by Polly Becks
“SLOANE! CORINNE! ELISA, Grace, Sarah! It’s OK—we’re here to get you out.”
Lucy had instinctively known that the terrified girls would be at least somewhat reassured by the sound of their own names, so she shouted them the instant she got into the flooding classroom.
A rush of water swept in from the hallway as Ace struggled to brace the heavy door open, the backwash slapping her above the waist for the first time since she had entered the school again.
She spun the flashlight around the dark room and immediately found five little faces, three pale, two dark, all pathetically frightened, hiding behind the piano atop the heater. Lucy did her best to smile encouragingly.
“It’s an angel,” Sarah said nervously to the others.
“No, it’s certainly not,” Lucy said wryly. “It’s Miss Sullivan, girls. Don’t be afraid.”
Ace was already speaking into his radio, informing the command center that they had located five kindergartners. He looked questioningly at Lucy, who nodded, then he went on to describe where in the flooded school they were located.
The radio crackled with a message in return.
“Copy that, Sergeant. Be advised the eastern corridor inside the building has flooded at a depth of over five feet, and the western side of the building outside is sustaining flood depth of more than four feet. You won’t be able to open the exit door again—get to the closest classroom in the western corridor and prepare to evacuate to chopper via emergency windows.”
“Copy,” Ace replied. “Will alert when we are at the windows or as necessary.” He turned to Lucy as he put the radio away.
“Can you carry two, one on each hip?” he asked. “If the water is high enough, it will help a little. They’ll be easier to carry in the water, believe it or not. Buoyancy and all that.”
“Absolutely,” Lucy said, still smiling bravely at the girls.
“All right, then.” He passed Lucy by a foot or so, getting closer to the quavering little girls.
“Hello, ladies,” he began when Sloane gasped and interrupted him.
“Look!” she said, pointing to the Army Corps of Engineers shirt. “He’s wearing a castle! It’s Prince Charmin’!”
“Well, yes,” Ace said humorously. “I was just about to introduce myself like that. Can you show me your guns, ladies?” He lifted his arms in a bicep curl.
Three of the girls managed to imitate him. Ace’s eyes wandered over their arms, noting their musculature, then turned to Corinne.
“Do you have brothers, miss?”
Corinne nodded. “Four. All bigger than me.”
“Do you wrassle ’em?”
“Sure do.” The little girl grinned slightly.
“Do you ever win?”
“Sometimes.”
“Good—then you’re gonna put your arms around my neck and ride on the back—OK? Can you do that without letting go? Like you’re gonna flip me, but just pretend?”
“OK.” Corinne exhaled audibly.
“Very good,” said Ace gently. “Let me get two more, and then you can climb on. We’re all stickin’ together. Come’re, ladies.” He nodded his head at Sloane and Sarah, the two next closest.
The redheaded little girl climbed nervously over the piano and came quickly into his outstretched right arm, which he wrapped around her as he set her against his hip. Then he turned to Sarah, who followed Sloane’s example, hanging her legs over the front of the piano and slipping forward to stand on the open keyboard. Ace wrapped her quickly onto his left hip.
“Help her get on,” he said quietly to Lucy, nodding at Corinne. She put her arms out and assisted the little girl over the heavy instrument which had formed an impressive barrier between the floodwaters and the children.
Ace backed up, Sarah and Sloane in his arms, their feet dangling in the water, and stood at an incline while Lucy helped Corinne onto his back.
“Can you get the others?” he asked.
“Yes,” Lucy said. She looked at Elisa, terrified in the light of the flashlight in her hand. “Come on, Elisa—your turn. Ven conmigo. Don’t make me look bad, now. We can do this.”
Elisa swallowed hard, then crawled slowly over the piano, shaking like a leaf, and into Lucy’s outstretched arm.
Lucy exhaled and kissed Elisa’s forehead. “Good job. All right, Grace—come to me.”
The child, staring wildly, shook her head.
Lucy cleared her throat. “Grace—come on.”
The little girl couldn’t move. She reared back against the windowless wall, frozen.
Lucy willed her pounding heart to slow down, and tried to keep her voice steady.
“What’s the matter, Grace?” she asked softly, trying to mimic Ace’s voice when he had spoken to the children inside and outside of the school during the evacuation. “It’s OK—we’re getting out of here now.”
Grace shook her head violently. “Can’t,” she croaked.
“Why, Grace?”
Grace looked around her, panic-stricken.
“The faces,” she whispered. “I can see them. They’re watching.”
“Faces—what faces?”
Grace lapsed into terrified silence.
Lucy turned to Ace. “You should go,” she said softly. “This may take a while, and I’m not leaving her.”
“You think I would?” Ace retorted. “Keep talking to her. I want to keep this voluntary, but if I have to, I can pry the piano back—it will just make things very difficult. We’ll give this another ten seconds, and then it’s Plan B.”
Lucy handed Sarah the flashlight, then turned back to the trembling Grace.
“Can you see them when your eyes are closed, Grace?”
The little girl just stared at her.
“Let’s try this—just close your eyes, Grace. Close your eyes and forget about them, they’re not real—just concentrate on my voice and follow it to me. OK? Close your eyes. Listen to my voice. Please, honey. Just come.”
The little girl continued to stare at her, not moving.
“I’m here, Grace,” Lucy said. “I’ll make sure the faces get stuck in here when we go. Come on—follow my voice. Like when we play The Owl in class—you are always good at that, with your eyes closed—”
Grace swallowed again. Then, slowly, she closed her eyes.
“That’s it. Now, step forward. Let’s do three steps, then put your hands out—”
Patiently, Lucy talked the trembling five-year-old forward, eyes closed, until she was sitting on top of the piano.
“All right,” she said as she maneuvered herself into position, “jump, Grace—I’ve got you, I promise.”
The little girl, her eyes still closed, scooted to the edge of the piano, and dropped off it.
Into Lucy’s waiting arm.
Grace leaned her head against the teacher’s neck. Lucy kissed the back of the little head gratefully.
Both adults exhaled deeply.
“Name?” Ace inquired, glancing at Sarah in his right arm.
“Sarah,” Lucy said.
“OK, Sarah, hold the flashlight so the beam shines in front of us. Can you do that?” Sarah nodded.
Ace started for the door. “All right, ladies—here we go.”
Chapter 14
‡
AFTER THEY LEFT the music room, Lucy felt she was sinking deeper and deeper into a nightmare from which she could not awake, no matter how much she tried.
Elisa and Grace, the two girls she was carrying, clung to her in a way that was painful, especially in the cold water. She kept whispering to them in a comforting manner as she and Ace made their way through the dark school, the fire alarms silent now, though they could hear the noise of disaster response beyond the walls.
Ace checked in over the radio as often as he could, having Sloane push the necessary buttons, maintaining contact with what seemed like a large number of first responders tracking their progress.
Almost every time a different one answered, he or she had exclaimed in surprise
when finding out that he had gone in with a civilian.
“Not like you had any choice,” she said after the fifth time. “Sorry about that.”
Ace had merely smiled and continued through the floodwaters.
They had gone almost halfway down the corridor when the first emergency occurred.
Just as she and Ace had climbed the four steps at the midpoint of the hall, a large rat swam past, shockingly close.
Lucy stopped short, silent, clutching Elisa and Grace to her, both of whose eyes were closed.
But Sloane, watching everything from Ace’s right hip, shrieked in horror and wrenched out of his arm, struggling blindly to escape.
And fell into the floodwater, disappearing beneath it, lost in the deep water over the four stairs.
Lucy, who still wasn’t certain what to make of the young National Guardsman, found herself grateful for his presence in the moments that followed.
The instant Sloane tore free of his grip, Ace immediately released the strap that bound Lucy to him with his free hand and went closer to the submerged steps. Balancing both Sarah in one arm and Corinne, still clinging to his back, he bent over and swept his arm through the water on the stairs into which Sloane had vanished.
He had needed to submerge Sarah almost up to her waist and Corinne’s legs into the cold river running through the hall, terrifying both girls, to search for Sloane, until he finally caught hold of her curly red hair and pulled her up, gasping for air.
Without a word, he had snagged her, one-handed, under her arms and pulled her back onto his hip. Then he looked into her face.
“Y’allright?”
The little girl had broken into hiccupping sobs, coughing pathetically.
“Take some easy breaths, Cinderella,” he said gently. “You’re OK.”
He turned and nodded to Lucy. He came up next to her and attached the carabineer to her belt again.
“You thought you escaped, but, as I said, I’ll never let you go,” he said with a deadpan expression.
“Ha ha. Come on.”
AS THEY APPROACHED the corner where the horizontal hallway met the western corridor, Lucy could hear the sound of the water racing, and looked nervously at Sergeant Evans.
“How deep do you think it is?”
“Too deep to get out the way we came in,” he answered. “Don’t worry, ma’am—the fire department and the Guard have us covered.”
“How?” Lucy’s voice was harsh with nerves.
“The exit door has too much pressure pushing against it, so we’re going back to your classroom and exiting through the emergency windows.”
“What?! Through the—”
“Shhh,” Ace said shortly, his dark eyes flashing. “Get ready to round the corner, ma’am; the current will be a lot faster in a minute.”
Lucy had already discovered he was right.
She hiked up the two little girls in her aching arms higher on her hips, wondering if their legs were as cold and numb as her own.
“Stay behind me, ma’am,” Sergeant Evans cautioned as they prepared to turn the corner. “There should be a wake that would be easier for you to walk in.”
“I just hope I don’t fall back and drag you down,” Lucy whispered to him.
“I’ve got seventy-five pounds and an extra one of the Fearless Fivesome on me,” Ace said. “I don’t think you can. Hold tight and let’s go.”
They braced themselves, turned the corner, and were immediately slapped by the rapids that were rushing through what that morning had been a tiled school hallway. Lucy struggled to remain upright, noting that both Elisa and Grace had their eyes clenched shut. The guiding tug of the carabineer-anchored belt, coupled with the wake behind Ace that he had predicted, served to keep her moving, even when her legs felt like they might give out.
Finally they made it to the door of her classroom.
Ace looked at Sarah.
“You’re a brave little girl,” he said, his dark eyes and expression serious. “If I put you up against the wall near the door, and Miss Sullivan backs up so that you’re on her back like Corinne is on me, can you hang on for a couple seconds?”
“I—I think so,” Sarah whispered.
“Don’t be scared,” Ace said, smiling slightly. “It will only take a few seconds. I promise.”
“OK,” said Sarah.
He looked at Lucy, and she nodded.
Ace turned his left side to the wall, and Lucy backed up in front of Sarah. She pressed back until the little girl was behind her, pinned against the wall, Sarah’s small legs draping in front of her, a little arm around her neck.
“Not too hard,” Ace said to Sarah, who was still holding the flashlight, which was shaking violently. “You’re making Miss Sullivan’s face turn white.”
“I’m OK,” Lucy choked as he unhooked his safety harness from hers again. “Get the door open.”
“Hold on, ladies,” Ace said as he braced his shoulder against the classroom door, then turned the handle with his now-free left hand. He shoved the door open, then bolted into the room, heading straight for the windows and the tall heater shelf, which was almost submerged in the water.
“Stay still, I’ll be right back,” he said to Corrine and Sloane as he offloaded them onto the long shelf, tossing an armload of books into the water. “Don’t move.”
Then he ran back into the hallway and grabbed Sarah and Elisa, leaving Grace tucked in the fetal position in Lucy’s arms. Lucy ran into the classroom, and Ace followed her, leaving the door open, knowing it would be impossible to close it now.
Once they had deposited the other three girls on the heater, Ace returned to the radio, and Lucy soothed the children.
“We’re almost out,” she said as comfortingly as she could, but her voice sounded uncertain.
She was listening to the sound of the rescue helicopter above the roof.
WHILE ACE CONVERSED on the radio with the rescuers outside in words she didn’t understand, Lucy stood shivering in water almost up to her waist, surging less than the streaming floodwaters in the hallways, but rising rapidly enough to keep her in barely-controlled panic.
Knowing that she had no more idea of what was happening with the fire department than they did, she turned her attention to calming and comforting the five little girls the best she could.
She was most worried about Sloane, who was exhibiting all the signs of shock, and all five of the girls were cold, making her worry about hypothermia. Lucy gathered them together as close as they could manage and put her arms around all of them.
“Not too much longer,” she said, her teeth chattering.
There was far more light in the classroom than there had been in the hallways, but the little girls were too deeply traumatized to be cheered by it. Every cheerful comment she made to try to raise their spirits seemed to fall on deaf ears. They seemed to have lost the ability to do anything but curl up and try to keep warm.
Lucy wondered dully if that might be for the best.
“Copy that,” she finally heard Ace say.
He clipped his radio onto his collar again, then put his hands on the shelf on top of the heater and, like a gymnast, lifted himself up until he was standing on it.
“Hold on, ladies,” he said as he pushed open the emergency windows that Kelly Moran had unlatched, what seemed like hours before. “We’re in the home stretch.”
Lucy winced as a number of search lights were suddenly shining through the windows at them, amid the sounds of garbled talking on bull horns from the other side of a rapid river that was running full force now, separating the school from the fire trucks, deeper even than the water in the classroom.
Blinded as she was by the blasting lights shattering the hazy gray of the world outside the school, it took Ace several times to finally get her to look up.
“Miss Sullivan?”
Lucy shook off the looming darkness that was filling her eyes. “Yes?”
The National Guardsman was stripping off hi
s fire coat and helmet, leaving him in his soaking wet Army Corps of Engineers T-shirt, his fire pants and suspenders. He turned and looked at her evenly.
Lucy saw for the first time the oval shape of his face, free from headgear, the short, dark hair matted to his head, deep, dark eyes with long lashes above the sensuous mouth, naturally tanned skin and a slight appearance of what she thought might be Native American blood, and noted hazily, as her head was swimming, that she might be looking at the most beautiful man she had ever seen.
Or perhaps she just thought that because he was standing at the threshold between life and death for them all.
The only one who had a clue what he was doing.
“Here’s where it gets complicated,” he said.
Chapter 15
‡
“OF COURSE IT does,” Lucy said hollowly. “It’s been a cakewalk up until now.”
Ace glanced out the window.
“In a moment, a rope is going to appear,” he said, ignoring her words. “It will have two harnesses on it—a Swiss Seat, a rappelling harness, like for mountain climbing, and a smaller one—a safety harness. There are a bunch of strapping guys on the roof with a winch, who will pull me and each of my passengers up to the roof, then lower me back down for another passenger.”
Lucy exhaled steadily but said nothing.
“I’ll keep coming up and down until everyone is safely on the roof. Then we’ll get hoisted into the helicopter, which you can undoubtedly hear hovering above the school, and get the heck out of here. Does that make sense?”
Lucy just blinked. “Nothing—nothing makes sense,” she said, “but I think I understand.”
“I’m gonna take Sloane first,” Ace continued. “There are medics on the roof, waiting, and she needs attention first.” Lucy nodded. “Then Elisa, Grace, Sarah, and finally Corinne, who I judge to be the most fit and whose stamina is likely to last the longest.”
“OK.”
“Then I’ll be back down for you.”
“You had better be,” she said flatly, “since you unhooked yourself from me yet again. So much for never letting me go. Hmph.”
The National Guardsman smiled his slight smile again. He turned and looked out the window.
