Six Feet From Hell: The Lost Chronicles (Book 1) by Joseph A. Coley

GROUND ZERO
     
    Josh woke with a shuddered start. He instinctively grabbed the side of the bed to brace himself as the shuddering and shaking made its way from the depths of his subconscious dreaming to the forefront of reality. He shot up in bed, his boots untied and uniform shirt still on and unkempt. Josh was finishing a 24-hour shift at Star Ambulance in Grundy, Virginia. He had worked a relatively easy shift up to that point, not having to deal much with the denizens of Buchanan County. The shift had started out with an early call for a vehicle accident with injuries, due in part to the early fog the morning before. The rest of the shift had gone on with little incident; the sick and injured had not made a big show for the day.
    Josh’s partner Steve, also a Paramedic, came bolting through the door from the other bunkroom in their small station. Their eyes met and both managed out a bewildered amalgam of sounds before Josh finally woke up enough to realize what was going on.
    It felt like an earthquake.
    “What the fuck is that?” Steve managed out as he threw his boots on and prepared for the inevitable phone call that would come. Even though they were a private ambulance service, Star Ambulance did the vast majority of the incoming 911 calls. The Sheriff’s office would call Star’s dispatch, and in turn, Star would dispatch out their own unit.
    The intense shaking subsided, signaling the end of the quake. Steve finished throwing his boots on as Josh did the same. Both men grabbed their respective gear and ran out the door to the waiting ambulance, still idling form the night before. They switched on both the Buchanan County EMS radio and the Star Ambulance company radio and were initially met with silence.
    The cool, early September morning greeted them instead, a low-lying light fog covering most of what they could see. Being in the heart of coal country, they were used to hearing of mine accidents and accustomed to the occasional boom of the use of explosives in the mines. This morning, however, felt more like a straight-up earthquake instead of the usual low rumble associated with mine blasting.
    Josh looked quizzically at Steve as he stood on the driver’s side of the unit and waited with baited breath. “Maybe I was just dreaming it all.”
    “Then why in the hell did your dream wake us both up? Don’t you think it would have just done it to you? Besides, I felt it too when I woke up.” Steve raised a good point; the upheaval of the earth would not have just affected Josh in his bed, as much as he might have liked it to. There had been some sort of geological event that had just happened and both men were eagerly waiting to see what the public safety world in their small county had to say about it. The radio sat in silence for another thirty seconds before it came to life.
    “Attention Grundy Fire Department, your assistance is needed with a mine accident in Whitewood, unknown what the exact problem is. The mine is requesting all available assistance that you have. Buchanan Central clear at 0537.” The voice of the dispatcher was noticeably more frantic than usual, their normal calm demeanor somewhat frazzled.
    Steve let out a measured sigh of relief. It apparently was just a mine accident; they would more than likely still be needed but at least their imaginations were no longer running wild with ideas. Steve climbed into the driver’s seat as Josh did the same to the passenger’s side, both buckling themselves in. Steve picked up the radio and signed en route to back up the fire department and to assist with the injured. Steve was a seasoned paramedic, working nearly twenty years in the lifesaving business as opposed to Josh who was relatively new to the EMS field, having worked only the last three years. As Steve flipped on the lights and siren and headed out down the road, the radio continued to come to life.
    Numerous calls and pager tones went out to the various rescue and fire agencies in the