We have to keep trying.” Harper paced the small space that seemed to grow smaller by the second. This was just great. They were trapped. It was hot and stuffy.
I have to get out of here.
Heath and James grunted, pushing, shoving with their brute strength against the door. At least James had recovered enough to help.
Harper wanted to help, but there wasn’t room. “I don’t think they’re supposed to be that hard to open.”
“Unless something on the other side is preventing it.” James gave up. “Isn’t there another way out? Another exit in here?”
She didn’t see one. “Why did they build it this way so that the door opens out? That seems like a bad idea.”
“The hinges,” Heath said. “The blast could blow the door inward, otherwise.”
Heath continued his efforts. The blast door gave an inch. Dust rushed in. A crack. It was something. He put his face up close to the space and looked out. “No fire. Let’s keep working on this door. Maybe someone can squeeze out and go for help.”
Harper took James’s place and shoved against the door. “We can yell for help too.”
“We’re too far down,” James said. “They’re never going to hear us down here. We have to get out before more of the building collapses. It makes sense to put the shelter deeper in the basement, but then living through a bomb means also having to survive the rubble as you get out.”
Sweat dripped down her back and beaded across her brow and upper lip. The door moved another few inches. “Only a little more and I can fit through. I can go for help.”
Heath gasped for breath. “I don’t know. You could get hurt. It could be dangerous. The building is unstable.”
“What did you think was going to happen when we opened the door? It’s our only chance.” James’s voice gave away his desperation. “What’s the matter with you?”
And he was right. No good options were available.
“Maybe I can move what’s blocking the door,” she said. “Don’t worry, Heath. I have to do this. You know I do.”
Heath and James gave it another push and she squeezed through, ignoring the flitting image of the door slamming and crushing her. On the other side, she sucked in a breath.
“Okay, I’m out.” As if they didn’t know. She flicked on the flashlight and stayed near the blast shelter that was all but buried.
Sparks and a buzz drew her attention up to where the entire left side of the ceiling had collapsed. The flashlight revealed much. Jumbled rebar dangled. Concrete, drywall, and steel—it was all twisted together. Pure rubble.
They were on the bottom floor.
Any hope she had quickly fled. Thick emotion filled her throat. So what if the blast shelter had safeguarded them? They would never get out.
No. She couldn’t think like that.
She wouldn’t let go of hope, no matter how small.
We’re going to get out of here.
She turned her attention to a chunk of concrete blocking the blast door. How had they opened the door at all? Moving that would take muscles. The kind she didn’t have. But maybe she could use leverage. She searched for something—anything. A rumble shuddered through the building. Dust trickled.
She tried not to think about the tons of building materials pressing in on them.
“What’s going on, Harper?” Heath’s voice sounded muffled.
Disheartened, she didn’t want to answer him. She glanced up at the ceiling and the beams barely hanging. The electrical wires. Lines sparking.
“I’m trying to move concrete out of the way. I need leverage. Hold on.”
A severed steel rod would work. She propped it under a piece of concrete that was shaped like the state of Florida wedged against the blast door.
She thrust the rod under Florida, then leaned on it. Nothing. Put her full body weight on it. Nothing.
God, have you really brought me through all this only to die here and now?
She tried again.
The Florida Panhandle broke away.
“Yes!” She pumped her fist and called out to Heath, “Okay, try the door now.”
The men groaned inside as they pushed on the blast door. It budged, but not much. That rumble again.
“Guys!” She peered inside. “Squeeze out. The ceiling isn’t going to last. It’s now or never.”
“Just one more push,” Heath said. “James can’t make it through this.”
“Okay, let me see if I can move more of Florida.”
“What?”
She ignored his question and worked her magic lever again. It was no use.
“Heath, it’s not going to work. Please come out so you can do it.”
Heath squeezed out, then turned toward the opening and spoke to James. “Come on, you can do it.”
James tried, but his thickset form wouldn’t let him through.
Heath looked at Florida. “Let me try.”
He took the steel rod and pressed down. Groaned and shoved. The chunk of debris fell away from the blast door. Along with the ceiling on the far side of the building. Dust filled the air, choking them. More chunks began falling. They were running out of time.
Heath pulled the blast door all the way open and reached inside to yank James forward. “Come on!”
Flashlights lighting the way, they scrambled over chunks of concrete and obliterated building materials. Their progress was much too slow to outrun the massive cave-in. Harper wasn’t sure where they were going as they pressed forward. Heath pulled her into a partially intact stairwell. James was on their heels. He shoved the dented door that hung from one hinge into what remained of the doorframe.
“How—”
The crashing ceiling cut off her words. She pressed her face into Heath’s chest.
Was this the end? Was she going to die in his arms?
Dust billowed into the stairwell. Harper coughed, along with Heath and James. The ceiling had collapsed inward like a bowl, leaving the stairwell undisturbed. Good. This was good, wasn’t it?
He released her and peered upward. Though the stairwell hadn’t crumbled with the rest of the building, the stairs no longer looked like stairs but instead were a mass of twisted metal that was torn apart near the next floor.
“That?” James asked. “You want us to go up that?”
“That’s our only way out, man.”
“It will probably come down on our heads.”
“It might. We’ll climb one stair at a time.” Heath glanced at James. “Harper is going first. You can go next, my friend.”
Harper didn’t like this. She didn’t want to leave either of them behind, but she wouldn’t save Heath by wasting time arguing with him. Her only choice was to climb carefully and quickly up what was left of the stairs.
Heath helped her gain purchase. When she gripped the rail and placed her knees on that first clump of steel, she looked down at him.
“Don’t worry.” He winked. “I plan to make it out alive tonight too. Now go. Make it out and find your sister.”
Was this the last time she’d see him?