Kino moved away. “I’ll wait for you outside.”
As soon as he left, Amber retrieved her underwear and grabbed a clean T-shirt, jeans and sneakers. She didn’t have time to worry about appearances, so she clipped her hair up on her head and met Jack at the door.
“Ready?” His face had become almost a mask. The warmth and emotion she’d glimpsed last night seemed to have been put back in their box. He seemed totally focused.
She grabbed her jacket and followed him out to the car. They were lucky they still had it on loan—and that their emergency packs were in the trunk. Jack handed her the radio as Kino climbed in their car. “Might as well come with you,” he said as Jack nodded.
Jack started the engine. “Call in, Amber. See if we’ve to go to the hospital first, or straight onto the site.”
Their instructions were clear. They were to be part of the first responders on site.
They traveled the rest of the way in virtual silence with only the occasional crackle from the radio. Kino was able to point out directions as he was from one of the other Hawaiian islands and was familiar with this area. Most of the major roads had been cleared of any fallen trees and debris by now.
But as they ventured nearer the village, the extent of the damage was evident. Four emergency vehicles were ahead of them, bright flashing lights causing Jack to slow down on the road. It was just as well, because the rest of the road had vanished in the landslide.
Amber had never seen anything like this before and she stepped out trying to survey the scene. “Where’s the village?” seemed the obvious question.
Kino’s voice was shaky. “It was there,” he said, pointing to the mass of rubble and mud ahead of them.
Amber shook her head. “I don’t get it. What’s happened?”
One of the other emergency responders walked over. “It’s because of the hurricane and the amount of rainfall. The earth around the volcanoes and mountains hasn’t been able to stand the strain and extra pressure. It’s always a risk a few days after any major event. It’s just never happened before.”
Her eyes were starting to pick out things in the debris. It was mainly mud and earth, along with a million uprooted trees. But in among the rest of it she could see a few things sticking out. Part of a roof of a house? A brick wall that seemed to have been carried away by the flow of the landslide.
“How many people?” she breathed.
“About five hundred,” replied the first responder. He dug into his pack and pulled out tags. “Triage. That’s your first duty. Red, amber and green. We’ll set up the tarp emergency tents for first responders here. Find them, pull them out, assess them.”
Jack had been silent this whole time—almost as if he was creating a plan in his head. A fire truck had just pulled up and the firefighters were out instantly.
Amber opened her mouth to shout over to them as the first responder put his hand up to her face. “Don’t.”
“What?” She was confused. She was only going to ask if they wanted to split into groups with the doctors.
“First rule of a landslide. The first big danger is the possibility of a further landslide. Keep noise to a minimum. No shouting. Only use the radios we’ll give you.” He pointed up to the mountainside. “There’s always a chance that not everything has found its way down yet. There could be boulders, more trees, a million rocks, all waiting to slide back down here.”
She felt her skin chill. She was walking into a situation she knew nothing about. Could she really do this? She took a few deep breaths. Jack had already started reorganizing things in his pack as some of the firefighters came over to join them, carrying radios. Another car pulled up and she recognized some of the staff from ER. They divided quickly into teams.
Her first few steps were tentative. The ground was unstable in places, and they were on an incline. But Amber followed the instructions she was given and moved as quickly as she could. Within minutes they found their first patient. A woman, who was half covered in mud and looked completely stunned. Half of her clothes were missing. Amber did a quick check and nodded to the firefighters that she was safe to move. “I was in the bathroom,” the woman whispered. “I was getting dressed.”
“Anyone else in your home?” asked Jack quickly.
She shook her head and Jack moved rapidly on as two of the firefighters assisted the woman back up to the almost constructed triage station.
For the next hour they worked in almost silence. Finding people trapped in the mud and earth. Some were badly injured. Others were lucky—they only had cuts and bruises. A few weren’t so lucky. Amber found one man who seemed to have died of a severe head injury and another who had suffocated under the mud.
Jack was methodical and fast. He didn’t waste a single second. Her stomach was in a permanent knot as she watched him. He barely acknowledged her existence. He seemed too focused on the task at hand. And she knew that was entirely how he should be. But somehow it still hurt. It still reminded her of her father. And she just couldn’t shake the association.
She pulled out a child covered from head to toe in mud. But as she bent to do a quick assessment, Jack more or less elbowed her out of the way—just as he had at the car the other night. She bristled. She couldn’t help it. She was perfectly capable of assessing this child. But was now really the time to fight about it?
She left him and moved on to the next spot where a firefighter was waving over to her. He pointed downward. “We’ve got a house buried under here.” He had his ear pressed to the ground. “We think this is part of the chimney stack. Or it used to be. Is it maybe wrong way up? Who knows. We can hear them beneath us.”
“Can you get them out?” She was currently up to her knees in sticky mud. The thought of being trapped underneath that made her feel queasy.
The firefighter nodded. “The space looks wide enough. I’m going to send someone down.”
“Is that safe?”
His eyes scanned the surroundings. “Is anything here?”
She swallowed and stood to the side, allowing the firefighters to sort out their gear and lower their colleague. After a few minutes the guy radioed back up. “I’ve got four. All badly injured. Two adults and two kids. Can you lower me a cage? I’ll need to strap them in one at a time.”
It was a painstaking operation. The cage was carried over from one of the specialist fire and rescue trucks. First to come up was a woman whose color was verging on gray. She took the briefest seconds to assess. “Flail chest.” Amber put a red tag on her. “Straight to hospital whatever way you can get her there.”
The next up was a little girl with an ugly fracture of her arm, sticking through her skin. She was wailing at the top of her voice, making everyone nearby look around anxiously. Amber calculated in her head the little girl’s size and weight. She hated approximating but it was the only way to try and ensure a safe dose of analgesia. Twenty seconds later she gave the little girl an injection to try and relieve her pain and handed her over to another firefighter to take her away. The next child was unconscious but breathing steadily. There was a slight graze to his head. She tagged him as amber and sent him on.
“There’s a problem down here,” came the crackle of the radio.
“What is it?”
“I can’t move him. He’s pinned down and I can’t get him free. I need some assistance and he looks in a bad way.”
Amber didn’t hesitate. “Send me down. Let me look after him.”
The firefighter frowned. “I’m not sure. Things are too unstable.”
“You let your own man go down there—and you’ll probably have to send another.” She was determined. She was a doctor. This was her role and she wanted to play her part.
“I don’t know.” The firefighter hesitated.
“Well, I do. Where’s a harness? Get me a harness and lower me down.”
Of course she was nervous. Of course she was scared. But this was an emergency situation and she could deal with it. A tiny part of her
brain objected. She could almost hear her father’s condescending tone. But she brushed it away as she stepped into the harness.
“Amber? What do you think you’re doing?”
Mud was streaked across Jack’s face and clothes.
“My job,” she replied as the firefighter clipped on her line.
“Ready?” he asked.
“Ready.” She nodded.
Jack’s voice cut across everyone’s. “No. No way. No way is she going down there. It’s too dangerous. Not a chance.” His voice was louder than it should be and sent a wave of irritation over her.