Derelict
Hi all... this is really just a test. The following short story (it's actually a 'flash' which means I was given the title, and had to construct a story in 60 mins, with no editing!) is not really fit for AoZ. However, it's the only story I had saved on my computer. So as a test to this page, I'm uploading it to see if it works... enjoy. Feedback welcomed. The more honest the better!
Callouts to this area were common. Kids thought it funny to watch as we stumbled over the rubble, tripping on the exposed cables and broken bricks that littered the whole area. The tower block had been pulled down over eighteen months ago, but the raw materials were still in the same position as they had been when the explosives went off.
Unfortunately we couldn’t just write the call off as a hoax, so for the second time this month my partner and I are trawling over the broken remains of the tower block. I watched helplessly as she dropped to her knees a few times, the ground shifting beneath her feet unexpectantly.
With a seven month warning of the demolition, families were given what was deemed to be sufficient time to empty their homes of all their personal belongings. Seven months obviously hadn’t been enough for some, as we cut our way through tattered clothing, broken furniture and in most places a stream of pieces from cheap plastic kids toys.
The call had said he was located in the old stairwell. This was a popular hang out for drug users, as the outer shell of a wall still remained around three sides of the first flight, offering them some protection from the elements.
As we made our way through what used to be the lower hallway areas my radio chirped into life. A child had been abducted from a house about a mile away. Officers should be on the look out for anyone carrying a child dressed in a white sleep suit, possibly wrapped in a blue blanket. There was an immediate response, with officers in the surrounding area calling in with locations and confirming the receipt of the report.
She called in our location out of habit. Attending to our own scene, it wasn’t even necessary, but it became second nature to answer the constant voice that issued from the radio. I offered a small nod in appreciation of her response in advance of my own.
As we got nearer the stairs the litter on the ground decreased, masonry becoming the main stumbling block again.
The call had said to expect an old man, in his sixties, wearing tattered clothing and holding a kaki camouflage bag.
Of course we hadn’t expected to find this.
We’d expected an empty stairwell, maybe with syringes and empty beer bottles.
The fact the stairwell contained a body was a surprise enough.
We both scrambled over the remaining rubble, each of us reaching for radios at the same time, each demanding medical assistance. I got to him first, throwing myself onto the ground at his side. I reached instinctively for his neck, trying to find a pulse, shifting my fingers a few millimetres to each side of where I knew it should be.
Nothing.
I lifted the camouflage bag from his knee, and tossed it aside. I pulled him towards me, holding him for a few seconds before placing him on the uneven ground, unzipping his jacket before starting to perform emergency resuscitation on him.
I counted in out loud, each compression on his chest. Inside, I counted each exhalation I made to try and breathe life into him.
It wasn’t until I turned to ask if we had an update on the ambulance that I noticed the look on her face. The obvious horror mixed with confusion.
It was enough to make me stop and sit back.
I turned myself away from the lifeless body before me. I focused on what she was looking at.
The camouflage bag was now lying amongst the rubble. I had tossed it a few feet from where I now crouched. The blue blanket could have been there since the building fell. Or, it could be trying to escape the horror that lay within the kaki coloured package.
One tiny hand, held forever within the soft folds of the blanket, seemed to wave its goodbye in the horror of that scene.
I turned away from it, trying to fight the blackness that was erupting out of my skull and forcing itself upon me. I turned away from the innocence lying before me and was faced with the excruciating horror of the beast who had not only taken his own life, but that of an innocent child and the life of the family he now left behind.
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