Coaster (3 page)

One by one his crew
assented they had and Roger barked, "Get there now. Something's happened and it's gonna be a mess." Then he ran out through the entrance of the water ride as people stepped out of line to see what had happened. Once on the main path he sprinted towards the coaster in question. He didn't care he wasn't supposed to be seen because he knew something horrible had happened. He just hoped no one was hurt.

                                                                      ****

Lindy had been sitting on the railing texting when the explosion occurred. She didn't know what had happened, but when she turned and saw the fire covering the roller coaster she screamed and fell backwards. She hit her head and was knocked out. When she came to, people were running everywhere. She almost got trampled by a guy, so she crawled under the railing and watched the scene in front of her. It was pandemonium. People were screaming, running, hitting, pushing, punching, and crying. Lindy kept scanning the crowd for Heather and Megan. She was sure she wouldn't see them in this mob, but she kept looking until it seemed that the amount of people running from the ride had lessened. Finally, the people coming from the ride stopped and those running towards the ride increased. Lindy stood frozen in place until a man stopped as he ran by her.

"Honey, you okay? Have
you been hurt?" He was tall, older, and looked like her dad. "Hey, you okay. Are you all alone? Where are your friends?" Roger recognized her as one of the three girls that had reminded him of Tori. "Sweetie, where's your friends?"

"I....don't....know."
Lindy kept blinking at the man.

"Okay. You gotta sit down. Y
ou're in shock." Roger saw she had a cut on her head and he grabbed a handkerchief out of his pocket and pressed it on the wound. "You have blood on your head. How'd that happen?"

Lindy looked at him blankly.

"Listen, I have to go and help, but you need to keep this on your head until you can get some medical attention, okay? Do you hear me? Keep pressure right here."

Lindy nodded and put her hand on the handkerchief. "I will. My friends, Heather and Megan, how do I find them?"

Roger held her arm, "I don't know, honey. If I were you I'd just stay put for a moment until someone can get you to a medic." At that moment he saw Stuart, one of the security guards, and grabbed him. Stuart was a sad excuse for a security guard since he had a baby face and was only in high school. "Stuart, this girl is hurt. You need to take her to the medics, okay?"

Stuart looked a little dazed. "Did you see it? The explosion? There were people on that ride. They gotta be dead." 

"What? People were on it?" Lindy began to cry.

Ro
ger could see he had to get these kids out of here. He raised his voice and yelled in Stuart's face, grabbing both arms and commanding his attention. "Stuart, get this girl down the hill to the medics right now! Do you hear me?"

The yelling seemed to snap Stuart out of hi
s fog and he looked right at Roger. "What?"

Ro
ger repeated, "Get this girl out of here and down to the medic. She's bleeding and she needs help. Do your damn job. I gotta get up there and see what's happening."

Stuart took Lindy's arm and bega
n leading her down the hill. Roger watched as she walked away from him and felt a chill go through his body.

                                                                      ****

Chapter Five

The minutes after the explosion were pure chaos. People and employees were running through the park. The sound of sirens was deafening as the police stationed at the park drove up to the ride. Most people had run out of the park to their cars making a break for it. But there were still a large number of people standing around trying to find out details. A triage had been set up in two areas of the park to treat those that had been hurt.

There were
twenty-two people badly hurt and six had died. That was not counting the eight riders who had been killed in the explosion. Amazingly, there were already reporters trying to gain access. The vice president of the corporation had arrived to take care of the press and he was keeping them sequestered in the parking lot. People were still running all over, but instead of frightened patrons, they were firemen that had driven their trucks up to the roller coaster and were fighting the fire that had ignited the trees around the ride. The smoke sat heavily over the park as did a feeling of doom, sadness, and disbelief.

                                                                      ****

Roger had been
the first mechanics on the scene, and he'd made his way around the tracks until the fire became too hot and he'd to go back. He'd been there moments after the blast and the firemen and ambulances hadn't made it up there yet. He could see there were people lying in the line who were either hurt or quite possibly dead. He made his way through the winding path trying to help the injured get out. Eventually, more of his staff arrived and they began carrying out those who couldn't move. It took them two hours to get the forty or so people out of the line and down to the makeshift medical area. He couldn't believe how badly these people had been hurt and he was horrified at how many people he'd found who were dead. The scene was like a nightmare or a bad movie. But this was neither of those things, it was reality. Several people had been killed and no one knew what had happened.

                                                                      ****

Lindy let herself be walked to the medical area where a woman took her hand. She said her name was Debbie and she was a nurse. She looked at Lindy's head and then grabbed some cloth to clean and dress the wound. Lindy was numb. She didn't feel any pain, and she didn't really know what to do. She kept looking for her friends in the triage area hoping they'd gotten out. She was texting both of them, but hadn't received a response yet. This fact made Lindy scared. Megan and Heather both would've texted her by now, or at least responded to her. The fact that she hadn't heard from them made her start to cry.

"Honey, are you okay? Am I hurting you?"
Debbie the nurse asked her.

Lindy's voice was barely a whisper.
"No."

"
Are you hurt somewhere else?" Debbie was looking pointedly at her.

"No. I think my friends were on the ride."

"What ride....oh...you mean they were on the roller coaster that...." Debbie couldn't finish the sentence. "Sweetie, are you sure?  I mean, it's pretty crazy right now. They could just be somewhere else and you didn't see them. Or they may have gone home." Debbie was being rational.

But Lindy knew. S
he felt it. They were both dead. They would've answered her. They were her best friends. They would've let her know where they were. They had to be dead. Lindy's tears streaked down her face. She looked at Debbie. "They're dead. I can feel it."

                                                                      ****

The man packed his things. The red lights were reflecting off the park, trees, and even the hills there were so many emergency vehicles. He looked one last time and smiled with satisfaction. Then he turned and made his way down the hill holding the cooler in one hand and the chair in the other. About ten minutes later he reached the flat area where he'd parked his car. He clicked the key fob and the car bleated. He opened the back door and put the cooler, chair, and other bag in and then got into the car. He drove off, heading towards the highway. He was back in the hotel room in twenty minutes and immediately turned the television on. Every channel was running the story. The lights from the cameras flashed on the rides facing the road. The fire had been put out, but the smoke was thick and the frenzied reporters were eating up the huge story. This was career-making stuff for them and the man smiled and said, "You're welcome." 

He took of
f his camouflage clothing and put on sweat pants and a t-shirt. He dialed the number for the pizza delivery, and sat down on the bed. Pushing the remote and changing from channel to channel he could see the story blare across the screen over and over. He even tried the international channels, and grinned when he saw it was the top story on four of those channels. He'd done it. He'd made a statement and he had done definite damage to the corporation. He was proud.

                                                                      ****

Roger finally was able to get back to the coaster to try and see what had happened. He couldn't figure out what could've caused an explosion that big. The park didn't have anything explosive enough to do the damage that had occurred. He had a nagging feeling that something else was involved. Someone had to have done this. It was the only way to explain what had happened. He'd checked out this coaster himself that morning, so he didn't know how he could've missed an explosive device. He kept moving and heard the firemen still working around the ride. As he made it closer to the place they said the explosion had happened he saw how obvious it was. The track was blown away in one spot and the rest of the metal was charred black. Even from a distance he could see the interior workings and wires were gone and the metal was melted and malformed. He wasn't prepared for the draped metal structure that was about twenty or so feet from the coaster. The car the riders had been in had been blown straight up into the air and crashed into the top of the loop before hitting the ground. Roger heard a fireman tell another fireman that the car had ignited and the bodies of the people were badly burned. Not much was left, but a passport belonging to Christopher Richfield had been found and his parents had already been contacted.

Ro
ger wondered how they would find out who else had been on the ride. It's not like there were records or a manifest like in a plane crash. They would just have to wait until family or friends inquired where their loved ones were. Roger shook his head and thought,
God, this is going to be agony
.

He tried to move
closer to the explosion site but couldn't because the metal was still too hot. A fireman said it would be tomorrow before they could investigate what happened. Roger shined his flashlight into the darkened metal and tried to gauge if there was anything obvious. Of course, he couldn't see anything.

"Hey, you supposed to be here?" A fireman moved by in his gear.

"I'm head mechanic for the park."

"Oh, hey. Sorry
, man. This is horrible. They know anything yet?" The fireman took his gloves off.

"Nope. N
othing yet. Have you seen this before?"

"I've seen
a few blasts, but they were tanks that exploded. That's totally different. Listen, you should probably stay clear until this metal cools down. It's really not safe."

Ro
ger thought about the girl he'd helped. "Do they know who was in the car?"

"Not yet. The
coroner has to take a look at it, but his turn at bat isn't even close." The fireman shook his head. "For some loved ones I'm sure process of elimination might be a factor tonight."

Ro
ger nodded, immediately wanting to hug his daughter. People lost children today, and that made him want to make sure his was safe. "Thanks. I gotta go meet with the brass."

As soon as the fireman walked away
Roger pulled his phone out and called Tori. The phone rang twice before she picked up. "Daddy?"

Ro
ger smiled. "Hey, honey. Yep, it's me."

He could hear the worry in her voice. "Are you okay? What happened?"

Roger spent the next few minutes telling her the very basics of what had occurred.

"Daddy, can you come get me tonight? I want to see you."

"Sure, Sweetie. As soon as I'm done here I'll pick you up at your mom's, okay?"

"Yes, thanks. I love you!"

"I love you too, Tori. See you in a bit. I'll text you when I'm leaving here."

"K, drive safe."

Roger smiled as he put his phone back in his pocket. He looked at the drape and felt a twinge in his heart. He hadn't found this bomb. Maybe if he had this whole thing wouldn't have happened. He turned and headed towards the office.

                                                                      ****

The police had set up tables for everyone to be interviewed. Of course it was a long shot, but they were trying to figure out who was on the ride when it exploded. They also wanted to investigate and chronicle what people had seen and heard.

Detective La Rosa had distanced herself from the interrogations. She was standing in the corner of the room
holding a cup of coffee and blowing on it. There were six tables with people sitting at them while detectives questioned them. Many of the individuals were only there for a minute, but some were obviously traumatized and kept repeating the same thing. La Rosa was no stranger to trauma and she swept her eyes over the people. One face held her gaze. The girl was sitting with blank eyes and she had a bandage wrapped around her head. Detective La Rosa cocked her head and strained to hear what she was saying. She walked towards the table recognizing that the girl was a teenager.