by Angela White
“Damn, we’re glad to–”
Debra flung herself into Kenn’s arms, hugging him hard enough to make the Marine stagger. Flushing, he pried her off and handed her to Theo.
“See you,” Theo finished, holding her. She was the gentlest person he’d ever met. She wanted all of them to survive, even Kenn and Adrian. When she’d said she’d never attacked anyone before Tara and Jayson, Theo had believed her, but he knew it for certain now.
“We’re going up to help with the fire.” Kenn glanced at Angela, expression hardening. “Stay down here with the boy. If the smoke gets worse, get into the tunnel with the Mexican bodies. It’ll be rough, but the drafts there might keep you guys alive.”
“Marc!” Angela ran toward the injured who had been dragged under the ledge.
Kenn rolled his eyes and started up the ladder that shook dust over those waiting to do the same.
“Help me!”
Everyone who heard it swung toward the scream, pinpointing it to right above the bathrooms on this bottom level.
Kenn was torn about which way to go. The fire was lethal, but that scream said help couldn’t get there fast enough. Kenn looked at the men about to climb the ladder behind him.
Morgan went toward the screaming without being told, Theo limping behind.
The two men disappeared into the dark passage that Kenn and Morgan had come down after finding Sam.
Kenn returned to the climb. He wasn’t sure how much more of this his arms were going to tolerate without a break. He hadn’t been to sleep yet and the smoke was making it hard to breathe and see. He was running through his energy and the sweat was stealing needed liquid that he couldn’t replace. If more people didn’t recover and start helping, things were going to get a lot uglier for all of them.
Debra held onto Cody and refused to let him stare at his mother’s body. Debra wanted to cover it, but there wasn’t anything close to use and she was scared to leave the light. She no longer trusted the darkness. Safe Haven had changed that for her, but now, Safe Haven was gone.
Chapter Two
Falling
1
“Help!”
Samantha screamed again as the ground shifted. The tiny ledge she’d been on collapsed, dropping ten feet through the sharp darkness.
The debris fell in a shower of plastic dust, revealing huge stone slabs that Neil ran across as fast as he could.
The cave grumbled, releasing another cloud of dust and shakes that sent his feet sliding downward as he ran. He leapt as the floor fell, reaching Samantha’s location by bare inches.
He scrambled away from the edge, bags slamming into his chest and the ground as he crawled.
“Sam?!”
She didn’t answer.
Neil knelt at her side, wincing as his light revealed her bloody body. A thin shard of plastic had gone into her leg, above the knee. Too loose to plug the hole that it had created, the shard vibrated as the cave continued to shake.
Neil covered her with his body as best he could, trying to remember the lessons. Do I pull it out?
The choice was taken from him when Samantha groaned, rolling. The shard hit a slab of stone and broke off. Blood gushed from the wound, pushing out the remaining shaft.
Neil followed the training he’d received in Angela’s class. He yanked the medical bags from his neck and dumped them out on her chest. He ripped open packages he thought he needed, but when he got to the tourniquet, he wrapped it around Samantha’s thigh, as far up as he could get it over her pants. He knew it needed to be under the clothes to be most effective, but there wasn’t time. Blood was pouring from her leg.
Neil grabbed his lighter. He had to cauterize the wound. There was no time to sew it– not with his big stitches and clumsy hands. What do I use?! Uh… Uh…
The flashlight bobbed…
Neil grabbed it off his belt, unscrewing the cap. Plunged into darkness, he managed to keep a hold of the cap and the lighter.
Hands shaking, Neil heated the cap, willing it to glow faster. He’d witnessed this at the rest stop with Angela and prayed he would never need to do it. His nightmare had become a reality.
Neil ran his sleeve over the gaping wound that cleared for a brief instant and then began to refill with Samantha’s life. He slammed the cap over the injury, trying to get it all in one shot.
Blood ran from the edges, but the center of the cap held the flow. Neil hoped he’d gotten it hot enough.
Samantha groaned, but didn’t respond otherwise.
Neil lifted the cap, horrified at burnt skin and the gap still there. Blood ran over her leg.
Not hot enough!
Neil reheated the warm cap, praying again. He forced himself to wait until the cap was glowing this time, then he centered it over the flowing wound. He swiped and pressed.
Samantha screamed, rising, but Neil pushed her down with his other hand, dropping the lighter.
He leaned down so he could grope for his lamp button, fighting the need not to shout for help when he knew there was nothing anyone could do. They were all in desperate situations right now.
Neil lifted the cap… Blackened skin, but no fresh blood. Now do it again. Then check the other side.
He did it with a twisting stomach, trying to get the entire wound again before he rolled her over. In his mind, her odds of survival went down with every second. He had to get blood into her, but the medical bags didn’t have that. Blood needed to be packed on ice.
Neil considered where that refrigerator might be as he reheated the cap to do the rear of her leg. The plastic shard had pierced a small hole, but he wasn’t able to sew it up for the same reasons as the front. He needed to get the bleeding stopped now. Neil held Sam down and cauterized the back of the thigh that he had lovingly kissed the night before.
2
Cody jumped as a man carrying a body descended from the ledge right above him and Debra. They recognized Neil and Samantha in relief and then concern. Theo and Morgan hadn’t returned from helping the screaming woman, but Cody had told Debra the noise had stopped, so she assumed they would be back soon.
Debra helped Neil settle Samantha next to Marc, but she also kept track of Cody, tugging on his arm when he would have gone toward the ladder. She gestured.
Neil, who had been learning sign language, frowned. “She’s right, boy. You don’t need to see her like that. Stay here and protect your dad.”
Given a job, Cody stumbled over to Marc’s body, where Angela was kneeling and muttering.
Neil hoped she was healing Marc. They needed him and Angela right now. If he died, they would lose them both, but more than that, once Angela was finished with Marc, she could help Samantha.
“He has a concussion.” Angela guided Cody onto Marc’s chest. “Can you keep him warm while we help? Debra will be here with you and others will come.”
Cody was sad. He was also picking up everyone’s pain. “You’ll come back?”
Angela placed a soft kiss to the boy’s forehead. “Yes. So will your dad. He needs to sleep for a while.”
Cody laid on Marc’s chest, comforted by the even breathing.
Angela turned to Neil. “I can’t heal yet. You have to find blood for her. Others will need it too.”
She scanned the area.
Neil pointed his lamp toward the rubble to help her.
“That’s the lab shelf we kept medications on.” Angela tiptoed around the crevice and went to the spot. “We need everything in it.”
“Antibiotics?”
“Yes.” Angela pointed toward a dark corner. “Over there, maybe. We kept it in the rear of the room, so it might not have fallen at all.”
Neil also went to the rubble pile, studying. “I can’t tell if this came from bags or…you know, but there’s blood on this end.”
Angela joined him, collecting things as she came. The gun, she shoved into her belt. The dented flashlight, she switched on, but the blood was too close to the ladder to be able to determine the d
ifference under these limited conditions.
“What if it’s gone?” Neil’s expression was desperate.
“We’ll get the doctor down here.” Angela headed for the ladder. “He might know her blood type.”
Given hope, Neil flew up the ladder. He understood time wasn’t on Sam’s side. As soon as he’d released the tourniquet, the cauterized wound had bulged, telling him there was an internal problem. She needed real help.
Angela inched up the ladder, reaching out to those she could connect with through the panic and agony. Adrian and a few others were trying to get the fire under control, but they needed more hands. Get to the mess, she sent through the cave. We need help at the mess.
Angela’s call was a comfort to some of her terrified people, but for those in bad situations, it said they would have to help themselves until she could get to them. A fire had priority.
Angela used her shirt to cover her mouth as she reached the next level. The smoke was thicker up here. She realized the light above her was going dim and celebrated it even as she mourned the illumination. Their few flashlights weren’t going to hold them for long. They needed power, but opening the vent had to come first.
Angela found Ozzie and Logan coming up the ladder behind her, both covered in dirt and tacky stains. “Kenn is going to the top level. Help in the mess.”
Both men went without protest. They’d been in the wash area when it collapsed. The carnage from that moment was replaying in their shaken minds. There wasn’t space for other concerns yet.
“There’s Kyle!” Ozzie hurried to help Jennifer over the last few feet of the gap between the tunnel and the medical bay.
Kyle let go gratefully, arms aching from the tight grip he’d kept while they walked the tightrope.
Kyle joined Angela at the ladder to the next level, aware of Jennifer checking their quiet daughter for injuries.
“She’s okay.” Jennifer leaned her cheek against the baby. “Thank you! Thank you!”
Angela understood the emotion. She started climbing while Kyle tried to convince the teenager to go to the bottom level and wait for them. Angela doubted Jenny would, but it was the safest place for her and the baby right now. The smoke up here was thick enough to make eyes water.
Angela felt impatient males on the ladder behind her and tried to hurry, but her body had gotten lazy during her time off. Mistake. Angela hefted herself onto the next level. She rolled to the side to clear room for the men who were in much better shape.
“You okay?” Ozzie asked, helping her stand.
She nodded, making the cave walls spin. “Keep going.”
The men hurried up the ladder, listening for survivors but not hearing many. The third level residence corridor was destroyed and they hurried into the mess. It was the only reachable area where the majority of their people could be.
Ozzie stopped in shock, as did those behind him. The gaping hole in the center of the mess stunned them. Camp members were trapped behind the hole, except they weren’t moving. Body after body lay sprawled across the floor, including kids and pregnant women. In the rear of the mess, where flames from the kitchen were spreading out through the door, a group of men was trying to combat the fire with powdered goods and tablecloths.
Ozzie turned toward the tunnel, grabbing Logan’s arm. “Help me!”
“Do what? We have to get them out of there!”
“We are.” Ozzie hurried into the adjacent corridor. “There! That might be strong enough to hold.”
The two men uncovered the wide sheet of jagged metal and dragged it into the mess to put over the smallest corner of the gap.
3
Across the mess gap, Adrian saw more people finally joining the fight and paused to evaluate. He and the others had jumped the corner and managed to push the fire into the kitchen, but it wasn’t going to hold. The cooking oil and gas from the stoves was feeding the fire that spread across the ceiling by wires. Melting plastic and popping cans filled the air with dangerous shrapnel.
Ozzie and Logan were dragging unconscious people out of the mess, but there wasn’t room for more than ten in the passage. As the two men brought bodies out, more men and women came up the ladder. Forced to use them like ants, Ozzie began loading bodies onto shoulders to be taken to the bottom. It was slow labor.
“We can’t get up there without digging.” Kenn dropped down from the broken ladder that led to the top level. “All the other ladders are gone and most of the ceiling caved-in to block our exit. Lots of smoke. We can’t get up there without breathing equipment.”
Kenn grabbed a heavy camp member, aware that most of the men around him wouldn’t be able to carry that one. “Let’s get these people below. Look for fire extinguishers on your way. We had ten to fifteen per level. They have to be here somewhere.”
“I’ve got one,” a weak voice called.
Shawn was coming from the level below them. Adrian had been next to him a few minutes ago while they tossed salt–all they could locate–onto the fire, but he hadn’t noticed when the man left.
“There’s five more right below us.” Shawn sucked in dusty air, lungs hurting. “I need help carrying them up.”
Eagles hurried to collect the extinguishers, aware of the time running out for those who were still in the mess but even more, they were aware of their own limits. The constant climbing and smoke was already taking its toll. So was the silence. Grief was sneaking in now, telling them they’d lost friends and family this time.
“I found the blood!” Neil’s shout echoed upward. “Working on getting the doctor.”
Angela grunted in answer, pulling herself to the top level. She’d gone right by the wonderful men laboring on the mess level without being noticed. It wouldn’t be long before the smoke overwhelmed her workers. The loudest noise right now was coughing.
Angela breathed through her shirt and began laboring on the pile of rubble blocking off the ramp entrance to the corridor that led to the top. The ladders were gone from the other entrance and the hole was filled with large debris. She’d chosen to try digging out their backup tunnel, hoping its narrowness and odd shape would have kept it intact. Angela used her witch to help her with the heaviest pieces, but she hadn’t gotten very far when Adrian joined her.
Adrian pulled the larger rubble aside, not trying to speak. The men below were evacuating their camp members from the mess as fast as they could, but without the vents being opened and the fire being out, they were all going to die down here.
Angela heaved a heavy chunk of stone to the right by rocking it.
Adrian saw a gap and helped her.
“That’s good!” She ducked into the darkness.
Adrian followed, wincing at the heat blast as warm air found the newest vent and rushed through.
Angela stood up as soon as she saw the floor was whole, fighting the need to run. There were rocks and dirt on the ground, along with big ants that she stepped over and on without reacting to their squeals of betrayed misery. She had her own colony to save.
Adrian grabbed her arm when she would have stepped into the smoke-filled corridor that led up a ramp to the top floor. He put her behind him and then advanced while shining his light. He found bodies sprawled across the rocky floor.
Angela hurried to check them, but she already knew she was too late to save those who had been trapped up here. The smoke had found every nook and cranny and smothered them while they waited for rescue.
“Come on!” Adrian helped her up, leading them through the smoke and horror to the large control panel that Theo and Ozzie had welded to the entrance wall of the cave. He shined his light. Something from outside had almost pierced their steel door. Not getting out that way, he thought, ripping the panel open.
Angela shined her light while Adrian flipped switches. Once the buttons were set correctly, he had to hand-crank the wheel.
Angela winced as metal clinched, grinding, and then it popped like normal and a huge rush of cool air came at them. Behind it w
as a thick cloud of smoke that was impossible to view through or keep from breathing.
Adrian staggered towards the washrooms, dragging Angela with him as the smoke disturbed the debris and sent fresh clouds of smoky grit over them. Angela and Adrian cowered in a far corner of the chamber and waited for it to settle or for their lungs to shut down. There was no way to know which one would come first.
Adrian groped for her hand, blind from the smoke. He tugged her into his arms and brought up his shield, wishing he’d thought of it sooner. It would tire him, but they would be protected from the worst of the thick smoke racing from the top of their den.
Now that there was time, Angela put her head on his bad shoulder and sobbed.
Adrian didn’t know which one hurt him more–the shoulder or her tears.
4
“They are burning!” Mikel’s scream echoed over his devastated campsite. He keyed his mike in ecstasy. “You have to come out now! We will have the witch!”
In the mountain, the few radios that had been on when the earthquake hit blared with Mikel’s insanity, causing ripples of anger throughout the cave.
Kenn was glad. With the smoke clearing, they were able to see how bad they’d been hit. To know that Mikel had been spared brought rage forward and gave Kenn the strength to keep working on the fire, as it did with the others who had been spared. If they survived this, Mikel was still out there planning their demise. Instead of causing panic, the determination to end the threat hardened in their hearts. Mikel was on borrowed time. He just didn’t recognize it yet.
Kenn ducked behind the ladder and into the medical bay entrance. Neil had told Kenn that Tonya was still trapped. When he’d heard she was okay, Kenn had kept working on the fire. He still didn’t have time to spare, but he was checking on her anyway.
Tonya grinned at the face peering across the gap. “Thought we’d be seeing you soon.”
Kenn scanned the sleeping cat in her lap and the narrow ledge of stone where Tonya was sitting cross-legged. Without equipment or stacking debris up from below, he couldn’t get to her yet.