CHAPTER 12
The explosion rocked them backward, a percussive force pulsating through both the air and water.
They saw the door burst from its hinges and some unknown force seemed to wrench it free from the other side, and water…there was water everywhere.
"SWIM!" shouted Horatio at full voice over the screeching echo of the door, the rushing water, and the other voices in the space beyond.
Water poured through their unexpected escape route, and the four CSIs were forced to fight against the current to reach the doorway.
Calleigh never hesitated and immediately began to swim, but Eric could tell she had stopped breathing in her fright.
"You gotta breathe, Calleigh," he called to her as she battled against the current, just loud enough for her to hear.
Water inundated them from all sides. It was evident now that a rampaging flood had been awaiting them just on the other side of this door, and Horatio and the team had reached them just in time. The water must have been nose deep in the hallway before the underwater charges breached the door and the deluge began to fill what space remained in the locker room.
Eric kicked his feet, hard, and sliced his powerful arms against the onslaught, and while he saw Calleigh take a deep breath and double down her efforts at his side, she wasn't strong enough to best the current.
If Calleigh struggled, there was no way Natalia would make it in her state, not even with Wolfe assisting her. Eric couldn't spare a glance in that direction, but he didn't need to check to know Nat wouldn't make it without more help.
In one sweeping move, Eric scooped Calleigh onto his back and began to kick harder, at the same time he yelled, "H! Rope! Natalia and Wolfe!"
Eric felt Calleigh protest against him for only a moment before she complied with his movements. At that point, she relaxed and streamlined her body as much as possible against his to reduce the drag and make Eric's job easier.
He torpedoed through the water with Calleigh holding on tight to his shoulders, and they made it past Horatio and the broken door frame just as a member of the water rescue team tossed a rope over their heads to Natalia and Ryan.
"Keep going," Horatio ordered when they made it out of the locker room and into the flooded hallway. "The extraction team is waiting by the south stairwell."
Eric trusted his LT to get his two friends to safety. His only job right now was to ensure Calleigh made it out unharmed, so he immediately took off with mighty strokes toward the south corner of the building.
Once they passed the worst of the swirling water, Calleigh wanted to tell Eric that she could swim the rest of the way solo. But she also knew he could swim faster with both of them than she could on her own, so she simply clung to his strong shoulders and let him swim their way against the current, down the dark hall toward the floating headlamps that must belong to the extraction team.
By the time they reached the rescuers and Eric latched on to a proffered rope, the water was so deep even Eric's feet didn't reach the floor.
Calleigh spied their exit route via the open stairwell. Murky waves poured down the stairs from the first floor, and she knew they lacked only minutes until the entire basement would be under water.
Eric had been right earlier. Horatio never abandoned them; rather, he had gathered a rescue party and worked to hatch their escape plan. The headquarters' ground level must be under several feet of water, so that Horatio possessed a finite window of time in which he could reach and extract them before they all drowned in the effort.
A finite window which Calleigh saw closing before her eyes as the water crept closer and closer to the top of the stairwell doorframe. They would have to dive soon if they wanted to make it to the next level of stairs and up past the cascading torrents to safety.
A massive influx of water approached them and suddenly her view of the stairs through the door vanished. Only a few feet of air remained between the top of the doorframe and the ceiling now.
"Eric!" Calleigh warned.
"Hold on!" he called to her. "I have the rope but we have to dive for about ten feet."
Calleigh felt his back muscles contract as he took a deep breath. She did the same, and when she signaled she was ready, he ducked their heads beneath the water and tugged as hard as he could on the rope, pulling them through the depths flooding the doorway and toward the stairs he now couldn't see.
The rope burned as Eric placed one hand over the other and pulled and kicked his way forward. Soon, their heads surfaced above the water, but they now faced the problem of wading through the rapids flowing down the stairs from the ground floor.
Calleigh released her hold on Eric and he moved her body in front of him, where she gained a foothold on a stair, grasped tightly onto the rope, and began to fight her way upward. Behind her, Eric used his heavy weight to simultaneously push them forward and keep them upright.
Finally, they emerged on the first floor. While their feet could touch the ground, the vacuum effect of the water rushing down the open stairwell door forced them to still cling to the rope.
Eric followed the lifeline with his eyes until he spied the anchor point—another three-man rescue crew positioned on the next landing of the stairs between floors 1 and 2.
"Incoming!" he shouted.
Eric and Calleigh finally cleared the watery depths, fighting their exhaustion to climb the remaining stairs and reach the crew on the landing.
"We have two more down there," Calleigh stated, trying to catch her breath.
As if on cue, the rope she and Eric still held in their hands went taut, and they turned their backs to watch anxiously as Ryan emerged from the flood below…dragging an unconscious Natalia with him.