Silver Lining

Chapter 4

 I was comfy and still tired. I didn't want to wake up right now.

Maybe I should go back to sleep for a few more minutes.

As I let myself drift off again, I began to remember what had happened earlier. The realisation caused me to sit up quickly, or at least try to. I was pinned down by something heavy that was beginning to push the life out of me. Twenty pounds says it was the table. I gingerly stretched my legs out as far as they would go and felt a painful twinge in my left leg. I wasn't sure if it was broken, but if it was I needed to get it straight before it healed. (You know, the quick heeling thing.) The rest of my body seemed to be in working order which was a relief.

The dust had settled, creating a thick blanked that muffled out all sounds. Even my own heart beat sounded strange in my ears. I twisted my head to the left and came face to face with a large piece of the ceiling. To my right.... well, I couldn't see anything to my right. Just blackness.

I struggled with the table, briefly wondering what the hell could've caused this and where on Earth the rescue service was. Ilish and I could survive like this for almost twenty times the length the others would be able to. Providing they weren't already dead.

“Ilish?” I hissed, coughing as the dust swept into my lungs. “Anyone!” my futile attempts to call her were drowned in a coughing fit. This was answered by someone else coughing.

“Grace?” A weak voice called and I breathed a small sigh of relief. At least Jasmine was alive.

I tilted my head in attempt to stop the dust from entering my mouth again before replying. “Jasmine, can you see any of the others?”

There was a pause before she replied. “Yeah. I can see Mel and I think I can see Xavier's foot.”

“Is it within reaching distance?”

“They both are.”

“Can you try gently shaking them and telling me if you get a response?” there was a minutes silence and a yelp of pain and a groan filtered through the block of fallen ceiling.

“I think I've broken my foot.” Xavier moaned, his voice laced with pain and suggesting that's not the only thing he'd broken.

“And I've just got a headache.” Mel reported and I instantly though of concussion.

“Can anyone see Ilish?”

“No.”

“No.”

“No.” three voices respond and I curse internally. If she'd stopped breathing or was breathing very shallow then her camouflage reaction would kick in, raising a whole load of questions.

“Try feeling around but don't move too much. Try and spot the others and get a response out of them.” I turned my head to the right again, trying to figure out what the black thing next to me was. I saw several cables and smiled as I recognised the back of the telly that sat in the corner of the break room. I was eternally grateful that it hadn't hit me when it fell, but it meant that I now couldn't see past it and it could've hit someone else. Neither of these two things were exactly ideal but I had no choice but to except them.

The reply from the other came back five minutes later, reporting that they couldn't see any of the others and I felt my heart sink. “Okay,” I called, feeling myself fall into the bossy, leadership side of my personality. “try and sit up, but do it carefully. If you feel any pain along your back, stop. Okay?” There were muffled responses but I could soon hear the others moving. I tried to free myself, wriggling back and forth and eventually finding enough room to manoeuvre out as long as I moved up and to my left slowly. It took ten minutes but I was soon free and crouched next to the table where I'd previously been trapped. I wriggled through a gap in the fallen ceiling to the other three, watching as they struggled to sit up.