Any common Saturday, you could find Lux playing some sort of sport with her family, but that had been before. Today she was sitting on the couch watching some stupid reality show and eating All-bran when she had gotten the call.
Her superior said he was sorry to have to bring her in, especially since she wasn't even fit for active duty, but there had been a huge accident in Ann Arbor and they needed everyone they could get. He said to turn on the news. Lux did. A string of curse words blurted out of her mouth, still on the phone, and neither did she apologize, nor did her superior reprimand her for her language. It was a good time to use it, if ever there was any.
Lux didn't bother wearing her uniform; she put on tracksuit pants, a tank top and her boots and drove to the station as fast as she could. It was chaos in there too, though thankfully before long she was given the ok to go - but not to delve too deep into the disaster zone, and retreat the second she felt any hint of panic.
Lux and the others could only drive so far into the city; the explosions had blown up a bunch of buildings ahead of the bridge and the streets were blocked off by numerous things, amongst them rubble, fire and people. It was chaos, and as Lux left her car and ran through the rubble to get to the injured, she started to feel the hint of panic her boss had warned her about. But she couldn't stop or turn back now, not when those people were in dire need of assistance, not when this looked the worst she'd ever seen a disaster look like. At least live.
Closest to the bridge Lux had to slow down; her heart pounded violently in her chest and she found she couldn't breathe. All she could think of was the pain she had felt from the cougar's claws opening gashes on her body, all the blood, the smell of it, much like the smell of it here. It wasn't hers, but it smelled the same. When she heard people screaming it was like they were echoing her own screams - and she had screamed her throat raw, it was how much it hurt.
She knew what this was; she was having some sort of flashback, she had been warned about it. Lux's breathing hitched in her throat and she made a sound, a sort of whine, the whine of someone who absolutely did not want to be there. But she couldn't go anywhere at the moment either. Dropping on her knees, Lux rocked back and forth as she tried to calm herself down, push all the memories back where they had been before, not quite there but very close, safe, harmless.
A moment later Lux looked down to see a woman falling back onto the ground just in front of her, visibly injured. Way more injured than Lux was now. Please stop, please don't think about it, you're okay, it's okay, it's not you, you can help, you were trained to help. she told herself, but all the blood and panic threatened to pull her back into darkness again. Lux decided to focus on the injured woman right there. Who was missing a leg and very nearly missing the other.
Pulling on the hem of her top, Lux ripped off a piece of fabric from it, and went to the severed leg. "Lucky it burned, it could've been bleeding more otherwise." Yes, even more. Her voice was trembling, as were her hands, but Lux managed to tie the piece of fabric tightly around the stump. "Should stop the bleeding." I hope it does. "I'm, uh, I'm going to stay here with you, but you can't go anywhere, your other leg looks shattered. I'm not a doctor, but I've seen this kind of thing on car accidents and the like. You can't really move, and I'll stay here until someone comes to get you. The paramedics should be coming any minute." They better be on their way right now, or half these people will die.