“Ry?” Nathan’s voice was so low, so quiet, hoarse and harsh. “Wha?”
Nathan coughed with a groan and a grimace of pain as his chest was on fire. “Your arm’s broken,” Ryan rasped as he jerked awake, his voice still croaky from the fire. “Ribs…your hip.”
“Shit.” Is there anything that’s okay?
Nathan gripped hard on Ryan’s hand. He wanted to say so much, wanted to thank him, to ask about Laurie, but all that came out was coughing.
“Nathan?” The voice came from behind Ryan, and he felt Ryan move to one side. Jason? Jason is here, what the—
Nathan couldn’t speak, he tried, but Jason stopped him. “Hey, dude, I was kinda worried.” He smiled crookedly, then crossed to the bed, grasping Nathan’s hand and squeezing reassuringly.
“I’m going to find Laurie,” Ryan said quietly. “I’ll be back in a few minutes.”
“’kay,” Nathan managed to force out. He watched Ryan leave and caught sight of his back, fresh blood spotting the scrub top.
Jason was talking and he focused on what his friend was saying. “Gotta get you outta here and on to a hospital, but I tell ya, it’s chaos out there, Christ knows when it’ll happen. They’ve pushed us as far back as they can, but we are getting too close to downtown LA evac, so they’re clearing a new break line.”
Nathan nodded, the information a whirl of words that he didn’t really hear.
* * * * *
Ryan had passed through two makeshift tents, his eyes down, avoiding anyone’s questions with a blank look and a shrug, until at last he came to area that he supposed could be designated as the children’s area. He circled until his searching gaze met Laurie’s. Her eyes wide and frightened, she launched herself at him.
He scooped her up, and she resumed her position tucked into his neck. It felt good and safe. He turned to the harassed woman with the list as she looked at it, then looked at him, clearly out of her depth. Still she stood in the doorway, determined to release the little girl to only someone on her list.
“Your name please.”
“Ortiz, Ryan,” he said, his voice burnt and husky.
“Do you have some ID, some…” Her voice trailed off as Ryan just stood in front of her, in nothing but jeans, a scrub top, and bandages, holding out his hands to indicate he had nothing. “I’m sorry, I just…”
“—back to the main area, my—friend is there.” Ryan was struggling to get the words out.
She looked at him, stricken. Ryan knew what she must be thinking. She looked over at the twenty or so children who sat around on the makeshift beds, every one of them alone, with no one. At least this little girl had someone, this Ryan.
“I need to check. I can’t just let people—non-family—take the children.” She watched as Ryan leaned back on the side of a bed, his posture clearly patient. He was willing to wait. “My team leader, he’ll be back in a minute, needs to look at this.”
“S’okay,” Ryan said softly, his back tightening, the pain indescribable, and he tried to relax each muscle.
When the shouting started, Ryan simply held Laurie tight.
“Out, out, out, everyone, we need to get out… We need to get out. All those walking out…the fire…”
They held Ryan back, and they held the children back as they stood, screaming at the noise. Chaos erupted. He was pushed back, pushed away, over the ripped tarmac, pushed behind the new break line, the Army swarming as they had to deal with people screaming for loved ones, staring in horror as the fire was darting and jumping down the hillside to the makeshift evac area. Ryan was desperately straining to get through, back to Nathan, to Jason, to warn them, his back pushed and jostled, but it was no use. The panic was as good as a brick wall, impossible to force himself through.
He’d known that this was only a temporary evac area, an emergency, a stopgap, but surely they wouldn’t have collected so many refugees in one area, medically attended so many injured people just for the fire to turn and burn them all to the ground.
He heard prayers shouted and screamed to the heavens, saw people still walking, running, crawling from the area in danger to the front of the break line.
“Move back. Everyone move the fuck back. Let people through.”
Nathan, Nathan…
“Will it jump? Oh my God, will the fire jump here?”
“Pray to God it doesn’t.”
Screams filled the air as the fire cracked like lightning and moved into the area, and in seconds, the inferno twisted and circled, wrapping the tents in flame, and each one fell, destroyed in seconds.
Ryan could feel the heat on his face as he fell to his knees, a silent scream locked in his mouth.
Nathan.