Prisoners of Sol - Girret Storm Riders (4/11)

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The dust-ridden air flailed and writhed around my goggles, as my mask could only filter the grime out for respiration. There was no simulating the lack of visibility out in the field. My first mission was one to remember; I’d pounced on the opportunity to head to the earthquake-stricken city of Tekwua, which had been beset around the same time as the cycle started. For the residents, it couldn’t have played out worse. Buildings were compromised and falling, leaving poor souls trapped beneath rubble. 

To make matters worse, more earthquakes kept coming almost hourly. The residents couldn’t evacuate or move to a shelter with the blinding torrent of dust outside; structures teetered on the brink of collapse, ready to go down at any moment. Most Storm Riders were leery to ride to the rescue, though we managed to get together a squad. Narol came to back me up, despite begging me to sign onto a cozier detail, and Tunia was acting as support. That meant “easy” jobs like operating machinery and being a lookout, though I supposed we could use all the help we could get.

Our objective is to get them back to the sandglider and retrace our steps directionally back to Storm Riders’ headquarters. Tekwua isn’t safe to stay in. There are hundreds of thousands of Girret citizens, and probably a handful of Derandi who didn’t leave before the cycle too. I suspect we’re going to be here a while.

Narol struggled to make out anything, even with the city-map overlaid in AR. “Fuck, I can hear the beams creaking with every gust, Redge. It’s gonna come down at any moment. Pull back. Pick a different one!”

“I need to sweep for anyone trapped down there.” I hastily began tying a rope around my waist and stumbled through the doorway, finding that the floor had already given out. There was a gaping pit that’d opened up from the floor giving out, which meant citizens could’ve fallen and been trapped…badly injured from that height. “I’m not leaving anyone.”

“Are you out of your fucking mind? It’s one flower shop, where the owners live on the top floor. If you want to save a bunch of people, this isn’t the place.”

“I want to save everyone! Everyone who needs help; we don’t know if it’s clear, and someone could die for our negligence. How would you feel if that one family was yours, Narol?”

“Well, it’s not! Our job is to rescue the most—”

I’d already finished securing my rappel line and leapt down in the hole. Plaster fell from overhead as tremors rippled through the ground, with one chunk beaning me on the hood and sending me falling down faster; a blow to the head made my grip loosen long enough that I plummeted rapidly. Narol grabbed at the cord, but not soon enough to prevent me from crashing into the concrete. Pain lanced down the length of my body, as I struggled to bend and pull myself. I coughed, feeling something pooling in my lungs.

I hope it’s not blood, but this isn’t the time for a medical evaluation. I need to keep moving.

I brightened the flashlight on my helmet, knowing the head protection was probably what’d softened the strike to the cranium enough that I was still conscious. “Hello?”

A groan was the response I got, and I turned to see an elderly male beaten and blooded. He was still conscious, enough to point with a limb to the corner. My breath hitched in my throat as I spotted a tiny Girret, likely his granddaughter, lying unconscious on the floor. The disorientation waned enough that I crawled over to the child, and tucked her against my chest. I would rather send the old man back up first, but he didn’t seem alert enough to hold onto the child—and it was obvious that the young had to be preserved first.

“I’m coming back for you. I’m taking her up and I’m coming back!” I shouted, ignoring the rattling pain in my chest with each word.

Movement flashed at the top of my vision, and the roof sagged lower, barely holding. I skittered backward in time to dodge a cascade; the gray concrete piled right where the child had been moments earlier. Frantic to get her out of there, I tugged on the rope. Narol and Tunia hoisted me up from where they’d taken a stance outside of the building, pulling me up in increments that felt much too slow. I couldn’t throw the child up, when I suspected she had internal bleeding. The little one was in critical condition. Hopefully, my partners could administer first aid while I went back for the grandfather.

A welt was forming on my hood as I finally reached my tail over the ledge, rolling to safety. Wooziness crept over me, but I tried just to wriggle over to my partners; I felt too unsteady to stand, though I battled like I was drowning in a ripcurrent. Narol watched as the building slanted downward, and cracks arced up through the exterior. The trembling was picking up in intensity, suggesting that another quake was near to bring the structure down. There was no time to catch my breath. I passed the child to my old bunkmate, noticing how quick he was to help there; kids were his soft spot.

Narol reached out for me, trying to pull me away, though I broke free of his grip. “Redge, we’ve got to stand back! You’re lucky—”

“There’s another survivor down there! I’m going back in. You’re going to pull him up, and then me. I know you can’t grab us both, but tug with all of your might,” I sputtered, shoring up the line and ducking into the building; it dipped like a bulb over my head, barely holding. 

“Don’t be suicidal. On your first mission too. How many lives will you not be around to save, buddy, if you die here? It’s for the greater good.”

I ignored his advice while my heart pounded over my chest, as every lurch overhead terrified me. Narol had a point that getting myself buried alive would cut out my ability both to help and to be a hero, but a Storm Rider was supposed to be willing to fall, weren’t they? I had to attempt this rescue, so that a child wouldn’t lose her caretaker today. I’d seen the old man, alive, selfless, and well, and what honor could I claim to have if I left him to die? Legendary Bneria wouldn’t have hesitated or debated who was worth saving, and that was how I wanted to be remembered.

I accelerated my fall once I could see the ground, landing on my tail with excellent balance. Adrenaline spurred my movements, as I could see the old man had used the last of his speech to signal me to help his granddaughter; he’d fallen back in a seemingly unconscious stupor of his own. I wrapped the cord around him, peeling it off of myself, and hurrying through the knot as quickly as possible. His nostrils were caked in dust from being exposed to the elements, so Tunia needed to have the oxygen ready. That was a simple enough task even for her, since it was the main thing Storm Riders had for medical aid. 

I tugged on the rope, and saw it creak back up the dizzying heights with the civilian in tow. Narol was pulling it frantically, with Tunia actually pulling her weight for once, most likely; neither of them wanted me to get myself killed, with what they saw as a foolish stunt. I thought my squadmates expected me to be more pragmatic, but that was the opposite of what I intended to be. Seconds ticked by in painstaking anguish, before the cord fell back down to the sound of frantic shouts. I hastily wrapped it around myself and pulled right as I was finishing the knot.

Narol began facilitating my ascension back, as the nerves built to a crescendo—and then, the ground rattled like a Girret’s tail, shifting and churning. A dreadful crack came from the walls far above, as they gave out beneath the final shove. My eyes turned upward as debris rained from the heavens, and my last thought before I was shoved downward beneath a mountain of concrete was that I was grateful I’d gotten the civilian out in time. If this was my end, I accepted it.

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A/N - 4! Redge tries a daring rescue in a building that is collapsing after a series of earthquakes. He rescues a child and goes back for the grandfather, but the roof falls in on his head. What do you think of Redge’s courage and choosing to attempt the rescue? Will he make it out?

As always, thank you for reading and supporting!