Dean looked around, too, then shook his head. “I ran into them earlier. They were in shock from the events of the night. They didn’t come out when I told them to leave. I don’t know where they are now.”
A woman lying on the ground nearby spoke up. “August and Helena ran back in many times to help others escape the fire. They pulled me out of the back window of my home and carried me here. I have not seen them in some time.”
“Thank you, madame,” James said. “We will look for them and lend them aid if it is possible.”
Dean leaned in a little closer and lowered his voice. “If that is what they were doing, it may be likely that they were overcome by the smoke or heat and did not survive.”
“I know, Dean,” James said. “But we will look for them or their bodies anyway. It is the least I can do since I could not prevent this tragedy from happening to them.”
Dean went back to tending to the gathered patients and survivors. While he was working, Gibbie and the rest of the CERT team came over together. They had been working hard, and it showed in the smudges of ash and soot on their faces and clothes. Gibbie seemed alright, but Wim, Dora, Kristof, and especially Marian all looked wide-eyed and a bit traumatized. It was likely that all four of them had seen their first dead bodies this night. Dean finished what he was doing and walked over to where the small group of civilian responders stood, a little apart from the assembled patients.
“How are you all?” Dean asked. The exhaustion showed even more, close up.
“We’ve scoured the woods all the way around the perimeter three times,” Gibbie said. “We found people the first two times, but there was no one left to rescue by the time we made the third circuit.”
“At least no one left alive,” Marian muttered half under her breath. Dean heard her comment and knew that his guess about what they may have seen was correct. They needed to talk this out and get their feelings to the surface.
“Look,” Dean said, his voice lowered to a near whisper so only the CERT team could hear him. “I know that this was a tough one for you guys. We are almost done here, and we’ll be getting wrapped up to leave soon. Head over to the van and gather our gear, then take a break. There’s some water bottles in the back of the van. Drink something and take a load off. I’ll be over as soon as the ambulances return from their run to the hospital and load up the next group for transport. Okay?”
He met each of their eyes and registered their nods of agreement before he let them go. This was his team, and it was his job to help them through these difficult responses and traumatic experiences. He and Brynne had taught them back in their CERT training that sometimes patients died no matter what you did. But that was a dry lecture on managing stress and difficult situations taught in a classroom setting. This was something else. It was real, and he knew the smells, sights, and sounds of the things they encountered this evening would stick with them all. The smells especially were even more pervasive than the visual images burned into their memories. At least, that was the way it was for him in situations like this. He’d have to spend some downtime tonight de-stressing them. It was important to encourage them to talk about what they experienced this evening. He hoped he could draw them out and get them to talk about it. For now, all he could do was wait until it was time to pack up and leave.
Chapter 70
The van ride back to the city was quiet after they left the scene of the fire. The CERT team members were subdued by what they had witnessed that evening. Dean knew they needed him to do something about it. He wondered aloud if there was a place they could go and get a bite to eat, sit down and talk. It was nearly three in the morning, and all the restaurants were long closed. He didn’t want to go to some diner and talk. Dean felt like it needed to be something special.
“There’s always The Irish Shop downtown,” Gibbie offered.
Dean knew the place. It was an Irish gift shop in the main street shopping district. He’d never been inside, but he was pretty sure it didn’t have a restaurant, at least not one that was open this late. He told Gibbie as much.
“No, we just use the portal there and visit the pub on the other side. They should be up and serving a nice Irish breakfast by now,” Gibbie said, checking his watch. “They are five hours ahead of us, so it’s like eight o’clock over there.”
“Wait,” Dean interrupted. “There’s a shop downtown with a magical portal leading to Ireland? Don’t you need a passport or something?”
“Not if you don’t leave the pub,” Gibbie said matter-of-factly. “It’s just there as a convenience to the owner. He’s a leprechaun who set up shop over here. He needed a connection to the homeland to keep his magic juiced up.”
“Well, if that’s the case, that would be perfect,” Dean said. “To The Irish Shop, driver.”
Dean sensed the mood lighten as the rest of the group anticipated this side trip for breakfast. It would be perfect for their after-action debriefing. He looked back at the group seated in the seats behind him. Marian had resumed her normal position on the edge of the seat, leaning forward in the pose he expected from her. When they left the Barrens, she had been slouched back in the seat just staring at something on her phone screen. The dryad twins, Wim and Dora, started chattering about what they would get for breakfast. Kristof smiled back at him, and even Gibbie was showing sign
s of good cheer, humming quietly as he drove back to the city. Dean decided it was a good sign of life with the whole team that they were excited to do something new together after the events earlier in the evening.
Gibbie drove them downtown to the shopping district. The Irish Shop was located next to the old Elk City Pharmacy and Lunch Counter storefront downtown. Gibbie pulled up on the curbside parking out in front of the specialty gift shop. At this hour, street parking was not a problem. The vampire pulled out his cell phone and selected a number from his contacts. He waited for someone to pick up on the other end.
“Dougie?” Gibbie asked. “It’s Gibson Proctor. I wanted to take a few friends through the portal for a pleasant, peaceful Irish breakfast.”
A pause and Gibbie took the phone away from his ear and rolled his eyes. Dean could hear the voice chattering on the other side. When it stopped, Gibbie started talking again.
“Dougie, I really need this favor. We just got done helping out with the Barrens fire and could use a break. I’ve got one of the Station U paramedics with me.” He paused again, then continued after a glance around at the whole group. “There’s six of us total. We’re parked right out front.” Gibbie tapped to break the connection and replaced the phone in his pocket. He looked at the rest of them. “We’re all set; he’ll be right out to let us in.”
Dean and the rest of the CERT team climbed out of the van and walked around to stand and look into The Irish Shop’s plate glass window while they waited for the owner to come down and open up. Dean could see a sea of green items with shamrocks on them. There were also some attractive Irish lace and linen items draped on a table there. He saw some Irish jewelry, too. Perhaps he’d come back during regular hours and pick up something there for Ashley. It would be nice to get her something out of the ordinary. This place fit the bill. He was still window-shopping when the lights came on, and a figure moved through the showroom to the front door. He was easily six feet or more tall, with a shaved head and a surly look on his face.