Bumping Uglies

Chapter Twenty Six

If you have never had to move a human body, it is hard to appreciate just how heavy they are.

I had hauled myself upright, ignoring the stabbing complaints of pain emanating from my legs, and located Ty. Together we assessed the situation we found ourselves in. We stood in several inches of thick mud that comprised the sub-floor, with the shredded remains of what had been the wooden floor of the room above jutting around us at shoulder height.

Strewn around us was a shambles of splintered wood, Richard's belongings, and what seemed to be human remains.

Sophie; alive, breathing, but unconscious, was being held upright between us. She slumped as we propped her up under her arms.

My ears were ringing with a constant sound and my head felt fuzzy.

"What happened?" I asked.

"Stop shouting," Ty said, though it sounded like a whisper beneath the throbbing noise in my head. "It's the over-pressure; an explosion in a confined space will do that. You might have burst ear drums."

I had to concentrate and read his lips to interpret anything he said, my head felt like a shaken box of angry wasps. I had a little trouble focusing on his face, or anything at all for that matter.

"I'm going to climb up there, and then we get Nancy Drew here out," Ty pointed up to the door way, beneath which the floorboards seemed to have remained intact.

I nodded. Given that my legs had been punctured in a dozen places by finger-length splinters of wood, I wasn't sure that I'd be able to get up there in any event. None of the wounds seemed deep or particularly serious, but that didn't stop them hurting like an absolute bastard. It felt as if someone had hammered hot nails into my flesh.

"Right, brace yourself," Ty said, slipping out from beneath Sophie. Her whole weight now flowed through my left arm up to the shoulder and the added strain placed on my legs caused me to yelp in pain.

"Don't drop her Satch," Ty mouthed, scrabbling up the rough brick wall of the sub-floor until he could place his palms onto the intact floorboards. He pushed himself up and over the lip, onto the floor beneath the arch of the doorway.

I dragged both myself and Sophie across the mud until we were beneath Ty in the doorway, I had to be mindful not to trip on the grisly combination of bones and belongings that had become churned into the surface.

"Right, give her a boost," Ty said. He was down on his haunches and leaning into the subfloor.

I lifted each of Sophie's arms in turn so that Ty could grasp them firmly. Then I pondered which part of her body to grab to try and lift her up. I settled for wrapping both arms around the top of her thighs, beneath her buttocks, and heaving.

Pain swept up my legs, through my stomach and into my temples. It felt as if I had jumped feet-first into a boiling cauldron, but I gritted my teeth and lifted.

Ty stood at the same time, taking more and more of Sophie's weight until he was able to man-handle her over the edge and onto the floorboards of the warehouse beyond the doorway.

"Right, you next. This might sting a little," Ty panted, his face appearing once more over the lip.

I grimaced, and then began to heave myself up the wall, my feet slipping and my fingers digging into soft and crumbling mortar. After long seconds I felt the vice-like grip of Ty's hands seizing me and lifting with almost supernatural force.

I collapsed onto the floor next to where Sophie lay and must have passed out for a few moments because the next thing I knew I was staring up into Ty's blood-streaked face. He slapped me once more for good measure.