Delayed Departure

As Laura played in the room full of children she was full of every emotion known to mankind. She had been serving in Cape Town, South Africa to help vaccinate all of the children against the diseases that her native prosperous culture had long forgotten. Along with treating their injuries both old and new in a clinic set up in the basement of a centuries old local landmark that had somehow survived through the years and now stood in the shadow of several high rise structures.

It was painful for Laura to see the conditions these children and their families lived in and the lack of medical care that they received even thought it was available if only they could pay the price. But she was greatly comforted with the knowledge that she was making a difference and because of her work, their lives were better off in some small way. As a worker for a charitable organization that brought medical treatments to third world countries and slums of more affluent nations this kind of work was Laura's love and the only life she had know for that last six years. Today was her last day here. Her trunks were already at the train station and tomorrow morning she would start the same routine over again in some other place that time had forgotten. But before she was to leave, the Children of South Africa were blessing her with hand made thank you gifts. Each child was awarding Laura with paper butterflies they had colored themselves with the color pencils and school supplies that she had given them.

Laura took the folded body of two butterflies and placed them between her fingers held tight together, and by lifting and lowering her hand at different speeds was able to make the butterfly wings flutter in the manufactured breeze. A sight that thrilled each of the children and at least forty of them were now dancing around the room with Laura as she flew two of her precious gifts high and low.

Laura was aware of a slight rumble of the ground and watched as nearly all of the adults climbed the stairs in a hasty manner. Trying not to alarm the children she listened carefully as she danced around the room and could hear the faint sound of emergency sirens close by.

This country had been experiencing a political unrest and bombings were, unfortunately, common place. Since the building she was in was respected by all in the country as a prized landmark, Laura felt she could keep the children safest by just continuing to play with them as if nothing was happening until the trouble resolved its self.

Laura became aware that the crisis above was not going to quickly go away as several people started flooding into the room where she and the children were playing. Quickly her gifts were packed in a special pocket of her medical bag and the children were guided to yet another room deeper into the basement to make room for those who were flooding in to escape the nearby catastrophe.

Trapped in the room farthest from the exit now Laura used her great story telling talent to keep the children calm. As she talked she also listened carefully to two elderly men who were talking about some ancient catacombs and predicting them to be the safest place there could be.

A panicked word echoed over the heads of the crowd gathered that the burning building was going to fall. People began exiting as quickly as they had come in, as a panic flooded the basement refuge. But in mere seconds after the warning reached Laura's ears a deafening rumble consumed all sound and the ceiling in many parts of this basement came crashing down on those trying to flee. When the shaking and falling debris stopped Laura gathered all of the children together into what she felt was the safest location then grabbing her medical bag worked her way through the people the best she could giving emergency first aid and assistance. As Laura entered the room where she and the children had been dancing another crash was felt and it was clear that their way to safety would have to be found in another direction. Everyone in the stairwell was crushed and if there was anyone alive among them it was impossible to tell and very unlikely at best. Trapped in the ancient basement tomb were nearly one hundred people in addition to the forty children Laura felt most responsible for.

Using every trick she could think of, Laura was trying to calm everyone in effort to prevent people from being trampled to death when she felt yet other rumbles. These were calmer more rhythmic. Hope lit up as all that could hear, knew that these rumbles belonged to machines trying to rescue them. There was hope.

Dust fell as the sound grew closer and Laura returned to the children to do her best to keep them calm and together.

At last a ray of sunlight came through and a voice from above called for everyone to hurry because there wasn't much time.

Panic grew again as people nearly trampled each other to get out through the opening. Multiple hands reached down from above pulling people up then reached down again to grab the next person. It wasn't long before one of the rescue workers dropped down in to the basement to lift people up speeding the evacuation. Machines were being pulled back fearing their weight would collapse the remaining structure down on the people. Laura carefully kept the children together with her medical bag on her shoulder and herded them toward the opening and rescue.

As the first of the children reached the rescuer Laura could see that only a small part of the building had fallen over and the rest was leaning in their direction and was sure to come down any moment. Laura moved forward and helped to lift the children up to other rescuers who pulled them out of the basement then rushed them off to safety.

Then it happened. A screech and a whine and a large pile of construction cement the size of large tank came flying in their direction. Laura barely had enough warning to push a small group of children into a corner and shield them with her body. When the dust stopped falling there was nothing but darkness, the way out had been blocked and Laura had no idea how long it might be before a new opening could be made.

Groping with her hands Laura counted five children with in the grasp of her arms. Feeling with her hands she was able to find her medical bag just a few feet away. The strap was trapped under some debris but the bag itself seemed unharmed. Now she was in familiar territory. Laura knew the contents of her bag and their location better than the back of her own hand. Reaching for a light she turned it on and scanned the situation at hand. Under the dust and the rubble were four more children and one more hiding in the corner. Laura raced to those who were trapped and fought back her tears as she learned all but one child and the one in the corner were dead. Killed instantly by the collapse.

The calm was gone. Children were dead. What was she to do next? Laura's head was spinning unable to form any kind of a plan, 'What could she do now children were dead, she had failed to keep them safe, , , , and then she heard a groan.

"Is everyone alright?" A winded and week voice called out from the edge of the rubble.

With a renewed sense of responsibility Laura shined her light in the direction of the voice to see the rescuer who had been helping to lift all those trapped to safety, laying on the ground. Closer examination saw that his leg was trapped by a large piece of debris.

"There are seven children still alive one of them injured, I don't know how bad yet, and you and I." Laura called out.

She recognized the uniform this hero was wearing. She had seen it before. Five times in the last six years she had been in places where this specialized international team of rescuers had been called in to action. Most of them natural disasters but this would be the second terrorist act that found her in the presence of one or more members of this elite group.

Perhaps because she couldn't think of anything else Laura forced herself to focus on the children and the fallen Hero. Her thoughts were that she could now repay him, even if only in the slightest way for all the times he had come to the aid of others over the years including herself at the risk of his own life. She also felt there was hope for surely the rest of his group would now put forth an extra effort to rescue one of their own.

Laura quickly lifted the debris from the child who was still alive and carefully lifted her into the hands of her brother and pointed him to the corner where the other children huddled crying in fear. Moving swiftly in the direction of the fallen hero Laura scanned the area looking and stopping to check for any other sign of life along the way.

As Laura was assessing the situation, the stability of the structure around them was growing less and less sure. The debris trapping the fallen hero was bigger than Laura could ever hope to move by herself and the children she had at hand would be of little help.

"You've got to find cover this area could give way any second." Her hero instructed.

Laura looked around quickly and grabbed a long piece of structural steel, "Let's see if Archamedies really knew what he was talking about."

The fallen hero helped place the steel in the proper place and tried to roll a proper fulcrum under the bar but Laura still had to do most of the work. Laying her weight on the bar Laura was not able to achieve any lift so she moved farther and farther toward the end of the bar. Finally the debris shifted just slightly and the rescuer with great pain drug himself from beneath it just as the bar bent dropping the debris back to the ground.

Laura just assumed by the evident pain that the leg was broken and grabbed two pieces of wood and the roll of tape from her pocket, using up the tape to hold the wooden splint in place. She then helped him up onto his good leg and leaning on her they together moved quickly to ward a more stable part of the building they were in. As soon as he could lean against a wall Laura left the Hero's side and returned for her medical bag.

Because the strap was under debris too heavy to move Laura unhooked the strap and drug the bag to where all of the children and the newly rescued rescuer gathered.

"You should leave that here," she was counseled by the Hero, "It will only slow us down."

"I have another strap for it," Laura defended her move, "the stuff inside could mean the difference between life and death before we get out of here."

Laura attached the new strap to her medical bag and slung it over her shoulder at the same time she was instructing all of the children to come closer using their native language.

"Someone was talking about some catacombs below here." Laura looked at the experience rescuer, "Do you have any other ideas?"

"Do you know were these catacombs lead to?"

"Not a clue," Laura confessed.

"Do you know were these catacombs are?"

"Not really but they were pointing in that direction earlier." Laura pointed toward a dark shadow in the deepest corner of the room.

The structure around them trembled again with a renewed violence and more dust and debris came crashing down in the room behind them closing off all hope of escape in that direction.

"Looks like we have no other choice," the hero concluded, "Lets move!" He limped on his wooden splint with obvious pain and helped Laura direct the children in the direction that she had indicated. As the young boy labored under the weight of his sister the limping hero took her in his arms and carried her as Laura found a place under his arm to help support him. She allowed him to carry the injured child because she was lighter than her medical bag and Laura was sure they were all going to need its contents before they saw the light of day again. Ten feet into the corner they found steps carved of stone leading downward.

Funneling the children down the stairs Laura reluctantly followed them ahead of the limping hero with the injured child in his arms. But she was careful to make sure that they stayed close behind. As they moved forward not knowing where they might end up.

"Laura Linstone at your service," Laura panted as she hurried her little herd along.

"I'm Scott," he responded giving something to call him besides her hero. The wince in his voice as he spoke told Laura that she had to lighten his load but she didn't know just how. The only way she could take the child from him was if she abandoned her medical bag. Since this was the sixth time she had been in similar circumstances she knew she was going to need it. In fact she knew she needed a place they could all stop for her to determine the extent of injuries of both Scott and the child he was carrying.

As Laura looked at her little group for a solution she quickly realized that Scott was the only person whose name she knew.

"Boys," Laura called to get the attention of the two largest boys in the group. "Yes you two, can you help me?"

Reluctantly but respectfully the two boys came toward Laura.

"If each of you take one of these two handles," Laura pointed to the side handles on her medical bag, "Then this shouldn't be too heavy for you to carry. Can you do that for me?" The two boys quickly grabbed the handles and moved forward barely giving Laura a chance to lift the shoulder strap over her head. Laura then took the little girl from Scott.

"She seems to be having trouble breathing," Scott reported as he reluctantly handed the girl over, "But we can't stop here. We've got to keep moving."

Laura tried to offer him a shoulder to lean on but it quickly became clear that she could not be of any real help to him so she just did her best to keep the children moving forward as quickly as they were able. All the while trying to keep track of Scott who did amazingly well at keeping up with them.

When they reached the bottom of the third flight of stairs leading down they came to a long tunnel that reminded Laura of the ancient Subways of New York City.

"That way!" Scott pointed and Laura panicked.

"But the burning building is that way." She questioned.

" The bombs were set off on the tenth and fourteenth floors so the tunnels should still be open." Scott explained, "the building is tipping in this direction and I'm surprised that it hasn't toppled already. Our only chance of survival is to get under and onto the other side of it before it goes. Trust me!" Scott pleaded.

Laura questioned no more and moved with urgency in the direction Scott had indicated. They were moving so quickly that they had no idea how far they had gone but they didn't dare to stop. As she ran Laura tried to calculate in her mind how much area the forty-three story building would cover when it came down and wanted to get that far away from it as quickly as she could.

As Scott had predicted the tunnels were mostly clear with very little debris to slow them down. They were still moving at they're maximum speed when the ground rumbled so violently that it shook them off their feet.. As they all fell to the earth a wave of black dust and dirt filled smoke came from behind them filling the tunnel till they couldn't see or breathe.

Instinctively every one covered they're heads and buried their faces into their chests to wait for whatever would happen next. Gasping for air they all knew they were in the hands of fate now, they could do no more to help themselves. They had run as fast and as hard as they could.

The rumbling and crashing sounds seemed to last forever even with Laura's training in dealing with disasters she calculated that it lasted nearly ten minuets or more But this was all a guess because her watch had been broken in the first collapse. Finally and gradually stillness seemed to fill the air around them and Laura carefully lifted her head to see what was left.

The darkness complicated her efforts to see and count heads but as she listened to the gasping cries and coughing sobs she felt she could account for all seven of the children and the gentle moan of Scott the rescuer.