For the first time in Maya’s career as a paramedic, she didn’t know what to do. She stood next to Reno as the shaking continued.
Another explosion shook the buildings, drawing a collective gasp from the people nearby. The steeple atop the Christ Church Cathedral tilted forward and then fell to the ground. A bystander dove out of the way of its path, the stone cross barely missing him and exploding on impact. The old church sat a foot off the sidewalk, the bricks from the steeple now landing in the middle of the street.
“It’s coming down!”
The roof of the church that had stood for over a century collapsed in upon itself while Maya watched, her mouth open and unable to form any words.
In the street, people ran in all directions, trying to get clear of the building that was coming crashing down upon the street. But not everyone could outrun the destruction. The hunks of stone crushed at least a dozen people, dust rising from the debris and making it impossible to see past the wreckage.
Then the ground stopped shaking as sirens sounded all over the city.
“Maya.”
Reno stood next to her, holding onto her arm. His brown skin and clothes had been covered in gray dust.
“We have to start helping people,” Reno said.
Unable to take her eyes off the gaping wound where the church had been, Maya said, “There are people under there.”
Several people had already begun pulling at the debris and trying to get to the unfortunate souls who had been pinned beneath the wreckage.
“We have to help who we can,” Reno said. “There are a lot of injured people around here.”
Sure enough, people were running toward them, shouting for help. Some bled from their heads and faces while others pointed to injured people on the ground.
“All right,” Maya said to the nearest woman as she looked at Reno. “We’re going to help you.”
She hurried to the rear of the rig and flung the back doors open.
And they got to work.
8
Maya had never seen anything like it. She hadn’t thought an earthquake of this magnitude was possible in Nashville. And yet, something had happened. She’d watched a hundred-year-old church fall to the ground.
Cars piled up in the streets, many colliding and then bursting into bitter flames of rubber and plastic. People stumbling about, many bleeding and suffering broken bones. Screams and shouts competing with the emergency sirens. Even the tornado horn had blown out across Davidson County despite there not being a cloud in the sky. And now dark, oily smoke crawled above the northern horizon, though Maya couldn’t remember what major building or facility in that direction could possibly send up that much smoke.
She and Reno just continued to work, moving from person to person as a second paramedic crew showed up with extra supplies and helping hands. They stayed near the collapsed church as other rigs rushed to the scene to take people to the two nearest hospitals—St. Thomas and Vanderbilt. She had already treated the most seriously injured who had not been buried beneath rubble—those with broken limbs, serious lacerations, and head or neck injuries. Now, she focused her attention on people with minor cuts and bruises. She’d just finished bandaging a woman’s head when Reno approached.
“We’ve gotta make a run to the hospital. I’ve got a man strapped down with a really bad leg injury—compound fracture. The bone broke through the skin and I can’t stop the bleeding. He’s in shock, and I can’t get much out of him. He could be on blood thinners, or—”
“Okay. One second,” Maya said, more abruptly than she had intended. She turned back to the woman with the bandage. “Stay here, ma’am. First-responders should be bringing some water around.”
“Thank you,” the woman said, rubbing her head.
Dark crevasses cut through the asphalt which made navigating the roads even more of a challenge. Maya would have to use caution driving to the hospital.
Reno had already climbed into the back of the rig with the injured man when Maya jumped into the driver’s seat—the radio blaring with one emergency call after another, too many for her to even contemplate. She turned the siren on and navigated a narrow path through the crowd of people on the road. Because they’d been first on the scene, several other emergency and police vehicles had pulled up behind them, but she managed to find a way out. With huge chunks of limestone block from the church now blocking Broadway, though, she would have to find another route to St. Thomas Hospital.
People had gotten out of their cars, leaving the engines running and their doors open, which blocked portions of the road, but Maya found a way through it. She followed other emergency vehicles that had been able to part the crowds with high-pitched sirens. As they drove, people kept running down the sidewalks, waving at police officers and rigs. One man had run up to her window, slapping a bloody palm on the glass. Maya made eye contact and she could see the glassy stare of a concussed person. She glanced into the rearview mirror where Reno was trying to keep the man in back from bleeding to death. Someone else would have to help the concussion victim.
As Maya drove down Broadway, she saw that some buildings had imploded while others remained upright. The church had been hit the hardest from what she’d seen so far, and she wondered if that was because it had been one of the oldest structures in the city, erected long before zoning laws and safety ordinances. The scene reminded her of a time a few years ago when an unusual snowstorm had dropped six inches of snow on the city, paralyzing drivers and bringing the metro area to a standstill. But there hadn’t been an earthquake—buildings hadn’t crushed people to death.
They made it to the hospital, where Reno summarized the patient’s injuries for an ER staffer as Maya handed off the gurney to a team of doctors.
“We’ve got to get back out there,” Reno said to Maya.
“I know. Give me two seconds to check on my kids.”
“Maya, we have to—”
“Two seconds!”
Reno shook his head and ran his hand through his hair, shaking more dust out of his short hair.
Maya pulled out her phone for the first time since the incident. She had been thinking about her children, but the people with life-threatening injuries at the epicenter of the destruction had been her priority. No one could fault her for taking just one minute for herself now.
She scrolled through several missed call notifications—her mother, both of her kids, and three from Gerald. She saw a few voicemail messages, but those would have to wait. Maya tapped her mother’s number.
“Baby, my God,” Elizabeth said as she picked up the phone. “Are you all right?”
“I’m fine, Mom. What about you and the kids?”
“We’re good. Everyone is fine. Nothing really happened here. We felt a little bit of a rumble. But I was watching the television, and they cut to the breaking news showing downtown. Were you there when it happened?”
“I was, and I have to go back out now. I just wanted to check on everyone while I had a second.”
“Please be careful, Maya.”
“I will, Mom. But look, I don’t know when I’m going to get off work.”
“Don’t you worry about that. I can take care of the kids as long as you need me to. All right?”
“Okay. Promise me you won’t try coming into town for anything. Don’t let them talk you into it. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but tell them to use their phones for entertainment until I can pick them up.”
“Stop worrying and get back to work. I’ll take care of everything. I promise.”
“Thanks, Mom. I love you so much.”