Italicized words: thoughts and/or to make emphasis.

EIGHT

Rescue efforts continued on into the latter part of the evening hours. The third floor of the Moonlight Hotel slowly started to fill with smoke for the damage had made its way up and soon, the whole hotel will be nothing but a huge pile of ashes.

Underneath on the first floor, many, if not all survivors have been escorted out and recovery efforts are now underway. Teams swept the accessible units and fire exits and found many dead patrons and staff and prepared body bags to transport them to various hospitals to be identified, prepped, and families not waiting outside the hotel, notified about their conditions.

Outside, loved ones rushed to greet survivors who have made it out with little or no injuries and some followed those whose injuries warranted them trips to the local hospitals. Others were not in good spirits when they discovered that their loved ones were unfortunate victims of the building's devastation when they didn't see them either walking out on their own, or on gurneys. Chaplains and grief counselors were on hand consoling the grief stricken. City sanitation workers and utility crews were working tirelessly to clean up as much of the debris as possible without disrupting police investigation areas and power and water line shut off temporarily within the city block of the hotel. Little by little, professional and civilian rescue crews carried out the bags of the fallen and loaded up ambulances and made their way to the hospitals. Their day of service has come to an end.

"Hello viewers, I'm Angela Mongoose with an update on the latest developments on the tragedy at the Moonlight Hotel. Rescue efforts are slowing down as we see that many of many of the patrons and staff of the hotel have either been taken to area hospitals and some behind me in the comfort of loved ones…." The reporter stopped in mid-sentence and placed a finger on her earpiece as she received news to deliver to the viewers. "Yeah….uh huh…ok….now? Ok, thanks. I just got word that there are still some survivors trapped on the roof and helicopter medical units are positioning themselves to rescue the remaining survivors before the imminent collapse of the roof. As you can see, (camera is angled to show the smoky roof and those trapped on it) they are waving to the helicopters to alert them of their presence…" As the reporter droned on about the current situation outside of the hotel, we go back inside of the hotel.

Unfortunately for Shadow, he landed in an area of the first floor where the first wave of rescuers had no safe access to and was overlooked completely. With the fear of not knowing if he'd actually broken his back on the rubble, the half-conscious Shadow wrestles with the option to attempt to move but he's stuck at a mental crossroads. He did his best to put himself into a calm state and relaxed all of his muscles. He began to put the past few days of his young married life into perspective. The more he thought of these events: his and Rouge's vows exchanged to one another on their wedding day, their thoughts about spending the rest of their lives together after the marriage, the excitement of their honeymoon, and now this point in time, those thoughts would be the motivation he needed to test if his back was indeed broken. He began to slowly turn his body onto its side. His back isn't broken, but the pain is so intense, he threw himself onto his back once again to alleviate some of the pain. He knew he couldn't stay like this if he ever was to make it out of the hotel alive. He attempted again and he got as far as being on his hands and knees. The pain is evident on Shadow's face and he held back a muffled cry. After crawling a few yards forward, he resigned to a sitting position against a pile of rubble. He thought he would make one final attempt to get up and with his final try; he closed his eyes and softly called out the name of the person who would inspire him to ultimately get up and save himself. "Rouge…"

Shadow, not far from the hole where he fell through, with whatever strength he had left in his massive arms and legs, with a pained grunt lifted himself up using the rubble as leverage and began to climb just for some of the debris from the uppermost floor to come down on him and he was forced to go onto the second floor.

On the second floor, Shadow stood before the imposing mound of rubble contemplating on how he was going to climb without causing the rubble to slip from underneath his feet when his sensitive ears caught a distant cry from a nearby unit. With all of the smoke that had accumulated, it's a wonder that they are more survivors alive. Shadow staggered his way towards the unit and banged on the door. Holding a cloth to his mouth to block out as much smoke as possible, a stocky brown bear named Curt opened the door and is relieved that help has finally arrived for him.

"Are you alright? Good thing I heard you crying for help. I know a way out of here, follow me. By the way, I'm Shadow."

"Thanks a lot Shadow, I'm Curt. Man, I thought I was gonna die in here."

Shadow slowly walked toward the rubble and Curt stopped him. "I think there's another way out; that way…." Curt pointed in the opposite direction. Shadow is unsure if that's the safest way out seeing that the smoke is very dense and faint light from fire can be seen.

"I don't know about that way."

"Trust me, I was on my way there earlier but I got too scared to go by myself so I went back inside the room to wait for someone to come for me. I think we can get around that smoke; there's some stairs leading to the third floor, Hurry!" Curt started to walk briskly towards the stairs. Shadow, not so much…"Hey, I'm hurt pretty bad; I can't walk as fast as you."

"Sorry, let me help you…." Curt attempted to hold up Shadow but he declined the offer and suggested that Curt just walk in stride with him. Approaching the stairs, they hear sounds of soft pained moaning.

"Do you hear that?" questioned Curt.

"Yeah. It's another survivor. I wonder how many are still alive. The smoke alone should have killed us all."

"Well, someone wants us around a little more huh?"

"I suppose."

The two men headed towards the sound and discovered an elderly woman barely clinging to life trapped underneath a large steel beam across her mid-section moaning with internal injuries, injuries evident by the blood sliding out of her mouth onto the floor. The men kneeled on either side of the woman. Curt began assessing her situation and thinks about ways to get the beam off without causing further injury to her. As he was thinking, Shadow leaned down and told the woman that they are there to help and as soon as possible will have the beam off and get help for her.

"Shadow, this damned beam will need both of us to lift it. I know your back is bad; I'll bear most of the weight, alright?"

"Don't worry about my back. Equal weight distributed means the beam is lifted faster. She cannot afford us playing around with the beam Curt."

The woman moaned louder as to tell her bickering saviors "Get a move on! My lifeblood escapes me with each passing second!"

"Sorry Ma'am, we're gonna lift the beam slowly. Please stay as calm as you can, ok? Here we go…." instructed Curt. "Shadow, we'll lift on three."

"Yes, on three…."

Shadow and Curt got themselves on opposite ends of the beam to get a handle on it. Just thinking about lifting the heavy beam with his back in such pain, made Shadow give a grimacing look to the beam. Curt looked up at Shadow with a questioning look and Shadow nodded telling him that he's ready to get this ordeal over with.

"Come on Shadow, you can do this, you can do this!" he whispered to himself. He and Curt began to lift the beam. Shadow felt every bit of his back muscles wrenching tight, nerves pinching causing great pain. He placed his head to his chest with his teeth clenched. His eyes shut tightly. The more weight his arms and back bore, the louder he hollered until the beam was slowly moved aside freeing the woman from her steel prison. Curt, being the healthier of the two men, lifted his end almost effortlessly. The elderly woman lifted her head as much as she could and thanked her saviors with a very soft voice. Shadow breathing heavily, looked at the woman with compassionate yet painful eyes, dropped to his knees, rolled his eyes up in their sockets and fell forward passing out from shock. Curt, not knowing what to think of what just happened to Shadow, panicked and ran towards the stairs to find out that Shadow's option was the only way to get out and made his way to the rubble and climbed all the way to the third floor and out onto the roof to seek help for the two injured he left behind.