Inari sat there, crouched behind a corner, using her body to protect a kid who was wandering by the station. The explosion that hit the sheriff's station had been sizable enough to where dust and debris had choked the immediate area. Hearing no subsequent explosions, she slowly cracked her eyes open, taking in the sight before her.
The station itself was a pile of rubble, with walls still standing through the building's ruin. They stuck out like bones from a broken corpse as dust swirled around them. Fires burned through the haze, most of them having caught during the explosion as they consumed what fuel they could find. Inari then looked down at the kid, a little boy no more than six, and sighed in relief when she saw him peering up at her.
"Thank you for saving me!" the boy told the woman.
"You're welcome, little one! Where's your mom and dad?" Inari queried.
"I came to see my mommy and daddy here at the station!" the boy told her.
"Alone?" Inari questioned, thinking the boy didn't know how dangerous it was out here.
"I came with my brother, Jack. Mommy and daddy weren't answering their comms, so I came here to see them," the boy explained.
"Who are your mommy and daddy?" Inari asked.
"Daniel!! Dear God!! What are you doing here!?!?" Jenque screamed as she dashed to her son's side.
"You and daddy weren't picking up. I know you were busy, but I wanted to see if you would be home for supper. Where's Jack?" the boy questioned.
"Oh, dear God, no!" Daved exclaimed, rushing into the fog, calling out his son's name. Jenque cried and held Daniel close, fearing the worst. Inari bounded to her feet and dashed into the fog, calling out Jack's name, hoping to find the boy. Inari heard a few groans in the spot she had run to and whirled to find the source of the sound.
"Hey! It's OK, I'm here to help," Inari told the person she found. They were face down on the ground, with what looked like half a wall on top of them. Though the dust was thick, Inari could see their head moving.
"Brother... Daniel..." the person said, as they tried to shift out of the rubble, to no avail.
"Are you Jack?" Inari gasped, and she saw a slight nod of the boy's head.
"DAVED!!! I FOUND HIM! HE'S ALIVE!" Inari hollered, hoping she'd caught Daved's attention.
"Daniel..." the boy breathed.
"He's OK! He's with your mom! Hold on tight, bud! Your dad is coming, and we'll dig you out of this!" Inari said as she kneeled down and got to work. She'd shifted aside a few dozen bricks when she heard her name being called out.
"Inari?!?"
"Over here!" she shouted, waving her arms. Heavy footfalls sounded and Daved appeared out of the murk, racing to Inari's side.
"Oh, dear God! Please tell me he's still alive!" Daved sobbed, on the verge of breaking.
"D-dad??" came the boy's voice, catching his father's attention.
"Jack! Thank God!" Daved blubbered, holding his son's hand.
"MEDIC!!!" Inari shouted, trying to get one of the deputy medics to their location. Inari called out for one several more times before someone appeared out of the haze, running full tilt.
"Ma'am? Who's hurt?" the man questioned as he pulled a pair of latex gloves on.
"Daved's son, Jack! He's over here!" Inari told the man and hurried over to where Daved was trying to dig his son out.
"Sir, stop! I need to check him!" the medic told his boss.
"I need to get him out! He told me it's tough to breathe!" Daved told the man gruffly. The medic huffed, but went to check the boy anyway, hoping that he would be all right. He pulled out a medical scanner and scanned Jack, making sure that he wasn't critically hurt.
"He's suffered a collapsed lung and several serious fractures along his arms. I can't get a read of his legs, but be gentle when you pull on those bricks. I don't know if he's dealing with any form of bleeding," the medic told the sheriff.
"Copy that, Banner," Daved told the medic. Inari helped with excavating the boy, dispensing with most of the weight that was on top of him. Once his legs were visible, Daved gestured to Banner, and the medic moved to check the boy.
"OK... he's got a compound fracture in his left tibia and ankle. Not reading any compromised arteries or veins. He should be safe to move, but be as gentle as possible," Banner told Daved.
"Let's get everything around Jack cleared before we move him. We don't want to make anything worse than it already is," Inari suggested, to which Daved nodded and they got to work. Not even five minutes later, the rubble was cleared from Jack's body and the haze started to clear as it was picked up by the wind.
"Stretcher to my location!!" Banner called out, waving his arms at the other deputies. A couple of them saw the man and exploded into action, rushing over as quickly as they could. In seconds, they had the stretcher next to Jack and were carefully transporting him to it.
"D-dad!! Hurts!!" the boy griped.
"It's going to hurt, son. I'm glad that you're OK!" Daved breathed, glad to see that Jack was going to be all right.
"Daved!! JACK!!" Jenque's voice called out as she sprinted to the stretcher with Daniel glued to her hip.
"Jenque!! He's hurt, but alive!!" Daved told his wife as she cried upon seeing her son as hurt as he was.
"He's going to be OK, right?" the woman asked tremulously, looking at the medic.
"He's in our care and we'll get him patched up, don't worry! If we hadn't found him so fast, that would be a different story! A whole wall was nearly on top of him," Banner told the woman.
"How did—" Jenque started when Jack spoke weakly.
