Test of Time Book 1: A Father's Son

Chapter 5: Dangerous Situations

Anakin groaned, breaking the deafening silence around him, his body aching. He was sure he was cut all over and bleeding rather profoundly, but his brain didn't seem to care much about that. Dust and other microscopic dirt particles clouded the air around him and he coughed, attempting to open his eyes. That was when he discovered that his eyes were open and that it was dark all around him. He was having some trouble breathing, and he realized he was buried deep under layers of rock and rubble. Somehow—out of sheer dumb luck he decided—the rocks had fallen so that they weren't crushing him, though they were still trapping him in place.

Coughing and groaning again, Anakin reached out with the Force to see if he could sense his friend. "Obi-Wan?" he called out into the darkness, carefully shifting in the rubble and trying his hardest not to disrupt the rocks above into collapsing on him. He winced at the pain he could feel all over his body, but pushed the nuisances aside and focused on finding Obi-Wan in all the rubble. "Obi-Wan."

His heart clenched, fear washing through him; had his actions cost his friend his life?

No, it didn't! He realized with a rush of relief as he finally found his friend's Force Signature somewhere in the rubble nearby him. It seemed, however, that Obi-Wan hadn't regained consciousness as Anakin had.

Anakin continued to stretch out his senses, silently assessing their situation. It seemed he was buried far below meters of rubble; not a good situation at all. Obi-Wan was in a similar position, though Anakin sensed that Obi-Wan actually had a leg and arm pinned by the rubble; he didn't know if the rubble had caused an injury, but he could wait until Obi-Wan woke up for that. He winced in sympathy for the elder Jedi and was just starting to try and figure out a way out of the mess of rubble when he remembered the third member of their party.

Feeling sick to his stomach, Anakin slowly and carefully brought his arm up to his face. He turned on his comlink and winced when he saw the rubble mere inches from his face, finally seeing the precarious prison of rubble he was in with his own eyes from the weak blue light cast from his comlink. He hardly had any room to move. Finding the right connection for the comlink that Jedi pair had let Luke borrow, Anakin tried to get ahold of their inexperienced Jedi companion.

"Luke...Luke..." he paused to cough from the dust again. "Luke, are you there? Can you hear me? Luke."

He didn't get an answer, and he felt fear grip him once again—this time for the young man's life. Please, oh please, don't let my actions have killed him. Oh Force, please let him be alive, Anakin found himself thinking fiercely as he tried again. "Luke, are you there? Luke!"

He heard his friend's weak voice call out in the rubble, somewhere above and off to his left. "Anakin?" he heard Obi-Wan groan quietly.

Anakin stopped calling for Luke for a moment. "Master? I'm here. Are you alright?" he called back to Obi-Wan.

Obi-Wan gave a cry of pain which was quickly stifled. "I'm pinned under this rubble, it's my arm and leg..." he told Anakin.

"I know; I'm trying to think of a way out..."

"Should I try Rex and Cody?"

"Is your comlink pinned?"

"No, it's the other arm that's pinned."

Anakin grimaced. "I'm sorry Master...for all of this."

"I'll scold you if we make it out of this alive, Anakin; right now focus on getting us out."

Anakin sighed. "Alright, you go ahead and call Rex and Cody."

He heard Obi-Wan proceed to contact the two and explain their dangerous situation to them while Anakin tried Luke once again. "Luke, are you there? Can you hear me? Luke, answer me," he called into the comlink, his voice growing steadily more desperate.