Chapter 43

• I mind-linked several individuals who could possibly help, contacting anyone who was close enough and strong enough to alleviate the situation. Fortunately, they were prompt to respond. In a few minutes they arrived with the proper instruments—saws, cutters, anything that might be wanted to cope with the impalement. However, more to the point, one of the medics also appeared. We also knew that this guy, impaled on a metal fence, was not going to get through unscathed unless we did something quickly and that the poor guy was going to require some serious painkillers to survive whatever was about to follow. The doctor was not losing any moment. With the help of others trying to gauge the situation, he quickly took a high dose of pain medications to numb the pain before the metal was being cut off, even when he was still impaled on the metal.
• I did not linger around after I realized that everything was under control, that the medic and the volunteers knew what they were to do, and that I had given them clear guidelines as to what to do next. I couldn’t. "Next problem," I went on. Time did not even stop to consider. Time did not allow processing. Not yet.
• The following emergency was no sooner over. The top had fallen off a massive, old tree—probably weakened by the blast or by the fires—and it had fallen head-on into a neighboring house. The trunk pushed through the roof and trapped some of the house inside. It had trapped a lady under it. She lived but was hurt and could not get out at all. She was unable to get out of the rubble. She could not even approach the door. It was the same thing all over. I had to have people, the kind of people, and I had to have them quick. I wanted heads with the right implements and the muscles to hew away the dense branches and the heavy trunk of the fallen tree to make a way and bring her out of the wreck.