Beyond What is Given(98)

The longest fifteen minutes of my life passed as I made my way to the gym. I cut across half a dozen yards, and got out at one point to move a fallen tree with three other guys.

Fire trucks passed, sirens blaring.

The devastation was… Damn. There were no words. Roofs were ripped from houses, trees downed, people stood aimlessly in their yards, surveying what was left. I flipped the 4X4 switch and crept over the debris that lay scattered into the road, and then threw it into park when I reached the remains of the gym. There could be people under there. Sam could be in that mess.

The windows of the gym were all blown out, and the roof was gone. It was a bare-bones structure, only the support beams remaining intact. I saw more than one treadmill attached to the trees that surrounded the gym.

“Avery!” Maggie screamed behind me.

She’d parked her car behind the truck. “She’s with Sam,” I answered.

“Oh, thank God. Where are they?”

I shook my head at the pile of rubble in front of us. “They’re in there. They made it to the locker room before it collapsed.”

She bent over at the waist, gasping for breath.

“Wait here, Maggie.” I wanted to comfort her, but I didn’t have anything to give.

My eyes scanned the debris field as I climbed over it, making my way slowly to the gym. Water sprayed from somewhere in the corner. The showers. I picked my way over equipment, careful to watch where I put my hands.

She was here. She was alive. She had to be.

There was simply no other option.

I forced the terror further back in my mind. It would do her no good right now. My foot fell through a hole in the rubble, and I hissed as the wood scraped my shin. Oh yeah, that was bleeding. I pulled my leg free and wiped the blood away. Just a scrape.

Another couple minutes and I stood at the frame for the locker room. The handle twisted in my hand, but the door wouldn’t budge. She must have used the deadbolt. Smart girl.

Using my hand, I dug through the wood and mangled metal until I got to the floor so I could open the door. I had to be able to get her out. “Sam! Avery!”

“Here!” the muffled sound came, and I nearly collapsed in relief.

“Avery, I’m coming! Is Sam okay?”

“I…I don’t know. She’s not moving, and there’s blood. A lot of blood.”

I had to get in there now. What could I use to break the window?

Where was it? The stupid f*cking window breaker tool she keeps? Where is it? The water was creeping in, and she still wasn’t breathing.

I blinked and banished that memory. Sam wasn’t Grace. Sam was stronger, tougher, less likely to take the shit fate handed out lying down. She was a fighter. She was alive, damn it.

I looked up to see rebar sticking out of the framed wall. Crouching low, I jumped, and grasped the metal in my hands. It protested, but held my weight as I pulled up and then swung my leg over the top of the wall. I landed in a shower, careful to absorb the impact.

“Avery? It’s Grayson.”

“Here!” The sound came from the left, so I walked that way and saw a stream of light shining from under a pile of concrete.

She’s alive. Just dig. She’s there.

I startled as my phone rang, then pulled it out of my pocket. Jagger.

“What?” I snapped.

“Are you okay? Jesus, this place is destroyed. Not the house. We’re okay. Paisley, Josh, we’re good. But Grayson…we can’t reach Sam.”

My throat closed as I started pulling the concrete cinder blocks from the top of the pile, wedging the phone between my ear and shoulder. “I know. I’m digging her out now.”

“Fuck. Is she…”

“I don’t know. It’s bad. Jagger, I don’t care if you have to get your f*cking father on the phone, you need to get an ambulance here. We’re at the gym. Please. Do this for me. Do this and I’ll never ask you another thing. I’ll fail the next test and give you the OML spot. I don’t care, just help me.” My fingers were already scraped and raw as I lifted brick after brick off the pile. Off the girls.

“I’ll do my best to get an ambulance, but this town is blown to shit.” He swallowed. “I love Sam like a sister, Grayson. We’ll get someone there. I’m with Josh, and we’re already at the intersection of Rucker Boulevard and Eighty-four. We’ll be there in a couple minutes. Let me make some calls.”

I hung up without waiting for him to finish. He needed to get a f*cking ambulance here, not baby me. “Avery?”

“Yeah?” she asked in a shaky voice.

“I need you to tell me if you start feeling more pressure, okay? If I do anything that squeezes you?” I flipped another brick.

“Okay.”

“What’s on top of you? Is it hard? Heavy? I need an idea of what’s pinning you.”

She was quiet.

“Avery?” I pushed the bricks faster.

“Sam.”

“What?” I paused.

“It’s Sam. She’s on top of me. She covered me when the lockers fell.”

My eyes closed as pain tore through my chest, at war with the overwhelming pride I felt in her. “Of course she did,” I said. “She loves you, Avery.”

“I know.” She squeaked the last part.