Chapter 14

14

MAYA

T wo days after her phone conversation with Elle, Maya was called to another disaster site. One of the shopping mall buildings had partially collapsed following the unnoticed cracking in the structure of its first floor. It was the city's biggest tragedy following the earthquake itself, with a speculated hundreds of victims trapped within the crushed structure.

All firefighting and medical units available were called in for the rescue mission, with time being their most precious asset. The quick response of the city made the chances of victims' survival high, and Maya, speeding through the city in the ambulance, was as focused as ever.

The scene looked apocalyptic. The large building stood tilted and crashed, and the rescue units were so small in comparison that they looked like ants swarming around its base. Everyone knew the rescue would take weeks and would eat up most of the city's emergency resources. Maya's crew was placed, as they often were, in collaboration with Elle's fire department.

Soon, the ambulance began receiving the first victims, the people close to the exits whose rescue didn't evolve the risk of entering the crumbling structure. Maya received tens of trauma victims. She and her colleagues rushed in to operate and send them out to the nearest hospitals. Maya's clothes were soon stained with multiple people's blood mingling together on the fabric. Her face dripped with sweat out in the open sun, but the rescue was going efficiently. The engineers were scanning the building in hopes of entering soon, knowing that a wrong decision regarding that could cost the rescuers' lives. The atmosphere was heated.

The rotation of ambulances wasn't ideal. It meant the equipment needed for certain injuries was sometimes lacking and the crew had to wait a few minutes. The nearby hospitals had begun setting up a provisory base on the grounds near the scene. Still sometimes they'd have to drive someone off to an actual hospital if the situation was dire. The disinfectant was running low, and the medics were afraid they'd soon run into problems. Maya admitted another trauma victim, knowing they'd have to wait to drive him to the hospital, so it was her job to stabilize his state the best she could. Within the ambulance, she was lacking a nurse. They struggled without the third person, but Maya pushed through, desperate to save the man, who was in grave condition. He writhed from pain, but she knew she would soon be done, if only she had one more pair of hands. But no matter. She managed to sew him up and his state greatly improved, enough for him to wait for transport in the space of the ambulance.

Outside of the car, Maya noticed the team of rescuers preparing to go in. They were discussing the strategy. It was a team of six plus dogs. Maya's eyes greedily went from face to face, looking for what she'd been fearing the most. And there she was. Maya's heart sank down to her stomach. Elle was one of the rescuers that were going in.

Another surgeon called her over to assist him, and she had to force herself to tear her eyes away from the group. She went into the ambulance, feeling the heavy beating of her heart, feeling her fingers go numb. The person in the ambulance had a fractured rib cage, and they needed another opinion regarding some difficult decision. Maya gave it her best, analyzing the victim's state and discussing it with her colleagues before assisting them in the operation. But her mind felt foggy, felt detached.

She couldn't stop thinking about Elle's recent problems and the high-risk operation on which she was about to embark. Or maybe had already done so. Maya wouldn't know. She ran out of the ambulance once she was no longer needed, searching for any clue as to how the rescue was going. It appeared to be going fine, according to plan. The Captain was on the radio with the crew in a deep state of focus.

Then it happened.

Something went wrong. Suddenly, the people monitoring the rescuers inside looked at each other, stressed. Maya could feel in her chest that something was terribly wrong with Elle. Captain Hunter was shouting evacuate from the building, and Maya felt as if she were underwater, every sound and sensation could barely reach her, ringing in her ears.

Hunter said to someone standing next to her, "They've got issues coming out."

The worst nightmares were coming true for Maya. She could do nothing but wait for the crew to get out, to check Elle's state for herself, to see whether her cruel premonition had been right and whether Elle was injured. Hunter was instructing the firefighters in a tone of calm urgency. Additional cameras went inside in hopes of locating the team. Two of the search dogs ran out of the ruin.

"Did you follow the dogs? They're out!" Hunter raised her voice through the radio. After a while, she repeated the response. "No, they lost them."

Everyone was on the edge of their seats, biting their nails and sweating from stress. Six people they'd sent in couldn't get out of the still unstable building. Everyone's attention was directed toward bringing them out, afraid that they might have destabilized the construction, and it would bury the rescuers alive, as well.

"We've got them on camera," one of the technicians shouted. "We know where they are."

Everyone breathed out the air they'd been holding in, hoping that from then on it'd be easy.

"There are two injured," he continued.

"Let's get them out as soon as possible." Hunter began discussing the safest way out with the team of firefighters and technicians, communicating everything to the team inside through radio.

This whole time, Maya stood motionless, absorbing every new piece of information like a bullet burning through her chest.

Someone showed through the opening. The firefighters ran to get them and help them out. As soon as the first woman was entirely out, the next followed, and then Maya saw her. Carried by two other firefighters, Elle was unconscious and bloodied. The sight of her limp body twisted Maya's heart, jolting her into action. She ran to get stretchers, and holding on to them with an ER medic, she ran to get Elle. She was in critical condition with suspected traumatic brain injury as well as severe bleeding from her thigh. Maya's mind worked on double the speed. They needed a blood transfusion for Elle STAT, as well as to get her on an operating table to assess and stabilize the injury to her head.

"We need blood, AB negative, quickly," Maya shouted at the other medic.

"Are you sure it's her--"

"YES, now get it STAT!"

Maya fastened Elle to the ambulance's operating table, ready to perform this surgery on her own, if no one else showed up quickly enough. Fortunately, that wasn't the case, and she got everything started properly. Then a dizzy spell took over her. This was Elle she was about to dive into the head of, cut open and sew up, see her damaged skull. But if she were to look for a replacement, they'd lose time that Elle really didn't have much of. No. She had to push through. She'd pretend it was someone else. She had to get this right. The damage took her aback. This would be one of the most difficult things she'd ever done, and they were still waiting to get the blood. She couldn't begin operating without it.

Furious, she left the ambulance, looking for the medic.

"Where is the blood? We have to start operating, and we have nothing for her," she shouted, completely on the edge.

"I'm working on it, but we don't have the type here."

"Well then where's O negative?"

"We're running low, so I thought I'd--"

"Don't talk. Get me the blood. We don't have any in the ambulance anymore."

She went back inside to check Elle's state. The situation was dire, and she had to have the new supply of blood. At long last, the medic came back with bags of it.

"Finally!" Maya quickly began working.

She had to supply the ambulance's system with the new blood and get it flowing to Elle so they could start operating without any risks of making her bleed out. The time came where Elle's life depended completely on Maya's skill as a surgeon. She worked tirelessly without any sense of passing time, knowing that as long as she was applying everything she knew, Elle had a chance of surviving.

Stepping away from the table and letting the EMTs take her away and drive her away to the hospital, Maya felt as if in a daze. Shakily, she stepped outside, unsure whether she was going to vomit or collapse.

"Dr. Monroe, are you not getting in?" Fleur pointed to the ambulance, encouraging.

"I still have work here--"

"Dr. Monroe, get in the ambulance. You should stay with her."

Maya understood and got back into the car. She stroked Elle's hand, terrifyingly limp, decorated with streaks of dried blood. While the ambulance sped through the traffic, sirens wailing, she thought how scary it must've been for Elle to see a building crumble above her head, to feel trapped within its collapsed walls. She couldn't bring herself to look at her face for too long. She knew she couldn't fall apart completely now. She had to stay strong, but the sight of Elle tethered to the operating table and unconscious was close to being too much for her mind.

The hospital was full to the brim, overcrowded. They said they couldn't admit another trauma patient. The crew was furious hearing that there'd been such a case of terrible miscommunication and bad organization. The hospital had been shown to them as available. They had to turn around and drive to the next closest one. Maya's nerves got the better of her, and she vomited into a plastic bag.

The next hospital admitted Elle. Maya ran in with the hospital's crew, unaware of time and space, aware only of the burning need to be close to Elle.

"What are you doing, Doctor?" The nurses looked at her, irritated and surprised.

"This is my partner," she managed to say.

"We will operate. You have to leave her now." The nurse took her by the hand, leading her out of the room.

Maya knew they'd have to actually fix Elle's head far beyond what she'd done back in the ambulance, but the thought of letting her go, of letting her be treated by other surgeons, terrified her. She sat in the waiting room, feeling her body go through a thousand stages of panic.

The hours went by, yet she sat still. She couldn't go back to work, not now. She wouldn't be able to. The only thing for her to do was to wait. Wait until they finished the surgery. Wait until Elle woke up.

"Dr. Monroe, where are you?" Her superior called her, sounding on edge himself.

"I'm sorry, my partner suffered a grave injury. I operated on her, and now she's in the hospital. I can't leave."

He had no choice but to let her be. This was no state in which to rescue people. She had to make sure that the person she cared about the most actually survived. In those hours, she knew Elle was the most important person in the world to her. She knew by the way her chest tightened as if to crush her heart when she saw her being carried out of the building. She'd never unlearn that.

The evening came, and the surgery was over. The first one, anyway. She knew they'd have to operate on Elle many times to get her back. The nurses stopped her from running into the room. She needs rest. She needs rest. They gave Maya a blanket and she drifted off to sleep.