Page 101 of Dark Shaman: The Lost Treasure
Time stretched like taffy. Each heartbeat seemed to last an hour, and Tamira found herself making bargains with the Fates, the universe, and with whatever powers might be listening.
Let him be safe. Let him return.
What if the stairwells flooded before he could?—
She couldn't complete the thought.
The storm raged on. Lightning split the sky. Thunder shook the ground. Rain fell in sheets that made seeing difficult.
He had to come back.
34
ELUHEED
The emergency stairs echoed with the thunder of feet and voices as Eluheed plunged downward, taking the steps three at a time. He could move faster than most humans, but that wasn't only because he could push his immortal body beyond what they could. He'd lived most of his life in steep mountains, climbing them up and down, so even though he'd slackened over the last few decades, his body still retained the strength it had developed over hundreds of years.
Still, he felt the weight of every second that passed. Water didn't wait for anyone.
Level Three flashed by in a blur, the library with its thousands of books about to become sodden waste. Level Four, where the recreation areas and some of the offices were located, would also be flooded soon, but Eluheed was concerned only with saving lives.
He burst onto Level Five to find relative order. The harem levels were occupied according to a hierarchy of size, and since this level was the smallest of the three staff residential levels, ithoused the upper management. The rooms were larger, and the number of occupants smaller than those on the levels below.
Most of the residents here had already evacuated or were in the process of climbing up the stairs. A couple of stragglers were weighed down by the possessions they were trying to save, packed into laundry baskets and pillowcases.
"Leave it!" Eluheed shouted as he passed a woman struggling with an overstuffed bag. "Your life is not worth what's in that bag!"
She ignored him and kept running with the laundry bag slung over her shoulder.
Hopefully, she wouldn't slow other people who were trying to save themselves and were more responsible.
A quick scan revealed that the entire floor was deserted, and Eluheed returned to the stairwell. It was now full of people rushing up, small children crying, and older humans moving too slowly. Some had stopped to help neighbors, creating bottlenecks. Others pushed past, survival instinct overriding community bonds.
He squeezed by them on his way down, and then he heard it—the sound of water finding its way through barriers, the groaning of doors under pressure. He continued down, fighting against the stream of evacuees. Level Seven was hopefully fully evacuated because the stairwell door was locked. It was already weeping, though, the water seeping beneath it in steady streams.
It followed him as he climbed back to Level Six, where the evacuation was a barely controlled panic.
"Mama! Mama!" A child's terrified wail cut through the chaos.
Eluheed followed the sound, splashing through the rising water. He found them huddled in a doorway, a man and a woman, each holding a small boy, one of the children crying for his mother, who wasn't the woman with the other boy. Eluheed knew most of the residents, but he didn't remember who was married to whom or which child belonged with which parent. The adults were trying to carry the children, but the water was making walking difficult, and the boys were panicking, fighting their parents' grip.
"Here," Eluheed said, not wasting time on explanations. He scooped up both boys, one under each arm. "I'll carry them up the stairs. Try to follow as fast as you can."
"But our things—" the woman started.
"Will be underwater in minutes," Eluheed cut her off. "Leave everything and move!"
He didn't wait to see if they followed. The boys squirmed in his grip, crying for their parents, but he held them secure and started the climb.
In normal circumstances, the six flights of stairs would be nothing for him, but these weren't normal circumstances. The stairs were crowded with evacuees, the children were terrified and struggling, and the water was rising below.
"It's all right," he told the boys, though he doubted they could hear him over their own cries and the chaos around them. "I'm going to get you out of here."
Fifth floor. His legs pumped, maintaining speed while carrying two frightened children with sheer determination. Other evacuees pressed against the walls to let him pass, some calling out blessings, others just staring with desperate hope.
Fourth floor. Third floor. The boys had stopped struggling, either exhausted or sensing safety in his firm grip.
Level Two. Almost there. The children were whimpering now rather than screaming, and Eluheed could feel their small hearts racing against his arms.
