Before (Part 1)

Chapter Twenty-One

"This reminds me of the time when we celebrated Jacob's birthday at your old place. Remember when you made that horrible cake that everyone hated?" Madi laughed. Jeff put his hands on his hips, obviously faking a frown as he mockingly puckered his lips in a pouting fashion, causing Madi to laugh even more.

"You're just jeal-"

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! 

The sound of bombs going off echoed through the apartment, throwing Madi and Jeff to the ground. Sam let out a loud bark, barely heard over the noise as the dog lept down, joining her master on the floor. Madi covered her head with her right hand, holding Samantha close with her left as the ceiling collapsed down on top of them.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

The explosions kept coming like rapid fire, shaking the building and the ones surrounding it. Madi kept her eyes squeezed shut as the weight kept baring down on and around her frail body, still healing from the trip to the hospital. Sam whimpered by her side, knowing that Madi was in pain. The smell of smoke began to drift through the air as fires began to break out where power-cords had been damaged, causing Madi to cough.

"Madi!" she heard from underneath the rubble and debris. Jeff. He was still alive. "Madi, can you hear me?" he shouted as he struggled to lift the chunks of ceiling off of her. Sam whimpered again as she attempted to help by trying to stand up, pressing her back against the large chunk of metal on top of them.

"Jeff." Madi coughed. A piece of debris in front of her face was quickly thrown out of the way, creating a small hole. Jeff jumped down, looking through at Madi.

"Madi, are you okay?" he asked her quickly. Madi coughed again.

"Considering the fact that there's a ceiling on top of me, I'm not doing so well, no." she replied. Jeff smiled, relieved that she was feeling all right enough for sarcasm. She gave him a small smile back and he stuff his arm into the small hole towards her.

"Take my hand. I'll pull you out. But we need to hurry." he told her. "These explosions caused some fires that could possibly get to the electrical wiring system, which could blow this whole place up in smoke."

"I think Shredder already did that. Here, help Sam out first." Madi said as she started to push Sam from behind, while Jeff grabbed onto one of her paws. Sam yelped as they struggled for a moment, then got her out completely. Next was Madi. Jeff stuck his hand back in towards her.

"Here, take my-"

BOOM!

Jeff let out a shout of pain as he was thrown to the ground by one last explosion, flying shrapnel and debris peppering him with cuts and scrapes as they dug into his skin. Sam had been fortunate enough to be close to the ground, which meant she didn't obtain as much damage as Jeff had. His body hit the ground with a loud THUD! as he landed on his stomach. Then was motionless. Madi's eyes widened and her heart began to beat rapidly in her chest.

"Jeff." she said, then let out another cough.

Silence.

"Jeff, can you hear me?" she said. Sam sniffed him, then licked his ear. He didn't move. "Sam, help me out of here." Madi told her dog. Samantha stuck her head into the hole and let Madi grab her collar, allowing her to drag her out from underneath the large pile of debris. Madi quickly got to her feet and looked around, realizing just how much damage the bombs had done.

There was no ceiling.

At all.

There were no walls either, it was like they were on the roof. Small fires lined the edge of the building where the power cords and electrical wiring were and had been damaged, which was dangerously close to them. Madi didn't take too much time to look around, though. She was too concerned about Jeff at the moment. She quickly knelt down beside him, rolling him over onto his back. Her eyes almost jumped out of their sockets as she saw all of the blood on his chest. She began to shake his shoulders slowly, then gradually gaining speed as tears began to well up in her eyes.