Shalia's Diary Book 2

by Tracy St. John

  Weln settled Mom in a hover chair and hurried off in search of something. I squatted down and took her hand while Candy chatted up a cute Imdiko who was helping another older woman put together a vid puzzle. Mom kept sliding to one side, still too weak from her stroke to sit up straight on her own for very long. I looked around for something to prop her up with.

  Weln reappeared with his hands full of pillows. “This will help,” he said, tucking them around Mom’s frame. She smiled up at him, but her eyes were distant. Dad was right. She’s getting worse fast.

  Once he had her set to rights, Weln sat down on the floor and pulled me onto his lap. “My poor Shalia,” he said, hugging me tight.

  “Weln,” I whispered, burrowing my face against his chest. I crowded against him, trying to hide in the circle of his arms, finding shelter in his strong body. I started to shake as I told him, “I don’t even remember doing it. I could hear the blaster going off, and then I was standing over the bodies—”

  “Hush,” he told me, rocking me like a child. “It’s over now, and you’re going to be okay. You did nothing wrong. It’s all right, sweetness.”

  A minute later, Dad came running into the room, the door shutting behind him as bursts of blaster fire sounded. “The building is under attack,” he said, his eyes wide. “We think the assault on the landing pad failed and they’re trying for hostages.”

  That made the humans wail and the Kalquorians look grim. Dad did a quick check around the room of the sick and injured before ended up with me and Weln.

  “Does it look bad?” I asked him in a low voice.

  Dad licked his lips. “The security team here will do everything in their power to keep us safe,” he said.

  It wasn’t a real answer. That came moments later when the telltale sounds of battle started booming right outside the storage room’s door.

  People started screaming, and there was a rush to cower in the corners and against the wall as what must have been a pitched battle commenced. I stuck close to Mom, with Weln and Dad standing between us and the door. Mom simply sat there, not seeming to register much of any of the panic going on around her. Her lips moved once. I think she said, “Loud.”

  The thudding rumbles of fighting and screams of men seemed to go on forever, but probably went on for no more than five minutes. The abrupt silence that followed was even more deafening. My breath was like a windstorm, my heart like the galloping hooves of a horse in that eerie quiet during which no one dared to speak. I peeked out from behind Dad’s tree trunk legs to watch the door. I needed to see if friend or foe would walk in.

  The door opened, and Matt King stuck his head in to look at us. I could have cried from relief to see a friendly face.

  His eyes found me, as if drawn like a magnet. A grin slowly unfurled. “Hello, Shalia. So glad to see you here. I was hoping to get the opportunity to thank you for telling me about the transport schedule.”

  I blinked. I stood up and took a step forward. “The transport schedule?”

  Matt nodded. “The transferring of prisoners was perfect timing for us to attack these murdering monsters you enjoy slutting around with.” His mocking grin grew larger. “Let’s see if you like dying with them as much. Door, close and lock.”

  He moved back and the door shut again. There was a telltale buzzing as it locked. Several Kalquorians raced forward and tried to force the door open again. I stood glued to the spot, my head still trying to catch up with Matt’s words. He was with the attackers?

  “Son of a bitch,” Weln swore. “They were on the inside as well as the outside.”

  I rose to my feet, though my knees felt as if they’d give out at any second. Candy moved to stand next to me and yelled furiously. “That asshole! He pretended he was our friend. That he wanted to work with you guys. All along he was working with the killing bastards!” She turned to me, breathless with realization and anger. “That night we were shot at, Shalia! Matt was near the perimeter. He must have been meeting with them then.”

  I couldn’t speak. I’d done it again. First Armageddon, when I hadn’t alerted the general populace that most of them were sitting on time bombs. Now this. I’d given Matt the information so that the group trying to destroy those of us in the Academy could attack. Attack and win, from what had happened so far.

  Someone said something in Kalquorian, and Dad stiffened beside me. “You smell smoke?”

  The men crowded around the door stepped back, and I saw the first gray curls coming in through the cracks. Someone cried out, “They’ve set the building on fire!”

  The announcement brought screams from several Earthers. Dad held his hands up and bellowed for quiet.

  “Panicking will get us all killed. You and you—” he pointed to a couple of the orderlies “—stay right here and keep an eye on the patients. Everyone else who is able, fan out and see if you can find another way out of here. You two, keep trying to get the door open.”

  We did as we were told, some people sobbing in fear. The storage room had only one obvious entrance, the locked door we couldn’t get out of. I found a vent an infant might have been able to wriggle through, but nothing else. Frightened cries announced that no one else was coming up with an escape either.

  “I think I see a panel of some kind in the ceiling,” a deep voice called. Like terrified lemmings, we rushed towards the voice. It came from the area filled with shelves.

  One of the orderlies and a doctor stood among the shelves looking up. We crowded around the metal floor-to-ceiling unit they stood in front of. After confirming the rack of shelves was bolted down, the Kalquorian doctor climbed it, trying to reach the metal panel overhead. It looked pretty small. It was definitely too tiny for someone Kalquorian-size. I knew just from looking that Dad’s bulk would never, ever get through.

  The other doctor got up there and pulled on a manual handle on the panel. It swung down easily, revealing a dark hole. He could fit his head inside, but not his wide shoulders. He stuck his head in and had a look.

  He ducked down again after a few seconds. “It’s got an extremely low ceiling, but otherwise it’s a wide open space. I saw some light coming in from a far wall, so it’s possible there’s a way out for you smaller Earthers.”

  Hands closed over my shoulders and I twisted my head around to see Weln standing behind me. “Let’s send them up then,” he said. “They can go for help, maybe call the fire and rescue crews here.”

  Dad stepped up beside us. “I think it’s our best chance.” He smiled down at me. “Ready to be brave, my daughter?”

  “But – but—” I stuttered. I didn’t want to leave him and Weln and my mother behind.

  “That’s a girl,” Weln said, lifting me up and shoving me so I was forced to start climbing the shelves. “Get out as fast as you can and find help.”

  “Fuck,” I muttered. Pushy Kalquorians. I climbed with Weln coming up beneath me. He made sure I didn’t fall.

  When I reached the doctor at the top, I paused to have a look around. Candy was now coming up, along with another couple of smaller women. Kalquorians were also climbing, clinging to the shelves as they kept hold of those trying to reach the dubious safety of the overhead space. Faces stared up at me from those who still stood on the floor, their eyes wide and frightened.

  I glanced at the locked door, and terror knifed through my guts. Thin tendrils of wispy smoke were wafting in through the seams. The place really was on fire. If I didn’t move my ass, people were going to die.

  “Take care of Mom,” I whispered to Weln and gave him a quick kiss before accepting the hand of the doctor at the top of the shelves.

  “I will,” I heard him say.

  The other Kalquorian helped to boost me towards the open square. I lifted my arms, grabbing onto the ledge and scrabbled my way into what at first looked like pitch black. I wondered how the hell I was supposed to find my way out of there when I couldn’t see shit, but the most pressing matter at hand was to get up there in the first place.
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  My hips scraped the edges of the opening, and I got stuck for a moment. A big hand shoved up against my ass, forcing me through. I decided I wasn’t going to take the manhandling personally since the guy was trying to save my life.

  I looked around, my eyes starting to adjust. A little light was beaming in from a square in the wall several yards away. I could make out that the space between ceiling and roof was barely high enough for me to crawl. Damn, it was tight in there.

  I heard grunting and swearing behind me, and Candy’s head and shoulders shoved through the opening I’d just come in from. Her butt got stuck too, and she squealed when the pushing hands beneath her popped her through.

  “This way,” I called. Without waiting, I made for the square of light.

  “Damn, this isn’t an attic,” Candy complained. “It’s barely a crawl space. I can’t see. I can’t hardly move. What kind of stupid idiot makes a space so small and worthless?”

  “Come on,” I said, crawling as fast as I could go. I smacked my head against the ceiling and spewed expletives. It hurt like hell, but I kept going.

  I heard more voices rising behind me, but I noted how the surface beneath my hands was warming as I neared the far wall. I could also smell smoke. I thought the fire might be right beneath, and it scared me. We didn’t have much time to get out.

  “Hurry!” I yelled back at the others.

  I got to the bit of light and discovered it was an access point to the outside. The cover had fallen off of it at some point, perhaps in a storm. The hatch was lying on the floor next to the opening, its remaining hinge twisted. Thank you Mother Nature, for knocking the hell out of this building at some time in the past.

  I poked my head outside. The ground was several feet away, making me feel almost dizzyingly high despite this being only a one-floor building. Worse still, there were windows below on either side. Their glass panes had burst out, and black smoke boiled through the openings. I recognized I was on one side of the big building.

  “We’ve got to move!” I yelled at the others who had escaped the storage room. “This place is going up!”

  And Mom, Dad, and Weln are still in there, along with dozens of others, my mind whispered.

  I didn’t think anymore at that point. In a sudden fit of desperate hurry, I crouched at the edge of the window and jumped.

  I didn’t land so well. My ankle rolled beneath me, sending out a flare of pain. I yelped, but there was no time to nurse the injury. The crackle of fire was loud in my ears.

  “Holy shit!” Candy said from overhead. Her eyes were huge when I looked up at her.

  “I’m going for help,” I yelled. “You and the rest get out of there!”

  Without waiting for an answer, I ran towards the front. As soon as I turned the corner, I ran into a wall of heat so intense I screamed from burning pain. I thought my hair might ignite. I stumbled back, away from the blistering heat. My face felt sunburned, but there was no time to worry about such stupid stuff.

  Running in a wide arc, I made it out far enough that I could see the front of the Medical building. The side I’d escaped from was an absolute inferno. Damn it, the place was going up fast. I wondered if the facility’s fire retardant system had been disabled.

  I turned, hoping to find help of some sort on its way. The blaze roared behind me, but I heard a constant barrage of blaster fire not too far away. The occasional explosion shook the ground. There would be no help where fighting was going on.

  The Academy’s firefighting facility, with shuttles filled with flame retardant and men who could battle the conflagration, was half a mile away. Help could be here in seconds if they knew to come and had personnel not fighting the attackers. But as fast as the fire was spreading in Medical, I didn’t think I could get to them in time to save Mom and the others.

  “Shalia!” Candy ran up to me, her face smudged, tears rolling down her face. Four other women who had been locked up with us were right behind her. “What do we do?”

  I stared at Medical. The front entrance was still clear of fire, though I could see plenty of smoke through the glass doors. The storage room was on the right side of the building, away from the main part of the blaze still. A desperate idea occurred to me.

  “Run to the fire facility!” I yelled to be heard over the fire’s bellow and another earth-rocking explosion. “Get help over here right away!”

  “What about you?” Candy yelled back.

  “I’ve got an idea. Don’t stand there talking to me, go!” I gave her a push.

  Miracle of miracles, she took off running, screaming for help as she went. The other women went with her, screaming as well. Hell, I wanted to scream too, but I was going to need all the air I could keep in my lungs.

  I ran for Medical, hoping I wouldn’t be too late. The automatic doors opened for me, sending a burst of heat against my body. Fortunately, it wasn’t the same blast I’d felt at the corner of the building. The fire was coming this way, but it hadn’t gotten that close yet.

  I started hacking from the smoke right off the bat, but I’d figured on that. Fortunately, there was a ladies room in the hallway leading to the storage room. I ran into a patient’s room, snatched the pillowcase off the pillow, and raced into the restroom. Feeling every second flying by, I wet the pillowcase and tied it around my mouth and nose.

  Then I went back out into the hall. I thought I could hear the roar of the fire approaching, but I didn’t look in that direction. Instead, I ran as fast as I could for the storage room I’d quit so recently, my eyes stinging from the haze of smoke that surrounded me.

  The sight waiting for me made my knees almost give out. Next to the door was a service conduit. I knew it held all the electronics that powered the opening and locking mechanism. The thing had been savaged. Chopped up, in fact, like someone had gone at it with a meat cleaver. It was inoperable. Matt and his asshole friends had been damned determined no one would escape the room alive.

  I wasn’t going to get in there without something to tear out the door itself. Since I’d spent more than my fair share of time in the building, I knew about the fire emergency kit near the main entrance. Hell, I would have run right past it on my way to rescue Mom and the rest. It had an axe, which I had never thought made any sense. After all, the doors in the building were all metal. How was one to hack through a metal door?

  It came to me that the walls weren’t metal, however. In fact, the doors slid into pockets within the walls. Only two thin bits of sheetrock and supporting beams stood between me and those imprisoned in the room. Dad and the others could punch their way through the sheetrock, but the thick supports and metal door mechanisms would pose an obstacle. Maybe chopping the supports away would give them enough room to escape?

  That’s what the axe was for. I needed to chop through the wall.

  I thought about yelling to those inside to start on the sheetrock and maybe even try their luck with the supporting beams, but that would allow smoke to come in sooner rather than later. I decided to wait and keep the storage room’s air as clear as possible until I could do those trapped inside some real good. I turned around and ran back the way I’d come.

  The smoke was definitely getting thicker, and I didn’t see that the glass case that held a fire extinguisher and axe had been broken into until I was right on it. The axe and fire extinguisher were both gone, and the hose had been hacked away from the old system that probably didn’t work anymore anyway. It occurred to me that the axe was probably what the shitheads had used on the storeroom door’s mechanism. I bet they kept it too.

  There was another kit closer to the room Mom had been kept in, but that was on the other side of the building where the fire was currently raging. The smoke from that direction was black and boiling and thick. I knew the area was probably already engulfed with flames, but damn it, Mom, Dad, and Weln, along with a lot of other people were going to die. So I went in.

  I had to walk with my hand sliding along the wall because I couldn’t
see. Pretty soon I was crouching lower, trying to get under the worst of the smoke. It got hotter with every step, and I started coughing in earnest. The air hitting my lungs wasn’t only thick, it seared my throat. My eyes ran constantly, and I finally shut them. I couldn’t see anyway.

  I counted off doorways as I passed them, remembering Mom’s room was the sixth one in, and the panel with the building’s second axe was one door beyond that. I could hear crackling flames along with the deeper roar of the inferno as I went along. I expected to walk into a wall of fire at any moment. I hacked and choked on the acrid air.

  Door six. Mom’s room. One more to go. Sweat from the heat of the fire poured off me. It was stifling, and I couldn’t really breathe anymore. I had the crazy urge to just lay down and give up. My head buzzed and ached. I wasn’t going to make it.