Page 40 of Nikolai
They were buried alive.They might die here in this airless tomb of rubble.
No!
Parker refused to die here.Not now.Not when she’d just met the most fascinating man in the world.Not when she was working on a project of the heart.It wasn’t her time to die and it definitely wasn’t Nick’s.
She tried to shake his shoulder and watched his eyelids flutter.Stretching her arm, she slapped his cheek, over and over.
“Nick!Wake up!Come back to me!”
Finally, his eyes half opened, closed, opened again.But there was no recognition in his gaze.Bending herself like a pretzel, Parker held her flashlight up to his face and tried to look into his eyes.She had a partial view, but it didn’t seem to her that his pupils were different sizes.Which meant that maybe he wasn’t concussed.
Please.
Terror was like a cloud around her, and she needed Nick with her if she had any hope of holding it together.They needed to figure this out together.How to emerge from who knows how many tons of rubble and somehow find their way to the surface.How not to die here, a million miles from anywhere.
No one was coming for them.No one even knew they were here.The gatekeeper hadn’t seen them come in and, in any case, would definitely have made a beeline for his home in an earthquake without a second thought.The gateway wasn’t sophisticated and didn’t register who passed through with the remote control.
The Superintendency had given her permission to spend time at the site, but there had been no discussion of when.They wouldn’t assume she was here and—she admitted to herself—wouldn’t come looking for her.
No one would be looking for her.
This had been a big one.There would be chaos everywhere.Even Aunt Caroline would take a while to wonder where she was, maybe days, because the Consulate definitely took precedence over an honorary niece.
She and Nick had to get out of here under their own steam and Nick had to be conscious because Parker couldn’t drag him.And she wouldn’t leave him.
“Nick!”Parker made her voice sharp.A fall of dust trickled down.Parker lowered her voice.“Nick!Come back!”She pushed against his shoulder, hoping she was avoiding his wound.
Nick’s eyes opened, closed.Opened.He frowned.“Parker?”
“Yes!Thank God.”
“Are you okay?”
“I’m fine, Nick.You saved me.But you have a head wound and you shoulder is banged up.”
His head lifted slightly, and though she could tell it hurt him, he didn’t make a sound.
“Where are we exactly?Can you tell?”
It hadn’t even occurred to her to try to tell where they were.The earthquake could have tossed them anywhere.She directed the flashlight cell along the floor which was mostly broken shards and sand.A couple of feet away, a section of corrugated steel siding from the above-ground hut had fallen in a way as to provide shelter, like a lean to.Parker scrabbled with her hand, bringing things close to her face.She brought a fistful of reddish sand, shards of terracotta and…yes!Two broken pieces of stucco.Painted bright blue.
“We’re still in the Blue Room where we were having lunch, right up against the wall.But I think it has imploded.”She tried again to expand her ribs to get a full lungful of air.“Nick, we need to move, see if we can find a way out.But I don’t know how because you’ve got rubble on top of you.”
He didn’t answer.She twisted to see his face and panicked.His eyes were closed again.“Nick!”
His eyes popped open, and Parker shone her cell’s light on them, letting out a relieved breath.His pupils still looked to be the same size.
A huge hand landed next to her shoulder, lifting a small cloud of dust.Startled, Parker angled her head to look at his face.
“We have to get out from under this rubble,” Nick said.His face was streaked with blood and what she could see of his face was ashen.He was in great pain but sounded cogent.
He was back.
Parker let out her breath.Trying to figure out a way to save them without Nick’s help, with an unconscious Nick…well, she couldn’t do it.She’d been close to losing it.Being in the dark under who knew how much rubble—it was a nightmare, and she was holding on to her sanity by a thread.But Nick’s matter of fact tone reassured her.
The alternative… Her phone had a seventy-five percent charge, but if she kept it on flashlight mode it wouldn’t last much more than an hour.She had a recharger, but it was in the vehicle and might as well have been on the dark side of the moon for all the good it did her there.Who knew if the vehicle had even survived the earthquake?
Parker suffered from mild claustrophobia, and one side effect was fear of the dark.When the phone went out, they would be in utter darkness, buried under tons of rubble, no one coming for them.And if Nick was out cold… She had to stop herself from hyperventilating.
