The Rainmakers, ch 14
Boy Scout
We got a problem, boys. Damn…
Gantner's anxious voice answered immediately. "What is it, Mac?"
"Well, the corridor's caved in ahead here… I don't think I can make that Bio Lab." MacGyver spotted something lying in the dirt. He stooped and came up with a woman's high-heeled shoe. He shook the dirt out of it and examined it, then regarded the floor again. What few tracks he could see led toward the cave-in, but none of them led away. Where did they go?
"Back the other way, MacGyver. There's a control room – "
As Pete was speaking, a faint metallic ringing sound echoed though the corridor. MacGyver did not turn away; he froze in place and listened. "Hold it a second."
After a moment the sounds reoccurred… a rhythmic noise, but so faint that it was hard to distinguish exactly where it was coming from. MacGyver moved farther down the blocked corridor and saw that there was a gap between the ceiling and the top of the heap of dirt.
Casting aside caution – but hanging on the shoe he'd found – MacGyver scrambled up the mound of debris. He crawled in as far as he could, but the gap narrowed quickly to a couple of cramped feet of space. He wormed himself forward with elbows and knees until he could go no further, until several grey concrete blocks and a huge metal I-beam blocked his progress. He stopped there and became utterly still, listening.
Gantner's voice crackled through the silence. "Mac, what's happening?"
"I'm getting a tapping sound coming from the direction of the lab. I got a pretty big girder in my way here, though." The rubble groaned and shifted under him; Mac looked around, trying to estimate how much time he might have before the whole ceiling collapsed and squashed him like a pancake.
Things seemed to be stable for the moment, but MacGyver couldn't be sure how long that would last if he managed to move any of the debris. But first, he needed to be sure he was going in the right direction. Using what he had at hand, he rapped three times on the girder with the heel of the shoe. It made a sharp, loud sound.
"Come on back to me, one more time," Mac half-prayed, lowering his head to listen hard. Almost instantly, three clear taps came vibrating down the girder in answer. "I got some life down here, boys," Mac announced gladly.
⌂
After she had calmed down, Charlotte volunteered to take a turn tapping the distress signal. She was still afraid, but she channeled her stress usefully by banging away with the pipe. Each blow seemed to make her feel better.
It was beginning to get uncomfortable to breathe. People had begun to settle down on the floor, leaning back against the cracked walls or against one another. There was no more discussion concerning of the direness of the situation or the odds of being rescued. An atmosphere of anxious interest settled over them, as if waiting to see the result of a particular experiment. Some tried to sleep, others wept quietly into their hands.
When the sharp echoes resounded through the room, Charlotte dropped her pipe, she was so surprised. It clattered noisily on the floor. Everyone had lifted their heads at the sound, but no one spoke; they listened intensely, incredulous hope lighting their dirt- and blood-streaked faces.
Shakily, Charlotte picked up her tool, and taking a deep breath she gave the end of the girder three firm taps, just as she had been doing before. Then she clutched the pipe with both hands and prayed.
"I can hear something!" a woman whispered excitedly. She had been sitting next to the wall nearest the pile of debris. She cradled her injured wrist close and pressed her ear to the wall. "There's something scratching around up there!"
"Get back! Everyone, move away from the debris!" As a group, the survivors moved across the room and huddled against the far wall. Barbara was no less excited than her peers. She kept up the pressure on Dobbson's bandage, but laid her arm across his shoulders, giving and receiving comfort. Dobbson smiled with gratitude and patted her hand gently.
Hardly any oxygen was wasted for many long seconds as everyone in the room held their breath and waited.
⌂
Listening to the sounds scraping out of the radio speakers, Gantner managed to withhold his questions; it was obvious that MacGyver was in the middle of a situation and this wasn't the time to demand explanations.
For the moment, MacGyver was stuck. Colsen was scratching his balding head, staring off into the middle-distance as he spoke, "Ah, MacGyver… the girder. Can you move it?"
"Well, that'd take some doing. It's wedged in here pretty good." Mac's response had been stilted with the sounds of effort. "If I could raise it up about three or four inches, I might be able to swing it to one side . . ."
Gantner looked at Burke and Colsen; they both appeared cool and calm. Burke was leaning into the sounds of MacGyver's progress. Colsen was constantly flipping through the schematics or riffling through papers, trying to be ready to answer any question or problem that Mac might present.
Gantner felt useless just standing there. He was tremendously nervous, sweating badly, and his mouth was dry. The air conditioning in the control room which had at first felt icy and overpowering now seemed inadequate. He helped himself to a cup from the tray that one of the corpsmen had provided for them, pushing aside the microphone to take a drink.
"What was that sound?" Mac demanded.
Surprised, Gantner responded, "It was me, Mac. Just taking a sip of water."
"…Water..."
MacGyver's Voice-Over: I don't think I've ever moved so fast in my life as I did getting off of that pile! Using a fire hose as a hydraulic lift was an inspiration, and I didn't really know why I felt such urgency… I just knew I needed to move fast. As I cut through the thick material of the hose with my knife, I sent up a small prayer for forgiveness. Defiling fire hoses is something that I never like to do… but they are just so blasted useful! I didn't want to think about what would happen if the roof collapsed after I shifted that girder – I'd be trapped inside with whoever had been signaling – but I couldn't just leave them now that I knew that they were in there, still alive … could I? The lift was working like a charm! The trick was finding enough leverage as I put my back into the problem…
Water was the answer!
All three men in the control room became alarmed by the sounds of the grunts and groans coming over the radio, Had the roof collapsed on MacGyver? He sounded as if he were in great pain!
Pete couldn't stand it anymore. "MacGyver! What are you doing down there?"
"Prayin' my back doesn't give out."
MacGyver strained against the bulk mass or weight of the girder, grimacing as he pushed with his entire body and will. With a tremendous effort that wrung a roar from his throat, the beam finally shifted and then suddenly he was tumbling head-first into the Bio Lab in a slide of dirt and gravel. He couldn't keep in the grunt of pain as a rock about the size of his head bounced over him.
Adrenaline coursing through his body, MacGyver pushed-up from the dust immediately. He shook off the fall and the bruises as easily as he might brush dirt from his hands.
Even before he had picked himself up his long form from the floor, he looked up at the small crowd of surprised and relieved scientists and said – very matter-of-factly –
"Anybody hurt seriously?"
⌂
The crowd of bemused scientists watched MacGyver as he tumbled into the room amid a shower of dirt and rocks. They had expected to see the face of a fireman, dirt-streaked beneath a brightly colored helmet, or perhaps one of their own company's engineers, offering a hand through an opening carved though the impenetrable wall.
The last thing any of them had expected was to see a tall, youthful man, clad in a flannel shirt with a fishing bag slung over his shoulder, bursting through the wreckage like a stripper out of a cake! They looked at each other for a few seconds, wondering if hypoxia had already damaged their brains.
But the fresh air blowing in through the wide hole now gaping above the debris was no illusion. They breathed it in with deep and grateful gasps.
My God, thought Charlotte, still holding the pipe in her hands, they really did send us a Boy Scout!