Hello to my anonymous reviewer. I'm sorry. I've edited my story since I started writing it and somehow managed to delete the section where I explained that in most of my stories Roy isn't married or have children. I just find it easier to write that way. I'm sorry if I've offended you in any way. Susanne
Feeling more human than she had in days, Chris followed the men into the mess hall. Hospital greens were the best thing she'd worn in a long time, or so it seemed. The men were similarly dressed. Having only seen them in their uniforms since she met the men, they looked kind of odd too.
The mess hall was set up just like a cafeteria. They picked up their trays and decided which of the items available they wanted. Once their trays were filled they moved over to the nearest clear table. There weren't many empty tables. There were probably one hundred or more people in the tent. Some were rescue works while others were refugees. All of them seemed to have the same mask of shock on their faces.
"This is going to taste wonderful," Spencer stated. He paused a minute to enjoy the scents of steaming food. It felt like an eternity since he'd had a decent meal.
"Yeah. I hope it tastes better than it smells," Ponch said. Without any further preamble, he dove in. Jon was momentarily embarrassed by his partner's enthusiasm until he realized that they were all pretty much inhaling the food. Shrugging his shoulder, he set about eating as much as he could before it got cold.
"Do you suppose my brother is in one of these camps?" Chris asked. Thoughts of her brother had been weighing heavily on her mind now that the immediate danger was over.
"Do you remember the name of the hotel you were staying at?" Jon asked. He could see the woman's concern, it was written all over her face. He felt for her. He also envied her. Her home was safe. For all he knew his apartment building was a pile of rubble like so many others.
"No." Pure panic spiked through her mind. She couldn't even remember the name of the street they'd been on. How was she ever going to find him?
"Don't worry. We're going to find him. The Red Cross usually takes the names of all the displaced people. It may just take us a while to get all the names and locations locked down. We'll make sure you're registered after we eat," Jon tried to reassure her.
Suddenly no longer hungry, Chris continued to play with the food on her plate as the five men talked. Mostly it was shop talk between the CHP officers and LAFD paramedics. She found it hard to follow a lot of what was being discussed so she tended to block it out. Instead she spent time looking at the other people.
"Aren't you going to eat that?" Roy asked. He was sitting beside the woman and had noticed how quiet she was. He'd also noticed how little she'd actually eaten. The clothes she'd been wearing the
day of the earthquake had begun to be big on her, even after just a few days. She was more traumatized that she was letting on.
"No. I'm not really hungry."
"The cooks will be upset," Roy stated. It wasn't the best food he'd ever had. In fact, it reminded him very much of hospital food but it was better than cold, canned beans. "I think they've slaved for hours on this."
"I'm sorry," Chris apologized, genuinely concerned that she might have hurt someone's feelings.
"I was joking," Roy assured her. He hadn't meant to upset the woman.
"I just really want to go home." There, she'd said it. Now maybe she could get the self-pity out of her system. A deep breath returned some of her sanity. "I'm better now. What do we do now?"
"I think we're all going to go and try to rest for a while. After that we'll have to see." It killed Roy that Dr. Brackett had insinuated that he wasn't fit for duty. Logically he knew that with his damaged ribs he really wasn't able to perform his regular jobs but he could still be of help. Especially now, that the painkillers were kicking in.
More people came into the mess hall. The two of them glanced up to see the men from Engine 51. The men quickly filled up their trays and then came over to the table the others were sitting at. The noise level of the tent rose several decibels as the men from Station 51 greeted each other. Introductions were done quickly for the CHP officers, Chris and Spencer.
"So, you're the ones who kept our paramedics safe?" Captain Stanley said. He knew that his men were perfectly capable of taking care of themselves but he wanted to give them a hard time. He really thought he'd lost them. He could still feel the grief that thought had caused him.
"Well, they were pretty good at keeping all of us healthy. I think it was more of a group effort in the keeping safe department," Jon stated diplomatically.
"I don't know if I'd want Johnny playing doctor on me," Chet grinned.
"I don't know that I'd ever want to treat you." Johnny glanced at the other men from his station. It felt wonderful to see their familiar faces, all looking as happy as he felt. The earthquake and the aftermath retreated from their thoughts for a few moments.
"Do you know where the other people that were with us were sent?" Jon asked. After so much time together, he felt like parts of his family were missing.
"The copter pilot said that they were sent over to the south west camp. He said they were all doing fine," Captain Stanley informed them.
"What's the plan from here?" Johnny asked. "Is the fire under control?"
"No. There's more than one and none of them are close to being under control. With all the water main breaks we don't have any water to fight the fires. The best we can do is use the water bombers and helicopters with water tanks and try to knock them," Captain Stanley informed them. After all these years of fighting fires he found it particularly frustrating that the biggest fires he'd ever seen were burning and there wasn't a darn thing he could do about them.
"Are you returning to the station? Do you know how our houses are doing?" Roy asked.
"No. The station is still intact but we barely got up here the first time. Emergency services are asking us to start searching the rubble in the morning, looking for survivors." Captain Stanley was finding it hard to vocalize the scale of the devastation for the two paramedics.
"As far as your house, Roy, and your apartment, Johnny, no, I'm afraid I don't have any specific information. Most of the city and the suburbs north and south along the fault have been decimated. There's nothing more than two stories tall that is still standing. Downtown LA has been wiped out as have most of the over passes and other roadways. It's like we've been thrown back into the Stone Age."
"Is it just LA that got hit? How are San Diego and San Francisco?" Jon asked.
"I'm not sure. The phone lines were the first things taken out. Ham radio operators are about the only way we've had to communicate and even then the reception has been hit and miss. There were earthquakes all up and down the San Andres fault. Los Angeles had the strongest one but they're still continuing. At least that's what the geologists are telling us."
"I haven't felt an aftershock for a while. Does that mean they've stopped as well?" Chris asked. At least this was a subject she was vaguely familiar with.
"I'm not sure," Captain Stanley said. "Just because we can't feel them doesn't mean they're not happening. Some of the aftershocks the geologists are recording are little more than tremors in the ground."
"What are we supposed to do now?" Spencer asked.
"Most of the refugees are helping around here but there are lots of other jobs to be filled," Captain Stanley informed him.
"What kind of jobs?"
"Well, we're going to need people to help us search the rubble."
"I'll help. At least until I find my brother," Chris volunteered. The thought of staying in the refugee camp alone all day was more than she could take. If they'd let her stay with Johnny and Roy or Jon and Ponch she'd wade through a pond of leeches if she had to.
"Well, Chris, I don't know that that's really appropriate work for a woman." The thought of the woman finding a dead body while they searched wasn't a pleasant one. Captain Stanley certainly didn't want to be the one responsible if she did.
"I've seen dead bodies, Captain. I helped Ponch search the cars on the highway. It couldn't be much more gruesome than that." Chris really hated the condescending attitude.
"She's right, Cap. She's also pretty good at first aid," Johnny said.
"I have to agree," Roy chimed in.
"Well, according to Battalion you're not supposed to be working either," Captain Stanley said.
"You just said you could use all the help you could get," Johnny grinned.
"I volunteer too," Spencer said. He wasn't going to be left behind either.
"Fine," Captain Stanley said, admitting defeat. "We start at first light. The helicopter will drop us off. The roads are too choked for the engine or the squad."