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She didn’t stop to think as she raced to grab the emergency bags from where they lived under the reception desk, and raced out of the surgery, hoping it was nothing more than a fender bender and the contents of the bags weighing down her shoulders wouldn’t be needed.

* * *

Callum stared in horror at the mangled wreck that used to be the front of the café. The driver had been going far too fast, and had somehow mounted the kerb, launched over the pretty flowers lining the small car park and smashed through the front wall, window and door of the café, wedging itself at a strange angle that left one wheel spinning in the air. The car horn was blaring, and the front section of the vehicle was crushed beneath part of the café’s roof which had come crashing down. It was like something out of a disaster movie, and so out of place in his village that, for a moment, he was frozen to the ground, in a bubble of shock.

It was the groans coming from the car that snapped him back into reality and action.

‘Hi, I’m Dr Macpearson, please try not to move.’ He checked over the rubble quickly, before climbing over it to peer through the open car window. ‘Can you tell me where it hurts?’

The man peered back at him blankly through swollen, reddened eyes. Clearly the airbag had hit him hard.

‘Can you tell me your name? Do you know what happened?’ Callum persisted as he gently pinned the man back against his seat.

He mumbled something, and Callum just about made out the word Rick.

‘All right, Rick, it’s really very important that you don’t try to move.’ He stabilised the man’s head against the headrest. ‘Do you have pain anywhere?’

The man mumbled again, and Callum leaned closer to try and catch what he was saying, but instead got a strong whiff of alcohol. The idiot was drunk. He forced down his anger and tried to focus on his job. He didn’t have time for judgement, and if it wasn’t medically relevant, he couldn’t care about it right now. He had to focus on his job.

‘All right, Rick. You’ve got to stay very still now.’ He tried the handle, and sighed in relief as the door swung open a bit. He had to force it to open fully, and the metal fought and complained, but at least he had decent access to his patient now. He focussed on that, and tried to ignore the noise behind him.

* * *

Liv glanced at the chaos filling the car park and spilling out into the road, taking it all in quickly as she dropped the bags to the floor. People were milling around, helping each other, struggling in the mess of rubble and injuries. Callum was already half in the car that had caused all the damage, and she could see multiple walking wounded patients. But she knew, from the sheer sound of the accident and position of the car, that there could easily be more serious injuries inside. A hand on her shoulder made her turn, and she half-smiled at Millie. She was miles from an A&E, and didn’t have even a tenth of the equipment she would want in a situation like this. But she did have caring medics around her, and the training to manage emergency situations.

‘Right, Millie. Can you get anyone who is walking away from this area, and set up a triage? Stay near enough to call for help if it’s needed, but far enough away from this—’ she gestured to the mess in front of her ― ‘to make sure it’s not a danger. I assume help is on the way?’

‘Yup.’ A small crowd of people eager to help had gathered around her. ‘I’ve got the emergency dispatcher on the phone. First responders are maybe ten minutes away, and we’ve got more being routed towards us.’

‘Good,’ Liv nodded decisively. ‘Evelyn?’ She spotted the nurse amongst the small crowd. ‘Can you help Millie with triage and walking wounded, and Julie, gather up anyone with enough first-aid knowledge to help them until the cavalry arrives. And can someone make sure the gas and electric in the café is turned off? Last thing we need is complications from that!’

She waited a moment for the agreement to be shouted out, then moved on.

‘Tom?’ She called the older doctor, her mentor, over. ‘This is your community, do you want to take the lead?’

‘You’re doing fine, Liv.’ He shook his head. ‘Keep doing it. I’ll see if Callum needs help with his patient.’

She nodded, then looked around. ‘Jake, Nick, Harry.’ She beckoned to them. ‘As much as I know people are wanting to help, we’ve got to be careful and make sure we don’t do anything to compromise what’s left of the building. We have to assume people might be inside still, but I’d hate for a would-be rescuer to get hurt, or make things worse. Can you create some sort of cordon to keep people back while we try and understand what’s happened here?’

‘Consider it done.’ Harry headed off in full police sergeant mode, pleading, nagging and ordering people back from the damaged building, closely followed by Jake and Summer.

‘We have to assume there’s people inside.’ Nick looked over to the café.

‘I know.’ Liv nodded. ‘But the first rule of an emergency situation is to make sure you don’t make the situation worse by anyone else getting hurt. I’m hoping there’s a back way in.’

‘Fire door that opens out into the courtyard,’ Tom confirmed. ‘But it’s enclosed and the wall is pretty high. We’re getting some ladders now.’

‘Don’t really want to wait.’ Liv had already shouldered her first responder’s bag and was heading around the side of the building.

She stared at the wall, looking for purchase when Nick knelt down next to her, steepling his fingers. ‘I’ll give you a boost. Careful on the other side, now.’

‘Thanks.’ Liv nodded before finding herself shot up in the air. She lowered herself carefully before reaching up for her bag which Nick was already dropping over the wall.

‘Dr Emery, thank goodness.’ She was folded into a quick hug by Margaret, the café owner.

‘Good to see you’re still upright. Are you OK?’

‘Dusty and a bit shaken, as you’d expect, but none the worse for wear. Unlike the Badger’s Paws. Part of the roof came down. Thank the angels it was a few seconds after the car hit, so I don’t think anyone was under it. But I can’t get to the front of the shop. There could still be people in there who are hurt.’ She swallowed hard, clearly fighting back tears. ‘And I couldn’t get to my first-aid box, so we had to make do with tea towels and aprons.’