Getting Home

Part 19

The AED box pulled along after me, one of the leads still wrapped around my wrist.

I was still on auto-pilot—I pulled the AED to me and scooped the entire thing up in my arms without thinking, pulling the wires out of the way enough so I could sprint the rest of the way to the exit.

The black cloud above floated and swirled above as I ran under it.

I made it to the EXIT—an alcove leading to a dimly lit stairwell. I took one last look behind me before starting down.

The mist was already beginning to re-solidify—a very light, black rain fell and hung suspended in the air...

Barely a drizzle.

But I knew that wouldn't last long.

I ran down the stairs, trying to go as fast as I possibly could without tripping over myself. The light was dim sickish-yellow, the steps themselves hard and unforgiving.

Jesus, Ava, you somehow survived all that—don't kill yourself by falling down a set of stairs.

The bottom led out to the main lobby of the police station. I took a few, tentative steps out of the stairwell onto the cold, hard, marbled floor. The giant lobby was dark—except for small fires, dotted and scattered around like torches, giving off a dull, orange-ish glow.

At least there were no sprinklers down here.

Doesn't matter. Can't sit for too long. Hurry up.

I cautiously left my hidey-hole by the stairwell, and started out across the huge, marble floor.

It looked like a war had been fought down here. There was debris scattered everywhere, not just parts of wood and furniture and glass and guns... but I mean like parts of the building.

The entrance of the lobby had been completely blown apart.

The only way out.

Giant slabs of concrete and steel girders were collapsed in a pile that burned peacefully but steadily, completely blocking that entire section of room. Broken and shattered spikes of glass lay scattered and splayed everywhere in that direction, turning the ground into a crystal, shimmering, beautiful ballroom-dance floor.

I looked down at my bare feet.

Yeeeah... no.

I heard coughing.

Someone's still alive.

I took one last nervous glance back at the stairwell—still empty—then scurried quietly towards that way. I still mindlessly cradled the AED in my arms, tip-toeing my way through the errant glass laying around. I squeezed my way through two giant piles and mounds of broken wall and concrete chunks, following a path through the rubble lit only by the moon light.

Wait a minute—

Moonlight?

I looked up to see twinkling stars above...through a giant hole where the ceiling used to be. The clouds drifted by above in the night sky, occasionally letting a shaft of moonlight slip through to shine off the trail of wet footprints I left behind.

I found a man.

And I honestly don't know how he was still alive.

He was lying trapped under a pile of rubble. A police officer. Everything under his waist was pinned underneath a big chunk of crumbly rock, with a huge steel beam laying across it. He slowly shifted his upper body, rolling his head, groaning.