Chapter 25

© Copyright 2011 by Elizabeth Delayne





By the time Tyler made it to the scene, Jamie was on her knees beside a car, her familiar orange backpack open at her side. He didn’t look inside, not yet. He just focused on Jamie. She was calling out vital signs, her voice precise.

He looked over, saw a guy on a cell phone, listening, repeating what she was saying. His eyes were wide with the horror of it all. But he focused. He did what needed to be done.

Tyler waited until she stopped, knelt down at her side even as she was standing, grabbing her bag, moving to the next car.

“Jamie—“ he said as he stood, followed, nearly ran into as she stopped. “Jamie.”

She looked absently at him.

“What do you need me to do?”

“Blankets–“ she said, absently brushing her hair out of her face with her hand, already gloved in latex. “Get the blankets off the RV. And I have some supplies. Some more supplies in my bags. We’re going to need them. It’s going to take them awhile to get out here.”

“I got it, Tyler.”

He turned, caught Felicity’s eye, then turned back to Jamie when Felicity ran back.

“The ambulance–ambulances are on the way,” she said, then blinked looking around. Her eyes were suddenly clear.

“Tyler, I need you to handle crowd control. Someone let cameras in. Keep a perimeter around the scene. Keep people back–keep people out unless they know how to help. And get those cameras out of here. These people don’t deserve this.”

She was the nurse, in charge. She wasn’t the girl worried about what people around the world would think of her on a reality show.

Tyler turned around, saw the camera’s filming—saw the look on Thessa’s face.

Cameras first, he thought and moved passed her to do what he could.



Jamie worked methodically, without processing or thinking. She’d been trained in CPR as a teenager, certified as an EMT and had worked on call for a few years during and after college. She’d worked trauma, had been in the emergency room when a apartment fire had broken out. They’d dealt with mass casualties, with choosing the most in need of care.

She’d seen bad ... really bad car accidents with multiple deaths and numerous wounded.

It had been awhile, and she’d never seen anything as bad as this.

She’d counted ten cars in a quick glance around, but there were more than that. So many more than that. It was bad.

Really bad.

“Excuse me.”

She looked up, saw the man standing above her. Someone else, there to help. Even without asking, she knew.

His hair was peppered grey, his glasses rectangular, his eyes had deep lined cross feet at their edges. And yet, she thought oddly, he wasn’t that old.

He wore a suit, she thought, probably on his way to or from church.

“Yes.”

“I’m a doctor. A pediatrician. They said you were first on the scene. What do you want me to do?”

First on the scene, so she was in charge. She told him what she’d called in, in a short, clipped summed up manner. There was already one dead. There had been nothing she could do for him. It ate at her, but there were others with very serious issues. A lost limb, she’d already done all she could for with what she had. Glass, cuts. Unconsciousness. Shock. Not just adults. There were three children in serious condition.

A child ...

Lots of blood. Too much.

Someone was screaming again.

She pushed it back. There were some things you concentrated on, some things you couldn’t. She couldn’t think of the child.

She focused on the doctor in front of her, watched him roll up his sleeves as she quickly listed the most immediate concerns. He moved immediately to the next in line–to one of the children—tugging off his jacket and tossing it on the hood of a car before rolling up his sleeves. There were two other nurses, another doctor, and a handful of CPR certified people working already.

Even so, she knew what they saw, what was being dealt with.

Thank you, she prayed. The running prayer had been in the back of her mind ever since she’d seen the accident up ahead. She needed help. There needed to be lots of help.

She pushed the image out. She couldn’t think of that right now.

“Thessa.”

She stood, walked over to where Thessa stood, her eyes glazed over. “Honey, what’s wrong?”

“I can’t—my father—“

”I got it, Jamie,” Tyler said, coming over.

He took Thessa’s arms, looked over at Jamie. “I got the camera’s to go back to the van. Once the producer’s knew what was going on they called them back from the scene.”

“Thank you.”

“You need anything else?”

“Take care of her. She’s in shock. She was in a car accident. I think she lost someone,” Jamie said, then paused before going back. “And if you could find me a free pair of hands, I could use them. But Tyler—“

“What?”

“This is bad. Really bad. Don’t send in anyone, unless they can seriously take it.”

He nodded and watched her go.

“Her knees are bleeding,” Thessa murmured. “She’s hurt herself.”

“The asphalt,” Tyler said, as he drew Thessa away. “She’ll be okay.”

But he wondered. And he worried.

There was more to Jamie ... and there was a reason she protected herself.


HEY! and don't forget to e-mail me if you have a comment!




Return to Unreal Table of Contents