Castles Burning Part Two (12 page)

“Excuse me! You need to be in uniform.” He said to Sawyer as I was trying to wipe his burning flesh down with
rags sopping with warm water. I scrambled to use as much as I could but it was doing nothing for Sawyers large frame. I pressed my bare palm to his chest, it was burning hot, I bit my lip in concentration, trying to remember if I’d seen any small buckets, or even a big cup to dip into these large buckets. The Chief cleared his throat loudly behind me.

“Chief,
this is a hazardous zone; I need you to step away from the rope please.” I said, not looking at him, wiping Sawyers neck with the water that was being contaminated with fuel every time I re-soaked it, and watched his irritated skin redden more by the second.

“
This is unacceptable!” The Chief blubbered, his cheeks flushing.

I
threw the rag to the deck savagely, letting my fear fuel my anger, and spun on my heel, I marched over to the rope, and looked up into his beady eyes, my fists balled at my sides.

“Excuse me Chief! But I am going to have to tell you to leave! This is a hazard
ous zone and you are violating my perimeter, we are in the middle of a very real emergency and you are impeding my abilities to keep this ship afloat, and my ship mates safe. Leave!” I rushed back to Sawyer who had his eyes closed.

Almost as
an afterthought, I picked up the bucket of water, after emptying it enough to be able to lift it above my waist, and poured it over him. He inhaled sharply, panting as he bent at the waist so I could dump it over him. I called over my shoulder to someone I noticed skirting my perimeter from the corner of my eye.

“Hey! Come over here!” I said to him. He turned and looked at me, then Sawyer, and back
to me. “Come here!” I called, gesturing to him with my hand, and he jogged over.

“Is this a drill?” He asked me
, his eyes flicking around at the set up behind me.

“No, it’s real. I need you to go and find a first class and
have them wake up the LPO who is in charge of the Hazmat station, I need to know what to do with all of this fuel and these fire ensembles.” I told him urgently.

He nodded quickly
, his eyes wide and his brow creased. “Okay, I will wake up my LPO.” He said before he turned and ran toward an exit. Johnson returned to the bay with another bucket, her face red from the effort it took to bring it up the ladder well. She looked at Sawyer briefly and then at me, her eyes wide.

“What?” She asked nearly breathless. Her face was damp, it was hot here, even at night, and the moist air clung to you. She wiped her b
row and looked from Sawyer and me to the buckets, and then shook her head.

“
I’ll stay up here. Can’t you wake someone up from the birthing to help you, tell them it’s a real casualty and not simulated?” I asked.

“Yeah, they won’t be happy, but I’ll do it.” She said.

I turned back to Sawyer. “Are you okay?” I asked him.

H
e nodded, wiping himself down with a rag and water from a new bucket. “Man, this is crazy.” He said shaking his head.

He
looked up, and I followed his gaze, Cross and Harlow were coming toward us, their hair wet, their faces red, everything drenched, the smell of fuel was reaching me even in the enormous open hanger bay. Their skin was also bright red.
Chemical Burns
danced through my mind, and that notion was terrifying to me; I didn’t have the training to know how to deal with it properly, I hadn’t gotten that far yet.

“Shit
!” I cried, tears stinging my eyes and blurring my vision as I rushed over to them, pulling at Velcro and zippers savagely yanking them off of their poor stricken bodies.

Johnson came up behind me, “I have three girls from the birthing rotating buckets. What can I do to help?” She asked looking at the guys as I poured water over them with a pitcher someone had placed beside the buckets.

“Um, I need you to go down to medical and get an HM, maybe the one who sings karaoke with us? She is always so willing to help us out. I don’t know what to do with their skin.” My voice cracked as I tried to gently clean Cross and then Harlow, not wanting to let one suffer more than the other.

“Okay.” She
squeezed Harlow’s fingers before turning, and running toward Medical.

My eyes widened suddenly when I realized that no one had called the s
moke deck Secured on the over head. I ran as fast as I could to the repair locker and dialed DC Central. The Watch answered on the first ring.

“Central.”

“Yes Sir, this is DCFN Carlson. The smoke deck needs to be secured immediately, there is JP5 fuel everywhere and we are cleaning it up as fast as we can Sir.” I said quickly.

“Roger that, thank you.” He said briefly before t
he line went dead.

As I hurried back to my station I saw that Smith and Cravats had joined
the group now, and Johnson was back with the Corpsman I’d sent for, they were both hurrying to get the guys free from their fuel soaked uniforms. Fear washed over me as I looked at Sawyer, Cross, and Harlow whose bodies were all varying shades of pink, it crept up their bodies, and I could almost make out the inside print of the thick fire ensembles on their arms, torsos and chests. The loud speaker came booming around us, stating that all hands were secured from smoking until further notice. When I was beside her, the Corpsman handed me a soft sterile rag, she had brought a couple more Corpsman up with her who were more than willing to help. She was applying a clear ointment to Sawyers chest.

“Here sweetie.” She handed me a pair of rubber gloves. “
Put these on, and apply a thin layer of this on his chest and back, then apply a little thicker of a layer on these darker ones here.” She pointed to the purplish spots on his neck with her rubber glove clad finger.

“Okay.” I nodded as I put the gloves on. “Thank you so much for helping us.” I told her, she nodded and smiled at me before going to Johnson and helping ri
nse the skin of others who were arriving from the scene.

“Are you okay?” Sawyer asked, looking down at me as I applied the ointment.

I craned my neck to look up at him, “You’re asking me?” I almost laughed.

“You look pale, and your ha
nds are shaking.” He said low, so the others couldn’t hear.

“I’m fine.” I swallowed.

“Is this about your accident?” He asked, his deep voice prodding me.

“Maybe, I don’t really know.” I tried to swallow again, the lump in my throat was aching.

“
We are all going to be fine, it’s just a little burn it’s no biggie, and we have help.” He gestured to everyone around us. “The spill is being cleaned up, we’re trained to deal with this remember?” He asked, smiling down at me.

I looked down
, trying to hold back my tears but when I blinked, they spilled over my lids and down my cheeks. I ignored them; Sawyer reached his thumbs up and slid them along my cheeks, wiping my tears away. I jerked away from him instinctively, and then forced myself to look at him after a second.

“I’m s
orry.” He said.

“No,
its okay, I’m just panicking… I have to take a few breaths. I’ll be okay in a minute.” I said shakily, before taking several deep breaths.

I closed my eyes and tried to wipe the image of Aden squirming in pain on the bedroom floor of the cabin out of my mind. I felt my chin quivering and I shook my head as I
pressed my palms to my eyes, I could almost feel the knife entering my shoulder again as I led the sadistic man away from my friends.

Sawyer’s hands were on my shoulders
, bringing me out of my memories.

“Hey.” He said
firmly.

I opened my eyes and tears spilled down my cheeks again; he pulled me to his large chest and wrapped his big arms around my shoulders as I trembled against him, my gloved hands pressed flat to his chest while my shoulders quaked under his large biceps. I stared wide eyed into
the past, at my memories. Distantly I felt bad for possibly hurting him right now when his skin was so irritated, but I made no effort to move away from his comforting embrace.

“It’s okay baby girl.” He said. “
You’re okay. You’re not there. Hear me?” His baritone voice boomed through me, soothing me. “You aren’t there right now Amber.” He reminded me. I slowly stopped shaking, my breathing became deep yet erratic, but I steadied myself on my feet again.

“I’m sorry.” I said as I squeezed more of the ointment onto my finger tips and resumed applying it.

The casualty took several hours to clean up, and when we were finally finished the sun was rising over the water and it was nearly seven thirty in the morning. I stood with three empty buckets hanging from my hands and looked out at the ocean through the open hanger bay doors. We were speeding along, the dark blue water was beautiful with small white caps, and the sky was a vibrant orange color with golden ribbons laced through thin creamy clouds. I felt warmth wash over me, and relief that no one had been seriously hurt, it dawned on me how close I’d grown to these people. I loved each and every one of them. I knew that they would do anything for me, and I would gladly do anything for them, we shared a bond that was greater than any bond I’d known with my civilian friends. I knew that during a fire, or flood, or even a fuel spill, that these men and women would do anything to protect me, and they knew I would too. It was very refreshing, and restored a bit of my faith in humanity.

Chief came up beside me, he reeked of fuel, and his face was stubbly from not shaving this morning. “Sonny, you did
really good tonight.” He sounded exhausted.

“Thanks Chief.” I said. He placed his hand on my shoulder.

“The mess deck Chief came to talk to me a couple moments ago, to complain about the way you spoke to him. So if he asks, I gave you a very
firm
talking to, and I told you to respect those who out rank you, but really as far as I am concerned you did exactly what you were trained to do, and I am proud of you.” He said before walking over to our mustering spot.

The division gathered in ranks before him, every
one looking dazed and haggard, I felt terrible that most of them were even out of their racks.

“I’ve spoke with our division officer and while we can’t afford to give you holiday routine for being up all night, I can give your LPO’s strict instructions to let you catch shut eye in your offices whenever you get a moment to catch up.” He said,
groans broke out among the division. “I know it sucks, but it’s the best I can do. Go to your birthing, and unless you’re hurt enough to need to visit medical, you need to shit, shower, and shave quickly. Then muster in your offices with your LPO’s.” He said, his eyes roamed over us, and it seemed as if pride was hiding there. “Dismissed.”

I walked almost like a zombie toward my birthing. Johnson came up beside me
, her pretty blonde hair a disheveled mess; she turned her eyes down to me, one corner of her mouth pulled in as she gazed at me.

“Are you ok?” She asked.

“I think I had a panic attack.” I said, too embarrassed to look at her. “I feel so odd.” I sighed as we climbed the ladder well to our birthing.

I went to m
y rack and opened it quietly, two girls who had joined our cubicle were night check, and slept during the day so I didn’t want to disturb them, although the more bitchy side of me dared me to slam it shut, and wake them up as I was about to pull a near 48 hour shift. Instead, I quietly pulled out fresh clothes, my shower caddy and softly closed and locked my rack without making a peep.

My body was humming, my heart pounding
slowly; I hauled a deep breath into my lungs and held it before slowly exhaling. I placed my hand on the lockers beside me and stood up slowly, before heading to the shower room. Johnson was already in one of the shower stalls; the smell of orange blossoms filled the entire head. I took the stall across from hers and turned the water on, as I lifted my foot to step in the ship lulled to the side suddenly, and then back again, sending my stomach dropping into my groin. I placed my hand on the cold metal lip of the shower, steadying myself as I stepped into the water and slid the curtain closed. As I stood under the water I felt tears sliding down my face again, remembering all of the things that went unsaid. That would forever remain unsaid.

I placed my hands over my face as Aden’s eyes called to me, his dark hair falling boyishly over his brows as he smiled down at me from a memory of summer, at the lake, a warm breeze and
the sun kissing our young bodies as we discovered one another. I almost heard Christie laughing somewhere in the water with Alex. A sob escaped my mouth and I quickly clamped my hand over it. My shower curtain opened and Johnson stepped in, closing the curtain behind her, I stared at her for a second and then she wrapped her arms around me pulling me to her naked body. It startled me for a second, but then I crumpled against her and cried softly.

“You’re going to be ok sweet heart.” She said kindly. “I know you must be hurting so badly and you never show it. You’re so strong all the time, I’m afraid someday you’ll just shatter like delicate china.”
Her hand stroked my hair gently.