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Chapter 13

When Steve regained consciousness, he had a terrible whistling in his ears and a headache. Blood ran from a laceration on his temple. Groaning, he pushed a piece of debris off of him and sat up. Everything hurt, but he could move reasonably normally. He turned on the flashlight on his cell phone.

"CATHERINE?" Far too loudly he called her name, but he got no response. "CATHERINE!" "I'm here!"

Breathing a sigh of relief, Steve fought his way through the debris over to her. He quickly cleared away the debris that lay on top of her.

"Are you okay?" "Yeah, I think so."

Slowly she straightened up. Everything hurt for her, too, but as for Steve, it seemed to be limited to bruises and lacerations.

"Damn, what was that?"

"This Theo guy apparently blew up the hospital. At least Danny mentioned his name on the phone before all hell broke loose here."

"But so soon after each other? Yesterday the mall, today the clinic?"

"Unusual, you're right."

Catherine pondered, "Maybe he brought the act forward because the attack yesterday was foiled?" Steve nodded. "Possibly."

He picked up the cell phone with the light and looked around.

"Okay, how do we get out of here?"

Catherine followed his gaze.

"That looks like part of the ceiling has formed a cavity. I don't know how long that's going to last or what kind of weight is on it right now. What does your cell phone say, do you have reception?"

Steve shook his head, that was the first thing he had checked.

"Damn."

"Okay, let's see if we can find something to make our presence felt."

Steve glanced worriedly at the ceiling. Dust was trickling down from there again and again. Suddenly they froze.

"Help? Can anyone hear me? Help?"

Both of them hurried to the place from which the shouts came. Together they pushed away a larger part, behind which a low passage emerged.

"Hello?" Steve shone a light inside. He couldn't see much.

"Hello, can you help me, I'm stuck." Steve pocketed his cell phone and began to carefully push his way through the hole. Hissing, he sucked in a breath as his stomach complained at the unaccustomed activity.

"Steve watch out."

Then he was on the other side, pulled out his cell phone again, and he looked around this second room. Here, too, similar to them, a large part of the ceiling was canted, so that a cavity had been created.

"Where are you?" "Here." That's when Steve saw a hand come up from behind some debris. Carefully, he climbed over the other debris and took the buried man's hand. Beneath the dust, he recognized the orderly who had brought him to Catherine weeks ago.

"Commander?" "Hey Max."

He shone his light down at the buried man.

"Let's get you out of here, then." Carefully, Steve tried to move the large piece of debris resting on Max's leg. It was too heavy. Searchingly, he looked around and then pulled a metal pipe from behind another chunk.

"I don't know how long I can hold it, Max. Once your leg is relieved, you'll have to roll off to the side."

"All right."

Steve started and just before his strength left him again, Max rolled forward under the debris. The block flew to the ground with a thud. Max sat up and looked at his leg in the light of Steve's cell phone.

Hissing, Steve pulled the air through his teeth. The leg didn't look good. Searching, Steve looked around for something to splint the leg with. He climbed over Max and dismantled an IV stand. He secured it with his shirt, which he had previously removed and torn into strips.

"Thank you. Commander."

"Call me Steve." "Thank you, Steve."

Steve gave Max his cell phone so he could shine it for him and went back to the small passageway. Overall, he had the impression that this room was more stable than the other.

"Cath?" "Yeah?" "Do you think you can make it through the hole? The cavity here seems a little safer to me."

"I'll try." He heard her move to the floor and slowly push herself forward. "Is it going?" "Hmmm."

"You're almost there." He held out his hand and helped her up.

"Are you okay?" She nodded, but he could tell her body didn't like the unaccustomed exertion at all. Max, who had been holding the cell phone with the table lamp, suddenly froze when the phone made a sound and didn't dare move.

"Steve, your cell phone has reception again."