Page 10 of Deadly Rescue
A twinge of anger snaked down her spine, and Celina jerked free from his grasp. “I amnotseeing things that aren’t there, Cooper. A man who looked extremely suspicious left a live training session that he was specifically told not to leave.”
“Which you yourself also left,” Cooper pointed out, grinning when she shoved his chest none too gently.
“To make sure he wasn’t lost. And then, I realized he’s not lost at all. He’s up to no good, or at the very least, he’s gone AWOL on us, which is just all kinds of wrong.”
“I’m sure there’s a logical explanation for his departure and we’ll figure it out.”
Digging in her heel, Celina whirled and marched down the dark hallway, around the bend, and down another corridor.
Seeing things that weren’t really there? She took the stairs two at a time, huffing her annoyance. Of all the stupid, idiotic things Cooper Harris had ever said to her, this one really took the cak—
Suddenly, the ground beneath her feet shook and a deafening roar filled the air.
“Celina!”
Strong arms wrapped around her from behind and she was lifted up the remaining steps, deposited onto the floor, and roughly pushed up against a wall. Cooper’s strong body covered hers as ceiling tiles and debris rained down around them.
It was over in a matter of seconds, and then a deafening quiet filled the corridor, offset by the occasional shattering of glass or a large object hitting the floor in the distance.
Shakily, Celina drew in a breath, one of her ears ringing. “What the…?”
“I don’t know.” Cooper slowly pushed to his knees, digging around until he came up with his cell phone and turned on the flashlight. He helped her and Celina followed suit, using the combined lights to assess the damage.
The corridor that led to the gymnasium was completely caved in.
“That was an explosion. A real one.” Cooper’s face was grim, and Celina’s mouth went dry. It was what she suspected as well, but hearing him say the words out loud made it that much worse. “We need to get out of the building. Are you okay?”
She did a quick body check and looked down the stairs, which were mercifully clear. “Other than a few bruises that I’m sure will show up tomorrow, I’m fine. How are we getting out?”
“Not that way.” He pointed to the right, then jogged down the stairs and came back. “Let’s backtrack. I think there was an exit past the locker rooms before the supply bay doors.”
Acrid smoke hung heavy in the air, burning the back of her throat. She coughed, tucking her camera—she’d have to assess it for damage later—under her suit. She tugged the material of her biohazard suit up to cover her mouth and nose, praying nothing toxic floated in the air around them. Likewise, Cooper pulled the collar of his t-shirt from underneath his Kevlar vest and used it to cover his lower face.
They picked their way through the corridor, carefully stepping over broken concrete, glass, and parts of the ceiling that had fallen in their path. Even with the biohazard suit covering her face, the air was still pungent and she fought back coughing fits, not wanting to suck more smoke into her lungs.
By the time they reached the loading dock, her lungs were on fire and she was struggling to breathe. Slightly oxygen deprived, she stumbled on a damaged light fixture that once hung from the ceiling and would have fallen face first if Cooper hadn’t caught her.
“We’re almost there,” he promised, looping an arm around her waist and hauling her against his side. He couldn’t have been fairing much better than she was, the sound of his muffled cough confirming as much, but she leaned on his strength anyway, drawing some sense of security that at least she wasn’t alone in this mess.
The closer they got to the docks, the worse the debris became until soon they were forced to practically climb over pieces of walls.
What if we’d still been standing here?The thought sent a hard shudder down her spine.
The air seemed to grow heavier, the smell of smoke sharper. Building damage was always worse the closer you got to ground zero of an explosion.
Which could only mean one thing—
The loading dock was on full of smoke when they finally arrived, the glowing embers of a fire confirming what Celina had already suspected. A patch of the roof was missing.
“Jesus,” Cooper exclaimed, his hand finding hers and squeezing hard. “We could have been killed.”
He was right. Had they stood there even a minute or two longer, they would now be lying in the embers of the blast. Celina returned his hand squeeze, trying desperately not to cry.
“But we weren’t,” she coughed, leaning into him. “We’re fine.” Fine, if you didn’t count the smoke inhalation that was slowly killing them. They needed to get out of there, and fast.
The loading area appeared completely destroyed and they walked to the west, avoiding it. One remaining overhead light flickered in conjunction with flames that jumped here and there, as heavy ash and smoke blew about the room from the jagged openings where she could see the sky.
As they carefully stepped over debris and avoided the worst of the heat and smoke, Celina caught a glimpse of sunlight through a broken window high on a far wall still standing. The floor seemed to dip and she realized it was another loading area, one where trucks could back into the building. Below the window was a door marked Exit, and she nearly sagged to her knees in relief. The door looked to be intact; maybe they could get out.
