10:40 a.m. Coping

Slowly, Newkirk opened his eyes and became a bit more aware. There it was again. That Voice. It was muffled, but he recognized that voice from somewhere—didn't he? Either he was going crackers, or he was dying. And if he was dying, he probably wouldn't be hearing singing like that where he was most likely headed…so, what? Crackers, then? It was the dark doing it, or the blood loss, maybe…because that voice…wait. No, he knew that voice. God, he was so tired…he relaxed and just listened…

"…sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me…" the voice faltered a bit and coughed. "I once was lost, but now am—" Newkirk was startled by the next words. "No, I'm NOT found God! I'm stuck here and I'm alone and I'm scared, and I'm afraid Peter's dead!"

Now he could hear Andrew's muffled sobs from somewhere near him. "I'm sorry I'm such a big baby God, but you know I hate the dark and I can't even move, so if I gotta die will you please hurry up. Just make sure to take care of Peter for me." There was an immediate frustrated huff. "I'm sorry for yelling." Newkirk's heart broke as he heard a shuddering breath and then— "was blind but now I see," as his best mate finished the song quietly.

Newkirk called out, "Andrew, hey, Andrew!"

Andrew opened his eyes. "Peter, is that you? Are you alright? Where are you?"

"Not sure, mate. Been out, apparently. Just opened me eyes, for all the good it does. Can't see a bloody thing. Dark as pitch."

"Yeah, me, too. I was afraid I was blind."

"Not unless we both are, mate." Actually, Peter could now see fairly well in the dim light, but he didn't want to scare Carter any more than he was already.

"What about you—are you okay?"

"Pretty banged up. I'm okay, but I don't think, I'm goin' anywhere at the moment, mate."

Carter must have been pretty bad off to miss Newkirk's obvious meaning. Because Peter Newkirk's left leg from the just below his knee down was crushed between their bunks and the floor of the tunnel. The bunks were jammed together and tilted at a crazy angle above him. And Andrew was caught between those bunks.

Not wanting to add to Andrew's worries, Peter tried to sound casual. "I heard you say you're stuck. Are you hurt, do you think?"

"Yeah, but I don't know where or how bad. Parts of me hurt a lot and parts of me don't; and I can't move at all. Your bunk crashed down on top of me so I'm kinda like the peanut butter in the middle of the sandwich right now."

Newkirk smirked. Typical Carter. "Could be worse, mate, you could be the jelly."

"Yeah, I kinda thought of that…. Do you think the others are alright?"

Newkirk considered. "I hope so. Still don't know what the hell happened. Somebody musta bombed the camp by accident."

Carter was quiet for a moment. "No, not exactly. I think it was an earthquake. A big one."

Newkirk was startled. "But I thought this part of Germany didn't get earthquakes. I remember that guy, Bigelow, in Barracks 10, you know Biggy, the one from California, sayin' that was the only good thing about bein' in this camp."

Carter coughed again and after a time spoke seriously. "Biggy was right. There never has been a really serious earthquake in Northern Germany. They mostly occur in the southwest region and most aren't terribly serious. A lot of them are set off by mining blasts in the area. I think something similar set this off."

Newkirk was confused. "A mining blast caused an earthquake that big?"

Carter's tone was dark. "No. A test of some kind. A bombing test."

10:50 a.m. Found: Taffy Matthews

On the far side of Barracks Two, several of the rescuers had been digging away debris for a couple of hours when suddenly they detected movement. Tossing away a few more boards, they uncovered the very welcome sight of a much battered but grateful Taffy Matthews. He blinked rapidly in the sudden light. The first words out of his mouth were, "Anybody seen Olsen?" The two were bunkmates and had become good friends.

A laugh went up as someone handed him a canteen, and someone else went to find Olsen as they carefully extricated the chaplain from the wreckage. In a few minutes the friends were briefly reunited before Olsen hustled Taffy off to be checked out at the makeshift infirmary before returning to his own rescue duties.

~TBC~