Ghost Town

David looks down at his volunteer sheet and sighs. He didn’t have much time to ask for help. He grabbed his fire crew and called a few buddies and had some of them go out and gather as many to help. The whole town of Ember was buried beneath a landslide this morning due to excessive rain.

They’d been out here for hours digging in the mud, trying to rescue those still in their homes. Being the Fire Chief from the closest town, it was his job. He’d come from the next town over, Ivy Cove. They were the first responders. No one was more surprised than he was that the town by the river would suddenly not exist any more.

Not only that, but he has noticed in the hours of labor, digging out the survivors, many on the volunteer sheet have gone missing. Ellie, Addison, and Judy went with my firefighters John and Rosa. Oakley, Piper, Mark, and Jax all went with Zach and Janice. Judy, Max, Owen, Nash and Ezra took off with Erik and Bennett. And Omar, Wade, Cody, and Seth all left with Sam and Rex. Each of my crew came back, but reported their lost volunteers.

What was going on? Everyone is supposed to come check in every couple hours to give progress reports and drink water. It’s very important and it’s a rule for a reason!

That might sound weird, because it’s still raining like crazy, but we don’t want people to dehydrate while they are trying to save people! The thunder that has been blessing us with its presence for the entire day hasn’t helped in refreshing our teams out digging in the muck.

In the last 3 hours, 15 people have missed check-ins. What is going on? No one should be missing check-ins! Don’t they know we do this for safety purposes? We want everyone to be safe! If someone fell down a hole, I need to know about it!

So far we’ve rescued about 72 people. It wasn’t a big town. Honestly, there were just about 90 people give or take, so we are really close to having everyone out of the mud. I need to go check the other Fire Chiefs to find out if they have a definite list of those who were not accounted for and those who may have left town for the weekend. I’ve been too busy with my crew to talk to the survivors. I feel guilty about that, but it isn’t like I’ve been sitting on my butt and not working.

We’ve had to resuscitate a couple kids and an older couple with our emergency rescue services. So far so good. They were taken to the nearest hospital.

About an hour into our search we had another couple towns from farther away show up, thank goodness! They brought more shovels and ropes and a couple of rigs. We’ve even had sandbaggers out here trying to stop up the river rushing through. We’ll take all the help we can get at this point!

But that doesn’t make me feel any better about the people who have gone missing! If they don’t show up in another hour or two I’m going to make a second rescue mission. I can’t keep ignoring the people who have bravely went out to sacrifice themselves to save the people of this little town.

I look down at my watch. It’s 3:30 in the afternoon. The rain is starting to lighten up, but this time of year, the sun goes down around 6:30-ish. We can’t let them stay out here in the dark! It will be so much worse if we have to look for them in the dark. It's dangerous! We could lose even more from our teams.

That’s it! If they don’t show up by 4, I am going to go out looking for our lost volunteers! I can’t have people hurt and lost, needing help while they are on a rescue mission. Bruises and scrapes are a given. Things happen! But a whole missing person is completely uncalled for.

John came jogging up to him, looking distressed. “Chief, I still can’t find my volunteers.” He looks as exhausted as David felt. They’ve been working since 5 this morning. John is one of his closest friends and he trusts him with his life. If he says he can’t find members of his team it wasn’t just a quick glance!

Dave ground his teeth; this is not what he wanted to hear. He’d sent his leaders back to see if they could locate the MIA volunteers. The rest of their teams are taking a small break to gather their strength before he sends them back out into that blasted mud.

He looked up just as Zach, Erik and Sam showed up. Each one shaking their heads. Each one looking as haggard and wary as the other. None of them are happy with this situation. They had a responsibility to keep each team member safe, and somehow members of their volunteer teams slipped through the cracks.

“Crap! This is not good!” he growled. He sent his crew out to keep watch and make sure the volunteers would be safe! How could this happen right under their noses? Nothing like this has ever happened before. Each and every man here is responsible and trustworthy.

“Chief…” Sam started a little reluctantly. He doesn’t look like he wants to tell him what he is thinking, but that’s not gonna stop David from getting any and all info from his men!

“Yeah? Whaddya got, Sam?” David asks.

“Well, we were all up on the Northern border of the town, and that is where they all disappeared,” Sam explained.

Huh… Maybe they are onto something. If they all disappeared around the same area, maybe there is a ditch somewhere that no one has noticed?

“That’s a good place to start. Did you see anything over there?” He asks with only a small glimmer of hope in his eyes. This was the only thing he’s got to work with. If it’s all he’s got, he’ll deal with it, but any information will help him. He doesn't have time to pull teeth! He’s gotta get this done yesterday!

“Not really,” Zach responds. “It’s where the mudslide originated on the hill.”

Dave sighs again. It’s been a helluva day and he still has work to do, and now he’s gotta go after some delinquent volunteers to make sure no one has gotten hurt!

The only bright spot is the downpour has now shifted into a sprinkle in the last few minutes. With any luck, the storm will pass in the next hour or so. Not that it helps much, because the sun is still getting steadily lower over the horizon behind the dark clouds and sooner than he’d like it’s gonna get dark.

He looked back down at his watch and inwardly cursed the mudslide. He really didn’t have time to go search for missing people who were supposed to be searching for other missing people! This is a freaking disaster! And he means that literally. It’s a national disaster.

Making up his mind, he didn’t have time to mess around. “Alright, guys. Get the rest of your volunteers together after your break and head out to the East side by the river. John, I need you to lead me to where you last saw the members of your team.”

Each team was made up of ten volunteers, so we still had help, and the help from the other towns in the county.

From last count we have 72 survivors and we are still looking for about 20 more. We still don’t have confirmation on people who may have been out of town. Now we have an additional 15 people to go look for.

“Yes, Chief,” rang out in chorus. My crew is the best!

“Let’s go, John,” I ordered, marching toward the Northern border.

“Yes, Chief,” he responds without the slightest rebellion.

This is why I took this job!