A Steady Situation, Part 11

A great crashing clamour resounded. Everyone on the site rushed to the screaming and moaning where the crane had released its load. She gaped in surprise for a split second, then shouted for the fastest runners to find a doctor.

Sprinting towards the huddled mass, she took a moment to see how bad the injuries were. There were about three builders, two of them with streaming broken legs and another with his arm bent the wrong way.

In a tone of voice about as calm as she could muster, she told the others around them to tear their clothes apart so they could make temporary bandages, and for others to keep pressure where they could see bleeding.

Building tools were passed around for cutting, and she tried to assure the fallen that they would pull through. A couple of them started crying from the pain.

With the situation as well in hand as possible, she asked what had happened with the machinery. One of them broke down, his clothes in tatters, saying that he had been operating the crane, but no-one had checked it for days. The crowd didn’t seem surprised.

She had only been there for a couple of hours, more from curiosity than anything else. She was half-convinced it was her designs that must have led to the catastrophe. She was aghast, but more than anything, felt as if she was being eviscerated with guilt. The signs had been there the whole time something like this could happen.

She caught the eye of the man next to her and he gave her a queasy look. She asked him if this had happened before. He seemed to weigh it up for a moment, and feel extremely distressed, then told her he wasn’t allowed to say.

A pall of silence fell over the whole group. Even the injured seemed astounded- though from the looks of it, that he had said even that much. She looked around for a moment.

Then, all of a sudden, one of the three started coughing up blood. She had no idea what to do but grasp his hand, and hold back her stomach with a fierce resolve. She swivelled back around to check the road. Still no doctors. Somehow, she was able to calmly tell another two to meet the others halfway. They staggered in uncertainty for a moment, and then she repeated herself.