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Theto pour out, confused and wide-eyed No purpose, no order Dahters, but spending a few months on nice, safe obstacle courses and drills doesn’t prepare a soul for life on Avon

"Over here, soldiers," I scream at the in their ears Only a few hear ot the attention of the rest

"Six groups" I shove through the slack-jawed crowd, dividing soldiers up as I go "You and you--yes, you, you can put your pants on later Get the retardant canisters You’ve drilled for this Listen to rab the canisters and get back here Now"

In their shock, the newbies are o sprinting back toward their bunks as if a pack of wild dogs is on their heels

I’ the rest of the survivors into rescue parties, and as the rain and the fire extinguishers start opening a path, we head into the parts of the building farthest fro quite so hotly

The moments that follow are lost in a sea of s and coughing, others silent and slick with blood Every ten fuls of less contaminated air, but every ti teah-pressure hoses and chemicals that burn our eyes almost as e, a hand grabs o back inside

"Enough, Captain!" It’s Major Ja in h the ss I’ e Give me a few minutes to recover my balance and I can rejoin simply as one of the rescue squad

But when I get back to h the churned upback into the haze of smoke "You’re benched," the medic shouts at me I hear the words, but they don’t process The en mask into my hands, then disappears to attend to patients in more dire straits It’s only then that I realize the soldiers froanized, have all been replaced by fresher rescue workers I catch sight of a few of the original crews huddled with oxygen e of the chaos

I tear the dirty strip of T-shirt froful of clean air froain, dizzy with the rush of oxygen and withone last long breath through the mask before I make my way out of the medic’s area

There are stretchers everywhere So moved to intensive care at the hospital, others with casualties being transferred to a teht now is no more than bodies laid side by side in the mud with sheets draped over the a badly wounded man He’s burned so badly that it’s impossible to tell where his clothes stop and scorched flesh begins He’s silent, though, when I would’ve expected hiht sky As they pass, his eyes meet mine for a moment I don’t know him My sudden relief at that makes me sick to my stomach Someone, somewhere, knows him It shouldn’t h the hordes of the wounded, exa faces A few are h to be placed in critical condition Sweat pours down my temples and my back, and the ash in the air sticks tofloodlights around the site, so even as the flaht is held at bay My feet itch to turn back for the building, which is starting to creak with the added weight of the water and the fire suppression cheer, and they need all the help they can get evacuating the wounded before it collapses

The ht But before I can head back toward the flalance down--and the world stops for an infinite second

"Captain, we need to get--"

"Where’d you find hi down at Coren mask strapped there

"On the other side of the blast site"

"Your best guess?"

"Concussion, one, and Cormac with them, headed for the hospital

He was here He was at the blast site Could he have knoas about to happen?

But I don’t have ti else catches low turning everything to ee of the field of bodies underneath the sheets, I catch a gliht has tis, the shaking ofto that tiny flash of color It’s a mistake He’s alive They’ve put him with the bodies by accident in the chaos It happens all the ti a field of dead et up and walk away