"I need to know what the situation is inside!" yelled Lindell as he looked at the people running around him in one of the boardrooms.
"Sir, the explosion took out all video feed we had."
Greyson looked at another soldier. "Maggie, where are we with the headcount?"
"We have 6 unaccounted for."
"Who?"
"Morris, Campbell, McAndrews, Evans, Perry and Quinn, Sir".
Lindell closed his eyes and shook his head. Emily had been right and if he had listened to her concern, none of this would have happened.
"What about the rest?"
"The others are still in triage, most of them have minor injuries." She looked at Greyson. "If it wasn't for Emily telling us to head closer to the door, I think it could have been way worse." She knew what she was talking about, Maggie had just made it out in time and had been able to relate all or most of what had happened to Lindell.
Goodwin entered the boardroom in haste.
"Lindell, an update on the situation!"
"From what we can see, the second half of the room has been cut off and is inaccessible, due to caved in or collapsed debris. We've gone up to the roof, but as well no way in and no visibility. We don't have eyes, it's difficult to say. I've got a team trying to enter the room, to see if it's stable and if we can find a way to get to the remainder of the team still trapped inside. At this moment, on the ones we have been able to get out, we have no fatal casualties."
Goodwin nodded. "I want to see the file on Lonergan and get me Harold in here stat!"
Lindell nodded. "Yes, sir!"
"I also want the head of search and rescue here. I want to know what their plan is to get our men out of there."
Lindell looked at Ian. "Sir, Emily and Joey are in there."
Ian blinked a couple of times. Lindell knew that he, Emily, and Joey were extremely close. Ian clenched his jaws but said nothing.
"We need to get a communication rep prepped. The media, if not already the case, are going to pick up on this and fast. I don't want the families to hear about their loved ones injured or trapped through distorted information. All families need to be contacted ASAP and brought in. If their loved one is not too injured, they are to be reunited as quickly as possible. For the others, they'll need psychological assistance."
Lindell nodded and headed for the rest of his team.
Fifteen minutes later, he returned inside the room and looked at Lindell. "Where are we with the families?"
"Most have been advised. Some have already arrived through the back gate to prevent the media from contacting them. Some are still on their way."
"What about Blackburn and Quinn?"
"Bravo team is coming back from a mission. ETA is 20 minutes."
"I want to know when they are five minutes out. I want to be the one to tell them the situation."
"Of course, General."
Emily coughed a couple of times. There was a low ringing, humming sound in her ears. She felt sore. It took a couple of seconds for her to recall what had happened. She slowly opened her eyes and searched the room, taking in the horrific scenery. She tried to move each part of her body individually and slowly. She winced and moaned when she reached her chest. A few cracked or broken ribs, she thought to herself.
"Ray?!" she yelled out as she continued to assess herself, slowly going down her body. She managed to move her left leg, but not the right. "Ray!? Can you hear me?"
She prompted herself up on her elbows and looked at her lower part of the body. She closed her eyes and shook her head. She couldn't see much but she doubted it was a good sign that she couldn't move it.
She took her eyes and attention off her lower body and looked around the room again. It was dark, there was smoke or at least dirt flying around. Tons of debris were piled up throughout the room and there was no visibility on the main door, the entire ceiling, concrete, boulders had caved in and separated the room.
She turned her head to the other side and gasped.
"No. Joey!?"
In the corner of the room, in a semi-sitting position, Joey looked on, eyes open, with a rod in his chest. By looking at him, she knew it was too late. She held the tears in and placed a hand over her mouth to hold in another gasp as she saw what was left of Zach a few feet away from Joey. She felt nauseous and wanted to throw up. She breathed in slowly through her nose and swallowed and shifted her attention elsewhere.
"Ray!" she yelled as she saw him a few feet away from her, on his back. "Ray, can you hear me?"
Seeing he didn't respond, she leaned and tried to grab the back of his shirt with her hand. She contortioned herself even more, suffering from her ribs to grab him. After a couple of attempts, she managed to grab him and pulled with all her might to drag him toward her. It took a couple of minutes but finally she was able to see him.
She gave a sigh of relief as she saw he was breathing and had a pulse. She noticed that he too had gotten debris lodged in his abdomen and was bleeding. She looked around her to find something she put apply pressure with. She found a towel that came from the sink area, usually at the opposite side of the room, and put it over Ray's wound and put pressure on it.
He moaned.
"Ray? Can you hear me? Come on wake up." She said as she caressed the side of his face.
Slowly Ray emerged as well and opened his eyes. He panicked and she felt him move.
"It's OK. Don't move," she said, "you're pretty badly hurt."
He looked at her then at his abdomen. He tilted his head to the side and looked at her. He couldn't help but think that her position was odd.
"Are you OK?" he asked softly not because it was intended but simply because he didn't have the strength to.
"I'm fine. Don't worry about me."
He lifted his head and looked her over. He then looked at her, eyes wide open. "Your leg."
"I know. There's nothing we can do about that right now. Most important thing is to prevent you from bleeding out."
"The others?"
"I don't know. Joey and Zach didn't make it, the rest, I don't know."
"How long were we out?"
"I don't know, my watch broke in the blast."
He lifted his arm and noticed that his too. He looked up at the wall where the clock had been, but it was gone. The room looked worse off than a war zone. It was hard to make out what was what.