John slowly shook his head to clear it as the roaring noise finally died away and he could actually hear again. He slowly elbowed himself into a sitting position, things crackling under him as he moved, shocked when he felt that other than some bruising that he was actually in one piece. He sat there in a daze for a moment before starting to try to work out where he was. Some light was filtering in, letting him see around the area. He glanced up, noting what remained of a stairway, now jammed with debris and pretty much impassible. It must have offered some sort of shelter though because the area near it was pretty much clear of the rubble from what appeared to be the floor above. John pulled himself to his feet, glancing down as he stood to see what he had been lying on, letting out a light chuckle when he realized that the piles of papers were in fact the old perminant records from the school.
"Shows what I know, trying to make them behave all those times. Should have let them do what they wanted. Would have had a much bigger pile to land in." Thinking of the records reminded him suddenly of the kids at the school and what had just happened to the quiet little town and suddenly he was frightened. Sure the kids were pains, but if anything happened to them.... And it wasn't just the kids he worked with either. There were their brothers and sisters at the high school and elementary school that had became familiar to him in the three years he had been there. If anything had happened.... Oh, this was bad. And the people who had been in the courthouse.... He leaned unsteadily against the wall for a moment to try to focus when he suddenly heard a low moan coming from somewhere off to his left, within the rubble.
"Hey, is someone there?" John called as he turned towards the sound, starting to quickly but carefully push things out of the way to try to find the source of the sound. He heard another moan, closer this time. Something about that.... Something was familiar but.... Then suddenly it hit him, the woman who had bumped into him right before the tornado struck. "Marshal Walsh? Catherine?" The name was right, he didn't know how he knew that but somehow he knew that the name he had called was right.
Catherine felt herself being drawn fully back to consciousness by the sound of a voice calling her name. Her eyes blinked open, not quite sure of what was going on. Why was it so dark all of a sudden and why.... It was so hard to think and she felt her eyes starting to slip closed again. Her stomach and head both throbbed with a stabbing pain and it was almost impossible to breathe.
"Catherine?" There was that voice calling her name again.... and then there was suddenly a bit of light above her, a hand reaching through the rubble and squeezing her hand firmly.
John let out a sigh of relief when he felt a squeeze of his hand, his mind now turning to how in the world he was going to get the poor woman free. The one thing that really worried him was what looked like part of a desk lying across her chest. "Cath, I'm going to have to let go of your hand for a minute, okay? Just take really slow breaths and I'll have this stuff off you in just a few minutes." Most of the debris was fairly easy to get off of her but the desk piece was harder and she let out a weak moan of pain as he shoved it out of the way.
"Catherine? Cath, you still with me? Open your eyes, okay?"
She could feel someone touching her gently as she forced her eyes open again. The person kneeling beside her was fuzzy at first but then her vision cleared a bit and.... "Noah?" she whispered.