4.n.
A back up unit
had arrived just after Bud managed to stabilize the woman who had one or two
more teeth than normal. The two injured
men were separated and his partner tended their wounds. The backup crew loaded the woman into their
rig and while they helped escort the men to the awaiting ambulances, Bud
followed a trail of blood across the lobby floor, down a long corridor, to the
far corner of the building. There he
found a bleeding man next to a large black column.
For a moment
he thought he saw blue light coming from cracks in the column’s surface, but
when he reached the injured man he noted that the column was solid and
smooth. He radioed his partner to advise
that there was a fourth victim and immediately checked for vitals.
There was a
heartbeat. And breathing. And then a string of obscenities that
figuratively sent Bud’s ears to the burn unit.
