I landed on the wooden coffee table just a few feet from the window, crashing into it and hearing one of the legs give way beneath my weight. It fell on one side, and I slid down onto the carpet, a little bruised but pretty much okay.
That said, my heart was still racing like crazy, as if I somehow still thought that I might fall down into that terrible abyss outside, where the concrete of the alleyway awaited me.
‘Sam? Sam, are you all right?!’
‘Yeah, I’m fine!’ I shouted, answering Luke. ‘Just give me a second…’
I pushed myself up from the ground and began heading about the place. The apartment was small and quaint, with a connected living room and kitchen, a bathroom, a large bedroom and a second bedroom that Helen mainly used for storage.
I hurried through the rooms, hardly able to see anything as I shouted Helen’s name out. Within several seconds it was clear that she wasn’t here, but something else was also clear – she had left in a hurry. Things were scattered about haphazardly, including clothes, boxes of food on the kitchen counter, and the medical kit she kept in one of the cupboards.
I raced back to the window to see Luke.
‘She isn’t here. She’s gone.’
‘Shit… Sam, look… I’m sure we’ll find her, she might even be in one of the apartments next door holding out with some of her neighbours, but right now I need to get my shoulder fixed. I know it’s only a flesh wound but I’m still bleeding. I need to get this fixed up.’
I had never felt such despair at the thought that Helen wasn’t here, and I had no fucking way of finding her. No phones, no internet…
But right now my friend was in danger, and I needed to make sure he didn’t bleed out.
‘There’s a first aid kit in here. We’ll get it sorted out.’
‘So pass it out to me.’
‘You can’t tie it yourself. You need… You need to get over here.’
‘Are you serious?’
‘It’s nothing at all. It’s a step. You just need to jump over here and I’ll catch you.’
‘Just bring it downstairs.’
‘And what? Have a fight with Wentworth to open the front door? What if he got hurt? What if he shot me or I shot him?’
‘If you shot him it wouldn’t be a total loss, let’s be honest.’
‘You can’t walk all the way down there for me to meet you. You’ve already lost enough blood. Just get over here.’
‘You can’t ask me to do this…’
‘You’re gonna be fine.’
I could do nothing but reassure him, and despite my frustration at his unwillingness to make the jump I could sympathise with him. One wrong move and he would be dead, and with the state of his shoulder a loss of balance would be a lot worse.
Then-
‘Are you still out there?!’
The old woman’s voice came screeching through the smashed window from next door’s apartment, and all of a sudden another banging noise sounded through the air. A bullet whistled out and struck the wall of the building across the street, and Luke let out a shout of fear.
‘Fuck this…’ He muttered, a slight whimper behind his voice. A laugh arose in my throat, partly from the slight comedy of the moment but also because I was so nervous.
Gunshots weren’t so terrifying anymore, considering how many we had been privy to over the past few hours.
Luke took a few deep breaths and hoisted himself over the railing, standing on the outer edge of it in the same I had done. He groaned with pain at the stress it was placing on his shoulder, and turned himself to look over at me as he gritted his teeth.
‘You can do this, Luke,’ I said. ‘Just jump forward and I’ll pull you in.’
I leaned out from the window, leaving enough space for him to make his way through but also giving me enough leverage to catch him.
He steadied himself, judging the momentum he would need.
‘Okay,’ he said, taking a final breath.
Luke leapt forward at the odd angle that the jump required, and everything happened in slow motion.
One foot landed on the bottom of the frame but the other slipped. He had ducked low enough, but the absence of sure footing sent him completely off-balance.
I’ll never forget that yelp that he let out – it was a death rattle, something premature, as if he knew that he was going to fall to his death right then and there.
But that isn’t what happened, because I grabbed hold of him.
I didn’t even know that I was doing it – I felt the material of Luke’s jacket beneath my hand, curling up in my fingers, but it was a primal response that I didn’t even need to think about.
In pulling him closer and ensuring that he didn’t fall to his death I wrapped my arms around his back and lurched him into the room, where we crashed to the floor side by side, a little way from each other.
For a little while we just laid there on the hardwood floor, panting heavily. I could feel how badly my hands were shaking at the events that had just passed, but the relief now that we were both in here and both still alive was overwhelming.
Still, we were two guys lying side by side on the living room floor, panting for breath, so I had to laugh when Luke said;
‘Was that good for you?’
‘Fuck you, man.’
Chapter Thirteen
Elevator
‘All right, this is really gonna sting.’
‘Just get it over with, Sam.’
We were still in the living room, Luke leant up against the broken coffee table as I wondered how best to go about this.
I held the bottle of vodka in my hand. In the light of one of the candles in Helen’s apartment I looked at the wound on Luke’s shoulder. He was right, it had only been a flesh wound, but that still didn’t stop it from looking bad.
He placed the end of his belt in between his teeth, biting down on the material lightly. Without hesitation I poured the pseudo-disinfectant onto the wound, and it was like flicking a switch. Luke sank his teeth into the leather, a stifled scream escaping him.
‘There we go,’ I said, setting it down on the floor. ‘Most difficult part’s over.’
I took up one of Helen’s torn shirts that I had prepared and hurriedly wrapped it around the wound, making sure that it was secured, before tying it up and making sure that it wouldn’t give if the pressure of movement was placed upon it.
‘That’ll have to do for the time being,’ I said, handing him the bottle. ‘Here. Enjoy.’
Luke took up the bottle and drank freely from it, blinking harshly.
‘How do you know how to do that?’ He asked.
‘My dad.’
‘He taught you a lot, huh?’
‘It was a long time ago, but some of it’s coming back to me.’
‘You know…’ He said groggily, trying to draw his mind away from the pain. ‘Alcohol actually dehydrates you more, despite the fact that it’s liquid. That’s what causes that hangover feeling, it’s because you’re dehydrated.’
‘That’s what you’re thinking of right now?’
‘Just saying.’ He smiled faintly and took another drink. ‘It’s like you said before. We’ve got to be careful about drinking water and staying hydrated.’
‘I know,’ I smiled, nodding and standing. ‘This is an exception, though. A few sips won’t hurt.’
I crossed to the couch and sat myself down, and we stayed like that, in silence, for a few minutes.
‘Where d’you think she is?’ Luke finally asked.
‘I don’t know. She might be next door, like you said…’
A rogue notion flashed across my mind – the prospect that she was lying dead on the floor of that woman’s apartment next door, mistaken for an intruder.
I ran my hands hurriedly over my face.
‘I can’t wait here any longer. I’m gonna go check around. You gonna be all right?’
‘Yeah.’
I got up and took the rifle in my hands, check
ing that it was loaded and ready.
‘Sam?’
‘Yeah?’
‘Be careful.’
I headed towards the front door. The latch was undone and the door unlocked, so the fact that Helen had left was pretty much confirmed to me. I moved the handle and headed out silently into the corridor.
All was dark, much like the rest of the city. At first I could detect no sound, and I was a moment away from knocking on the door of one of Helen’s neighbours – preferably the ones who didn’t have a reputation as being gun-toting octogenarians.
However, as I stood there in the corridor of Helen’s building, listening in for any semblance of a noise or a sign of life behind one of these doors, something did end up greeting my ears.
It was a ringing noise, like a phone, but more intermittent and random. It took me several seconds to realise what it was, until the entire thing fell into place and my mind cast back to the moment that Luke and I had left our apartment on the other side of town.
As we approached the ground floor and the fire exit, I couldn’t help but dwell on two things – the thought of the elevator, and the fact that I was about to walk into the public street with a loaded weapon in my hand.
What if anybody had been stuck in there when the lights had gone out? What if nobody knew that they were in there at all? I had heard on a crime show once that just one of the four cords that were connected to an elevator could hold it up in the air, but that wouldn’t the thing that would worry me – it would be the fact that, if we were right about this whole thing, that the lights and everything else that the electricity powered had gone out for good, that they would be stuck in there indefinitely.
The brief thought of it made my skin crawl, and to reason with my decision to disregard investigating it I focused on the thought of Helen, and the notion that somebody else in the building would help.
It was the emergency alarm button in the elevator.
I hurried down the hall towards the doors only to find one of the most unnatural sights I had ever been confronted with – the doors were wide open.
I crept up to them, looking down into the darkness below.
Still, I could hear the ringing, and then-
‘HELLLOOOO???!!!’
No…
‘Helen? Helen, are you there?’
‘Sam? Is that you?’
‘It’s me, I’m here!’
‘Oh, thank God… Sam… What the fuck is happening out there? There was this explosion a little while back… Is it a terrorist attack…? Wentworth’s done nothing to come and help me, either. He says that I should stay here…’
‘… What?’
‘Sam, what’s happening?’
‘I… I’m gonna come down and get you, all right? Then I’ll explain everything…’
She was there, right there in front of me, through the darkness of the elevator shaft. The drop must have only been six feet or so, and there was no risk of the thing dropping, either. She was just hanging there.
All of this didn’t make the situation any easier, of course.
Then there was Wentworth. That fucking asshole. He knew she was in there, and hadn’t done a thing to help her… He had kept her locked in here like some prize. His chance had come, and he had taken it.
A mess of anger, frustration and ambition rose up in me. She was alive – even that was a miracle based on everything that was happening in the city right now – but I had to get Helen out of there somehow.
‘Just wait there, I’ll be right back.’
***
A few minutes later and I had explained everything to Luke. He was back on his feet and ready to move, and we were hurrying back to the open doors.
‘Watch your step,’ I said, turning towards the dark drop. ‘Helen, are you still there?’
‘I’m not fucking going anywhere, am I? Moron.’
‘Hey,’ Luke shouted. ‘We just came to rescue you, you could be a little more grateful.’
‘Rescue me? Just call the police! I’m not some damsel in distress.’
‘We can’t. The electricity’s gone out in the entire city, and likely the entire country. Probably the entire world, too.’
‘Are you two high?’
‘That’s what that crashing sound was,’ I said. ‘A… A plane came down in the city. Everything’s stopped, including anything that’s flying.’
‘Oh my God…’
She had been down there since this had happened, and had no idea what was going on.
‘I know,’ I said. ‘Right now we’ve just gotta get you out of there.’
‘Okay… Okay…’ She muttered.
I turned to Luke.
‘Look, I’m gonna jump down there and try and get through the hatch. You keep a lookout, and give us a hand to get out.’
‘You got it.’
I handed the gun over to him and sat down on the ledge, calculating the jump, searching for a suitable spot to land on in the dark.
I lowered myself as a far as I could and dropped, my feet clunking down onto the surface. It was littered with jutting parts and covered mechanical sections, and my feet sat at different angles.
‘Sam?’ I heard Helen’s voice coming through the metal. ‘You okay?’
‘Yeah, I’m just gonna try and get this hatch open.’
‘Be careful.’
After a few seconds of fumbling about I finally found it, only to discover that it was locked.
Obviously I had seen every action movie ever made, so the realisation of how to get around this hit me pretty quickly.
‘Hand me the gun, Luke.’
‘Why?’
‘The lock.’
He handed it down to me, just as Helen caught on.
‘Did you just say gun?’
‘I need to bust the lock.’
‘Just use the handle.’
‘I can’t, it’s wooden. It won’t be strong enough. Get on the other side of the elevator, away from the door.’
I heard her shuffling about, and pointed the barrel at the lock. If TV was to be believed, this would go just fine.
But TV wasn’t real life, and we were learning as we went.
I pulled the trigger.
The flash lit everything upon around me very briefly. There was the booming of the gunshot and the clanking of the lock, both of which, by my perceptions, happened at the same time.
Then there was that infernal ringing sound, the one that resounded whenever a gun was fired in an enclosed space. The disorientation almost sent me falling to the ground as I tensed my jaw and flexed it wildly, trying to get rid of it.
Vaguely I was aware of the muffled sounds of Luke’s voice, and the faint, almost non-existent sound of Helen’s shouts through the metal. I reached down, finding the edges of the hatch, and pulled.
It came loose in an instant, and I wrenched it open, swinging it back on its hinges.
My hearing was starting to come back to me as I looked down into another pit of darkness. I couldn’t believe that she had been waiting down there in the dark for this long, not even sure if anybody was going to come and get her. I would have freaked the fuck out in a second, convinced I was going to starve down there.
Helen was way more capable than me, though, and from that pit of nothing came a glimmer of light and a breath of fresh air in the form of her voice, and her hand reaching up through the hatch.
I took a hold of her wrists, clenching both tightly as she put her other hand up, feeling the sensation of her soft skin as if for the first time, and pulled with all my strength.
Everyone’s heard those cases of people lifting cars off of their kids because of this insane, primal adrenaline rush – I didn’t know what to think about those, but in that moment Helen felt like a feather. It was as if she was flying, and in a couple of seconds she was on top of the carriage with her arms wrapped around me, and mine around her.
The ringing in my ears, that darkness that I started to become scarily used to – all of
it fell away as I finally found myself reunited with her. I felt the softness of her dark hair, that scent she gave off that always seemed be about her, her slim frame as it pressed against mine.
‘What did you think I was gonna do? Just leave you here?’
‘Of course not, I… What the fuck is going on?’
‘Luke and I will explain everything, right now can we just please get out of this elevator shaft? I feel like it’s gonna give way at any second.’
Luke pulled us both out pretty easily, and in a few minutes we were back in Helen’s apartment, getting ourselves together.
‘Sit down,’ I said, turning to Helen. ‘It’s kind of a long story.’
Chapter Fourteen
Leave
‘First of all, in any other situation I’d call you two crazy, but…’
Helen stood at the broken window, looking out into the dark alleyway. She turned her head to the right and looked towards the streets. All three of us could hear the shouting and screaming, and the occasional burst of gunfire. Sometimes it was close by, sometimes far away, but it was there, and it kept sounding off, over and over.
‘Jesus fucking Christ… What are we supposed to do?’
‘We need to get out of here,’ I said. ‘Out of the city. It isn’t safe here, with this many people all packed into one area.’
‘Where do you wanna go?’
‘My dad’s house. He’s ahead of 99% of people, if not more than that. He’s our safest option.’
‘Maybe this isn’t the entire world, though,’ Luke continued.
‘What do you mean?’ I asked.
‘Look, I know we’ve been thinking this the entire time, Sam, but what if it’s just the US, or even just this state, or this city. Think about it. It’s only been a few hours, rescue efforts are likely not to have even reached us yet, even if it was just the state. We haven’t got any contact with anybody in order for us to find out. This could have been caused by something else, like a terrorist attack.’
‘What are the chances of that, though? I mean, what are the chances of this happening right around the time one of the largest solar flares in recorded history hits us?’
The Solar Pulse (Book 1): Beyond The Pulse Page 9
