Page 38 of Scorched Hearts

“I’m sorry. You’re right.”

Maya sighed. “I know this is a sensitive subject for you. I don’t want you to feel like I’m overstepping or trying to seem like I know best. But this situation right now is serious, and I know that you see it, too. Please think about this and talk to your superiors if necessary. I need to go now.”

After saying goodbye to her, Elle felt completely depleted. There was not much she felt she could do besides finishing her drink and going to sleep. At a time like this, no one would take Maya’s concerns seriously. They were still in the middle of dragging the city out from the disastrous effects of the earthquake and needed every firefighter on deck. Besides, she hadn’t even known Maria closely. She hadn’t even been from her department. She had no claim to this grief.

The journal lay on the edge of the coffee table, staring at Elle. She felt there were no words she could put in there to help herself now, nothing that could soothe her besides pretending nothing had happened. Tipsy, she went to take a long shower, feeling the water hit her back in pleasant streams. Feeling pure again. At home, she felt as if nothing had to be real. Everything concerning the outside world floated away into obscurity.

She began thinking about her relationship with Maya in recent days. How worried and caring Maya had been, and quite effortlessly so. She wished it could be this way not only in times of crisis, that they would carry it out of this difficult time and into normal life. Most of all, she wished she could care for Maya too right now, instead of what had been happening for the past two days. But then again, she knew she would always feel bad receiving help.

Seeing her bed, she remembered the previous night at Maya’s place. The repeated sounds of screaming and crashing against the pavement had woken her up throughout the night, causing her to sweat and disorienting her. She tried thinking it would be different in her own bed, that they would pass. Closing her eyes, she already knew that wouldn’t be true, but the exhaustion in her body dragged her to sleep nonetheless.

14

MAYA

Two days after her phone conversation with Elle, Maya was called to another disaster site. One of the shopping mall buildings had partially collapsed following the unnoticed cracking in the structure of its first floor. It was the city’s biggest tragedy following the earthquake itself, with a speculated hundreds of victims trapped within the crushed structure.

All firefighting and medical units available were called in for the rescue mission, with time being their most precious asset. The quick response of the city made the chances of victims’ survival high, and Maya, speeding through the city in the ambulance, was as focused as ever.

The scene looked apocalyptic. The large building stood tilted and crashed, and the rescue units were so small in comparison that they looked like ants swarming around its base. Everyone knew the rescue would take weeks and would eat up most of the city’s emergency resources. Maya’s crew was placed, as they often were, in collaboration with Elle’s fire department.

Soon, the ambulance began receiving the first victims, the people close to the exits whose rescue didn’t evolve the risk of entering the crumbling structure. Maya received tens of trauma victims. She and her colleagues rushed in to operate and send them out to the nearest hospitals. Maya’s clothes were soon stained with multiple people’s blood mingling together on the fabric. Her face dripped with sweat out in the open sun, but the rescue was going efficiently. The engineers were scanning the building in hopes of entering soon, knowing that a wrong decision regarding that could cost the rescuers’ lives. The atmosphere was heated.

The rotation of ambulances wasn’t ideal. It meant the equipment needed for certain injuries was sometimes lacking and the crew had to wait a few minutes. The nearby hospitals had begun setting up a provisory base on the grounds near the scene. Still sometimes they’d have to drive someone off to an actual hospital if the situation was dire. The disinfectant was running low, and the medics were afraid they’d soon run into problems. Maya admitted another trauma victim, knowing they’d have to wait to drive him to the hospital, so it was her job to stabilize his state the best she could. Within the ambulance, she was lacking a nurse. They struggled without the third person, but Maya pushed through, desperate to save the man, who was in grave condition. He writhed from pain, but she knew she would soon be done, if only she had one more pair of hands. But no matter. She managed to sew him up and his state greatly improved, enough for him to wait for transport in the space of the ambulance.

Outside of the car, Maya noticed the team of rescuers preparing to go in. They were discussing the strategy. It was a team of six plus dogs. Maya’s eyes greedily went from face to face, looking for what she’d been fearing the most. And there she was. Maya’s heart sank down to her stomach. Elle was one of the rescuers that were going in.

Another surgeon called her over to assist him, and she had to force herself to tear her eyes away from the group. She went into the ambulance, feeling the heavy beating of her heart, feeling her fingers go numb. The person in the ambulance had a fractured rib cage, and they needed another opinion regarding some difficult decision. Maya gave it her best, analyzing the victim’s state and discussing it with her colleagues before assisting them in the operation. But her mind felt foggy, felt detached.

She couldn’t stop thinking about Elle’s recent problems and the high-risk operation on which she was about to embark. Or maybe had already done so. Maya wouldn’t know. She ran out of the ambulance once she was no longer needed, searching for any clue as to how the rescue was going. It appeared to be going fine, according to plan. The Captain was on the radio with the crew in a deep state of focus.

Then it happened.

Something went wrong. Suddenly, the people monitoring the rescuers inside looked at each other, stressed. Maya could feel in her chest that something was terribly wrong with Elle. Captain Hunter was shouting evacuate from the building, and Maya felt as if she were underwater, every sound and sensation could barely reach her, ringing in her ears.

Hunter said to someone standing next to her, “They’ve got issues coming out.”

The worst nightmares were coming true for Maya. She could do nothing but wait for the crew to get out, to check Elle’s state for herself, to see whether her cruel premonition had been right and whether Elle was injured. Hunter was instructing the firefighters in a tone of calm urgency. Additional cameras went inside in hopes of locating the team. Two of the search dogs ran out of the ruin.

“Did you follow the dogs? They’re out!” Hunter raised her voice through the radio. After a while, she repeated the response. “No, they lost them.”

Everyone was on the edge of their seats, biting their nails and sweating from stress. Six people they’d sent in couldn’t get out of the still unstable building. Everyone’s attention was directed toward bringing them out, afraid that they might have destabilized the construction, and it would bury the rescuers alive, as well.

“We’ve got them on camera,” one of the technicians shouted. “We know where they are.”

Everyone breathed out the air they’d been holding in, hoping that from then on it’d be easy.

“There are two injured,” he continued.

“Let’s get them out as soon as possible.” Hunter began discussing the safest way out with the team of firefighters and technicians, communicating everything to the team inside through radio.

This whole time, Maya stood motionless, absorbing every new piece of information like a bullet burning through her chest.

Someone showed through the opening. The firefighters ran to get them and help them out. As soon as the first woman was entirely out, the next followed, and then Maya saw her. Carried by two other firefighters, Elle was unconscious and bloodied. The sight of her limp body twisted Maya’s heart, jolting her into action. She ran to get stretchers, and holding on to them with an ER medic, she ran to get Elle. She was in critical condition with suspected traumatic brain injury as well as severe bleeding from her thigh. Maya’s mind worked on double the speed. They needed a blood transfusion for Elle STAT, as well as to get her on an operating table to assess and stabilize the injury to her head.

“We need blood, AB negative, quickly,” Maya shouted at the other medic.

“Are you sure it’s her--”

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