THEN ALMOST RIGHT AWAY, ONE OF THE EMTS CALLED UP TO US. HIS voice was hoarse—and excited. “Someone’s in here,” he said.
We waited. Everything was silent now. Everyone hopeful… yet afraid.
“We’ve got ’em. They’re both here.”
The rescuer kept his voice low, maybe for the kids’ sake, but I don’t think anything could have stopped the cheer that went up in that barn.
There were handshakes, and hugs, and tears on more than a few faces. The feeling of relief was indescribable. Mahoney gave me a hug. Then so did Sampson. Then even Peter Lindley did.
Agents Wardrip and Daya took over from there. They had the work lights turned way down, and they excused the military crew. Then they climbed into the hole to help bring Ethan and Zoe up themselves. A few minutes later, word came that the kids were ready to be brought out.
Zoe came first. It was a moment of true joy mixed with heartbreak to see the young girl, trembling all over and clinging to Wardrip as he carried her up the ladder.
Her clothes were just filthy rags, and her eyes were wide and glassy. But they weren’t vacant. She knew where she was.
They got Zoe onto a gurney and started oxygen and a saline drip right away. Then they covered her with a heavy blanket all the way up to the shoulders, until you could barely even see her anymore.
Wardrip stayed right there, speaking softly to her while they brought Ethan out.
He looked about the same as his sister, but smaller, more vulnerable if that was possible. As he came up from that prison where they’d spent the last two weeks, he was mumbling something against Daya’s shoulder, over and over.
I could see his dry, cracked lips moving, but I couldn’t hear him.
The second he was on his own gurney, Zoe reached out from under her blanket and took Ethan’s hand. Nobody tried to stop them or separate them.
They stared at each other like no one else was there, and her mouth started moving with his.
It was only as they were wheeled out past me, still holding hands, that I heard what they were saying.
“Thank you, thank you, thank you. Oh, thank you.”
The words couldn’t have been simpler, or more eloquent.