Page 42 of Nikolai
She looked around at the small space, lit by her cell, casting dark-edged shadows.What had fallen on them had dropped into a jumble, dark and impenetrable and entrapping them no more.They were at least able to move around a little in the lee of the corrugated steel panel.They couldn’t stand up—certainly Nick couldn’t—but they could sit up which was infinitely better than lying crushed under an immense weight in the dust, unable to move.
She was held tightly by Nick, and he was the only thing keeping her sane.His strength was her bulwark against panic.
They sat in the dust, holding tightly to each other until Nick put his hands on her shoulders and pulled away.It felt awful not to be held by Nick.“You okay?”he asked.
Which was rich.He was the one who was wounded, who had taken the brunt of the world falling on them.
“Yeah.”Parker touched the side of his face where the gash was.It had stopped bleeding.“What about you?”
Nick didn’t answer.He’d picked up her cell and shone it around, studying their surroundings intently.There wasn’t much to study.Rocks and bricks and dirt.The frightening jumble which was left when the earth moved.
“We have to get out of here,” he said and she nodded.He studied the display of her cell.“No coverage.We’ll have to get closer to the surface to be able to call for help.I have my satphone with me, but it needs line of sight with the satellites.”
“We need to be fast getting out of here,” Parker said, worried.“The flashlight function uses the battery up and my recharger is in your vehicle.”
“That’s ok.When your battery runs out, we’ll use my satphone and I have a recharger with me.”
She glanced down at his cargo pants, dirty and bloodstained, with a billion pockets.“Hooray for cargo pants.”
He smiled at her.It was a crooked smile, with blood-caked dust providing the only spots of color in an ashen face.He was trying to buck her up because he understood as well as she did that they were in terrible trouble.
“Where’s the next room?”
“North.But I have no idea where north is.”
He bent his head over his complicated watch and pointed to his right.“There.That’s north.”
“You have a compass in your watch?”
He nodded.
“Then we need to keep heading north.The Blue Room was at the end of a wing.We’ll have to keep moving until we find a path through the rubble that will take us up.Without getting crushed in the meantime.”
Their eyes met.She knew he knew how almost impossible that was going to be.They were quite possibly already dead, and in their tomb, only they didn’t know it yet.
Parker was so grateful she was with Nick.He was probably regretting his offer to accompany her, but she was so glad to have him.She was barely holding it together, but though he was wounded and bloody, Nick looked perfectly capable.Just looking at him calmed her.
Without him, she’d…she’d die.She wouldn’t even know where north was.She had zero survival instincts.She’d blunder about until she triggered another fall of material which might crush her.Break bones.She’d keep her cellphone on until the battery ran out because she hated the dark.And then she’d just wait for death in the dark.
Instead, crazily, she thought they might have a chance.Nick was carefully studying their surroundings, and she was sure he’d come up with a plan.It was the way he was wired.He wouldn’t give up until they were dead, which might not actually happen.
“What’s north, Parker?What’s in the rooms along the wing?”
Parker closed her eyes and tried to think.“Not much.No frescoes.The walls aren’t stuccoed, they are dirt.The rooms aren’t even fully excavated.”
“Are they faced with brick?”
Parker tried to focus.The focus of the team had been on the frescoed room, which had soaked up time and attention.
“Not that I recall.Sorry.We were all focused on the Blue Room.The other rooms hadn’t been fully excavated, and they were just empty containers.”
“That’s for the best.If they had had fortified walls, they would have crumbled in the quake.Simple dirt walls—well, we’d have more luck trying to tunnel through them than pick apart heavy rubble.”
Well, that made sense.
“Okay.What do we do now?I mean we have to go north.There’s nothing but packed earth to either side.”
Nick had finished his careful perusal.“I think I saw an opening.”They awkwardly shuffled behind the steel panel.And there it was.Another steel panel in the brick rubble.
