Search and Destroy by JT Sawyer (top non fiction books of all time .TXT) 📗

“Can you tell me where you are right now?”

“I’m watching my friend’s fucking house burn to the ground with everyone that I love inside, that’s where I’m at.” He shot a weary look at the man, knowing he was just asking questions to determine his level of consciousness, as combat medics did to those suffering from a battlefield explosion, but he had no time for it.

“You need to stay still for a bit, sir. You suffered a pretty nasty head injury,” said the paramedic, gently putting his gloved hand on Cal’s chest.

He shoved it aside again, yanking the IV line from his forearm and swinging his legs off the gurney as he struggled to sit upright. “My wife is in there, goddammit…and my friends.”

Another medic stepped around the opening from the side, blocking the way. He pointed to the ambulance beside them. “Only one other person made it out. I’m sorry.” The senior paramedic glanced back over his shoulder at the blaze a half-mile distant. “No one else inside had a chance. By the time we all got here, that house was engulfed.”

Cal’s eyes darted along the manicured law, whose flawless appearance was in such stark contrast to the devastation beyond it.

But I just saw her on the porch. She was waving to me.

He averted his eyes, glancing at the other ambulance, hoping to see Cassie lying inside, alive, but he only saw a hulking figure on the gurney.

“Reggie.” Cal tried to clear his foggy brain, recalling the security guard heading inside with some of the pies. He survived?

“We got him out from the rubble under the front entrance,” said the senior medic as he closed the doors of the other ambulance to shield Reggie from sight. “That steel archway over the doors saved his life before the whole first floor collapsed.”

“There were no other survivors…are you sure?” Cal snapped, stepping out of the bay and down onto the pavement. “Maybe around the back side.”

“Sir, there is no back side. The woods behind the estate caught fire and are being brought under control by our crews on the road to the east. All of the other homes in this region are at risk if we don’t get this contained.”

A few seconds later, he heard the familiar hum of rotor wash as a helicopter encircled the estate while the ground crews pulled back. The bird moved in closer, releasing a red slurry of fire retardant from an immense canvas bucket beneath the fuselage.

It quenched a large portion of the flames emanating from the rear of the building and the woods as the firefighters trotted back to their former positions to continue hosing down the exterior walls and entrances. Another helicopter arrived and bombarded the wooded hillside to the east, coating the flame-riddled maples and beech trees and halting the further spread of destruction.

Cal pushed past the two men, moving up to the small window at the rear of Reggie’s ambulance.

“He gonna make it?”

“He’s stable for now.” The paramedic gently put his hand on Cal’s shoulder, motioning him to move back as he closed the doors. “We’re getting him to the hospital. You should get there too. You were pretty unresponsive when we arrived and could have some after-effects from the concussion.”

He turned around, staring at the smoldering building and the firefighters moving to douse the south end of the estate near where Burke’s lavish library had been.

“I’ve had worse. I’ll be alright.”

“Anyone we can call for you, sir?” said the younger medic.

He stared at where the parapet had been, his face feeling frostbitten despite the intense heat in the air.

He felt like his soul had been incinerated along with the house.

“Call? There is no one…no one left.”

6

The senior paramedic motioned towards the police officer near his vehicle who had just finished talking on his radio. The sergeant came over, looking at Cal, who was covered in soot and lacerations.

The medic pulled the officer aside. “Said he worked for the owner of the place. Burke as in Stephen Burke, the computer whiz.” He nodded at Cal, who was just within earshot. “Pretty banged up but doesn’t appear to have too serious a concussion. He refused to be taken to the hospital. Still, you’ll want to keep an eye on him.” The medic stepped closer to the officer. “His wife was one of the people inside.”

Cal heard the words as if he was listening to a radio intercept from another land as his stomach roiled.

“Her name was Cassie. Cassie Shepard,” he mumbled, his lips trembling as he stood transfixed by the wrecked home. “She was going to be…be a mom in a few months.”

The two first responders glanced at each other then at Cal. Finally, the officer moved beside him.

“I can’t imagine what you’ve been through, sir. Why don’t you come with me and you can sit down inside my vehicle. There are a few questions I need to run through, then we can look at getting you…home…or wherever you need to be.”

He put his hand on Cal’s shoulder to keep him steady as they walked to the police cruiser.

“Do you have any family we can call, sir?”

“No, no, I don’t.” He thought of Cassie’s sister, Sara, who lived north of Atlanta as he tried to wrap his head around the conversation he suddenly realized he’d have to have about Cassie’s death.

Approaching headlights caused him to squint as a green Land Rover pulled up next to the police car. Out stepped Neil Patterson, who paused to stare at the scene of destruction in the distance then briskly walked up to Cal.

“I came as soon as I heard. Are you alright?” his old boss said, glancing over his shoulder as the ambulance with Reggie in it drove off.

“Are you family, sir?” said the officer.

“He is,” replied Cal.

The closest thing to family I have left now.

7

After what seemed like hours recounting the evening’s events to the police officer, Cal reluctantly left the property with Patterson.

The woman he