The
Man Who Wasn't There is the second book in my Miracle,
Mississippi Series. He Thought He Saw (2012 NaNo) is book one.
Brian
called 9-1-1, but the line was busy. Yelling at Romeo, he finally got
the other boy's attention. "There are people trapped in here.
They're hurt. Find help!"
Romeo
dashed off. Some of the boys on the cheerleading squad ran over.
Brian activated the flashlight app on his phone and led them into the
dilapidated shed.
"We're
in here," the girl called. "Please, help."
"Coming!"
He turned to the boys. "Okay, the roof collapsed and the wall
caved in. There are people trapped. Can you handle this?"
The
boys shrugged, nodding.
"People
need help," one of them replied. "I can handle anything."
Slowly,
Brian opened the door. It swung toward him, sagging on the hinges,
squawking like an angry goose. Brian shown his light in the entrance.
He saw the wall with the boy holding it. He looked ready to fall
down. A row of roofing nails were embedded in his thigh. Blood had
pooled at his feet. It took longer to find the girl. She was
partially buried under the wall. She was pale and afraid, but was
alert.
"Better
not to move her," Brian told the boys. "But let's shore up
the wall and roof. What's your name?" he asked the young man.
"Noel
and that's Trista."
"I'm
Brian. That's Justin and Flynn." He pointed to the cheerleaders.
"Anyone else here?"
"Just
us. I'm hurt bad, Brian. I can't hold this much longer."
The
other two boys were busily trying to move the book shelf, only to
find it was attached to the wall. Brian spotted a line of file
cabinets. He told the other boys to get that. Ripping off his shirt,
he tore the cloth into strips and bound up the leg wound. Noel was in
a bad way. The blood seeped slowly and he shook with the strain of
holding the wall. Once that was done tying up the wound, Brian found
a place to stand by the other boy and took the weight of the wall on
his own back, pushing with his powers.
Justin
and Flynn moved the file cabinets into place, taking the weight from
Brian and Noel. They lifted Noel and set him aside. He screamed in
pain as they moved his injured leg. Both of them apologized as the
lowered him to the floor. Keeping the force going, Brian eased out
from under the wall and went to sit by Trista. She was pale, clammy.
He didn't dare move any of the rubble without help. Depending on her
injuries, she might be alive only because the debris acted like a
tourniquet.
"Help's
coming, honey. Hang in there."
"Where's
Noel?"
"Here,
baby. I'm okay."
Justin
had added strips of his shirt to Noel's leg. Moving him had started
the bleeding again. He fashioned a tourniquet with that and a Bic
pen. It wasn't ideal, but it would hold until help arrived. A
pounding of feet outside heralded the arrival of the emergency team.
Romeo
stood outside, panting. "Sorry it took so long. The courtyard is
blocked. We had to go around."
"Thanks,"
Brian said. "Trista's in a bad way," he told the EMT. "I
have no idea what's going on under there. I didn't try to move her.
We had to get Noel out from under the wall. It was ready to collapse
and so was he."
"You
did good, kids. Thank you." He turned to Trista, smiling. "Hello
there, young lady. My name is Darren. Let's see what's going on,
okay?"
"Okay,"
she said faintly.
Brian
knew she was in bad shape. He could sense that one lung was on the
verge of collapse and she had internal injuries. She had a spinal
fracture and a compound fracture of the left femur. The knowledge
wasn't from his own mind. He could hear someone else's voice in his
head telling him.
"I
think she has a spinal injury," he said aloud. "And her
lung is collapsing."
"He's
right," the second EMT said. "She's sipping air. Anything
else, kid?"
"Broken
leg and some internal bleeding."
The
emergency personnel stared at him.
"How
do you know that?" Justin asked.
"Call
it a hunch."
"We've
got a couple stretchers outside. Think you boys can get our friend to
one?" the first EMT asked.
"Yes,
sir." Brian gestured to Justin and Flynn. He got the stretcher
and the boys helped lift Noel onto it.
"I'll
show you how to get around," Romeo said. He took one end of the
stretcher.
©
2016 Dellani Oakes
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