Rebecca nodded and took off at a run. So many things raced through her head. The hospital was only two stories. It was a small town, but there were approximately twenty patients in the hall Marian indicated. There were more upstairs, but the nurses up there would be handling that.
She stuck her head into each room. “You okay?” She gave each patient and any family in the room a quick glance and then raced to the next room.
By the time she made it back to the lobby, having determined no one was in imminent danger, the waiting room was packed with people who came in off the street.
The chairs had been set back upright in a random arrangement, and all of them were filled with people holding a broken limb or a gash on their arms, legs, or heads.
Mayhem. Total.
Someone ran into the emergency entrance screaming. At first Rebecca didn’t know what the man was saying, but she stepped closer as she caught the word “race.”
“Please, whoever can help. Hurry.” He pointed back out the door. “Anyone.” He made eye contact with Rebecca. “You. You’re a nurse? Please hurry.”
Marian and Cecelia came up beside Rebecca.
Marian took command. “Rebecca, you go. See what they need at the race. It just started. The participants can’t have gotten too far. Call me when you get a chance. I’ll try to round up more help and send a doctor.”
Rebecca nodded and took off behind the man before skidding to a stop and returning to the nurses’ station.
Supplies.
She glanced around, spotted someone’s duffle bag under the counter, dumped it out, and filled it with gauze, tape, antiseptic ointment, anything she could get her hands on.
And then she was running again, catching up with the man who’d come for help. “This way,” he yelled. “So many people injured. They’re going to need more than just you.”
They rounded the first corner and then the second, the noise level increasing as they reached a spot several blocks from the starting line. She knew the route well. She could have run it in her sleep.
Anyone who lived in or near the town and wasn’t at work this morning would have been at the race cheering. The casualties could be enormous.
She stopped dead as she reached the next bend and stared at the scene in front of her down a slight incline.
Bodies everywhere. The moaning. The screaming. The sounds of death and fear.
An entire building had collapsed right in the path of the race, crashing down around the participants and pinning them in the debris.
A chill like nothing she’d ever experienced raced down her spine as she realized the implications and lifted her face to the sky for a moment to thank the Native American spirit that kept her out of this catastrophe and made it possible for her to be at the scene in a helpful capacity instead of one of the injured…or dead.
She ran again, stopping at the first person she came to who held a severely broken arm and was in shock. “You.” She pointed at a man nearby who held his shirt over a gash in his head. “Come help.”
He looked at her with huge eyes for a moment and then glanced down at the woman. He nodded and scurried toward her.
“Hold her arm like this.” Rebecca showed him. “This is your job. Don’t move. Understand?”
He nodded again, swallowing as he took the arm and held it.
Rebecca could only do so much, but she knew if someone didn’t keep the blood flowing to that woman’s limb, she would lose it.
She moved to another patient. A small girl. She was crying, but not loud enough. She had a long cut down her cheek, blood running down her neck.
Rebecca grabbed some gauze from her bag and held it to the girl’s face. “Do you see your parents, honey?”
The girl shook her head. She was trembling with fear.
Rebecca met her gaze and held her cheeks. “We’re gonna help you, okay? Stay brave.” She glanced around again and found a teenage girl standing on the sidewalk, too stunned to move. “Sweetie,” Rebecca called to her, “Come here.”
The girl looked around and then pointed at herself.
“Yes. You. What’s your name?”
“Darla.”
“Great. Darla. I need your help. Can you do that?”
“Ye-yes.”
“Good. Hold this bandage and help this little girl to the hospital. Okay?”
Darla looked around frantically.
“Darla. Everyone who is able needs to help. You want this sweet girl to get medical attention, right?”
“Yes.” Darla leaned down and did as Rebecca asked.
Two down.
Rebecca stood to survey the area. So many people. Hundreds. She couldn’t do this alone.
She jogged to the next victim, and the next, and the one after that. She ordered stunned survivors to help the less fortunate.