Dragar tapped the little sliding window behind her head, and she carefully reached back to undo the clasp and slide it open. Evelyn was almost afraid to move at all lest she precipitate the truck plunging into the gap. She couldn't tell how deep the hole was, and didn't want to know.
“How are we going to do this,” Dragar asked. “You can't open your doors and climb out, or you'll fall.”
“We can roll down the windows and get out onto the hood. That's about the only way I see it happening,” Dracht replied, staring out the side window and then at the hood of the truck.
Another rumble shook the ground. The truck lurched an inch.
“Get out! Get out now!” Christian shouted. He paced, clearly agitated, sword banging against his thigh. Staring at the truck, he looked frustrated that he could do nothing to help those within.
“I think we need to go two at a time,” Minna said, speaking up. “We don't want to tip the weight too much to one side of the truck, it might unsettle the balance.”
“I think you're right. And I think you girls should come up here before you go out the windows, don't do it from back there,” Rhett said with a stern glance back.
“I'll go up over the roof to the hood when you all get out,” Dragar said. He sank back, grabbed his and Christian's shields, and lobbed them onto the ground near Christian.
Rhett used the master control and rolled down the front driver and passenger windows. He passed his shield, then Dracht's, back to his father through the cab.
Dragar reached through the open sliding window, grabbed them both, and chucked them like he had the others.
Evelyn leaned out of their way. “Be careful, Rhett.”
He gave her a long look, then winked, maybe attempting to ease her obvious tension. Together, Rhett and Dracht eased out their respective windows, going slow, until they were each sitting on the sill.
“You go,” Dracht said to Rhett.
“Show us what a mountain goat you really are, Rhett.” Alexandra clapped her hands to encourage him.
Like this was a spectator sport.
“Alexandra,” Evelyn said, exasperated. She knew it was her sister's way of coping with tension but her timing was incredible.
Rhett gave Alex a devil-may-care grin that Evelyn didn't like at all. They were both built that way, Rhett and her sister, thriving on the thrill and the adventure. She supposed it was better to keep the spirits and adrenaline up rather than let the fear paralyze you.
Holding onto the front seat hard enough to make her fingers ache, she watched Rhett peel himself off the sill and brace his feet there instead, giving him leverage to angle around to the hood.
Just when his second foot touched down, the earth moved. An aftershock hit, jolting the truck and causing Rhett to lose his balance. He tumbled backward, flipped, and bounced off the hood into the crevice.
Chapter Five
“Rheeeeeeett!” Evelyn saw it all. She scrambled over the front seat, screaming. Alexandra and Minna both latched onto her leg and an arm.
“Ev! You can't go out there!” Alex shouted.
Dracht shouted, too, a hoarse chop of his brother's name. Still sitting on the sill, he'd fared the jolt well. Now he let go, risking a fall himself, to splay over the hood so he could peer down into the crevice.
Christian, on his stomach, reached down with one hand.
That was when she realized Rhett had somehow snared a handhold onto the thick grill of the Dodge and was dangling there. Evelyn hadn't ever known fear like this. Gripping, seizing, horrible fear that made her heart feel like it might pound right out of her chest.
The truck settled another inch lower, putting them at a sharper downward angle.
“Ev, Christian's gonna get him, look. He's right there. So is Dracht.”
Dragar, far too silent, stared at the scene over the top of the truck, mouth pinched tight.
“Grab my hand!” Christian shouted.
In a daredevil move, Dracht, belly flat to the hood, wiggled across it and thrust a hand down along with Christian. He had nothing solid to cling to other than the tip of a boot he hooked up near the windshield, the same place Christian had held onto when he'd been tossed there upon impact.
Good thing Dracht was so tall.
Evelyn wanted to peel Minna's arms—which she'd thrown around her to stop her from getting out—away from her shoulders. There wasn't anything she could do out there, she knew that, but sitting here doing nothing more than watching was killing her.
“Rhett!” She hadn't told him she'd loved him. Hadn't said it out loud, only mouthed it back in Eden before they left. She knew he knew—he'd told her so on the boat—but it wasn't the same. He'd read her like a book, knew before she had how deep her feelings ran. And he hadn't said it in return, either, perhaps because it hadn't been the right time or perhaps maybe because he hadn't been sure. In Eden he'd mouthed it, too—I love you—though it wasn't a sentiment she wanted to read on his lips. She wanted to hear him shape the words, see the warmth of his affection light up his eyes.
“They're gonna get him, Ev. Don't worry.”
Christian got hold of Rhett's wrist and hauled his brother up, grimacing with the effort, while Dracht snagged the edge of the armor and helped give him leverage. Rhett got a boot in the wheel well and pushed up; with both brother's aid, he collapsed onto the ground next to Christian, one boot hanging off the edge of the crevice.
Evelyn jumped when Dragar banged his hand on the top of the truck.
“Girls! Your turn! Let's go.”
Dracht shimmied to the ledge and crawled onto the other side. He clapped Rhett on the chest then stood up, turned around and gestured at them.
“C'mon, Ev, you go out with Minna. I'll come last,” Alexandra said, urging her toward the driver's side window.
Shaking, she scooted gingerly to the window. She didn't want to look down. Turning in the seat, she grabbed the upper part of the sill and slid out so she wouldn't have to see how far she had to fall. By then Rhett and Christian were on their feet, side by side next to Dracht, a veritable wall of Templar strength. She decided she must have looked as shook up as she felt because Rhett started speaking in a low, soothing voice.
“Hold onto the lights across the top and bring one leg out at a time. You can do it. Don't look down.”
She clutched onto the small, square lights affixed to the top, which felt sturdy and solid when she applied pressure.
Minna emerged out the other window, also using the lights as leverage, though she was more like a cat than Evelyn ever could be. With a few agile moves she made it to the hood and, crouching, walked to the other side where Dracht hauled her off and onto the ground by her hips.
“Just like Minna did. C'mon, Evelyn,” Rhett encouraged, never taking his eyes off her.
Pulling up, she got a foot on the sill, then another, and swung a foot around to the hood. Molded to the truck, she scooted around, feeling a vast gulf at her back. It made the hair stand up on the back of her neck. Never one to be afraid of heights, this particular situation unnerved her.
The earth rumbled and she froze, flattening even more against the spot where the windshield met the corner.
“Don't stop now, Evelyn. Let's go.” Rhett urged her on with a vague edge in his voice.
Alex climbed out the other window, and, like Minna, continued to the hood in almost one fluid motion. Reaching over, she clamped onto Evelyn's left hand.
“I gotcha. You go ahead of me. I'll be right behind you,” she said, crouching like Minna had.
Evelyn glanced at Rhett.
He nodded, standing right at the edge of the crevice, one arm stretched out. A few scratches marred his arm and cheek but otherwise, he looked in good shape.
“Let's go, Ev. This things' gonna fall.” Alexandra, never one to mince words, tugged on her wrist.
Evelyn got both feet on the hood, let go of the lights, and cautiously walked toward Rhett. He scooped her up before she reached the other side, swinging
her around and away from the ledge.
“I thought you were gone,” she said, clinging to his shoulders. But there would be time for all that later. Alex needed to get off the truck and Dragar was still waiting his turn in the bed.
“Told you before, you can't get rid of me that easy,” he said and kissed her hard on the mouth. Setting her down, he turned back to the truck.
Alex was already caught in Dracht's arms and being hauled in to safety.
Dragar didn't waste time. He slid up over the top of the truck and down onto the hood, agile for as big as he was.
The earth rumbled and trembled.
Dragar took two giant steps and leaped onto solid ground. He clapped Rhett on the shoulder, stared at his eyes in a brief show of relief, then stalked over to claim his shield.
Evelyn thought the ravine was sixty to eighty feet deep at her best guess. Not an astounding depth, but one that would have been deadly either free falling or going down in the truck. She shuddered and turned away.
“How much farther is it to the airstrip?” Christian asked, picking up his shield at the same time his brothers did.
“About three, three and a half miles if I remember right,” Rhett said, glancing back once at the truck.
“We better get go--” The mournful wail of loud sirens cut Dracht's comment off.
Evelyn stopped and glanced toward the city that somehow seemed like it sat crooked on the earth. “Are those air raid sirens? Did someone launch missiles?”
“Maybe it's an automatic response for any big catastrophe. That hole in the ground probably runs straight through the middle of the city and all the way to the ocean,” Christian said.
“We can be pretty sure the Sixth Seal's been broken after that earthquake,” Alexandra piped in. “But the Fallen wouldn't have broken another Seal so soon.”
“Which one brings on war?” Dracht asked.
“The Second Seal,” Alex replied.
“Did we ever see which one we picked up out of the cave?” Rhett asked.
Minna fished the carefully folded paper out of her pouch, peeled back the edges, and looked at the Seal.
Evelyn glanced over her sister's shoulder. The clay looking disc had the carving of an emaciated figure on the front kneeling next to dead plants. A very crude depiction but recognizable nevertheless.
“Famine. We have the Third Seal here,” Minna answered, covering the seal once more. She put it back into the pouch.
“That leaves pestilence, war, death, and the summoning,” Alex surmised.
“I thought we already had pestilence?” Dracht asked with a scowl.
“Weeeell, consider that a baby pestilence, if you will,” Alex retorted. “The three smaller seals that belong with the Sixth are warning shots, I guess you could call them. Priming the population for bigger things.”
“Fantastic.” Dracht looked discontent at the possibility of another pestilence.
“Walk and talk, walk and talk,” Rhett said, herding the group down the road. “We don't have a lot of time.”
Evelyn fell into step beside him, walking with brisk steps that bordered on a trot. The sirens continued to blare, rising and falling in volume.
Every few minutes, the ground growled beneath their feet.
“So if the war seal hasn't been broken, the sirens are going off because...” Christian let the question trail, apparently not satisfied with the probabilities laid out so far.
“I can't be sure, but I think they only go off in the advent of a missile launch,” Minna said, her tone suggesting she was speculating.
“Does the war seal have to be broken for someone to launch an attack?” Dragar asked.
“Obviously not? The US is at war with a handful of countries as we speak,” Rhett pointed out. “Though, personally, I think any attacking country is too busy to even think of launching right now.”
“So it's most likely for the earthquake,” Alex added.
“We're missing something here,” Christian insisted.
Evelyn heard the truck give way behind them and glanced back just as the Dodge collapsed into the newly made ravine.
Everyone else glanced, too.
“Glad we didn't wait to vacate,” Alex mumbled.
Evelyn also thought Christian was right; they were missing something here. She could feel a niggling sense of danger that was separate from everything else, but a consequence of their circumstance.
What was it?
The wailing sirens made it difficult to think.
Then it hit her: “Tsunami. That had to be at least a nine-pointer. I read somewhere that Israel could be subjected to one if a strong enough quake hit.”
“Earthquakes feel less potent than they are when you're drivin'. I bet it was ten-and-a-half,” Alex countered.
Rhett yanked a look away toward the direction they all knew the ocean was in. “I bet you're right.”
“How long does it take one to reach land after an earthquake, usually? Anyone know?” Alex asked.
Rhett broke into a jog. “Half an hour? An hour? Depends on how shallow it was, I think, and how close to shore it hit.”
“Will it wash this far inland? Someone should call Roman and have him taxi to the south end of the runway. That's another half mile we won't have to run,” Christian said.
“That, and he needs to be on the lookout for water. If it does get this far in, it could take out the plane and then we're really screwed,” Alex said.
“Jerusalem is sixty or seventy miles from shore. I doubt a tsunami, even a monstrous one, would make it this far,” Dragar interjected.
“Either way, they're warning the population about something. We're better off away from here and in the air as soon as possible,” Dracht said.
“Yeah. And we're not dealing with normal anything right now. Like with the sun and the rain. There's no way to predict how bad any of this will or will not get,” Rhett added.
As a group, they jogged down the road toward the private airstrip.
Evelyn ran a mile and a half every morning in her normal, regular life. Three or three and a half shouldn't kill her if she paced herself.
Dragar pulled out his phone and dialed Roman. He kept up with them effortlessly, holding the shield in his other hand.
“He's not answering,” Dragar said.
“I hope the plane didn't go the way of the truck,” Christian said.
“Maybe he left the plane to get supplies or is refueling or something,” Alex said. She pinched her side with her fingers like she had a stitch in it.
“There were another couple planes there when we landed. We'll take one of those if he's encountered problems,” Rhett said.
Ahead, the asphalt had buckled from the force of the earthquake. It didn't prove an obstacle they couldn't over come, but it slowed them down having to pick their way over the jagged cuts and three foot holes.
A second earthquake struck just as Evelyn hopped down from a tilted section of road; she stumbled, catching her balance by her fingertips.
Minna fell, saved from a nasty scrape thanks to the armored shirt and pants. Dragar, already free of the ruined asphalt, stepped back to help her to flat ground.
“And these aren't the worst we're gonna get,” Alexandra said, breaking into a jog after a quick glance at everyone else.
Rhett was right there at Evelyn's elbow to steady her. “Try Roman again, Dad.”
Dragar released Minna and punched in a number on the keypad. He walked instead of jogged until he finished. “Still no answer.”
Fifteen minutes later, Christian called out, “I can see the buildings at the airport.”
Evelyn thought her lungs were about to explode. Across the expanse of flat scrub land, she made out the vague outline of several buildings. Still too far away to see where the plane and Roman were, she concentrated instead on her breathing.
The sirens blared their incessant warnings, a constant reminder of the danger. Like Alex, she developed a stitch in her side, but, loathe to b
ring it to anyone's attention or mention it, she clamped the spot with her fingers and kept going.
They came across several more spots where the earth had caved or split open, but these were much smaller wounds that they jumped across or went around.
Closing in on the airstrip, Evelyn finally saw why Roman hadn't either answered the phone or called Dragar back; the jet, sitting adjacent to the runway in a holding area, couldn't exit due to a buckle in the tarmac. Trapped there, the plane couldn't back into the hangar behind it and there wasn't enough room to turn to go the other way. Roman frantically carried bucket fulls of dirt and sand over to the crack in the pavement, poured them in, then bashed it down in an attempt to give the jet something more solid to roll over.
Rhett cursed under his breath but was close enough for Evelyn to hear.
“Roman! Are there more shovels and buckets?” Dracht shouted.
Roman glanced up, sweat pouring down his face. “Can't find anymore buckets, but there's one more shovel inside the hangar there.”
“Use the shields. We can scoop up what dirt we can with them,” Rhett suggested, jogging over to the sandy patch of ground aside the building where Roman had been getting dirt.
“Nasty earthquake. Just glad it didn't split under the plane or we'd be in trouble,” Roman said.
“We're in trouble anyway if we don't fill in this crack and get going,” Alexandra retorted. She used her feet since she didn't have a shield to tamp down the spots Roman had smacked with the shovel.
Rhett, Dracht and Dragar scooped up damp earth and carried it over to dump in the crevice. Four feet wide, thirty or more feet long, it was just big enough to catch the plane's wheels and prevent it from taxiing. At least it wasn't too deep.
Evelyn guessed three or four feet. All they needed was a spot to roll across, rather than fill in the entire tear.
The earth jerked under her feet when she was in the middle of stomping the dirt down, pitching her forward onto her hands and knees. The quake burst out the windows of the building, throwing shattered glass in every direction.
It shook so hard that it knocked Dracht and Roman down, catching both men in an off balance moment.
Daughters of Eve Collection (Books 1, 2 & 3) Page 54