by Simon Archer
I reached out and punched the damn thing with my free hand. What the hell, the place had already caved in, and we needed to get out of there fast. The segment fell inside the doorway, and I ducked inside. It was a tough fit, but we made it through.
Kira was murmuring unintelligible things, drifting in and out of consciousness on my back. But somehow, she still clung to those papers. Her determination was admirable, if partially responsible for this whole situation.
Once inside the room, I looked around wildly. It was just like Kira had described it, full of old, cheap metal cabinets and accented by a stale, smoky smell. Scorch marks covered the cabinets, and someone had pulled many of the drawers out and tossed about the place.
“Okay, okay,” I said worriedly, trying to figure out what to do. There were no other doors leading to other places.
“What’re we gonna do?” Kira asked, her words slurring together and uncharacteristically informal.
“Um… we’re gonna bust out of here,” I said, shaking my head because I hated the idea, but it was the only shot we had that I could see. “We’re gonna blow this place up and bust out.”
“Won’t that just make the place cave in more?” Kira asked through a big yawn. She really needed to see a doctor.
“That is… highly possible,” I admitted. “But it’s our only shot, so we’re going to try it.”
I reached into my tool belt and pulled out a grenade.
“It’s now or never,” I said, shaking my head again and pulling on the grenade’s release, simultaneously throwing it at the back ceiling and running in the opposite direction to get the hell away from the fallout.
It was very possible that I could just be releasing another endless avalanche on the place. But it was also possible that I could pull down some debris and reveal a way out. The tunnel had to end somewhere up there, right? I would’ve tried to climb out back in the hallway, but there was just so much debris and collapse left over from the battle that it would’ve been impossible to reach the top without falling over and getting buried like Kira already had. And who would rescue us then?
I bent down in the front corner of the room and covered both Kira and my own face as the explosion went off. More smoke billowed up around us, along with all kinds of nasty rumbling and caving in sounds that I did not like one bit.
Then, it seemed to settle down a bit. Tentatively, I uncovered my face and cast a glance back at the wall.
“Nic, are you okay? What’s going on?” Malthe asked in my ear. “I didn’t want to bother you before, but I really need to know if you guys are okay.” Miraculously, the connection held strong despite everything my body had been through in the past… well, however long it had been since I moved the pipe. I wasn’t really sure. It could’ve been a few minutes or over an hour, for all that I could guess.
“We’re okay for now,” I said, taking a step toward the wall. Or what used to be the wall, anyway.
“I’ve sent an army of drones your way,” Malthe said, sounding relieved. “They’re going to help dig you out.”
“Okay,” I said, more preoccupied with examining the wall than with this conversation. I couldn’t see much over the rubble from the collapsed wall, but it wasn’t still collapsing, at least for now, which was good.
I walked over to the wall, Kira still dangling over my back. She seemed completely out of it now, though her fingers were still curled around those damn papers. They’d better have been worth it.
I took a tentative step up on the rubble, then another and another after gaining my footing. It was slow going, but I was getting there.
Then I heard another rumbling sound, this time from behind me. The rest of the hallway back there was going to cave in, if it hadn’t already, and it would take this room with it. We had to get somewhere else, fast.
The mountain of rubble, mostly brick, concrete, and some drywall, moved up at a steep slant, so I had to start climbing it using my free hand as well as my feet. I saw a dark opening somewhere up above, leading… well, probably into just more wall, but it was something at least. Maybe it would lead up and out of there.
I pulled myself up to the top of the rubble, dragging Kira along with me on my back, and saw that the opening did lead back into darkness, probably more wall. I slumped my shoulders and hung my head in defeat, but then out of the corner of my eye, I caught a flicker of something.
A light.
I whipped my head back up and squinted back into the opening. There it was, way at the back, a tiny little light in the upper-righthand corner.
“Malthe, how are we doin’ on those drones?” I asked my friend. “Where are they? And for that matter, where the fuck are we? Do you know?”
“I have a pretty good idea of where you are, I think,” he said. “I know the block, at least. The drones are there now, but I’m worried about hurting you.”
“Don’t,” I said quickly. “If you don’t try, we’ll get stuck down here, which is just as bad. I want a fighting chance, and this is it.”
“Understood,” Malthe said. “What’s going on right now? What are you doing? You blasted that wall, right? I think I heard that.”
“Yeah, I did, and now I’m looking up above it,” I explained, craning my neck to try to not lose sight of the glimmer of light at the end. “It’s mostly rubble, but I can sort of see something way at the top. My hope is that it’s sunlight.”
“That block is pretty torn up,” Malthe said. “I’m looking at an aerial view right now so that I can guide the drones. It’s entirely possible that even though the tunnels are way underground, so much shit got blown up in the battle the week before last that you can actually see sunlight. A lot of the sewage and other piping is just gone.”
“Yeah, it’s fucking down here,” I said darkly.
“Yeah… don’t worry, Nic, we’ll find you guys,” Malthe said. “If you see sunlight, we’ll find you. Hell, we’ll find you anyway, I’m not letting you guys get stuck down there, especially after all this.”
“Okay,” I said, nodding more to myself than anyone else, to reassure myself that we would get out of this mess. “Okay, thanks, man. Just tell me what to do.”
“Just step down and away from the hole in the wall,” Malthe instructed.
“It’s not really a hole,” I said. “I just blew up the whole damn thing.”
“Right, just step away from it, whatever it is,” Malthe said.
“Why?” I asked. “The rest of the tunnel is still collapsing, and I don’t want to get us caught in the middle of that again.”
“Well, I don’t want you guys to get caught in the middle of drone fire,” Malthe said flatly.
“Fair point,” I said, and carefully made my way back down the rubble pile, Kira still dangling behind me on my back. “Okay, I’m just gonna stand in the middle of the room. Seems safest, comparatively speaking. Halfway from both disasters.”
“Okay, we’re just gonna start blowing shit up, okay?” Malthe said. “Until we find you.”
“Sounds like a terrible plan, but the best one we’ve got,” I said, laughing nervously.
“My sentiments exactly,” Malthe said.
“Wait, what about the others?” I asked quickly, remembering the rest of my team. I’d almost forgotten about them in my rush to save Kira.
“The others?” Malthe repeated, confused.
“Yeah, the others,” I said. “My team. Clem, Semra, Cindra, and Kinley.”
“Oh shit, yeah, I forgot about them,” Malthe said. “I was more focused on you guys.”
“Yeah, me, too, and I appreciate that,” I said. “But I don’t want you to accidentally blow them up, too. They have a way out.”
“That’s… yeah, we don’t want to do that,” Malthe said carefully.
“Can you talk to them? Do you know where they are?” I asked.
“No, I can only see you now. The device is in your ear, not theirs,” he explained. “Hmm, let me see what I can do.”
I heard clicking
noises on the other line like he was typing away on his keyboard. Then, finally, he spoke again.
“I can’t figure out where they are,” he said. “But they left, right? And the collapsing part of the tunnels wasn’t that long, so they’re most likely out by now, right?”
“Maybe,” I said. “I mean, probably, but it is a risk.”
“If we don’t do this, you’ll die,” Malthe said flatly.
“Right, okay, let’s do it then,” I said. “Don’t want to do that. They got out on time. They had to. There’s no way they didn’t.”
“Okay,” he said. “I’m sending the first drones in now. We’ll work our way down the block.”
I stood there for a long while, waiting as Malthe worked with the drones, the sound of my labored breathing combining with the soft, rhythmic sound of Kira’s own breath, as she was fast asleep.
“They’re coming for us soon, Kira,” I murmured, though I knew she couldn’t hear me. “They’ll come and get us, and we’ll get you to a doctor. Everything’s going to be just fine.”
I hoped beyond hope that I was right.
“We’re still working on it, Nic,” Malthe said finally. “Do you hear anything? Feel anything? We’ve been blowing up the whole block.”
“No, nothing,” I said, shaking my head though I knew he couldn’t see me.
“Okay,” Malthe said, though he sounded worried. “Okay, we’ll keep going.”
Then, about five to ten minutes later, I heard something. A loud rumbling sound somewhere to my right. Not in our tunnels, but maybe in the next tunnels over?
“There, I just heard something!” I cried, my heart rate picking up, growing excited at the prospect of getting out of here. Or of being blown up.
“Okay,” Malthe said, sounding excited, too. “Good, that’s really, really good. It means we’re getting closer. Brace yourselves for impact.”
I knelt down and pulled Kira closer to me, covering both her and my face with my body and arms once again. This time, the explosion was in our own tunnel, right where that tiny bit of light shone through just a moment before.
The whole place went berserk, blown into oblivion by the drones’ lasers. I lay down on the floor on top of Kira, who was beginning to stir, holding her down and keeping my back to the explosion and the debris. Something hit my shoulder, and searing pain shot all through my back and arm. But I blinked away hot tears and stayed awake. One of us had to be conscious, at least.
Soon, the lasers died down, and I chanced to look over at where the opening had been. There was sunlight everywhere now.
We’d made it.
8
I covered my eyes at first, adjusting to the new light. Kira groaned and pressed against my shoulder.
“Get off me, Nic,” she mumbled. “You’re crushing me.”
“Oh, sorry,” I said, rolling off her. “That’s the last thing I want to do after literally saving you from being crushed already.” I grinned down at her, but she’d already nodded off again.
“Nic,” a man yelled, and I heard someone running toward us. It was Malthe, closely followed by Lin. They both looked worried, and Lin was wringing her hands together in distress.
“What’s going on?” I asked, a bit discombobulated. The world was kind of swimming around me, and there was still that hot, burning pain in my back shoulder.
“Dude, you’re bleeding all over the place,” Malthe said, grabbing my arm when he reached me. Lin rushed over to help Kira up and wrap an arm around her.
“I am?” I asked, confused.
“Yeah, your back is all messed up, dude,” he said before giving me a huge, characteristically goofy smile, “But you’re alive. Goddammit, you’re alive. Shit. You had me worried for a minute there.”
“They still have me worried,” Lin said, giving Malthe a pointed look. “We need to get them to Serenity General.”
“I already called an ambulance,” Malthe said. “They should be here to transport them soon.”
Just then, I noticed sirens off in the distance. I tried to make out the surrounding scene, but everything was still swimming, like the world was rotating very quickly, and it wasn’t taking me along with it.
“So… what’s going on?” I asked again.
“Dude, you just asked that,” Malthe said, concern etched across his furrowed brow. “We’re taking you to the hospital.”
“Oh, I’m fine,” I said, trying to bat his hand away.
“You’re clearly not,” Lin said sharply. “We’re taking you to get that cut checked out. And Kira’s clearly concussed.”
“Awesome,” I murmured sarcastically. “Where are the others?”
“We don’t know,” Malthe admitted reluctantly, exchanging another worried look with Lin. “We’re trying to figure that out. But one step at a time. You guys first, okay?”
“Okay,” I mumbled, pressing the palm of my hand to my aching head.
“They’re here,” Lin told Malthe, and he pulled me up on my feet, slinging my arm around his shoulders to walk me toward the ambulance which I could hear not far from us. It was really a mismatch, me leaning on a small guy like Malthe, but it was good enough.
I was able to get a better sense of what had happened as we walked through the wreckage. The drones had blown out all that debris that had piled up by the back wall when I unleashed the grenade, sending it flying all over the room, including at Kira and me.
But right beyond that had been the light of day. We were in a giant crevice in the middle of the street by the long, oval-shaped Parliament building, and the street was up above us.
Once we got up there, I saw that the rest of the street wasn’t in much better shape. Malthe had pretty much blown up the whole damn thing.
Reporters, Parliament members, and God knew who else were all crowded around the perimeter by the Parliament building, watching us. A large, boxy air car with red and blue lights whirring on its hull was waiting for us off to the side. Paramedics came rushing out to greet us.
“We’ll ride with you,” Malthe promised. I nodded.
The paramedics piled Kira and me into the ambulance. They laid us down on cots in the back. I resisted at first, but then they showed me in a mirror what my back looked like, and I gave in, letting them give me pain medication and dress up my wounds. The whole upper right portion of my back looked pretty damn mangled, and there was blood everywhere like Malthe had told me.
“How are you feeling?” Lin asked me when she’d helped the paramedics get Kira all settled.
“I’m fine,” I said quickly. “How is she?”
“We should know more after we run some tests,” the nearest paramedic answered. “She has a head wound, and you have your back, but both of you look pretty healthy otherwise. Your vitals are good. You got very, very lucky.” I gave a short, hollow laugh.
“That’s one way to look at it, I guess,” I said.
“Hey, you’re alive, that’s what counts,” Lin said, giving me a warm smile.
“Get back to me when we know where the others are,” I said. And then things started to get very blurry again as the pain meds kicked in.
The next thing I knew, I was lying in a hospital bed wearing fresh pajamas with my back covered in bandages and some kind of ointment. I looked from side to side to see that Kira was in a bed next to mine.
“You’re awake,” Lin said gratefully. “Thank god.”
“How is she?” I asked again, making my best effort to point in Kira’s direction despite all the wires and other shit they hooked me up to.
“She’s going to be just fine,” Lin said, and I felt relief wash through me. “The doctors got rid of her concussion pretty quick.”
“Thank God for modern medicine,” I groaned, staring up at the plain white ceiling. “What about the others?”
“We haven’t heard from them yet,” Lin said, and I heard the worry creep back into her voice. “Malthe’s off working on finding them now. You just rest. We’ll handle it.”
&nbs
p; “No, I need to figure out where my team is,” I said, trying to swing my legs around to stand up. But right then, a bunch of people came bursting through the doors.
“You made it!” I heard Clem cry, and relief washed through me once again. I looked over to see that Clem, Semra, Cindra, and Kinley were all standing in the doorway, closely followed by a discombobulated Malthe. They all looked disheveled and worried, but safe and healthy.
“You guys made it back okay,” I said, grinning at them. “We were worried about you.”
“Yes, where were you?” Lin asked, turning on them in an almost accusatory tone. “You could’ve been dead for all we knew.”
“Why would we have been dead?” Clem asked, flummoxed.
“We thought we might’ve blown you up when we blew up the tunnels to get them out,” Malthe explained, pointing at Kira and me.
“Well, we got out way faster than that,” Semra said. “We saw what happened on the holonews and came straight here.”
“What took you so long?” Lin asked again.
“It took us the same amount of time to get back as it did to get there in the first place,” Clem said, shrugging. “Less, even, since we were in a hurry. And then we had to call Gunnar to get us back to the financial district, and he told us everything that’s happening down here. We came as fast as we could.”
“It did take a long time for the train car to get to the tunnels we were in,” I explained sympathetically to Malthe and Lin. “It just probably felt longer because we were worried about them.”
“I guess so,” Lin said, giving one last disapproving look to Clem. “So, what do we do now?”
“Well, Kira got those papers,” I said, gesturing to the table between our beds that one of the paramedics had placed there. “Maybe Malthe can try to figure out what they say?”
