Many of the survivors gathered on the front steps of the school, waiting for emergency vehicles that hadn’t yet arrived. Audrey’s bloody appearance carried by a shirtless and well-built Tank caused quite a stir. A photographer who had been covering the competition for the school newspaper snapped a picture. Later that day, he’d sell it to the local paper for a nice tidy sum to add to his college fund. Minami and Clarissa hurried over, eager to reassure themselves that their friends hadn’t been badly hurt.
Sirens in the distance suggested that help was on its way, but based on the condition of the street in front of the school, it might take a while. The pavement had cracked in many spots, and one large piece right in front of the parking lot broke loose, sliding down the embankment and tearing out the well-manicured grass.
Audrey surveyed the damage as Minami applied pressure to her wounds. Most of the dancers had gotten off lucky. All of them were covered in grime and dust, and no one would leave without a nice collection of bruises and scrapes, but most escaped the quake without major injuries. One girl from Crowley had broken her arm, and she cried quietly at a picnic table, cradling it while her coach fussed. A laceration on Clarissa’s scalp stained her blonde hair with an alarming amount of blood, but she kept up a steady stream of chatter like it was nothing. More than a few dancers hobbled around on sprained ankles from the rocking ground, and one out-of-uniform dancer sported a missing tooth. All in all, they’d gotten off lucky.
Minami’s dad was a pediatrician with an office right across the street, and he rushed over with his nursing staff in tow to provide first aid, drafting his daughter to help bandage Clarissa’s head. One of the nurses flushed out Audrey’s cut and bandaged it, and she was relieved to hear that no stitches would be necessary, although the wound would likely scar.
After the nurse left, Audrey realized that she’d been squeezing Tank’s hand during the painful first aid, and she hadn’t let go yet. She thought she should, but she couldn’t make herself do it. He didn’t seem to mind, and they sat there in companionable silence for a while, watching as students continued to file out of the building.
Audrey knew she needed to have things out with Constantine, especially given her growing feelings for Tank. Was this a rebound thing that would pass with time, or gratitude for him coming to the rescue, or could it possibly be something more? She didn’t want to hurt him because she didn’t have her stuff together.
As they waited, more students joined them, trickling out the doors or walking around the exterior of the damaged school. A couple of the coaches tried in vain to get a head count, but the dancers weren’t cooperating. They milled around, snapping pictures of the damage or retelling their survival stories to all of their friends in gory detail.
Audrey kept an eye out for Constantine, intending to pull him aside as soon as he appeared, but with every passing minute that he failed to show up, she grew more restless. He wasn’t the only missing student, either. She didn’t see Nora or any of the Derleth dancers.
“We’re missing a lot of people,” she told Tank, trying to remain calm. “I’m hoping they just went out one of the other exits, but it’s starting to freak me out. Want to go look for them?”
Tank scanned the crowd, his gaze sharpening. “Yeah, Nora isn’t here. I wasn’t thinking, or I would have noticed before now.”
“Well, let’s go find her.”
“You sure? That leg’s got to hurt,” Tank said, but he stood up anyway, eager to do something useful.
“It hurts just as much walking as it does sitting, so I might as well,” she responded with what she thought was admirable practicality.
“Let’s go, then.”
They walked around the exterior of the damaged school. No part of the sprawling building had escaped undamaged. Thick cracks ran up the brick walls, and the few windows had shattered, coating the ground with pebbled glass. Two of the ornamental trees outside of the teacher’s lounge had toppled over, tearing gouges out of the ground. Audrey surveyed the damage with dismay and took his hand again without even thinking. It comforted her. He must have agreed, because he smiled down at her, but after a moment, he let go.
“Audrey?” he asked.
“Yeah.”
“You’re still dating Constantine, right?”
“I made up my mind to break up with him earlier today. Before we held hands. Not that holding hands is a huge deal, and I don’t want to assume it means anything you don’t want it to mean, but…” She paused, embarrassed. “I just like you, and I don’t want to hurt you.”
“I like you too,” Tank said. “Damn.”
His abrupt change of tone took Audrey aback until she realized that it had nothing to do with the sentence that came before it. Tank was looking ahead of them, while she’d been staring down at her bloodstained shoes. She looked up and stopped cold, unable to believe her eyes.
Most of C Hall had been swallowed by an enormous sinkhole. It had torn through classrooms, sheared off walls, and swallowed the choir room whole. Audrey couldn’t remember if any of the squads had been assigned to the choir room, and she hoped not, but fear spurred her forward.
As they hurried toward the pit, Tank called out, “Hey, is anybody in there?” but there was no answer.
They reached the edge of the pit in tandem. Tank dropped to his knees beside it to peer down into its depths while Audrey followed suit with care for her injuries. She couldn’t even see the bottom. But she did see one thing that sent a chill running through her veins. A body topped by a familiar face. Nora lay motionless on a shelf next to the prone figure of her sister.
“Nora! Are you okay?” she yelled.
But Nora remained motionless, maybe even dead. Her sister didn’t move either, and Audrey’s heart skipped a beat. She hadn’t had a chance to apologize to Haven yet, and she really wanted to.
Beside her, Tank whipped out his phone and tried to dial 911, but either the circuits were busy or the quake had knocked out the cell towers. He couldn’t get through.
“I’m going to get help,” he said. “You stay here just in case they wake up. Try to talk them down and keep them from rolling off the edge, if you see them moving.”
“Okay. Hurry.”
He nodded and ran across the lawn toward the front of the school, sprinting as fast as he could go. As luck would have it, the emergency vehicles finally arrived. Audrey could see their flashing lights as they bypassed the broken road in favor of driving right across the grass and into Tank’s path. He ran to meet them, waving his arms in desperation, and one of the ambulances peeled off from the rest of the group, coming to the rescue. As soon as the door opened, Tank pointed toward the sinkhole, explaining the problem.
Audrey turned back to the sinkhole to find that neither girl had moved. Nora’s leg was bent underneath her at an uncomfortable angle. Probably broken. Audrey hoped that was the only thing wrong with her.
“Hold on,” she called into the pit, even though she knew they couldn’t hear her. “Help is on the way. Just hold on.”
The rescue effort ended up being a huge production. Audrey and Tank had to stand aside as a herd of firefighters lugged over all kinds of equipment: ropes and pulleys, flat stretcher boards, medical boxes, and a variety of unidentifiable bits and bobbles. Finally, one of the firefighters descended into the sinkhole, suspended by a single rope that looked awfully thin to Audrey. Her heart pounded even though she wasn’t the one in danger, and Tank continued to hold her hand.
After an interminable wait, the firefighters on the ground pulled Nora’s unconscious body up to the surface. She’d been strapped to a board with braces immobilizing her neck and leg. Her face looked so pale and bloodless. Tank let out an involuntary whimper, and as soon as the EMTs began to trundle her toward the ambulance, he hurried to join them. Although she shared his concern, Audrey remained where she was, watching as Haven joined them on the surface. She was in much better shape than her sister but still wore a neck brace. Her eyelids flickered as the rescue workers set her down at the edge of the pit, but she still appeared to be out of it.
The rescue crews began to pack up their things. Tank finished talking with the rescue crews and finally managed to get a call through. She hummed as she waited for him, trying to soothe her jangled nerves. It worked at first, but then, to her immense dismay, she realized that she was humming the ever present song from her dreams. The guttural melody just refused to die. She didn’t even like the tune, and she didn’t understand a single word of it, but she still couldn’t shake it.
She squeezed her lips shut despite the music that still ran through her head. If she didn’t give into the urge, perhaps she’d shake the earworm for good. But the all-too-familiar tune emanated from the sinkhole.
She edged closer, tilting her head and focusing on the sound. It couldn’t be the same tune. Maybe the melody was just close enough to remind her of it. It must be one of those songs that borrowed so much from other tunes that it sounded like everything else.
Audrey frowned. Why was music coming from the sinkhole in the first place? If someone had gotten trapped down there, they’d be screaming, not singing a bunch of nonsense words. Perhaps some piece of sound equipment had broken as it plummeted into the hole, and now it emitted a garbled tune that reminded her of her dreams? But that didn’t scan either. If that had happened, the music would have been playing all this time. It wouldn’t wait a half hour and then decide that this was the perfect time to malfunction.
Tank returned to her side then, his brow furrowed with concern.
“I’m going to the hospital,” he said. “Nora’s dad is finishing up a surgery, and he’ll get here as fast as he can, but I imagine it’ll take a while with the roads as bad as they are. I’m going to help relay messages back and forth and be there in case either of the girls wake up.”
“Haven stirred when they lifted her out,” said Audrey. “That bodes well, I’d think.”
“Yeah, they had to sedate her. She kept singing a bunch of nonsense syllables and dancing around even though the EMTs told her she had to stay still until they x-rayed her neck.” He paused, tilting his head to listen just like Audrey did just a while ago. “Do you hear that? Is she doing it again?”
“I think it’s coming from the sinkhole,” Audrey said.
She debated explaining that she’d also been dreaming about the very same song, and that the whole thing gave her the creeps, but she didn’t want Tank to think she was crazy. She just keep reassuring herself that it was all a coincidence, over and over again, despite the fact that it didn’t help at all.
His expression cleared. “Yeah, I think you’re right.” Then he paused, frowning. “But where’s the music coming from? Is someone down there?”
“Singing?” Audrey shook her head. “If I was swallowed by a giant sinkhole, my first thought wouldn’t be to sing.”
“But…” Tank trailed off. “It doesn’t make sense.”
Audrey couldn’t argue with that, and she listened intently again, hoping to come up with some idea that would settle both of their nerves. The chant swelled, growing in volume and intensity. One voice soared over the rest of them, a strong tenor that she would have recognized anywhere. But that was impossible.
Tank watched her growing expression of horror with equally growing concern. “What?” he demanded. “What’s wrong?”
“That sounds like Constantine,” Audrey replied. “I think he’s down there.”