SIX FEET FROM HELL: THE LOST CHRONICLES #1
BY
JOSEPH A. COLEY
©2014 JOSEPH A. COLEY
©2014 JOSEPH A. COLEY
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
No part of this book may be reproduced in any written, electronic, recording, or photocopying without written permission of the publisher or author. The exception would be in the case of brief quotations embodied in the critical articles or reviews and pages where permission is specifically granted by the publisher or author.
Although every precaution has been taken to verify the accuracy of the information contained herein, the author and publisher assume no responsibility for any errors or omissions. No liability is assumed for damages that may result from the use of information contained within.
SOCIAL MEDIA AND OTHER LINKS
www.facebook.com/6feetfromhell
www.twitter.com/josephacoley
www.sixfeetfromhell.blogspot.com
Six Feet From Hell: Response
Six Feet From Hell: Escape
Six Feet From Hell: Salvation
Six Feet From Hell: Crisis
Six Feet From Hell: Unity
Signal 13 – A Fire/Rescue Horror Story
I
GROUND ZERO
II
…THAT OTHERS MAY LIVE
III
FATHER OF MANY
GROUND ZERO
Josh woke with a shuddered start. He instinctively grabbed the side of the bed to brace himself as the shuddering and shaking made its way from the depths of his subconscious dreaming to the forefront of reality. He shot up in bed, his boots untied and uniform shirt still on and unkempt. Josh was finishing a 24-hour shift at Star Ambulance in Grundy, Virginia. He had worked a relatively easy shift up to that point, not having to deal much with the denizens of Buchanan County. The shift had started out with an early call for a vehicle accident with injuries, due in part to the early fog the morning before. The rest of the shift had gone on with little incident; the sick and injured had not made a big show for the day.
Josh’s partner Steve, also a Paramedic, came bolting through the door from the other bunkroom in their small station. Their eyes met and both managed out a bewildered amalgam of sounds before Josh finally woke up enough to realize what was going on.
It felt like an earthquake.
“What the fuck is that?” Steve managed out as he threw his boots on and prepared for the inevitable phone call that would come. Even though they were a private ambulance service, Star Ambulance did the vast majority of the incoming 911 calls. The Sheriff’s office would call Star’s dispatch, and in turn, Star would dispatch out their own unit.
The intense shaking subsided, signaling the end of the quake. Steve finished throwing his boots on as Josh did the same. Both men grabbed their respective gear and ran out the door to the waiting ambulance, still idling form the night before. They switched on both the Buchanan County EMS radio and the Star Ambulance company radio and were initially met with silence.
The cool, early September morning greeted them instead, a low-lying light fog covering most of what they could see. Being in the heart of coal country, they were used to hearing of mine accidents and accustomed to the occasional boom of the use of explosives in the mines. This morning, however, felt more like a straight-up earthquake instead of the usual low rumble associated with mine blasting.
Josh looked quizzically at Steve as he stood on the driver’s side of the unit and waited with baited breath. “Maybe I was just dreaming it all.”
“Then why in the hell did your dream wake us both up? Don’t you think it would have just done it to you? Besides, I felt it too when I woke up.” Steve raised a good point; the upheaval of the earth would not have just affected Josh in his bed, as much as he might have liked it to. There had been some sort of geological event that had just happened and both men were eagerly waiting to see what the public safety world in their small county had to say about it. The radio sat in silence for another thirty seconds before it came to life.
“Attention Grundy Fire Department, your assistance is needed with a mine accident in Whitewood, unknown what the exact problem is. The mine is requesting all available assistance that you have. Buchanan Central clear at 0537.” The voice of the dispatcher was noticeably more frantic than usual, their normal calm demeanor somewhat frazzled.
Steve let out a measured sigh of relief. It apparently was just a mine accident; they would more than likely still be needed but at least their imaginations were no longer running wild with ideas. Steve climbed into the driver’s seat as Josh did the same to the passenger’s side, both buckling themselves in. Steve picked up the radio and signed en route to back up the fire department and to assist with the injured. Steve was a seasoned paramedic, working nearly twenty years in the lifesaving business as opposed to Josh who was relatively new to the EMS field, having worked only the last three years. As Steve flipped on the lights and siren and headed out down the road, the radio continued to come to life.
Numerous calls and pager tones went out to the various rescue and fire agencies in the county and began lighting up the radio channels. By the time the two Star Ambulance employees were enroute to the mine accident that they were dispatched to it was nearly impossible for them to sign out on the radio. Reports were flying in from different corners of Buchanan County and they could only piece together what was happening. As near as they could tell, a mine accident was wreaking havoc on the affected miners.
“What the hell is goin’ on? Sounds like this is a big ass problem. Wonder which one we should go to?” Josh said as he listened to the radio squawking away.
“Well, Buck One is the one they sent us to, I say we head that way,” Steve replied. “God only knows what they’ve got into over there and it sounds like the shit is hittin’ the fan somethin’ fierce.”
Steve wheeled the Dodge Ram ambulance down the road at breakneck speed as more reports of mine accidents across their small area of Virginia flooded in. Pike County, Kentucky and McDowell County, West Virginia were doing the same as Buchanan County. Steve unexpectedly pulled the ambulance off the side of the road and turned the siren off. Josh looked at him quizzically.
“What the hell are you doing? We got some major shit goin’ down here; we don’t need to be pullin’ off the side of the road to wait on the cavalry.”
“That’s just it, man. Where the hell is our backup? Start makin’ some phone calls and get us some help down here. See if the crew in Vansant is busy and see if we can get some people. Text ‘em, call ‘em, whatever. The radio sounds like it’s going to be useless anyway. Just get us some damn help down here,” Steve said, never taking his eyes away from his front.
Josh nodded and picked up his phone and sent out a mass text to everyone that he knew to be working or were coming in. It said:
ALL HELL BREAKING LOOSE IN GRUNDY
He did not want to give away too many details because honestly, he did not have the details. If he could send out a text that would get people’s attention then maybe they would call in and try to find out what was going on. Josh completed his text and stashed his phone back in his pocket.
“Okay, let’s see what we get. We still need to head up there and find out what…” A utility truck that pulled up in front of them interrupted Josh, coming from the direction of their intended destination. Before the men ever got out of the car, Josh knew what they were there for. The miners were not one for being extraordinarily patient when it came to getting aid for their fellow man. When they needed help, they went and got it, they did not wait for it to come to them. The truck skidded to a h
alt in front of them and the driver jumped out.
“And here we go. Now we find out what the hell is goin’ on,” Steve said as he unlatched his seatbelt and got out of the truck.
The driver looked as if he was worse for wear, but not an uncommon look for the mines. Men came out looking more like they had rolled around in the coal instead of harvesting it for a living. The telltale reverse raccoon look was also not uncommon, evidence of the safety glasses the driver had worn. He did not bother closing the door on the truck as he jumped out and began waving his arms wildly at Josh and Steve. Josh followed the lead of his partner as he calmly approached the injured miners.
“You gotta help ‘em! The damn mine filled up with some kinda fuckin’ gas after some damn explosion blew the shit out of us! I was the only one who was able to drive and I can’t see for shit!” The injured driver hobbled over to the passenger’s side of the truck and flung the door open. His injured friends moaned and groaned from inside the cab of the truck, obviously in great pain. The two miners in the back seat looked as if they were burned on their faces, but it was impossible to tell the difference between the black of the coal and the black of the burn. The charred smell of burnt flesh was an unmistakable smell that was not easily confused with something else. Josh crinkled his nose as he opened the rear door of the extended cab truck. The first man that Josh saw reached for him, the second man was not moving at all, adding a little more of a challenge to the situation. Josh glanced towards the second man, noticing that he was not breathing.
“Shit! Steve, get over here and get this other dude! I don’t think that he’s breathing!”
Steve nonchalantly ambled over to the driver’s side, as was his custom. Steve had plenty of run ins with life-and-death situations during his long career. A smart medic did not get too excited after so many years of working, and Steve was definitely one of those kinds of medics. Steve was snapping on his gloves when the second miner started to stir, obviously still alive. Steve shrugged at Josh as he noticed the second miner stirring. Steve looked back at the miner in the passenger’s seat and began to examine him. The miner was not moving very much air in and out of his lungs, which Josh could have mistaken for him not breathing at all. The low, guttural sound that he made was indicative of fluid in his lungs that he was unable to get out. Steve checked his airway, also muddled by blackness and swelling, which appeared to be worse than he originally anticipated. Steve stalked back over to the truck as Josh was getting the first miner out of the truck and helping him into the unit.
“Looks like we are gonna transport ‘em both. Imma put this guy in the captain’s chair. How is the other one doin’?”
Steve opened the outside compartment and grabbed a backboard to help get the second miner out. “Well he is breathing, but not for long if we don’t get him intubated soon. I will RSI him, you get some vitals on the other one, and we will try to get this one flown out. I doubt the hospital will want us taking him in intubated, so let’s get a chopper in here before they get covered up with all the other ones they are gonna fly out.”
“Sounds good. I’ll get big homey here in the captain’s chair and I’ll give you a hand with the other dude.” Josh got the miner to the back of the ambulance and helped him in. Josh grabbed his portable radio and called the Sheriff’s office to request a medevac chopper. The garbled transmission he got back eventually signaled that they had the intended service on the way with a twenty-minute ETA. Josh hauled himself into the truck and sat the injured patient in the captain’s chair and seat belted him in. Josh grabbed the heart monitor and slapped the blood pressure cuff and the pulse oximeter to read his oxygen saturation. The patient’s blood pressure was a little on the high side, but within normal limits. Steve appeared at the back of the truck, grabbed the stretcher from its cradle, and motioned to Josh.
“This guy is starting to seize on me over here. Gimme a hand and we will get him ready for the chopper. How’s he doin’?”
Josh was checking the airway of his patient with a penlight and clicked it off as Steve loosed the stretcher from the cradle and pulled it out of the truck. “He’s not good, but I think he will be better off than the other one. What are we gonna do about the driver?”
“Have him ride shotgun. I don’t think he’s gonna be able to drive before long and the last thing we need is him wrecking out somewhere behind us. Just tell him to leave the truck and we’ll give him a ride to the hospital.”
Josh nodded and got up to help his partner. He got out of the truck, opened the passenger’s side door, and coaxed the driver into the ambulance. The driver grudgingly obliged and climbed up into the Dodge Ram ambulance. Steve was at the rear of the utility truck and situated the backboard with the stretcher so they could hoist him onto it and get him secured. Josh shut the door on the ambulance and stepped over to Steve as he slid out the semi-conscious miner onto the hard plastic backboard. The patient began to seize again as Josh and Steve were taking the Velcro straps and securing him to the backboard. The helicopter they were using required that the patient be secured to the board while in flight. Josh finished securing the patient and him and Steve both grabbed the ends of the board and placed him on the stretcher. They wheeled the stretcher to the back of the ambulance and loaded it up. The injured miner began thrashing about more violently as they secured the stretcher in the truck.
“Shit! His airway is gonna close off if I don’t get him tubed!” Steve needed to secure his airway and soon, and the process of endotracheal intubation was hard enough to do without his patient slamming up and down on the backboard. The thrashing continued as they latched the stretcher into the truck. Steve jumped in and slammed the doors behind him as Josh trotted to the driver’s side and behind the wheel. He made a U-turn off the side of the road and made his way back towards town.
The denizens of Buchanan County had not yet been made officially aware of what was going on with the early morning rumble of the earth. It was not uncommon to feel the occasional low rumble throughout the mountains of Southwest Virginia; however, this morning’s shaking was a little more than a light wakeup; it was more of a violent jerk back into consciousness. The limited resources of the local police, fire, and rescue were stretched already to the breaking point, and the full scope of what was going on had not yet been established. The resources that they did have were being used to transport the injured to the small hospital on the edge of town, Buchanan General Hospital.
Josh wheeled through town a little quicker than usual with his and Steve’s three passengers. The man that rode shotgun with Josh did not initially seem as bad off as his cohorts did, but was quickly declining. The miner rolled his head back and forth with the curves as Josh sped towards the hospital, his partner Steve working feverishly in the back of the unit. The patient on the stretcher continued his abnormal thrashing and generally irritated behavior. Steve had managed to start an IV on the affected miner and had pushed Valium, to no avail. The man was still in his seizure-like activity, and showed no signs of stopping. Josh periodically looked back through the rearview mirror at Steve working feverishly as he continued through town. More of the fire departments and the police were out and about with their lights and sirens blaring. The radio had not let up from the original amount of traffic that was coming across; the police and other units were still calling for more backup with not much success. Just as they were pulling into the lot the radio squawked, garbled but legible enough to tell that their intended helicopter was being delayed and sent to other locations.
“Shit! Steve, that’s gonna be a negative on the chopper. They said they’ve got bigger fish to fry, more or less.”
“Dammit! Well just get us over there to Buck General; we can just dump ‘em off there. Not like we have any damn choice.”
Josh made the right hand turn across the bridge and into the parking lot of the small hospital in Grundy. Several other ambulances from neighboring towns and counties were already taking up most of the limited space that the ER had available
. He parked the unit, got out to help his partner, and gave a hand to the miner that was still riding shotgun.
The scene at the hospital was of pure panic, nothing else. Dozens of people, family members, injured miners, and frenzied hospital staff poured in and out of the hospital. Josh was shuffling in with his injured passenger in tow, along with dragging the stretcher behind him. Steve was at the head of the stretcher, pushing and attempting to plow their way through and into the ER. Josh shoved his way past a few more people as he entered the entrance code to the ER and came in.
The scene inside the ER was not unlike what was going on outside of it. Two dozen or more patients were in the ER that was only meant to hold six or seven at most. The ER physician that was crossing the hall from the nurse’s station to an adjacent room shot the crew a disapproving glance.
“Look, you guys are our lowest priority right now. Whatever that stuff was that came up is nothing like I've ever seen before. Drop off your guys in triage. Put whatever guys you have on notice, we are gonna start shipping em out to Richlands, Pikeville, Tazewell and whoever else we can get to take em. We don’t have the resources, now if you’ll excuse me I've got to intubate this fellow in three.”
Josh turned to Steve and shrugged. They took and transferred their backboarded patient to the lone available hospital bed in triage and sat the other two miners in triage in the floor, as it was the only available space. They tossed the dirty linen off the stretcher and again had to plow through people to get back outside. They loaded up the stretcher in the ambulance and got back in, already getting tired from their early morning debacle. They had no sooner than got in than Josh’s phone rang. He grabbed the cell out of his pocket and answered. It was Joe, a friend of his and former partner at Star Ambulance’s office in Grundy.
“Hey what the hell is going on down there? Larry just called me and everybody else in, some kind of mining accident down there,” Joe said anxiously.
Six Feet From Hell: The Lost Chronicles (Book 1) Page 1
