Final Truth

Chapter 42: Who Is It?

The wall doesn't move than a few inches, but compared to the way it was moving minutes ago, the difference is monumental.

"Again," Cade repeats, and we repeat the action.

A few more inches.

This goes on for quite some time, the pain flaring up my spine so powerful that white spots dance in my vision, but we finally manage to move the wall back about three feet, now having a much better view of what lies underneath.

Peering down, I can see that this piece of the wall was covering a small crater about four feet deep that other pieces of debris had made, the ruin underneath shrouded in shadows. However, it's impossible to miss an arm that hangs limply out of a pile of wood, the fingers twitching slightly.

"I'm gonna crawl down there and try to pull them out," Cade says to us, kneeling down to the three feet of open space and slipping in the hole.

He lands in a crouching position and crawls on his hands and knees over to the arm, not being able to stand up in the shallow crater.

Cade hesitates for a moment at the exposed limb, slightly anxious at what he'll find when he pulls the entire body out. He doesn't want to do what Genevieve has had to do now twice today.

However, Cade quickly swallows his fear and delves in, grabbing the person's arm and pulling them carefully out of the pile of wood.

He grunts but keeps persisting, a shoulder and a head and then an entire body finally freed from the destruction.

"Who is it?" Genevieve calls down.

I swear to God if it's Will...

"Adam," he responds.

Relief floods through me at this, but fear almost immediately replaces it when I see Cade trying to gather a very limp Adam in his arms to get him out.

"Is he...is he dead?" I ask.

"Can't tell, but he's got a piece of wood stuck in his stomach. Maybe if I removed it..." Cade trails off, but Cassia frantically voices her opposition.

"No don't!" She yells down to him, Cade giving her his full attention now. "Don't touch anything; if you remove that piece of wood, he might bleed out. Just bring him up here to me."

"Alright," Cade obeys, half carrying/half dragging Adam to the opening that Cade crawled through to get down there.

He lifts Adam up and the three of us reach down to grab at him, lifting him slowly but surely out of Cade's arms and onto the concrete above him.

Once Adam is settled, Cassia reaches down and grabs Cade's hands, pulling upwards and helping him out of the crater. He falls forward slightly with a huff when he makes it out, laying on the ground and trying to catch his breath after such a feat.

Cassia gives him a soft smile before turning her attention to Adam, sitting next to his body and assessing his condition.

Much like Kyle, Adam's red hair is limp and his face is an ashy grey, basically lifeless. However, despite the piece of wood lodged in his stomach and the countless abrasions littering his body, various in their severity, he breathes. Not only that, but his fingertips continue to twitch with the effort of moving.