Page 61 of From the Ashes

“Fire department, call out!”I hear faintly through all the debris.

“IN HERE!” I holler back as loud as I can, not sure if they’ll even be able to hear me. “WE’RE IN HERE!”

“Who is it, Colt?” my mom asks in a trembling voice.

I crouch down to hold her hand. She’s pale and shivering, eyes red and wet. “Firefighters are looking for us,” I assure her. “I bet they’ll have us out in no time.” My heart leaps to think Zahir might be part of the rescue team, but it could easily be one of the San Clemente crews. Damn, I want to hug him, though.

Maybe finally tell him I love him. Nothing like a little near-death experience to make me realize how dumb it is I’m still afraid to do that.

My mom sniffs. “And will you still be mad at me then?”

I sigh, frustrated with going around in circles. “Mom, I’m not mad at you and Dad. Really. I’m just telling you this is who I am and nothing’s going to change that. Believe me, I tried.” I laugh hollowly. “So, Iamafraid that means you’re going to be disappointed in me and love me less, maybe not even want to see me anymore. If that’s the case, I’ll have to accept it. But I can’t pretend for another damn day to be someone I’m not. Don’t you want me to be happy?”

“Well…yes,” she says slowly, wiping her face with her good hand. “But…”

Whatever objection she was going to try and convince me with, it’ll have to wait. We only get a split second’s warning as a different kind of rumble shakes the ground. Then an explosion fills the air and knocks me off my feet for a second time. I cry out and fling my arms over my head as more chunks of the ceiling and walls dislodge, the cherry blossom tree lurches down another several feet on top of us, and the rest of the glass around the fish tank shatters.

That’s when the flames erupt.

“Get back!”I scream at Portia and my mom before scrambling over to my dad, trying to shove the structural beam off his chest. “It’s okay, Dad, it’s okay,” I utter.

He whimpers. “Colt, I…hurry.”

Portia settles my mom farther away from the flames then rushes to join me, throwing her weight under the other side of the beam. “On three,” she grunts. “One, two?—”

“THREE!” we cry together, managing to budge the post just enough that my father can wriggle out from underneath.

But much like a game of Jenga, by moving one piece, we disrupt the rest, and chunks of flaming concrete start crumbling free of the rubble wall like a mini avalanche. Portia pulls my father to her as I tumble away from them, hitting the ground.

“COLT!” my mom screams as pain shoots through my left leg as well as the back of my head. The light from the fire gets blocked out by the debris mounting up. I hear bottles smashing and more smaller explosions popping, and metal, concrete and wood snapping.

Then the throbbing in my head gets too much. Blood runs into my already stinging eyes. I cough and splutter, but consciousness slips away from me.

Then there’s only darkness.

CHAPTER 24

Zahir

“Zahir, maybe you should stay back,”Lieutenant Flores says, raising his hands as if to try and stop me.

Wild horses couldn’t drag me away.

I barely even register him or what he’s saying as I dash past, racing toward the back of the restaurant where we’ll hopefully have better access.

What I don’t expect to run into are two of the waiters and what looks like a couple who’d been in the middle of dinner when the earthquake hit. All four of them are in what’s left of part of an office and a corridor that leads to a door that’s no longer there. They’re heaving chunks of stone and lumps of wood away with their bare hands.

“Thank god!” the man yells when he sees us, pausing to wipe his brow. “There are people under there!”

“We’ll take it from here,” the lieutenant says as he and Dray usher the good Samaritans away from the unstable area.

“Are any of you injured?” I ask, doing a quick visual assessment as they fumble their way through the debris littered all over the ground.

The man takes the woman’s hand as they and the waiters allow the firefighters to jump in and take over where they left offclearing the rumble. “We’re all okay, right?” he checks with the group.

They all nod, but one of the waiters points to the worst area of collapse. “Table twenty-five got caught between the wall collapse and the tree falling,” he tells us earnestly. “I saw it! They were fighting, so I was keeping an eye on them. We got this couple out,” he says, indicating the man and woman currently clinging to each other. “But they’re still under there!”

“How many people are there, sir?” Lieutenant Flores asks.

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