by Chris Ryan
He realized he hadn’t heard any sounds from outside in ages.
‘Did you hear that?’
‘What?’ snapped Susana.
‘I heard something. Ssh.’
It didn’t come again. The only sound he could hear was Susana’s breathing.
She slumped back against the uncomfortable surface. ‘I didn’t hear anything.’ She tried to shift position but froze as if she’d been jabbed painfully. For a moment she lay like that and panted. Her breath was like steam in the tiny space. Hex could feel it on his face, his hands. ‘I need to get out of here. Can’t you do something?’
No, he couldn’t. That was the really difficult part. All the time he’d been in Alpha Force he’d been able to do things. Now he just had to sit here and wait for help. ‘They’ll get to us soon,’ he said.
Susana fidgeted again, trying to find a new position, but she always came back to the same one. ‘Did you hear something or not? It’s a simple question.’
Hex tried to remember. He thought he’d heard something fall. But now it was the same as before – the never-changing trickle of small pieces of rubble cascading down through the cracks between the bones. The sudden noise seemed like a figment of his imagination.
‘What was it? People?’
‘Yes, I think so.’ It was better to believe that than not to believe it. A story he’d once heard popped into his head. Imagine a tree in a big, big wood. If it fell and no one was there to hear it, did it make a noise?
He looked down at his hand. Ants were running over it. The rubble was teeming with them. Some of them were carrying things – small pieces of debris, wood, each piece almost the size of the ant’s body. If I was as strong as an ant, thought Hex, I could lift these bones and get out. But human beings were so fragile.
Susana kept fidgeting. She struck her hand against one of the bones as though she could bat it out of the way. ‘God, I’m thirsty. Have you got any water?’
That question again. Her brain was going round and round in big, ratty circles. What was it that was wrong with her? Was she about to have some kind of epileptic fit? What would he do if she did?
‘Look,’ he said. ‘Do you have any medical problems I should know about?’ She glared at him and he added, ‘If you’re asleep when they come to get us out I may have to tell them.’
‘No,’ she retorted. ‘I’m just cold and thirsty and I’ve got the worst indigestion ever.’ She coughed. Wet breath hit his face again.
Her lips looked black in the fluorescent green light; her skin white and clammy. She looked like a vampire. He wiped her breath off his cheek. When he took his hand away there was blood on it.
Amber’s instincts took over. She heard the bang and suddenly she was like a gecko, running along the ground as fast as possible, keeping low, protecting herself. The light stick was in her fist but she didn’t know where she was going.
Behind her there was a crash that she felt through her bones. She hit the deck and rolled into a ball, her hands clasped tightly over her head. Masonry fell. Oh God, it was happening again.
When it stopped, Amber was ready for the rumbling, but this time the ground beneath her knees and elbows was still. Solid.
A shaft of light pierced through the gloom. White light. From a torch. She raised her head.
‘Amb-er!’ It was Alex’s voice.
She got to her feet as the others piled in. They checked her carefully as she brushed herself down. ‘Ow!’ She bent double and clutched her leg in pain.
‘What’s wrong?’ said Li, and knelt down to look.
‘It’s all right, it’s just my bite,’ said Amber. ‘It’s been hurting all night.’
They flashed the torches around the room, looking at the wreckage. A concrete beam had come down, right where Amber had been lying with Señora Zapata. The great table of concrete had smashed to smithereens. Amber had managed to crawl about thirty metres in less than a few seconds.
Amber turned to look at Paulo. ‘I left Señora Zapata there.’
‘Señora Zapata?’ called Paulo.
There was no answer.
Li turned to the ex fireman. ‘Miguel, do you think it’s safe to go and investigate?’
Miguel looked up at the roof. A big section was missing. They could see the flashes of blue in the sky from far-off emergency vehicles. ‘Hard to tell.’
Li gave him the night vision goggles. ‘Try these.’
Miguel lifted them to his eyes. He inspected the wrecked joists, the ragged end of the concrete beam. ‘Yes, it looks stable. But there’s a body over there.’
Li took the goggles from him. The debris covering Señor Mermoz had slipped away. His spectacles were smashed, the empty frames filled like egg-cups with dust and glass.
Li looked at him for longer than she’d intended to. She saw the glowing forms of Paulo and Amber as they passed in front of the goggles to look for Señora Zapata. By comparison, Señor Mermoz looked faded, not vibrant white. This was what a body looked like when it was cold.
She looked at Amber and Paulo. They were on their hands and knees, gently pulling away debris. Beyond, she could see Señora Zapata’s bright chest. A pool of brilliant white was seeping out from the pile of concrete. She realized what it was. Blood. Fresh, warm blood.
Paulo and Amber had stopped. Li took the goggles off and walked quietly up to them. ‘Do you need these?’
Paulo shook his head. He was shining his torch at Señora Zapata. Straight in her eyes. They were open and she wasn’t flinching.
Señora Zapata looked peaceful, but that was only from one side. A piece of concrete had hit her head and made her skull a shape it shouldn’t be. It was smashed in along one side. Blood framed her head like a dark halo. A clear liquid was running out of her nose and left ear. Cerebrospinal fluid; the fluid that circulates through the brain and spinal cord. She must have died instantly.
Amber looked at Paulo, tears in her eyes. They had tried to keep her alive, but now the roof had collapsed and killed her anyway. Paulo reached forward and gently ran his hand down the woman’s face. Her eyes closed.
Amber took her hand. The ring was still there, where she’d put it back less than half an hour ago. She could feel the bones inside the flesh. ‘She said her husband was on his way. She asked me to give him her ring.’
Slowly, she slid the circle of metal off the woman’s finger.
Paulo spoke in Li’s ear. ‘Is there anyone else in here? You can see with those goggles.’
Li stood up and scanned the room. ‘No. It’s clear.’
Alex spotted a familiar shape leaning up next to a tall vase. His bergen. He went up to it, brushed the dust off and opened the top.
Paulo looked at Li in disbelief. The bergen had survived yet again.
Alex began stuffing items into his belt kit. ‘Thanks for looking after it.’
‘We haven’t,’ said Paulo. ‘But someone must have.’
‘Shall we just all get in it in case anything else happens?’ Li asked.
Miguel had the fireman’s plans. ‘Let’s get out, grab some coffee and take a good look at these.’
Susana coughed again. The blood collected in dark gobbets around her mouth, as though she had been eating black fruit. Her breathing was shallow and fast and she was shivering, even though it was sweltering inside the tiny space.
‘Hex, have you ever thought you were going to die?’
She hadn’t talked for a while. She seemed to be thinking; thinking up difficult questions and then hitting him with them. ‘Yes. I have.’
‘What was it like?’
How many times? Since he’d met Amber and the others, too many to count. Nothing like this, though. Or no, wait a minute. They had been cave diving on a mission in Alaska: he had followed Amber around a tight bend in a tunnel and got stuck. But that had been different. Amber knew what to do and got him out.
He wished he hadn’t thought about that time diving in the cave. He remembered that feeling of a huge mass of rock above him, and him
trapped and squirming. Except this was worse. He and Susana had been spared because when the bones fell they had left this little gap, but would it hold for ever?
For ever . . . ?
‘When did you nearly die?’
No, he didn’t want to revisit it. It wouldn’t do any good. ‘I didn’t really,’ he said to Susana. He changed the subject. ‘My friends have got the latest thermal imaging equipment. They’ll be searching for trapped people and they’ll see us.’
Inside his head, he gave himself a different answer. No one had come yet. What if the others were trapped too? Or worse, he and Susana might be the sole survivors. Who would know to look for them?
Susana sighed; it was loud, full of pain. He felt he should do something. He put a hand on her forehead. She twitched away from him, but it must have hurt her because she grimaced and went rigid. He couldn’t do anything for her.
‘I don’t want to die,’ she said. ‘Not here, like this. I won’t even have a gravestone. I’ll have just disappeared. What about my family? They won’t know if I’m dead or not. My mum and dad don’t live in Belize City. They’re probably perfectly all right—’ Her sentence ended in more coughing. Mucus and blood blew out of her mouth like bubblegum. Her face was wet with tears.
A tree in a wood with no one to hear it fall.
Hex took her hand. ‘Shh. Someone will be here soon.’
‘Your friends with the imager?’
The goggles couldn’t do that much. Only Superman could see through this much rubble; real-life technology wasn’t that advanced. ‘Yes, they’ll be here soon. They’ll get us out.’ He had never told such a lie in his entire life.
Li, Amber, Alex, Paulo, Jose and Miguel walked across the grass. They had identified an entrance to the basement levels at the far end of the building. They passed the dinosaur gallery. The front wall had caved in; the roof looked like a giant wrecking ball had crashed into it.
‘Dios,’ said Paulo. ‘This has really been battered.’
‘Miguel,’ said Amber, ‘have you dealt with an earthquake before?’
Miguel nodded. ‘A long time ago. And other big catastrophes. There was a big fire a few years ago where a hundred people died. I was injured. That’s when I was pensioned out.’
‘How long do you carry on looking?’ said Li. ‘When do you decide you have to stop?’
‘That’s really hard,’ said Miguel. ‘You never think you’ve done enough.’
‘Well, it’s different today,’ said Paulo. ‘We know how many we’re looking for. Four children and Hex.’
They had reached the end of the building. A few metres from the corner was a fire door. They went closer and Alex played his torch over it. ‘Hmm – look at this.’ The glass had been smashed but the wire cage inside it had held the fragments together. It had been jemmied open from the outside. The wooden frame was splintered and a gouge showed pale like a wound. ‘Looks like someone’s already been in.’
‘Might be other rescuers,’ said Jose.
Alex and Li exchanged glances. They had a bad feeling.
By now the routine for entering a new area was established. Paulo, Alex and Miguel inspected the stairwell with the light from their torches; Alex viewed it through the night vision goggles. It was dusty and there were cracks in the walls, but the stairwell was fairly intact. They listened. Any cries? Any sounds of movement?
Nothing. It was quiet.
‘I think we can go in,’ said Miguel.
Alex led the way down to basement level, then they stopped to take stock. Amber got out the plans. They showed a main corridor leading to a set of small offices. ‘According to this, it’s a bit of a warren down here.’
Paulo looked into the gloom of the corridor. ‘I wonder how much of it is still standing.’ He flashed his torch in. It looked practically untouched; there wasn’t even any dust – as if it had missed the quake entirely. ‘Corridor looks OK.’
There was a muffled sound, like a trapped animal. Paulo looked round.
Everyone had heard it. ‘Hello?’ called Miguel. ‘Shout again. Where are you?’
They got an answer. High-pitched squealing, like bats.
Alex shouted out loudly, ‘Keep calling. We’re coming.’
They padded carefully along the corridor. Miguel sounded a warning note: ‘This looks OK but be prepared to take cover if something starts moving.’
The cries were getting louder. ‘There’s definitely more than one,’ said Li.
They came to a door. Li pushed it gently and it swung open. ‘Hello?’
‘Here! Help!’
Alex looked into the room with the goggles. His hopes turned to fears. The ceiling had fallen in: the voices were coming from a pile of rubble on the floor.
Then he saw two glowing fingers appear in the middle of the debris. ‘There!’
Li got down on her hands and knees and shone her torch into the hole where the fingers were poking through.
Three pairs of eyes blinked back. ‘Hi there,’ said Li. ‘Is anyone hurt?’
Three voices chorused, ‘No.’
‘Miguel,’ said Li, ‘we need your expert opinion.’
She stood back. Miguel bent down and shone his torch in. ‘Hi, girls. Let’s just see where you’ve managed to end up—’
‘I’m a boy!’ said a voice crossly.
‘Sorry,’ said Miguel. He stood up. ‘They’re in a box of some kind. Must have got under a desk. Mind out.’ He put the crowbar in the hole and pulled.
Several lumps of masonry tumbled out. A second go and the space was big enough for the children to crawl through.
Paulo, Li and Amber helped them out. Two girls and a boy stepped carefully over the rubble and blinked at the torches. Alex took the goggles off and put them back in their case. Best to conserve power, just in case.
Paulo watched the children carefully, looking to see how they moved. They were shaken and dusty, but looked unhurt. Would he ever be able to meet anyone again without checking them for injuries?
‘What are your names?’ said Amber.
‘Ana.’
Amber grinned. ‘Ana Gomez, right?’ The distinctive eyes and nose were a giveaway. They’d found one of Felipe’s children. Ana nodded.
‘I’m Toni Velázquez,’ said the other girl.
‘Roberto Cortes,’ said the boy.
‘Ana, where’s Jorges?’ asked Amber.
‘We don’t know,’ replied Ana. ‘We were looking for him. I woke up and he wasn’t here. I thought he’d gone to the loo. I went to find him and Roberto and Toni came with me. Then the floor fell in. We landed in this room.’
Alex was investigating their hiding place. It was a big steel safe, like a chest freezer on its side, empty except for their footprints. ‘You chose the right place to take cover. How did you get it open?’
‘A rock fell on top of it and the door burst open. We thought it was a good place to hide. Then it got buried and we couldn’t get out at all.’
Alex grinned at them. ‘Did you find any jewels in there?’
‘There was a mask,’ said Ana. ‘That big gold mask . . .’
The four members of Alpha Force looked at each other.
‘You’re Indiana Jones!’ exclaimed Toni, although it wasn’t clear which of them she was addressing.
Then Roberto spotted Alex’s sling too. ‘You got hurt fighting the tomb robber. Wow – can I see?’
‘It’s nothing,’ shrugged Alex.
Li swept her torch around the rubble in front of them. ‘Where’s the mask now?’
‘A man came and took it,’ said Ana.
‘A man took it?’ repeated Paulo.
‘We were stuck in here and someone came into the room,’ said Ana. ‘He seemed to be looking for people, like you were. We shouted. He took no notice. We thought he couldn’t hear us. So we got the mask through the hole and waved it to get attention. He came up and took it, then went away, leaving us.’
‘The jemmied fire door,’ said Li. ‘There h
ave been looters in here. Remember the police?’
‘Cool,’ said Roberto. ‘Are you going to fight them off?’
‘No,’ said Amber sternly. ‘We are going to get you to safety. We’ve got warm blankets upstairs and your friends are waiting.’
Automatically, the four members of Alpha Force formed a protective formation to walk the kids out to the surface. Alex and Amber went in front; Paulo and Li were behind. Miguel led the way with the crowbar; Jose brought up the rear.
‘Then will you come back and fight them off?’ said Roberto.
‘We’ll come back and find Jorges,’ said Li. ‘And a friend of ours who’s missing.’
Susana started to jerk. She looked as though she was trying to sit up but something inside her was broken.
Hex put his hands on her shoulders. ‘Shh, shh. Don’t try to move.’ He didn’t know what else to do. But she wouldn’t keep still. It was like something inside her was moving her against her will. He heard rasping sounds in her throat.
‘Do you want to turn over?’ he said. ‘Shall I help you?’
She couldn’t answer – just went on jerking. Her hands were picking at her chest and abdomen as though trying to get rid of something.
Was she trying to be sick? She might choke. He wasn’t sure what to do.
‘Susana, I’m going to move you. You should be more comfortable.’ He took her shoulders and tried to turn her.
She screamed and he let go. He’d better not try again.
Her lips were blue and parched, her eyes half-closed and dull, the lids flickering. Around her mouth blood had crusted. It looked black in the light of the fluorescent stick.
Then she was still. The fit must have passed. The only sound in the tiny cavern was her breathing. It made a bubbling sound. She was hardly a person any more. Just a body gone wrong.
Her lips were moving. She was trying to speak. Hex leaned closer and put his ear to her mouth. He felt the wet breath on it and felt her blood spraying out over him.
The hot breath rasped and stopped. Her head lolled. The hands flopped down and were still.
For a moment Hex sat back and just looked at her. Slowly he reached for her wrist and felt for a pulse.
He couldn’t find one. He tried again; even checked on his own wrist to make sure he’d got the right place.
