Amplitude by Dean M. Cole

Author:Dean M. Cole [Cole, Dean M.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: CANDTOR Press
Published: 2019-09-23T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 23

Breathing heavily in total darkness, Rourke pulled his flashlight from his kit and flipped it on.

Bingham winced. “Get your bloody torch out of my face.”

“Sorry.”

Running footfalls cascaded down from above.

Major Lee flipped on her light and shined it up.

Angela rounded the bend and held out a hand to shield her eyes.

“Where’s Vaughn?” Rachel asked.

“He and BOb should be coming soon.”

Rourke and Monique exchanged nervous glances.

“I don’t hear him,” said Bill Peterson. “We’re three flights down. If the man is coming, he better shake a—”

The metal deck beneath Rourke’s feet suddenly lurched sideways, and the handrail drove into his hip.

Peterson’s arms flew into the air. “Son of a bitch!”

The entire stairwell continued to quake.

Raising her rifle with one arm and waving the other for them to follow, Rachel started down the stairs. “Move it now!”

Rourke turned to follow her, but then Captain Singleton burst into sight with the robot hot on his heels.

Seeing Rourke, the man waved his arms frantically. “Go! Go! Go!”

Someone grabbed the front of Rourke’s shirt and yanked him down the stairs. Looking ahead, he saw Rachel dragging him.

“Move it, Rourky! Don’t stop for anything.”

He realized then that she must have backtracked to grab him.

The major was taking the steps two at a time, dragging him bodily. It was all Rourke could do to keep his feet under himself. She pulled him past the other members, resuming her place at the front.

Rourke batted away her hand. “I’ve got this!”

The deep rumbling crescendoed into bone-shaking thunder.

Rachel released him. “Keep up!” She threw her weapon across her back and, grabbing the handrails with both hands, began to hurl herself down the stairwell three and four treads at a leap.

Rourke mimicked her actions and rushed after her.

Dust rained down, filling the atmosphere with the acrid stench of dank limestone.

The whole world suddenly lurched.

Rourke flinched sideways as a foot-wide chunk of masonry slammed into the stair tread next to his boot.

Someone above him cried out in pain. Then a baseball-sized piece of debris fell past him. It looked like a chunk of asphalt. Had that come from the parking lot?

Looking back, Rourke saw Monique holding her shoulder. She looked at him and shook her head. “I’m okay. Keep going!”

At each landing, the stairway cut back, descending another flight into the dust-filled darkness.

Insanely gyrating flashlight beams cut sporadic patterns through the inky blackness.

The shaft they were descending was about the width of a small, one-car garage. Its zigzagging stairs filled all but a narrow gap along the outside of the handrails.

Suddenly, it felt as if a building dropped onto the top of the shaft. The entire stairwell bounced.

Rourke yanked his hand off the outer rail just as a torrent of gravel and rocks rained down through the gap between it and the wall. Overhead the rolling thunder ebbed, becoming muffled.

Staccato clangs rang out as rocks and boulders bounced off of metal treads and rails. Then they began to diminish as well.

Rourke looked back and then nearly fell as he ran into something. It was Major Lee.

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