“She said you could bleed to death. Your call.”
Tyler inhaled a long breath. It mixed with a sob. “Damn you, Merrick.” He coughed and cried out. His fingers dug into the dirt surrounding him. “I need a fire. Sunlight. Anything.”
“I know. I know.” Michael slid his fingers along the face of the phone.
I smell gas. Open line maybe?
They’re getting BG&E to kill the line. Anyone else hurt?
Everyone.
Michael held up his phone and took a picture. In the flash, he saw movement, but he couldn’t identify the source. Had something fallen into the ravine? Or was that another survivor? He sent the picture, then turned on the flashlight again.
No motion. “Are you okay?” he called out to whatever he’d seen. “Move again. I’ll try to get to you.”
Nothing.
Dirt shifted and skittered from above, and Michael put a hand out, sliding his fingers along the wall. He sent power into the earth, begging for stability. This ravine might have saved his life, but it could just as easily end it for everyone else if it collapsed.
The sliding dirt stopped.
He took a long breath. His head pounded, and he wondered if he’d been hit by something in the fall.
Another text from Hannah.
Can you send me more injury pics?
I’ll try.
We want to prep for rescue. Waiting on bomb squad. Need clearance before we can enter.
“Don’t move,” he said to Tyler.
The response was slow, but it came. “You’re funny, dickhead.”
Michael crawled through the dirt to the next body he could find. An older man, his legs bent at unnatural angles. Unconscious, but he was breathing, though it was shallow. He had a pulse. No bleeding that Michael could see.
Michael took a picture and sent it.
Another man in a T-shirt and jeans, crumpled just beside the first. The light reflected off his eyes, and Michael jumped.
Then he recognized the unnatural angle of his neck. Specks of dirt clung to the eyeballs. No breathing at all.
He took another picture and added text.
No pulse, no breathing. I think his neck is broken.
Another man, bleeding from the head. Unconscious, but breathing steadily. Good pulse. Michael took another picture, sent another message.
Water was running across the face of the next man, and Michael’s flashlight app revealed a lot of blood. At first he couldn’t find a source of the bleeding, and he used slippery fingers to send a pic with a message.
Blood everywhere. Breathing. Pulse. Help?
Head wound? Sit him up if you can.
He kept going, moving debris as he went. Some pieces were large, and it took him a while to get past them. Three more dead bodies, but then three who seemed alive. Two were moaning. Michael sent pictures with as much description as he could.
Another man was ashen in the light from the app. Something large had sliced across his thigh just above the knee.
Hannah’s response was quick.
Rip a shirt. Tie a tourniquet HERE. Elevate if you can.
She sent a picture of someone else’s leg, with a hand pointing.
He ripped a T-shirt off one of the dead bodies and tied as fast as he could.
“Tyler?” he called. “How you doing?”
No response. “Tyler!”
Nothing. Michael shined his flashlight in that direction. Tyler was still, his eyes closed. The metal bar still impaled his thigh.
But his chest rose and fell. He was still alive.
The light died, and Michael’s phone chimed a warning at him.
Low battery. 5% remaining.
Almost immediately, another text appeared from Hannah. When he opened it to try to reply, the phone died altogether.
Damn it! In the darkness, he patted the pockets of the next body he came to and found a phone. It was the older flip kind that probably wouldn’t take a picture. He moved on to the next body. An iPhone! Yes!
Passcode protected.
“Christ,” he muttered. Next body. An iPhone, though an older model. No passcode. A picture of a young girl and a boy as the background.
Kids.
Michael’s breathing shook as he felt his way up the body to find a pulse.
He almost cried when he found one.
He opened the texts and started a new one. He typed in Hannah’s number.
Phone died. Found a new one. Missed last message.–M
Asked if any burn victims?
This phone didn’t have a flashlight app, but Michael had seen enough to know that he hadn’t seen any burns.
No. Why?
Bomb squad investigating. Found fragments. Burn damage to building. Propane tanks intact. Still waiting on clearance to enter.
So a bomb had gone off. But no one was burned. And the propane tanks were intact? Had his ravine somehow insulated them from damage? Or had— Then Michael realized.
Tyler. He was a Fire Elemental. Had his powers weakened the bomb, the way Michael’s powers had offered a way out of the blast path?