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Zoe
Jump, she told her legs—but they didn’t move.
“What are you waiting for?” Emma asked. “Do you want me to try to come catch you?”
Yes, actually. That sounded like a great idea. But she didn’t want to hurt Emma, and she didn’t want to make Emma and her body heat leave Levi. For the first time in weeks, Zoe wished she had some alcohol. She was so much braver when she was on the sauce—fearless, actually. This realization made her angry. She shouldn’t need booze to make her brave.
Her brain was the problem, not her heart, and certainly not her legs. God, please help me do this. And help me to land.
She pushed off the wall and jumped, and this time, her feet left the floor. She started to close her eyes but then remembered what Derek had said: look for a safe landing. But everything she looked at was dark, and then her feet hit, and she’d forgotten to bend her knees.
Emma cried out in celebration as the stove beneath Zoe’s feet wobbled perilously. With no idea what she was jumping into, Zoe jumped off the stove. Her feet met the ground earlier than she expected, sending a shock up her spine. There was no pain, though. Thank you, God. Now she only needed to get back out of the basement. She was certain this would be easier than getting in. “Say something, Emma. I can’t see you.”
“Really? I can see you. What, are you guys all deaf and blind?”
Zoe started walking toward the sound, and as she went, her eyes adjusted. She could see Emma after all. She picked up her speed and then knelt beside Levi. “Hey, Levi.”
He didn’t respond. She turned and said over her shoulder. “Can you guys get onto that lip?”
“Already on our way,” Jason said. “We wanted to make sure you didn’t die before we bothered.” He was trying to be funny, but he sounded nervous.
“All right,” she said more quietly, to Emma. “Let’s see if we can get him up.” Her eyes fell on his ankle, and she gasped. “Oh wow, that doesn’t look good.”
“No. That has to be broken, right?”
“Oh yeah. That is very, very broken. We’ve got to be careful not to let him put any weight on it.” She scooched closer. “And not to touch it at all, or let it touch anything.” Her stomach churned at the thought of how much pain he was in. “Okay, Levi, we’re going to try to move—”
A terrible creaking sound interrupted her, and both she and Emma looked toward the stove as Jason cried out. His foot dangled through the hole but then slowly slid back up out of sight.
“Are you okay?” Emma cried before Zoe could.
“Yeah, yeah. Some of the floor gave way. Guess I weigh more than Zoe.”
“He didn’t need to sound so surprised,” Zoe said.
“We need to hurry.” Emma was scared. “I don’t know how close to dying he is.” She looked down at Levi and put her hand on the top of his head. “Sorry, Levi. Not trying to scare you. Just want to get you out of here.”
He didn’t respond. He looked almost peaceful lying there, the top of him resting on Emma’s body.
“New plan,” Derek called out. “We’ll go get help. We’ll be right back.”
“No!” Emma cried with primal fear.
Zoe assumed that she didn’t want to be left in this terrifying basement in the dark.
“I don’t know how long he’ll last. You guys, he’s really really cold. We need to get him out of here!” There was a startling amount of force in her words, and the men fell silent for a minute.
“All right, then I’ll try to pull him up by myself,” Jason said. “Maybe the floor will hold if Derek doesn’t come with me.”
“Why don’t you go that way, instead?” Derek said. “I’ll stay back here and hold your feet.”
“Good idea. Okay, girls, give us a second to get situated.”
Zoe watched Jason’s feet edging in the wrong direction. What was he doing? Why was he going back? But only a minute later, she saw Jason squirming along on his belly. If the floor gave way now, he was going to do a belly flop into the basement. She wasn’t sure this was the best plan, but she bit her tongue. At least his weight was distributed more widely now. She looked at Emma. “He’s breathing, right?”
Emma nodded wildly. “Slowly, but yeah.”
“Have you checked his pulse?”
Emma shook her head. “Don’t know how.”
Zoe scooted around to get to his wrist. At first, she couldn’t feel any pulse at all, but if he was breathing, didn’t that mean that his heart was beating? Why was she even doing this? She had no idea what to do with the information she would glean. Because you need to do something, a little voice whispered, and then she found the pulse. She was no expert, but she thought his pulse felt slow and weak. She put the back of her hand to his cheek. It was ice cold.
“Okay, how’s this?” Jason called through the hole.
Zoe turned to see his head sticking out over the hole, his arms dangling down into it. He’d abandoned the lip along the wall and had instead laid across rotten, broken boards.
“Please tell me that Derek has a hold of your feet.”
“He does.”
Jason wasn’t quite over the wood stove. Close, but not quite.
“Can you pull him up with your arms alone?” Zoe hated to doubt her Jason, and she hated even more to doubt him aloud, but what he was intending to do didn’t seem possible. Pull Levi up at an angle with only his arms?
“I have no idea, but I’ve been lifting weights three times a week for years. I thought I was doing that for my jump shot, but apparently not. Apparently, I was doing it for this. Come on. You two should have already been moving him this way.”
“Well excuse us,” Zoe said, getting up. “No one told us that.” She felt cobwebs hit her head and suppressed a shriek. How big of a threat were cobwebs really, under the circumstances? She looked down at her classmate. “All right, Levi. We’re going to try to move you. I’m so, so sorry.” She reached down and slid her forearms under his armpits. And then she lifted, grunting as she did so. He was heavier than she’d expected.
He cried out in pain; the noise was deafening in the relative quiet.
“Oh no!” Emma cried at the same time as Zoe cried, “Help me, Emma!”
