Chapter 23
Chapter Twenty-Three
Nelly
The world seems to shrink as I watch Jake disappear into the blackness, he and his brother following the unhinged Floydene deeper into the tunnels.
I’m about to take off after them, but Carl physically drags me outside. “Not you. Don’t you dare go,” he says.
The old man is strong as I fight back. I can’t let Jake and Ennis die like this.
“Agent, that woman is definitely going to push that button and kill herself, and I won’t let…”
The sound of my voice is drowned out by the explosion.
Carl and I watch as the explosion takes out the silos one by one at the other end of the compound.
Olivia is beside herself. Carl hugs her to him.
It would be an eerily beautiful sight if I weren’t worried that people I care about could be hit by that explosion. It’s far enough away that any resulting fire may not have reached Jake. I can’t even think about it without wanting to scream and run in there to find him.
Carl orders everyone who’s still outside to take shelter in the barn and in the house, and takes Joaquin and Jefferson with him for crowd control.
While he’s busy, I go in. I can’t just stand here herding people and waiting to find out if Jake and his brothers are dead.
“I have to go in and get them out,” I say to Dani.
“I’m going with you,” she says.
“And me,” says a trembling Olivia. Jasmyn, Louisa, Goldie, and Georgeanne have also come outside after hearing the blast.
“We’re all going,” says Goldie.
And I know I can’t stop them.
Dani, I, and the others head toward the explosion, using the dim lights from our phones to guide us. We have no helmets, no gloves, no equipment. We could be heading straight into another explosion, depending on how well Ennis rigged everything.
But still, we do what we have to do.
The women with me form a brigade in the tunnel, clearing away rocks and rubble when we reach the inevitable cave-in caused by the concussion.
I work frantically at the head of the line, pulling and heaving and digging through the rubble as fast as I can.
I don’t care if I get crushed. If the brothers are dead, I don’t want to be alive on the outside of this tunnel.
I dig faster.
Suddenly, behind one of the rocks, I see movement.
A hand reaches out.
“Jake?”
“It’s Ennis!” Dani shrieks.
Thank god.
Dani furiously helps me move more dirt, trash, and rocks out of the way.
With some kind of demonic strength taking over, I huck a boulder out of the way, and now we have Ennis’s whole arm, shoulder and part of his abdomen free.
I can see his face.
“Are you hurt?”
“N…no!”
I’m trained well enough to know by his voice that he’s in a lot of pain.
Carl helps to pull him out.
“Go to Dani!”
Dani grabs him, and they run toward the entrance. It’s just Carl and me now.
Jake is right behind Ennis, and I curse a blue streak as we work to pull him free. Wylie pushes his way through after Jake.
“Let’s go!” Ennis shouts. I don’t know why the rest of the canisters didn’t go off, but let’s not find out!”
I shout at the rest of the women to run ahead of us to the entrance, and I bring up the rear.
“I forgot to tell you something before I went back in,” Jake rasps, coughing and wheezing ahead of me.
“Stop talking, you’re too slow,” I holler at him.
We’re finally out, but I’ve seen how these things can blow, and I don’t want anyone standing in front of the entrance of the mine shaft, just in case.
“Everyone scatter!” I shout.
Jake grabs my hand. “I forgot to tell you I love you!”
Boom.
As another container ignites, we are blown off our feet.
Not unlike flying in a dream, we sail hand in hand, ass over tea kettle, about ten feet in the air.
Unlike a pleasant flying dream, we land on the ground.
I’m jarred so severely by the impact that everything goes black.
For how long, I do not know, but I wake some moments later to Jake’s voice.
“Nelly!” He sounds so far away.
I’m seeing stars.
Or is that smoke?
And then, everything is kind of hazy.
I can see Jake’s face above me, and he looks so worried.
My ears are ringing.
“Your timing with the ‘I love you’ stuff leaves something to be desired,” I manage to wheeze out.
“Can you move? Can you wiggle your toes?”
I can. I can wiggle my toes and turn my neck. My body is definitely going to hurt like a bitch tomorrow and the next day, and the next. But I’m going to be OK.
I think.
“Yes,” I rasp back. “And I love you, too.”