Authors: Palladian
After a few minutes of strained sounds, curses, and directions over the communicator, the pole sat in place and had been pushed loosely into the opening.
Lex continued, “Joan, I don't know if your suit can do anything like this, but if you could, act like a hammer—fly up and then come down with some force on the top of the pole to drive it in and get it to stick. You probably don't want to use all your weight, because we don't want to crack the lobby floor, but some force would be good. George and Casey, could you hold the pole in place for her?”
After a chorus of agreement, Lex just held her breath as silence flooded the communication channel. A minute later, she heard a thunk and a grinding noise as Joan drove the pole into the floor further, and then more silence.
“George, Casey, why don't you take your hands away and see if the pole looks like it's in place?”
“Lex, it looks OK from up here,” Casey responded after a few tense seconds. “I think we should probably have one of us up here to support it, though, once people start sliding down.”
“All right, then, would you mind taking the first half-hour or so? George, can you spell her after that?”
Lex heard affirmative answers, so continued. “Serena, I asked the fire fighters to provide someone to help on all of the floors, so can you start bringing them up to the roof? I told them they could call you if they found immobile people on any floor, so can you stand by for that afterwards?”
“Yes, chief,” Lex heard by her shoulder, jumping as she saw Serena there. A moment later, she, Serena, and Roger stood outside.
“Sorry,” the redhead said, “but I figured you could use some fresh air by now. Besides, I don't think you want to be in there when people start coming out.”
Lex nodded as she took off the rest of her breathing gear. “Thanks, Serena. Roger, do you mind sticking around until we get all the people out, just in case we run into problems?”
He shook his head. “No, I want to see how it all turns out, now. I've never gotten to see the work any other team does, so I'm curious.”
Lex nodded for a moment, her mind traveling to how weird it felt that the areas they were allowed to work in had been completely shut down; no people that weren't medics or firefighters, no press, no crowds, and only one other team. She frowned as she thought about it, knowing it probably shouldn't be a surprise given what she now knew. Shaking her head to clear it as she felt the headache growing behind her eyes, Lex excused herself to move over to Riss.
“Hey,” she greeted the other woman. “How's it going?”
Riss nodded in reply. “From what I can see, it looks like everything is going fine. The people in the building seemed pretty shy about being anywhere near where you were doing the work. I'm glad the fire fighters have started to arrive on the floors, though, because it looked like some of them got restless. I think they can hear some of the stuff that's starting to fall off the outside of the building.”
Lex grimly looked over at it, noting a few pieces of trim that had fallen in the front yard. “From what you can tell from the apartment records and the tracking system you and Lily set up, about how many people are we talking about evacuating on those dozen floors?”
Riss shrugged. “Somewhere around 2,000. There are 48 apartments per floor, and a good number of families living in them. Of course, we've also got to figure that some of the people had guests. So, I figure about 2,000.”
Nodding, Lex called out on her communicator. “Serena, can you ask one of the firefighters about how long it will take to have a person get down that fire pole we set up? I'm trying to figure how long it'll take to clear the building.”
Lex waited for a moment as she heard someone talking in the background, then Serena spoke. “They say it probably won't take more than a couple of seconds per person. We're going to start soon, by the way. All the firefighters are in place, and they're explaining to the people what they need to do. They want to start from the top down, OK?”
“The people on the top are probably in the most danger, anyway, so that makes sense. Let me know when it starts, please,” Lex requested.
“Will do.”
“I'll be back in a little while to see how it's going,” Lex said to Riss, reaching over to touch her friend's shoulder. “I want to check in with Lily to let them know they'll probably be getting a lot of people coming their way soon.”
The other woman nodded and turned back to her computer screens as Lex took a detour to get some bottled water and take some over-the-counter medication against her now pounding headache. She took just a moment to breathe, willing the pain to go away, and then headed across the street to where a number of ambulances waited. The people who'd come out of the first two floors had already been taken to hospitals as needed, and now the emergency personnel waited for the next wave. Lex asked a few of the medics milling around and finally found Lily sitting on the back of a half-open ambulance, drinking an energy drink.
Lex waved to Lily and said, “I wanted to let you know you'll probably start getting some customers very soon, probably in the next ten minutes or so.”
Lily nodded. “I heard you doing some crazy things over there. What was all of the crashing around for?”
“We figured out a way to get everyone out of the building fast, but it did involve partially taking apart the crane next door. Unfortunately, no one could really carry it down from the roof there, so we pretty much had to throw it.” Lex winced as she finished, glancing at Lily to gauge her reaction.
“I guess I can understand. How will you evacuate everyone?” she asked, returning Lex's gaze curiously.
“Well, we cut holes through each floor down to the lobby and stuck the pole from the crane in like a fire pole. Everyone's going to slide down and run out of the building. They should be starting soon.”
Lex could see Lily's eyes widen for a moment before she took another sip of her drink. “Good thinking. It shouldn't take too long to get everyone out, then.”
“Hopefully,” Lex replied with a shrug. “Serena can take care of evacuating anyone who's wounded.”
“Good,” Lily said with another nod. “We've been hoping for something to happen. We were starting to get worried that no one else was going to make it out.”
Lily nodded as Lex turned to go, and she made her way back to Riss' side to sit on the blanket with her friend after getting a little food and water for the two of them to share. To Lex's dismay, she felt her headache getting worse, and took another couple painkillers. She knew there was no way she could take some of the prescription medication she'd been given while out on a job, because it made her feel stupid or so tired that she had to sleep. Trying to distract herself, she smiled as she watched the first streams of people come out the front door.
The first half-hour passed quickly, and then Casey sat with the two of them, smelling of smoke and eating a snack. Lex could feel her friend looking at her out of the corner of her eye, and after a minute, Lex turned directly to look at Casey and smiled confidently, nodding slightly.
Yes, we have a plan.
Casey looked relieved then and turned her full attention to her food.
“So, how was it up there?” Lex asked as Casey finished her snack.
The other woman shrugged. “Pretty smoky, as I bet you can tell, but the evacuation seemed to be going really well. Serena only had a few people to get out; most of them seemed fine to make it down the pole. By the time George showed up, they seemed to be between a third and halfway cleared out.”
Lex nodded, calculating in her head. She'd planned to make a move when only a few people were left inside, so that their absence would be unlikely to be noticed immediately and so they could carry out their plan by the time everyone escaped. Calling over the communicator, Lex asked that Serena call in and report the floor she was helping on as she moved downwards. Lex looked up at the other two women watching her.
“Good,” Lex said, “looks like things are moving along. Not long now, and everything will be good.”
The other two nodded at her words, suddenly looking ready in a way they hadn't all day.
When Serena called in and said that they were working on the third floor, Lex looked at Riss and then at Casey and nodded. After that, she pointed to the camera scene on Riss' laptop.
“What was that? Did that look like someone to you?”
Riss smiled wickedly. “It looks like someone might be in the basement. Do you think we should check it out?”
“Definitely,” Casey replied with a wide smile. “I think the three of us should go since everyone else is busy.”
Riss put on a smaller backpack that she pulled from her larger one and locked all the laptops spread on the blanket. Casey stood, almost vibrating with readiness. Lex called over the communicator.
“Clara, Riss and I thought we spotted someone trapped in the basement. Since everyone else is busy, we thought we'd go down there with Casey and check it out.”
“Why does Riss need to go?”
Lex sighed. “She's going to bring one of her computers down and help us track the person using the security cameras. We'll need her help to find them.”
“All right, but don't take long. I overheard the engineers talking a little while ago and they said the building is really starting to go, so if you can't find anyone in a few minutes, get out.”
“OK, we will, don't worry,” Lex said, trying to keep a little twinge of guilt at bay.
The three of them picked up breathing gear and made their way in through the front entrance, explaining the plan to the fire fighters there and getting warnings in response to get back out as soon as they could. They hurried down the stairs into the large basement area.
Lex pointed to a corner with a video camera as they got there, and Riss nodded, closed her eyes for a moment, and then the two of them looked at the image from the camera on the laptop Lex had given Riss, which now showed just static. Riss pointed all around the basement to let Lex and Casey know that she'd knocked out all the cameras, and the three of them moved quickly to the grate they'd seen on the camera image earlier.
Riss and Lex stood behind a support pillar as Casey grabbed then yanked the grate up, bolts popping in all directions. The three then made their way down a rickety metal ladder to the rain sewer, which seemed a far distance below. As their feet hit the catwalk, they all took out glow sticks and lit them, then watched as Riss brought up a sewer schematic on her computer. She hit a key and they all watched as a path lit up that would bring them near to Union Station. The three of them studied it for a moment to memorize it. Shortly, they straightened up and waited as Riss began unpacking clothing from her backpack and handing it out.
As soon as it had all been distributed, Riss quickly changed out of her jumpsuit and boots and stuffed them into the backpack. Lex had gotten about halfway through and Casey had unzipped her jumpsuit when they heard a voice booming above the crackling roar of the fire far overhead.
“Who would have thought of looking for you down here?”
Lex froze as she recognized George, but watched as Casey's head turned slightly towards her and Riss, making a sharp movement with her head to keep them back.
“Everyone else was worried that you were trapped in the basement since we'd lost track of you,” George began. He continued to talk as Casey walked up to him, her jumpsuit still unzipped down to her navel, which caught his attention.
“If you think that's going to save you—” he began, but his words changed to a groan as Casey hit him so hard on his left cheek that his head spun around and a spray of blood hit the wall. A moment later, his body hit the catwalk with a loud thud after which Casey nudged him with her toe, getting no response. Turning her back on him a moment later, Casey quickly stripped off her clothes and then dressed in her new ones. The last one to stuff her jumpsuit and boots in the backpack, Casey hurried back up the ladder they'd come down earlier.
Riss and Lex waited in silence, staring alternately at the ceiling and at George until hearing a tearing, crashing sound overhead. A few moments later, Casey came sliding back down the ladder, nudged George with her foot again while shaking her head, then Lex and Casey followed Riss farther into the sewers. After they'd moved well beyond where they'd started, Lex glanced back at Casey.
“Did the thing with the building go OK?” she half-whispered to Casey.
The blonde nodded. “Yeah. Our old clothes are up there under a bunch of rubble; I pulled a support pillar down on top of them.”
“What about George?”
“Nobody listening would have heard us, so they can't be sure if he's lying or not. By the time they might get interested in pursuing us, we should be far away. Idiot apparently had a glass jaw,” said Casey, smiling and straightening up.
Lex smiled in return. “Well, for you, anyway.”
“Let's keep going,” Riss suggested, indicating the way with a jerk of her head.
The three of them walked as rapidly as possible alongside the rain sewer, Lex eventually trailing behind. The pain in her head had ratcheted up in intensity, and her stomach had started to roll and grind as well. She willed herself to keep putting one foot in front of another and follow her friends, trying to swallow the pain back down.
Reaching the exit they planned to try, Riss went up first and fed a small fiber optic camera through the manhole cover to check the street. She came back down, nodding that it seemed deserted and Casey went up to remove the cover.
Riss went up first. Her route would take her in the far entrance to the train station, and Casey waited five minutes before following. Casey had agreed to go in the front, and Lex was to wait another five minutes before following to go in the nearest side entrance. After a couple of minutes, however, Lex blinked, realizing her vision had started to have blank patches, and she couldn't tell exactly how much time had passed, since she'd forgotten to mark Casey's departure. Cursing under her breath, she threw her glow stick into the sewer water and climbed up the ladder. Putting one of the gloves on that Victor had made for her, she dragged the manhole cover closed and then looked around at the dumpster further down the alley and the clot of plastic shopping bags tangled around a signpost before walking the half block to Union Station.