The Next Ten: Beginnings Series Books 11 - 20

by Jacqueline Druga

  “Thirty-seconds,” Jess informed.

  “Almost there.” Robbie took out the second screw and moved to the third.

  “Twenty-five.”

  “I’m hurrying, Jess, I’m hurrying.” Out went the screw and Robbie went to the fourth.

  A loud grunt of pain came from Hal as he seared into the door again.

  “Captain, “Elliott called out. “Want me to . . .”

  “No, I’ll get this” Hal said with determination. With a look on his face to match his will, Hal charged the door again.

  Fifteen seconds.

  The lid was off. “We’re in,” Robbie said.

  “Do you have cutters?” Jess asked.

  “I have to take them off.”

  “Carefully,” Jess told him.

  Twelve seconds.

  “There isn’t enough time.” Robbie wiped the sweat from his brow. His fingers moved to the wires.

  “You can do this.” Jess looked at him with hope. “I know you can.”

  “Get by the door, Jess,” Robbie ordered.

  “Here, there. Does it matter?”

  Eight seconds.

  The ricocheting of Hal’s smashing into the door only caused the panic cries to increase in intensity and volume, pleading at Hal to hurry, to do it, and to get them out. The magnitude of confusion and hysteria only made Hal try harder. He wasn’t giving up.

  Neither was Robbie.

  Six seconds

  “Jess,” Robbie whimpered out. His fingers were on the right wire. “Almost there.”

  “Come on,” Jess beckoned.

  Four seconds.

  Robbie’s moan was painful as his fingers pulled. “No! It’s soldered.”

  Three seconds.

  The crack of the door rang out along with the screams. “I got it!” Hal cried out.

  “Robbie let’s go!” Jess shouted.

  “Jess, It’s too late.”

  One second.

  BOOM!

  <><><>

  OUSTING OF PHINEAS

  Beginnings Book 15

  CHAPTER ONE

  November 15th

  Beginnings, Montana

  It wasn’t Robbie Slagel’s nine years in the Army that gave him the ardent ability to create a baseball size explosive device capable of wiping out half a city block. It was his years in Beginnings and the dementia of family blood, coupled with the time and the freedom to practice until perfect. The only thing that Robbie knew was that the device was never tested as a whole. His calculations were always lessened for safety’s sake. Blast more than fire was its virtue. Theoretically, when properly detonated, one ‘slam bomb’, as he called it, would physically clear a path of anything immediately around it. In theory. Robbie prayed with everything he had that theory was wrong.

  If Robbie failed, one spark, in thirty seconds from the detonation unit, would be the kind of theory test he never wanted to see. The bomb couldn’t be moved once the clock started ticking and it had. Though he didn’t set that bomb and place it in the warehouse, Robbie felt it his responsibility to stop it. He created it. He designed it. He knew it and much more than just his life depended on it. The lives of those trapped in the metal structure hung in the balance. As he worked, Robbie tried not to think of the door that his brother Hal was desperately trying to break down.

  Hal’s body weight and determination were his weapons against a door locked from the outside. Beckoning cries from the others in the room fed him. Hal would charge back and then full speed ahead ram into that door with everything he had.

  All the others could do was watch, pray, stay close, and wait for the opening. If anyone could break it down, it was Hal.

  Elliott Ryder stood back and to the right waiting with Henry, Danny, and Hector. They were like a four man human plow to shove the others through when the bright of the sun outside called their freedom of release. But it didn’t matter. In a way they were grouped, the four women, inadvertently and in a chivalrous move, were shifted as close as possible to the door without hindering Hal.

  Ellen’s arm extended back between the bodies of Jenny and Trish in a desperate reach to touch Dean. Jason Godrichson’s tall body blocked Dean and hindered her from seeing him. But she felt him, her fingertips barely gripping with hope to those of her husband’s. ‘Come on Hal. Please. Please.’ Ellen prayed in her mind.

  The perseverance of brothers. Hal on one side, Robbie on the other.

  Robbie focused on the bomb and the screws he worked to pull out of the unit to stop the detonation. Jess Boyens stayed close. Support, friendship, or whatever the reason, he wasn’t leaving Robbie’s side.

  Fifteen seconds.

  The final screw came out and Robbie lifted the lid. “We’re in.”

  “Do you have cutters?” Jess asked.

  “I have to take them off.”

  “Careful,” Jess told him.

  Twelve seconds.

  “There isn’t enough time.” Robbie wiped the sweat from his brow. His fingers moved to the wires.

  “You can do this.” Jess looked at him with hope. “I know you can.”

  “Get by the door, Jess,” Robbie ordered.

  “Here, there. Does it matter?”

  Eight seconds.

  The ricocheting of Hal’s smashing into the door only caused the panic cries to increase in intensity and volume. They pleaded at Hal to hurry, to do it, to get them out. The magnitude of confusion and hysteria only made Hal try harder. He wasn’t giving up.

  Neither was Robbie.

  Six seconds

  “Jess,” Robbie whimpered out. His fingers were on the right wire. “I’m almost there.”

  “Come on,” Jess beckoned.

  Four seconds.

  Robbie’s moan was painful as his fingers pulled. “No! It’s soldered.”

  Three seconds.

  The crack of the door rang out along with the screams. “I got it!” Hal cried out.

  “Robbie, let’s go!” Jess shouted. He whipped his arm down, grabbed Robbie’s and in a charge, yanked him to his feet.

  “Jess, it’s too late.” Robbie yelled in his run.

  One second.

  BOOM!

  ^^^^

  Along with the vibration of the floor, the window in Joe Slagel’s office shattered with the close proximity explosion. He shielded his head and dropped the paper he held.

  Frank spun, hovered in protection of the flying glass, and reached for the office door. He flung it open and raced out. He looked for the sound and his dark eyes peered in horror at the rain of debris that fell in large pieces nearby. “Oh my God.”

  “Where!” Joe cried out as he flew from his office.

  “The warehouses!” Frank took off running. “Call for units. Now!”

  Right behind his son, with the radio to his mouth, Joe moved at his top speed. “I need Fire Units One and . . . no.” He saw the smoke. “Better make that all available men report with equipment to the warehouse sector. Stat.”

  ^^^^

  Dean’s bearings were lost for only a moment after he landed hard to the ground. He heard the loud crashes of the metal from the warehouse fly and land around him, but his focus was on his fingers and the sensation he last had of touching Ellen. Dean stood up.

  Panic.

  “Ellen!” he called but the rippling of the fire behind him drowned him out. It looked like night the way the smoke blocked out the sky, yet light enough to see the layers of metal and wood scattered about. “Ellen!” Dean didn’t see her. Hear her. Immediately and calling out, he begin lifting and tossing debris. “Ellen!”

  , Elliott Ryder crawled out from under a piece of metal. He heard the call of Ellen’s name and the desperation in which it was delivered. He saw Dean looking. In fact, at that very second, Dean was the only one Elliot saw standing amongst the thick layer of dirt and destruction that had blanketed around him.

  With a cough and choke, Hal rolled over and rubbed his eyes. If he didn’t hear Dean in the distance and the
roar of flames, Hal wouldn’t have realized how far he had been thrown. He lifted his head and saw he was about twenty feet from the warehouse. “Oh my God,” Hal whispered out as he stood up. He cringed when a sharp pain shot through his leg. He saw the smoke that billowed, not from Warehouse Seven, but the one next to it. Warehouse Seven was a few sticks of a frame, blown away from the inside out. Despite any pain and any fog in his consciousness, Hal charged forward.

  Frank arrived. His body froze when he did. The last thing he expected to see was people near the explosion.

  “Frank.” Dean rushed over to him “I can’t find her. I can’t find Ellen.”

  Before Frank could respond, Dean flew off again then he saw his men and much of the community racing toward the scene. “Everyone! Start checking the debris!” He moved to help and saw Hal.

  “Frank.” Hal ran, looking as desperate and lost as one man could. “I thought I got us out.”

  “Us?” Frank felt his body shuddered. “We have people buried here!” he ordered out. “Let’s start looking.”

  Just as Hal stepped to help execute Frank’s order, his head turned to the left. Through the destruction of Warehouse Seven, he saw that Warehouse Eight was also ablaze with a huge blast hole in the side of its wall. “Oh my God.”

  “What?” Frank asked.

  “Robbie.” Hal charged forward and ran through the remnants of Warehouse Seven.

  Frank hesitated. Where to go? What do to? He looked around at the magnitude of hands, including his father, which searched quickly through the pile of debris. Seeing Hal run alone, Frank knew that was where he had to be. When he entered what was left of Warehouse Seven, Frank saw the reason for all the dirt. A crater, ten feet deep and eight feet in diameter graced where the end of the warehouse once was located.

  “I found Jess!” Hal called out from Warehouse Eight.

  As he readied to step through the blast hole to help, had Frank not turned his head to the left from the heat, he wouldn’t have seen him. Robbie. “I found Robbie! You get Jess. Oh, God. Oh, God!”

  Robbie was not far from Frank. He was on the far corner of Warehouse Eight . . . . literally. It was evident by Robbie’s position that he had been picked up, thrown by the force of the blast, and hurled outward in the air. He had landed up high, pinned between the edge of the structure and the huge piece of wall that not only hid him from the chest down but held him there as well.

  “Robbie.” Frank examined the metal that had him pinned

  Robbie’s head hung forward and toward his shoulder.

  “Hey.” Frank, fearful, lifted his hand to Robbie’s neck.

  Robbie opened his eyes slightly. “Frank.”

  “Thank God. I’ll get you out. I’ll get you out, little brother.” Frank felt the wall behind Robbie. It was hot but not burning so Frank had a few seconds. He didn’t know how badly Robbie was hurt. Before he freed him, he had to assess. Lifting the metal wall up a little, Frank looked, stopped, and replaced it.

  Robbie’s cry of pain was weak.

  Frank blinked long then went to Robbie’s other side, whipping off his belt as he did. “One second. Give me one second.” Frank hurriedly placed the belt around the top of Robbie’s right arm, only an inch or so from the shoulder, and secured it as tight as he could. “Ready?” Frank asked. It had to be done quickly and in one move. He slipped his hand through and secured Robbie as best as he could. Then with the wedge of his body weight, Frank shoved out the piece of wall, leaned into Robbie, and let his brother fall over his shoulder.

  He had to get Robbie help.

  He barely had Robbie when he turned full speed and raced to Dean.

  The small tiny cry for help was so muffled that Elliott couldn’t distinguish who it was. It was buried beneath the calls of those who searched the rubble not far from him.

  “Help.”

  Located. Elliott saw the piece of roof that appeared to cover someone. He raced to it and lifted it. He saw the red of the hair tainted with blood. “Jenny.” He reached down for her and Jenny moaned. “I’ll get you . . .” He moved Jenny and then Elliott stopped.

  Joe wondered how many were still unaccounted for as he made his way over to where Dean was with Jess.

  Jess was badly burned, mostly on his back. Dean shook his head in his assessment. “Get him to the clinic,” he instructed Dan from Security. “Stat. Tell Melissa I said to get him on antibiotics and sedate him heavily. I’ll deal with him as soon as I can.”

  “Got it,” Dan replied then looked for aid.

  “Dr. Hayes!” Elliott called in the distance.

  Dean looked as he stood.

  “I found her!” Elliott yelled. “I found Ellen. She’s fine. She was under Jenny Matoose.”

  Joe sighed in relief and looked to a grateful and smiling Dean. “We have Godrichson and Henry still unaccounted.”

  “Dean!” Frank charged forward with Robbie over his shoulder. “Dean!”

  Joe’s heart dropped and he immediately took off his shirt in the race to his youngest son. “Dear God.”

  “Dean.” Frank was covered in Robbie’s blood as he laid him down. “He’s gonna bleed to death.”

  Taking Joe’s shirt, Dean, with a sick feeling to his stomach, added the extra pressure needed to what was left of Robbie’s right arm. A clean cut, four inches above the elbow, had taken off his limb. “We need to seal this and right now. He could die on the way to the clinic.” Dean looked at Joe who knelt by Robbie. “It’s your choice. I’ll repair the damage I do later, but I have to stop this bleeding.”

  “Do it,” Joe said with a nod and he laid his hand upon Robbie’s head. “Hurry.” Joe moved closer to Robbie with his eyes focusing on him. He leaned in a hover over his son with his hand on Robbie’s cheek and his lips close to his ear. “I’m right here. Don’t you go anywhere on me. You hear me?”

  “Dad,” Robbie shivered out his name.

  “I’m right here.”

  Hal’s heart sunk when Dean showed him the still smoldering piece of wood.

  “Hold this.” Dean told Hal then bent down to Robbie. “Frank.” Dean’s eyes rose. “I need your reminder flask.”

  Frank pulled the smallest of flasks from his back pocket and handed it to Dean.

  Dean uncapped it.

  Ellen’s inability to walk straight was cured as she turned the bend and saw Dean by Robbie. “No.” She flew to where they were.

  Dean heard her frantic cries as he poured the contents of the flask over Robbie’s arm. “Elliott! Keep her back!” Dean tossed the flask. “Hal.” He held out his hand for the wood.

  “No!” Ellen screamed.

  “Hold him, Joe,” Dean instructed. “Hold him tight.”

  Moving under Robbie’s head, Joe cradled his trembling son who twitched out of control in shock. “It’s all right.” He buried his lips to Robbie and held him tighter. “It’s all right.” He held on to him as tightly as he could and then Joe prepared.

  “Frank,” Dean said. “On my call, you do undo the tourniquet.”

  Frank only nodded and secured his fingers in a ‘ready’ mode on the belt.

  Seeing what was about to happen, Hal turned his head to the right and Frank closed his eyes.

  Dean took a deep breath and brought the hot burning wood forward. “Now, Frank!” Off went the belt and an agonizing sizzle seared out when Dean brought the smoldering wood to Robbie’s injury.

  As his head flung back, Robbie’s back arched violently, almost out of his father’s hold, as he cried out a wail of pain that reverberated through every single person around.

  In the silence, the cry brought about an uncontrolled heartbreaking muffled sob from Joe within the clutch he had on Robbie. He didn’t want to let go and his father’s anguish intensified as Robbie convulsed more. How long would it take? Dean seemed to hold that wood to his son’s arm for an eternity, but Joe knew it was only seconds.

  “A little more, Joe.” Dean worked, wanting to just close his eyes at the sounds of Ro
bbie’s pain. “Hold him. He’ll . . . he’ll pass out in a second.”

  With, ‘My God, stop this’ raging through his mind, Hal looked down at Frank. Frank was so in control, just watching without flinching. He wished could feel how Frank looked but Hal knew he couldn’t. He also knew he couldn’t watch anymore and he stepped away and to Ellen. He said nothing, didn’t ask for permission, he just took her from Elliott. He needed something to hold onto and he found it in Ellen. He brought her to his chest and took relief in her arms that clung to him as well. With his hand gripping the back of her head, Hal’s eyes moved back to his little brother.

  Robbie had passed out.

  “Done.” Dean tossed the piece of wood and dusted off his hands. He reached to check Robbie’s pulse. “We have to get him to the clinic.” He looked over his shoulder and spotted a Jeep. “Frank, can you carry him quickly to the Jeep?”

  “Absolutely.” Without hesitation, Frank slipped his arms under Robbie. He looked once to his father before he secured his brother and lifted him the same time as he stood.

  Turning just after he stood, Dean finally got the chance to breathe out his alleviation at the sight of Ellen.

  Hal slipped from the embrace. “I . . .” He pointed to the Jeep where Frank was laying Robbie.

  “I’ll be right there,” Ellen told him then felt the hand on her shoulder. Turning around she saw Dean and without hesitation, Ellen went directly into his arms.

  Dean held her. “Are you all right?” Feeling her nod, he stepped back and laid his hands on her face. “O.K., can you handle this? I know it’s Robbie, but I need you with me on this one? Can you?”

  Ellen’s slid her hand to Dean’s. “Let’s go.” She turned with him and headed toward the Jeep.

  Joe felt as if all his strength had left him. He stood slowly. He knew where he had to be, but getting Robbie there first, along with Dean and Ellen, was most important. He watched the Jeep speed toward center town without delay, Ellen and Robbie in the back, Frank and Dean up front, and Hal following on foot.