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Someone came running toward them. Mike turned. He recognized the tall man as the doc’s older brother. Darrell Mabry was soaked to the skin, and there was blood on his forehead.But he was in one piece.

“Daryn!” He hugged his sister quickly. “You ok?”

“Just bruises. Debris fell on us. Mike hurt his leg.”

It was the first time she’d ever said his given name. Apparently, she liked him now. He’d remember that. For after.

For now, someone had to get started. They had people trapped in there.

His own sister was probably one of them. Mike shoved away his own panic.

There wasn’t much left of the forensics annex now. And that was where A.J. was supposed to be.

“People are trapped. We need to get started,” Mike said. He wasn’t going anywhere until everyone in the building had been found.

Including his sister and his partner, Sean.

“I got gear in my truck we can use. If we can find my damned truck,” Darrell said. He was going to be the one in charge of this. The man had a damned search and rescue t-shirt on.Darrell headed up the extremely small search-and-rescue division. Thank God he hadn’t been trapped. They were going to need Darrell now.

That had to have been divine intervention or something.Mike fought panic as he looked at what remained of the TSP.

His baby sister was in that rubble. “I need to find A.J.”

“First, we need to set up a triage area,” Darrell said.“Daryn, do what you can. We’ve got people coming out the back entrance behind the patrol cars. That part of the building was only partially destroyed. Get people to help you. You’ll know what to do.”

There were people digging their way out of the damaged buildings Mike could see surrounding the TSP.The buildings to the east and west of the TSP building were gone, too.

With people inside.

They would need help.They would think the TSP could provide it. The enormity of what they were facing sank in. Fast.

He shoved fear for his sister and his friends and all the other people that he cared about aside for the moment. Priority of life had to be the number one thing he remembered.

He’d help people as he came to them and hope to heaven that it was his sister he got to next. Every time.

Panic saved no one. “Mabry, what do we do first?”

“It displaced some cars a bit in the side parking lot. My truck should be there. I have equipment there that we’re going to need.”

Mike tried to walk, but his leg buckled.Fire shot through it, just around the knee. He’d hurt it worse than he realized.

Darrell caught him and put him on his feet again. “Daryn, you’re going to have to head triage. Bind Mike’s leg for now. You good to walk on it?”

Mike nodded.

Darrell continued. “I have first aid equipment in the rear seat of my truck. I’ve sent Shelby for it, and she’s grabbing my gear. I have spares.”

Daryn made a sound. “She’s with you? She’s ok? Was she hurt?”

“No. We took shelter together in the culvert.”

Daryn looked at him. “My friend Shelby trained with Darrell a few years ago. Search and Rescue. She’s not an expert, but she’s good.”

“She’s better than anyone else we’ve got now,” Darrell put out there, bluntly. “I just hope she can hold up for this. She’s inexperienced and this… it’s going to be traumatic. For all of us. No way out of it.”

Daryn nodded. “Shelby’s one of the strongest people I know. She can do this.”

“I don’t think we have any other choice. Then let’s do what we have to do.”

“I’m ready. Doc, just tell me what we need to do.”

Two lone security lights still standing flickered out above them.

Every light in the area that he could see went dark.The rain above cut out a good deal of the remaining light. And it would go dark in less than two hours.

They had to hurry.

And more storms could be coming.

“Darrell, here!” a woman said from behind Darrell.

Mike looked at her quickly.

He recognized her, all right. He’d interviewed her several times in a previous case until it was clear she knew nothing about what he’d needed. He winced as Daryn’s animosity made a bit more sense. Shelby… Jacobson, he thought.

They had pushed her hard, probably too hard. But they’d been convinced… no one could be left as much money as this woman had and been totally innocent of some wrong-doing.

None of that mattered now. Daryn was grabbing a large duffle bag with First Aid embroidered on the side from her friend. The other woman nodded. “It… it… it… isn’t much.”

“It’s all we have. If we find someone who needs more than what we can give them, we stabilize as best as possible and get them to the hospital,” Darrell said. He turned to Mike as a few dozen officers and personnel came around the back of what remained of the building, shouting. “You think you can organize some of those officers into transport teams to the hospitals? Keep track of who we find and send where.”He pulled a small clipboard and notepad out of the smallest bag, as well as flashlights and pens.

“I can do that.”

“Get another team together to go through where the Path lab would have been or forensics,” Daryn said. Her friend had hugged her quickly and now the two women were transforming right before his eyes. No tears, no panic, just resolve. Determination and strength he wouldn’t have believed if he hadn’t seen. “There may be supplies we can use to treat the wounded in that general area, and we had at least six people in that portion of the building besides me.”

Mike nodded, mind running over where others would be. If they hadn’t made it to the tornado designated areas. “Let’s do this.”

“We’re not stopping until we find everyone in that building,” Darrell said.“No matter what we find along the way.”

“Damned right.” Mike looked at the other man, standing next to Daryn. He knew the man would understand. “Because my little sister is still in there. I’m not stopping until I get her out.”

Fear of how he would find A.J. threatened to choke him up again. Mike shoved it away.

Darrell nodded, grabbing a hardhat from another bag. He gave one to the other woman. “Let’s get to work.”