Chapter 11: Devastation
To Sally it seemed that the earthquake lasted an eternity, as she huddled against the wall for dear life, covering her head as she had been taught to do during her training. Finally, the earthquake stopped.
What the hell was that? She thought, lifting her head up cautiously.
Dust circulated around the bunker room, blurring her view and causing her eyes to water in the dim light. From what she could see, small pieces of the concrete ceiling were on the floor, testifying to the severity of the earthquake. She could make out the form
"Report," She coughed, glancing around the room one more time. "Is everyone okay?"
Rouge was the first and only response.
"I am fine except for a few bruises. However, we have three officers dead, two severely injured," She called out from one of the corners of the room, after checking over her fellow officers, " All due to head injuries from falling rubble, I think. We need a medical kit in here fast, or we are going to lose them."
Oh… snap. Sally thought, What happened to everyone else?
"Acknowledged lieutenant. Stay where you are, and keep caring for your injured. I will come to you."
Sally started to move around the room, slowly picking her way through the debris toward the black and white bat while searching the floor and rubble for any injured or dead. All she found were bodies.
She bit her lip to keep from crying. There was just so many dead. Her friends, her family… all of them… were dead.
There was a crumbling sound,and for a moment her hopes rose.
"Knuckles? Anyone?" She called out, "Are you alive? Can you hear me?"
There was another crumbling sound, and she spun around to see a huge pile of rubble get shoved aside by Knuckles. She almost cried out with joy, that at least one other officer besides her and Rouge had survived the earthquake.
"Before you ask again, I am okay,"Knuckles thundered nonchalantly, shoving aside the remaining rubble that had covering him, "Just a few bruises and scrapes, is all I bloody-well have."
"Are there any more officers under that rubble?"
"Yes," He grumbled, "But hell, I think they are dead."
"We need to make sure." Sally replied, trying to keep her voice calm.
Knuckles shifted some of the concrete, bent over and checked the vitals of the few officers he found in the rubble. After a minute or so, he turned to Sally, and drew her aside.
"Four dead," He muttered bluntly to Sally, "One unconscious with two injuries: A blow to the head and a crushed hand. If he survives, he will need an amputation, considering how we do not have reliable transport to a hospital."
"Thats a relief," Sally muttered almost sarcastically, " One more survivor, and only four more dead."
"That bad, huh? I bet your over exaggerating."
"Trust me, I'm not." Sally replied. "Everyone else I have found is dead, except for Rouge and two others on the other side of the room, and I have to say that I doubt that there are any additional survivors."
"Perhaps your suspicions will prove to be wrong."
"I hope that you're right, Knuckles. Care for the one with the crushed wrist."
"He will be fine for a few more minutes. Mobians are tougher than humans in a lot of ways, and from what I can tell, he is stable, which means that as long as we check on him regularly and don't move him, he should be fine. Since I haven't had any real medical training, so I bloody-well can't do anything for him. Although Rouge specializes in espionage, she is the only surviving officer here with decent medical training. I think we should continue to search the room for more survivors, we can have Rouge take a look at him in a minute or so."
There was no point arguing with Knuckles; he was right, and was the senior officer to boot. They were better off trying to find additional survivors than trying to help this officer. She feared that there wasn't any other survivors, but she could still hope.
Her fears proved to be true. Sally and Knuckles roamed the room for the next couple of minutes, moving rubble and tallying up the bodies. By the time they reached Rouge, they had reached the conclusion that there were a total of six survivors in the bunker. But only 19 officers had been accounted for; and Sonic was not among them.
Oh God! Sally thought. six… out of nineteen… officers… alive. One unaccounted for. Only six of us survived, and Sonic is missing.
"Lieutenant Jeffry didn't make it," Rouge said as they approached, "If I had a medical kit, I probably could've stabilized him, but…"
She cut off when she saw Sally's face.
"How many?" Rouge asked.
"One other survived." Knuckles said flatly.
"Oh my…" Rouge said, covering her mouth with blood stained hands.
"I think he is stable, but his arm was crushed by a huge piece of rubble, and it looks bad."
"Do we have any medical supplies?" The bat asked, following Sally over to the red fox with the crushed arm.
"I haven't seen any. There might be a med-kit buried in the rubble, but I doubt that I could find it in time to save him."
"I doubt this is the only room in this bunker, Sally," Knuckles pointed out. "It is entirely possible that there could be a medical facility built into it where we can find supplies."
"If there is, the earthquake probably damaged the equipment," Sally replied, her face tightening. The situation had put a dampening on her usual positive attitude.
"Well," Rouge said, "The chance of finding a medical kit and surgical supplies is better than the certainty of having nothing by staying here. You two get going, but hurry back. I will stay here and care for the wounded as best as I can."
As much as Sally hated to admit it right now, Rouge was right. They needed supplies, and fast. So she and Knuckles began a long and tedious search of the the other rooms in the Bunker. The poked their heads into crevices and doorways, shifting rubble when necessary, but the only thing they found out that was of any use was the fact that the Power Room was completely intact and contained an old model Chaos Reactor. They continued their work, their hopes falling every minute.
"Sally, I think I found the Storage Room!" Knuckles thundered after what seemed like ages of searching.
He was standing in front of a hatch in the ground set in the middle of one of the hallways
"Why would this be the storage room?" Sally asked perplexed.
"Lets just say that I have a gut feeling," the Echidna replied, twisting the hatch and revealing a ladder leading down into the basement.
"HAH… HA… HAHAHA!" Knuckles thundered, clapping Sally on the shoulder and almost knocking her down into the basement. " A basement! I bet we hit the bloody Jackpot!"
"Watch it, you overgrown porcupine!" Sally muttered irritably. "Don't you know your own strength?"
"Sorry," He replied sheepishly.
They climbed down the ladder to find that Knuckles' gut was spot on. It was a fairly large room, but it wasn't empty; Dust covered crates of all sizes were stacked orderly upon cobwebbed shelves or against the wall. It was obvious that this room hadn't been disturbed in a while, even by the Earthquake. As she and the Echidna searched the room, they found that there were rations, weaponry, and other equipment, each labeled and put away in their own respective section.
Okay, I've seen crates labeled "Weapons", "Rations, and "Ammunition", but where are those damned medical supplies? …And now that I think about it, what are the chances that we are warped to a bunker fully stocked with everything needed for survival, She thought. Of all the places we could be, why here? …How the hell did Sonic know about this place?
At that precise moment, Sally was broken out of her thoughts by Knuckles.
"Over Here!" Knuckles thundered, "I think I found the Medical Supplies!"
Oh, naturally. She thought, walking over to him.
What she saw was a pile of huge crates. The group label had been cleared of the dust so that they could read it clearly: "Advanced Medical Kits."
"Well then," Sally sighed with relief, "At least now we have a chance of fixing up any injuries we come across."
"There's more, besides this one," Knuckles said,
With Knuckles' help, she pulled down one of the crates and pried it open to reveal four or so huge bags, each almost the size of her.
You've got to be kidding me. She thought, staring at them dumbfounded.
With an audible grunt, she pulled out one of the bags, and lugged it over to the ladder. She stopped, and stood staring at the entrance, then looked down at the bag in discust.
Dammit, She thought, This isn't going to be fun; that figures.
"Is there a problem?" Knuckles asked.
"Yes." She replied. "How the heck are we going to get a bag as big as myself up that damn ladder?"