by Palladian
“There's no one left up on the roof,” came Joan's crisp voice.
“Can whoever's up there check to make sure there's no one else in the stairwell, or in any unseen area of the roof?” Lex asked, unwilling to declare victory too soon.
When the check came back negative a few minutes later, Lex sighed with relief. “All right. Everyone come on down and take a break and we'll figure out what to do next.”
While waiting for the rest of the team to arrive, Lex called to Riss. “Hey, Riss, what’s your checklist looking like?”
“So far, we've checked off a little over 2,000 people. We can probably assume that some people weren't home last night, so we may be OK, considering the last group of people that you all brought out.”
“Thanks, Riss. Let us know once all of them have checked in.”
Lex informed the group that there might still be some missing people when everyone had joined the group sitting on the grass to snack or just rest near the M Agency van. “I wish we could check to see if anyone's still in the building,” Lex continued, “but I don't think we can send people in to check floor to floor. According to what the engineer says, some of the floors have probably begun to collapse and could all go at any time.”
Kate smiled and looked at Lex over her sandwich. “There is a way. Paula, aside from being a bit of a bitch, is a psychic. From what I've seen her do, I think she could actually identify any remaining live people in there.”
“I don't think she’d help, though,” Lex said ruefully, remembering the glares she'd gotten from the woman for most of the day.
“You just have to ask in the right way.”
Kate smiled as she walked away, but reappeared minutes later with an angry Paula in tow who stopped in front of Lex, hands on hips, and began to shout.
“I can so tell who's still in there!”
Lex looked at the woman in surprise, still chewing on a piece of peanut butter granola bar, then glanced over at Kate, who seemed to be trying hard not to let a sly smile show. “I was just telling Paula here how you asked if she could let us know if there are any people still left in the building, and how I told you that she's really just a big fraud, and she got angry about it.”
“I am not a fraud! There are three living people left in the building. There's one old lady on the 13th floor who has asthma and passed out due to smoke inhalation. On the 20th there's a man with a broken ankle who didn't get out of bed quick enough and had part of an interior wall collapse on him. There's also a little boy on the 30th floor who's trapped under a bookcase that fell when the window blew out in his apartment, and his parents couldn’t find him when they left. You should go check it out if you think I'm not for real.”
Paula had been pointing to different parts of the building as she talked and finally marched away, her head held high. Kate chuckled softly to herself while Lex gave her a funny look.
“Let me guess: if she gets mad, it's difficult for her to read your mind?”
“Something like that,” Kate said, still chuckling.
Lex turned back to the group still sprawled on the grass. “I hate to take anyone away from their rest, but Casey and Serena, could you work on this together? You could go from the 22nd to the 20th, then walk to the 13th and then go to the roof, then down a floor. Casey, if you can work to reach the people, great, but if it’s too unstable or if anything starts to collapse, just get out safely, OK?”
The redhead and the blonde looked at each other for a moment, then both smiled. “Sure,” said Casey, grabbing a nearby breathing mask, then throwing one to Serena. Once the two had assembled their gear, Serena grabbed Casey’s hand and the two vanished.
About forty minutes later, the group on the grass watched as Serena and Casey reappeared for the third time, Casey carrying a little boy and Serena holding onto Casey's waist. They all looked singed, and the boy’s leg and head appeared to be bleeding, but they seemed otherwise OK. Kate looked up for a moment, and then flopped back down on the grass with a smile. Lex went to them to offer water and energy drinks. Casey grabbed some water with a smile, after turning the boy over to some waiting medics, and then drank most of the bottle. Serena sat down on the curb taking an energy drink, looking tired for the first time all day but smiling up at Lex.
“Do you think we got them all?”
Lex tilted her head to one side, still a little worried. “I hope so. I'll check in with Riss after a while and let everyone know. Rest for now, though. Do you want to join everyone in the shade?”
The group who’d assisted with the evacuation that day had moved under a small stand of trees several yards from the front of the building since the afternoon had become hot once the sun had fully emerged from behind the clouds. Joan had taken off her helmet but still looked somewhat uncomfortable, sitting back on her hands. She was talking to Victor about his boots, which he’d designed to help with landings when using his flying gear. Kate had spread out in the grass on her back with her head resting on her hands, watching the clouds roll by.
Casey walked over to settle with her back against one of the trees near Kate, and then rested her head on the tree, eyes closed. Serena put her arm over Lex's shoulder and the two of them made their way over to everyone else. Lex could feel the other woman leaning on her wearily, and did her best to make it look as if the two of them were just being friendly. When they sat down in the shade after arriving, Lex looked around for a moment.
“Thanks everybody, for agreeing to work together. I think we did a really good job.”
“We were just glad to be included,” Kate said, leaning up on her elbows for a moment, looking at Victor. “A lot of times we just get left out and end up standing around waiting. It gets old fast.”
Serena suddenly jumped up and pulled her cell phone out. “Hey, do you think Clara can take our picture? I want to have some proof of all of the work we did today.”
Lex frowned then. “That would be good. Isn’t it kind of weird that the press isn’t here taking pictures, though?”
A number of people in the small group turned to stare at Lex incredulously, but Kate just laughed. “You really are new here, aren’t you?” she commented as she stood up, brushing off her coveralls. “Follow me.”
They walked away from the burning building until the grassy area became sidewalk and Kate pointed to some barricades Lex hadn’t previously noted, about half a block away. “Watch for some characters in black helmets–” she began, then stopped and pointed.
Someone dressed in a black jumpsuit with what looked like a black motorcycle helmet on walked by with a large weapon slung over their back.
“Those are the people who protect us from the media, as well as everyone else,” she said with a sardonic smile. “When they said in our contracts they didn’t want us to talk to the press, they weren’t kidding.”
Kate turned to slowly walk back to the others and Lex followed. “Really, it seems like they almost want to keep us a secret, you know what I mean? Did you ever notice that the only papers that report on people like us in this country are the tabloid press?”
Lex trailed behind Kate, realizing she hadn’t thought about that before, that Kate seemed to be correct, and wondering why all of that might be.
Several minutes later, after Riss, Lily, and Clara had arrived, everyone stood together and smiled, having their picture taken on several phones because once Serena had mentioned her idea, everyone wanted a copy of the shot.
By the time all figured had been checked and cross-checked and the final decision made that everyone had probably been evacuated from the building, an hour had passed and the firefighters remained hard at work. The fire continued to spread and the noise of things collapsing inside the building could be heard clearly from where the team sat on the small lawn of a building a few doors down, across the street just yards from the perimeter, where they’d moved at the firefighters’ insistence. Lex shook hands with Kate and Victor and thanked them again before the two teams climbed into their res
pective vehicles and left.
Lex couldn’t miss the barricades as they drove back through them, and found herself swallowing nervously as two of the figures in black temporarily moved a barricade so they could drive past. Once they were underway, however, Lex cleared her throat.
“Thanks again, everyone. I think we did something really good today.”
Casey grunted and handed her a bottle of water. “Relax. You worked too hard.”
Lex looked back and saw that Serena now slept against the side of the van. Joan had been loaded into the back and sat back there looking uncomfortable. Riss still typed into one of her laptops but saw Lex looking and smiled almost unnoticeably before going back to work.
Suddenly, Lex felt very tired. She took a drink out of the bottle, then closed it and rested her head against the van's seat, turning slightly to look as they drove across the bridge and back into DC again. A few moments later, she opened her eyes and saw that they’d arrived in the garage at headquarters. Blinking, she looked up at Casey.
“I thought I might have to carry you upstairs. Come on,” she said, holding a hand out to Lex.
Lex stumbled a couple of times as she walked with Casey up the stairs. She shook her head as she slowly took on the next stair. “I don't know why I'm so tired. You guys did all the work.”
Casey snorted. “Hardly. Come on, I know you can make it.”
“What will we do now?” Lex asked, looking up at Casey, suddenly worried that she couldn’t figure out how late it had become. “What time is it? Is Mr. Chen here?”
“We'll take naps because everyone's tired,” Casey said, looking down at Lex with a laugh and steadying her as her foot stumbled again on a stair, “I'm sure they called him and told him not to come in today.”
Lex nodded, focused on getting the rest of the way up the stairs, and resisted the urge to just sprawl across her bed and sleep once she got there. Instead, she pulled off her ash-stained jumpsuit that reeked of smoke and had a short shower first. Once done she toweled off quickly, grabbed the t-shirt she’d been in when the call came, and looked at the redheaded man on it before putting it back on.
“I wish I had enough energy to appreciate getting into bed with you,” she said drowsily as she got under the covers and closed her eyes.
Lex sat up with a start and a dry cough, having escaped from a world where the sky was made of smoke and everything on the ground was covered in tentacles the color and consistency of used motor oil. She tried to calm her breathing as she looked around at her dark room and out at the lights on the far side of the water, absently realizing she'd forgotten to close her blinds like she usually did at night. Then she realized that the clock only read eleven PM and swung her feet over the side of the futon and into her slippers, trying to figure out what was going on. By the time she'd gotten her robe on, Lex remembered what had happened in the previous hours and realized that she was hungry, so she headed down to the kitchen.
As she got down the last of the stairs, however, Lex turned her head to the left as she sensed something in that direction, and saw a large figure outlined against the dim light coming through the picture windows in the living room.
“Casey?” she asked, not really sure of the answer, but when the figure turned towards her, she recognized her friend. So Lex shuffled into the room and sat on the couch that Casey stood nearest to, then cleared her throat after a few moments of tense silence.
“Do you want to talk about anything?” Lex asked quietly as she thought over some of the events earlier that day, like Casey simply standing there as George attacked her. She waited, thinking maybe her friend wasn't going to answer and eventually relaxing back into the couch a bit, trying to ignore the cold leather upholstery on her neck. When Casey began speaking a few moments later, Lex quickly sat back up, pulled back from the edge of sleep once again.
“When I first signed my papers, they put me on the Alpha team,” Casey began in a voice so full of conflicting emotions that it sounded muffled and far away. “George, Paula, and Jen were on the team then, and one other guy who ended up leaving due to illness a couple of weeks after I came on. I probably should have taken that as a sign, but I was still too proud of my new job.” Lex could see Casey’s outline against the half-light from the window as she shook her head before continuing.
“It was a few weeks after that when it happened. George kept trying to hang around with me from the time I signed on, but I tried to avoid him because for some reason he just seemed…weird. Then, one day, I’d gone into one of the basement storerooms looking for something, and I heard the door click shut behind me. Not good, since it had an automatic door lock. When I looked down the aisle of shelves, I saw George coming in my direction.”
She paused for a moment, putting a hand to her head, and Lex almost held her breath as she waited.
“I figured he was there for some gear, at least until he put his hands on me. He said he wanted to 'punish' me for not ‘being nice’ to him. At the time, he was stronger than me and I didn't have any martial arts experience. I did the best I could, but he beat me into the ground.”
Lex's heart had leapt up into her throat. She wanted to say something but knew she should wait, and so she anxiously clutched the edge of the couch with both hands, her nails skipping over the smooth surface.
“When I woke up, I was laying on the floor. My clothes had been mostly torn off, and I saw my own blood spattered everywhere and in pools underneath me. I couldn't walk since, as I learned later, my right leg was broken in two places, and I had trouble crawling since my left forearm was broken, too. Fortunately, he’d broken the door as well, so I did manage to crawl out into the hall before I passed out again.
“The second time I woke up, I’d been moved to a room in the medical wing of Alpha quarters. I'd been sewn and bandaged and somewhat fixed up, but I could see when I looked at my reflection in the window next to my bed that more than half my face was swollen up and purple. I was having trouble breathing due to broken ribs, and the casts on my arm and leg were bothering me.
“When the doctors came in, they listed my injuries but seemed most concerned about the idea that I'd been having sex. I stared at them with my one good eye for a moment and told them that if I had, I'd been raped and wanted the morning after pill. That caused them all to stop in their tracks and have a little whispered conference in the corner, and I could see they were afraid of George, especially since they hadn’t said one word about how I’d gotten hurt.
“Watching them, I could suddenly see a long string of ugly things going out into the future for me if I didn't act. So I did my best to fake a laugh and told them I was only joking, that everything was fine but I was bored, so could they please bring me my laptop and my purse so that I could entertain myself. I'd remembered someone laughing earlier in the week about an e-mail that had been sent to everyone on the team, a recruitment notice asking if anyone wanted to move over and join another local team. So, I called Sauer, since he was the one who'd sent it, and he authorized my transfer. I waited until everyone went to lunch, called a cab, and came here. I've been here ever since.”
Lex let out a deep breath, only now realizing she’d been holding it. “That’s terrible, Casey.”
“Not as bad as it could have been, really. Since I was beaten so badly, I really only remember the first few minutes; after that, I passed out. I’d never been badly hurt before that, and it made me realize that there was a lot I could do to improve myself both for this job and so that I wouldn’t ever be in that sort of situation again. I still feel funny around George, as you know, but now that you took him on…well, I think I won’t feel quite the same about him again. Thanks.” Casey had turned slightly in Lex’s direction as she spoke, and Lex could see her friend’s silhouette stood tall now.
“You’re welcome, but I don’t feel like I did enough. If I’d known…” Lex said darkly, trailing off.
“You did plenty. Forget it, we saved a building full of people today, and we should b
e either resting or celebrating.”
“Well, I woke up hungry, so I was coming down to find some food. Hungry?” Lex asked, her voice hopeful.
Casey finally turned away from the window to look at Lex. “I am. Let’s get something to eat.”
Partway through their kitchen exploration, Lex and Casey decided they would bring their snacks upstairs so they could watch one of Lex’s movies while they ate. By the time they got upstairs, Lex carried a bag of popcorn, a box of granola bars, and a plate with a cup of hot tea and some toast with raspberry jam. Casey had made a plate with fresh cut fruit and veggies and also carried a box of whole wheat crackers, a jar of peanut butter, and a few bottles of water. They’d just about reached Lex’s door when another door across the hall opened.
“Hey,” Serena said, rubbing her eyes with a grin, dressed only in a long shirt. “Who’s making all that noise out here?”
“Sorry, Serena,” Lex said apologetically. “Did we wake you?”
Serena stood a little straighter, then stretched. “No, I was hungry.”
“Well, we’ve got plenty of food. Do you want to join us? We’re going to watch one of my martial arts films, too.”
“Are there any hot boys or girls in the movie?”
“They’re usually all hot,” Lex replied as she closed the door behind the three of them.
Around three o’clock, Lex woke up on the floor with couch pillows propped up all around her, Serena, and Casey. Like most modern TVs, hers had politely turned itself off sometime after the movie had ended. The other two women continued to snooze peacefully, so Lex did her best to quietly clean up the leftovers and get out blankets to put over them before tucking herself in for more sleep on her futon.
Chapter 16: Closer
Lex looked at the ceiling for a moment as she woke up, waiting for the alarm clock. When it didn't come, she looked over at it and then realized it read after ten. She sat up with a jerk before she remembered what had happened the previous day and relaxed a bit. Still, though, she silently slid her slippers on and headed for the door.