by Karin Baine
They might not have a future together but he was willing to fully embrace the present.
* * *
Kaja was a fool. Why did she ever think she could live without this man and how had she managed it until now? It was only having him here in her world she understood what she was missing when his kisses were giving her life. She didn’t care how stupid she’d been mistaking his comments about the ruins as a narrative on their relationship when it had prompted him into confessing his feelings for her. At least he still had some even if they weren’t as strong as before. With her hands she reacquainted herself with the contours of his body while reuniting her tongue, her lips and her heart with his.
Seth held her, warming her back yet still managing to make her shiver. He was here, he was real, and, for now, all that mattered. When he slid a hand up inside her scrubs she held her breath, his palm grazing her ribs and reaching further to cup her breast. She let out a shaky breath as he brushed his thumb lightly across the silky material of her bra, bringing the sensitive peak of flesh to attention.
She wanted his touch, to feel skin on skin so badly she was practically begging him with her body. Grinding against him, she could feel his arousal standing proud and ready through the thin layer of clothing between them.
Seth groaned and in one swift move lifted her off her feet, hitched her legs up around his waist and carried her over to the recess at the window.
‘Seth...we can’t do this here.’ Somewhere at the back of her mind beyond the rushing blood and carnal thoughts she remembered they had company outside.
‘I know,’ he said before claiming her again in another frantic coupling of mouths and tongues. Confirming he knew they couldn’t get carried away any further than they already had but was as powerless as Kaja was in fighting this tidal wave of desire. Now it had broken free she didn’t know how they were going to stem it again.
A loud rumble reverberated through the room, so strong it seemed to shake the very ground beneath them.
‘I didn’t know trains ran this far out.’ Seth broke off the kiss, apparently as startled as she was by the loud sound suddenly approaching.
‘They don’t. There aren’t any tracks out this way.’ Come to think of it, the dirt roads out here wouldn’t usually be travelled by any vehicles larger than the car parked outside.
It was only when the very walls of the building seemed to move with them that it dawned on her what could be causing the noise.
‘Earthquake,’ she shouted over the grinding noise coming from the earth below.
The warning came too late to get out of the seriously precarious structure as the underground monster roared its arrival. The ground undulated and warped as though they were on a roller-coaster ride they couldn’t get off. Where once Kaja and Seth had been in the midst of a passionate embrace, now they were clinging to one another in an attempt to stay upright.
‘Aren’t we supposed to go and stand in the doorway?’ he shouted, trying to pull her in that direction.
She resisted, shaking her head. ‘It’s not stable enough.’
With that, the world seemed to cave in around them. Walls were collapsing, including the arched doorway, their only means of escape. Plaster began to fall in chunks around them. Seth covered her head with his hands and pulled her down onto the ground with him, using his body as a shield to protect her from the falling debris.
Kaja had never been in an actual earthquake as there hadn’t been one here in living history but she had a vague recollection of what to do should one ever occur. She thanked the heavens she had Seth with her providing comfort in a terrifying situation. He was the only stable thing she had to hold onto at a time when she couldn’t even rely on the terra-not-so-firma.
She scrunched her eyes shut, her head against Seth’s chest. Unfortunately, she couldn’t turn off the sound, every dull crack and thud as debris rained down reminding her how very small and fragile they were. There was every chance that neither of them would come out of this when there seemed no end in sight to the destruction happening right on top of them.
‘We are going to get out of this, Kaja.’ He kissed her forehead, providing a moment of calm tenderness in the midst of such overwhelming chaos. Then he added, ‘We have to,’ with such a determined look on his face she believed him.
Amy. He was thinking about his daughter, of course he was. With that came the horror of what was happening to all of their loved ones: her father, Bruno, Fatima. There was no time to descend into hysterics and what ifs as another crash of rubble sounded. Along with a sharp curse from Seth.
‘Are you all right?’ She’d felt him tense at the same time as the new fall of debris and poked her head out of her Seth cocoon to make sure he was all right when he was bearing the brunt of the blows to save her.
‘I’m fine.’ He was much too abrupt to convince her.
Sure enough as she reached up to brush the dusty swoop of hair from his face, her fingers encountered a sticky patch of blood at his temple.
‘You’re bleeding.’
‘I’ll live.’ He kept turning his head and trying to put her off but she could see the cut and wasn’t going to rest until she examined it. A head injury wasn’t something to simply brush off. Thankfully there was only a trickle of blood so it likely didn’t need stitches.
‘You’d better.’
As quickly as the world seemed to erupt around them, the upheaval subsided again, the roar fading along with that sensation of being at sea. It couldn’t have lasted for any more than a minute but it had been an eternity waiting to find out if they’d live through it all.
‘Quick, let’s get out of here in case there are any aftershocks.’ Paying no heed to his injury Seth grabbed her hands and pulled her to her feet.
Her legs wobbled as though she’d spent months on the ocean and had just set foot on land again. It was difficult to see, darkness having descended along with a curtain of dust, but when it cleared the state of the devastation was obvious.
‘The door’s gone.’ The archway, along with most of the walls that had been holding up what was left of the building, were a mound of slate and brick. Looking around, she could see how lucky they’d been in the grand scheme of things.
They could have been buried alive. She shuddered when she recalled how Seth had cradled her with his body. She would never have forgiven herself if he’d died sacrificing himself to save her.
Unfortunately, they discovered none of the original exits had survived. They’d literally been entombed in her favourite childhood playground. The angle one of the beams had fallen and thankfully created a pocket of air around them so they had space to move.
Seth began shifting the biggest obstacles, kicking and pushing until there was a large enough gap for them to break out of their stone igloo.
‘C’mon!’ There was an understandable urgency in him as he reached back for her. They had to get out into an open space before any further ructions erased any chance of them escaping.
Kaja followed through the tunnel he was burrowing through the rubble, incapable of speech until they saw daylight and Seth pulled her through to safety. They collapsed in a heap on the grass outside, breathing heavily from a combination of physical exertion and fear.
‘I don’t even know where we are.’ It was disorienting when nothing looked the same as when they’d first arrived. Most of the old buildings were now reduced to little more than a pile of rubble amidst a cloud of dirt and debris. She didn’t know why she wasn’t a hysterical mess screaming and crying after the trauma of what they’d been through. What they might still go through. She was clearly in some sort of shock, trying to process what had just happened.
Seth stood up and paced around. Even he didn’t look quite as steady on his feet as usual. Kaja wasn’t sure she could even stand again.
‘Come over here and let me look at that head injury.’
&n
bsp; ‘It’s nothing.’
‘Let me be the judge of that,’ she insisted, unwilling to take any chances in the circumstances.
He reluctantly came back to her, not wanting a fuss but bending down so she could make a closer inspection of the wound. Using the hem of her top, she gently dabbed at the blood, cleaning the site enough so she could see the extent of the cut. ‘It’s not too deep. I think it’ll heal itself. No need for improvised stitching.’
‘Good. Can we focus on something more important now?’
‘There’s no need to be tetchy. I just want to make sure you’re safe.’
‘I know. Sorry. I think we came out the back of the house. We should be safe out here away from any more falling wreckage.’
Kaja glanced back at the way they’d come. From this vantage point on the hill she could see plumes of smoke in the city and now the thundering sound had stopped she could hear sirens going off everywhere. They were isolated with no idea what had gone on in the rest of the country or who was hurt. It was part luck, part Seth that had saved them, but there was no way of knowing what was happening elsewhere to everyone else or how bad the devastation.
Seth had the same thought as he pulled his phone from his pocket. They both waited as the call rang out until they eventually heard Fatima’s voice.
‘Are you and Amy okay?’
‘Yes, Mr Davenport. We hid under the dining table. No one got hurt. How are you and Miss Kaja?’
The line went dead and Seth tried again and again to reconnect without success. ‘I don’t have any signal. At a guess I’d say all lines are down and the power’s probably out.’
‘At least we know they’re all right. Fatima will keep Amy safe. What about Papa and Bruno...? Seth, what’ll happen to them?’ Her heart was in an ever-tightening vice as she thought back to all the machinery monitoring them. Her father especially, who was so vulnerable after the transplant.
Seth walked back to her and took a seat on the grass again. ‘Hey, they’ll be fine. Surely the hospital will have emergency power for a situation like this?’
She knew they would, yet it wasn’t any consolation. Logic wasn’t getting a look-in when emotions and her imagination were running wild. ‘We have to get back.’
‘Don’t you think I know that?’ he snapped. ‘My daughter is miles away, frightened, without her daddy but we can’t go anywhere. We’d be taking a risk going back through the trees if there are further aftershocks. The same if we take the road. We could get hit by all sorts of debris and there’s always a chance the roads themselves could open up. That’s if you hadn’t hurt your ankle and were capable of walking back. We’re going to have to wait this out. No matter how hard it is not knowing what’s happening to our loved ones.’
He was trying so hard to be strong for her but Kaja could hear how choked up he was about Amy. The way he’d protected her and dug them out of that house with his bare hands...she knew he’d have done the same for his daughter. This separation had to be so much worse for him.
She reached across and squeezed his hand. ‘Fatima will take care of her and the palace is one of the safest places to be. When it was remodelled for our family it was extensively renovated to withstand any eventuality.’
‘It’s just...there’s so much in that house which could fall on her. The heavy furniture, the chandeliers...she’s only a little thing.’ The catch in his voice threatened to undo them both. Kaja needed him to stay strong or she’d lose it altogether too.
‘Fatima knew to take cover as soon as the earthquake hit and they’re fine. I’m sure the rest of the staff will be taking care of them too.’
‘You’re right. If we start thinking the worst we’ll go around the bend. We need to focus on us for now. Until we can get back and do something to help.’
Good. Seth was taking back control. That made it easier for her to hold it together too.
‘That siren sounds awfully close.’ She couldn’t help but hope someone knew where they were and had sent the emergency services to their rescue.
Seth scrambled to his feet. ‘It’s a car alarm.’
‘The tourists. Maybe we can get a ride back with them.’ The notion that they had a solution right here galvanised her back into action too. She tried not to think about the pain in her ankle returning now that the adrenaline had worn off. With any luck she wouldn’t have to walk much further.
They followed the blaring noise and the flashing lights back to where the car was parked. The windows were smashed, glass everywhere, but it was still standing.
‘Where did they go?’ She looked around but there was no sign of the family who’d been sitting nearby. It felt as though the roller coaster went into free fall again, leaving her stomach somewhere on the ground.
‘What if they’re in there?’ Seth voiced her fear as he looked back towards the empty skyline where the village had once stood.
Neither of them wanted to venture back there for their own sake but they were both medics and knew it had to be done.
CHAPTER NINE
‘YOU STAY HERE. I’ll go and look for them.’
‘Like hell. I’m coming with you.’ There was no way she was going to let him go back in there alone. If the past few minutes had shown her anything it was that they needed each other to survive and she wasn’t going to stand back and let him put himself in danger.
Seth opened his mouth to protest and she folded her arms across her chest and pursed her lips. He wisely closed his mouth again and headed back towards the devastated village they’d literally just crawled out from.
‘Hello? Is there anybody here?’ he called as they walked into the courtyard that had once been the centre of the village. Now it was simply the epicentre of the destruction.
Any bright colour nature had once displayed had been obliterated by layers of grey as far as the eye could see. Glancing at what little was left of the buildings, Kaja realised how incredibly lucky they’d been. The house they’d wandered into was unrecognisable as a structure at all, her beloved mural now nothing but a few painted bricks scattered here and there.
‘Maybe they ran off when it started?’ Optimistic, perhaps, but she really didn’t want Seth putting himself in jeopardy again for anyone.
‘They wouldn’t have had time to get very far and there’s no one to be seen for miles out here.’ Undeterred by the resounding silence, he kept walking further into the danger zone.
Kaja took a deep breath, refusing to let him go it alone but not without some trepidation. The next time the earth shook they mightn’t be so fortunate.
‘Hello? Can anyone hear us?’ He put his hands to his mouth to amplify his plea for signs of life. With the car alarm still blaring in the background it was difficult to hear anything else. The place had a distinct Pompeii vibe. How Kaja imagined it after everything had been wiped out by Vesuvius.
They climbed up what felt like two storeys of wreckage listening for anything to indicate there was someone here who needed their help.
Kaja thought she heard movement where the row of houses opposite the one they’d been inside had once stood.
‘Seth! Over here.’ She moved closer to investigate and beckoned him over. They began excavating the site on their hands and knees, certain there was someone beneath the remains.
‘We’re going to get you out,’ Kaja called out, trying to provide some reassurance to whoever was trapped.
They heard whimpering far below and Seth became a man possessed, tearing away boulders with his bare hands, sweat trickling down his face. Both of them were covered in dirt, skin and nails torn to shreds before they made any progress. The small gap they managed to open up provided a peephole where Kaja could see the tear-streaked face of the little girl who’d been picnicking with her family staring back at her.
She sat back on her heels, stunned at the sight of the frightened child buried alive. It
took Seth a heartbeat too before he resumed scrabbling at the rocks in desperation and she knew he was thinking this could easily have been his daughter.
‘We’ll get you out, honey. Is there anyone else with you?’ Kaja kept talking, getting the child to focus on her as the rocky world around her shifted once more.
The little girl nodded her head. Not a good sign. There had been a family, parents and a child enjoying the afternoon sunshine, and now only silence.
Kaja had to look away so the little girl wouldn’t see her welling up. She was bound to be terrified enough without having an adult making things worse.
All of a sudden Seth stopped digging and sat up.
‘What is it? What’s wrong?’
‘Shh! I thought I heard something over there.’ He pointed to a spot close to him and they took a breather, listening until they heard a faint cry for help.
Seth glanced at the place where the little girl was waiting to be rescued, then back to where they’d located a new survivor.
‘Go. I’ll get her.’ He’d already done most of the heavy lifting and the little girl was okay as far as they could tell. If there was someone else buried here Seth could rescue her and Kaja would concentrate on the child.
He didn’t waste any time debating the subject, having the same confidence in her capabilities as she had in his.
Kaja cleared the obstacles as quickly and as deftly as she could. Hearing Seth murmur to the woman who was stuck down there was comforting and she believed every word he said about getting everyone out safely.
She was lying across the rubble now, stones and bricks jabbing into her ribs and every other part of her body in contact with the jagged floor beneath her.
