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She kneels on the floor, in utter darkness, her eyes shut, her hands clenched. Outside the door there are horrors and screaming. She prays, with the eloquence and volume of barely controlled fear. Behind her her charges, before her the door. She cannot see it, but her crucifix gleams, just visible in the room where all light has been crushed. She prays, the Lords Prayer, one steady line at a time. The door flies open....
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It was weeks before we got everything sorted out and tidied up, of course, but we started trying to put it together with Carol. In a way, I wish we hadn't now.
I was there as a witness (and trying to work out how we'd rearrange things), at a side desk, when Carol came into Patricks office, glancing at the lights. She looked like she hadn't been sleeping well, but she was in her uniform (which she didn't really need in the office).
The hazy winter light shone in through the window behind me, the Amtrak logo plastered across the building not really leaving shadows, as we had the lights on despite the time of day. Carol checked the lights again, in a nervous twitch.
"Calm down Carol," said Pat, doing his Team Dad voice, as he passed her a mug of coffee, with the company logo on it, "you're not in trouble, but I suspect you know what this is about."
Carol nodded, breathing deeply. Over her blue waistcoat she was wearing her gold crucifix, displayed prominently instead of usually tucked inside. We've managed not to discuss religeon in the office, although the frequent prayer of "Oh God, grant me the patience to deal with these customers" is wonderfully non-denominational, and has been offered up to all the names of the Almighty. So this was a little, not blatant, but forceful.
"What happened Saturday night, Pat?" Her voice was steady, her eyes level, but she was tense. I'd seen that in other uniforms, in hot stressful places. The voice of a soldier who needs to describe where it all went wrong.
"That's it." Pat pulled his chair around the desk and sat down, his coffee on the corner. Non-confrontational, "we're all on the same side". Probably wise. "In your own words, take your time."
Carol took a deep breath. Sipped her coffee. Cleared her throat.
"I was on the evening shift, had been since six. I knew Liz and Harriet were in on the train later, and whatever happened they'd need a hand. And the snow storm had caused a lot of cancellations, and we had a lot of customers piling up at the desk. I was trying to find them hotels and temporary stays, standard as per the insurance, and then all the lights went out."
"How many did you have there at the time, do you remember?"
"Five. There was a couple of young men travelling, the woman in the blue coat, Mr Carter, and old Mrs Drey. That was at... 8:36."
"Very precise."
"I remember checking the clock while on the phone, wondering where I was going to get a taxi from..."
"And then the lights went out."
"Oh God yes! It was horrible! All the lights in the building, the emergencies, my screen, everything! Blackout!"
Pat, letting her talk it out, had swivelled his screen and was looking at a few things. I could see several emails open on his computer. He was very definitely still listening though. "Take it steady Carol, one thing at a time. What happened next?"
"I thought it was some sort of disaster, maybe a mass power outage, or something? And the worst thing you can do in that is run around madly, so I shouted to get their attention, and... there were screams coming from somewhere else in the station, but I got the customers to cluster up to the desk, and shuffle round, and pushed them into the store-room behind the service desks...."
"In the dark, Carol?"
"Well it's only a step or two, and we all know it very well, and it's a small safe space..."
"Oh yes, good idea, carry on. You got them all inside?"
"And by then there was more screaming. It didn't sound human, it sounded like those sorts of nature videos with packs of chimps fighting..." Carols eyes went glazed for a moment. A hand went to her crucifix. "Roaring, snarling, fighting. And there were gunshots. And Pat..." she looked up with a thin smile "Amtrak doesn't pay either of us enough to deal with that sort of shit."
Pat gave a lopsided smile at the old joke, and nodded, and made a gentle "continue" motion. I was still at my desk, but I'd given up pretending to work. He was rather good at this, and I wondered how often this sort of thing came up. Post-incident witness statements.
"So I got inside myself, and slammed the door, and turned all the locks. And I called out to the customers, and got the right number of responses..." she trailed off.
"And what happened next, Carol?"
"I was on the edge of panic, Pat, I really was. There was the roaring and the snarling and the screaming and I still could see absolutely nothing, not from the emergency lights or even the glowing exit stickers. And I'd done about all I could think of. So I just got down on my knees and prayed as hard as I could." She looked at him, almost accusingly, but Pat nodded in understanding.
"Good call. And then what?"
Carol took a couple more breaths, another sip of coffee. One hand was still holding her crucifix. "There was more screaming and more fighting sounds from outside, and then something started bashing hard on the door, and then it burst open and there was light, oh God I was so pleased to see that, and these two men came in, and the big man looked down at me and said, "He hears you", and I just burst into tears at that point." Her eyes were welling up, and a couple of tears fell, but she didn't really notice, I think.
"We've all had a few moments like that Carol, take a breath, carry on."
She nodded, wiped her eyes. "The big guy had a sword, I mean an actual huge King Arthur sword, and that was glowing like a torch! That was where the light was from, and the big guy there, he turned and held the door while the other guy, (tall man, big coat), dragged in Derek, who had a knife in his leg and couldn't walk. And there was a huge dog there as well, but I just felt safe with all of them!"
Carol sat back, had a gulp of coffee, thought for a moment. Pat caught my eye in a "are you getting this Raschid?" sort of look. I nodded back. She continued.
"Tall guy passed Derek to me with some first aid instruction, and the the sword guy was trying to hold the door shut. There were..." her voice wavered "things on the other side. With fangs and claws and nasty little stone knives, screaming and howling and..."
BANG! Pat slapped the desk hard! Carol stopped, and blinked. "Never mind them" interrupted Pat in a reassuring tone, "what were YOU dealing with? What were YOU doing?"
"I, uh, I got the first aid kit out and did what I could for Derek, introduced ourselves, the tall guy was doing something with chalk and the sprinkler system. I checked on the others, all okay, if scared. And then the tall guy seemed to be holding a ball of light or something, and then boom!"
"Boom?"
"The fire alarm went off, the sprinklers went off, the computers all went popfizzlecrunk, and the noise from outside stopped, but we could see again, and the emergencies were on. And then the two men raced off, and left the dog to guard us."
"Good dog?"
"Very good dog. Bigger than you Pat, and a very reassuring guard on the door. We could hear other stuff from the main concourse, fighting, thunder, really big footsteps, I have NO idea what that was...."
"That's fine Carol, carry on, What did you do then?"
"The sounds of violence died down, and then a couple of minutes later the dog raced off, and then Liz and Harriet were pounding on the door with the kids they'd brought in. And we were really in need of coffee at that point, but all the power was out. So I handed out the juice boxes and candy bags, and a couple of minutes later the police and all arrived."
"Bit of a relief, I should think."
"Oh yes. Never been so glad to see them. And we sent Derek off in the ambulance, and I borrowed a phone to get taxis to a couple of hotels for most of the customers, but Mrs Drey was in a bad way, so I ended up taking her home with me and sleeping on the couch."
Pat cocked an eyebrow at me.
"And then I took her back in the morning and dropped her off on the first train, but the place was a wreck and the police were still all over it and I called you and you said to take the day off and come in tomorrow..." she waved her hands "and here I am."
Pat blinked. He nodded, and smiled genially, and finished his coffee. "Hell of a shift, Carol."
"I'd... rather not do that again, Mr McKinnock."
"Oh stop it. It sounds like you did an amazing job Carol. Amazing. Horribly stressful, swift correct action in emergency situation, all that jazz."
"Thanks boss."
"Now you stay here till lunch, and then take the rest of the week off to recover."
"But Pat, we..."
"No arguments Carol. The desk at Union is shut down for repairs, we'll have a couple of folks on station there with clipboards and mobiles, but it'll be skeleton service till the station is cleaned up anyway. You go rest, you've earned it."
"Uh, if you're sure?"
"Yes, yes", he murmured, as he gently nudged Carol back into the main office. "you look after yourself, it's been a hell of a time." And he shut the door, and turned to me. "Phew!"
"I've heard worse incident reports, Patrick, but not many."
Pat wrangled his chair back, and slumped down behind his desk, looking too weary for late morning. "I went up the station yesterday to look. It's a damn mess Raschid. Place ripped up, and... blood spatters in places."
"Oh God preserve..."
"The police let slip that they'd a handful of missing persons reports already."
"And Carol... held her desk, and saved everyone in reach."
"And her two angels?"
Pat gave me a wry grin. "Spotted by Liz and Harriet as well. Apparently they rolled through, killed some giant murder apes, and ran off."
"So what now?"
"What the hell actually happened, I suspect, is above our pay grade. What do we do about Carol?"
"I wish I could still put her forwards for a medal or something."
"What would you call it for?"
"Service above and beyond the call of duty?"
"Hmm." Pat murmured, looking at his screen, and picking up a folded sheet of paper. "I've got feedback on her here Raschid, from the customers she saved. She'd blush to read 'em."
"Complementary?"
"Lessee, the highlights.... "a guiding hand in the darkness", "can we adopt her", "won our lifelong loyalty," "held the door against the darkness with nothing but faith", and my personal WTF, "if not for the priest, we'd have died before the wizard and paladin arrived."
"Wow."
"And this letter", he waved the paper in hand, "apparently dictated by a Mr Carpenter, which arrived this morning. "...demonstrated presence of mind, courage and faith in dire circumstances." He also urges we "appreciate her exemplary service".
"Covered in praise."
"What are we going to do? We're a travel company. How do we give one of our customer reps a citation for bravery?"
Carol, as it turned out, was lauded until she blushed even to think about it. And while it took years for her to be able to sleep in the darkness, she wore her crucifix to work every day. And never needed to use it that badly again.