“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 Eye of the Storm 373

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 Melissa Good 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.


Chapter

Forty

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?”


376 Melissa Good

“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.