Auralia had moved up and wrapped her arms around him, her head to his heart, squeezing him tightly.
It was the balm and respite he needed.
“Negative,” Mandy said. “There is a small fire in the woods beside the accident site. First responders are attemptingto extinguish the fire. With the wind gusts, it’s a game of whack-a-mole. Negative to a fire.”
“Negative to a fire,” Creed repeated. He didn’t disagree, but these were desperate conditions, and choices could be life or death. “Our situation includes a second victim. We were able to extract Sheelah Morrison from the car. She is unconscious and has been since the time of our interventions. We don’t know if she was breathing before she was pulled to land. Once on land, she received CPR and artificial breath for seven minutes before she vomited and resumed breathing on her own. She hasn’t regained consciousness. We had to make-do dress her in trash bags, she’s in recovery position, and we are out of ideas and out of supplies.” Creed read out the notes that he had for Sheelah’s status, moving through his list of vital stats and describing what he saw.
“Thank you, Creed. I’m adding the two victims and their status to the triage list.”
“Auralia was also in the car accident, and then her car went off the bridge. She has been in the cold river several times. She needs to go to a hospital for a check-up. I can get her out, but that would mean abandoning the women. Our situation is devolving. The river waters are running fast and cold, and are rising. The embankment is a steep-angle rescue, possibly a high-angle rescue. This situation necessitates a rope system and gurneys for evacuation. There is no way that Auralia and I can move these women to higher ground.”
“I am documenting your condition,” Mandy said.
“Do you have a Search and Rescue team available with technical capability?”
“I’m putting those parameters into the system. A search and rescue team is on hand, but it is not a technical rescue team. We do have a supply van headed toward Strike Force. We have a call-out for any employees with technical capacity to report forduty. Should I put through a call to emergency management and ask them to bring in a team from the Blue Ridge?”
“That’s hours away, Mandy, we don’t have hours. The river waters arerising, and there’s no place for us to go.”
“Hold while I review assets. The Strike Force team is working on life-or-death scenarios and is unavailable. While I put this into the system, I have some better news. Parker and his grandmother arrived at the hospital. They are being seen by the emergency room. She’s been released, and Parker is up and speaking. He will be admitted, but his condition is stable. I also have an update on the children.”
“My babies, Charlotte, Joey, and Marybelle?”
“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 generatedan 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?”
