by Angela White
Tonya already knew. She’d been contemplating ways to get herself down, but the drop into the darkness had stopped her. She didn’t know what was down there, but she had heard Neil tell the doctor that Jeremy had jumped into a gap after Samantha and died. Tonya had chosen not to jump.
Kenn scanned again, trying to come up with something. He estimated that their ladders would reach it, but they were in use now–both of them. The others had been destroyed or were buried.
“I’ll be fine.” Tonya flashed another grin. “Time to go be a hero.”
Kenn snorted and went back to helping, but his mind stayed on Tonya. She had become the perfect mate when he wasn’t searching for one and she was carrying his child. I might have to marry her.
Chapter Three
Burning
1
Gunshots rang out. It scared Cody, who had fallen asleep. He jerked upright to find Debra helping Theo and Morgan bring down a woman whose name he didn’t know. She was splattered with blood.
“I can’t believe he’s gone!” Nancy hung onto Morgan’s arm as he guided her over the rubble. “I tried to help him…” She dissolved in sobs.
Morgan scooped her up, carrying the former sailor the last twenty feet. He put Nancy next to Samantha, hoping she might be able to help with their wounded once she calmed down.
“Ants.” Theo signed it to Debra. “They killed Shane.”
How? Debra didn’t understand. They’re little.
“Strength.” Theo wiped away sweat. “He was knocked out. They took him right from her arms.”
Debra started crying.
Cody came to her and wrapped his tiny arms around her hips. “Shh…”
Debra held onto the boy, taking comfort where she could get it.
Cody instinctively led her over to Nancy.
The two women fell into each other’s arms, crying.
Cody retreated, glancing at Theo. Crying women made him nervous.
“Good job.” Theo patted Cody’s shoulder. “Can you watch them?”
Cody nodded. He returned to his place on Marc’s chest, but he shifted so he could view the upset women.
Theo and Morgan felt the draft in the tunnel switch, glancing upward. The light from the fire was dim now, but fresh showers of dirt and dust were falling over everything.
“Backdraft?” Morgan questioned as the wind increased, knocking more debris over and down.
“No.” Theo shielded his face from the flying dust. “We set it up so that couldn’t happen.”
The two men fought the wind to get to the ladder, where Theo began the dangerous climb with his casted leg. Morgan followed, ready to grab the man if he started to fall. There was a lot of work waiting for them all and behind that, grief and anger that would have to have an outlet. First, they had to get out of this cursed mountain.
2
“She’s over here. I cauterized it. I didn’t know what else to do!”
Jimmy ignored Neil’s babbling, grunting at popping joints as he knelt down by Samantha. The doctor was filthy and his hands were shaking, but he was calmer than some of his students who were crying and holding each other.
“It’s bad.” The doctor took packages from the kit by Samantha’s feet. “Find me a bag of A+.”
Neil found that type in relief. The carry-kits weren’t organized anymore, but the bags were labeled and none of them had been punctured. In fact, the refrigerator had stayed intact when it fell, even keeping the glass in the door. The shelf next to it, which had held the stronger medications, was absent and presumed destroyed.
“It’s coming out again!” someone yelled from an upper level. “Get more extinguishers!”
Neil was torn, but it was clear what his duty was. He left Samantha in the doctor’s hands and went up to help. That fire had to be put out. They had planned not to vent any smoke until the source was contained, but this situation was more than any of them had counted on when they’d implemented safety features for the cave.
Neil stopped at the next level. Unable to reach the exact place where they’d stored their fire equipment, he’d chosen to dig through the rubble below that gaping hole. They’d placed half a dozen extinguishers on each level, but they’d also stocked three dozen as replacements.
Kenn spotted Neil. “Over here!”
Neil helped Kenn and Morgan clear the rubble from the shelf and pull it over. Anchored to the wall, a huge chunk of broken stone shifted with it, sending new groans and dust through the cave.
“There they are!” Neil and the others grabbed as many of the red bottles as they could carry and took them to the rope.
Kenn went half way up. “I’m ready. Toss it easy.”
One hand holding on and one hand catching, he was only able to do it twice before he felt the rope slipping through his raw fingers. He pulled himself up as Simon and Neil tied the rest of the bottles to his waist to bring them up. The five extinguishers were heavy and awkward, jerking Neil around as he climbed and they swung.
Kenn tried to control the rope so that Neil could reach the floor. The hard labor had both men grunting and sweating in the smoky dimness.
“I found a pack.” Morgan stuffed the rest of the red bottles into it. He slung it on and joined Neil and Kenn at the top.
Armed with a dozen canisters, the trio hurried to the mess, dodging Eagles and camp members carrying down injured and the dead.
In the kitchen, Ozzie and the others switched out with the main crew, happy to go get a breath of air that had oxygen in it. More knowledgeable about fires, Ozzie and his team had been able to beat the flames into a corner of the cooking area where most of the oil and gas for the stove had been stored. Covered in soot and burns, the men retreated as the fresh help came in with the extinguishers and began firing.
In the mess, workers continued to drag bodies into the passage, where they were either stacked for a crew or taken below to the doctor. Few of them responded to any of the first aid attempts by their loved ones.
Bodies began to pile up and wails of grief echoed in small waves as new victims were found.
3
Shawn set Missy down next to the doctor, but he didn’t insist the man stop to help her. The doctor was wrists-deep into Samantha’s leg, trying to sew something, Shawn assumed by the instruments. He waited as patiently as he could, wincing at the blood. Samantha didn’t react. Shawn hoped she was just drugged for impromptu surgery.
Shawn smoothed Missy’s hair from her face, glad to see her chest rising in steady breaths. He’d done CPR on her, but he was terrified it wouldn’t hold.
The doctor felt the tension, but Samantha’s leg was torn up. He was trying to stitch it together with a bouncing flashlight as his guide.
“More gauze!” he snapped when one of the students would have gotten up to avoid the pooling blood on the filthy floor.
Face green, the student let blood gather around his knee. He didn’t mind viewing it or causing it, but Teddy didn’t like to feel it. After this, he would probably ask to be put into a different job.
The rest of the medical trainees were caring for the wounds that they could or watching the operation with grimaces and awe.
Nearby, Debra and Cody stayed away from the gruesome sight. Under Cody, Marc hadn’t woken.
“Hey! He’s up!”
Some people looked, but few of them cared except for the little girl sitting with the other kids that had been brought down from the mess.
“Billy!” Leeann ran over the debris. “Are you okay?”
Billy squinted through the dimness at the dirty little girl, skull pounding. “I think so. What happened?” He glanced around. Billy frowned at the strangers in lamps and filthy clothes. “Where am I? What’s going on?”
“Earthquake.” Leeann motioned toward the rest of the cave. “We’re in the bottom level with the other survivors.”
“Okay.” Billy blinked, trying to clear cobwebs while dealing with a headache. “Why am in a cave? How did I get here?”
> Drawn by the questions, a few of the students came his way with one of the medical bags that Neil had brought down with Samantha.
“What’s your name?” Daphne asked, holding up a light in front of Billy’s blackened eyes. She was still shaking from almost dying. If not for Neil grabbing her, she wouldn’t be here right now.
“I’m…uh. Damn. I just…” Billy stared around in panic. “I don’t know! I don’t know my name! Who am I?”
Leeann took his hand, sending calming warmth over his skin. “Shh… It’s okay.” I’ve got you.
Billy snatched his hand away, staring. “I heard you in my head! Freak!”
That brought cold silence from everyone who heard it. Both gifted and not gifted glared at the man. It had been months since anyone reacted that way to the descendants in Safe Haven. Even the newest refugees they’d let in had known.
Billy stared in panic. “All freaks!” He scrambled to his feet, hands going to his guns without realizing it. “I want out of here!”
“We all do now.”
Marc’s mutter brought a wave of relief.
He had come up from a place of thick sleep that lingered as he scanned his surroundings. “Stand down. We’re all scared right now.”
Billy was unable to refuse the command. He settled onto his haunches under the ledge, staring around at everything and everyone as if he’d never seen them before.
Marc didn’t rush as he sat up. His throat was dry and his ribs hurt. “Someone give me an update.”
When no one spoke, Marc realized none of his men were down here except for Billy. Marc stood up, bracing against the rough, dusty wall. “Where is everyone?”
Debra gestured at Cody, who had begun inching toward his mother’s body.
“Angie went to open the vent.” Cody squinted upward through the smoke and dust. “The others are fighting the fire or helping.”
Hoping they had it covered up there, Marc swept what he could see of the survivors, trying to recover enough to think. What did they need the most?
Water, he realized, stumbling toward the rear chamber where they had kept the heavier tanks. They’d had to build them in place and fill them with hoses.
Marc staggered over the debris where he and Adrian had been buried. Memorize that scene. I know something important happened there, but I can’t remember it yet.
Marc’s demon sketched the area in detail.
“Go with him!” Theo glared at Billy. “You don’t need your memory to understand we all need help here, right?”
Billy accepted that and followed the Colt-wearing stranger out of the dim illumination from the lamps of the doctor and students. Billy noticed that he and the man both had the same style clothing and weapons. Are we in the army?
“Over here.” Marc’s mind swam unpleasantly. “We have to clear some of this debris, but we got lucky. The big tank didn’t bust.”
Billy waded through the ankle deep water in the impression, fumbling for a safe hold in the mess of stone and plastic debris. It was hard to see or walk.
As Marc took hold of a large rock and hefted it aside, it occurred to him that he wasn’t in pain despite being buried. Shouldn’t I still be knocked out? Or dead?
“Man, that’s heavy!” Billy groaned as they shifted a large layer of outcropping from in front of the tank by the nozzles. Those shiny objects were gone now, knocked off in the quake.
“Damn!” Marc spent a moment planning it and settled on a high puncture. There was too much debris on the tank. He was afraid to try clearing it further for fear of collapsing what remained of the floor above.
Much as he had while escorting Angela to Safe Haven, Marc tapped the tank. This time, the water level was lower and none of the precious liquid escaped.
“Is this clean?” Billy asked, frowning at the smell.
“No. It’s been filtered, but it needs boiling or bleach.”
Billy scanned the debris. “Any chance you kept bleach down here?”
“Too dangerous to leave chemicals out. It’s in two storage rooms. One is on the top level. The other is on the same floor as the mess, so the cook had easy access for cleaning.”
“Sounds like a good plan until this happens.” Billy was fighting the need to beg the stranger for details about his life. The words he was using didn’t make sense when Billy was trying to remember his own name.
“It’s Billy.” Marc began searching for containers. “You’re a well-liked member of my army. Everything else has to wait, okay?”
Billy nodded and then clasped his temples. “That stings!”
“Tell me about it.” Marc sympathized, able to recall the exact sensations of being knocked out. Someone healed me. Not Angie. She’s too weak, and not Adrian because he wants me dead. Charlie? The teenager was the only other healer in Safe Haven right now… Wasn’t he?
“Who was that girl?” Billy frowned. “I didn’t mean to hurt her.”
“Leeann.” Using the same screwdriver he’d tapped it with, Marc ripped the hole downward until a small stream of water began to run out. He set a container under it. “Your future wife, she believes. She’s had a thing for you for a while.”
“That kid?” Billy was revolted. He didn’t know who he was, but he knew he didn’t mess with little kids.
Marc didn’t answer.
Billy frowned again. “I encouraged it?”
“Not that I know of or you’d be dead already.”
Billy wasn’t offended at the warning. “Good. That’s sick!”
Marc again held quiet, letting Billy figure things out for himself. Marc had heard that loss of memory was common after being hit on the head, but Marc had never had that problem himself and he’d been hit more times than any man should be if he cared about his health.
“What’s going on?” Billy demanded, worrying over something he didn’t know if he’d done.
“Listen, we’re busy right now.” Marc switched containers and held out the one that was almost full. “You aren’t bleeding or dying, but a lot of people we both call friends are. Can we work now and talk later?”
“Yeah. Sorry, man. It’s just hard to wake up and not know who…” Billy took the dirty water and trudged out.
“Tell them it isn’t clean!” Marc began trying to locate the chemicals they’d stored down here. The water purification tablets had been locked in a small metal case. Marc had the key in his pocket. It was poking his hip.
Noises echoed from the upper levels, telling him the effort was increasing up there. He hated it that Angie was out of his sight, but she was glowing on his mental grid and that would have to be enough. The real leader was in charge, whether she wanted to be or not.
4
Jennifer reached the bottom floor and held the rope as Kyle came down with Autumn wrapped against his body in both their jackets. The baby held still, doing as her mom had told her to.
They’d been lucky to be wearing jackets when the quake hit, but the parents would have used their shirts or even pants if it had been all they had to work with.
Autumn wasn’t scared, but she was impatient. Hurry, daddy.
Kyle didn’t let her impatience rush him. The clothes were far from a real sling. The knots could slip at any time and then Jennifer would have to try to catch the child. Neither of them wanted that.
Kyle inched down, noting a new ladder as an important chore to accomplish as soon as he could. A row of people needed the doctor, but they couldn’t get down there because of their injuries.
Kyle reached the ground and shifted so that Jennifer could take the baby from the slipping clothes before she fell.
Jennifer cuddled her squirming daughter close, trying to comfort.
Now, go. Crying!
Jennifer frowned, confused. “Who’s crying?”
Babies!
Jennifer scanned their injured and only found one person Autumn could be talking about. “You mean Samantha?”
Yes!
Jennifer went to the woman who was being
worked on by a sweaty, growling doctor covered up to his elbows in bright blood.
Down!
Jennifer sat down by Samantha and almost immediately, she could hear the faint crying of an infant.
Two, she realized. Samantha’s twins were upset and Autumn had been able to hear them before she could.
Autumn cooed sadly, reaching out to her fellow children.
The twins stopped crying and cooed in return.
Entranced by the communication, Jennifer took Samantha’s hand and tried to send good vibes while the doctor labored. It didn’t look good for the weather tracker. She was pale in the dimming lamps.
“We need more hands!”
The shout came from above them.
Jennifer handed the baby to Debra. “I have to go help.”
Debra patted her wrist and then patted the baby, smiling.
Jennifer hated to leave her child with someone she barely knew. With no other choice, she went up the ladder.
Debra settled the baby by Samantha’s shoulder, where she was out of the way and protected by the ledge. Debra sat next to them, also keeping track of Cody. He was staring at where Marc had gone.
Billy came from that room, holding up a canister. “Water’s here! Clean it first.” He set it by the line of wounded and went toward the dim water room. There was too much blood out here for him. He was going to the other guy who put off the vibes of being dependable. Billy entered the damp darkness, not minding the water as much as the stares. Everyone out there was too hurt to be useful or seemed flaky.
“They’re shaken up.” Marc paused and then gestured. “Except for the doctor. He’s always been flaky.”
Billy caught it this time, realizing Marc had read his mind. “You’re a freak too!”
“Yep. And if you call any of us that again, William, I’m going to knock you back out.”
“But it’s... You’re...”
Marc shoved another container into Billy’s arms, sloshing water onto both their arms. “Shut up for a while, will you?”
Frowning, Billy did as he was told.