She nodded against his chest. “I’m okay. Are you?”
“Going to have some bruises, but I’m all right. We have people hurt over here. Can you help me?”
She straightened away from him. “Of course.”
The beam of another powerful flashlight joined Haley’s in piercing the wet rain pouring in through the broken ceiling. “Is everyone okay?” a man’s voice called from the area of the kitchen.
“Do you have a first aid kit?” Ron called in that direction.
“I’ll be right there.”
“Ambulances are on the way,” Candi announced, already pressing buttons again on the lighted pad of her cell phone. The blue light from the phone threw her face into an eerie silhouette, and her eyes glittered with reaction and excitement.
Haley thought she heard the faint keening of sirens from somewhere in the distance but had no way of knowing if they were ambulances, police or fire trucks, or even if they were headed this way. She didn’t know how much damage the surrounding area had sustained, how many people might be hurt and waiting for help.
She and Ron threw themselves into assessing injuries. Identifying themselves as medical students, not doctors, they did what they could to help those who had been hurt. The elderly woman had been cut by a flying piece of glass. In the beam of the flashlight, the cut on her arm didn’t look too deep, but they instructed her to lie still and keep the arm elevated in her husband’s lap as he sat beside her, staunching the flow with his handkerchief.
The man’s breathing was rather labored and his heart rate felt somewhat thready when Haley pressed her fingertips to his neck. “Do you have a heart condition, sir?”
He nodded. “I got nitro tablets in my pocket.”
“Do you need to take one? Are you having chest pains?”
He shook his head. “I’m okay. I’ll just sit here with Nita and wait for the ambulance.”
Hoping he was right, she moved to help Ron with the remaining family.
The boy had been thrown backward by the winds and had fallen on his arm. “It’s broken,” Ron informed Haley when she knelt beside him to hold the light as he swept his fingers gently over the awkwardly twisted limb.
The boy was trying so hard not to cry, though his breath was catching in swallowed sobs. “It hurts pretty bad.”
“I know it does, buddy.” Ron rested a hand on the boy’s head. “You’re doing great. It’s okay to cry a little if you need to, okay? I’d probably be crying, too, if I’d broken my arm.”
The boy snuffled. “You would?”
“Heck, yes. I’m a real baby. Ask my friend, here, she’ll tell you. But you’re going to have a cool cast to show off to your friends. You can tell them how brave you’ve been. Now lie very still while I check on your mom, okay?”
The boy’s father had unearthed an umbrella from somewhere. He knelt over his son to shelter him from the rain, though his concern was obviously divided between his son and his wife, who half lay against the bottom of the booth with her daughter hovering tearfully nearby holding another umbrella.
“Will you check on her, doctor?” the dad asked Ron.
“I’m just a medical student, but yes, I’ll see what I can do.”
Holding the flashlight, Haley moved with Ron to the woman’s side. This woman had also been hit by debris, and her face was streaked with blood and rain. She was awake and coherent, having insisted they look after her son first, but Haley suspected the woman would need stitches to close the gaping cut above her left eye.
A large man materialized beside them, holding his flashlight in one hand and a first aid kit in the other. “I’m Mike, the owner of what’s left of this place. You needed this?”
“Thanks.” Ron dug in the box and found a gauze pad and some tape, which he used to cover the wound temporarily.
“You’re doctors?” Mike asked.
“Medical students,” Haley replied. “I’m going to check on that other couple again, Ron. I’m a little concerned about the man’s breathing. And the young man with the baby got a hard bump on the head. I’ll do a quick concussion check, though I think he’s okay.”
Ron squeezed her hand. “Okay. Call if you need me. I’ll check on the boy again.”
She straightened. Either the rain was lessening or she was getting used to it; she hardly noticed it now. The sirens outside were definitely getting closer, sounding as though they would arrive very soon. She could imagine that resources were limited in this rural area; she would guess that local emergency services were spread thin until help arrived from surrounding counties.
Candi stood by what had once been the entryway but was now a gaping hole surrounded by twisted metal. “I think I see flashing lights,” she called out. “They’re getting closer.”