Odds of Survival

Participants:

brennan_icon.gif cooper_icon.gif delilah_icon.gif felix_icon.gif judah_icon.gif sparrow_icon.gif

Scene Title Odds of Survival
Synopsis The NYPD and a brigade of concerned citizens congregate around a collapsed parking garage in Queens.
Date November 3, 2009

Queens

Queens is the largest in area and the second most populous of the five boroughs of New York City. Located on the western portion of Long Island, Queens managed to avoid much of the physical ruin attributed to the Bomb. However, Queens on whole suffered from something far more significant in the wake of the explosion that tore apart New York — Economic crisis. With much of Queens relying on industrial productivity for its commerce, it was the mass exodus of many businesses from the New York area following the bomb that crippled the borough.

With refugees pouring in from the western portions of New York following the destruction of Midtown, Queens was inundated with homeless of all walks of life. Food shortages, coupled with the collapse of Queens business centers and the strain put on local police only furthered what would become one of the most embarassing mishandling of a crisis situation the city had ever seen. Weeks after the bomb hit, riots swept through New York by the panicked populace, this was felt most hard in Queens, where food riots ravaged the businesses that dared remain open. Shea Statium was used as temporary shelter for bomb refugees, and the riots that swept through Queens enveloped the stadium as well, resulting in a remarkable loss of life in the chaos.

Ever since, Queens has settled down from the turbulent weeks following the nuclear explosion. But while its scars may not be as physical as Midtown's are, Queens suffers just as the rest of New York does, under the shadow of that broken skyline to the west and the collapse of its social and economic centers. Queens is now a ghost of its former self, slowly struggling to recover from the damage done.


Accidents happen.

Emergency services gets thousands upon thousands of calls a year with tinny voices chattering excitedly about car wrecks, ruptured gas mains and reports of gunfire in bad neighborhoods like Brownsville, Brooklyn North and any of the boarded-up, desolate stretches of street in the Bronx. Today, however, it's a collapsed parking structure in Queens that's the source of all the commotion — and with good reason. Dust rises from the lot in a thick charcoal plume that further dilutes what little sunlight is able to bleed through the silver clouds overhead. Mixing with the haze, a fine sprinkling of rain in the form of a mist blows in from the ocean, hampering visibility to the point where only the flashing lights of a solitary ambulance on scene can be seen from across the street where a small crowd has gathered to gawk at the spectacle unfolding only meters away.

The lapels of his jacket whipping around in the breeze, Detective Judah Demsky stands at the edge of the property with a radio seated in the palm of his callused hand and barks orders into the mouthpiece. "The hell do you mean you can't more ambulances out here?" he's demanding in a terse voice, its edges made rough by all the particles of debris in the air. "We have people trapped inside. Civilian volunteers are picking through the rubble looking for survivors, and you're telling me you can't spare some fucking paramedics?"

What a mess. Fel comes limping up out of the fog like he's creeping in from an old Fritz Lang movie. He looks more like he should be chasing a child murderer through the streets of Berlin, more than dealing with anything in the modern world. Must be the lighting. And the gray coat, and cynical air. He flashes his badge to the cops on scene, makes his way up to Judah, blinking past the mist on his glasses at the wreckage before him. "Clusterfuck, eh?" he says, unecessarily.

Brennan had been on his way home, Music up and playing in the sedan. That was until there had been the standstill of traffic and not an inch moving forward. The lone ambulance had creeped by and Brennan eventually turned on the radio to find out what indeed was going on.

Two minutes after that, he was grabbing his medical bag, his emergency kit out of his trunk for his flashlight and calling home to tell his wife that there was an accident, that he didn't know when he'd be hauling his ass home.

So behind Felix comes trotting the tall doctor, flashlight carving the path for him to go and following the trail of badges till he's lifting a hand. "Dr. Brennan. I work with the Suresh Center and St. Lukes. I can lend a hand till they can manage to get some Ambulances in here. Set up a triage"

"Hoooly shit." Comes a drawn out exclamation from Cooper as he comes through the crowd to stand near the other detective and fed. "Didn't expect it was this bad when they called out." His spiky hair, shifting slightly in the wind along with the trench coat he's wearing. His badge glints occasionally from the chain around his neck. He's dressed for the part of a detective, except for the pair of white sneakers on his feet. As the breeze blows smoke their way, Cooper turns his head into his shoulder some and coughs. Glancing at the two law men he's never met, he offers up a quick, "Detective Thomas Cooper" and a short nod to each.

Judah lowers his radio with a fizzling hiss of static, eyes on Brennan as he makes his approach. Between the off-duty doctor, Ivanov and this Thomas Cooper, his attention is spread so thin that the muscles in his shoulders and neck only twitch when, behind them, a steel girder beam groans under the weight of a fallen cement block and snaps cleanly in two with enough force to send another barrage of airborne debris billowing out onto the street. He turns his head into his arm, covering his mouth and noise. "Demsky," he introduces himself to his fellow detective, words muffled by the fabric of his jacket. Dark eyes flick across to Felix. "This is Ivanov. What do you know about triage?"

Felix extends a worn hand to Cooper. "Hey," he says, easily. "Felix Ivanov, FBI." He manages not to add the obligatory sneer that Feds are supposed to use when talking to local law enforcement. To Judah, he says, "I know the basics. I can help with first aid, at the very least." He blinks through the chill rain, watching the wreckage…..strangely unmoved. Well, he lived through the towers coming down, the Bomb….this is small potatoes, apparently.

Brennan takes in the names, even though the introductions likely aren't directed towards him. Tall fed, Ivanov, Cooper is the newcomer, Demsky is the one that seems to be in charge. "First aid is better than nothing then. You'll be able to at least divide them up between immediate attention, beyond help and the ones we'll get to when the others have had the needed attention. I have gloves enough for more than enough folks" He looks to Cooper to see how much the Detective knows. "Just have to see where the Ambulance has set up a center. I can put in a call for some colleagues to get here" Brennan's already getting out of his jacket, tossing it to the side some place out of the way and rolling up sleeves.

"I'd say nice to meet you, but I think the timing is bad." Cooper's voice is muffled by the lapel of his trench as the sparks fly. He gives another short cough and squints a bit as hand snaking out to take Felix's briefly. Hand and coat dropping away, Cooper offers Demsky a bit of a lop sided smile, he seems a bit uncomfortable when he admits. "I know the basics for my required first aid card."

The plume of dust coming out of the next block over is enough to make anyone curious; when it comes to living in the current New York, it is less curiosity and more of a 'what blew up now?'. Delilah has been heading in the direction of the problem rather than away from it, and by the time she reaches the outskirts of the crowd gathering around she looks to be giving this a good dose of widened eyes. She's wearing a banana yellow peacoat, so she isn't that hard to spot. Neither is Samson, who she is leading at her side attached to a leather lead. What is unusual is that the closer they get through the crowd of people, the more that Delilah has to force him to heel. A giant, nose-snuffing dog in a Union Jack sweater is odd in itself, but now he is also apparently trying to pull away from his lead. When Samson does stop pulling, the girl and her dog are now at the front of the bystanders.

Samson, it seems, has his own plan. He slacks off, only to glance sidelong at Delilah once she relaxes herself from pulling back on him. Once he is sure she isn't dragging him into the other direction, the molosser gives a great heave and bounds forward; the force of the leap drags the redhead a couple of feet forward, and the hoop of the lead pops right out of her grip.

"Samson!" Dee yelps as she is yanked forward, using that awkward momentum to go chasing after the dog, who is now running headlong for the civilian volunteers tentatively rummaging through the remains of the parking garage. Soon enough, it dawns on her that he's not technically misbehaving for no reason whatsoever- he's no rescue dog, but if it helps, it helps.

"Great," Judah says, though he doesn't sound particularly enthused. "Come on." Radio hooked onto his belt, he pivots on his heel and turns to face the wreckage with eyes squinting against the gloom. Beneath the rubble, water hisses out from ruptured pipes and trickles black between hunks of plaster and cement, some with twisted pieces of rebar and metal poking out of them. There are undoubtedly bodies under there too, but there's also a distinct absence of blood except the smears on faces and hands belonging to the survivors that have already been pulled from the topmost layer. Just two, both sitting on the curb next to the ambulance with breathing masks attached to their faces and bits of drywall stuck in their hair.

"Ivanov, keep eye on that kid," Judah says, gaze briefly skimming over Delilah. "Cooper, make yourself useful and go interview the eyewitnesses. See if you can't figure out what caused this while the doctor and I have a little talk."

Felix doesn't seem inclined to seize responsibility for all this. So he nods curtly to Judah, and goes stumping off towards Delilah. New York's own Mad-Eye Moody. When he comes up on her out of the fog, he's startled momentarily into stillness. And then says, without preamble, "Hey. You're that lick a toad girl, aren't you? Don't run, you're not in trouble." Ah, Felix. So reassuring.

Kid with a dog. Brennan winces at seeing that, worried that the lumbering animal and it's owner are going to do more harm than good. But the fed's been assigned to dog sit and he himself is chucking a pair of purple medical gloves towards cooper to catch. 'Double bag your hands" He instructs before he starts to text those he knows who might be nearby and willing to come out quick and help. No cars, they're told as he walks with Detective Demsky.

"Thank man." Catching the gloves, the detective grins at the doctor. A jerky and sloppy salute is given to Judah and chirps out a, "Your the boss on this on Demsky." A smooth turn, he heads toward the line of people that makes up the crowd. His attempt at a smooth approach is messed up by him stubbing a tow a bit on a chunk of debris. "Son of a…." He hisses, hopping a bit, ,before he settles into a lightly limping walk. "Hey… you… police…persons." He barks out a bit rougher then he intended. He pauses at the line and rubs the top of his stubbed toe against the back of his other leg. He taps one of the officers on the shoulder. "Who did you find that swears they saw something?" He eyes the people in the big line.. So many of them. Ug…. joy.

Felix provides the stumping, Delilah provides the funny accent! She is trying to at least corral Samson's effort and unhook his lead when Felix comes up behind them; the girl turns her head, only to visibly cringe when she sees who it is. "I can't run anyway- my do- hey, watch out." Samson is stepping around some of the concrete, his first step onto it sending some crumbling about. He pauses to look at her, then at Felix, then back to Delilah- and then his nose is back to the debris, dutifully sniffing. "What happened?" The redhead finally sees fit to turn more towards Felix, one wary eye on Samson.

"What do you figure the chances are of pulling out anyone else alive?" Judah asks Brennan pointedly, his leather loafers splashing through puddles of water as the two men walk side by side, one about half a pace behind the other. "Dispatch is telling me we've got traffic problems. Wants to close off the streets for ten blocks in every direction in case this is another one of PARIAH's, but this doesn't smell like their M.O. to me, and they haven't been active for months."

Back on the other side of the street at the edge of the assembled crowd, the officer whose shoulder Cooper tapped chances a quick glance over her shoulder at the detective. The press hasn't arrived on the scene yet, but when it does he and the other uniforms who aren't helping search for survivors will have their hands full setting up neon orange traffic cones and unrolling long strips of crime tape while shielding their eyes from the glare of camera flashes.

"We pulled two people out about fifteen minutes ago," he tells Cooper, jerking his head toward the pair with the breathing masks. "The woman's in shock, but you might ask her friend. His eyes looked bright enough when we sat them down."

"Building collapsed. We don't yet definitely know how or why," Fel says, lips thinned out into that familiar grim line. "Your dog there good at sniffing people out?" Hey, he can hope. She might have some use.

"What are the odds?" Brennan eyes the building he's going to going near soon enough with a critical eye. "Depends really, detective, on many factors. You're better to ask a fire chief as they're more intimate with these things. It depends on what brought it down, whether the victims managed to get to a supportive wall. What floor they were on. Great many factors. If they made it to a-" His forefinger and middle finger on each hand go up in air quotes "Triangle of life. Which means, somewhere where anything that collapses provides some space, they stand a better chance. Depends too on how long ago this happened. I've seen a few of these out when I was with DWB. Some, we got no one, others, found groups of them. Same for the bomb."

He's putting on gloves after that, a few on each hand that easily cover over the band of gold on his left hand. "Time, plus oxygen supply, plus how quick they can be rescued. I can put in a call to the Suresh Center, see if they have or know any Audiokinetics who might be willing to come out, hear for heartbeats. Heck, maybe we can find a teep. They can listen in for active minds beneath and get a judge on who might be more critical if there's anyone down there living. Either way, time is of the essence"

"Those two?" Cooper asks pointing that direction, he glances past the cop to the crowd. "Good luck." He murmurs in passing, patting the man on the shoulder. His tennis shoes crunch slightly with the grit covering the ground as he approaches the two in question, shoving his hands into lovely purple gloves just in case. Reaching into an inner pocket, Cooper pulls out a small pad of paper and a pen, before giving both survivors solemn looks, "Hey, I'm Detective Cooper." His pen laden hand lifts his badge out enough for them to glimpse it before letting it fall against his again. "And you are?" He draws the question out, glancing between them both, "And if you would please tell me what you saw as well, that would be peachy."

"I have no idea what he's good at." Delilah confides to Felix sheepishly. "Well, other than being an attack dog. Not that I've tried to see if he'd do that." The last thing she needs is someone thinking she dogfights! "But he's trained. And has a nose." Samson picks his way around carefully, taking a few steps up onto the pile to locate something that catches his sniffer. "Should I pull him down or let him look?"

The man pulls his breathing mask down to his chin, elastic stretched taut though not to the point of breaking. A pair of blue eyes peer out from a sooty face smudged with blood. He reaches up, touches fingertips to the wicked-looking gash that cuts from his temple all the way across his left cheek and oozes fluid. It's a superficial injury, unlike the woman seated beside him whose arm is encased in a plastic brace, her wrist bent at an ugly angle that suggests some sort of breakage — or worse.

"It was an accident," he tells Cooper hoarsely. "I forgot to tap the breaks. She was just— there." Whatever that means. "It all happened so fast. One minute the front of the car's all folded in. Then— fuck. I don't even remember."

Judah glances between Brennan's face and the gloves on his hands, brow knitted with an unreadable expression with hints of frustration crinkling at the corners of his eyes and mouth. "No," he says shortly. "I'll call the Suresh Center. You're needed here. Now."

Fel's eyes dart around at the mist-covered rubble. "Let him look," he says finally, voice heavy. "I don't think he can hurt anything."

"Tell em Dr. Brennan's here. If you think that would help" There's a brisk, polite nod, no offense seems to be taken with the shortness of Judah's tone. It's here, and now, it's to be expected and it's time to get down to business. Yanking stethoscope from bag and tossing it around his neck, the physician is moving forward towards the workers in the rubble, the people helping, Felix and Delilah.

"Okay… " Cooper murmurs, jotting down notes. He reaches out to try and keep the guy from touching the injury. "I wouldn't be touching that, sir. Your fingers are filthy. Now…" He straightens and arches a brow. "I need you to tell me who was there. Describe her for me." His narrow down at the two as he gives them his full attention. "I know it won't be easy.. Take your time and try to picture the person."

Samson scrapes at a few spots with his right paw, but nothing other than more sniffing and rooting comes of it. He's not a rescue dog, but he gets an A for Effort. "So it just fell in?" Delilah goes back to questioning Felix for what he may know, while the dog wanders around without specific direction, but clearly distressed enough to keep going. "Was there any explosion? I didn't hear anything, I just heard the rumbling and saw the dust."

"Black hair," the man says to Cooper, his eyes hooding in memory as his hand falls away and settles back in his lap. "Dark skin. Red coat. Like a fucking fire engine. I don't know how I didn't see it." His voice is growing tight, hoarse with the effort of pulling in air. One of paramedics tending to ambulance moves over to the curb and crouches down beside him, one gloved hand at his neck while the other maneuvers the mask back over his mouth.

"He really shouldn't be talking," the paramedic says. "I just got off the radio with the Flushing Medical Center. They have an ambulance en route to transfer any survivors to their facility. If you want to continue the interview, I suggest you do it there."

Judah's shape disappears into the smog and rain, swallowed whole by a column of powder and grime as he heads deeper into the rubble to help with the rescue efforts elsewhere in the remains.

Well, she's not doing any harm, at least. And Fel's busy, himself, scrambling over the ruins he can get to, listening keenly for any sign of the survivors. Surprisingly nimble, considering, though he occasionally slips and swears, hissing under his breath. "I'm honestly not sure. I haven't heard, I don't dare speculate," he notes to Delilah.

"Yeah.. okay… Good idea, cause your right he doesn't look all that great." Cooper eyes the man with worry and then looks around the area fore Demsky. "Where the hell he go.." He does however spot the fed. "Hey.. Ah.. Ivon…a …wana.. whatever your last name it.. Hey.. " He motions to the ambulance as the people are loaded in. "Tell Demsky, I'm headed to Flushing Medical Center to conduct interviews. He need to call me, dispatch has my number."

Brennan's with others around the collapsed structure, though mostly moving around, looking for safe avenues in, calling out if he sees anything and listening in case Delilah's dog miraculously manages to find something that isn't a rabbit. His faith isn't on fido at all. Not unless it's a cadaver. He's not concerned about the people at the ambulance, they're being tended to but he does send a volunteer off to start gathering what supplies they can scavenge from it and for someone to set up a triage out in the street and far enough away that there's no danger of anything falling on anyone.

"Call out if you see anything, hear anything" Gear's been transferred into some random person's backpack to make it easier to carry in. A red, blue and black washable markers are respectively tucked into his belt. he's got no tags, it'll have to do. "lets find survivors!" he calls out.

And into this, Sparrow finds herself, having heard of what happened by passer-bys where she was. Frowning a touch as she lingers along the edges of the growing crowd, the young woman tries to see if she notices anyone that she recognizes, then pulls out a phone to check on something briefly before starting to skirt around closer to the fallen structure, perhaps seeking someone who might look 'in charge'.

For a moment, Samson almost hobbles around after Felix. Delilah is trying to stay as low to the ground as she can manage, letting the big dog do the hard climbing. "We'll find out, right? Sometime?" She'll watch the news, and hopefully this won't be brushed off. And then-

WHOOF! Samson is as loud as he looks, while he now scrabbles up around a particularly big mound out of Dee's sight. Of course, she tries to chase him around and up the side of things, not being very balanced even in wedges. "Hey! No, wait!" That frakking dog!

"Right, right," Fel says, absently, to Cooper's call. "And yeah. We just don't wanna go off half-cocked," And then - he stiffens like a spaniel pointing out a covey of quail. "Hey," he says, pausing over an apparent soft spot. And then, bizarrely, there is an absolute fountain of dirt and debris, as Felix apparently turns into a mole and starts tunneling. He can't run on that ruined foot, but hyperspeed is good for something, yet. "Got a live one here!"

Once he knows Felix has the message, Cooper moves around the side of the ambulance, bumming a ride off them rather then dealing with his clunker and all the traffic from this. Settling into the passenger's seat, Cooper gives a bit of a sigh, the paper work involved with something like this… a nightmare.

"Coming! Keep looking" Brennan fires off to the folks at his portion of the cave in as he's scrabbling over rubble and making his way to the fed. The surprise at the speed at which he seems to be digging is visible for only a few moments, and he's sure not to pay close attention to the man lest something adverse happen. "Someone get a backboard over here, some Oxygen as well, be ready. Grab a collar too case it is a live one" He's being realistic as Judah had wanted him to be.

Sparrow eventually finds someone in charge, and volunteers to help with the others, stating the fact that she's helped in such areas before back home. And so, given a few items, she scrambles forwards, though as shouts go up about a possible live one being found, she turns in the direction of the digging person as well. Sandals are slipped off her feet, allowing her contact with dirt and concrete, the woman drawing her power subtly and casting it out, perhaps seeking to at least stabalize areas to keep things from shifting too much while the search is on.

The only real reaction that Delilah has at first is to toss her hood up when dirt starts flying, making her way closer when she makes out his words above the clamor. Samson, finding nothing over yonder, wanders back just in time to see Felix react- and of course the dog reacts too, jumping with his weight in his forepaws when the dirt starts flying, letting out his best alert barks, tail erect. He's being rather unhelpful but not much physically in the way, barking while the Fed tunnels and his owner moves to help him- and whoever he apparently found.

There's the sound of coughing from below, and Felix's expression turns Christmas-morning levels of delighted. Sparrow's help leaves a lot of little bubbles of air carefully in place….and keeps the edges of the hole Fel's digging from sloughing down and making things worse. HE steps aside to let the EMTs and the doctor get in, once he's sure there's a face down here…and looks down at hands whose fingers are now worn bloody by the digging.

"Careful with that dog! Take it around, see if it can find someone else" Brennan's oblivious to Sparrow's quiet efforts to help as he steps in once Felix pulls back so that he can do his part. "Agent, you need to wash off your hands, get them covered and get some gloves on, if you're foolishly intending to do that again" Simple admonishment, though there's approval in the doctors face at seeing that someone is indeed alive.

So now it's to work with him, getting in there with others, maneuvering around a few people who are continuing to dig out the person and start assessing, gauging, doing that medical thing he does so well. "Hey there, welcome back to the land of light. Gonna get you out of there soon enough hmmm. Probably cart you straight off to the hospital. You got a big shaggy dog, a fed and some other folks to thank for it all"

Sparrow crouches nearby, likely out of the way of those that might be arriving to help get the person out of the hole. When Felix stops digging, the young woman concentrates to keep the dirt and all from falling back in, and slowly the hole begins to widen further, rocks and debris to shift enough to allow rescuers to fetch the person out a little more easier. And then she starts to look nearby, perhaps to find other pockets that might hold people inside, or to sense tremors where someone might be trying to get out.

"Hey, Ivanov-" Did he ever tell her his name? "-here, take this." Delilah shoves a kerchief from her pocket into his hands before he has much processing time.

"You try telling him where to go…" Delilah sighs her words into Brennan's direction, then turning around again to follow Samson- who seems to have understood what he is looking for now, and he heads right over that mound again with Dee on his heels; a silly picture, a dog in a flag sweater being followed by a hobbling yellow coat. The dog stops a few moments later, centering his sniffing job. "I think he found something else!" There couldn't have been too many people, right?

To Sparrow's senses….there are more. A couple, at least, still reachable, where human lives gutter like candle flames under the weight of earth, fallen concrete. "Thanks," Fel says, dabbing futilely at ruined fingers.

Brennan's attention is on the person he's taking care of, and.. on the ground? The doctor's brows furrow and he looks to the people around him, searching. But nothing, they're just all busy concentrating on the man that they're pulling from the wreck and away. Collar slapped into place and onto a bright orange backboard, the person is off to be taken to triage.

It's then that Brennan see's Sparrow, really it's just co-incidence as his eyes fall to the bare feet on ground. Takes a moment to register, a man who's been around Evo's for a while now and his own eyes lift from the bare feet and up to sparrow, watching her while he peels off his top set of gloves.

With a slight frown upon her face, Sparrow doesn't notice as Brennan looks in her direction. Instead, with a tilt of her head, she seems to be concentrating on something on, on those spots within the fallen earth and stone, that seem to contain a human nucleus within the bubbles. When the dog barks, she nods quietly, likely seeming to agree with the shouted words of the handler. Shifting closer, her hands touch a slab of concrete with rebar sticking out at angles, steadying it with her touch to the dirt at it's base, and from there, that around the person who's under it beneath where the dog is sniffing.

Samson barks once more, steadying his head at something invisible, cocking his face, cropped ears twitching up. He growls with something that might be uncertainty, but Delilah beginning to check the debris pulls his attention back. She's not having much luck there- she has no hyperspeed or super strength- so all she can figure to do is take the leather lead out of her coat pocket, and curl it around where Samson was centered before grabbing onto his collar and tugging him back away and shouting off to the nearest people. "There's someone under the leash, the pieces are too big for me- someone's going to have to get something to move this big stuff!" Where are the rescue workers with hammers and what not?

Someone's been found. Will be found. Have been found. Dr Brennan's attention reverts back to the cry rising up that signals found people and the cue from Sparrow as she does her thing. He's bounding back to the ruins as in the distance an ambulance waits, help is on the way and hope starts to spring to the surface for some.

Through combined efforts, maybe the grim thoughts of one Detective Demsky may turn not so grim thanks to the help a Terrakinetic, a federal agent, a girl with a dog and countless others. Only time will tell, and the Wednesday morning newspaper will truly reveal the final outcome.


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