At first all Xander could see was the blood on Cordelia's head. 'Oh gods.' He thought. 'Is she even alive?' Cordelia was lying on her side next to Jenny, who still had blood trickling from her nose and appeared to be unconscious. Xander checked Jenny's pulse and found she was alive, just unconscious as he'd suspected. Cordelia on the other hand.
"Xander." Cordelia said. "Why does my head hurt?"
Xander took a deep breath and slowly let it out. "Well honey, that would be because there's a piece of metal sticking out of the back of your head. I don't know if it's just in your scalp or if the bone is affected. Please don't move." He begged. "We're gonna get you to the hospital and the doctors are going to fix it."
"Well, at least this time the scar will be hidden by my hair. Unless my hair falls out because of it. Will you still love me if I have to wear a wig?" She joked.
"Even if your head is shaved bald." He assured her. "You'll still be my Cordy."
"How bad is it, Xander? The people, our people?"
"A few injured among the people, those closest to the area were most affected. Some others that got hurt when they ran after the ground collapsed. Some got trampled."
"The ground collapsed? That makes sense, the blast had to go somewhere, with the force field up. There would be only two places, back through where it came from and down. I wonder what the sewer tunnels look like? Xander, my head really hurts."
"I can help you with the pain, Cordy. I can make you not notice it."
"Could you? It's bad, Xander." Xander gently touched her beautiful, blood covered face and slipped easily into her mind and helped her believe, for a short while, that there was no pain.
"Just for a little while, Cordy. Just until we get to the hospital and the doctors can give you something. Pain is necessary when you're hurt, it keeps you from moving too much and making things worse."
"Xander, you never answered my question about our people."
"We've found twelve dead, so far. They were closest to the blast. Well, except for Rory. Stubborn old coot."
"You would have done the same thing, were going to do the same thing. Did we stop it?"
"I don't know yet, there's a lot of rubble. I do know the people weren't being controlled anymore once the blast went off. Cordy, the paramedics are making their way over here. We told them there was a earthquake and people were having a block party."
"Good cover. Xander, make sure the rest of our people are okay. I need you, but they do too."
"I understand. I'll meet you at the hospital later. You take good care of her!" He ordered the paramedics as they prepared her for the trip to the hospital and then loaded her up.
"You know her?" One of them asked curiously.
"She's my girl, my everything."
"Damn right I am. He's obviously an intelligent man with good taste."
Another paramedic was checking Jenny. "I'm not sure why this one is unconscious." He stated. "I'm not seeing any obvious injury, just the nose bleed. She may have internal injuries. Be very careful loading her up, guys. She can't tell us anything. Let's use a back board, as well as a neck brace, just to be sure." He decided. Xander took a moment to pull out his phone and call Giles.
"Thank you for letting me know, Xander. I'll meet her at the hospital. Amy and the others are going to come to you, they can help."
"We need all the help we can get right now, Giles. There's more injured that need to be assessed. We could lose people bleeding out before we or the paramedics can get to them."
"You did the best you could, Xander. If those things had gotten though, they would have killed everyone."
"Yeah, if the Hellmouth opens we'll be tortured slaves to demons. The Thirdspace creatures would have burned the world to a cinder. They hate all life, besides their own. Not just intelligent life."
"With the demons there would be a chance of overcoming them and driving them out again. With the creatures from that portal, there would have been no such chance."
Xander waited just until Cordelia was loaded onto an ambulance and then he joined Tor in continuing to check people. Amy, Willow and Oz arrived and made their way to them for an update and instructions. Once given, they too began checking people. They and the paramedics worked for hours until every person had been assessed and those that could go to the hospital for surgery or care had been hauled away. The limited number of ambulances meant only a few could be sent at a time. Eventually though, there was no one else to assess and that was when it was time to move the dead to the morgue.
In total 14 Anla'Shok were found dead at the scene. Only Xander and Tor didn't require hospitalization. The rest needed bones set and stitches and admittance for observation. And many of them needed surgery to repair injuries, including Cordelia and Heidi. Jenny, though, was in a coma and no one was sure if she'd come out of it.
The townspeople also had a number of dead, some near the blast and others that had been trampled. Among the dead was Rory Harris. Among the injured was Jessica Harris, she'd been trampled by Tony running away.
Xander and Tor, along with Giles, Amy, Oz and Willow set up a rotating vigil at the hospital so that their people never felt alone.