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What? Emergency Services had ended my call! I glared at my dataview in outrage. Yes, I could reluctantly accept the point about freeing the connection for other emergency callers, but it wasn’t very helpful to tell me Medical Emergency Triage would call me as soon as possible. That could mean anything from ten minutes to ten hours. What was I supposed to do while I was waiting for ...?
My dataview chimed, I tapped it to answer the call, and a man’s voice spoke. “This is Medical Emergency Triage. Amber, you reported an injured person with a broken leg.”
“Yes,” I said eagerly.
“I need to check the details with you. Is it correct that the injured person is named Linnette, and currently in area 510/6120, on the downway between the shopping areas on Teen Level 50 and Level 51?”
“That’s right.”
“Do you have any further identity information for the injured person?”
“She’s Linnette 2514-1003-947.”
“Area 510/6120, corridor 11, room 18?”
“Yes, that’s her.”
“Thank you. Casualty identity confirmed. Is Linnette conscious at the moment?”
I glanced at Linnette, saw her eyes were open again now, and she was staring at the lanterns.
“Yes.”
“Does she have a head injury?”
“No.”
“Wait one moment please.”
I waited impatiently. It was at least five minutes before the man’s voice spoke again.
“Unfortunately, we do not have a rescue team in your vicinity, Amber. With the lifts and belt system out of operation, our rescue teams have to travel to locations and take casualties for treatment on foot. This means response times are far slower than usual. Our nearest teams already have a heavy queue of serious, closer calls to answer, so their current estimated response time is not a viable option for you.”
“Not a viable option? But ...”
The man kept talking. “Your local medical facility has evacuated to your area park. I’ve tried contacting them and asking if they can despatch assistance to you, but they are overloaded with new casualties in need of urgent treatment. You’ll have to take Linnette to the park for treatment yourself.”
“What? Me? How?”
“I need you to listen closely to my instructions, Amber,” said the man, in soothing tones. “There is an emergency store room on the north side of every shopping area. The door is marked with a red cross. The door code is 999, followed by the area code, followed by the level. You need to get a wheeled stretcher, a pack of strength three pain relief medication, and a box marked adult leg protection. Have you done the basic first aid activities on Teen Level?”
I was too busy panicking to reply.
“Amber? Have you done the basic first aid activities on Teen Level?”
“Yes.”
“Good. The pack of strength three pain medication will contain two tablets. You should give both tablets to Linnette, then wrap the protection unit around her leg and inflate it. After that, you move her onto the stretcher to take her to the park. On arrival, you must hand the empty pain medication pack to the medical staff so they know exactly what tablets Linnette has been given. Do you understand?”
“Yes, but the stretcher won’t work on the stairs of the downway.”
“You’ll have to move Linnette up the steps.”
I gnawed at my bottom lip. “Won’t that hurt her leg?”
“The inflated protection unit should prevent any further damage. I have to deal with other calls now, Amber. If you discover Linnette has any additional injuries, you should call Emergency Services again for more instructions.”
The call ended. I tucked my dataview into my pocket, and ran my fingers through my hair. I shouldn’t be doing this. Linnette needed help from experts, not from someone who’d attended two first aid sessions over a year ago.
There was a whimper from Linnette. “The lights are flickering.”
“Yes, sorry.” There weren’t any experts to help Linnette, there was only me, so I had to stop panicking and do the best I could. I wound both the lanterns, and tried to speak in a calm, confident voice.
“Emergency Services have told me to fetch some painkillers and other things for you. I’ll only be going as far as the shopping area emergency store room. I’ll need to take one lantern with me, but the other will stay here with you, and I promise I’ll be back in a few minutes. Is that all right?”
“Painkillers,” Linnette breathed the word in a voice of desperate hope. “Yes.”
I picked up one of the lanterns, and moved carefully up the stairs to the Level 50 shopping area. Once I reached its black void, I paused to try to picture the layout, and headed in the direction I thought was north.
A minute later, I was standing by a clothes shop that was definitely on the east side of the shopping area. I worked my way along the line of shops until I reached the north side, and eventually tracked down the emergency store room.
I’d been worried I’d forget the door code, but that wasn’t a problem. The door was already wide open, and several empty boxes told me that someone, probably several people, had already been here for medical supplies. I should have expected that. The shopping area would have been crowded when the lights went out and the moving stairs suddenly jerked to a halt. There would obviously have been injuries.
I held up my lantern and peered anxiously inside the room. Every shelf and space was neatly labelled with what its contents should be. The two wheelchairs had gone, but the wheeled stretcher was still in place. The limb protection boxes were in a jumble where someone had sorted through them in a hurry. There must have been several casualties with arm or wrist injuries, because the arm protection unit boxes were all empty. I thought the leg protection units were gone too, but found one had tumbled on the floor.
The medication shelf was half empty. I hunted through the remaining small packets, and was relieved to find one labelled strength three pain relief. I tucked that in my pocket, and unfolded the stretcher. I was expecting to struggle to find my way back to Linnette, but I could see a very faint glow in the darkness that had to be coming from the lantern I’d left with her. I towed the stretcher across to the top of the downway, and left it there while I went down the steps to Linnette.
“I’m sorry that took longer than I expected,” I said.
She made a dismissive gesture with her left hand. “Do you have the painkillers?”
“Yes.” I put my lantern and the leg protection unit box down on the stairs, and took out the packet. “Is your leg still hurting you?”
“Of course it’s still hurting me,” Linnette snapped, in a terse, angry voice that I’d never heard her use before.
I hastily got the two tablets out of the packet, gave them to Linnette, and held the water bottle to her lips so she could gulp down some water. I waited a couple of minutes, and then wrapped the leg protection unit round her leg and inflated it.
“Is that better?”
“That’s so much better.” Linnette gave a soft sigh of relief and leant back on the stairs.
Now I had to get Linnette off the steps so I could use the stretcher. It would be easier for us to go down the stairs, but I could barely find my way around the Level 50 shopping area that I knew very well. I’d get hopelessly lost on Level 51, and I had no idea where their park was anyway, so we should try to go up instead.
“Linnette, we need to get you to the stretcher so I can take you to the park. If you sit up, then I’ll get behind you and pull.”
There was no answer. I saw her eyes were closed.
“Linnette?” I gave her arm a shake, but she just made a murmuring noise in response, and I realized that she was fast asleep. My painkilling tablets had had a similar effect on me but it hadn’t happened this quickly. At least this meant Linnette wouldn’t be in pain when I moved her.
I positioned myself behind Linnette, put my arms round her, and pulled, but she was heavier than I expected and didn’t move. I braced myself, tried pulling again, and managed to lift her a fraction but not enough to get her up to the next step.
I gave a groan of utter despair. I wasn’t strong enough to haul Linnette up the stairs. If I went below her and pulled, then I might be able to drag her down the stairs feet first, but that could injure her broken leg. On the other hand, turning her round, and pulling her down the stairs head first, would be even more dangerous.
I tried to think things through calmly and logically. If I called Ruby or Atticus, and explained the situation, then I was sure Atticus would attempt to reach me despite his fear of the dark. That would take a long time though, and there was a risk he’d get lost or hurt on the way.
Forge had said he was next to an inspection hatch. If I could find him, and get that inspection hatch open, then he could help me with Linnette. I took out my dataview and tapped at it.
“Forge, I need you to start calling out to me, so I can follow the sound of your voice and get you out of that air vent.”
“I told you to forget about me and concentrate on helping Linnette.”
“Linnette is the reason I need to get you out of that air vent. Emergency Services can’t get a rescue team to us, so I have to get Linnette to the park myself. I’ve got a wheeled stretcher, but Linnette’s lying on the downway. I’m not strong enough to carry her up the stairs to the stretcher, but you are.”
