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Fear tickled at the back of Liberty’s throat, leaving it dry and hard for her to swallow. The tunnel smelled like dank dirt and was draped in gray shadows. The intact sections were blacker than any night she had ever had to endure. The only thing that kept her moving forward was the thought that her father could be just up ahead, needing her help. She stuck to the sides of the tunnel to avoid running face first into an old subway car or something and inched forward, her hand tracing along the sides of the moldy walls, more for moral support than anything else. Not being able to see where she was going was playing tricks with her mind.
Liberty’s harsh breathing sounded loud in her own ears, but she strained to hear if her father was answering her calls for him.
“Just put one foot in front of the other.” Good advice but every brain cell screamed for her to turn around and get the hell out of here before more of the tunnel collapsed. She stayed focused by concentrating on a patch of daylight up ahead. If she didn’t find Father before reaching it then he probably wasn’t in the subway. But then where to look next? How far could he have strayed in the nighttime darkness?
Something scurried across Liberty’s boots. Her loud shriek echoed through the tunnel as she hurried her pace, concentrating even harder on the light up ahead.
A distant moan stopped her in her tracks. “Father?” She strained for a reply and didn’t have long to wait. Another moan echoed through the tunnel, immediately drawing Liberty toward this one hope she’d had all night.
She was stopped by a loose pile of earth and a mounded tangle of sharp-edged debris.
“You might as well stop dilly-dallying around. It’s the only way over,” Liberty said to herself as she kicked at the bottom of the pile, and when nothing fell, scrambled up, only stopping when she’d reached the top. From there she could see three rusted-out subway cars, a figure lying on top of the first.
“Father!” Liberty didn’t wait for an answer but scampered down the loose dirt, jumping large lumps of concrete, hoping to hell she didn’t cause an avalanche that would bury them both.
When she finally reached the subway cars, she jumped onto the fourth. Now on firmer ground she could run the rest of the way to her father and so soon found him lying there at an odd angle. His head and arms were draped off the edge of the car. It worried Liberty that he hadn’t acknowledged any of her many calls as she’d run toward him.
Aapeli lay in such a way that Liberty really feared he might fall, and was tempted to grab his feet and pull him fully onto the top of the car, but she hesitated. What if his back were injured? Would she do more harm than good?
She knelt by his side and slipped a hand down the back of his shirt, placing it on his back. His skin felt clammy but his back rose and fell with each labored breath. When she pulled her hand out, it was sticky. She sniffed her fingers. There was no mistaking the unpleasant telltale scent of blood. Liberty lifted his shirt away but couldn’t see enough in the darkness.
She lay flat on top of the car and leaned over its edge, to feel at his forehead. “Father? Can you hear me?”
She turned his head to get a good look at his face. “You need to wake up and talk to me.”
Time stood still as she waited for some response but none came. Liberty scooted back and rocked onto her heels. How the hell was she going to get him out of this hole? She stood and looked up at the buildings towering over the opening, then noticed another subway sign. There must be an entrance here too, somewhere around here, she reasoned. All she could do was go and search it out.
She knelt by her father. “Don’t despair. I’ll be right back.” She touched his shoulder and waited a moment, hoping against hope he had heard. When he didn’t move, though, her earlier euphoria fizzled out.
Liberty jumped off the car and looked up into Aapeli’s face, to see how he was doing, and then whispered, “Now I understand why you always told me only to worry about one thing at a time. Too many at once will only befuddle your mind.”
When he didn’t respond, she kissed his forehead and gathered her resolve. She would damned well find a way out of this tunnel, and then, and only then, worry about what to do next. Her jaw now firmly set, she carefully headed out in search of the entrance, her fingers crossed.
Liberty whispered, so as not to disturb the rodents, “I’m not a quitter, and my father isn’t going to die down here if there’s anything I can do about it,” but each step only led to yet more darkness. The stairway should have been close to the sign she’d seen, so why wasn’t there some hint of daylight? Her earlier confidence dwindled with each faltering step. She turned and looked back, wondering if she ought to return to her father. What if she were wrong? Maybe she was wasting precious time. Fortunately, her feet had a mind of their own and kept her moving forward until the tunnel began to grow lighter and lighter. And there it was – the entranceway. Throwing caution to the wind, Liberty ran to the brightly lit stairway.