Act 2
September 14th, 16:25
Fire engines, police cars and ambulances had converged to the scene. The building was completely engulfed in flames. Yet, the solid foundations remained erected, though it appeared likely a matter of minutes before the walls would come crumbling down.
The seven children in the playground were spared by the blast, more frightened than hurt. Thus far, only fourteen tenants out of the estimated fifty inside the building when the explosion occurred managed to narrowly escape with minor bruises and burns. Others, including Steve, were feared dead.
Having been informed of the situation, Oscar and Callahan arrived on the scene.
“Oh, my God!” Callahan cried out upon seeing the blazing inferno.
Oscar was flabbergasted. He knew Steve was inside Harry’s apartment when he placed that call. Was he critically injured, unconscious or worse...dead?
He walked over to the Fire Chief, busy coordinating the rescue operation.
“Get that hose over there, quickly,” he shouted to two firemen.
“Matt.”
“Mister Goldman.”
“Any survivors thus far?”
“Yeah. They’re over there,” Matt indicated, motioning to the huddled group wrapped up in blankets.
“One of my agents was in there. Steve Austin.”
“Haven’t seen him. But my men are still inside, looking.”
One fireman was spotted striding over a windowsill, carrying an unconscious man. Matt and Oscar rushed to him, hoping to identify the burned victim as Steve. Oscar’s heart quailed upon realizing that he wasn’t.
“Quick, carry him to the ambulance,” Matt urged to his colleague.
With a woebegone expression on his face, Oscar walked back to teary-eyed Callahan, who was riveted on the spot.
“They didn’t find him yet, did they?” Callahan asked a grim-faced Oscar.
Oscar wrapped his arm around her shoulders. “No.”
Callahan melted into tears, burying her face in Oscar’s chest.
Rudy Wells arrived on the scene. He elbowed his way through the thick crowd of onlookers to reach Oscar and Callahan standing inside the cordoned off area.
“I just heard what happened. How’s Steve?”
“We don’t know.”
“You don’t...you mean he’s still in there?”
“Yeah,” Oscar sighed despairingly.
Overcome with a helpless sinking feeling, all three clung to each other, praying for their friend trapped inside.
Sprawled on a bed of sharp pieces of broken concrete blocks sticking in his back, Steve was slowly emerging from unconsciousness. His glassy eyes roamed around. The blast had gouged holes in the floor, sending him crashing to the basement. He could barely move. His muscle ached with each flinch. His respiration grew laboured, coughing and gasping on the smoke permeating the air. He tried to wiggle his toes but they wouldn’t respond. His legs were completely numbed. He couldn’t feel them. They were buried underneath debris. He gulped as he attempted to move his left arm. It bore two compound fractures with half the bone sticking out of the flesh.
He tried his right arm, lifting it slowly in the air. His eyes bulged out as he saw his hand completely ripped apart, his forearm cut open, sparks flying from torn wires. Steve closed his eyes in horror, coughing and gasping. Tears rolled down the corner of his eyes.
Suddenly, a faint wail was heard. Steve painfully swivelled his head toward the muffled sound.
“Help me,” the voice continued to moan.
Steve tried to summon up all of his remaining strength to reach the crying victim, but his mangled body wouldn’t allow him to move an inch.
“I’m sorry,” Steve whispered, drawing in a lengthy breath, “ I can’t.”
Suddenly, a roar of thunder was heard rumbling closer. Steve turned his head and stared at the ceiling. For a fleeting moment, he was shrouded in a sense of felicity, his mind dulled to the inevitable that was about to occur. He closed his eyes, bowing to his fate without flinching. Then, the building foundations gave way. All came tumbling down on him, burying him under feet of rubbles.
Outside, everyone witnessed in horror the nightmare’s final stage. Dare they hope to find any survivors in that hecatomb?
A frantic woman bawled her husband’s name as she rushed towards the burning building. A concerned neighbour grabbed her by the arm and wrestled with her, trying to calm her down. She finally yielded and dissolved into tears.
Mortified at the sight of this devastation, Matt removed his hard hat and in a spurt of anger, smacked it against the ground. He bent over and laid his hands on his knees in an effort to recover his composure. He inhaled deeply before advising his men against attempting any heroic rescue until the fire was completely contained.
He walked up to Oscar. “ I’m sorry about you agent, mister Goldman, but I can’t risk my men’s lives to retrieve what I strongly expect will be corpses. We’ll wait till the fire’s out and that we know it’s secure to venture in and sift through the rubbles.”
Oscar was in complete shock, incapable of uttering a single syllable. He merely tapped Matt on the shoulder as an acknowledgement and plodded back to his car, passing by Rudy and Callahan without so much of a glance.
Rudy and Callahan followed him to his car.
“Oscar, what’s going on? They’re going to keep looking for Steve, aren’t they?”
Oscar shook his head dolefully, “ Not until the fire’s under control.”
“That could take hours!”
Oscar remained silent. He opened the car door and sat in the driver’s seat, slumping his head against the headrest. With an empty look, he stared blankly in front of him. Racked with guilt for having sent his best friend to his death, he pounded at the wheel.
“I’m so sorry, pal,” he repented, burying his face in his hands.”
“Oscar, take it easy,” Rudy appeased. “ They’ll find him.”
“Sure, but what will they find?” A haunting vision of a carbonized cadaver slowly took shape and soon the image was seared into his mind.
Rudy took a dazed Callahan by the shoulder and squeezed it gently. “Callahan, go home. We’ll call you when we hear something.”
“I...I have to call Jaime to let her know,” she quavered.
“Of course. She’s in town at her apartment. She and Steve were supposed to meet at the airport in a few hours.”
“I know. They were planning to...” he voice tailed off, overwhelmed by the events.
“You want me to drive you?”
“No, you stay with Oscar. He needs you. I’ll take a taxi.”
Before leaving the premises, she and Rudy clasped each other in a tight embrace.
September 14th 18:30
Two hours later, the fire had faded enough for the team to combed the smouldering ruins for human bodies.
Callahan and Jaime drove onto the premises as Oscar and Rudy volunteered to help retrieve the casualties. Jaime shrieked in horror upon seeing the dozen or so body bags lining up the street. In utter panic, she bolted to Oscar and Rudy who were carrying out another victim wrapped in a white sheet. They laid the body down on the pavement. Jaime stared at it, thinking the worse.
“Tell me it’s not Steve.”
“The body is burned beyond recognition. Only forensic will determine its identity.”
“How...how did this happen?”
“They don’t know yet. They assume it was a ruptured gas line.”
“Oh, Steve,” Jaime burst into sobs.
Oscar clenched her in his arms. “I know.”
A voice was heard shouting from below the rubbles, “ Hey, down here! We’ve got one alive.”
Matt climbed down the tiny ladder to the building basement. Oscar followed.
Buried in debris, an oxygen mask over his face, a mutilated Steve was hovering near death. Upon identifying his friend, Oscar’s heart leaped out of his chest. He was a sight for sore eyes despite his dreadfully pitiful condition. Thankfully Steve hadn’t sustained the full force of the blow, hence the reason of his survival thus far.
“My God!” one fireman exclaimed, shrinking back in horror as he saw the wires sticking out of Steve’s right torn hand.
Matt grabbed him firmly by the arm and at eye level ordered him to dismiss what he’d just seen.”
“But Chief, it’s...”
“That’s an order, John.”
“That’s not a man, it’s a machine!”
“Have you ever seen a machine bleed? Now you go back up and bring down the stretcher and an IV bag.”
John was bolted to the ground.
“Now!” Matt shouted to break the young man out of his trance.
“And tells Doctor Wells to come down,” Oscar added.
“Yes, sir!”
Matt palpated Steve’s neck, searching for a pulse. “He’s got a faint pulse, barely perceptible.” He gave the mutilated form a once-over. “By the looks of him, I wouldn’t bet on his surviving the trip to the hospital.”
“You don’t know this man like I do, Matt. He’s been through worse.”
Oscar and Matt actively removed bricks, fragments of concrete and metal poles from Steve’s person to relieve pressure and expose his body to allow Rudy to better assess the extend of his injuries.
Rudy started down the ladder with his medical bag.
“Oscar, they told me you found...oh dear God.”
He swiftly knelt down beside the bloody man. Steve’s body was horridly covered with deep gashes and serious burns. His bionic limbs were damaged beyond repair and his right eye was swollen. He was hardly recognizable.
Rudy felt Steve’s pulse and took his blood pressure, taking heed not to displace his broken bone. The result was alarmingly low. As Rudy proceeded to establish two IV lines, Steve went into cardiac arrest.
“Rudy, I don’t think he’s breathing,” Oscar observed in horror.
Rudy applied his stethoscope onto Steve’s chest. No heart beat. Without a second’s hesitation, the doctor began CPR.
“Come on, Steve! Don’t give up on us now.” Rudy spurred.
“You’re not a quitter, Steve. Come on!” Oscar chastised.
With his finger on the carotid, Oscar shook his head. Rudy continued the reanimation with a vengeful force. With each pressure applied to the tender ribcage, Rudy could feel the numerous crushed ribs cracking underneath his hands.
“I have a pulse. Yes...it’s there.”
Rudy heaved a sigh of relief.
Two firefighters came down the ladder with a portable stretcher. They laid it near Steve’s body.
Rudy checked the heart rate before instructing the two men on the careful handling on the body, paying attention not to apply pressure on the spine. After setting Steve with a neck brace, all five men grabbed a firm hold of him and gingerly laid him onto the stretcher, strapping him securely for the arduous haul up the ladder.
“Steve!” Jaime cried out upon seeing the men stride out of the ruins.
As they slid the stretcher into the back of the ambulance, Rudy gave Jaime his car keys and suggested that she drive out to the hospital instead. Oscar and Callahan followed in their car.
Inside the ambulance speeding away with sirens blaring, Rudy hooked Steve on a heart monitor and placed bandages over the bleeding lacerations in an attempt to stem the hemorrhages. Laying a hand on Steve’s burning forehead, he leaned forward and said, ” Don’t let go. Fight! There are a lot of people counting on you so don’t you give up!”
...Continued