Right in front of me
Taking me astray
Are you leaving me?
Or are you leading the way?
Can you hear what I'm saying?
-I Need To Know by Kris Allen
Kate's eyes fluttered open as she coughed and felt the dust around her scatter from her exhale of breath. It was pitch black dark and she felt herself pinned to the floor face down while her head spun out of control, leaving her feeling nauseous and unsettled.
Something had hit her from behind. Was it her father? Did he hit her with his belt, no something harder… maybe the iron? The darkness made her think she was back on the closet floor of their old trailer as she tried to listen for the angry footsteps of her approaching father, but she sluggishly realized that the only thing that greeted her was the whirling deafness of her own ears as they rang loudly.
Her senses slowly began to come back as she sucked in a shaky breath of air, sending her into coughing spell. Her nose and throat burned telling her the air was thick with dust as it filled her lungs. The hard ground beneath her was not the cold linoleum of her old home, but the concrete floors of the factory. Her father wasn't going to come out of the darkness, because he was dead. She knew this because she had been there when his life simply ended with a dull thump on a cold winters night.
How did she end up on the factory floor when she had been standing only moments ago? She tried to slowly turn her head to see what was keeping her trapped to the floor, but when she began to move, sharp searing pains shot through her body and the world began its topsy turvy plummet once more. She squeezed her eyes shut and tried to still every agonizing nerve in her body as the room spun on.
She would not throw up. She would not throw up.
She gritted her teeth and willed the world to slow its sickening spirals while her mind whirled for the reasoning of her current predicament. She had to start small. She moved her fingers, flexing them out then back in as she tested out their use. She stiffly pulled her arm closer to her chest, her arm scrapping against glass and rocks along the way, adding to the abrasions that were already speckled across her arm. Satisfied that the movement hadn't sent her body into paralyzing pain again, she lifted her arm up to feel the pressing confines above her. It was the wood paneling of the lab.
That's right, she had been leaning against the lab's outer wall in the hallway when whatever happened must have knocked her down. With a grunt she pushed against the heavy structure giving her enough room to use her other arm to turn herself over onto her side. She lay there as the world went into another nose spiral, but at least she had her bearings again. After a moment, she reached out to pull herself from beneath what was left of the wall and lay there breathing hard once she was free from the confining structure. She patted down the front of her chest, arms, and legs- mentally checking for injuries in a way she was all too familiar with. The shooting pain in her ribs reminded her of a time gone by.
She then lifted her hand to where her hairline began and felt a wetness that was surely blood, explaining why her mind was telling her she was on the world's worst fair ride. Blinking hard, her eyes began to adjust to the darkness. She noticed that rubble was all around her. Her ears were the next thing to slowly clear as the deafening ringing gave way to the sound of the factory's alarm that sounded so far away.
The distant scream of the alarm did its duty as Kate sat up suddenly and realized the frightening meaning of its warning. Her reeling head was to be damned as she crawled onto all fours and turned towards the factory.
"Betty." Kate gasped out.
If the alarm was going off that meant either a bomb had exploded or an invading army had dropped bombs onto the factory itself. She couldn't sit still any longer as she began to crawl over the remnants of the hallway in front of her. She had to make it to Betty. She had to be okay.
Once over the rubble in front of her, she was greeted with more wood paneling, metal, and brick mortar from what was left of the foyer she had been standing in before the explosion. The doors were crushed underneath the fallen roof. She was currently hunched in what seemed to be a small pocket of open space amongst the fallen building around her. She tried pulling some of the debris away, only for the roof to shudder and fall in even more, sending Kate scrambling back.
Tears began to sting her eyes as she looked hopelessly at the tangled entrapment before her. It would be impossible to get out that way. The fastest way to safety, to Betty, was blocked by an impenetrable mountain from the broken factory's remains. Her head was spinning again, but this time for a different reason.
She would not throw up. She would not throw up.
"Help! Is anyone out there?!"
Kate turned towards the strained, panicked voice coming from the darkness behind her. She had forgotten about the lab.
"Reggie!" She called out.
She crawled back over the fallen wall and saw the blocked doorway into the lab. More rubble. She looked to the left and noticed that the interior window of the lab had been blown out. Being cautious of the broken glass around it, she carefully crawled through it. She was not prepared for the sight of the room she had just previously been in.
It was clear that the explosion had happened here. The room was no longer a room, but large piles of twisted metal and bricks that fanned out indicating the blast site. The smoke was beginning to clear out as she heard the voice in the darkness call out again.
"Help, please, someone help me…"
Kate crawled under a large beam and over what was left of the heavy steel table that was once bolted to the lab's far wall. There wasn't enough room to even stand in as she weaved through twisted metal towards the frightened voice. Once over the pile of rubble in front of her, she saw what was left as the fallen lights as they swung from side to side, casting an eerie balance of light and shadows across the devastated room. The dim light gave off just enough to see that it was Donald who had been calling out.
He was lying on the ground, clutching his right leg, which had a large gash that started close to his pelvis and stretched down to just above his knee. She noticed the cut was deep and blood was splattered all around him signifying the direction of the blast. She also noticed his left forearm was angled awkwardly indicating a break, as he desperately grasped at his disfigured leg.
"Donald," Kate whispered. She knew he didn't have much time if she didn't do something soon.
"Oh God," Donald bellowed out. "Kate, is that you? Help me. Please."
Kate swallowed hard as she looked down at the injured man. This man who once held her down and threatened to sexually assault her. He seemed so helpless now, like an injured dog on the side of the road.
She shook herself out of her thoughts and scrambled over to him. He looked up at her with wide eyes fresh with fear and pain.
"Please, help me."
Kate nodded and looked down at his leg. She knew how to handle this. Triage assessment. Treat the most urgent wound first.
"Take off your belt." Kate said quickly while unbuttoning the top of her coveralls.
Donald looked back up at her with crazed wonder. "What? Dollface, this is no time for come ons…"
"Just do it!" Kate snapped, pushing herself out of the top of her white coverall and ripping into what was once its sleeve. At least the blast had torn into the cloth enough to allow her to easily strip the tough fabric for makeshift bandages. She noticed her blouse underneath her coverall was ripped and dirty also, which was a shame because it had been her favorite. Betty had told her on her third day at the factory that the green fabric made her eyes stand out.
With his one good arm, Donald followed her orders and began to fumble with the plastic belt buckle. They were the only types of belts men were allowed to wear on the floor. Kate thought that a leather, metal kind of belt would have worked better, but the cloth one would have to do for now.
Seeing him struggle with the buckle with his one shaky hand, Kate didn't hesitate as she took over the task by pulling the belt from its loops in one smooth swoop. She always thought when the time came to take someone else clothes off she'd be a jumble of nerves.
She took the makeshift bandages she had made from her sleeve and pressed them to the gushing leg wound. She pressed down with all her might as she felt around for a certain point in the wound.
Donald howled out in pain as Kate methodically searched the wound. So much blood was gushing out, but she knew she had to find its source. Her hands were shaking as she heard the blood make a sickening squishing sound as she pressed on with her urgent search. Just as Donald looked ready to pass out from the pain, she felt the pulsating spot she was looking for and quickly stuffed the bandages over the spot while at the same time pressing down with all her might. With her other arm, she took the belt and wrapped it tightly around his leg and then using the large chunk of fallen wall beside them as leverage, she pulled the belt tight with all her strength and tied it down into the best knot she could make.
She looked down at Donald who had fallen silent and pale. Shakily she sat back and pushed the hair that had fallen down into her face, smearing Donald's dark blood across her forehead. She looked back down at her handy work. No blood seemed to be coming from the wound. It had worked it seemed.
She looked back up at Donald, who was lying in a stilled shock.
"Hey, look at me," she said assertively "You're going to be okay. Just don't move."
The larger man nodded, looking up at Kate with new respect. She had to help his arm. She needed some kind of splint the keep him from moving it much. She began to look around for a broken piece of wood or metal piece among the rubble, but stopped when she heard another moan come from just below the fallen wall behind her.
"Reggie?" Kate called out once more, straining her ears in hopes of hearing her friend. After a moment, she heard her name come from beneath the rubble.
"Kate?" the weak voice called out. Kate clambered over the debris to an area where it looked like the back wall had fallen with large steel beams crisscrossing over the jumbled mess.
Lying on the ground, she peered under the rubble into the darkness. The faint orange light above them didn't give enough light to reach into the rubble where she had heard her friend's voice call out.
"Reggie? Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm here."
Kate saw the younger girl's head move as she tried shifting it towards her and let out a shaky breath as she saw the top of Reggie's dark hair.
"I think I'm okay. I just can't really move…I think the damn wall fell on me."
"Yeah," Kate chuckled, happy to know her friend was okay. "I think the whole damn factory fell on us."
"No kidding. See if you can get me out?"
Kate sat up looking at the daunting task of moving the heavy concrete slabs pinning the girl down. If that weren't enough trouble, the steel beams on top of the thick slabs would prove to be impossible to move. She first tried pushing and pulling on the large slabs, but nothing budged.
"What's going on over there?" Donald called out from the other side of the pile of rubble where she had left him lying on the ground.
"It's Reggie," Kate said, searching for something to help her move the rubble. "She's trapped under the fallen wall."
"You'll never get her out," Donald said, looking in between the twisted wreckage to watch Kate. "You're just a girl. That wall must be several hundred pounds worth of concrete."
"Oh shove it, Donald!" Reggie yelled out from beneath the rubble. "If we want a pinhead's perspective, we'll ask for it!"
Kate couldn't help the small smile as she listened to her plucky friend. She wasn't letting some minor thing like a wall falling on her keep her down… at least, not figuratively.
"Where's Mr. Jenkins?" Reggie asked, suddenly. "He'll know what to do."
Kate looked around the rubble for the older man, but the pale light above them only casted long shadows over the wreckage with no sign of their supervisor in sight. No help. No guidance. Just the muffled sound of the wailing alarm of the factory floor behind them greeted them.
"What do you think happened?" Reggie asked, quietly. "Think it was a bad bomb?"
"Maybe it was sabotage," Donald said, his voice straining. "Wouldn't 'prise me if Hitler himself ordered it. Taking the war across the pond and all that."
"Yeah, I'm sure the Von Fuhur spends all his days thinking of small war factories in Canada in between tea time and blitzkreiging the hell out of things," Reggie quipped from the rubble.
Kate smiled at the exchange but stayed silent as she scooted over to the far end of the room after seeing the piping of what had once been the crate lift. Luckily enough for them, the blast had blown the hauler apart leaving about a 4-foot section of its steel pole left for Kate to use. She picked the heavy piece of iron up and began dragging it back to her friend when something caught her eye to her left and gasped at the sight.
"What is it?"
Kate swallowed hard at the sound of the panicked question from her friend.
"Nothing… it's just," She tried, calmly. "Found Mr. Jenkins."
She started towards the rubble where her friend lay as she turned away from what was left of her supervisor. She tried not to think of his open skull or the fact that he no longer had legs.
"Oh," Reggie said simply, knowing it was best to not ask for any more information.
"Here," Kate said as she made it back to her friend. "I found a pole. I'll try to wedge it and lift some of the concrete off of you enough to see if you can scoot out."
"Never gonna work," Donald's voice came out from the darkness.
"Shut up, Donald" Both girls snapped in unison.
"Just sayin' you're just wasting your last breath's on movin' a mountain."
Kate ignored him as she wedged the pole underneath the large slab in front of her.
"Okay, on the count of three," She said, stilling herself. "1…2…3!"
Grunting with all her might she pressed down on the pole, trying to budge the heavy concrete. Nothing moved. She shifted over and tried from another angle. Then another, gritting her teeth each time as she pressed down for all she was worth. The wall stood unmoved though.
"See, told you so."
Kate ignored the obnoxious comment as she climbed up on top of the rubble. She hoped the extra weight would not hurt her friend any further. With both hands wrapped around the pole, she slammed it down into a small opening of the cracked wall. Testing its resistance, she began pulling back, her voice raw as she growled and pulled with all her might.
Finally, the pole gave way, sending her flying backwards down the rubble behind her. She landed with a loud thud. She laid their dazed, her head spinning once more and wondered if it had ever stopped reeling. The pain where she landed so hard on her back radiated throughout her body.
"Hey! I can see some light!"
Kate lifted her head at the sound of her friend's excited voice. Sure enough the crack she had been working on was just a bit larger. Jumping up, she grabbed the pole and crawled back up the pile. Looking down the hole she could see the white cloth of Reggie's coveralls.
With renewed hope, she began working on the heavy slab. Trying several different angles, she slowly pushed a small portion of the thick concrete apart. Finally, a chunk of it fell away, revealing Reggie's dirty shoulders and head. The rest of body was still trapped under the wall, but now her head and her right arm was free.
Kate dropped down to the ground beside her friend; chest heaving from exhaustion and her head stinging as sweat mixed with the blood from her gash and rolled down the side of her face.
"Hey there," She smiled down at her friend.
"Aren't you a sight for sore eyes," Reggie said shakily, trying not to sound worried.
Kate looked over the younger girls face as she examined a large gash across her forehead. The brow over her left eye was beginning to swell and she could see the beginning of a large bruise spreading down the expansion of her chest where the debris had been before.
"How you feelin'?" Kate asked, tenderly.
"Oh, you know," Reggie tried smiling. "Like a building fell on me."
"Right." Kate nodded, chiding herself for asking such a stupid question.
Betty watched helplessly as police officers and firemen began pouring onto the grounds as the crowd began to gather in front of the factory. They were now standing across the street, the pre-selected safety zone for such disasters.
"Ladies, step back!" One policeman called out, as two others hauled wooden barricades and placed them down to block the crowd.
Betty didn't move though as they placed the barrier right in front of her. She was lost in her own thoughts. What had just happened? Her mind replayed the last moments before the explosion, the harsh words she had thrown out just before…
She gripped the wooden barricade in front of her, letting its sturdy legs keep her standing upright. Why had she said those things, of course she hadn't meant them. And now…
Now she had to make sure Kate was okay. She had to get back inside to her. Gladys and Vera were nowhere to be found yet either. The last time she saw Gladys was in the dressing rooms before shift and Vera on the streetcar ride to the factory. Could it get any worse? She looked at the police officer as he made his way back down the crowd and directed more barricades to be placed.
She thought about sneaking under one, but a hand landed on her arm.
"Mrs. McRae," Lorna said, gravely. "I do not have time to sit here and make sure you don't do something foolish like trying to run back inside, so you have two choices here."
Betty's eyes stung with tears as she met the older woman's determined gaze.
"You can either wait here until your friends have time to come gather at the safety zone like they know to do, or I can have you arrested if you even step a foot closer to over there."
Betty took in a shaky breath at the older woman's threat. She knew her mentor had gone into emergency plan mode. It was her job to keep her workers safe, no matter at what cost. Even if over there held the most precious people they knew.
"It's your choice," She finished. When Betty nodded her understanding, Lorna gave her arm one finale squeeze before turning to leave.
Betty turned back to the building in front of her. All she had left now was time and the last few moments she saw her friends replaying in her head.
So she waited.