Eye Of The Storm - DK3 (68 page)

“Yeah.”

“I love you, Dar.” Kerry pressed her lips against the warm back.

She couldn’t answer for a minute, around the lump in her throat. “I love you, too,” she finally rasped. “You know you’ve been the best thing in my life, right?”

A sniffle. “Ditto.” Kerry sighed. “I wasn’t ready for this to happen,”

she murmured softly. “I just found what I wanted, Dar. I don’t want to give it up yet.”

“Me either.” Dar felt a deep sense of anger rising. She tensed her muscles and tried to straighten her body out as her feet gained a purchase on the fallen debris behind them. She could feel the heavy pressure of the wood over her shoulders and her spirit rebelled against its captivity. “I know it’s pointless, but…” She coiled her legs up and set her back against the wood.

“Wh-what are you doing, Dar?”

“Trying.” There wasn’t any reason or thought behind it. She took a breath, then pushed, straining her muscles against the obstruction. It didn’t budge even slightly, but she tried harder, reaching inside and calling up slumbering reserves of strength she rarely ever had tapped.

She closed her eyes and an echo of memory flowed through her, the
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stale air made her head buzz, and smelled a sharp, harsh scent and just decided she needed to be out of where she was.

Kerry needed to be out of where she was. No way was she going to let Kerry die. No way.

No.

Way.

A hot surge of energy hit her in the gut and she uncoiled, a yell of rage erupting from her chest as her body straightened, to the sound of crashing and a roar and a blast of hot, stinking air. Dar reeled on the edge of unconsciousness, dimly aware of hands grabbing her and voices hammering at her ears that were curiously familiar.

Kerry felt things move around her and she tried to keep hold of Dar as plaster and drywall collapsed on top of them both. She knew a moment of total panic, then the debris behind her gave way and she tumbled out of the tunnel and into a clear space. Ceiling tiles dropped on top of her head and she rolled, trying to get into the clear. Then her motion was stopped by something solid and she flailed an arm out, making contact with unexpected fabric and warmth.

“Kerry!” Never had a voice been more welcome. Kerry blinked her eyes open through the plaster dust and made them focus on Andrew’s dusty, scarred face. The tall man knelt at her side and pulled the drywall off her. She clutched at his arm, pulled him over awkwardly and hugged him. “Easy there.” He gently freed her of the plaster and ended up on the floor with Kerry in his lap. “Lord, ah am glad to all hell to see the two of you.”

“Same here.” Kerry managed a smile, as she carefully sat up, cradling her arm and looking around. Dar was sprawled full length in the dirt, with her mother kneeling over her, and she could smell smoke nearby. “I’m glad you’re both all right.” Her eyes went to the far corridor, blocked by the collapsed ceiling.

Dar lay on the floor, trying to catch her breath. The voices came much closer and she felt fingers touch her forehead, for a moment throwing her back into childhood, when a fall from the tree outside their base quarters had dazed her. It had been the same touch and she opened her eyes to see her mother crouched over her, an anxious look on her face.

“Dar?” Ceci said.

“Hi, Mom,” Dar murmured. “Watch that last step. It sucks.”

Ceci went still for a second, then her face creased into a wry smile, as she shared the memory. “What luck. You’re already at a hospital.” She looked over to where Andrew was tugging Kerry free of the last of the debris. “I’m glad we found you. There’s a fire in the next section. We have to get out of here.”

That explained the heat.
Dar caught her breath and looked around.

What had been the nurses’ station was now just a mass of rubble and the ceiling had fallen down in the corridor, blocking the way forward. Kerry scrambled to her feet and, as Dar watched, she walked over and laid a hand on the blockage. The emergency lighting was a little stronger here 374
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and displayed the liberal bloodstains on Kerry’s cotton shirt, from the scratches and scrapes covering her skin. Dar looked down, finding herself in the same condition.

“Dar?” her mother prompted her gently. “Are you okay?”

Dar didn’t think so. Too much was happening too fast. But she gathered her wits and nodded. “We had kind of a tough time getting through that mess.”

Ceci patted her shoulder. “C’mon. Let’s see if we can find a way out of here.”

They both stood and walked over to Kerry and Andy. Dar suffered a hair ruffling from her father, as Kerry thumped against her in a heartfelt embrace. She put her arms around the smaller woman and exhaled, trying to put the very recent past behind her for the moment.

“Thank you,” Kerry uttered. “I don’t know how you did that, but thank you.”

Did what?
Dar deferred the question until later. “We have to get moving.” She indicated a half passable exit to the right.

Kerry lifted her head, then moved away from Dar to the piles of debris blocking the way towards where Angie’s room was. “How can we get through here?”

They gathered behind her. Dar put a hand on the fractured wall.

“Kerry…it…” She fell silent. The heat was increasing. “I don’t think…”

“Dar,” Kerry picked up a chunk of concrete and tossed it aside, “my family’s behind here.”

“Kerry,” Andrew went to her side, “ah think whatever it was that blew up, was right up under that wing there.”

Kerry looked at him. “I have to know for sure.” She pulled another bit off and threw it behind her. “I’m not going to live my life—now that I have one again, thank you, Dar—wondering if there was something I could have done to help them.”

A thin haze of smoke had started to drift in and the heat was getting uncomfortable, but Dar merely sighed and set to work, tugging on the stubborn concrete in an attempt to clear the wreckage. She glanced at her parents. “Why don’t you guys go on?”

“Why don’t you grow wings and fly?” Ceci retorted. “We’d better hurry. It’s going to get nasty in here.”

They started to work as an eerie roar became subliminally audible, along with the echo of far off screams.

WHAT ARE YOU doing, Kerry?
She pushed the sweat-dampened hair off her forehead and stifled a cough.
Do you really think you can get through
all this? Then what?
She glanced to her right, where Dar and Andrew worked together to move a huge piece of wall. Father and daughter took opposite sides of the section and lifted, noses wrinkling up in effort in almost mirror image. They got the piece off and went back for more, while Ceci helped her move the smaller chunks.
You’re risking their lives,
and they probably don’t even understand why you’re doing it.

Her hand touched something that wasn’t rock and she gasped, drawing back from what was identifiably a human arm.

It had been cold.

“Dardar, g’wan over there by Kerry. I’ll check this out,” Andrew ordered, in a quiet, businesslike voice. He knelt in front of Kerry, blocking her view of the body with his own as he gently moved aside the plaster, exposing the features. For a moment he was silent, his head bowed as though saying a prayer. Then he turned his head. “It’s that nurse.”

Kerry closed her eyes and let out a breath, then released her grip on Dar’s arm.

“Dar, gimme a hand here.”

It was the last thing she wanted to do. Dar swallowed, but forced her body to move and knelt down at her father’s side as he cleared the rest of the debris away. The nurse had been running, apparently. She was face down and there was a lot of blood where a sharp edge had punctured her back just below her skull. Andrew took hold of one arm. “Take ’er there.”

He motioned to the other arm. “Pull when I tell ya.”

Dar flexed her hands, then reached out hesitantly and did as he asked, unpleasantly shocked at how cold and rubbery the flesh felt.

“Dar?”

She looked quickly up at her father.

“First time I had t’do this, I chucked up so bad I nearly coughed up my kneecaps out my nostrils.”

Dar nodded and took a breath. “Thanks.” She took a firmer hold and helped him drag the body clear and over to one side. Andrew gave her a pat on the back as they walked back over.

“Gonna be okay?”

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“Yeah.”

They went back to working their way through, glancing over their shoulders as the smoke started to thicken. Kerry pulled up one large chunk, then a second, then stifled a cough. She watched Andy and Dar wrestle a large half girder out of the way, then reached out as they came back, catching Dar on her sleeve. “Listen. It’s getting pretty bad in here.

Maybe we’d…better get going that other way.”

Andrew glanced over his shoulder, then shook his grizzled head.

“Don’t think that’s an option, kumquat. Let’s just keep diggin’.”

Kerry gave him a confused look, then she turned and peered down the other corridor, only then seeing the flames through the small glass window in the door. They were trapped and it was her fault.
Oh my god
.

Oh. My. God.

Oh, God please. If I am being punished for something, don’t bring them
into it
. Kerry suddenly felt a warmth against her cheek and she looked up, right into Dar’s eyes.

“Hey.” Dar had a smudge of soot over her eye and it gave her a rakish look. “No time for second guessing. C’mon. Let’s get this done.”

“Dar…I…”

“Don’t think about it.” Dar gave a warning shake of her head.

“C’mon.”

Kerry exhaled and nodded, then followed Dar over to the dent they’d made in the debris.

They worked in silence, broken only by coughing as the air grew thicker with smoke and an eerie roaring sound coming from the other side of the dividing wall. Andrew paused for a moment, then tugged his shirt off and removed a pocketknife from his back pocket that he flipped open with a negligent flick of his wrist. Then he sliced off the sleeves, handing one each to Ceci and Kerry, in a curious chivalry that made Dar smile. She pulled up the collar of her own knit shirt and covered her mouth and nose, then kept working.

They made good progress for a several minutes, then Andy cursed, as a bit of wall he was pulling on refused to budge. “Damn it all to hell.

This thing’s one big piece.”

A blast of heat hit them and they ducked, as the wall opposite them collapsed into flame, spitting chunks of burning debris near where they were standing. The smoke rolled upward and they stared at it, all of them frozen for a long moment.

Dar felt the adrenaline hit her in the gut and she blinked, deliberately turning her back on the fire and studying the wall. There was a large, tilting section they’d ignored, because it was leaning in their direction and not in their way.

“All right.” Andrew sounded grimly resigned. “You two get in that there space, hear? Maybe we can pull some of this stuff up on over us, and it’ll pass by.”

“No.” Dar’s brain kicked in, as she remembered what it was she did for a living. Just another problem to solve. “Help me get those cables
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hanging there. We’ll tie it around this section here.” Dar scrambled up and grabbed the cables and wrapped them around the leaning section.

The rest of them helped her, tying the huge metal ropes together.

“Now…”

The fire jumped across to the nurses’ station, its heat blanching them.

Dar tugged at the edge of the leaning section. “If we can just get this to fall over...”

“Lord.” Andrew leaped up and caught the edge, lending his weight to the effort, but the section didn’t budge. Kerry and Ceci pulled also, straining against the stubborn concrete.

“The one damn thing in this place that stayed put,” Ceci muttered.

“Hang on.” Dar leaped up and pulled her body up and over the edge of the wall, getting between the section and the one blocking them. She placed her feet against one surface and her back against the other and pushed, using her powerful legs and hands braced against her knees.

“Get out of the way,” she gasped, as the rock shifted under her back.

Andrew pulled himself up and over the edge of the concrete, and added his strength to his daughter’s. “This thing lets go, we’re gonna have to jump.”

“Yep.” Dar grimaced, as the heat made her close her eyes. “Ready?

One…two…”

“Six.” They both pushed at once, and the wall creaked, then started to fall, sending them tumbling off as it tipped over, hesitating at its apex, before surrendering to gravity and falling, pulling the huge section blocking their way with it.

“There’s a way through,” Kerry yelled, in utter relief. “C’mon!” She had Dar by the sleeve and pulled, as Andy dove into the gap with Ceci clinging to his back. A burning piece of insulation fell and Kerry yelped as it hit her shoulders. Dar pulled her forward, though, and it fell off as the flames licked at the ceiling they were just standing under. She squeezed through the narrow opening, scraping her arms and legs on the shattered bits of internal wall structure that poked through the debris. It was darker where they were going and she blinked, trying to see ahead of her.

Then a roar sounded behind her and a hot wave slammed against her body, burning the hair on her arms as she yelled a warning.

Then she felt a tremendous lurch, and something fell on top of her, and it got a lot darker.

THINGS WERE MOVING.
Kerry jolted back into awareness to the sounds of things falling and a dull roaring sound. She heard yells and realized she was being carried in a cradle of strong arms that gripped her around the shoulders and under her knees.

It was still very dark, but it was cooler and she tried to collect her scattered senses as the pace quickened and a puff of cooler, fresher air washed over her.

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She heard a rapid pounding noise and puzzled over that until she realized it was a heartbeat against her ear. She forced her eyes open, to see a familiar profile outlined in the low, reddish light.
Of course.
It was Dar’s heartbeat, sounding rapid and strained.