“Careful!” Miller warned. “Don’t get them on you!”
She was light. Terrifyingly light. But she felt hot—burning hot, like a fever breaking.
As he lifted her, Mia let out a tiny, high-pitched whimper that sounded more like a kitten than a child. Her head lolled back, her eyes finding James’s face.
“Am I…” she slurred, her tongue swollen in her mouth. “Am I in trouble?”
James felt a lump form in his throat, hard and painful. He brushed a cluster of ants off her shoulder with a gloved hand, crushing them.
“No, sweetheart,” he choked out, turning and running for the door, the paramedics flanking him. “You’re not in trouble. You’re the bravest girl I’ve ever met.”
Back at the dispatch center, the line had gone dead.
I sat in my chair, the headset still pressed to my ear, listening to the static. The connection had been severed when they pulled her out.
I heard the distant radio chatter.
I slumped back, the adrenaline crashing out of my system, leaving me shaking. My hands trembled so violently I couldn’t type the closure code for the call log.
The room was quiet. David, my supervisor, walked over and placed a hand on my shoulder. He didn’t say anything. He didn’t have to. He just squeezed my shoulder and handed me a fresh cup of water.
“Did she make it?” I whispered, afraid of the answer.
“They have a pulse,” David said softly. “She’s fighting.”
I took a sip of the water, but it tasted like ash. I looked at the clock. The entire call had lasted twelve minutes. Twelve minutes that changed a life.
Two hours later, the update came through.
I was on my break, sitting in the breakroom staring at a vending machine, when my phone buzzed. It was a text from James.
I let out a breath I didn’t know I was holding.
Then, a second text. Continue reading…
