Mediterranean Rescue

by Laura MacDonald

  Turning her head, she realised she was alone, that somehow Dominic had moved without waking her. Sitting up, she stretched and yawned, rubbing her eyes, easing her aching limbs before finally, with a deep sigh, hauling herself to her feet. Trying to ignore or stifle the clamouring of her own body’s needs, she made her way across the floor to see what help she could give.

  She found Dominic at Diane’s side, moistening her mouth with a little of the precious mineral water. After helping Russell to cope as best he could, they went next to Ted, then to Peter, Evelyn, Nicola and the others. The water ran out before they were halfway round, likewise the sweets that were left and the small pieces of cereal bars—not enough to go round, with Dominic, Archie, Desmond and Rob receiving nothing. Claire had refused her portion but Dominic had insisted she take it and in the end she had been forced to take her mouthful of water and a boiled barley sugar sweet. She had never known anything to taste so good and she kept the sweet in her mouth until it was barely more than a sliver when what she really wanted to do was suck it away immediately and let the juices trickle down her parched throat.

  At eight o’clock Rob’s father phoned again but Rob was only able to tell him that they were still waiting for the emergency services and that for some of them the situation was becoming crucial when the battery on his mobile phone ran out and their last link with the outside world was severed.

  ‘I meant to charge it before we left the hotel,’ said Rob apologetically, looking helplessly round at the others, ‘but I was a bit late and I thought I might miss the coach so I thought I’d leave it until I got back.’

  ‘I bet you wish you had missed the coach now,’ said Desmond. Even his voice was dulled now and as Diane’s condition continued to deteriorate and Ted’s pain worsened a sense of despair began to creep over the group and settle like mist over marshland.

  It was late morning when Claire saw Dominic lift his head and appear to listen.

  ‘What is it?’ She held her breath, listening herself for that ominous rumbling sound. ‘Is it another tremor?’ she whispered in dread.

  ‘No.’ Dominic shook his head then, glancing at Archie who also had lifted his head and was listening, he said, ‘Can you hear it as well?’

  ‘Yes.’ Archie nodded then scrambled to his feet. ‘It’s a siren. I would say it’s some way off, but it’s definitely a siren.’

  ‘Oh, thank God!’ cried Melanie. ‘We’re going to be rescued.’

  A ripple of relief and expectation ran through the room as people hugged each other and someone burst into tears.

  It was a further hour, however, before they could hear sounds of activity outside.

  ‘It’s going to take some while before they clear through the rubble to get in to us,’ warned Dominic as people began preparing themselves to leave.

  ‘Maybe,’ said Claire, ‘but at least something is happening.’

  ‘Not a moment too soon for Diane,’ said Dominic in a low voice. ‘She’s not good this morning.’

  ‘She survived the night,’ replied Claire softly. ‘There was a moment when I doubted she would do that.’

  Within an hour all that could be heard were the sounds of digging as a rescue team hacked its way from the cloisters into the vast room. At one point when all suddenly went quiet it was possible to communicate verbally with their rescuers, although what was actually said was very limited as no one’s Italian was up to much, and the rescuers appeared to be in possession of no English.

  And then, just as spirits were raised and optimism was soaring at the prospect of imminent rescue, there came a sudden cry of alarm from Dorothy.

  ‘Oh, quickly, quickly, it’s Evelyn! Come quickly. Doctor!’

  Within seconds both Dominic and Claire were by Evelyn’s side. Propped against the wall, she appeared ashen-faced and her hands were clutching at her chest then she seemed to give a huge sigh before slumping sideways.

  Dominic leaned over her. ‘She’s arrested,’ he said calmly. ‘Lay her down—that’s right. Her airways are clear. Good. Come on, Claire, we’ll resuscitate together. I’ll start cardiac massage—you breathe.’

  Together Claire and Dominic instinctively fell into the rhythm of resuscitation, with Dominic administering five sharp thumps to the left side of Evelyn’s chest with the ball of his linked hands then Claire pinching Evelyn’s nose and giving a breath into her mouth.

  They continued with this routine, watched by Dorothy, Melanie and Archie, for what seemed like hours but which, in reality, could have only been for a few minutes until, at last, they paused and Dominic checked Evelyn’s pulse.

  ‘Nothing,’ he said. ‘Again,’ he added, and they resumed the procedure while Dorothy wrung her hands in anguish as she stood by helplessly and watched as the two medics fought for her sister’s life.

  Just when it would have appeared to any of the onlookers that all was lost, Dominic stopped the massage. ‘We have an output—she’s breathing,’ he said with a grunt of satisfaction while Claire sat back on her heels with a huge sigh of relief.

  ‘Oh, thank you, thank you,’ wept Dorothy, who by this time was completely overcome by emotion.

  ‘Try and keep her warm,’ said Dominic. ‘Hopefully, soon now we’ll be able to get her to hospital.’

  Even as he spoke there came a triumphant shout from the far end of the room as, to the cheers of those inside, the first of the rescuers broke through.

  Because of the painstaking nature of the work, however, which involved the careful removal of the rubble and the constant fear of further collapse, it was a further two hours before the debris could be sufficiently cleared to allow access.

  But at last an Italian medical team gained entry and after difficult consultation with Dominic and Claire administered first aid to the injured. Oxygen was given to Evelyn and Diane and infusions set up for Diane and Ted, and within the next hour the injured were carried on stretchers out of the refectory, through the cloisters and into waiting ambulances.

  The rest of the group, dishevelled and exhausted, including Dominic and Claire, were taken to a minibus where it was explained to them that they were also to be taken to hospital in nearby Assisi to be checked over. As they finally drove away from the hilltop monastery Claire allowed herself a backward glance at the ancient building which for all those hours had been their prison and which at times had threatened to become their tomb.

  From outside it was possible to see the extent of the damage, from the huge section of missing roof to the ominous cracks which had appeared in the walls and which had split large sections of the ground around the monastery.

  ‘We’re lucky to be alive,’ said Dominic, voicing what everyone must have been thinking. As they left the monastery behind an attendant issued everyone with bottles of water, and as they drank, slaking their overwhelming thirst, they one by one fell silent as the extent of the damage caused by the earth tremors became apparent.

  Villages that they travelled through had been badly hit with houses destroyed, leaving bewildered people who now stood in shocked groups or trying to collect their possessions and the shattered remnants of their lives. Of the coach they had travelled in to the monastery there was no sign.

  ‘Let’s hope they got away,’ said Desmond at last, speaking for them all.

  They remained silent after that as they sped towards Assisi, and when Claire felt Dominic take her hand she was content for him to do so, letting her head fall onto his shoulder as a sudden, overwhelming sense of fatigue crept over her.

  The next few hours were to become a blur in Claire’s mind—their arrival at the hospital, being checked over by medical staff, Claire being treated for mild delayed shock and Dominic having his wound dressed, being given a meal and hot drinks then finally visiting those of their party who had been admitted.

  Diane had been taken directly to the hospital’s high-dependency unit and they found her surrounded by high-tech equipment with Russell by her side.

  ‘She’s in good hands now, Ru
ssell,’ said Dominic.

  ‘She’s been in good hands all along,’ replied Russell huskily. ‘I’ll never be able to thank you two enough for all you’ve done for her. They are going to give her a scan tomorrow so I’ll know more then about her condition.’

  ‘Keep in touch, won’t you?’ said Claire. ‘We want to know how she gets on.’

  ‘Of course.’ Russell nodded before turning back to the still figure of his wife.

  Evelyn had been admitted to the cardiac unit and was being closely monitored. Dorothy was quite tearful when she said goodbye to Dominic and Claire. ‘We are going to arrange a flight home just as soon as Evelyn can be moved,’ she said, ‘but I know when all this is over Evelyn will want to thank the two of you herself.’

  ‘That’s not necessary,’ said Dominic gently.

  ‘You saved her life,’ replied Dorothy. ‘If it wasn’t for you, she wouldn’t be here now.’

  They found Ted in the emergency department, awaiting a transfer to the hospital’s orthopaedic unit to have surgery to set his shattered thigh.

  ‘They said if it wasn’t for these splints I could have been looking at the rest of my life in a wheelchair,’ he said, looking at Dominic as he spoke.

  ‘Are you sure you understood that correctly?’ asked Dominic with a weary smile. ‘I don’t think my Italian would have been up to that.’

  ‘Ah,’ said May, who was sitting beside her husband, ‘this doctor spoke very good English. He said those table legs saved the day.’

  ‘In that case, it should be Archie you should be thanking.’

  May smiled but from the look she gave Claire it was obvious where she thought their true gratitude lay.

  Peter was to be kept in overnight with suspected concussion, and Nicola was also to stay overnight just as a precautionary measure in view of her pregnancy, but it was finally agreed that, with the exception of the spouses or partners of the injured who would be accommodated locally, the others would be taken back to their hotels in Rome.

  Gradually they began to piece together the wider picture and greater effects of the earth tremors. Confirming what Rob’s father had told them, Archie and Desmond found out that a fairly large area had been affected in central and north-eastern Italy, resulting in much structural damage. The hospital to which they had been taken had been on full red alert and had been inundated with casualties from the nearby villages.

  ‘Did you manage to find out anything about Luisa and Guiseppe and the others?’ asked Claire anxiously as they sat in the hospital foyer, awaiting transport.

  ‘Yes,’ Archie replied. ‘Apparently the coach was badly damaged after an outer wall of the monastery collapsed on it. There were several injuries as there were still people sitting in the coach. The injured were brought to this hospital but as far as I can make out they have all been released and have been taken back to Rome.’

  It was a very subdued and exhausted group on the drive back to Rome, a far cry from the high-spirited, expectant band who had set out forty-eight hours before on their ill-fated trip to Assisi.

  On their arrival at the hotel Claire went straight to her room where she collapsed onto her bed and slept for eight solid hours.

  When she finally awoke she couldn’t at first think where she was or what had happened to her, but as she lay on her back and gazed at patterns of sunlight on the ceiling it slowly flooded over her as she recalled all that had happened.

  Turning her head, she looked at her bedroom clock and saw that it was five o’clock in the afternoon. She lay there for a time collecting her thoughts, until at last with a sigh she sat up, winced when she realised she ached all over then gingerly swung her legs to the floor and stood up. For one dreadful moment the room seemed to lurch and sway. She closed her eyes and when she reopened them was relieved to find that everything seemed to have returned to normal. Slowly she padded across the floor to the shower room and allowed herself the sheer bliss of standing beneath the jet of water as it washed away all outward traces of the ordeal of the past two days. The inward effects, she suspected, would take longer to disappear. She wondered about Dominic, whether he was awake and if his shoulder was giving him pain. Maybe, she thought, when she was dressed she would phone his room.

  She had just finished drying her hair when her phone rang, and because she had been thinking about Dominic she imagined it would be him. ‘Hello?’ she said eagerly on lifting the receiver.

  ‘There is a call for you,’ said a voice with a very strong Italian accent. ‘I put you through.’

  Still she thought it would be Dominic. ‘Hello?’ she said again.

  ‘Hello?’ said another voice, a very English voice this time, a voice that was instantly recognisable and so familiar but which because of recent events seemed to belong to another totally different existence, ‘It’s me, Mike.’

  ‘Oh, Mike!’ She swallowed. She’d completely forgotten about Mike.

  ‘Claire, are you all right?’ he said. ‘I’ve been trying to ring your mobile but I haven’t been able to get through.’

  ‘Yes, I’m all right,’ she replied. Suddenly she felt weak just standing there and sank down onto the bed.

  ‘We heard reports of the earth tremors,’ said Mike. ‘I wasn’t too worried at first because I knew you were in Rome—nowhere near the tremors—but then when I couldn’t reach you on your mobile I rang the hotel…You are all right, aren’t you, darling?’

  ‘Well, I am now,’ Claire replied weakly.

  ‘What do you mean? Rome wasn’t affected, was it?’

  ‘No, but I wasn’t in Rome.’

  ‘Where were you, then?’ he demanded.

  ‘We were on an excursion to Assisi—I did tell you we were going, Mike.’

  ‘Did you? I don’t remember.’

  No, she thought, because you were too concerned about Emma’s exams at the time. ‘Well, I did,’ she said. ‘Anyway, we rather got caught up in things.’

  ‘But you are all right now?’

  ‘Yes…yes, I’m all right now.’ She was about to tell him that others in her party had been seriously injured, that someone had been killed, about the terror and the anguish of it all, but he gave her no chance.

  ‘Well, thank God for that,’ he said. ‘I’m still not sure I should have let you go without me. Anyway, you’ll have to tell me all about it when you get home. Emma wants to pick your brains as well—she’s doing a project on ancient Rome. But talking of coming home—in view of this earthquake business, will you be coming any earlier?’

  Claire found herself gripping the receiver a little tighter then heard herself say, ‘No, I shouldn’t think so, Mike. I’ll see you on Saturday as arranged.’

  ‘All right,’ he said. ‘I’m afraid I won’t be able to get to the airport to pick you up—I’m on call—but take care, won’t you?’

  ‘Yes, I will—Oh, Mike,’ she said, ‘just one thing. Would you ring my father for me and tell him I’m all right, just in case he’s been worrying?’

  ‘Will do. Bye, my love. I love you.’

  ‘Bye, Mike,’ she said slowly. ‘I love you, too,’ she added automatically.

  She found Dominic half an hour later sitting at a table on the hotel terrace with a glass of beer in front of him. He stood up as she walked towards him and pulled out a chair so she could join him.

  ‘Hello,’ he said softly, and as his gaze met hers her heart turned over. ‘I was just coming to look for you,’ he added. As she sat down he raised one hand to summon the ever-attentive waiter who hovered nearby. ‘What would you like?’ he asked.

  ‘Just iced water, please,’ she replied.

  ‘Are you all right?’ he asked, his voice suddenly full of concern, ‘I was getting worried about you.’

  ‘Were you?’ A faint smile touched her mouth and as she looked at him she noticed that he still looked tired and rather drawn. ‘I slept much longer than I intended.’

  ‘That’s good,’ he said. ‘You needed it.’

  ‘What a
bout you?’ she asked. ‘Did you sleep?’

  ‘Not very well,’ he admitted.

  ‘Your shoulder—was it painful?’

  ‘A bit, ‘he admitted, ‘but it wasn’t really that—it was more that my brain decided to run an action replay of the last forty-eight hours.’

  ‘It’s terrible when that happens,’ said Claire looking up, shielding her eyes from the early evening sun and smiling at the waiter as he arrived with a tray bearing a glass and a jug of iced water, ‘but you’ll probably sleep well tonight, while my body clock will be completely out of sync.’ She paused and looked around at the masses of flowers and the cypress trees that fringed the terrace and whose shadows across the flagstones were growing longer as the sun sank slowly behind the distant hills. ‘Have you seen any of the others?’ she asked after a moment.

  ‘A few of them were around earlier,’ he replied. ‘Desmond and Archie and a couple of the others.’

  ‘Did they say what they are going to do?’

  ‘The general feeling seems to be to get flights home as soon as they can.’

  ‘I can understand that,’ said Claire thoughtfully as she sipped her drink. ‘What about Archie—is he going home?’

  ‘No, but I understand he was moving on tomorrow anyway.’ Dominic paused. ‘What will you do, Claire?’ He spoke casually, throwing her a sidelong glance.

  ‘I’m not sure,’ she admitted. ‘There’s a part of me that longs for home but…on the other hand it might be nice just to stay here and rest for a while. After all, it’s only until Saturday—I was going then anyway.’ She was silent again then, looking at Dominic from under her lashes, said, ‘How about you?’

  ‘I was going at the weekend as well,’ he replied, still in the same casual tones. ‘I’d planned to move on to Austria and then to Prague for a couple of days.’