Douse This Fire

2

    Lexa; Friday, 12:15pm

    Lexa threw herself into the physical labour of removing the still slightly smoking debris from the entrance. An assembly line had formed, and the fire crew worked together with some of the police force, handing chunks of concrete back into a pile in the parking lot. So far, they’d found about twelve people, four of them dead. She couldn’t afford to focus on the probability of finding her brother and niece, so she immersed herself in the process of clearing the entryway. Anya was right next to her, her own emotions pushed back as she helped to direct the rescue team. A group of civilians had managed to push into the fray, helping the survivors as they were dug up and helping to clear away some of the debris. Lincoln and his girlfriend hauled away some of the smaller chunks of concrete. An older man with a kind face worked silently to direct those injured but still walking to the tent that had been set up as an on-scene infirmary. Another older man worked with a few others to try and set up spotlights to make sure the rescuers could see even inside the demolished building where shadows lingered. The power had been cut off to the entire area, in an attempted prevention of an electrical fire breaking out. Separate groups worked at the two wings. The photographer from earlier, along with a few others, stood with some of the police officers and were going through the pictures they took to try and pick out who was where inside when the bombs went off.

    “Lex, drink this.” A water bottle was thrust in front of the brunette’s face, and she frowned as she took hold of it. She looked up at her stepsister, then pulled off a glove to crack the beverage open. “They’re okay.”

    “How can you know that, An?” Lexa drank deeply, then passed the water back. “We don’t know, we don’t know anything.” For all they knew, the kids were right there where one of the explosions were, or they were in one of the wings and never made it as far as the main gallery, or-

    “No, we don’t. But Aden and Tris are resourceful kids. They’ll be alright.” Anya took the bottle and sipped at it, then recapped it and set it aside, pulling her own gloves back on and gripping a particularly stubborn chunk of concrete. “We have to believe they are, or we won’t be any help to anyone. Let’s get this all cleared out so we can find them, okay?” She pulled on the chunk, turning her face away when a cloud of dust billowed up a bit. She let go for a moment to adjust the mask she wore, then yanked on it again.

    Lexa pulled her glove back on and nodded, taking a deep breath and swallowing back the panic that threatened to settle in her throat. She was surprised, honestly, that her sister was so calm. Tris was in there somewhere, her daughter. She shook her head and licked her lips, focusing back at the task in hand. She gripped onto the same chunk of debris Anya had a hold of and pulled, and they managed to get it free and handed off down the line. She nodded and stretched out her back, then reached for another concrete chunk. “Okay.”

Clarke; Friday, 12:22pm

    “Shit. Sorry.” Clarke shook her head, leaning over to rest her hands on her knees. The beam pinning Raven down wouldn’t budge, not that she’d actually expected it to. A bunch of kids, an art teacher, and a security guard did not really make a very strong team. Not to mention the lights had gone out nearly twenty minutes ago, leaving the entire space in relative darkness. Murphy had still had his flashlight, which Aden held up with his good arm from next to where Bobby was resting.

    “Miss Griffin, will we make it out of here?” Leave it to James to ask the real questions.

    “Of course, yeah!” Clarke smiled and nodded, straightening up and looking at the seven kids who were spread out in front of her. “Look, okay, my best friend is dating a firefighter, yeah? She’ll make sure they get us out.”