Author's notes – welcome to the eighth and last story in the series. This story takes place one week after the events of 'Shades of Grey'. This is pretty much my definitive story, how I see the Rangers and superheroes in general, so I really hope you enjoy. Without any ego, this is my favourite out of the whole bunch, the best I've written.
It is a murder mystery, but not in the Agatha Christie sense where you start off with a list of suspects and narrow them down one-by-one. It's more of a "Profiler" style mystery, where the suspects are everybody but the clues point you to who the killer is likely to be. And between every chapter is an interlude, where we see what's happening in the wider world around the team, you'll see what I mean when we get there. Anyway, enjoy.
Chapter One
Even though he couldn't remember it, Timur Ansari was sure that sometime this afternoon, he must have fallen asleep. Perhaps he was lying beside the well three blocks from his mud-brick home and resting his head on the overturned bucket, or maybe he'd been keeping watch on his family's herd of goats and had briefly escaped the day's heat in the shade of a tree. But wherever he was, he knew that he had to have been asleep.
It was the only way he could explain the nightmare happening around him.
He'd been sitting by the front door that afternoon waiting for his eldest brother Kheirudden to return home from school, the same as usual. Kheirudden was the only child the family could afford to send to school, and Timur always listened when Kheirudden came home and told them about his day. With the work that always needed doing, Timur had little time to himself as it was, but without exception, he spent every spare moment he had asking Kheirudden about the school and the things that happened there.
But as Timur sat waiting, his father came to find him, handing him a list of supplies and asking him to take it to Zahir at the nearby street market. If he hurried, he'd make it home at the same time as Kheirudden, and as his father watched with a proud smile, Timur quickly ran off on his errand. It was a beautiful afternoon; the sun was shining, the sky was clear, and sounds of the city echoed around him. Timur was familiar with the northern outskirts of the city of Taloqan - he'd lived in the same neighbourhood all his life, after all - and made good time crossing the dusty streets.
He rounded the corner leading to the market with a cheerful smile. The man who lived on the corner, Ramazan Taraki, was a long friend of the Ansari family and also owned a dog, the friendliest dog in town Timur had once told his brothers. But as Timur scanned the side of the road, expecting to see the animal standing by the curb and wagging its tail, his smile fell - the dog wasn't there. He turned to the house and spotted the animal, crouching beneath a scraggly willow tree and whimpering in obvious distress, the hair along the dog's neck standing on end and his ears flat against his skull. Curious, Timur approached the animal, but the dog only gave a pitiful yelp and shrank back into the shadows.
'That's strange', Timur thought, glancing back to the dirt road. 'What could have happened to him?'
Behind him, a flock of screeching birds suddenly exploded out of a large tree, and Timur clamped his hands over his ears at the sheer noise of the commotion. Spinning around to see what was happening, he saw that the birds had not risen up into the sky, but were instead flapping madly around the tree, violently smashing into each other, scores of them tumbling to the ground even as he stood watching.
And Timur had exactly three more seconds to contemplate this bizarre scene when it happened.
The earth beneath his feet began to shudder, almost imperceptibly at first but rapidly gaining in momentum. It felt almost as if a convoy of tanks was rolling towards him, but he glanced around and saw that the road was still empty. Even as he stood puzzled, the shuddering became more forceful. Pebbles on the ground were dancing crazily, all around him buildings were shaking and windows were shattering, and the noise of what sounded like distant thunder suddenly became an earth-shattering roar.
There came a great 'crack' and the tree across the street crashed to the ground only metres from where Timur stood, but the boy was rooted to the spot. Behind him, Ramazan Taraki's house shook itself to pieces and tumbled to the dirt. The entire world was shaking, the ground itself alive. The houses and buildings along the street were collapsing into piles of stone and rubble, and screams filled the air from the people trapped within. Even the distant peaks on the horizon were shaking themselves apart, the great cliffs crumbling before Timur's eyes. There were people in the street now, running and screaming, shoving past him in a blind, futile panic. A sudden lurch as a block of apartments a street away was reduced to rubble, and Timur's feet were swept out from under him.
The boy hit the gravel with a single, terrified thought - it was the end of the world.
But just as quickly as they began, the tremors began to slow. The earth gave one final lurch, and then was still. Timur slowly climbed to his feet, his body aching all over, the pain only now catching up to him, and glanced around at the world now facing him.
Every building around had been leveled. The stone and mud dwellings had collapsed and crushed their occupants in a tangle of rubble. Every house and apartment block, every store and barn, there was nothing left of them but twisted ruin. Pained screams and the unmistakable smell of smoke filled the air. A huge dust cloud hung over the remains of Taloqan, and he could feel death in the air, hunting. The ground had shaken for less than a minute, but the devastation had been almost total.
Which is why Timur knew he was asleep. This simply could not be real.
But as he spun around on the spot, gazing in disbelief at everything around him, he could clearly make out the screams of the crushed and dying around him and the slow crackle of flames nearby, could clearly see weakened structures still collapsing amid clouds of dust, and could smell the smoke filling the air.
Soft brown eyes filled with tears as the truth struck home - this was real.
His first and only thought was to find his family, to return to his brothers and parents. Looking around wildly, he couldn't remember where he was, his mind was blank. Every landmark he'd normally use to navigate the streets was gone, every house and every spire. Helplessly lost and wild with panic, he began to run. He had no sense of direction, no idea where he was going or even what he was fleeing from, but he ran as hard as he could. Past piles of colourless stone, past twisted and uprooted trees, past streets lined with rubble, past screaming people soaked in blood. There had to be a way out, some kind of escape, but no matter how far he ran, he couldn't find it. Every blind turn took him deeper into the maze.
The sun was hanging low in the sky by the time Timur came to a stop, completely out of breath, in front of the one building he'd seen today that hadn't collapsed. The temple stood defiant in the face of the destruction around it, casting a long shadow over the street below. But as Timur caught his breath, he realised that he'd come to a stop beside a landmark he recognised. Not only that, he was sure he could make his way home from here as well.
As he turned to leave, the ground began to shake again. The boy's eyes went wide, and every person on the street began looking up and around in fear. But as Timur glanced along the darkening street, he realised it felt different this time. Rather than starting softly and building to a destructive crescendo, the pounding was far more rhythmic, like the footsteps of a giant. An old man gasped in sudden shock a few steps behind him, and Timur turned to face whatever new terror was descending on a city that had already seen too many. But immediately catching sight of the disturbance - and it was utterly impossible to miss - he couldn't help but gape at the most incredible thing he'd ever seen in his life.
Three enormous beasts were making their way into the destroyed city, seemingly straight towards him, crossing entire streets with every step and towering over everything they passed. As they approached, Timur could see they looked to be more machine than animal, their metal skin reflecting the dancing flames from the burning buildings they passed. The beast on the left shone with a silver hide and looked down over the city through glowing red eyes. The creature in the centre, the largest of the three, had red and silver skin with a pair of blue eyes set above a long snout, while the third was mostly green and black, with strange claw-like designs along its chest and legs, and it too had glowing red eyes.
They were frightening, but Timur wasn't afraid. Watching them in awe, he recalled something he'd once heard from a fair-haired traveller, about otherworldly beings made of light who looked down watching from a great height.
'But they couldn't be,' he thought. 'That was just a story...'
Tramping through the destroyed city, the three machine-beasts came to a stop only a short distance away from the temple, and completely at a loss over what to make of them, the citizens fearfully hung back. Without warning, beams of light shot from the heads of the beasts, and a group of brightly-coloured figures appeared on the street below in a sudden blinding flash of light.
The eleven of us materialised on the street beneath the zords and were immediately lost for words. Surveying the destruction, the utter chaos facing us on all sides, I turned to my fellow Power Rangers in a state of shock. On the way into the city we'd seen barely a handful of buildings still standing after the fury of the earthquake, and a firestorm was already consuming the southwest corner of the city where the majority of the wooden buildings once stood. I thought it could not possibly get any worse, but here, face-to-face with the carnage, it was suddenly all too much to handle.
The sounds, the smell, the sheer devastation, I couldn't help but feel death itself had been unleashed...
No. I caught myself. Not death. Not while we were here.
"What should we do?" asked Teresa in a hushed voice, turning to the group. "Where do we even...begin to start?"
"I know," whispered Ian. "This is just..." but his voice trailed away.
I turned to Jason, knowing his mind would already be working overtime. Glancing from end of the city to the other, Jason forced the horrors of the wreckage from his mind, and tried his best to concentrate. This was no different to any other mission, and three questions needed answering - what was happening around him, what needed doing, and what took the highest priority? A second of observation gave him the answers he needed, and he turned to the rest of us with a confidence that was nothing short of inspiring.
"Okay," he began, speaking as calmly as if he was reading a shopping list. How on Earth did he do it? "Kimberly's helping the UN organise the rescue effort, and she's probably already on her way. Ian," and Jason turned to the Grey Ranger and pointed across to the glow in the distance, "those fires will make this entire mission a waste of time unless you stop them right now. I don't care how you do it, but put them out."
"On it," Ian replied, and he sprinted back to the Iguanodon.
"Tommy," Jason continued, turning to the Green Ranger beside him and knowing that he had to be careful - too much strain and Tommy's powers would fail him. "The only major road into the city was blocked when that mountain pass collapsed. Take the Dragonzord, do you what have to, and clear it."
Tommy nodded, and immediately followed Ian back towards the zords. Within seconds, the Iguanodon and Dragonzord had roared to life, and wheeling around on the spot, they charged away towards their respective destinations.
Watching them go, Zac turned back to Jason. "What about the rest of us?"
"Search and rescue," the Red Ranger replied. "We'll work in teams of three, starting here and spreading out across the city. Teresa, you'll be with Peter and I. Sarah, Billy and Scott, you guys can start one street over, and Zac, Trini and Brendan, I need you three to..." but Jason stopped mid-sentence, suddenly noticing a young boy stepping out of the shadows and cautiously approaching the team. He couldn't have been any older than seven or eight, his clothes were torn and blood-stained, and his face was smeared with dirt and tears. His eyes showed only tragedy.
Seeing him, we all reached down and quickly tapped the devices attached to our belts. Billy had called them 'universal language translators', and Alpha had explained how they worked back in the Command Centre, something about localising brainwaves, I think, although I couldn't repeat it if I tried.
"Hey there," said Trini, as the boy glanced from Ranger to Ranger. "What's your name?"
For a second, he appeared to have trouble with his voice. "Timur," he replied shakily, turning from her to Jason. "Uh...are you..." and he paused, searching for the right word. "Are you...angels?"
Jason smiled beneath his visor, knelt down before Timur and motioned him closer. Still thunderstruck, the boy inched towards him. "No," Jason replied, lightly resting his hand on Timur's shoulder. "We're something else. But we're here to help. Your family, are they hurt? Do they need our help?"
This seemed to break the boy's reverie, and as fresh tears welled in his eyes, he shrugged helplessly. "I wasn't home, I don't..."
Jason nodded, and standing up, looked back to Zac, Trini and Brendan. "You three go with Timur, help his family, and work your way into the city from there."
The three Rangers nodded, and Zac stepped forward. "Your family's gonna be okay, Timur, I promise. Do you think you can lead us back to your home?"
Timur glanced up to the temple beside us and nodded. Beckoning the Rangers to follow him, he turned and began jogging away, and the three Rangers quickly ran after him.
Watching them go, Jason turned to the rest of us and raised his communicator. "It's going to be night soon, and we can't work in total darkness. Rex," and the mighty Tyrannozord roared in response, "light." Immediately, the zord's blue eyes lit up with a blinding glare, bathing the entire area in a soft blue glow. A second later, huge spotlights had unfolded from beneath panels in the zord's sides, and they too flashed to life.
"Okay," said Jason. "Let's move."
Billy, Sarah and Scott immediately raced away, while the three of us turned back to the street behind us. Beside the temple was a house that had partially collapsed, half the mudbrick structure remaining solid with the other half falling in on itself. Teresa, Jason and I dashed through the growing crowd of stunned onlookers towards it. I glanced down the street, my eyes quickly darting from ruin to ruin. It was gonna be a long night.
"And to think, two hours ago I was sitting at home watching Australia's Funniest Home Videos," I murmured.
"I know what you mean," said Teresa, as we came to a stop a few feet from the wreckage. The house was silent and deserted. There was nobody standing around the wreckage, and we automatically assumed the best.
"Looks empty," I said.
"I'll check anyway," said Teresa, "you guys keep going," and as she leaped over the rubble, Jason and I turned to the building next-door, what had once been a fairly large house. The roof and front wall had fallen in, and we could hear faint cries for help from inside.
Thundering up to the front of the destroyed house, Jason grabbed one side of the mammoth section of wall blocking the house's entrance, while I ran to the other side, and taking up the strain, we began dragging the wall back, tilting it steadily more vertical. As we pulled it upright and began lowering it to the ground, Teresa returned, rushing past us ("The last place was empty!") and into the house, throwing aside rubble and debris as she went. By the time Jason and I had followed her inside, she'd already found the people within - an old man, trapped under a segment of wall, two young women buried by debris, and a young boy - and was helping free them.
The family all looked worse for wear but none seemed particularly badly injured. We helped them to their feet, and with Teresa carrying the boy in her arms, led them back outside. Seeing us all emerge, the crowd's uncertainty towards us vanished, and they surged towards us. Teresa carefully transferred the boy into a crowd of waiting arms, while several others came forward and began helping the other three victims. With that, the three of us turned back to the next building.
What used to be a double-storey house seemed to have fallen forward, the front walls shattering and crumbling but the rest of the structure remaining relatively intact. As we ran towards it, I scanned the front of the house, but couldn't see any other entrance.
"We'll have to dig our way in," I said.
Jason shook his head. "No time," he replied, and reached down to where the second floor of the house now rested at his feet. "Power up," he grunted, and curling his fingers under the lip of stone, he began lifting the entire second storey of the house. Slowly but surely, he raised the structure to chest-height, and straining with the exertion, stepped under the overhang, bracing the entire building on his shoulders. "Go!"
Teresa and I didn't wait a second longer, sprinting around Jason into the house and immediately spotting two people lying unconscious within, a man and a woman. Scooping them up, we glanced around to make sure we hadn't missed anyone, and dashed back out into the open. Jason watched us pass before stepping back and carefully letting the building down.
We left the two people we'd rescued in the care of the crowd and returned to where Jason stood panting.
"Never knew you were Atlas in disguise," I said.
Jason glanced up and leaned on my shoulder, still out of breath. "Neither did I," he puffed.
"C'mon guys," began Teresa, walking past us towards the next house, "we're not finished yet." Jason paused another second, catching his breath, and we both continued after her.
Unlike the previous homes, this house had been completely leveled. It was almost as if a zord battle had taken place inside. A small group of people stood to one side, trying to lever a huge piece of debris off a young man trapped underneath, and I immediately ran over to help. Towards the centre of the wreckage, a second man had been pinned down by a fallen wall, and while Jason ran towards him, Teresa began to scour the back of the house. Finding an enormous mound of debris, she pulled away a fallen tree and began throwing aside pieces of rubble, only to gasp in surprise - a pair of human feet were jutting out from under a piece of stone.
"Guys!" she called, quickly throwing away the wreckage, "there's somebody here! I think..." but her voice trailed away as she lifted the final piece of debris and uncovered the person trapped underneath. The man looked to be middle-aged, his torso drenched in thick, crimson blood. His face was frozen in pain, his eyes glassy and unfocussed. The piece of rock Teresa still held in her hand had crushed the man's chest when it had fallen, and she realised the awful truth before she'd even finished the sentence - he was dead.
The White Ranger moaned softly and stepped back in empty shock.
"No..." she murmured, shaking her head. It wasn't supposed to be like this, it just wasn't. They were there to save people, not uncover dead ones. She took another few steps back absent-mindedly, as if she was somewhere else, anywhere but there. Hearing Jason and I approach, she turned to face us.
"There was someone back here?" I asked, as she stumbled towards us.
Teresa shook her head. "No," she said. "We're too late."
For a brief second I didn't know what she meant, but glancing past her, saw soon enough. "Damn," I muttered, mostly to myself, lowering my eyes. "Damn."
Jason swept his eyes over the scene before us but turned away quickly. He'd assumed he'd be ready to face the tragedy at its worst, had been mentally preparing himself for it ever since Zordon had called the team into action earlier that night, but the sight before him was still too much. But he had a job to do, he couldn't let his feelings overwhelm him. Not now. Too many lives were on the line.
He turned to Teresa. "Hey, listen, are you all right?"
Teresa looked up suddenly, as if she'd forgotten Jason was there. "Yeah," she replied, "yeah, of course. It's just that, I never thought...I mean, I did, but...I didn't...it was just so close..."
"It's okay, I know how you feel, both of you," he said, turning and addressing me as well, putting his hands on our shoulders. "But you guys see the town behind us, and the people here? They need us. We can cry for those we can't save when we get home, but right now, I need you both to be strong, okay? The people behind us, they need us to be strong."
Teresa paused for a second, then nodded. "You got it," the White Ranger replied, her resolve strengthened.
"And you can count on me too," I added.
Jason smiled. "I knew I could," he nodded, and looked back to the next house. "C'mon Rangers, let's keep going."
Across town, Timur had managed to navigate the ruined city and lead the three Rangers on a steady path back towards his home. As he began to recognise the streets, he couldn't help but smile - he'd been right, he had known the way. But rounding the corner, he skidded to a halt, his mind simply unable to process the sight before him after everything he'd seen already. His house was gone, as if it had never been there in the first place, smashed to pieces by an uncaring world. A pile of rubble was all that remained.
Zac, Trini and Brendan came to a stop behind him, and glancing down the street, saw where Timur was staring.
"Timur," began Brendan, gesturing to the pile of rubble, "is that your home?"
Timur didn't have the heart to reply, nodding weakly.
"C'mon," said Trini, and leaving Timur, the three Rangers stepped towards the ruined house. But as they approached, they caught sight of a man, kneeling in the shadows at the front of the property, his head hanging low.
Zac turned from the man to the house before them. "It this your house?" he asked.
The man nodded, not even registering the strangely-dressed figure who'd asked the question. "I could not free them," he stammered, turning to the Rangers and raising torn and bleeding hands. "And my son, precious Timur...I haven't..."
"Never fear," said Brendan. "Timur's safe and sound."
At this, the man stood up and wheeled about on the spot. "You...you've seen Timur?"
The Aqua Ranger nodded. "You bet," and he looked back along the street. "Timur!"
Hearing his name, Timur stumbled forward, but immediately caught sight of the man in normal clothes standing beside the Rangers. In that instant, father and son locked eyes and stood frozen in wonder for a fraction of a second - then they were running towards each other, both of them crying, and Timur found himself swept up in his father's arms.
The Rangers watched the reunion a second longer, and once they were sure Timur was safe, they turned to the house, leaping over fallen masonry and immediately beginning to search for the rest of Timur's family, pulling debris clear and throwing away pieces of stone like they were made of styrofoam. Within minutes, Trini and Brendan had unearthed Timur's three brothers, all shaken but alive, and Zac had lifted clear a wall pinning the boys' mother to the ground.
Lifting the Ansari family out of the wreckage, the Rangers offered their shoulders for support, and the family members limped back out of the ruin. As they tearfully came together again, Timur gave silent thanks to whoever was listening for the strangers who'd saved them. And satisfied they'd done what they'd needed to do, the three Rangers left the Ansaris and sprinted away to the neighbouring houses to continue the search for survivors.
From that point on, the three teams of Rangers worked tirelessly throughout the night. House by house, street by street, block by block, we steadily worked our way into the centre of the shattered city, clearing away piles of rubble, dragging survivors free and, more often than not, applying emergency first-aid to the people we rescued. The Senior Team of Rangers had taken a first-aid class in school a few months back, and Teresa and Scott had also been taught the basics in first-aid by their mother who'd once worked as a nurse.
We made good time as the stars scrolled through the heavens above, but as each team approached what had once been the central district of Taloqan, our progress slowed. In the city, entire apartment blocks had fallen in on themselves, and the main street was nothing more than an enormous pile of tangled debris. Even gifted with our speed and strength, it felt like we were spending hours on every building, digging through the wreckage alongside the growing crowd of survivors. But no matter how long we took, the number of survivors we found completely eclipsed the number of those beyond our help, and remembering what Jason had said, that was enough to keep me going.
But as the night wore on, the true miracle worker (as we all later learnt) was Ian. Within minutes of setting out, he'd somehow managed to gain control over the massive blaze consuming the southwest corner of the city and completely extinguish it. Amazing in itself given that zords only carry a limited supply of water and compressed carbon dioxide, the truly remarkable thing was that, from that point on, the threat of a firestorm raging out of control through the city became a total non-factor. Ian kept a close eye on the city all night, attacking even the smallest of flames and snuffing it out of existence before it could become a threat.
For the rest of us, the rescue mission was both heart-breaking and uplifting at the same time. In the centre of Taloqan, Billy found an entire restaurant of people crushed when the top floors of the building had collapsed, while across the street, Sarah uncovered a young woman with her baby, both alive and unharmed, sheltering beneath two walls that had wedged together solidly when they'd fallen.
The crowd of survivors who'd been following us and helping where they could swelled in numbers as the night progressed. A local tribal policeman who eventually gave his name as Jalili began to organise the mob, detailing smaller groups of people with specific tasks and coordinating their efforts alongside our own.
Often, the crowd didn't even need our help to begin digging through the rubble, leaving for us the buildings still partially standing. For good reason, too - two structures had collapsed while Teresa, Jason and I were still inside them. The first building was empty and the three of us managed to escape in time. But during the second instance, the roof came down just as Teresa and I had uncovered a young man and woman within - Teresa immediately threw herself to the ground and shielded the woman, while I instinctively summoned my Power Sword and began reducing pieces of stone to dust even as they fell.
Sometime between three and four o'clock in the morning, a gentle hum filled the air, and everyone looked up to see the Pterodactyl zord cruising over the mountains and soaring towards the shining Tyrannozord, a football-field-sized tray suspended beneath the Pterodactyl carrying the first wave of the United Nations rescue effort. Carefully setting the rescue workers down in an empty field, Kimberly brought the zord down nearby the temple and helped the relief workers set up a base of operations beside the mosque for the masses of wounded, cold and frightened people.
About this time, Tommy succeeded in clearing a path through the mountains, and as the Dragonzord returned and Tommy teleported down to join Kim, a new sound began to fill the air - the roar of exhaust engines - and trucks carrying heavy earth-moving equipment began to arrive. Once unloaded, they began work on the far outskirts of the city, planning to eventually meet up with the existing rescue operation. So with the effort steadily gaining momentum, we continued.
The faint crimson glow over the eastern horizon eventually became dawn, and the sun rose that morning on a city in ruins, bathing the heaped remains of countless shattered houses, stores and buildings in bright light. The sun blazed despite the early hour, and the air seemed to swelter in the heat. Rescuers not equipped with our visored-helmets put on surgical masks to filter both the smells and dust still in the air. With daybreak, we were able to take stock of how much ground we'd yet to cover, but glancing around, the teams found that the rescue effort, despite beginning barely fourteen hours ago, had somehow worked its way through three-quarters of the city.
It was amazing. The earthquake survivors who were not too badly wounded had joined the search and rescue mission, and because the number of people scouring the city was rising exponentially by the hour, we'd managed to accomplish a week's worth of work in less than twenty-four hours. Beyond the point of exhaustion but with our spirits rejuvenated, we kept going.
It was past midday, the sun high in the sky, when the rescue teams finally converged on the one street. The teams looked surreal working side-by-side, the UN workers clearing away rubble with bulldozers and cranes, while the nine Power Rangers dug through the wreckage by hand. It wasn't long before the street was cleared, the survivors all dug free, and everyone began piling the wounded onto the trucks or carrying them by stretchers back towards the medical tents set up around the city.
After the longest night any of us could remember, we were overjoyed to see each other again. I was dead on my feet and had been limping since dawn, and trudging back to base-camp alongside the other Rangers, my right leg finally gave out. Walking beside me, Teresa threw an arm over my shoulder, and we hobbled back together. At many places on our journey back through the city, ragged but joyful people stopped the procession to thank us for helping them.
But it was impossible to ignore the people we hadn't been able to help. Bodies lined the road, people kneeling on the ground beside them weeping mournfully, and watching them as we passed was the saddest experience of my life. I felt tears falling behind my visor, and I held onto Teresa that much tighter.
We found Kimberly, Tommy and Ian inside one of the medical tents hastily constructed beside the mosque, helping the Red Cross workers distribute food and fresh water, the four colossal zords standing silently nearby. Inside the tent, white-coated doctors and nurses were racing from patient to patient in frantic blurs of motion, trying to reach as many of the wounded as possible. A sea of stretchers filled the make-shift hospital, and as fast as the medical team were treating the injured, waves of more people were being carried in by the minute.
Seeing us arrive, the Pink, Green and Grey Rangers stepped away from their posts and fought their way through the crowd towards us.
"It's so great to see you guys again," said Kim as the twelve Rangers met, hugging as many of us as she could, her voice coarse from hours of shouting over the crowd.
"Yeah," nodded Tommy, leaning against Jason. "We figured you'd be searching the city for days yet."
"We had a lot of help," said Brendan, standing beside Ian. "We finished the last block of houses about an hour ago."
Ian smiled beneath his helmet. "Good job guys. Man, you must be exhausted."
"We are," replied Sarah. "And thanks. How are things on your end?"
"With so many trapped survivors rescued," began Tommy, waving his arm back over the sea of stretchers for effect, "we spent the night helping the Red Cross teams care for the injured. They've been run off their feet, but they're keeping up with the tide. More or less."
Kimberly nodded. "We've been listening to the radios all day, and a few towns just south of here were also hit by the quake, but it was nothing the UN couldn't handle."
Scott glanced back over the ruined city. "There's not much else we can do, I guess," he said.
"I wish we could stay and do more," said Teresa quietly.
Scott nodded. "So do I, but unless one of us is a major surgeon and great at keeping secrets, I think the medical teams should take over."
Kimberly nodded. "There's back-up on the way anyway. From what I heard, rescue teams are flying in from India, Switzerland, Russia and Australia."
"And the International Rescue Corp from the UK is either here already or only a few hours away," said Tommy.
"We've done all we can, I guess," said Zac, glancing around the group. "Everything seems under control. I think we can head home."
Everyone nodded in agreement, too exhausted to reply, and we turned around and wearily headed back towards the zords. But as we approached the metallic beasts for the journey home, Jason and I stopped and took a final look around the destroyed city.
"Talk about a way to start the winter holidays," I murmured.
Jason nodded. "I know what you mean. Are you okay?"
I nodded. "I think so. It's just that, with everything we saw here, I feel kind of empty. I wish I could be sad, you know, but it's like I'm not even here," I sighed. "I wonder what time it is back home?"
Jason glanced up to the early afternoon sun. "Probably just after sunset," he said. "Early evening. And don't worry, you're just exhausted. It'll catch up to you tomorrow, I promise."
I was about to reply when I noticed a young boy by the side of the road watching us leave. I recognised him instantly - it was Timur, the boy who approached us yesterday. "Hey look, it's Timur."
Jason looked over to the curb, saw Timur and grinned. Seeing both of us, Timur smiled as well, his white teeth flashing in the sun, and waved.
Jason and I waved back, and right then it hit me - we had done a lot of good that day. That one smile seemed to make it real. With a final wave, Timur turned and ran back to where his family was waiting by the supplies tent, and we continued towards the zords.
"I should probably check in with Zordon first," nodded Jason, "just to let him know how we went."
I couldn't help it, I turned to him with a small smile. "You know, you're allowed to be human now," I said. "We're on our way home."
The Red Ranger didn't reply for a second, and I couldn't be sure but I knew he was smiling. At any rate, his shoulders fell forward slightly, and he let out a loud breath.
"We're not home yet," Jason replied, and I could hear the grin beneath his helmet. "But thanks for reminding me all the same."
"Anytime."
"I bet you never saw anything like this out at Goondiwindi, eh sergeant?"
Sergeant Ben Thompson glanced over his shoulder and scowled at the offending constable standing a few feet behind him. It was always the young ones...
"I doubt you've ever seen anything like this here in Caloundra, either?" he asked sharply.
The junior officer shrank back, stung. "No sir," he replied quietly.
"I didn't think so," said Thompson, and turned back to the grisly scene facing them.
Four bodies, each one tightly bound to a thick wooden stake, and all of them burnt beyond recognition, now little more than featureless black stumps. The fires that had consumed them had been recent - in some places, the bodies still smoldered - and so intense that the farthest stake had been eaten right through, toppling to the ground and taking the body to the pavement with it. The stakes themselves appeared to have been physically driven into the ground, all in a line only a few metres away from the rear delivery entrance of the Caloundra Hotel.
Thompson looked from one end of the alleyway to the other, deep in thought.
"Who found them, anyway?" he asked, turning back to the constable.
The junior officer quickly checked his notepad. "A hotel employee, uh, sir," he replied. "He said that he smelt smoke and came out here to investigate. We're taking his statement now."
Thompson nodded. "Good. Make sure I get a copy," and he looked back to the crime scene, sweeping his gaze over the four stakes. "You know, this is the first homicide I've ever been assigned where the victims were burnt at the stake."
Shaking his head, he turned back to the junior officer. "Start asking around," the sergeant began. "See if anybody heard or saw anything unusual. You cannot set fire to four people without attracting somebody's attention. And get forensics down here. I want these victims identified and I wanted it done half an hour ago."
"Yes sir," replied the constable, eager to make up for his earlier indiscretion, and unclipped the walkie-talkie from his belt. "Anything else you want Sarge?"
"Yeah," Thompson said, gesturing back to the remains of the four bodies. "Find me the kind of the person who could do something like this, and find him before he does it again."