Chapter 11

11

ELLE

T he second hour of the area assessment was nearing its end, and they still couldn't agree on how to retrieve the victims or conduct the search the most effectively. Elle, wildly out of her depth, could not offer anything besides following the operation plan once it was settled upon. Ramirez, Hunter, and Thompson had been discussing the matter with various technicians and emergency workers, seemingly without much progress.

The situation was looking grim, and all the firefighters seemed to catch reflections of their thoughts in each other's faces, worn-out and haunted by lack of sleep and an abundance of witnessed destruction.

It almost seemed inappropriate to Elle, the way the day simply continued on its path as if nothing had happened. The clouds rolled above their heads, but the sun had awakened, too, making them a bright and angelic color. The birds had begun their hunt, flying around in broad, peaceful circles. Everything in nature seemed to Elle so undisturbed, as if the disaster itself had not come strictly from nature. There were people barely holding onto their lives beneath the debris of buildings, and the captains couldn't agree on a safe way to retrieve them. Elle's eyes felt swollen and sore, needle-poked by the day's light. Not many firefighters were talking. The general ambience of grief took over their conversations.

"We know what we'll do." Thompson turned around to inform the team. "Twenty minutes and we'll be getting ready for the extrication."

The search dogs began barking, contributing to the bleak atmosphere. Kaia Montgomery stepped forward. "Is it a…rescue or …recovery?" she asked Hallie Hunter in a quiet tone and Elle overheard.

"Rescue, as far as we know. There's a significant void within the collapsed building that we believe to contain living persons," Hunter explained, and there was an intimate moment between the two of them.

So they'd go in. It would be high risk, Elle understood. The ambulances showed up one by one, readying themselves to support the firefighters and receive the victims. The medical teams emerged onto the parking space. Elle ran her eyes along the crowd, scanning each face and unconsciously holding her breath. She needed to know if Maya was okay. Her nails bit into the skin of her palms, deeper, deeper, deeper…

There she was. Maya's golden head showed for a second above her colleague's arm. Was it her for certain? Elle kept on looking, holding in the rising panic in her chest. But no, Maya emerged out of the crowd, standing now at the front, in her green field medic uniform awaiting instructions. Her dark brown eyes were earnest. For a moment, Elle existed only by looking at Maya's silhouette against the backdrop of all the other medics, and that was her heartbeat, her breath, her thought.

Soon, however, Maya noticed her. Their gaze met, and even though they stood far from one another, they could clearly see each other – both of them stood frozen, overwhelmed with relief and some faint sense of realization. Mainly relief. Shock and disbelief. Elle's breathing refused to remain easy. Her arms began trembling, her chest somehow grew tighter. Before she knew it, her vision was blurred by the tears cascading down her cheeks.

Maya moved from the place where she'd been standing. She ran, and Elle had no idea what to do, so she just stood in the same spot, watching as Maya separated from her group and jogged toward her.

Their embrace was as quick as lightning and equally invigorating. Elle didn't know how, but suddenly she was holding Maya's warm, alive – alive! – body in her arms, tightening them around her. Maya placed a hand against the back of her head and pull her in close.

"We'll get through this." Maya's voice reached her ears in a whisper, and then Maya was gone again, back with her crew.

They'd work until exhaustion hit. They'd work side by side, the whispered we'll get through this like a silent promise tying their efforts together, erasing whatever scars lay between them for the time of this crisis, bridging them like two bright cities against a black river of danger.

It was time for Elle to go into the rubble accompanied by other emergency workers and the search dogs trained to find buried people. The engineers and commanders would stand in the established rescue base just around the corner, monitoring the rescue and guiding the team. Elle focused on her breathing, which was getting too shallow all too easily, betraying her feelings. This was the biggest disaster she'd ever witnessed, and going into a collapsed building wasn't something she was used to, although part of being a firefighter was expecting the unexpected.

Elle was one of the best at her job, and she couldn't let personal concerns about Maya cloud her professional judgement.

They began lifting the rubble from one layer of the building, sending in cameras and digging deeper into the ruin, dogs sniffing and carefully walking around. The familiar sensation of deep focus came over Elle's mind, and only the sounds of their various devices and the loud beating of her own heart remained, swimming in the now quiet current of her thoughts.

"We found someone!"

The shout tore through her brain. They quickly sent the camera down, chasing the survivor's voice. Everything was time then. Time was their most precious supply in the face of unknown injury, thirst, and an unknown number of victims still unfound. Elle took part in removing the block of cement preventing them from reaching the victim. It felt chalky when they drilled the tools into it, and they had to be careful not to break it apart and cause it to fall on him. His muffled voice grew clearer, and soon they saw him.

Something in Elle trembled when she saw the man, covered in dust and still in danger, his eyes shut from the sudden flood of light.

"Are you injured?" The captain asked, pronouncing each word with care.

"

My leg is trapped," he responded.

The sun shone viciously at the group of rescuers removing debris from the unfortunate man's leg. The air grew dense with focus as they fought, determined to save a life. They managed to dispose of the stones. Elle felt streams of sweat trickle down her back from the heavy work, her undershirt clinging to the moist skin. As a child, she used to think that in moments of intense determination she'd stop feeling the minuscule details of her body—no scratching, itching, or other discomfort. With time, she discovered that even during the most intense action she still felt everything – only it didn't matter. It blended into the overall wave of sensations that had to be actively disregarded.

They had him. Finally, they managed to get a hold of the victim and carry him toward the medical team. Elle was one of the two who gave him over to Maya's team, and he was quickly hydrated and taken care of and soon dispatched to the hospital. Maya gave Elle a subtle nod, which Elle interpreted as good job , and which made her lips twitch in an imperceptible smile. It was good to have Maya around, the constant affirmation that nothing bad had happened to her.

There were many more people buried on the site, and the firefighters took turns going in, listening to the engineers' and architects'' advice, taking the dogs, letting cameras into all the inaccessible parts of the crumbled structure. Some people were found dead and were left to be collected after all those who could be saved were pulled out.

It was becoming apparent that the operation involving the apartment complex would take much more time than first predicted due to some mistake regarding the number of victims inside. Elle was asked to stay overtime, and her team worked tirelessly to pull every living person out. When they got to the fourth floor structure, more sensitive ears picked up on a string of voices coming from somewhere near Elle's feet. They quickly let the cameras follow, and a family of three was discovered.

Again, the rescuers quickened their pace and employed every available device to help get the family out. Soon, their voices stopped being muffled and could now be heard clearly due to an unblocked passage in between.

"Hurry, please. Our daughter has a high fever!"

"We'll prioritize getting to your daughter, then. You two will be right after her," Captain Hunter shouted through the opening.

They dug and maneuvered, finally carrying the little girl out. She dropped in and out of consciousness and was quickly carried away to the hospital. When the team managed to get the couple out, the moon was already shining bright above their heads, accompanying the parents to the hospital, being driven to join their daughter and heal.

Elle had never been this exhausted before, her knees giving out and her feet pulsing with pain. Captain Hallie Hunter came up to her, patting her on the shoulder. "Rodriguez." She looked at Elle with no effort to hide her own exhaustion in an effort to show comradery. "Take a break. Go home and show up on the scene tomorrow, hmm?" She nodded, leaving Elle alone.

Maya's team was also preparing to be changed. They were packing their equipment and preparing to return to the hospital, replaced by some other ambulance. Maya waved Elle over, standing to the side of the car. Elle came up, her steps heavy and dragging along the dirt. Face to face, neither of them knew what to say after what they'd just seen and lived through. Maya's lips twitched in that painfully familiar manner prognosing tears. Elle could do nothing but spread her arms in invitation, a silent nod to their shared path as rebuilders of the city and a silent hope that the common goal would forge a new bond between them, one stronger than before. She kept her arms open for as long as it took Maya to accept, because she knew Maya would accept. It was written on her face, in her body language, and in her eyes. For a moment they stood apart, then Maya let herself fall into Elle's arms. Elle once again felt as if she were holding something precious, a brilliant piece of the world, and what's more, she could bring her comfort. Her undershirt was soaked in something different than sweat – Maya began silently shaking, delicate shivers not so different than the rustling of leaves, and her warm tears soaked Elle's clothes.

"We'll be fine," Elle whispered. "We really will."

Although she knew Maya wasn't crying only because of that. There is only so much destruction one can witness and not feel a piece of them shatter. There is only so much rescue work one can do before one feels defeated. Only feeling defeated wouldn't help anyone – and there were still people to be saved. Elle gently pulled Maya away from herself, holding her shoulders tightly.

"We will help them, as much as we can. Get rest now. Go home, all right?"

Then they embraced one more time, and Maya was gone, getting into the ambulance with her team and driving away. Elle's eyes teared up again. This time she was unsure whether it was relief, exhaustion, overwhelm, or something else entirely. Her clothes smelled horribly, and she knew she'd better rest before the next day of work, which would be just as demanding. She gathered a few other firefighters dismissed for the day and climbed up to her usual driver's seat – but the road ahead seemed infinitely tiring, and her eyelids grew dangerously heavy.

"Can someone change me this time?" She raised the question, looking around the car.

"I can do it." O'Malley nodded, getting out to switch seats.

On the way home, Elle fought bravely not to let her eyes close. But passing through the disheveled city, there wasn't much she wanted to look at. She'd witnessed enough during this one day already, and she knew many more would come. Many buildings could still collapse. The city was growing empty, too. Many families had taken their children and had gone away to wait for safer times, to avoid looking the ugliness of disaster in the face.