Chapter OneSurvival
1
“We will have the witch!”
Some of Mikel’s men cheered. The rest were dead or screaming for help.
Inside the mountain, shouts began to fade into groans and tears…and then silence.
“Why is it so quiet now?” Tracy wiped away tears as she and Charlie burrowed deeper beneath the cushion of the clothes pile.
“The smoke.” Charlie kept digging downward. He was trying to reach the bottom with his feet. The ledge had broken off and slid during the quake, but he didn’t know how far it had fallen or how they had landed. For all he knew, they were dangling. The darkness was smothering. He couldn’t even smell anything but laundry–some of it cleaned, most of it not.
“We have to help them!” Tracy cried harder, but she didn’t resist when Charlie pulled her boot, dragging her down.
Around them, the laundry was moving. The Indians had joined the teen as the cave fell apart, but there hadn’t been time to formulate a plan.
Natoli stayed on Tracy’s right as Charlie took them through the maze of laundry and stone. His men surrounded the couple, as he’d instructed them to do before they’d rejoined Safe Haven. Marc had told Natoli of his fears for the future, of the deaths and lives that had been promised. Natoli had vowed to protect Marc’s heart so that the warrior could fight for all people. Now, Natoli was fulfilling that vow.
Charlie was just glad they weren’t alone. He was in the lead for the first time and it was terrifying.
Charlie stopped as his foot hit something hard, hands fumbling for the light on his belt. He tried not to think about everything that might be on top of them or how hard it was to breathe down here. They had survived the quake. That had been his only goal when he’d brought Tracy to the laundry area. Now, he had to keep them alive in the aftermath.
Around them, others were coming to the same realizations. Through the broken stone and shifting dangers, battered survivors began to emerge.
2
Adrian groaned as the weight shifted off his shoulder. The pain in that arm was bad enough to convince him he was alive, but there was too much debris on him to move yet. Adrian remembered shoving Marc forward and the ceiling collapsing on them, but nothing else. He assumed he had been knocked out. The buzzing ears and roiling guts upheld that theory. He groaned again.
“I heard someone!”
Adrian kept his lids closed as more debris was cleared from his body. He hurt everywhere. Sharp rocks were digging into his arms and legs, and there was a warm heat from below making him sweat. That’s a body. I’m not sure if it’s breathing.
“It’s Adrian! Grab that end. Lift on three. Ready?”
Adrian screamed as the weight increased and then it was gone. He coughed as smoke and dust rushed into his lungs, and then screamed again as he was dragged free of the rubble by his arms. The pain in his shoulder was excruciating.
As his own cry faded, Adrian could hear others begging for help, but not as many as it should be. He struggled to clear his mind, dazed. Something crawled across his bad hand and scurried into the darkness. Adrian felt it as a vague sensation dulled by the stabbing throbs in his arm and shoulder.
“There’s another body here! Keep digging!”
Adrian was left alone as the rescuers ran to the debris pile. He stilled, listening to coughs and shouts, to tears and groans. Light by a lot, he thought, ears buzzing in loud confusion.
There’s a fire! Angela thundered. Get up! She and Cody were trapped in the storage chamber on the same level as Adrian, but the fire was more important.
Adrian shoved into a sitting position, arm useless except in the flaring, ugly pain that came each time he tried to move it.
Dislocated. Angela didn’t sense anything else wrong with him that was serious, but the arm was enough to keep him from helping. You can’t climb like that. Damn!
Adrian forced his hurting body to stand on legs that shook, scanning the new, more dangerous environment.
There! He stumbled over rocks, bodies, and wooden beams, lurching toward the entrance to the tunnel where he’d been camped in exile before the Mexicans had found it.
This will hurt. Adrian clenched his teeth. Go away.
He felt Angela withdraw as he lurched forward. Adrian slammed his shoulder into the unmovable wall and popped the humerus back into the glenoid.
“What is he doing?” Theo had paused in shifting a large stone, drawn by Adrian’s chilling shout.
“Fixing himself.” Greg’s tone matched the roughness of the debris he flung aside. “I see a Colt. This is Marc!”
The digging resumed with more energy.
Adrian fumbled for the light on his belt. He shined it upward with his good hand, blinking at the waves of falling dust. The sight was so awful that Adrian needed the throbbing shoulder, along with every cut and bruise, to prove that this was happening. Safe Haven had been destroyed.
They’ll all be dead if you don’t get that fire out!
Adrian staggered backward and fell, startled at Angela’s mental shout. He groaned, trying to focus. Everything is so blurry…
Hurry!
Give me a minute!
We don’t have it. Smoke has already reached the top floor. Everyone up there is dying. Can’t you feel them?
Adrian managed to get on his feet, but his flashlight had rolled too close to a crevice for him to reach without his balance. He staggered toward the ladder instead, blinking in dull comprehension. The ladder was there. Bodies were hanging from it, sprawled below it... He stiffened in pain and then puked.
Breathe. Breathe. Angela shoved deep into his mind, to where their connection was glowing brightly. You can do this. I believe in you. I always have. Now, hurry!
Adrian wiped his mouth on his gritty sleeve and began to climb the ladder. His painful movements became a way to stay alert as he fought bodies for space while trying not to inhale the smoke wafting downward.
As he reached the level above, Adrian yanked his shirt up, wishing he had time to stop and wet his bandana. Then he remembered that he had been getting ready for bed and didn’t have either of those things. All he had was his jeans, boots, jacket, and belts–tool and gun. Those last two he even slept with. Good thing, he praised, taking out his spare flashlight. After this, he was down to the headlamp. He didn’t want to try using it yet. The buttons were little and his hands were shaking. He might drop it. That would be worse than the dim illumination from his small flashlight.
Far above, Adrian saw a shadow illuminated by an orange glow. The man hefted himself onto the level with the fire and vanished. Adrian realized Angela was telling others of the fire and directing them too.
“Right behind you!” The wood vibrated as Greg climbed the ladder. Theo and Debra were taking care of Marc, but so far, there were no other survivors on the bottom level to help. Angela was telling Greg about kids trapped by a mess fire and he was determined to save everyone he could.
“Adrian!” Kyle shouted from his right. “Can you tie off this rope?”
Adrian missed the rope that Kyle threw, but it caught on wooden debris, allowing him to fumble for the end of it. As he tied it to the sturdiest thing he could find–a heavy-duty hitch that had been used to tie up their larger animals for milking–fresh screams sounded from above them.
“Going up!” Adrian winced at the awful pain, cradling his head. His hands came away bloody, but there wasn’t time to worry over it. He climbed as Kyle anchored the rope to the other end of the ledge and began inching Jennifer across the gap. There was a very narrow ledge, but no room to even glance down or they would throw themselves off balance. Hopefully the rope would keep them from falling.
Greg spotted a familiar red canister under the debris. He dug it out, ecstatic to locate a second extinguisher below it. Lungs starting to hurt, Greg used the rope from his belt to tie them together. The panic from the level above him increased while he worked.
“We need more hands in the mess!”
“We need something to put out the fire!”
“Where are all the extinguishers?!”
“I found two!” Greg pulled himself up the ladder, extinguishers clanking together against his chest. He’d put them on like a necklace.
Adrian took one and put it inside his tucked-in shirt so that he had both hands free.
Greg did the same and followed. Both men were aware of heavy coughing, but the lack of people helping worried them more. In a camp of over five hundred, only having a dozen workers active was horrifying.
“Someone got a light on.” Greg was sweating so much that his shirt was soaked.
Adrian grunted. “It’s not a light.” The climb was clearing the fog and sending misery in. There were bodies on every floor he’d reached so far. How many have we lost?
Greg climbed faster as he understood what Adrian meant. The top levels were bright, meaning it was a large blaze. Two extinguishers won’t be enough, Greg thought, pulling himself onto what remained of the security and medical level. He shined his light right and left, spotting a few survivors on both sides. None of them appeared to need immediate help.
The two men hurried to the next ladder. Half of it was gone, but there was a rope hanging down from where someone else had already climbed up.
“That was Adrian and Greg!” Morgan had stood up when the flashlights had shined through the dusty residence tunnel. “They’re going to the fire.” Morgan and Kenn had been together when the floor fell out, taking friends and family with it.
“Good.” Kenn tied the rope to his waist and then to the outcropping that had split and started the huge crevice. He was glad he’d been on duty and was wearing full gear. “We can’t reach them that way. We have to go down and get over to the ladder.”
Morgan knew he was right. The tiny ledge on either side wasn’t going to hold their weight and there was no way they could jump the 20-foot gap in the middle.
Next to them, Neil was still staring at the hole where Jeremy had jumped. He hadn’t moved yet.
Kenn nudged Neil’s shoulder. “We’re going down there. You want on?”
Neil took the unused rope, but only held it. The gears in his mind had ground to a slow crawl.
Kenn tied it to Neil and then to a different outcropping that he hoped would hold. He understood Neil’s dazed response. If not for hearing Tonya’s voice in the medical bay, Kenn might have been experiencing the same emotion. He held great sympathy for Neil.
Neil followed Kenn to the edge of the gap, but he didn’t go first. He squatted at a pile of rubble and began digging through it, hoping he had the right place. They’d kept medical supplies on every level, but this floor had also held the medical bay, so the majority of their stocks were here somewhere.
“Come on.” Kenn lowered himself into the hole with hands that protested the lack of gloves. Got softer. Kenn reached down with his leg to find a place that might support his weight. He found something that felt sturdy and tested it.
Kenn hefted himself up as the hard object rocked and vanished, breathing rough.
A shattering crash brought Neil to the hole. “Be careful!”
Nose burning from all the smoke, Kenn nodded toward the rope he had tied off for Neil. “I was able to see down five foot. It’s clear. I’m dropping.”
Neil had found the shelf of medical kits. He slung two of them around his neck and then shined the light as Kenn began to descend, using his own rope. It would have been incredible to watch if not for the situation.
“Okay. Come on down.”
Now that he’d observed how it was done, Neil tried to copy it. He lowered himself, arms straining. Sweat broke out on his neck from the heat as his lower body descended into the cool darkness to search for solid ground. He hadn’t realized it was hot and bright up there. Down here, it was pitch black and cool. And quiet, he noticed, ears working overtime as his headlamp flickered off bodies, rubble, equipment that was mangled, and shards of thick plastic that had been crushed. Water tanks, he thought, heart pounding.
Kenn had stopped a bit below, feet crunching. “Careful man, it’s a maze.”
Neil’s foot hit crushed plastic and slipped.
Kenn grabbed his arm, guiding him down. He didn’t tell Neil what he’d observed. The man would view it for himself any second now.
Neil’s light blurred as he caught his balance, but it was enough to show him that the entire rubble field was made up of those huge plastic shards. Across the glittery field of danger, Samantha sat with her knees to her chest. Neil thought he could hear her breathing, but he wasn’t sure. She was covered in dust and dark shadows.
Kenn took Neil’s arm before he shined the light on her. “Easy man. If she gets up to run to us, it might all fall.”
Neil blanched, lowering his light.
“There’s something else.” Kenn lowered his voice. “She won’t want to leave the body. You’ll have to make her.”
Neil shined his light on Samantha anyway now, mind blanking. Body?
Neil hadn’t seen Jeremy at first because his body was covered in blood, blending in with the broken cave walls. Jeremy had landed on one of the plastic tanks. He was still hanging there. Oh, God!
“Neil?”
Neil swallowed his horror. “Don’t move, Sam! Please, don’t move!”
“He knew this mountain would kill him.” Sam choked up. “And I made him come here!”
Samantha’s sobs were a torment to the men, but all they could do was listen and curse fate. Without help and equipment, they couldn’t reach her.
Kenn, aware of Morgan joining them, stepped and then slid toward the only exit he could view with his light. It was also lined in plastic shards, but most of them had been crushed and were covered in large pieces of debris that Kenn identified as stone from the radio room. It had been darker than the outer walls.
Contemplating ways to rescue Samantha, Neil was barely aware when they’d gone.
Across the dark and bloody debris field, Samantha continued to cry.
3
Sweating and grunting, Kenn and Morgan removed the last two large stones so they could ease through the debris piles to reach the bottom level.
“We cleared a hole with those two.” Morgan pointed.
Kenn shined his light and tried hard to force a grin. “Can we give you a lift?”
Angela wanted to reward his effort at lighthearted calm, but the best she could manage was, “Get us out of here, grunt.”
The ceiling of the storage chamber had cracked and fallen in. She and Cody had cowered under a shelf and hoped they weren’t hit. Afterward, she hadn’t been strong enough to stack the broken stones for a ladder to get out.
She held Cody up so that Kenn could reach the scared boy’s arms, but Angela wasn’t in any shape to be pulled up that way. Some of her stitches were still healing the wounds and hadn’t dissolved yet. She knew that by the way they pinched as she held Cody up. Angela chose to climb. She wouldn’t have been able to do it with Cody on her back yet, but she could handle herself.
Kenn watched as she came up the debris pile and then the wall. As soon as she was in range, he planned to grab her.
As Angela neared the top, she chose the wrong grip. The small ledge crumbled under her fingers, sending her flailing…
Kenn snatched the front of her shirt and jerked her out of the hole.
Angela screamed but didn’t struggle. When Kenn set her down, she clutched her stomach, trying not to puke.
Are you okay?! Adrian demanded. His guts had clenched into a nasty cramp that had stolen his breath.
“Fine. Keep going,” Angela interrupted Kenn’s apologies. “We’re even.”
Kenn grinned, but he’d never felt less amused. “Nice. Let’s go.”
Kenn guided them through the slippery debris, with Morgan bringing up the rear. Morgan was carrying Cody, who was staring toward the ladder with tears rolling down his dirty cheeks.
Morgan shielded the boy’s eyes as they joined Debra and Theo at the bottom of the ladder.
“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 TwoFalling
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 difference 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 was 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.
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 ThreeBurning
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.
Marc sighed in relief, not wanting to resent Billy for his lack of memory. It might even be better that he didn’t remember right now. Some of their members were too dazed by the losses to help.
“Grab that shelf!”
A huge crash echoed from above him, making Marc want to be up there with Angie and Charlie… Charlie. I don’t have him on my grid.
End of Free Sample
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1
“We will have the witch!”
Some of Mikel’s men cheered. The rest were dead or screaming for help.
Inside the mountain, shouts began to fade into groans and tears…and then silence.
“Why is it so quiet now?” Tracy wiped away tears as she and Charlie burrowed deeper beneath the cushion of the clothes pile.
“The smoke.” Charlie kept digging downward. He was trying to reach the bottom with his feet. The ledge had broken off and slid during the quake, but he didn’t know how far it had fallen or how they had landed. For all he knew, they were dangling. The darkness was smothering. He couldn’t even smell anything but laundry–some of it cleaned, most of it not.
“We have to help them!” Tracy cried harder, but she didn’t resist when Charlie pulled her boot, dragging her down.
Around them, the laundry was moving. The Indians had joined the teen as the cave fell apart, but there hadn’t been time to formulate a plan.
Natoli stayed on Tracy’s right as Charlie took them through the maze of laundry and stone. His men surrounded the couple, as he’d instructed them to do before they’d rejoined Safe Haven. Marc had told Natoli of his fears for the future, of the deaths and lives that had been promised. Natoli had vowed to protect Marc’s heart so that the warrior could fight for all people. Now, Natoli was fulfilling that vow.
Charlie was just glad they weren’t alone. He was in the lead for the first time and it was terrifying.
Charlie stopped as his foot hit something hard, hands fumbling for the light on his belt. He tried not to think about everything that might be on top of them or how hard it was to breathe down here. They had survived the quake. That had been his only goal when he’d brought Tracy to the laundry area. Now, he had to keep them alive in the aftermath.
Around them, others were coming to the same realizations. Through the broken stone and shifting dangers, battered survivors began to emerge.
2
Adrian groaned as the weight shifted off his shoulder. The pain in that arm was bad enough to convince him he was alive, but there was too much debris on him to move yet. Adrian remembered shoving Marc forward and the ceiling collapsing on them, but nothing else. He assumed he had been knocked out. The buzzing ears and roiling guts upheld that theory. He groaned again.
“I heard someone!”
Adrian kept his lids closed as more debris was cleared from his body. He hurt everywhere. Sharp rocks were digging into his arms and legs, and there was a warm heat from below making him sweat. That’s a body. I’m not sure if it’s breathing.
“It’s Adrian! Grab that end. Lift on three. Ready?”
Adrian screamed as the weight increased and then it was gone. He coughed as smoke and dust rushed into his lungs, and then screamed again as he was dragged free of the rubble by his arms. The pain in his shoulder was excruciating.
As his own cry faded, Adrian could hear others begging for help, but not as many as it should be. He struggled to clear his mind, dazed. Something crawled across his bad hand and scurried into the darkness. Adrian felt it as a vague sensation dulled by the stabbing throbs in his arm and shoulder.
“There’s another body here! Keep digging!”
Adrian was left alone as the rescuers ran to the debris pile. He stilled, listening to coughs and shouts, to tears and groans. Light by a lot, he thought, ears buzzing in loud confusion.
There’s a fire! Angela thundered. Get up! She and Cody were trapped in the storage chamber on the same level as Adrian, but the fire was more important.
Adrian shoved into a sitting position, arm useless except in the flaring, ugly pain that came each time he tried to move it.
Dislocated. Angela didn’t sense anything else wrong with him that was serious, but the arm was enough to keep him from helping. You can’t climb like that. Damn!
Adrian forced his hurting body to stand on legs that shook, scanning the new, more dangerous environment.
There! He stumbled over rocks, bodies, and wooden beams, lurching toward the entrance to the tunnel where he’d been camped in exile before the Mexicans had found it.
This will hurt. Adrian clenched his teeth. Go away.
He felt Angela withdraw as he lurched forward. Adrian slammed his shoulder into the unmovable wall and popped the humerus back into the glenoid.
“What is he doing?” Theo had paused in shifting a large stone, drawn by Adrian’s chilling shout.
“Fixing himself.” Greg’s tone matched the roughness of the debris he flung aside. “I see a Colt. This is Marc!”
The digging resumed with more energy.
Adrian fumbled for the light on his belt. He shined it upward with his good hand, blinking at the waves of falling dust. The sight was so awful that Adrian needed the throbbing shoulder, along with every cut and bruise, to prove that this was happening. Safe Haven had been destroyed.
They’ll all be dead if you don’t get that fire out!
Adrian staggered backward and fell, startled at Angela’s mental shout. He groaned, trying to focus. Everything is so blurry…
Hurry!
Give me a minute!
We don’t have it. Smoke has already reached the top floor. Everyone up there is dying. Can’t you feel them?
Adrian managed to get on his feet, but his flashlight had rolled too close to a crevice for him to reach without his balance. He staggered toward the ladder instead, blinking in dull comprehension. The ladder was there. Bodies were hanging from it, sprawled below it... He stiffened in pain and then puked.
Breathe. Breathe. Angela shoved deep into his mind, to where their connection was glowing brightly. You can do this. I believe in you. I always have. Now, hurry!
Adrian wiped his mouth on his gritty sleeve and began to climb the ladder. His painful movements became a way to stay alert as he fought bodies for space while trying not to inhale the smoke wafting downward.
As he reached the level above, Adrian yanked his shirt up, wishing he had time to stop and wet his bandana. Then he remembered that he had been getting ready for bed and didn’t have either of those things. All he had was his jeans, boots, jacket, and belts–tool and gun. Those last two he even slept with. Good thing, he praised, taking out his spare flashlight. After this, he was down to the headlamp. He didn’t want to try using it yet. The buttons were little and his hands were shaking. He might drop it. That would be worse than the dim illumination from his small flashlight.
Far above, Adrian saw a shadow illuminated by an orange glow. The man hefted himself onto the level with the fire and vanished. Adrian realized Angela was telling others of the fire and directing them too.
“Right behind you!” The wood vibrated as Greg climbed the ladder. Theo and Debra were taking care of Marc, but so far, there were no other survivors on the bottom level to help. Angela was telling Greg about kids trapped by a mess fire and he was determined to save everyone he could.
“Adrian!” Kyle shouted from his right. “Can you tie off this rope?”
Adrian missed the rope that Kyle threw, but it caught on wooden debris, allowing him to fumble for the end of it. As he tied it to the sturdiest thing he could find–a heavy-duty hitch that had been used to tie up their larger animals for milking–fresh screams sounded from above them.
“Going up!” Adrian winced at the awful pain, cradling his head. His hands came away bloody, but there wasn’t time to worry over it. He climbed as Kyle anchored the rope to the other end of the ledge and began inching Jennifer across the gap. There was a very narrow ledge, but no room to even glance down or they would throw themselves off balance. Hopefully the rope would keep them from falling.
Greg spotted a familiar red canister under the debris. He dug it out, ecstatic to locate a second extinguisher below it. Lungs starting to hurt, Greg used the rope from his belt to tie them together. The panic from the level above him increased while he worked.
“We need more hands in the mess!”
“We need something to put out the fire!”
“Where are all the extinguishers?!”
“I found two!” Greg pulled himself up the ladder, extinguishers clanking together against his chest. He’d put them on like a necklace.
Adrian took one and put it inside his tucked-in shirt so that he had both hands free.
Greg did the same and followed. Both men were aware of heavy coughing, but the lack of people helping worried them more. In a camp of over five hundred, only having a dozen workers active was horrifying.
“Someone got a light on.” Greg was sweating so much that his shirt was soaked.
Adrian grunted. “It’s not a light.” The climb was clearing the fog and sending misery in. There were bodies on every floor he’d reached so far. How many have we lost?
Greg climbed faster as he understood what Adrian meant. The top levels were bright, meaning it was a large blaze. Two extinguishers won’t be enough, Greg thought, pulling himself onto what remained of the security and medical level. He shined his light right and left, spotting a few survivors on both sides. None of them appeared to need immediate help.
The two men hurried to the next ladder. Half of it was gone, but there was a rope hanging down from where someone else had already climbed up.
“That was Adrian and Greg!” Morgan had stood up when the flashlights had shined through the dusty residence tunnel. “They’re going to the fire.” Morgan and Kenn had been together when the floor fell out, taking friends and family with it.
“Good.” Kenn tied the rope to his waist and then to the outcropping that had split and started the huge crevice. He was glad he’d been on duty and was wearing full gear. “We can’t reach them that way. We have to go down and get over to the ladder.”
Morgan knew he was right. The tiny ledge on either side wasn’t going to hold their weight and there was no way they could jump the 20-foot gap in the middle.
Next to them, Neil was still staring at the hole where Jeremy had jumped. He hadn’t moved yet.
Kenn nudged Neil’s shoulder. “We’re going down there. You want on?”
Neil took the unused rope, but only held it. The gears in his mind had ground to a slow crawl.
Kenn tied it to Neil and then to a different outcropping that he hoped would hold. He understood Neil’s dazed response. If not for hearing Tonya’s voice in the medical bay, Kenn might have been experiencing the same emotion. He held great sympathy for Neil.
Neil followed Kenn to the edge of the gap, but he didn’t go first. He squatted at a pile of rubble and began digging through it, hoping he had the right place. They’d kept medical supplies on every level, but this floor had also held the medical bay, so the majority of their stocks were here somewhere.
“Come on.” Kenn lowered himself into the hole with hands that protested the lack of gloves. Got softer. Kenn reached down with his leg to find a place that might support his weight. He found something that felt sturdy and tested it.
Kenn hefted himself up as the hard object rocked and vanished, breathing rough.
A shattering crash brought Neil to the hole. “Be careful!”
Nose burning from all the smoke, Kenn nodded toward the rope he had tied off for Neil. “I was able to see down five foot. It’s clear. I’m dropping.”
Neil had found the shelf of medical kits. He slung two of them around his neck and then shined the light as Kenn began to descend, using his own rope. It would have been incredible to watch if not for the situation.
“Okay. Come on down.”
Now that he’d observed how it was done, Neil tried to copy it. He lowered himself, arms straining. Sweat broke out on his neck from the heat as his lower body descended into the cool darkness to search for solid ground. He hadn’t realized it was hot and bright up there. Down here, it was pitch black and cool. And quiet, he noticed, ears working overtime as his headlamp flickered off bodies, rubble, equipment that was mangled, and shards of thick plastic that had been crushed. Water tanks, he thought, heart pounding.
Kenn had stopped a bit below, feet crunching. “Careful man, it’s a maze.”
Neil’s foot hit crushed plastic and slipped.
Kenn grabbed his arm, guiding him down. He didn’t tell Neil what he’d observed. The man would view it for himself any second now.
Neil’s light blurred as he caught his balance, but it was enough to show him that the entire rubble field was made up of those huge plastic shards. Across the glittery field of danger, Samantha sat with her knees to her chest. Neil thought he could hear her breathing, but he wasn’t sure. She was covered in dust and dark shadows.
Kenn took Neil’s arm before he shined the light on her. “Easy man. If she gets up to run to us, it might all fall.”
Neil blanched, lowering his light.
“There’s something else.” Kenn lowered his voice. “She won’t want to leave the body. You’ll have to make her.”
Neil shined his light on Samantha anyway now, mind blanking. Body?
Neil hadn’t seen Jeremy at first because his body was covered in blood, blending in with the broken cave walls. Jeremy had landed on one of the plastic tanks. He was still hanging there. Oh, God!
“Neil?”
Neil swallowed his horror. “Don’t move, Sam! Please, don’t move!”
“He knew this mountain would kill him.” Sam choked up. “And I made him come here!”
Samantha’s sobs were a torment to the men, but all they could do was listen and curse fate. Without help and equipment, they couldn’t reach her.
Kenn, aware of Morgan joining them, stepped and then slid toward the only exit he could view with his light. It was also lined in plastic shards, but most of them had been crushed and were covered in large pieces of debris that Kenn identified as stone from the radio room. It had been darker than the outer walls.
Contemplating ways to rescue Samantha, Neil was barely aware when they’d gone.
Across the dark and bloody debris field, Samantha continued to cry.
3
Sweating and grunting, Kenn and Morgan removed the last two large stones so they could ease through the debris piles to reach the bottom level.
“We cleared a hole with those two.” Morgan pointed.
Kenn shined his light and tried hard to force a grin. “Can we give you a lift?”
Angela wanted to reward his effort at lighthearted calm, but the best she could manage was, “Get us out of here, grunt.”
The ceiling of the storage chamber had cracked and fallen in. She and Cody had cowered under a shelf and hoped they weren’t hit. Afterward, she hadn’t been strong enough to stack the broken stones for a ladder to get out.
She held Cody up so that Kenn could reach the scared boy’s arms, but Angela wasn’t in any shape to be pulled up that way. Some of her stitches were still healing the wounds and hadn’t dissolved yet. She knew that by the way they pinched as she held Cody up. Angela chose to climb. She wouldn’t have been able to do it with Cody on her back yet, but she could handle herself.
Kenn watched as she came up the debris pile and then the wall. As soon as she was in range, he planned to grab her.
As Angela neared the top, she chose the wrong grip. The small ledge crumbled under her fingers, sending her flailing…
Kenn snatched the front of her shirt and jerked her out of the hole.
Angela screamed but didn’t struggle. When Kenn set her down, she clutched her stomach, trying not to puke.
Are you okay?! Adrian demanded. His guts had clenched into a nasty cramp that had stolen his breath.
“Fine. Keep going,” Angela interrupted Kenn’s apologies. “We’re even.”
Kenn grinned, but he’d never felt less amused. “Nice. Let’s go.”
Kenn guided them through the slippery debris, with Morgan bringing up the rear. Morgan was carrying Cody, who was staring toward the ladder with tears rolling down his dirty cheeks.
Morgan shielded the boy’s eyes as they joined Debra and Theo at the bottom of the ladder.
“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 TwoFalling
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 difference 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 was 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.
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 ThreeBurning
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.
Marc sighed in relief, not wanting to resent Billy for his lack of memory. It might even be better that he didn’t remember right now. Some of their members were too dazed by the losses to help.
“Grab that shelf!”
A huge crash echoed from above him, making Marc want to be up there with Angie and Charlie… Charlie. I don’t have him on my grid.
End of Free Sample
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