by Jamie Davis
They carried the gear back to Gibbie’s van, and they were all feeling great. Gibbie climbed into the driver’s seat with Dean on the passenger side next to him. Marian assumed her usual position dead center of the seat behind them. They drove off into the night to seek out their next patient in need.
16
The rest of the week went quickly for Dean and the rest of the CERT team response crew. The word was getting out to their prospective patients that there was another resource to call for emergency medical assistance in the Unusual community. Dean could sense the relief among his patients and their families when he talked with them about their problems. He did what he could to help each of them, but was frustrated because most did not want to go to the hospital for fear it would draw The Cause’s attention to them or their families. He would need to come up with another solution that could bring more definitive care to them in their homes. He was only a single paramedic, and could only do so much for these people with his limited resources.
He was not able to even do lab tests like he had done before on the Station U ambulance. They had not been able to get him an iStat portable hand analyzer. There were no extra ones lying around. They were a new tool and were pretty expensive. He mentioned it, though, to Celeste on one of the meetings with her that week. The vampire assistant pulled out a tablet computer and looked something up, telling him she would see what she could do.
Ashley was trying to put together a group of nurses who were aware of the Unusual community and were willing to do some volunteer work on the side. She hoped they might go out and do home visits on the numerous chronically ill patients to try and take care of problems before they became emergencies. It was hard because of the volunteer nature of the work, and the fact that almost all of them were pulling extra shifts in the ER due to a shortage of qualified nursing staff. She promised him she would put something together, though it might take some time to get organized.
In the meantime, Dean and Gibbie and Marian were getting a real sense of teamwork going. He learned what he could rely on each of them to do on arrival at the scene, and they both asked good questions after each call to try to improve their efforts. He couldn’t ask for a better sense of professionalism from any paid EMS provider, and these were volunteers. Each response improved on their teamwork and patient care and Dean was pleased with the progress his team was making.
It was all going so well that Dean and the others started worrying about what The Cause was going to do in response. They had to know what the CERT team members were doing, even if they didn’t know everyone involved. In fact, Dean himself was the only one that Artur and the rest of The Cause knew about. That wouldn’t last, of course. The lack of a response from their opponents put Dean on edge. He and Ashley, along with James and Brynne sat down over dinner to discuss it and the possibilities for protecting the team when a problem did arise. Dean didn’t want anyone getting injured or attacked because of his rebelliousness; especially a teenage girl.
“I get the sense that Artur is getting more and more frustrated as time goes on,” James said, sipping from his usual mug of warmed blood. “He is supposed to be here on a business trip to expand some new business plans in the Elk City area. That means he is forced to meet with me to go over the supposed business ventures he is proposing. I must say that it is kind of fun to watch him fume as I expound on the way you have circumvented the attacks on our population.”
“Do you think that is wise?” Ashley asked. “I mean, we know it is him at the heart of all of this now. He too, must know that we are aware of his involvement. Is it prudent to push him to further action?”
“Ashley, you know the political machinations of our people as well as I do,” James replied. “He would never tip his hand openly to me, even though he knows I know that it’s him behind all of this. We each must let it play out to the end. Artur sees himself and me as the chess masters, moving our pawns and other pieces around the board. It wouldn’t be proper to take direct action.”
“Oh, great,” Dean said between mouthfuls of dinner. “I’m now a pawn to be moved about in this deadly game you and Artur are playing. Jeez, James, I’m feeling kind of used here.”
“There is a difference, Dean,” James said. “That is how he sees you. I see you as a valuable colleague and teammate. Artur has no such loyalty to his supporters and followers. If this fails to work out for him as planned, he will just leave. He has no connection that we can tie to this so he will walk away and let his peons take the fall for his ambition.”
“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.
17
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 bring 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 the
ir 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.