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The last child was being brought down the ladder and Jack did a swift headcount. Fourteen. He made only fourteen. And where was their teacher? He heard Cass’s shout behind him.
‘Paramedic...’
Josie looked up and grabbed her bag, making for one of the ladders. Jack reluctantly passed Ellie into Sarah’s arms.
‘Will you take her?’ The words tore at his heart but he knew what he had to do.
‘Of course. As soon as she’s been checked over, I’ll take her back home. I left Ethan with my neighbour so I don’t want to be any longer than I can help.’ Sarah turned to Ellie. ‘Daddy’s got to go and help Cassandra. We’ll wait for him at home, eh?’
Ellie nodded. ‘Are you going to rescue Miss Elliott?’
‘Yes, sweetie. I’ll be back as soon as I can.’ Jack turned and made for the ladders.
* * *
It was no surprise that after the first paramedic was helped through the window, Jack appeared right behind her. Both of them had been provided with helmets and jackets.
‘Just couldn’t stay away, could you?’ Cass grimaced at him.
‘Nope.’ Jack looked around the empty classroom.
Cass nodded. ‘Good. Keep the helmet on.’
She led the way across the empty classroom, holding her arm out in front of him to keep him back from the door as she opened it. She heard Jack let out a quiet curse as he looked along the corridor, at the gaping hole in the floor that separated the classroom door from the far end of the corridor. ‘How did you get through here?’
‘We made it.’ It hadn’t been easy, and they’d been showered with lumps of loose plaster falling from the ceiling. But when she’d seen Ellie up at the window, Cass had remembered the promise she’d made to the little girl. ‘If you go to the window and call for help, the firefighters will rescue you.’ That wasn’t the kind of promise you made lightly.
‘What’s the situation?’
‘The teacher’s at the bottom of the hole, with the boy. He’s lying underneath her and we don’t know how badly either of them are hurt yet. There’s a team trying to get to her from the back, on ground floor level, but the doorwa
ys are blocked with rubble and at the moment the only way is through here. So a second team has been working to get a ladder down to her.’
‘Can you get me down there?’
‘It’s not safe.’ The roof was still intact but cables and lumps of ceiling plaster dangled precariously over the hole. The other paramedic had already backed away into the safety of the classroom, and if he was going to stick to protocol then Jack should as well.
‘Tell me something I don’t know. Get me down there, Cass.’
She nodded. ‘Okay. It’ll be a minute before we’re ready to go down.’
‘Is she conscious?’
‘We think so. When we came along the corridor we heard her groaning, and when we called down she replied. There was stuff coming down from the ceiling and she was covering the child with her body.’
‘What happened?’ Jack’s face had formed into a mask of determination.
‘I think the boy must have run out of the classroom and the teacher followed him. We found the door locked, and she must have thought to lock it behind her to keep the rest of the kids inside. Somehow, she and the boy both fell.’
He nodded. ‘Can we get her up to this level?’
‘We could, but it would be better to wait for the team coming in via the ground floor. We’ll have to make a decision on that when you’ve assessed her injuries.’ Cass looked up as someone called her name. ‘They’re ready.’
Jack followed her over to the mouth of the hole and Cass climbed carefully down, flattening herself against the ladder as a shower of dust and debris fell from the ceiling. Picking her way across the rubble, and what looked like the remains of a photocopier, she headed towards the woman.
‘Annabel... Annabel, I’m Cass.’
Annabel’s eyelids flickered and she moaned. ‘Cass...’
