She pushed open the back door—and stared. “Wow.”
A dozen Team members, all wearing bright yellow Rocky Mountain Search & Rescue Team T-shirts, stood in groups of twos and threes, talking and joking with one another. They stopped when she stepped out, heads turning. She knew some of them—Megs, of course, and Austin and Eric. The others she recognized from the benefit at Knockers. Sasha Dillon. Harrison Conrad. Creed Herrera. Mitch Ahearn. Nicole Turner. Malachi O’Brien. Kenzie Morgan. Chaska Belcourt.
“I think she’s happy to see us,” Megs said.
“You havenoidea.”
Jesse came around the corner, yellow T-shirt stretched over a black turtleneck, his hair windblown from a day on the slopes. “Sorry, I’m late.”
“Yeah, what’s with that, Moretti?” Creed joked.
Ellie led them to the storage room, flicked on the lights, and explained the situation to Megs. “The supplies for the first-aid tent are on these three pallets. Once they’re inventoried, they have to be put back on the pallets and wrapped up again, because that’s how they’re going to be transported.”
“May I? It goes faster this way.” Megs took the inventory sheet from Ellie and plucked the staple out of the corner, turning it into six separate sheets. She handed one to Ellie, kept one for herself, and gave the other four to four volunteers.
Ellie was confused.
“Listen up, folks.” Megs raised her voice to be heard over the chatter. “This stuff needs to go back on the pallets just the way we found it. Stack each pile in reverse order so that we don’t have trouble later. Otherwise, it’s just like we do it at The Cave. Got it?”
Megs turned to Ellie. “They’ll call out each item as they remove it from the pallet and wait till they hear one of us repeat what they’ve said and say ‘Check.’ The hardest part is just keeping up with them. Okay. Let’s roll.”
Jesse, Austin, and Eric ripped the plastic off the three pallets, and the Team went to work. Ellie was afraid it would be chaos. In truth, it was efficient and fast.
“Exam gloves, nitrile, five-hundred count.”
Ellie searched her page, but it was Megs who answered. “Exam gloves, nitrile, five-hundred count. Check.”
“Adhesive bandages, three-eighths by one-and-three-quarters.”
“Adhesive bandages, three-eighths by one-and-three-quarters. Check.”
“Alcohol prep pads.”
Ellie found that on her list. “Alcohol prep pads. Check.”
“Emergency hand warmers.”
“Emergency hand warmers. Check.”
They quickly fell into a rhythm, and in far less time than she had imagined, the pallets were bare, supplies piled neatly beside them.
She, Megs, Mitch, Harrison, Kenzie, and Nicole, went over their lists to make sure they had accounted for everything.
“Blankets?” Nicole asked.
No one had seen that. The AEDs weren’t there, nor were any of the oxygen supplies she’d ordered or the IV fluid warmer or the heating pads or the cots.
Jesse peered over her shoulder. “So, apart from the important stuff, it’s all here.”
“Looks like it.” Ellie would have to get on this first thing tomorrow.
“All right, folks,” called Megs, her voice rising over the joking and the chatter. “Let’s put it back just the way we found it. Sasha, this isn’t the rock gym.”
Ellie glanced up… and her pulse skipped. “Holy shit!”
Sasha had climbed an I-beam almost to the ceiling.
Megs shook her head. “I can’t take them anywhere.”