Medical 1

Everyone on the bus had been thrown to the left side, and they were now lying in piles. I didn't have a lot of medical experience, but I was at least mobile and that was more than could be said for a lot of these people.

***

“I'm a thinker,” I said. “Knowing what to do is my thing.”

My mind was already analyzing the bodies in front of me. Mrs. Kwan had been the farthest from the explosion, and despite having been thrown to the other side of the bus, her prognosis was good. The bodies closer to the site were in worse shape.

“But I've got no supplies and poor upper body strength, so the sooner help arrives, the better,” I said.

***

The passengers had been laid out on the roadway in front of the bus in rows. He'd have expected them to have been pulled out and laid haphazardly, but the organization was obvious.

More badly injured passengers were laid out closest to the bus. The farther from the bus they were the less injured they seemed to be, at least on first inspection. Normally in this sort of thing there were people milling around uselessly, but here, the people who were actually mobile were all busy. Three were checking the injured and two were watching for oncoming traffic. They were on a side street a block away from the normal stop.

Uninjured people had come out of their homes and had brought blankets and water. They were doing what they could to help the injured without further injuring them.

***

Some of the people who were standing were directing the paramedics toward the most badly injured patients, even as others were groaning.

“You told them what to say?” he asked.

“One of the passengers had a set of Garfield stickers. I had them put one on everybody's left shoe. Odie is the least injured; full of energy. John is in the middle and Garfield is the worst because he's the least healthy one and will almost certainly be the first to die.”

***

Connections, Interlude: Chris