Chapter Twenty-Five #2
“Yes, I have the notes set aside for you, so you’d know right away.
The three children were evacuated to the local church, where they are reuniting with their family.
The nurse who took charge of them accompanied the three to the church, where emergency management was bringing in off-duty and private nurses and doctors to assess the walking wounded and decide whether they should be transported to the hospital or treated by the local fast clinics.
With the closure of the rural hospitals in the area, the distance is problematic, especially since the helicopters can’t be put in the air.
All three children were evaluated by a pediatric emergency room specialist, who made the final decisions.
All three were deemed safe to be sent home with a follow-up with their pediatrician.
The nurse was also assessed as safe to go home and has opted to remain to care for the three children.
They followed through with the ICE—in case of emergency—contact information from the diaper bag, and their aunt is en route.
They expect a family reunification in the next two hours. The aunt is coming in from Maryland.”
“That’s fantastic news, Mandy. Thank you, I needed that.”
“Understood, sir. I’ll stay on top of it for you.
So that’s the good news. The bad news is that the computer has generated an approximate time for intervention.
Nobody is coming to help with these two patients, not before dark and probably not until mid-morning tomorrow.
I’m looking at the topo map. The bank on the far side seems to have a lower incline and a wider beach.
Is it possible to get to the other side of the river? ”
“Let me consider the possibility, Mandy. I won’t tie you up.
I’ll send video of our location and our victims. Text receipt confirmation.
Out.” Creed wasn’t just going to spit out a “no.” That’s not what Marines did.
Creed’s favorite Internet meme was a drawing of a rat maze and a Marine plowing in a straight line through all of the obstacles rather than wending around to find the easy path.
Could he get everyone from this bank to the other?
Creed shifted over to the camping bins that Auralia pulled from her car with her—brilliant, intuitive woman that she was. He looked through the possibilities.
Anything they did to evacuate these two women would be dangerous. He had to consider whether his actions would be irresponsible.
In the first bin, he pulled out a folding saw. Now, that would work especially on some of the tall, slender pine trees. Softwood was made for easier cutting. There was a cluster of them that were straight, with few lower branches and a suitable diameter for creating a stretcher.
He looked up the slope. Getting from down here to up there was going to take more than equipment; it was going to take a lot of trained hands. Good Samaritans who might be here trying their best weren’t going to be effective here.
Creed pulled out a spool of bankline. What could he use that for? Physics was physics; the dynamic strength wasn’t great, so the rope could snap with a shock load.
“We used that in my wilderness first aid course for making stretchers,” Auralia said as she crouched beside him.
“I bought enough for a single stretcher based on the design I learned.” She leaned in and pulled out a roll of 100MPH tape, the military-grade duct tape.
“Could this do anything? I’m thinking if we put the bins together, wrap this around and around the outside, and tie the handles together.
They did a good job of floating even with some weight. ”
“Not much weight, less than fifty pounds per bin.”
“Still in the water, some flotation is better than none.”
Creed had been with a bunch of recruits who were trying to win an extra day of leave by beating the other teams across the finish line by outsmarting them.
The team used their tape by rolling it into a strand and braiding it.
With that, they were going to go up a slope and save themselves four miles of a ruck run.
Clever ideas didn’t necessarily lead to good outcomes.
The first guy made it up.
The second guy got a trip to the hospital with two broken ankles from the fall.
The time to try it wasn’t when lives were on the line.
She placed the roll next to her saw. “Are you thinking about a raft?”
“Raft? No.”
But Auralia had survived her own list of near misses and brushes with death throughout her childhood and career, and she might have an idea that had saved the day. “Can you tell me that thought?”
“You remember those teens that were sailing in the Gulf when—” she pressed her lips together.
“You wouldn’t know this story. You were deployed.
There were these two boys who were sailing when a squall blew in and capsized their boat.
It sank, and the kids stayed alive for thirty hours by gripping each other’s elbows over the top of a cooler.
Bonus points that the cooler had some sandwiches left and ice cubes, so every once in a while, they’d open it up and pop a cube in their mouths.
They were sunburned and exhausted but otherwise in good shape.
That and the cooler was lime yellow so the helicopter could spot them. ”
Creed picked up the top and looked the bin over.
“It’s waterproof. And I tested that on the way over. One of them held my weight and the weight of my equipment when I rode it to shore. However, if we were trying to float, that tape could be wrapped around the lip,” she slid her hand out to show what she meant.
Creed looked out at the river. Three meters to the car. Three meters on the other side of the vehicle. The water was thick with mud and debris, capped with white foam. “The water pressure is pretty intense, and if it presses a side in, it could open a gap, fill with water, and lose its buoyancy.”
“Okay. Well, I hope it doesn’t come to that.” She looked at a stick Creed had stuck in the sand at the shoreline before he went out to get Sheelah. The water had moved about six inches closer to them. “How long do you think we’ll have a shore to stand on?”
Creed shook his head. His bigger worry right now was that it would soon be dark.
“I saw you had your trash bag full of air that you were using for a flotation. So maybe we just do that?”
“Brilliant, don’t you think?” Auralia asked.
“I think everything about you is brilliant. Sometimes I don’t love it—like when you’re standing up to report while there’s a live-shooter situation.”
“Long shot that he’d be gunning for me.”
“Haha, funny girl.” His system tightened and primed with the image of Auralia in danger.
“Speaking of reporting,” Auralia said. “I haven’t heard from Doli.”
“She’s up there getting footage of this mess.”
“How did we get here? I mean, I know how we got here. But the number of people in the accident,” Auralia shook her head. “It’s almost unprecedented, I’d imagine.”
“It started with the shot taking out the speaker. Crowd control was us shouting at people who couldn’t hear because their systems were so adrenaline-spiked. We had no way to get their attention.”
“You all didn’t have a bullhorn?” Auralia asked.
“No bullhorns allowed at the event. It wasn’t on our equipment list.”
“Surely that rule was for the average Joe looking for a pork sandwich and a fried pickle. Which, by the way, Doli was very sad to miss out on.”
“The rules were mandated for everyone. And Doli missed out. The fried pickle was delicious. But in the end, our crowd control was about as effective as our road control.”
“How is this?” Auralia asked.
“Jack was in head-to-foot hazard limon gear, reflective tape, the whole bit, waving flares around trying to get them to stop and turn around. And they sped up and went over the hill.”
“Yeah, well, if Sasquatch were out there trying to get me to slow down in the middle of nowhere, Virginia, and I’m going to speed up too.”
“No,” Creed kissed the top of her head. “You’re not.”
“No, I’m not. Look at Rourou. What’s she doing?”
Rou’s nose was up in the air, sniffing hard.
“Do you smell that?”
“Striker,” came through Creed’s comms. “We have a fire on one of the cars. They put a fire extinguisher on it, but the sparks jumped into your woods.”
That’s what Mandy had said earlier. Above them, the pine needle beds were thick and dry. Though the rain sifted through the evergreen branches, the substrate was still a mix of patches that were slippery and wet, and others that were dry as kindling.
“Creed. We have an unconscious patient and another who is unresponsive. Auralia and I looked at the maps. Getting off this bank means taking them approximately twenty-five feet across the river. It’s a high-risk scenario.”
“Striker. Prep your plan. Contact Logistics before execution. All hands are dealing with a life-or-death situation. I can’t spare anyone.
Concerning your victims, it will be your call until the last minute.
By that time, Auralia Rochambeau will be safe and sound on the other side of the river, and you and Rou will be with her.
Heroics, yes, but only up to a point. You, Auralia, and Rougarou are the priority. You will survive. That’s an order.”