Participants:
Scene run by Flora
| Scene Title | A Rescuer's Vigor |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | In the wake of the Dome, there is now hope. |
| Date | February 20, 2011 |
Hours before, in the dome, for the last week it had broken down, every man for himself, Humanis First taking out people into the streets, executing them, a manhunt for the man who brought about the predicament that everyone had found themselves in.
Within seconds of the dome lifting, the fresh air that had rushing in and the breeze that cleansed away the accumulated pollution and staleness had brought with it relief. Brought with it something that some hadn't felt in a long time.
Hope.
Much like in the wake of the midtown man, the city gathered, rushed forward with all it's government agencies, ambulances, police, firemen, everyone to lend aid as soon as the shock of what had happened dissipated and people were no longer looking dumbfound at what used to be there. Within fifteen minutes, there was help pouring over that last bridge into Roosevelt, ambulances from the Coler-Goldwater and extraneous personnel all with the purpose of helping the unfortunates that had been trapped.
For hours now, there was no them and us. There was no evolved, non evolved. No freaks and mundanes. For all that Amadeus has proselytized the coming doom that the release of the dome would bring, he was wrong. Triage area's set up, people with vehicles spacious enough to cart those who didn't need an ambulance imminently to the hospital or back across the bridge to other places where they could be re-united with their loved one. Here and there, happy moments are happening, and even more depressing ones.
The snow that piled on top of the dome was heavy, ice built up, with the loss of it's support it all came down and as more and more relief efforts are made, bodies are showing up under the snow. Buildings have collapsed that were already probably not in the greatest of shape.
But help can only get to so many and one of the buildings that is next, still groans, threatening to collapse further and only a handful of officials can devote their time to this as an older woman is being helped out of a neighbouring building two houses down.
Graeme pauses for a moment, eyeing the triage area before going back towards one of the buildings that still is in need of attention. He's been here for nearly two hours, now, helping under the direction of those more trained in emergency response than he is. He came straight here, from having been out and about, with only so much as a text message spared for his roommate to tell her what he was up to.
Much of that time that he's been here has been spent clearing snow from places that it had blocked access. There wasn't much question in his mind as to that, but at least he can do something, something that's immediate, useful.
This really isn't Remi's normal kind of thing. This is normally not the way she wants to spend her time, tromping around in snow and ice and slush and filth. But her room mate sent her a text message, and she decided that perhaps it would be a good idea to help out. So, she's dressed in her cheapest clothes (in her eyes), a pair of snow boots, some jeans she (distastefully) picked up at Old Navy, and a coat she picked up there, as well.
But she's here, finally arriving at the intended destination that her room mate told her he could be found.
First, she hears her room mate's thoughts, intentionally focusing for his mind; she quietly makes her way toward him, hands tucked into her coat. It's as she gets closer to one of the buildings that she suddenly turns, blue eyes focusing on the building with a flinch. She hears panic, fear, and gets the notion of pain from the building— from three separate minds.
Suddenly, she's moving a lot quicker to intercept her room mate. "Graeme! Zere are people in zat building, three of zem!" She points toward the building in question.
Graeme turns, acknowledging what Remi said with a grim nod. There're people in a lot of the buildings, he knows, but that doesn't stop him from turning to the building.
The door is tested, found to be locked, and Graeme bites his lower lip before walking over to an area where other people are helping with the rescue efforts. He returns to the building Remi has indicated with an axe and a crowbar, but it isn't the door he breaks. Instead, it's one of the exterior windows, one low enough that when he's cleared enough of the glass, he can climb through it in order to survey the interior, with only minor scratches from the glass. Hopefully that the path to the door will be clear, but that's just a hope.
"Remi." Graeme's voice is slightly hoarse by now, but still pitched to carry out the window and to where she is. "Can you tell me where they are, in comparison to me?"
The back half of the house has collapsed inwards, hardly seen from the front, but once Graeme is in, he can see the damage. The second floor having fallen inwards, beams, gyprock, long sections of roof mixed with snow and ice making some sort of urban avalanche. Furniture crushed underneath it, it's hard to believe that anyone survived so close to the center. But Remi says there's three people and she can sense them. Three active minds.
Oh god, will anyone find us.
She can figure out where they are, in the middle of the big piled of house that's come down.
Survived the dome for this, oh god, the girls. Please would someone just come find us, we can hear you.
The girls it seems, are the other thoughts that Remi can hear, young, scared and panicking even hours after having been under all the rubble. As Graeme and Remi point out that there are three people alive over here, there's a handful more there to aid, one of them a fireman. And from inside the wreck, they can hear it. "Help!" Faint, muffled by all that debris.
Her blue eyes not particularly focused on anything, Remi tilts her head toward the 'sound' of the voices. She reaches out, pointing the direction of the debris that the three minds are located in. "That way! 'Urry! They're alive, they can 'ear us!" She's…not going in there. But she will offer the three minds a bit of solace. I can hear you! Don't worry, there's people coming. Just sit tight, be brave. We'll help you out in no time!
She turns her eyes toward her room mate, pointing the way. "Three of zem. Zey are scared…"
Graeme nods, tersely pointing inwards, to the several who have come to aid, before beginning to clear debris, with a careful mind towards clearing without prompting anything else to collapse. "There're people coming in now, we're gonna get you out." The work is grim, and silent save for the occasional reassurance that they're going to get them out of here. It's slow, painstaking almost now that they know, but they can't risk more of the structure collapsing before they can get the girls out.
Oh god, I'm hearing stuff. The mental churnings of the woman beneath the rubble. But it's hard to think that it's just them hearing something when indeed, there's rubble shifting, beams carefully removed in tandem with Graeme and passed off to the side. It's precarious though, a whole other floor of furniture, windows. There would be gas and electricity and water to worry about except that the dome effectively cut those off.
My girls. Careem, she's pinned, The woman pleads mentally, hoping that it wasn't just a figment of her imagination regarding the voice that spoke in her head. Her leg.
And then there's a pocket of empty space as Graeme works and in that empty space, the woosh of fresh air, there's the hand of a little kid.
Remi frowns. "Zere are little girls inside. One's pinned, 'er leg!" She repeats this for those around, a frown on her face. Help is on the way. You're not just hearing things. There's people here to help. We'll get you to the hospital, just hold tight. Keep calm, don't make any sudden moves. It's dangerous in there. Remi's mental tone is gentle, broadcasted to the three minds she hears within.
The redheaded Frenchwoman looks worried.
Graeme nods, with a firm repetition of what Remi's stated. Soon, the pocket of empty space is in fact visible to Graeme, and to the other men working, and there's terse, quiet words between them as they look at the rubble. "Just hold tight a little longer. We're gonna get you out of here." Graeme briefly wraps his hand around the smaller hand, the little kid's. "Just try and stay still, just a little longer."
Then, Graeme's switched to thinking as he continues to work. There's a hope, a hope that Remi can hear the request. Remi, I need you to go get the paramedics to come here, there should be a clear path in and out of the house by now. We're going to need stretchers, and soon, we're closer to getting them out. Pieces of rubble that had been discarded to one side start to be used as leverage to raise the level of the beam that is creating most of the trapped space. It's makeshift, slow, but there's progress being made. "Hang tight. You're a brave, brave kid, and we're going to get you out of here." The narrative continues as they work, as much reassurance as Graeme can offer.
The paramedics are a few houses down, tending to the old woman who's soon to be shipped off and out to some other place where she can recuperate from her own ordeal, shelter for those who's homes have been hit in the dome and it's created crisis. Okay, comes loud and clear to Remi, the mind it comes from more calm, as if the woman were gathering her courage to add to the pot, even as a little bit of light manages to come through into their hole.
The little hand of the kid that Graeme touches, grasps, hard, and from within the depths, brown eyes, dark skin, black braids is peering out from the depths but silent. As is most kids who are under the age of five and scared. Saline rims them then trickles over. before she's starting to try and worm her way out. This is not the stuck one it seems and Graeme will need to work fast before she brings the whole of it all down on her.
She can hear the request, thankfully. After watching her room mate for a moment, Remi quickly turns, rushing down the street and hailing the paramedics, waving her hands in the air to gain their attention. As with all stressful situation, at first she shouts out in her native tongue. "Au secours! C'est urgent!" Then, she switches to a more understandable tongue. "'Elp! It is an emergency, zere are three people trapped under rubble! We need stretchers!"
This is probably the best help she'll be, finding people for others to rescue, but if that's all she has to do, she can help. Hurriedly, she points the way to the house in question.
Graeme grimaces, but soon the space is big enough for the young girl to squirm out. The men work with urgency, recognising the peril in the situation. Each area that rubble is removed is subsequently shored up with fragments of beams, anything solid enough to raise the ceiling of the airpocket, even as roofing tile and fragments of furniture is removed from what makes the rubble.
The second young girl, complete with the beam that's pinning down her leg, becomes visible, as does the woman. "We can't move that beam, not yet." That instruction comes from the firefighter, and Graeme nods. They focus their efforts on the other obstructions, instead, waiting for the paramedics to come in. "Just a little bit longer now," Graeme says, voice still mainly level. He picks up a little more of the work of moving debris, work that's beginning to be tiring for most of those working, but not for him.
Out she comes, shivering as she hits the cold air where before she'd had her mothers bodyheat. But Remi's job is done as they hightail it over after ensuring the old woman will be taken care of, equipment, backboards and their bags as they head towards the house, asking the Frenchwoman to guide them.
She can hear the happiness in the little girls mind but the fear as well as she mentally screams for her mother, not quite resisting the man who's got her in his arms, clinging like a monkey with hands silently outstretched back towards the house.
Inside, the mother is seen next, cut here and there on her skin, where she put herself over her kids to try and protect them. He own dark eye's, the whites of them almost like flashlights in the dim light of the little airpocket, pulling back from the light. "In here, she's in here, her ankle is trapped, I cannot get it off."
She offers her hand though, ebony skinned and sticking out towards Graeme so that she can be helped out. She trusts the others to get her child and this way, someone else can get in there. Inside the airpocket though, there's a scream, another girl, begging for mother not to leave her.
Her part of the work done, Remi quietly follows behind the paramedics, shoving her hands back into the cheap coat that cost her less than $100. It's a really cheap coat, for someone who is used to having clothing that costs far, far more than what will fit the budget of most people here. She quickly hurries back to the scene, quite content to watch while her room mate and the others put themselves in danger to help these people.
"We'll get you to your mother, we will." Slowly, carefully, the girl comes more into view. While the mother is helped out, carefully, Graeme crawls into the empty space, crowbar in hand, then dropped to one side as the plan for leveraging the beam is agreed upon. The other rescuers, wait, tense, and he talks to the young girl. The same assurance over and over again, introducing himself, talking about meaningless things, anything to keep her distracted. He's joined in the space by a younger paramedic, and then it becomes anything to keep the young girl still while the beam is lifted, so that she doesn't injure herself more.
"On three, when that beam comes up you get her out of there." The instruction from the fireman, who has been in de facto charge, is heard, and then the count of three. The next minute drags on, at least for Graeme, and he bites his lower lip. But they've gotten her out to the other waiting paramedic.
There's a shared sigh of relief amongst the rescuers. Including Graeme.
Through it all she wails and cries, it seems a twin to the other girl, crying and babbling incoherently, scared by it all. Outside near Remi the people there to help have wrapped blankets around the mother, the other young girl kept close as both wait on tenterhooks for the rescue of the sibling. "Where is she?" Though it's not her daughter that she's looking for, face going over the people, looking for someone. "There was a woman, she talked to us, in our heads. Where is she?"
And then the hard work between Graeme and the others brings about fruition and with a heave, a ho, and she's out, hands clutching to pull her out and into waiting arms, looking about scared. Hands are offered to help Graeme out and none too soon, because as soon as he's out, it gives an ominous groan and falls.
Remi blinks a few times as she realizes that the woman is looking for her. Her brows raise, and she turns toward the wreckage as it collapses, right after her room mate escapes. Oh, thank goodness. She was worried about her room mate. After a moment of deliberation, her eyes turn toward the woman. To reveal herself, or not? Revealing herself could mean revealing that her ability is much more than what her Registration card says.
She edges a little closer to the wreckage, eyes upon the woman, brows raised. She doesn't say anything yet, simply watching. Listening.
Graeme makes his way out, looking at the house that's now more fully in rubble, before offering Remi a smile. But he's walked towards a small amount of empty space. Claustrophobic he might not be, but he needs the empty space after the particularly close confines of the last rescue. His thoughts are a bit jumbled, but overall pleased. And a little weary, with the firm thought that he's looking forward to relaxing at some point. Not that looking forward to relaxing will stop him from helping, in the mean time.
There will be other houses, people stuck inside, stuck under snow and in need of rescue, others who are just hungry and with the vigor of the rescuer's who have arrived to help people that have been separated from the rest of humanity for nearly a month, it'll be a long night and an even longer morning. What really went on inside the dome, who knows. Some may tell and others may stay mum to what they saw. But any help that is given will be taken, like the mother.
With no answer forthcoming from anyone, it settles in her mind. An evolved? Or was it an angel, giving her and her children the strength to hold on? Only Remi knows, as she see's the woman rush off with one child in her arms and another on the stretcher being tended to.
Graeme gets a pat on the back, someone passes over a cup of coffee from a thermos, the first of many that will be passed out to volunteers to keep them warm, to keep them fueled for as long as they need it. Looking up, those in the dome smile. The moon rests silent up in it's perch. White, clear, clean.
