Week 5 homework. The Bomb Sheila

Homework  Sheila

Laura loved organising.  She found the Police accident reports a bit of a shock, particularly the photos, but was determined to get past that.  By the end of the first month she felt she had been doing it for ages.  Laura had also taken steps to learn Welsh. 

During her second month at the Police station, there were several bomb scares.  The first time, she was petrified, but soon grew quite casual about them.  She had been  in bomb scares in London. One week she was seconded to the railway station at a nearby large town to assist the police there for a few days.  On her third day, there was another bomb scare.  Everything went like clockwork, the station was evacuated, the only people left on the premises were herself, the stationmaster and the searching officers.  She had manned the phones and called the bomb squad.  The officers finished searching the station, and found nothing.  She still wasn’t too worried, they were always false alarms and they were much too far from London. The bomb squad arrived at the same time  and started searching the car park, there were at least eighty cars parked there that day.  The police office backed onto the car park.  Laura watched them searching through the window, still manning the switchboard.  Calls were coming in from the press, and from the Bomb squad office.

Suddenly, one of the searchers shouted.  “It’s here.”

Laura jumped, he was only 10 feet away from her, she had to get out.  She whirled round, grabbed her bag, and ran, the station master and two of the officers following her.  She reached the safety of the cordon and turned to watch.  Two of the officers were still by the car.  They were backing away slowly, one of them was heading to the helicopter to fetch tools, and the other stayed at a safe distance.   The officer with the tool bag returned, looking casual but now with thick padded clothing and a helmet.  He walked slowly towards the car, which had just registered with Laura as bright yellow.  She thought that was rather an irrelevant thought at that moment.

The explosion blew the police officer off his feet.  He flew fifteen feet through the air, and landed rolling across the hard car park.  He laid still.  Laura couldn’t breathe, she felt as though the air had been sucked out of her lungs. The silence was absolute, the noise of the explosion had taken all sound out of the air, then suddenly Laura could hear again, screams and shouts, and crying.  Reacting automatically, she ran forward to the officer on the ground, shouting for an ambulance.   He was just beginning to move, rather feebly, but at least he was alive.  He looked up at Laura as she knelt down next to him.

“I think I’ve broken my leg,” he whispered and passed out again. 

Within seconds she was surrounded by paramedics, fireman and police officers.  It seemed chaotic but the injured man was rushed to hospital.

No one else was hurt, but many were shocked.  The car park and surrounding area had to be cleared to search for any forensic evidence.  Laura herself was stunned, but forced herself to carry on working, she helped to ferry the people who had been evacuated away to buses, which she ordered to take them to the next station to resume their journeys.   No one was allowed back inside the cordon until they had finished searching.  They found two more small bombs under other cars, and removed them to explode safely.  After what seemed like days, but was only a few hours, Laura was driven home by one the officers, the task finished.  She sat in the back of the car, and began to shake, the tears ran down her face, as the female officer sitting beside her held her hand, now the adrenaline rush had faded, Laura was shocked and disorientated.  It would be several days before that station re-opened, and Laura would have to write a report tomorrow.  She needed to go home and hold her children.