Mulberry blinks, a smile tugging at one side of his mouth. “I think it’s obvious I’m not relishing leaving my pregnant best friend in a stairwell in the middle of an epic emergency.”
I snort. “The lights cue you in to the epicness of it.” They flicker, as if warning that it could be worse. I believe them. “You should go now.” I hold up the water bottle and the walkie talkie, then jerk my head toward Blue. “I’m good,” I say, slipping the walkie talkie into my cargo pants thigh pocket.
“Yeah,” Mulberry admits. He bends forward and steals a kiss from my lips, quick and chaste. I grab his neck as he pulls away—I’m still quick when not hauling my giant body around. His lips break into a smile and he comes back to me easily.
His hand lands on the step next to me and Mulberry leans in, levering himself forward so that our kiss can deepen. So that if this is goodbye, it’s not wasted. “I love you,” I say against his lips as he pulls away. “Go save the day.”
He laughs, low and rumbly. “I love you too. Take good care of our son.”
He leaves then, his steps echoing above us in the red haze of light. Blue’s nose touches my shoulder. “Let’s keep moving.” Using the hand railing, I pull myself back to my feet.
We climb, slowly, arduously. The need to pee comes on one flight later. Fuck. But we are almost at ground level. Then it will just be another fifteen to the top…
First, another rest. I land on the step harder than I mean to and my spine complains with a sharp pain. “Sorry,” I mutter. Blue presses close to me and whines. “I’m okay,” I assure him, putting an arm around his shoulders and hugging. “We’re okay.”
And that’s when the lights go out and we sink into utter and total darkness. My grip tightens on Blue. I am here. I am not unconscious. Always good to check.
My stomach tightens and I shift, trying to alleviate the spasm. It fades slowly, the darkness making the sensation that much more intense. I’ve never felt anything quite like it before. Blue whines again, pulling me from my thoughts.
I pull out my phone and activate the flashlight app. The stairwell comes back—gray this time instead of creepy red. But the pitch blackness below and above is not an improvement.
Finishing off the last of my water, I abandon the bottle and keep climbing. My hand is shaking, the flashlight bouncing, when the L painted on the wall comes into view. “Thank fuck,” I say, pushing against the door. It gives a little and water starts rushing into the stairwell. It swirls around my ankles and drains down the steps. The rumble of thunder comes with it.
I practically fall out into the flooded lobby. The water is brown and foaming. The scent of brine and earth is thick in the air. Lightning from outside strobes into the room—pitching it from light to dark. The thunder is a continuous deep rumble. I force the door closed again. It clicks into place and I turn, leaning against it. Blue sniffs the air, his head bobbing, as if he’s catching a ton of new scents.
“I bet the bathroom is fucked,” I say, though no one could hear me over the rolling booms of thunder. “Good thing I ran out of water.” I laugh at the irony that I’m standing in six inches of it, the water soaking through my pants, and into my boots.
Blue has no response. He doesn’t get irony.
I close my eyes for a moment, trying to orient to the strobing light and ominous sounds after the quiet darkness of the stairwell. That same strange tightness I felt in the stairs returns, as if deep inside me something is squeezing. It doesn’t hurt but is kind of nauseating. Probably some ligament thing because I climbed all those damn steps.
The front doors twenty feet away are open, water washing in and out as if the lobby is just a part of the sea. Ash blows in on a gust, pebbles spraying the surface of the water. A sense of intense awe rises up in me. Holy fucking shit.
An hour ago everything here was normal. And now it’s all destroyed. An alarm suddenly blares—wailing, competing with the thunder’s angry growls. My gaze is drawn to the speakers in the corners of the room—must be the fire alarm. They would work without power…probably have a battery backup built into them. A failsafe to the failsafe.
Sloshing through the water, I cross to the other stairwell. It’s up a few steps so the door is easy to open. And then Blue and I are back in the pitch black of the stairwell with only my phone’s light. The alarm isn’t as loud in here and the thunder fades as I climb. My wet boots squelch with each step.
Blue’s nose taps my hip rhythmically as we climb. When I get up one flight, the alarm stops and Mulberry’s voice comes over the speakers. I stop, my heart beating faster at the breathlessness of his tone. “Evacuate the top five floors. We have a fire in the battery room and need everyone out. It’s too dangerous to go outside but we can seal off the top floors. I repeat, evacuate to lower floors immediately.”
His voice stops and the alarm starts its moaning blare again. I pull out my walkie talkie and turn up the volume, trying to hear over the alarm but I must still be too far away because all I’m getting is static.
Frustration and fear war in my chest. Banging above us draws my and Blue’s attention. I lean over the railing and look up. The dim light of flashlight beams flash way above us. They must be evacuating. Voices echo but I can’t make out any words.
Blue’s nose swipes at my elbow. “Let’s keep climbing,” I say. “We can head to the medical suite. They may need our help.”
I take another step and am reminded that I really need to pee. Dr. Guilder’s advice to put on my own oxygen mask before helping others comes back to me. If I pee on someone that’s not helpful. At the next floor, I push out into the hall. It’s a residential floor. The sound of thunder reverberates and my flashlight swivels around until I spot a public bathroom. Thank fucking god.
After relieving myself, I return to the steps. There is still noise above—other people evacuating—and when I reach the fifth floor, I’m no longer alone.
People are helping each other down the steps; the scent of burnt flesh poisons the air. Flashlight beams bounce, making the whole thing seem even more chaotic. I don’t recognize the faces that the light catches on, but I do recognize the grim determination in their expressions.
Blue and I follow a stream of about ten people to the medical suite. It’s overflowing with patients. The few chairs are full and people are sitting on the floor. The scent of blood and burnt flesh brings bile up my throat. But my body calms and my head clears. I can help.
The windows let in the strobing light of the volcanic storm. The constant thunder is louder here but not as overwhelming as the lobby since the glass is thick and the walls are even thicker.
Dr. Guilder’s white jacket flashes in the darkness as she leans over a patient sitting in one of the chairs, inspecting their arm. I move through the crowd to her. “Dr. Guilder,” I say, drawing her attention.
She looks up at me, her headlamp hitting my eyes and forcing me to drop my gaze. “I have a lot of first aid experience,” I say…because while my training is not official, I’ve bandaged up a fuck ton of wounds. “Let me help.”
She nods, the flashlight bouncing. “This burn needs covering, I’ve already cleaned it,” she gestures to a kit at her feet. And then she’s gone, moving onto the next patient.
“Hi,” I say, to the person in the chair. It’s a woman, probably about my age, her skin smeared with soot and her eyes red-rimmed. “I’m Sydney.”
“I’m Pam.” Her voice is tight, skin pale, and pain is etched into her brow. I focus my flashlight on Pam’s outstretched right arm. The burn engulfs her hand and stretches to her elbow. The red glistening rawness makes my stomach drop.
“I’m going to bandage your wound,” I tell her.
“Okay,” she says as I lower to my knees. Blue’s nose swipes at my ear as I get down to his level.
“What happened?” I use alcohol to clean my hands. The scent of it relieves the stench of the place for a brief moment.
“Lightning,” Pam says. “It blew the batteries. I’ve never seen this much lightning in my life.”
“Me either,” I say. And I hallucinate the stuff all the damn time.
“The fire started small and we thought we had it under control. But then something blew. I don’t know what.” She winces as I lay a bandage onto the wound. A tear runs down her cheek. “We couldn’t get everyone out.” Her voice is choked. “We had to seal off the upper floors. The automatic locks weren’t working and so he had to do it from the inside.” Her words make my chest hurts. “He pushed me out and then…” Silence falls for a brief moment and a flash of lightning fills the room so that I can see every detail of her torched skin. “Mulberry saved us all.” The thunder comes, rolling into the room like a freight train barreling into a tunnel.
My eyes close, Pam’s words slowly sinking into my mind. Blue’s nose touches my cheek. Mulberry sealed off the burning room from the inside. Mulberry saved us all…that means Mulberry died.
