Time Bomb(19)

Cas





— Chapter 15 —


FIRE ALARM.

The sound pounded in her temples. Bwoop. Bwoop. Everything was ringing.

That was wrong.

Cas shouldn’t be hearing anything anymore. This was all supposed to be over. But her shoulder and cheek hurt. Something hard was digging into her side. Something heavy was pushing down onto her back, and the fire alarm was screaming.

And she smelled smoke.

Cas opened her eyes and closed them again as she coughed.

Dust. There was lots of dust in her eyes and burning her throat. Fear punched through the confusion, making it harder to think. She couldn’t think, because nothing made sense. Everything was wrong.

She closed her eyes, then snapped them open again.

The gun. Where was the gun?





12:06 p.m.





Diana





— Chapter 16 —


DIANA LOWERED HERSELF back to the ground and took a deep breath to calm herself but coughed instead. Dust and smoke filled her mouth. She coughed harder as she rolled onto her right side so she could see if there was a way out in that direction.

Nothing. She was blocked by twisted metal. The left was almost as bad. Light shone through some of the debris, but none of the openings was big enough for her to shove herself through. If she tried moving anything, it would probably shift other wreckage. The metal thing wedged above her could come crashing down and . . .

No. She wasn’t going to think about that. Thinking about that wasn’t going to help her out of this. She felt around for the backpack she’d had with her. Nothing. It was gone.

She couldn’t do anything about the bag. She had to focus and try to find a way out of here.

She couldn’t go up. She couldn’t roll to either side. That meant she had to move forward or back.

Coughing, she squinted into the dimness in front of her, then looked behind. It was brighter that way. Light was good, right? Light meant a way out.





Z





— Chapter 17 —


THE SOUND HIT HIM FIRST. The wailing, high-pitched beeping.

Z’s heart raced.

His mouth went dry.

A denial sprang to his lips as he jerked his head up and opened his eyes.

Where was he?

He’d expected to see nurses rushing in to answer the alarm. But he wasn’t in the hospital. His mother was gone. The siren wasn’t for her.

Desks.

Dust.

He squinted and pushed himself up to his knees. A chunk of something fell off his back as he looked up into the bright blue sky. He was at the school, and he shouldn’t be able to see the sky.

That’s when he remembered.

“Kaitlin!” He scrambled to his feet and shoved aside a desk. Where was she? “Kaitlin?”

Maybe she ran out. Maybe . . .

He saw Kaitlin’s hair first. Then he saw the massive gray-and-black steel air conditioner that had crashed through the roof and onto her.





12:08 p.m.





Diana





— Chapter 18 —


THE SPACE WAS too tight for Diana to get on her hands and knees. The best she could do was raise herself up onto her elbows and wiggle backwards inch by annoyingly and terrifyingly small inch.

Something hard jabbed into her elbow. She yelped and forced herself to keep going, because staying here wasn’t an option. Not unless she wanted to die.

“I’m not going to die,” she said, coughing as she scooted backwards again. She bit back a whimper as something tore through her jeans and into her flesh. Don’t think about it. Just keep going and get out of this.

Her head spun as she tried to decide how far she’d come. A foot. Maybe a bit more, and that had taken forever. Or maybe it just felt that way. Her heart raced as she gulped in air and coughed from the dust and smoke. She shouldn’t have been here. She should have said Screw it when Mrs. Kennedy told her to finish up what she was doing.

Diana looked over her shoulder. The light was brighter. She was going to get out of here.

She moved faster, pushing with her arms and wiggling back with her hips. The ground beneath her slanted a bit. That made it easier. Come on. A little farther. The light was closer. Just a few more shifts, and she’d be free.

She shoved herself back again, and something cracked. Loud. The ground beneath her shuddered and tilted, and then she started to slide.

Metal groaned.

Tile and debris and shards of metal scraped her arms as she desperately reached for something to grab on to. Anything. There had to be something to grab. She wasn’t going to—

Her hand cracked against something hard. Pain shot up her arm. She screamed. Then she couldn’t breathe, because suddenly, there was nothing beneath her legs. She was going to fall. Oh, God.

“Help!” she yelled as her searching fingers wrapped around something cold and hard—a desk leg. She jolted to a stop and struggled to keep her hold. The weight of her legs pulled at her, threatening to make her lose her grip, which was slick with sweat and probably blood. This was bad.

“Help!”

Diana struggled to hold on while moving her other arm to grab hold as well. Got it. She felt a surge of triumph that faded as she tried to pull herself up and barely moved an inch. Come on, Diana. You can do it.