“Mr. Stone, what’s the situation?” he called into the rubble and tried to see inside it.
“Neither of us is badly hurt, I think I got the brunt of it when I dove in to cover him. He hit his head on the ground, though. He’s unconscious but breathing, and his heart, from what I can feel, is beating normally.”
“Okay, just stay as still as possible while the fire department and the EMTs get here. I’ll walk to the other side and try to scope the situation.” After an affirmative noise from Makai, Dad started to step back, then asked, “Do you remember there being anything dangerous in the shed?”
“No, but I couldn’t see every bit of it before.” Makai hissed. “Shit, I can feel blood on my back somewhere.”
“Just stay still. Help will be here soon.”
Emil knew soon would likely be at least fifteen more minutes and frowned.
“It’s fine, just doesn’t feel great, you know.” Makai’s tone was dry, and Emil had to smile. “I was supposed to tear this place down as soon as I could, but I kept putting it off,” Makai spoke evenly, and Emil made eye contact with his dad. They both frowned at the same time.
“Hey, you have been in town what, a week? It’s not like you’ve been slacking. There have been other things to do. Besides, kids get into trouble all the time.” Dad’s radio crackled on his shoulder.
Emil couldn’t hear what was said, but it seemed like someone had called Lotte at work. Emil winced. Shit.
“She’ll understand, son,” Dad said calmly when he glanced back. The radio went on again, and Dad ten-foured the call. “They were close, so it’s ten more minutes, son.” This time Emil was pretty sure he meant Makai, who grunted from the pile of rotten wood.
Dad kept Makai talking, and something about that made Emil worry a bit more than he would’ve otherwise. Dad also started to avoid Emil’s gaze, which wasn’t a good sign either. Then Emil heard it, the slight slur in some of Makai’s words.
Emil started to tremble a little, and Dad came to him and made him sit on a boulder by the path.
The sirens started not long after, and before Emil knew, the firemen from Mercer were swarming the scene, with the EMTs following on their heels. Most of the EMTs went to hover at a safe distance from the shed, but one had noticed Emil.
He didn’t know the young female EMT who came to where he was sitting out of the way, and that alone made him jerk away from her, even though she hadn’t touched him yet.
“Hey, it’s okay. Can I take your pulse?” she asked in a soothing voice that Emil immediately hated.
“It’s not that fast. I’m fine. I have issues with being touched,” he added tightly.
“Okay. If you’re sure?”
“He’s my son. What he’s saying is true. He knows himself better than anyone,” Dad said firmly from where he stood halfway between Emil and the shed, and the EMT backed off.
“Let me know if you feel woozy or anything,” she told Emil and then went to her partner to wait for something to do.
In short order, the firemen supported the rubble that couldn’t be lifted off securely, and just as they were starting to give space to the EMTs to get to Makai and Joey, Lotte ran to the scene.
“What’s going on?” she all but screamed, and Jason grabbed her arms gently to hold her back.
“He was doing the scavenger hunt,” Emil said numbly. “Ran into there, and Makai dove in after, I guess. When I got to them, it had collapsed on them.”
Lotte tore her gaze off the proceedings and looked at him. There was sympathy in her gaze, something he hadn’t expected.
“He got away from you?”
“Yeah, both of us. Split-second kind of thing.” Emil tensed when the firemen helped the EMTs lift Makai out of the rubble.
Makai seemed to be able to stand, barely, and the EMT who had spoken to Emil rushed to take his vitals and order him to sit down. Another lifted Joey onto a backboard and started to check him through.
Time jolted forward like it sometimes did for Emil. People moved around him in starts and stops, jumping from one place to another as he tried to follow them with his gaze. He could hear someone talking, calling out orders maybe, and then someone else would reply in a way that made no sense, because the answer was to a new question that Emil hadn’t even heard. He realized he was dissociating, when another set of EMTs walked to them and insisted on taking Makai to be checked.
Emil wanted to go with him. In that moment, he didn’t want to leave Makai out of his sight, because he didn’t have anyone else in town and because….
“Emil, do you want to ride with us to the hospital?” Dad asked, and Emil nodded numbly. He didn’t want to go to the hospital, but he didn’t want to leave Makai’s side either.
Makai looked zoned out as the EMTs and two firemen carried him out on the backboard, probably wanting to make sure he wouldn’t fall on his way to the ambulances. The terrain was too rough and the path too narrow for anything with wheels. Idly, Emil wondered how much Makai weighed.
