Page 74 of Last Girls Alive

Katie had forgotten all about his chest injury. “Gav, just sit still and relax—breathe slowly and conserve your energy. Someone will get to us.”

McGaven was quiet.

“Gav? Gav, you okay?”

He didn’t respond.

Katie twisted her body and tried to reach him. She was able to contort herself to lean against him. His body was limp under her touch. She felt for his pulse—it was erratic, but still strong. Listening for his breath, it was ragged and uneven. She knew his chest injury must be causing a restriction—it could mean his lungs were filling up with fluid.

“Gav?” she whispered. “I don’t know if you can hear me, but we’re going to get you out of here.” She stifled a cry and kept her focus. It wasn’t just about her—if too much time passed McGaven could suffocate from his injuries. She wasn’t going to let that happen.

“Help! We need medical attention! Help!”

Almost on cue, there was the sound of a chainsaw along with flickering lights. In the strange light, she could see McGaven slumped to the side and his face looked ashen. The flames became larger and the trail of light burned in a circular shape as it inched closer, so Katie shielded them as best as she could in case of injury. She said a quiet prayer.

McGaven murmured something that Katie couldn’t quite hear.

“Don’t talk. We’re going to be okay,” she said, not knowing for sure but she had to believe it.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the ear-piercing scrape of metal on metal. Daylight pierced into the metal container causing Katie to shield her eyes.

“Katie?” said a voice.

“Chad?” She barely spoke.

“She’s okay!” yelled Chad back to the others.

“We need medical attention for McGaven immediately!” she managed to yell back.

With a bit more scraping, the end of the metal storage container peeled back like a can of soup and two firefighters Katie didn’t know climbed through the opening to assess how they would pull her and McGaven out safely. Relief flooded through Katie’s aching body.

“Can you move?” said one of the men to Katie.

“My foot is caught. I’m fine. Please… please take McGaven first. He was pinned earlier by a door pressed against his chest. He had trouble breathing, there’s bruising… and…” she explained as she caught her breath. “And there was some blood on his chest…”

The firefighter nodded and made his way to McGaven who was now lucid and awake. He checked his vitals and took a quick look at his chest. Turning back to the other emergency personnel, he said, “We need to get him out ASAP. Possible pulmonary contusion.”

“Is he going to be okay?” she said.

“We won’t know more until an x-ray is done to find out if his lungs have been compromised.”

The seriousness hit Katie hard and her worry turned to despair, as she twisted to move as best as she was able to let them do their work.

It took about fifteen minutes before they were able to get him out of the container.

“Hey,” said Chad, trying to act like it wasn’t a big deal. But his eyes couldn’t hide his fear.

“Hi.”

“You doing okay?” He leaned down.

“I’ll be better once I’m out of here.”

Two of the firefighters tried to move the wood but it was too wedged for them to move it manually.

“Did they catch him?” she asked.

“Who?”