The Lost and the Damned by Dennis Liggio

immediately jumped back, losing balance and falling backwards. The nurse was alive! I heard a weak cough.
    “Are you okay?” I asked, immediately thinking that a stupid question.
    “Help… me…” she said.
    With shaking hands, I turned on my flashlight and got back on my feet, shining the light to get a better look at her. I recognized her at once. It was the nurse who was at the reception area when I had inquired about Katie. She had seemed so nice, I felt so horrible that this had happened to her. A trickle of blood had made its way out of the corner of her mouth at some point, which was now not quite wet, not quite dry.
    “Oh god,” I said, feeling completely out of my depth here. “Let me see.” I shined the flashlight at the wreckage. A pile of plaster, drywall, and… stuff. I really don’t know much about building materials. “There’s a bunch of wreckage on you. I can try moving it. But…” I tried to think what I had seen people on TV say in these situations. I cursed myself for not watching more medical dramas. “Does it feel like you’re pinned anywhere in particular? Your legs? Your feet?”
    “I… I can’t feel my legs,” she said.
    I knew enough to know that was a very bad sign. It might be saving her from some additional pain, but it was definitely on the list of not-good things. I put the flashlight down so it pointed at the pile of wreckage, then took a moment to think how I would do this. Not finding any good ideas, I just grabbed a piece of the rubble and tossed it aside. Then I grabbed another piece and did the same.
    Slowly, I moved pieces from the rubble, during which time I tried to be reassuring to her. I told her such lies as “You’re going to be okay,” and “Help is on the way,” just so she wouldn’t give up hope. I thought that if I could get her out from the rubble, it would at least improve her situation. She’d still be hurt, but maybe she would have a chance at surviving. Maybe she could breathe properly. Or I could at least carry her… outside… to the Army… I shook my head and tried to banish such thoughts from my mind.
    As I removed a particularly large piece of rubble, my heart sank. I quickly pulled more pieces off and cleared it away from her body. I had found a large beam that was buried under the rubble. One end of it appeared to be pushing toward her abdomen. Almost franticly, I grabbed at the debris near her abdomen, shoveling it away as fast as I could. I had it almost all cleared away when I reached down and I felt something wet. Something wet, sticky, and warm. I pulled my hand up to my face and saw dark blood on my fingers in the flickering light. The beam had pierced her abdomen and she was bleeding.
    I was worried about trying to move the beam, but I knew I had to find out if I could move it. Gently, I grabbed at it, trying to lift it away from her body. I clutched it and pushed. I got it to move slightly, invoking a grunt and a cough from her, but I could not move it elsewhere. I’m not sure if the beam was too long and heavy or if it was wedged against something that prevented it from moving.
    I knelt down to her. “There’s… There’s a beam – I tried to… I… I’m sorry,” I said.
    Her eyes, formerly half lidded, opened wide, finding my face a moment later. “It’s… It’s okay.”
    “But it’s not okay!” I said. “I can’t move the beam! I don’t know how to help you! I’m not a doctor…” My voice dropped to a whisper. “I can’t fix this.”
    “It’s okay,” she said again. “I had… I had resigned myself to my fate long before you came by.” I realized that she had been trapped under the rubble for an hour, maybe hours, bleeding the entire time. “I… I said my prayers to God. I told him that I… I understood, and I was… was ready. I had told him that I was afraid to…” she coughed, bloody showing on her teeth, “I was afraid to die alone. But I said that I was ready.” She started coughing again