Someone grabbed my arm. It was a little girl, about seven or eight.
“My daddy needs help. Please help him!” Her eyes were wide and pleading, tears tracing lines through the soot on her face.
“Where? Show me.” I offered my hand and let her lead the way. My stomach clenched as she took us closer to the wrecked half of the building. Survival instincts screamed at me to head away from the blaze. We were still some distance from the fire, but the heat pounded my face like a blast of hot air from an oven. The automatic sprinkler system soon drenched us both, but didn’t make a dent in the inferno at the far end. Thick smoke blanketed the area, and I had the sudden impulse to scoop the kid up and carry her out of the building.
“There! Daddy!” The girl’s urgent cry staved off any thoughts of flight. She pulled free of my hand, dashing over to a pile of rubble. It looked like the ceiling had come down. A man lay face-down, half-buried beneath the debris. Across his lower chest was a large, twisted metal frame that might once have been part of the baggage conveyor system. The girl fell to her knees beside him, and I followed suit.
“Sir, can you hear me? Sir?” The smoke made my voice hoarse. I coughed and shook his shoulder. Groaning, the man stirred.
“Daddy, wake up!” The girl tugged on his hand.
He turned his head and opened his eyes, squinting against the sprinkler mist. An instant later, alarm flooded his face.
“Lily!” He tried to push himself up, but the metal stopped him. He grimaced and then looked at the girl. “Lil, are you okay?”
Lily didn’t answer, but just burst out crying, sprawling across her father’s shoulder in an awkward hug. Only then did he seem to notice me, brow creasing in confusion.
“She’s okay,” I assured him, not wasting time on introductions. “Let’s get you out.”
I worked to get him free. The loose rubble came away easily—most of it was light ceiling tiles, insulation and chunks of mortar. The metal frame, slippery from the sprinklers, was a bigger problem. Even when I squatted down and used the full strength of my legs to lift it, the frame didn’t budge an inch. The father tried to help, straining to push up from below, but we got nowhere. I fell back, breathless and frustrated, and the exertion brought on another coughing fit.
“You need to get her out of here.” Agonized eyes pleaded with me.
Lily blubbered something unintelligible into his shoulder.
“No.” I recoiled, horrified by the suggestion. I didn’t want to admit I’d been thinking the
same thing just before we found him. It was different now that I knew he was alive. “We’ll figure something out.”