He smiled, more of a grimace. “I’ll be fine.”
“I never thought I’d welcome an earthquake.”
Cole consulted his compad. “The red dots have not moved. They’re still where we left them. Probably out of commission, buried in debris, or confused as to where we went.”
“Which way are the closest stairs now?”
A strong aftershock shoved Rhonda into Cole’s arms against the pillar, and for a second she enjoyed his contact. But the hollow pillar twisted and gave way under them. A wide breach opened at knee level. Rhonda stared down with alarm into a gaping maintenance shaft. Off balance, Cole and Rhonda, lurched at the edge of the dark well.
Rhonda screamed as she felt herself fall inside the shaft, as if attracted by the void. But two strong hands gripped her arm. She now dangled above the dark depths. Grateful for Cole’s quick reflexes, Rhonda thanked the powers that be.
“Shit!" Cole’s expression changed from concern to incredulity.
With horror, Rhonda realized that in his desperate attempt to save her, Cole had dropped the compad. Looking down the black well, she followed the small device that bounced on a jumble of wires and pipes then plummeted to the black depths of the maintenance shaft. Please, God, no! Not the compad! They’d just lost their advantage of detection over the prisoners. Now what?
“Give me your other hand,” Cole ordered, the raw intensity on his face showing how much he wanted to save her.
Her hand felt slimy as Rhonda reached for his. Cold sweat dripped down her spine. Releasing one hand from her arm, Cole snatched her other wrist. He lifted her slowly toward the brink of the broken wall. The metal plates inside the durancrete had snapped, revealing a shiny sharp edge sandwiched between two thicknesses of concrete.
Clasping her weapon belt through the yellow cloth of the overalls, Cole hefted Rhonda over the edge and deposited her on the floor. “You all right, kiddo?”
Barely able to stand from shaking, Rhonda shuddered with the knowledge that she could have fallen to her death. Warm tears drowned her eyes and blurred her vision. She wasn’t sure whether she cried from fear, frustration, or the grateful realization that Cole had just saved her life.
“Thanks,” she whispered in a shaky voice, but words couldn’t convey her gratitude. Throwing herself into his arms, she kissed him impulsively.
Although he responded with the same fire at first, Cole quickly regained his previous reserve and pushed her gently away from him with an embarrassed smile. “This is not the time, or the place.”
The rejection stung Rhonda’s frayed nerves and she snapped. “If we die in a few hours, I’d rather have kissed you than not!”
“Don’t turn hysterical on me now." He circled the broken pillar that enveloped the maintenance shaft. “We have more pressing problems."
He was right, of course, and Rhonda hated to feel guilty. The hollow column hadn’t collapsed. It had snapped close to the base and shifted, but still stood, tilted, resting halfway over the brink of the open well.
Cole crouched, slid underneath the low overhang of the severed shaft, and turned on his flood light to peer up. He came back with a determined set of his jaw. “It seems to go straight up. We’ve got to climb inside.”
“Oh, now you want to use my first idea." Rhonda felt cheated but struggled to lower her voice. “It wasn’t good enough before! No, we had to take the stairs!" Cole had managed to steal her idea and make it look as if it were his all along.
He shrugged. “Since some convicts just found out we are guards, and we can’t avoid them without the compad, we have no other choice.”
True. They had to go up that square shaft. Rhonda repressed a shiver at the idea of climbing inside the dark chimney. “Well, the cable would’ve come in handy right now.”
“Not my choice, kiddo. We’ll just have to climb the hard way.”
“What if there is a quake while we are inside?" She immediately regretted bringing up the thought.
“I’m afraid it’s a chance we’ll have to take.”
The irrational fear rushing through Rhonda’s mind wasn’t of earthquakes, however, but of the dark confined space of the maintenance shaft. Of course, they could fall, but going a hundred meters straight up a sealed chimney with no idea how they would carve their way out at the top, that scared her a lot more.
“Let’s get rid of the yellows." Cole zipped down the cumbersome garment, emptied the pockets and restocked his gray uniform pockets.
Rhonda did the same. “We can’t leave the yellows here for them to find, or they’ll know which way we went and they’ll follow us for sure.”
“I did think of that." Cole took the prison overalls from her hands, stepped to the edge of the broken pillar then dropped both garments into the gaping shaft. Down the overalls went, billowing and flapping with increasing speed. Rhonda shivered at the thought that a minute ago, it could have been her inside the yellow overalls.
Cole glanced around looking for something. “We must plug that hole behind us, so no one can follow us. We can’t have thousands of prisoners invading the Garrison.”
“Of course." Rhonda bit back a sharper comment. To think that Cole still thought of the safety of the other guards before his own... She circumvented the problem. “We don’t have time to plug that hole, and I don’t see how we could, anyway."
Loud voices in the distance approached quickly. Cole and Rhonda stared at each other.
“You go first, kiddo." Cole smiled reassuringly. “In case you fall, I can catch you, and if I fall I won’t take you down with me.”
That half patronizing, half chivalrous attitude again, how she loved and hated it. It made her feel weak. Why did he always assume she couldn’t hold her own? He only relied upon her when he had no other choice, like when he was wounded and helpless.
But the thought of Cole falling to his death troubled her. If by misfortune that happened, she wasn’t sure she wanted to go on without him.
Turning on the floodlight at her belt, Rhonda crawled under the overhang of the broken shaft. As she stood up inside and directed her light up, she spotted a network of bunched up wires and tubes of all sizes running up and down three sides of the square space. When she discovered that the fourth wall featured a series of rungs embedded in the durancrete, she felt herself smile.
“There is a ladder!” she whispered. “That means there has to be an exit up there for maintenance personnel.”
“Told you." Cole’s body blocked the bottom of the shaft as he crawled inside then started climbing below her.
As they ascended, echoes of voices rose up the shaft.
Cole stopped climbing. “Turn off your light,” he whispered.
“What?" Rhonda didn’t want to be in the dark again.
“Turn it off now. And be quiet.”
Rhonda now heard heavy footsteps and could make out individual voices. She understood and reluctantly turned off her floodlight. Thick darkness enveloped them both. Balanced on one rung, holding on to another, Rhonda felt as if she was encased in suffocating blackness, suspended in time, then her eyes adjusted to the dim glow of the aqua floor down below.
She aimed her phaser down but realized shooting in such close quarters would endanger Cole and even herself. The phase beam could bounce inside the narrow shaft and kill them both.
“Would you look at that hole!” a male voice marveled outside the shaft.
Obviously the inmates had discovered the well in which Rhonda almost fell. It wouldn’t take long before they peered up under the overhang of the broken pillar. Curiosity was a common trait to all humanoids.
Immobile, Rhonda tried to hold her breath but could only slow it somewhat. Her heart was beating too hard. She couldn’t hear Cole breathe but she felt his hand on her ankle and welcomed his reassuring touch.
At the opening below, a face looked up the shaft. Rhonda aimed for it and saw the barrel of Cole’s gun doing the same.
“See anything?” asked one of the man’s compa
nions.
“Nope." The voice echoed in the shaft. “Just black and creepy."
For once, Rhonda welcomed the blackness shrouding her.
“How far does it go?” asked another male voice.
“No idea,” the peering man said. “Without light I can’t tell.”
“Let’s go get a Juzzaar, they can see in the dark.”
A murmur of approval rose from the man’s companions and the curious face disappeared, only to make room for another, then another curious face.
Not daring to move, breathing shallow, Rhonda wondered how long she could remain still. The face retreated.
After a few seconds that seemed an eternity, Cole whispered, “I think they’re gone. We better get up fast, before they bring a Juzzaar.”
Rhonda needed no prompting. She turned on her floodlight and started climbing the rungs as fast as she could. The swinging light cast moving shadows as she ascended, hand over hand, getting to a proficient rhythm. She could hear the reassuring sound of Cole’s boots below her each time they hit a metal rung.
They passed a horizontal branching with tubes and wiring going in four directions. Each branching bore the number of the corresponding level. They passed thirteen then twelve, then eleven.
Rhonda felt the vibration through her hands holding the rungs and braced herself. “Earthquake!” she warned, choking on the words. Terrified of being crushed, Rhonda held on, hoping the reinforced shaft would hold against the violent tremor rattling the pipes around them.
The vibrations almost jerked her loose but Rhonda tightened her grip on the rungs. “Are you okay?” she asked as the shaking dwindled.
“Watch out!” Cole warned.
Rhonda flattened herself against the ladder. Something bulky whooshed past, followed by smaller debris and gravel that bounced and crashed in a clatter at the broken bottom of the shaft. Rhonda waited, listening to make sure no more debris came their way. She smelled cement dust that dried the skin of her face and parched her throat. “What was that?”
“Not sure, but it might be a blessing. Let’s go.”
Rhonda resumed the difficult climb, hand over hand. “A blessing? It could have killed us."
“But it didn’t. Such a large chunk of durancrete, with all that gravel and debris will probably block the opening at the bottom of the chimney.”
Glancing down at Cole, Rhonda noticed he looked drawn by the light of her flood lamp. She stopped. “How are you feeling? Is your chest hurting?”
Was it only dust and grime on his face? “I’ll be fine. Keep going."
“No, you are shaking. The pills are wearing off." She fished inside her cargo pockets. Only four pills left. She bent down and gave them to Cole. “Take those.”
“Yes Ma’am." He gobbled the pills and showed his empty hand as proof that he’d swallowed them.
“Only five more levels to climb." Heartened by the proximity of the Garrison, Rhonda scaled the ladder with all the energy she could muster. Then the realization of their situation struck her. “You mean we are completely sealed inside this shaft? Top and bottom?”
“Don’t worry. It’s much safer for us.”
Safe or not, Rhonda didn’t like it. She found the thought frightening and struggled not to panic. Somehow she managed to climb faster despite her fatigue and the painful strain on her arms and shoulders. Her hands cramped and each rung dug into the sole of her feet through the boots.
Their only possible exit was up, on Level Six, in the safe haven of the Garrison. Trying to ignore the growing anxiety that would certainly overcome her if she gave into it, Rhonda kept climbing the ladder.
Her hands slick with sweat grabbed each warm rung in quick succession. The floodlight hanging at her belt swayed to the tempo of her steps. She prayed God they’d find an exit up there. There had to be one, and Rhonda wouldn’t relax until she found it.
Cole followed at her heels, keeping in synch with her pace. “Almost there, kiddo.”
That nickname, again. Back in the infirmary Cole had used it tenderly, but now Rhonda didn’t know how he meant it. “How many times did I asked you not to call me that?" She immediately regretted her outburst. She felt exhausted and she realized he didn’t mean to hurt her by it.
“Sorry,” Cole mumbled.
Markings at each horizontal branching indicated more levels, and the decreasing numbers gave Rhonda more energy as she progressed up the ladder. Level Nine. The Garrison and their freedom from this abominable place waited just three floors up.
But she had to stop. “My legs are cramping." She felt his hands massage one calve and moaned with gratitude.
Then Cole massaged her other calve. “Better?”
“Yes, thanks." As she realized that their chances of surviving this ordeal increased with each upward step, Rhonda considered her situation regarding Cole. What had they done? She felt more and more convinced that they should never have allowed their deeply buried attraction to surface. She had given into what? Lust? Desperation? Or was it something more?
Up ahead, Rhonda noticed a ray of light. “Looks like there is a hole in our chimney.”
“A hole?" Cole moved to the side to peer up. “Kill your light.”
Rhonda did. She didn’t like the idea of convicts noticing activity inside a pillar, on whatever floor the break had occurred. As they approached the faint light, it became evident that the chunks and debris that almost decapitated them earlier had come from that hole.
Spider web patterns of fissures in the walls around the hole told of a recent impact. As they reached the level of the hole, Rhonda peered outside and realized she stood high above floor level. She also understood what had happened earlier and glanced down at Cole. “Level Eight. Lilac Zone. A ceiling conduit bashed our shaft.”
“Can the inmates see you?”
“No. Come take a look." Rhonda helped Cole stand at her level.
Both stood on the same narrow rung and peered through the large hole to their right side. The severed conduit still rested precariously on the edge of the hole in the durancrete. Secretly, Rhonda enjoyed the short respite. Her arms and legs couldn’t take much more of this punishment. As they caught their breath, a loud metallic clatter drew their gaze up toward the ceiling of Level Eight.
Rhonda watched with horror as another pipe broke from the ceiling of Level Eight and swung wide, hitting the other end of the conduit resting on the edge of the hole.
“Climb!” Cole yelled and pushed her up.
Rhonda hurried up the rungs, not quite understanding, crowded by Cole who also climbed and half carried her up the ladder.
“Hang on!" Cole stopped and braced her legs against the ladder.
With a white-knuckle grip on the rungs, Rhonda glanced down and screamed. Like a ram, the large conduit suddenly surged inside the chimney and collided with the other side of the shaft, crashing right through it like a thundering bolt.
The vibration reverberated through the ladder and throughout the shaft. Long fissures cracked on all sides. Then Rhonda watched in horror as the chimney under them all but collapsed and fell away, leaving a gaping hole beneath their feet.
As Rhonda looked down the vertiginous drop to the Lilac floor, cold sweat ran down her spine and she shook so much she wasn’t sure she could climb.
“Don’t look down,” Cole said reassuringly. “It missed us.”
So the ram did and they were both alive, but Rhonda reeled with the thought of where they would be now if Cole hadn’t prompted her just in time. They’d both be dead and bloody under the pile of rubble below. A hot draft heavy with body odors and sewage rose from the floor beneath them and assailed her nose.
Cole squeezed her ankle. “Let’s go, we are not far now.”
Slowly, heart drumming in her chest, Rhonda started up the ladder again, glad she and Cole were still alive.
What would they do after they escaped? Would she miss Cole if they went their separate ways? To think of it, she would. How could two people share th
eir most intimate fears and hopes, the most intense pleasures, save each other’s lives, face death together, then just part and forget about each other? Rhonda realized she could never forget Cole. He’d become an integral part of her life.
And why in heaven had she told him about blowing up that shipment to avenge her sister? Now he could send her straight to jail for terrorism. It troubled her that Cole hadn’t mentioned their night of passion once since they’d left the infirmary. And when she’d tried to broach the topic, he’d changed the subject. Obviously, he didn’t intend to pursue a relationship if they survived. She feared her very first impression of him had been the right one.
She’d opened her heart and soul only to be rejected by a misogynist. To think that a week or so ago she’d hated the man’s guts. Although she still resented his patronizing ways, she couldn’t get him out of her mind. Back at the infirmary, he’d seemed so different, so caring. What had happened to that lovable Cole? Had she glimpsed the real Cole beneath the attitude? Or an illusion brought about by the drugs in his system?
The last rungs brought them to the edge of a wide horizontal tunnel, and the letters painted on the wall spelled Level Six - Garrison. Rhonda’s heart pounded faster. “Where is that door?”
“Have no fear." Cole chuckled. “If I remember right, the exit hatch should be somewhere above the engine room.”
Wall markings labeled the various sections of Level Six. Rhonda realized the tunnel paralleled a familiar hallway leading from the Garrison living quarters to the engine room and the monitoring room. A metal sign, fastened above a round hatch of gray titanium with a central wheel, said Engine Room.
“Here it is!" Cole braced himself to turn the wheel.
Rhonda helped him wholeheartedly, and when the wheel started moving, all the fears, the agony, the suffering of the past ten days, somehow washed away as her body and mind welcomed the sanctuary of the Garrison.
She couldn’t help but shout with release. “Safe at last."
Chapter Fifteen
Level Six - The Garrison
Alien Lockdown Page 18