The Final Decree by Jeffrey Ricker

Author:Jeffrey Ricker [Ricker, Jeffrey]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Jeffrey Ricker
Published: 2020-07-20T00:00:00+00:00

4

I MUST HAVE blacked out for a while, because when I became conscious of my surroundings, I was lying face down on the ground, my ears were ringing, and the strap to my satchel was twisted uncomfortably around my shoulder and neck. At least I wasn’t in any pain, and as I began to make careful attempts to move, nothing seemed broken.

It was dark. My hearing was slowly getting back to normal, but now that the ringing subsided, I heard rumbling in the distance and what sounded like running water somewhere close by.

I stood. Shaky at first, but I let myself sway in place until I felt stable. My eyes adjusted to the darkness, and I untangled the strap from my neck and dug through the satchel, feeling around for my flashlight.

My index finger slid across something jagged. I winced and snatched my hand back. I shook my fingers, brought one to my mouth, tasted blood. Something in my bag had broken, apparently. I shook it a little and heard pieces of something tinkle, like broken glass. Please, I prayed, not the tunneler. Anything but that. If I needed to make a break for it, that might have come in handy. I didn’t feel like frying myself against that barrier.

I could sort of make out the contours of the room, which was crowded with rubble. The doorway wasn’t blocked, though, which gave me some sense of relief.

Where were Travis and Annelle? Had they already fled and left me behind? Which, of course, would have been typical.

“Travis?”

Coughing, then, “Over here.”

“Hang on.” I really needed that flashlight, so I reached back into the bag, much more carefully this time, and searched around until I found it.

When I shined the beam around the room, I got a better sense of what had happened, if not what caused it. The roof above us was partially gone, along with most of one wall. It looked as if debris from a higher floor had crashed down and caused the collapse. Travis sat leaning against the wall to the left of the doorway, his face caked with dust. Mine probably looked the same. Cradled next to him was his sister, her eyes closed.

“She’s unconscious,” he said. “I think she hit her head.”

I knelt next to them and trained the flashlight beam into my bag. No imager. Had I put it back after scanning Travis? If I hadn’t, there was no telling where it was or how many pieces it was in.

“We need to get out of here,” I said. “Can you stand? We’ll have to carry her.”

If Nelson were here, he would have howled in protest at the thought of moving an injured, unconscious person, but Travis would never leave her behind. Crouching by her side opposite him, I ran a hand along her arm first—no obvious breaks—before lifting it and draping it across my shoulders. We managed to get her up, but she was dead weight between us.

Travis gasped. “Shit.” He pressed a hand to his chest.

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