A few days later…
Hana had, quite literally, just walked into the Deckerd Room when the phone started ringing. Dekkado answered it and, after a second of listening and tart nodding, replied, "We'll be right there."
"What's the damage, Dekkado?" Drill Boy asked
"There was an explosion downtown," Dekkado replied minimally. "An office building was damaged." As his crew rushed out, Dekkado held out his palm to allow Hana to climb on.
When they arrived at the scene, thick black smoke was pouring out of what was left of a large office building and the parking garage next to it; the latter had a large section blown out of the side of it. The remains of both the building and the garage were the textbook definition of a working fire, with several fire trucks working on containing it.
"What happened?" Hana asked another officer as she got out so Dekkado could change into his bipedal form.
"We're not sure," the other officer replied. "All we know is that there was an explosion near the office and there are probably a couple hundred people still in there."
Dekkado instantly took charge of the situation. "Drill Boy, Shadow Maru, Gun Max, check the roof and windows for survivors in the parts of the building that are still standing; the rest of you start clearing the rubble and looking for survivors down here."
Even with the robots ability to detect the heat signatures, it was still an exhausting, emotionally draining task. "How are you holding up?" Dekkado asked Hana an hour later, as she walked back over to him after helping a man they had just pulled out of the rubble to a paramedic.
"I'm looking forward to going home to a hot shower," Hana said, indicating the blood, dirt, dust and grime on her uniform and person, "but I'm holding up."
Dekkado nodded, then turned his head to another pile of debris. "I'm picking up another one under that slab of concrete." As he spoke, he lifted the stone and Hana carefully climbed through the smaller rubble until she spotted a hole down through some of it; she could hear what sounded like a child crying.
"Can you tell how far under they are?" Hana asked.
"About four feet down and eight feet back," he answered as he started pulling back more debris. "The debris is small enough that it will take about fifteen minutes to get through it," he told her as he carefully started to clear more of the debris.
"Sir, we don't have time for that!" Hana protested, fussing with the strap of her hard hat. "Listen to those cries, they're getting weaker. Is this tunnel open to where they are?"
Dekkado looked at her dumbly for a second. "I suppose telling you how dangerous it is for you to go in there won't stop you, will it?"
"Not really," Hana replied.
"Fine," Dekkado conceded. "It looks like it goes through to the heat signature. Just be careful, I don't want to have to dig two people out of there."
"Fair enough," Hana agreed, dropping onto her hands and knees and crawling into the tunnel. It was a tight fit, only four feet high and three and a half feet wide, roughly, but Hana managed to slip through with only a few minor scrapes. As she got closer to the crying, she spotted a woman in her late thirties sitting, leaning against the wall, her face frozen in a grimace of pain, her last facial expression. Hana winced but forced herself forward until she could see around the woman's body and saw a small boy, no older than four, lying next to her.
"Hey little guy," Hana said gently, crawling closer. "I'm Hana; I'm with the police. What's your name?" As she spoke, she started to check his injuries, most of which seemed to be minor except for a deep cut on his arm and one of his legs that was stuck under a piece of cement.
"B… Ben," he told her, voice laced with pain.
"Okay Ben, I'm going to get you out of here," Hana told him as she pulled a roll of gauze out of her pocket and started to wrap the gash on his arm.
"My leg and my tummy hurt," he whimpered.
"I know, honey," she consoled, lifting up his T-shirt to assess the damage, minor bruising. "Do you think if I lift up the cement, you could get your leg out from under it?"
"I think so," Ben replied.
"Okay, as soon as I lift this up, try to pull your leg out, okay?" Hana told him as she lifted the piece of cement. It was massive, and too heavy for her to get more than a couple inches up, but it was enough for Ben to get his leg out.
"Good job, Ben," she congratulated, "Do you think you could hang onto my back while we crawl out of here?"
"I think so," he answered, "but my arm still hurts."
"Honey, there isn't enough room for me to carry you," she said gently as she undid the strap of her hardhat and set it on his head. "If you'd like for me to stop and let you rest your arm for a few minutes, I can do that."
"What about my mommy?" he asked, pointing to the woman's body. "She won't wake up; will you help get her out, too?"
"I'll send the best men we have back for her," Hana told him, unsure of how to tell him that his mother was beyond helping.
Hana lay down as best she could and let Ben climb onto her back then started to crawl out of the tunnel, making most of the trip on her elbows to keep Ben from scraping on the debris above them.
"Do you have any pets, Ben?" Hana asked, trying to keep him distracted from the pain.
"Yeah! I just got a puppy," he announced cheerfully. "His name's Mickey and he's a golden 'triever."
"That's awesome," Hana prompted, glad to hear the boy's voice in her ear.
"He can sit and I'm gonna teach him to fetch and roll over and do all kindsa tricks," Ben went on, then whimpered as his weight shifted and he had to hold on tighter with his injured arm.
Hana paused to let him get a better grip. "Do you have any brothers or sisters?" Hana asked as she started crawling again.
"I got a big sister and she likes to play tricks on me and pick on me," Ben said. "But she's not all bad. She scared off a kid who was being mean to me. Oh, and I have a baby brother, and when he's old enough I'm going to teach him how to tie his shoes, and the alphabet and how to count and when I get to go to school I'm going to teach him everything I learn so he'll be really smart. When I grow up I'm going to become a teacher so I can help make lots of people smart."
"You're going to be a great teacher, Ben," Hana reassured.
By the time they made it out of the tunnel and debris, Ben had become so weak he could barely hold on any more. "Are you alright?" Dekkado asked as soon as Hana emerged.
"I'm fine," she dismissed quickly, "but he's getting weaker. We need to get him to an ambulance." As carefully as she could, she shifted the boy's position to carrying him in her arms and started toward the medical hub of ambulances.
She had only gotten a few feet when she couldn't feel his breath on her neck. "Ben? Come on, Ben, don't give up now," Hana said, gentle but firm, as she laid him on the ground and unbuckled the hardhat, all but throwing it to the side as she started chest compressions and emergency breathing. She continued to talk to him as she counted off the chest compressions. "What about your little brother? And your puppy…?" The conversation wasn't returned, but she didn't stop.
After a few minutes, Dekkado gently cut in, "Hana… he's gone. There's nothing more you can do for him."
"Not on my life," Hana growled. "He's fine, he was talking to me on the way out."
"He has severe internal injuries," Hana looked up to see Shadow Maru retracting a scanning device into his helmet. "Even if you had gotten him out sooner, there wouldn't have been anything that could have been done to save him."
"But… he was fine," she retorted weakly.
Dekkado rested a fingertip on her shoulder. "You did everything anyone could have," he consoled. "if anything you did more, he could have died down there, alone."
Hana looked down at Ben's still body, wanting to weep now more than ever. But now was not the time. "You're right," she conceded softly, standing. "There's still way too much to be done here."
"You can take a break if you'd like," Dekkado offered.
"I'm fine but thank you," Hana dismissed, kneeling to scoop up the little boy's form.
"Dekkado, I'm heading inside," Shadow Maru said as Hana took the boy to the ambulances, her face solemn. "A large section of the lobby and the rooms behind it are fairly intact so I can get through and there are several people in there."
"Okay, just be careful," Dekkado told him.
Several hours later…
"Is that everyone?" Hana questioned, looking around the area. Things were certainly calmer than the mass chaos when she and the Brave Police had arrived.
"That's it," Dekkado confirmed.
"Looks like we took a few hits to our manpower," Hana observed, noting that the group of mechs seemed to have shrunk.
"McCrane, Power Joe and Shadow Maru were taken in for repairs," Dekkado answered. "McCrane was about to get flattened by a wall and Power Joe tried to shove him out the way, they both got pinned. Shadow Maru was stuck under a support beam trying to rescue a female trapped in the building." Finishing his report, Dekkado transformed and popped the door for Hana, allowing the young officer to climb in.
"So now we probably hit the office for paperwork, right?" she asked as they started to drive away.
"Not you, Hana," Dekkado replied. "Go home, get cleaned up and get some rest. You also have Alexis and Samantha, they're probably worried about you."
"You really think so?" Hana said softly.
"They may have only been with you for a few days," Dekkado replied, merging onto the freeway that would lead to Hana's home, "but you're also their only real hope of staying together and safe. I'm sure they're very grateful for what you've done for them."
