Page 111 of Never Fall Again

The voice was close enough that he could distinguish it. That was Mo. He tried to call out. “Mo!”

“Cal!” That was Meredith.

“Faster!” Connor.

“I think these are his legs.” Chad. “Focus over there. Get his face uncovered.” Cal felt the shift in their efforts. The pressure around his face was less than it had been before. “We have to get him some air. No one can survive long—” The word choked off.

“Cal, man, if you can hear us, try not to move. We need to get this off you. It isn’t deep. Hang in there, bro.” Connor, taking charge as usual.

“Not going anywhere.” Cal did his best to project his voice.

It must have worked, because the next thing he heard was Chad. “Well, this confirms our suspicions. He’s going to have a smart mouth until he’s dead—and probably even after.”

They were close enough now that Cal could hear the emotion in Chad’s voice. He had so many questions, but one couldn’t wait. “Landry?”

Silence. And that told him everything he didn’t want to know.

“Get me out of here!”

A frantic thirty seconds later, the final weight lifted from his face. “Cal, don’t move, man.” Connor again. “You’re in some kind of burlap. I’m going to cut it open. Don’t want to slice your face.”

Cal fought his growing desperation to get out of the ground and lay still. When the burlap split, he saw Chad and Connor peering down at him. Tears streaked their faces.

Chad gripped one side of the material, Connor the other, and they yanked it apart.

Chad reached toward him, his hand landing on Cal’s chest. “Talk to me.”

Cal gulped in a lungful of air.

“He’s going to need oxygen.” Connor took Cal’s face in his hands. “I don’t think he’s firing on all cylinders yet.”

“Well, of course he isn’t,” Mo said as he continued to dig near Cal’s legs. “It’s a full-blown, no-doubt-about-it miracle that he’s alive. If he’d taken the time to pack down the soil ... if we’d been ten minutes later...” Mo cleared his throat. “I didn’t expect him to be alive.”

“Mo, thank you for keeping that tidbit to yourself.” Meredith’s voice was thick with emotion. “I don’t care how it happened. I’m just thankful he survived.”

Cal continued to focus on his breathing. The more oxygen he took in, the clearer his thinking became. “I’m with Mer on this one. I don’t need to know. I just need to get out.”

“Working on it, bro.” Connor leaned toward him again. “Thank heaven he buried your legs deeper than your head.”

“Where’s Landry?”

No answer.

“Eliza?”

Still no answer.

“Chad?” Chad never could keep anything from him.

From his position on the ground, he saw Chad’s Adam’s apple bob. “They’re both missing. Half the town’s looking for them. The other half’s been looking for you.”

Somewhere nearby, he heard Meredith. “Gray. We’ve got Cal. He was buried in a shallow hole on Landry’s property. Yeah. Maisy led us to him.” A pause. “No idea.” Another pause. “Yeah. Will do.”

They had his arms free now, but he still couldn’t sit up because his legs were pinned. Chad, Connor, and Mo scooped out the dirt around him with their hands.

Meredith knelt beside him and traced his face with her fingertips. “Cal.”

“Tell me what happened.” Maisy danced around the hole, and he reached for her and held her close to get her to calm down.

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