Deep

by Leesa Birch

  Trying to catch my breath, I said, “No funny business either. Blowing things up is sure to be messier than…” I pointed to the bed. I still couldn’t say the word drowning to him.

  His large, shiny black eyes were still a little too close for me to resist. He was trying to control himself. He wasn’t winning. Careful not to make any sudden moves that would set him off, I slid out of his reach.

  “Fine,” he said in frustration. “Get dressed. We’re leaving.”

  I threw on some combats and a jumper. I looked at Kane, his eyes were still black. I felt bad about that.

  “Where are we going?” I demanded.

  He finished getting dressed and grabbed my hand. “We’re going to get your necklace back, Ivy.”

  We made our way towards the meeting lodge. There was a slight frost on the ground, which crunched underfoot as we walked. Kane was moving faster than normal.

  “What’s the hurry?” He was pulling my arm out of its socket. He stopped to face me. His eyes were still black.

  “Really, Ivy, you need to ask?” I guessed not.

  “You remember the lab’s in Arizona right? It’s a bit of a distance.” Kane stepped closer. Maybe Grogan had some tea for him. Or maybe we were safe enough outside. I gave him a playful smile then ran. He chased. But if there was one thing I knew how to do, it was running.

  Kane wasn’t far behind me as I reached the clearing. I could see Grogan and a few other Lake Dwellers over by the water’s edge. I felt a sudden sharp pain in my stomach which stopped me in my tracks. I let out an involuntary whimper as I dropped to my knees.

  “Ivy! What’s going on? Talk to me.” Kane’s eyes returned to their original blue with concern. I looked around; Grogan and the others were also on the ground. I tried to breathe through the onslaught of agony. Kane lifted me into his arms and carried me to where the others had fallen.

  Sylvia came running over. “What’s happening?” Neither she nor Kane seemed to be in distress. After a while the pain became a dull ache.

  Grogan managed to lift his head. “Someone needs to check the news channels.”

  Helping each other up, we turned to Grogan. We all knew what a close proximity disaster felt like. We headed towards the meeting lodge. Glory and a few of the other council members were waiting.

  Silence covered the room as Glory began to speak.

  “I guess you all felt that. There’s been an earthquake. A lot of people have died. Most of the town is buried - it’s all over the news. Everybody with full healing skills will need to go immediately to the epicentre. You will be fully briefed on the way. This is what we do, ladies and gentlemen. So, let’s go. Ivy, I need to talk to you first.”

  Kane squeezed my hand. I guess he’d have to wait a little longer.

  Glory came over to me, looking concerned.

  “Are you back with us now, Ivy? Because we need you.” I nodded. Grogan was standing behind her.

  “I know you’ve not participated in disaster work with us before, but I know you’ll do fine, Ivy.” She turned and started giving out orders. I wasn’t sure I trusted myself at the moment.

  “Here, Ivy, keep this with you at all times. It’s not the nicest tasting tea I’ve made for you. But it should help you to control your water weaving skills for the moment. I’ve filled the council in with what happened at the lab. They were going to send you and a team back there today, but it’ll have to wait. I’ll be helping another team set up so I won’t see you until we get back. Good luck.” I was excited and scared at the same time.

  I turned to Kane. “How come you weren’t writhing around in agony on the floor outside?”

  He smiled. “Can’t feel people pain – remember? Half breed.” I frowned at him. I was about to tell him not to use that term when he kissed me.

  “Is there any point in asking you to stay out of trouble. Ivy? I’ll see you when you get back.”

  Pocketing the flask that Grogan had given me, I made my way outside. I was herded into one of the waiting vans. The journey to the earthquake zone was short. We were all given blue boiler suits to change in to and ID badges were handed out to us, along with a backpack.

  As we pulled up, I wasn’t prepared for what I saw. There were so many confused people, rescue workers, injured people, news crews and quite a few dark vans. I guessed those were ours. As we piled out of the vans, I took in the scale of the disaster. Most of the town was no longer above ground. Some of the surrounding mountains had been shaken loose, burying whole sections of the street. A few of the buildings were still visible, half-fallen mostly. There were fire fighters putting out what fires they could get to. Triage tents that looked like MASH units, were being set up by troops for the injured. There were a lot of injured, our team were doing their best not to double over in pain.

  Someone touched my arm. “Ivy, come this way, you’ll be working with Drew.” I was handed a white hard hat sporting a torch and told to keep away from the press. I struggled to keep my eyes green as we passed by many injured people. I wanted to help them.

  “Who’s going to help these people? Surely we can spare someone?” We kept walking.

  “Sorry, Ivy, there’s too many trapped, injured or dying people. Here, put this on.” He handed me an ear-piece, I just looked at it and then at my supervisor.

  “Technology doesn’t work great around me, is this really necessary?” He gave a pitiful smile and shook his head.

  We stopped under a small tarpaulin where a young man was messing around with a computer.

  “Ivy, this is Drew. He’ll be on this end of your ear-piece.” I held out my hand, he took it. My supervisor left without a word. Drew let go of my hand.

  “Best get started then. Your point of entry is over there.” Drew pointed to a large hole in the ground. My stomach turned, I was way out of my league. There was a low rumble and the ground trembled.

  Drew grabbed his equipment until the tremor subsided. The pain in my stomach worsened. People were definitely still trapped down there.

  Drew looked at me concerned. “You okay?” I breathed deeply and nodded.

  “What do you need me to do? I’m ready.” Drew picked up some papers that had fallen onto the ground and started to explain.

  “Right, with your…shall we say, abilities, you’ll be able to sense where the injured people are. Your job is to locate them, heal them if necessary and send them back towards the surface. To save time going back and forth with them, you will be fitted with this cable.” He held up a wire cable with a hook on the end then leant forward and attached it to my belt.

  “Then once you’ve done your bit, you tell them to follow the cable back - understand?” I nodded, it seemed straightforward enough. “Your ear-piece is fitted with a tracking device, so we know where you are at all times. You would normally go down in pairs, but there are too many cave-ins and we’re spread out. Besides, I heard some of you have been going missing over the last few weeks.” What, I thought, nobody told me. Then again, they hadn’t really had the chance.

  “Drew, how many are missing?” Drew looked around him, the news crews were getting closer. Then he leant in, “I’m sorry, I thought you knew. Two or three from each lake so far, no one has a clue where they’ve gone.”

  A helicopter flew over us. The tarpaulin had trouble staying put. “You should go now, Ivy, things are going to get worse up here.” He patted me on the shoulder and pointed me towards a man by the hole. I smiled nervously and headed over to him. A woman broke through the crowd control barrier and ran at me.

  “Please, you have to help! My baby! She’s still down there!” One of the soldiers stopped her before she could reach me and took her back behind the line. This was a big responsibility - one I wasn’t sure I could manage.

  Another cable was attached to me and I was lowered into the hole.

  I wasn’t sure how deep I was lowered, I didn’t look. I still didn’t like heights, above or below ground.

  “Ivy.” Drew’s voice startled me as m
y feet touched the ground. I opened my eyes and turned to face the tunnel. “Ivy, can you hear me?” I nodded, shaking my head at my stupidity before answering, “Yes.”

  “Good, just testing. Check your backpack as we didn’t have time earlier. You should find water, some bandages for the lesser-injured, a spare torch, some oxygen and a bunch of fluorescent tubes. You snap them and they light up. Give these to the people you rescue, okay?” I nodded again. I should stop that.

  “Okay,” I said. I turned on the torch on my hard hat and checked the bag. Everything was there. I pulled it back on my shoulders, unclipped the cable used to lower me down and started walking in the direction of the pain.

  It was much quieter down here; no crowds, helicopters, fire crews, etc. just low rumbling in the distance. The tunnel looked like giant wormholes; the walls were smooth in places like they’d been here for a long time. Larger boulders lay on the ground in piles. Dust sprinkled down with every rumble. I wasn’t so sure this was safe. A twinge in my stomach urged me on.

  I came to a large sink hole, far beneath ground level. Looking up, I could see some light peering through cracks high above me. This was seriously wrong. There were large sections of the street down here. An upturned Beetle was sticking halfway out of a shop window. The far side of the underground street was covered with rocks and debris from the mountains that had previously framed the town.

  Climbing over another upturned car, I felt stronger pain.

  “Hello,” I called out into the silence then waited. “Help us!” someone cried back. The voice came from the hardware store down the tunnel on my right. I made my way over to the shop front. Someone was definitely in there, I could feel it. Carefully, I climbed through the broken window and ducked under a low swinging striplight.

  “Over here,” someone whispered. Pointing my torch in their direction I could make out two people huddled under some collapsed roofing.

  I knelt down next to them, careful not to disturb any precarious debris. A young blonde woman was cradling, who I assumed, was her father. He was trapped under the fallen roof.

  “Hi, my name is Ivy, I’m a rescue worker for…” I couldn’t remember what my cover was, so I pointed at my badge. “Miss, can you tell me your name?” She had been crying at some point, who knows how long they had been down here.

  “Sam, my name is Sam; this is my father, Duke. Is he going to be alright, can you help him?”

  I looked at the roofing and shuffled as close as I could. “Okay, Sam, I need you to move over there while I examine him. Could you do that for me?” She was reluctant to let go of Duke at first. I handed her one of the light tubes and tried to be reassuring.

  “The sooner I take a look at him, the sooner we can get out of here.” Duke moaned as she carefully placed his head on the ground and backed away. I made sure she was at a safe distance and changed my eyes to black. I slid my hands under his already torn shirt. He wasn’t doing well – he was crushed in places.

  The problem wasn’t with healing him, it was getting him out from under the roofing.

  I healed his collapsed lung and tried to rebuild some of his crushed arteries but I couldn’t. The boards were still digging in. I did what I could for him then felt my eyes revert back.

  “Sam, I need you to help find something that we can use to lift this, just enough to pull him out. Okay?” We started to look round the store. It was a hardware store after all, there had to be something.

  “Will this help?” Sam offered. She held out a large pole with some attachments on the end. I took it from her and looked it up and down. It was heavy and made from iron.

  “I think so, Sam. We could use it as a lever or something.” We pushed some machinery close to where Duke was trapped then wedged the pole under the collapsed roofing. Now was the hard part; Sam didn’t look very strong but I had to pull Duke out to heal him.

  “Sam, do you think you can lift this while I pull Duke out?” She stared at the trapped man and a look of determination covered her face. She nodded.

  “One more thing, Sam. I’ll pull Duke out as far as I can, but you need to make sure you’re clear in case more debris falls in, alright?”

  Sam situated herself on the high end of the pole. I squatted down with my arms underneath Duke. I changed my eyes in readiness, keeping then down out of Sam’s view.

  “Okay, now!” Sam pushed down with all her strength. The roofing moved an inch or so. Duke moaned semi-consciously as I pulled and healed at the same time. I tripped and fell backwards, pulling the injured man on top of me. The pole slipped from under the roofing and dirt started pouring in from above.

  “Let’s get out of here, Sam, help me.” I stopped healing long enough for us both to pull Duke out of the store.

  We landed in a heap as the hardware store collapsed behind us. We covered our heads as the top of the sink hole started to cave in.

  “Ivy! Answer me, are you okay?” It was Drew. I briefly checked that the others weren’t in any immediate danger and pressed the ear-piece.

  “I’m fine, Drew, I’ll be sending two people your way in a minute.” I checked Duke’s injuries, “Do you mind?” I asked Sam. She nodded whilst coughing up dust and staring at the store. I quickly healed Duke as much as I could and brought him round. He sat up quickly in shock. Sam fell to her knees, hugging him.

  Standing, I checked my cable. It led into the store and back out again. I tried to pull it free but it was stuck fast. I knew I’d get in trouble later about it, but I wouldn’t get more than ten feet with it stuck. I unclipped the cable, handed the couple some water and a fluorescent tube then told them to follow the cable back.

  I sat and replenished my energy with some water before carrying on down the sunken ruins.

  I carefully checked the stores as I went by, reporting any dead I found, which was a lot. The ground sloped away from me as I reached a tunnel at the end of the street. The further down I went, the colder it became. I wasn’t concentrating and nearly walked by an elderly couple on a bench against a wall.

  “Are you alright?” I asked them. The man had some injuries, but as I got closer I could see that the woman he was holding was already dead.

  “We’re fine, miss.” He wasn’t though. “I think there are more injured down that way.” He pointed. I stepped closer.

  “Don’t you want me to help you?” He shook his head, stroking the lady’s hair.

  “It won’t be long now, you can leave us.” Not once did he look at me.

  “Ivy, what are you doing? You heard the man, move on.” I turned and walked a few paces from the couple.

  “Are you serious? I can help him.” There was a short silence then a familiar voice came in my ear. It was Grogan - I guessed he was checking up on me.

  “Ivy, you know the rules. You can’t help him if he says not to. He said no.” Grogan was right, as always. The trouble I would get into if I forcibly healed someone was severe.

  “Fine, but I’m waiting with him until he passes.” With that, I pulled off my ear-piece.

  I walked over and sat on the bench next to the old man. “Do you mind if I wait with you? I won’t help you if you don’t want me to, I can make you more comfortable while we wait, if you like.”

  He looked at me for the first time. With sadness in his eyes, he nodded slowly and I took his hand. He was right, it wouldn’t be long. I took what pain I could without healing him and waited for him to die.

  It was a while after he passed before I let go of his hand. He must have truly loved her, to not want to go on without her by his side. I was thinking about Kane when the ear-piece in my pocket made a high pitched squeal.

  I wiped my eyes on my boiler suit, cleared my throat and put it back in my ear. “What?” I asked quietly.

  “Is it over?” asked Grogan gently. I didn’t answer, I moved from beside the couple, making sure I didn’t disturb their embrace. “There are more to heal, Ivy, you must move on now.” I looked at the couple, they looked so peaceful.


  Grogan was right though, I could hear voices coming from down the tunnel. Taking a deep breath, I pulled myself away and continued down into the darkness.

  The air was thinner down here. I searched my bag for the oxygen. I leant against the muddy wall and took a few breaths. Something down this tunnel didn’t smell right. I tapped my ear-piece, nothing happened. I knew this wasn’t going to work well, technology and I didn’t gel. I tapped it again - still nothing.

  I carried on towards the voices. I couldn’t feel anyone which meant that they weren’t injured. The tunnel had old pipes hanging from them, some dripped more than others. The voices were getting closer.

  “Hello,” I called. The tunnel rumbled and shook. Dirt and rocks fell from above, partially covering me as I fell to the floor. An aftershock.

  “Ivy!” I sat up fast, my head hurt slightly. My hard hat was a few feet away, shining in my eyes. My legs were covered and in pain.