Here is chapter 3 I was feeling generous,
Mickie was holding on to John at the top of the pile as Randy and Brian pushed him from below. Sandra was trying to support them from behind so they didn't slip. Just as Mickie felt John being pushed upwards someone tapped her on the shoulder. Mickie was so shocked she almost let go of the mattress. "Hey what are you guys doing?" The man said who was standing behind her and Mickie snapped her head down to Randy with a worried look in her eyes. "Hey man leave her alone." Randy yelled up as the man peered down at the rest of them. "Sorry I thought you were trying to hurt him or something, here let me help you." The guy said taking hold of one of the corners and helping Mickie to pull John over the top of the rubble. The other side was more of a gentle slope and they made it down much faster than on the way up. It helped that they had someone else helping them too. Mickie decided she would keep her distance for now at least until she knew they could trust him. "You guys headed for the hospital?" The man said taking a good look at John's broken leg. "No we didn't think we would make it that far, we are going to head to O'Rilley's." Brian said as he gave the new man a half smile. "Great idea, I think Dr Andrews just got there he can take a look for you, my name is Bret by the way. I lived in that building you were climbing over." He said trying to give these people a reassuring smile. Randy was starting to warm up to the guy, surely if he was after something he wouldn't have approached four people all on his own, he had no weapon and had done nothing so far to suggest he was a danger to them. "Hey Bret I am Mickie this is Randy, Sandra and Brian. The guy on the mattress is…" But Bret cut her off before she could finish. "John Cena, I recognised you when I finally got close enough to get a good look, you see people can get a little crazy when things like this happen." Bret said as Mickie spotted the sigh for O'Rilley's. "Oh thank god." Sandra said from behind her and Mickie could not help but agree with her sentiments. "Let's get him down there." Randy said as they folded up the mattress lengthways again to fit it down the stair case.
Mickie pushed open the door, the placed was littered with people, some had been bandaged up, others were lying on makeshift beds, some were just walking around talking to the injured, no one seemed to notice them at first then suddenly there was a buzz of activity around them. "Open fracture to the tibia, get me saline, plenty of gauze and 10mg or morphine." The man said checking over John's body and pulling a stethoscope from around his neck. He had on no white coat but Mickie assumed from the way he was talking he was the Dr Bret had spoken about. "Please bring him this way." The Dr called to them as they followed him and set John down atop a pool table. The woman the Dr had spoken too came back with all the things he had asked for and Mickie and Randy were pushed back while he worked on John. "He will be ok now." Sandra said coming up to Mickie and placing her hand on Mickie's shoulder. "Yeah he is in good hands, Dr Andrews is from the county hospital, he is one of their best." Bret said as he perched on a vacant stool. "Hey guys do you want some water." Brian said spotting a water cooler and some cups. He was so thirsty, carrying John and breathing in copious amounts of dust had made his throat very sore. "Sure I am so thirsty." Sandra said taking the offered cup out of Brian's hands. Mickie and Randy also had a glass of water but were too worried about john to notice if they were thirsty or not, they drank as if automatically. Finally the Dr seemed to finish up with John and he came over to where the rest of them were sitting. "Your friend will be ok, he has a bad leg fracture, but I have managed to clean the wound and dress it without causing further damage. I can't reset the leg here, it's too dangerous without x-reys and without proper anaesthesia. You did the right thing bringing him here, these places are usually the first checked by any ambulances getting though." The Dr said and Mickie let some tension drain from her body, for hours now all she had done was worry about one thing or another, now she knew John would be safe she had to go and find Melina and Kelly. "That's great Dr thank you." Randy said shaking the guys hand and the man smiled at him. "It's my job, now anything you guys need just go for it, we have plenty of water blankets and food." He said as he headed off to see to another patient. Randy went over to John who was starting to come around but he was very groggy. "Hey there man, how you feeling?" Randy asked as he took hold of John's hand. "Better now morphine is a wonderful thing." John said smiling at them sleepily. "Hey, do you think you will be ok with out us." Mickie said taking hold of John's hand replacing Randy's. "You see Melina, Kelly and god knows who else went to that club tonight, we have to go and see if they are ok." Mickie said speaking softly as Brian and Sandra walked over. "We can make sure he is ok." Sandra said looking from Mickie to Randy. "We are going to stay here, Brian has to get in contact with Emma's parents, and I need to call my husband." Sandra said coming over to John and looking down at him. "Is that ok with you?" She said giving him a board smile. "I think I am in safe hands guys, you go and find the others, I know you probably saved my life." John said looking first to randy then to Mickie. "Do you even know where you are going?" John said knowing that he didn't have a clue where this club was. "I do kind of, I went for an hour or so before I got bored and came back to the hotel." Randy said thinking that was only a few hours ago, and now look at what had happened. "I can take you." Bret said from behind them. "I know this city like the back of my hand lived here all my life, plus guy's safety in numbers and all that." Bret said coming over and perching on the pool table. "That would be great, thank you." Mickie said starting to feel like it was time to get going. John was in safe hands, she gave Sandra a hug and Brian before they left the safety of the pool hall, she didn't envy Brian he had a hard task to do, who knew how long it would even take him to get hold of his girlfriend's parents, but that was not a conversation she would ever want to have. Randy was behind her thinking almost the same thing, but he knew they could be walking into to their own nightmare if the club had been destroyed. Bret led the way up on to the street, he checked down a road before turning down it and told them to stick close.
"I will tell you one thing guys, San Francisco never really learnt after the quake of 82. It was the biggest one in living memory for many people, until I suspect this one." He added as they walked, slid and jumped their way down a side road. "For a few years buildings were built quake proof, but soon that gave way to things being more aesthetically pleasing. I think they thought after thirty years it wasn't going to happen again, the damage the loss of life was forgotten and it's left us with this." Bret said pointing around them at the crumbling buildings and carnage. "You were here when that quake happened?" Mickie asked as she took his hand as she climbed over a pile of debris. "Yeah I was only five years old, but I remember it, people huddled on streets, families crammed in together in any building that was still standing. I warn you, not everyone copes very well when this kind of thing happens." Bret said stopping and facing his two companions. "What do you mean?" Mickie asked, she was not sure if Bret was trying to scare them or warn them, but he looked deadly serious. "People are usually, kind, easy going, you get the odd few that can be rude, but generally they won't kill you for a bottle of water. Unfortunately rational goes out of the window when you take away people's creature comforts. If you see looters just stay away from them, they are not after you, if a road appears blocked by a gang of people go round it, disasters bring out two types of people. Hero's and nutters, I am not trying to scare you, but it is a fact and if for some reason we get separated you need to know this." Bret finished as Randy shook his head. "You sound like you know a lot about this stuff." He said as they started to continue forward. "Yeah I am professor of Sociology at the community college, in fact this is a truly fascinating situation for me, that is if it wasn't so horrific." Bret said as they stepped over what Mickie was sure was somebody's arm. Turning her head away she looked straight a head of her to where they were going. "Wow that's impressive, so how far would you say it is to the club from here?" Mickie said trying to keep her mind off the arm from earlier. "Umm that depends on which roads we can use." Bret said as they came to another cross roads. Randy noted on way looked like rundown apartments the other seemed like newer purpose built homes. "I think staying off the main streets is best so a good hour." Bret said eventually he continued straight on, choosing to head up instead of across. "This club The Spot, was it quake proofed?" Mickie asked hoping that if it was they might all have had a good chance of getting out. "That club is pretty new, as far as I can remember one side of the building is entirely made from glass." Bret answered. Mickie was shocked, glass, their entire concrete hotel had almost fallen down and caught on fire, how was a single building supported by panels of glass going to have withstood that quake. Randy caught Mickie eye and gave her a reassuring smile. "Hey they are all resourceful guy's I bet they are out looking for us right now." Randy said as they rounded a corner and found the way slightly clearer. "I tell you what if they are and we miss them I will kill them myself." Mickie said giving Randy a half smile as Bret turned round to them. He was about to say something when a shout came from above them.
"Help oh please." A woman shouted from what looked like a second story balcony. The three people on the ground turned and looked up at her. Mickie could see the lady was distressed but she couldn't see why. "Please hurry it's my baby." The woman shouted and Randy thought she looked like she was on the edge of panic. It was Bret that moved first. He ran up to the gate, Randy not far behind him followed by Mickie. Randy saw it was one of those mini gated community's, a few apartments inside a complex with its own swimming pool and gardens. "Hey lady what's the code." Bret shouted up as he couldn't get the gate to open. "Oh 1343." The woman shouted down, and Bret punched in the code and made for the stairs. Taking two at a time they were with the woman in moments. "This way please he is trapped and I can't free him it is to heavy." The woman said leading them down to the second apartment along. Mickie saw that the complex did not appear to have sustained much damage. Much of the building was still in tacked, one side though seemed to be crumbling from the base down. Mickie peered over the edge of the balcony and saw why. There was a sharp drop off about twenty feet away down in to the bay, an edge that would normally be safe guarded by a high wall and a nice piece of flat ground to play sports on was now a crumbling hole falling down into the bay below. Mickie fought back the urge to run and went inside the ladies apartment. Randy was already peering though a hole where a baby's crying was coming from. "Come on guys chain gang." Randy said lifting bits of rubble off the trapped baby. Passing it to Bret who then passed it to the girls who placed it to one side. "He is crying that's a good sign." Mickie said to the woman who was focused on the slowly diminishing pile of debris. Randy saw that rocks had fallen either side of the baby, making a gap which a large slab of wall had fallen on top of. Creating a protective hole for the baby but trapping him. "Hey Bret can you gave me a lift?" Randy asked and Bret took hold of one side of the slab. "Mam get over here once we lift of this slab you will be able to pull him out." Randy said bracing himself he knew this was going to be heavy. Mickie came over but there was no where she could get in to help so she got out of the way so they could get the baby out as quickly as possible. " On three." Bret said and they all nodded. Lifting up the heavy slab the woman reached in and grabbed her crying baby, scooping him up in her arms she pulled him clear so the guy's could drop the slab. "Is he ok." Mickie asked as she came over to check out the baby. "He seems it, thank you so much." She said tears rolling down her face. "No problem." Mickie said placing her arm around the woman's shoulder and leading her too what seemed like a pretty undamaged sofa. Randy and Bret joined them as the woman sat down baby wrapped up in a blanket. "I am Mickie, this is Randy and that man over there is Bret, what's your name?" Mickie asked looking from mother to son and smiling at the infant. "I am Maddie, this is Tyler, how can I ever repay you?" The woman said looking around at the smiling faces. "No need, but we do need to get you out of here." Randy said looking around, the condition of the side of the building had not gone unnoticed by him either. "But where can I go?" Maddie asked feeling like she wanted to panic again. "Bret you take her back to O'Rilley's, she can't go on her own it's not safe, but she will be taken care of there." Randy said standing up and looking around. "What about you guys, we are a long way off the main roads here, and you might not b able to find your way." Bret said knowing that the Maddie and Tyler were his priority, but he didn't want to leave Mickie and Randy high and dry. Randy spotted the kitchen, it was still ok, virtually everything was on the floor but he managed to find a piece of paper and a pen. "Can you draw us a map?" Randy said handing the items to Bret who gave him a smile.
Mickie and Randy watched as Maddie, Tyler and Bret headed back the way they had just came, Randy made sure the map was in the pocket of his sweat pants and he turned to Mickie. "We don't have to do this you know." He said but he already knew what her response would be. "I know but I have to go, I have to know what has happened to them, I would never forgive myself if I could have saved them and didn't even try." Mickie said and Randy just had to nod. Turning in the direction of the bay Randy started walking Mickie by his side, it was almost three am now, but it seemed to be getting darker, as though even though the dust was settling, the darkest hour would be before the dawn.
Ok chapter 3 up, please review, let me know what you think, I hope you like it so far, little warning for the next chapters they get a little darker. If you want to read that then you will have to review or I will get sad and stop writing. ;-)