SKIPPING TIME

Chapter 28

                 

                 

                 

Then, miraculously, Cacee was there. Jess peered through blood and water and fire to see her kneeling at his side, her mouth forming frantic words he couldn't hear. He felt a sharp pain in one cheek, along with some kind of gentle warmth in the other. He became aware that Ray was smacking him and yelling, "Get up! Goddamn it, kid! Wake up! We have to move!"

Shane was on his other side, licking him frantically, whining and growling, his coat matted with ash and dirty water. The warehouse was still and silent—the only sound the pattering of the rain and the angry hiss of fire as it struggled against its nemesis. Whatever had happened was over.

Ray didn't seem convinced of that though. He hauled on his arm, trying to force him to his feet. Jess managed to cough, "Cacee?"

She leaned over him and he saw that she was soaking wet and streaked in soot, but miraculously unharmed. She ran her hand over his face, "Jess! Jess! Are you okay?"

He felt some of his strength return and nodded before shoving Ray off and staggering to his feet.

Ray grabbed Cacee's hand and barked, "This way." The fire was almost gone now, but through the smoldering embers Jess could make out the small shadow of Digits, riding Ray's shoulder. He could no longer see any trace of the warehouse. It had been utterly destroyed, leaving only wet ash that turned the room into a chilling wasteland of gray.

Cacee turned, calling, "Shane, here boy" but her pup was by his side, pulling on his jeans insistently. Jess bent over, fighting off a spell of dizziness to scoop up the little dog, who immediately resumed licking his face.

Cacee's words from the last day they'd been friends returned to him. The memory felt like a dream of some other life. He could hear her voice, excited and sweet, see her face lit with awe "...and, you're never going to believe this, but it turns out that Shane's some kind of healer. It's crazy, right? But, if you think about it, you'll realize it's true."

His mind returned to the present, and he realized that, despite how sick he'd been all week, right now holding Shane actually helped. His head felt clear, even though it pounded, and his legs were steady again, although stinging and dripping with blood. Ray called impatiently. "Jess! This way. Now, kid!"

Cacee had already disappeared through the trap door. Glass cut through his socks with each step, but he moved as fast as he could. When he was a few feet away, Ray grabbed him by the arm and drug him towards the hole in the floor, hissing, "You want to move a little faster? We're still under some kind of attack; they'll be here any minute!"

For the first time, he grasped what happened. Ray's enemies. They must have hit the warehouse with something like an EMP wave, only about a billion times more powerful. Although the attack had seemed to last forever, his inner clock told him it had only taken a few minutes. If The Station did it to disorient Ray, they'd be moving in any second. His remaining confusion lifted, and he listened closely as Ray instructed, "Get through the hole. Feel around for the ladder and climb down. I'm right behind you. Go!"

Jess swung his leg through, climbing down, still holding Shane. The dog had turned in his arms and seemed intent on licking his face the whole way down. Between Shane's administrations and the fear and adrenaline again flooding his system, he felt his strength returning. With it came an understanding of the danger they were still in. He tried to move faster, even as his body started frantically urging him to crawl back up.

All around him was darkness. As the earth pressed in on him, the air became thinner, harder to breathe. Jess felt the familiar tightening in his gut, the sick rush of claustrophobic fear. He could smell blackness, a dank, rich scent, like rotted earth. None of that mattered though because, somewhere below him, was Cacee. He kept climbing down and called softly, "Cace? You there?"

Her voice was shaky. "Yeah."

"You okay?"

"Uh-huh. Do you have Shane?"

"Yeah, he's fine. I've got him."

He stopped and hooked his arm over the ladder, wiping his bloody palms against his shirt and then holding on gingerly again, trying to ignore the pain from the shards of glass lodged in his feet while climbing down as quickly as he could. His eyes strained to see in the darkness, and he heard a grunt and splash from right underneath him. "Cace!"

"You're almost down! I expected a rung and got the ground."

He put his feet down carefully and felt cold water and concrete. There was a low splash as Ray dropped to the ground beside him and sent the beam of a flashlight through the darkness. Jess searched out Cacee and relief sent another shot of weakness down his legs. Halfway down the ladder, even his claustrophobia had been taken over by heart-stabbing conviction that there was no way she'd come out of the attack unhurt.

He stepped towards her and pulled her into his arms. It was hard to talk through the burning in his lungs, but he half-whispered, "Thank God you're okay."

She stiffened but said, "I'm fine. Are you alright?"

He moved away uncomfortably. With all that had happened, he'd somehow forgotten the fight directly before it. The hurt and distrust on her face was a clear reminder. He rasped, "Yeah. Thanks."

"Are you sure? It looked like your head was cut pretty bad." He nodded, wincing at the sandpaper sound of her voice, even as some small, distant part of his brain noted that the lower register sounded sexy on her.

"Jess?"

He realized she couldn't see him. Ray only had the flashlight trained on her. He spit out the blood dribbling into his mouth and lied, "I'm just wet from the sprinklers. I'm fine." Even as the words came out of his mouth, his body took note of his surroundings and began shaking, turning him into a liar.

Ray whispered, "C'mon! We've gotta move!"

Jess held Shane tightly, hoping that would help, as Ray gestured, "This way."

He and Cacee followed silently. He'd heard Ray tell Cacee that the warehouse room was about seven stories down. Being in the warehouse had bothered him after that, but not too much, since he'd constantly either been distracted by Cacee or pissed off. That, combined with the cavernous ceilings and bright lighting had allowed him to pretend he wasn't underground. It wasn't like that now. He was one-hundred percent aware that they were buried deep in the earth.

In the flickering gleam of the flashlight, he caught streaks of graffiti and trash piled high against curved walls. The air reeked of decomposing garbage and rusty water. Worse than that though, was the endless darkness. It felt rotted and wet and obese. He would suffocate beneath it.

Shane squirmed to get down and Jess realized he was crushing the poor pup. He forced his arms to unbend and put him on the ground. He fought the desperate desire to curl up in a ball, shut his eyes tight and pretend he wasn't here. It was getting harder and harder to breathe. He'd have rather faced an army of men stalking them than continue through these tunnels.

A mixture of sweat and blood trickled into his eyes, burning them and blurring his vision. He clamped his teeth shut, trying to control the way they'd started chattering, but then couldn't breathe that way. He unlocked his jaw, struggling to not hyperventilate, doing his best to keep his eyes locked on the small form of Cacee in front of him, the only thing that was keeping him together at all.