Here's the next chapter! I really hope you guys like it... Please vote and comment for it and share it with your friends... Please try this book even though it's not part of The Elemental Chronicles. :D Please give it a try! Picture of Viktor on the side. :)
Chapter 3
"Jennings! Campbell! Laurel!"
Laurel groaned, feeling pressure and a gritty pain in her head. There was something warm and heavy on her, pressing her to the floor, coupled with something extremely heavy on her legs, making them dig into something sharp and extremely painful.
The voices were making her head throb; she could hear them coming from somewhere above her. She inhaled and exhaled slowly but thankfully nothing seemed to be hurt badly.
"Dickinson! Gavin! Viktor!"
Laurel tried to move and felt something hot trickle onto her chest. She squinted, trying to see something in the dim glow of light coming from somewhere far above. Then she shrieked as she realized what was lying on top of her.
"Wait, I heard something!" It was one of the Enforcers who had been guarding the perimeter. "Can you shout again?"
Laurel was hyperventilating now. The thing that was crushing her was Campbell and he was bleeding badly from a large cut on his forehead. She had no idea if he was alive or dead; she couldn't check on his condition, not when she could barely move.
"I'm here!" She tried to say, but dust caught in her throat and she started choking and coughing instead.
"Laurel!"
This time, she felt the weight on her legs shift. She moaned a sigh of relief when the pressure was elevated.
"Can you crawl out?"
"Viktor!" Laurel breathed a sigh of relief.
"Can you?" Viktor repeated, his voice somewhat strained. "I can't hold this machine forever!"
"Viktor, Campbell!" She gasped. "He's on top of me; I can't move. He might be dead!"
There was a pause. Then the pressure on her legs returned and she screamed in pain and shock.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" Viktor said. "I couldn't hold it any longer!"
"Viktor? Laurel? Is that you?" Sergeant McCarthy called.
"Yes, it's us!" Viktor shouted back. "And Campbell too!"
"Can you get out?" he asked.
"I'm out, but Laurel's trapped!" Viktor yelled. "We're in the basement."
Sergeant McCarthy swore. His voice came back somewhat muffled. "Half the house is on the basement." Then he spoke in a lower voice to the other Enforcers, but Laurel and Viktor could still hear him. "They're buried alive. We need to get them out of there before the house starts shifting."
There was a pause in speech for a moment; Viktor returned to trying to heave the machine off Laurel. Suddenly, Campbell's weight shifted on top of her and she gasped in relief as the pain in her legs eased.
"Viktor?" Laurel gasped. "What did you do?"
She was able to sort of sit up now. There was a complete barricade of ceiling and machines around her; the only reason that she hadn't been completely crushed was because Campbell had literally held the weight off her with his own body. She could now see his twisted and mutilated bones and it made her sick to her stomach. His hand was missing; it had been crushed under the machine next to her. Since Campbell and Dickinson had been handcuffed together, she presumed that Dickinson was also under the machine, which would explain all the blood that was now soaking her side.
"Campbell's holding the machine up," Viktor said. "Do you think you can crawl out now?"
"I think so," Laurel said shakily, looking at the small hole that Viktor had made in the rubble. "I'll have to come out feet first though."
"Worth a shot," Viktor said and Laurel started straining to make her way out. It wasn't as hard as she had thought; it was lucky that she was so thin and small. Halfway, her hips almost got stuck, but with a massive and painful tug from Viktor that probably left her with scraped and bloody hips, she managed to get free.
Then she saw Viktor's body.
"Viktor, what the-" She exclaimed.
The siblings were crouched in an area of the basement that had been protected from the falling ceiling thanks to the taller bookshelves that had blocked most of the debris. Viktor, however, was covered in ugly cuts and scrapes all over his arms and his singlet was in shreds. He even had a new singed haircut and a nasty burn on his cheek.
Viktor grimaced. "I kind of set off that bomb to destroy the evidence and get you guys away from Dick. I jumped behind a table, but I guess it didn't shield me from the worst of the shock."
Laurel's mind was reeling with shock. She could understand why he'd done it; the evidence would have sent them all into the lockup and they had all been Dick's captives. But his injuries...
"Viktor, Campbell's dead," she said. "I think Dickinson is too."
Viktor looked at her. "But we're not going to be locked away. That's what's important."
Laurel's stomach roiled at her brother's callous attitude, but despite her anger at him, now was not the time to argue.
"Let me help," Laurel said, reaching out to touch his cheek.
"Leave some of them," Viktor warned in a low voice. "They'll be suspicious if I'm unscathed from the explosion."
It wasn't something Laurel did often, but there was always a satisfying feeling when she helped someone in this way. Only Viktor, their younger brother, Niko, and Chase knew about it. After all, Viktor and Chase had been the ones with her at the time that she had inherited her ability and they were also the only ones with similar gifts.
Like always, a warmth started to tingle in Laurel's palm and then a soft glow enveloped the burn on Viktor's cheek. Then the tingling spread out to the wound and the burn started to heal.
Laurel hadn't always been able to heal things. It had been something that she, along with the three guys, had inherited from the game. Whilst in the game, they had actually been caught in the VR virus release, but thanks to the powers of their avatars, they had remained safe. When they had gone back to the real world, they had all brought something back with them. In Laurel's case, one of her new talents was the ability to heal small wounds, even though it brought on a bout of exhaustion.
After she had fixed his cheek, he pushed her away. "We have to find the others."
"Gavin!" He shouted. "Are you here? Grant? Jennings? Eve?"
There was no response except from above and a scraping sound started echoing around the room as one of the heavy stones or metal was shifted above.
"Hang on, Viktor!" Sergeant McCarthy shouted down. "We're getting you out of there!"
"Gavin!" Laurel shouted, but this time, she caught movement on the other side of the room.
It was Jennings, a little worse than for the wear, but nonetheless alive. He had lost his rifle, but he still had his sidearm. One of his arms was hanging limply at his side. He crawled out from behind a twisted heap of metal.
"Silver," Jennings said, his voice raspy. "Where are the others?"
"Campbell and Dickinson are dead," Viktor said grimly. "I don't know about Gavin, Grant or Eve."
Then the stones above shifted again and something crashed into the corner. Instinctively, Laurel ducked, but it was in the far corner.
"Sorry!" Sergeant McCarthy shouted. "Almost there!"
Something else shifted and then the sergeant's face appeared above them. He was holding the long end of a rope.
"Alright, we're getting out of here," he shouted. "Laurel, can you grab the rope?"
"We have to find Gavin first!" Laurel said, slightly panicky; she was not going to leave anyone behind if she could help it. Not this time.
Jennings looked at her. "Laurel, chances are that Gavin's gone. We have to get out of here before the other grenades go off. Viktor stripped off his grenades just now; who knows what might set them off!"
"I'm not leaving without him," Laurel insisted. "What part of leave-no-man-behind do you not understand?"
Sergeant McCarthy looked grim. "Look fast," he insisted. "Where was he standing when the explosion went off?"
"Next to me," Jennings said. "I jumped behind that machine, but I didn't see what he did." Then he added, "Laurel, look for Gavin, Viktor, look for Eve, I'll try and find Grant."
"Hurry up," Sergeant McCarthy said. "The stones won't hold forever."
Laurel scrambled over the stones and started tugging at them experimentally. They were supporting a portion of the house; it wasn't as easy as just yanking metal and stone out of the way. She had to test, tap and ease the debris around so that it wouldn't crash down on her.
She was heaving a particularly heavy machine to the left when the hand grabbed her wrist. Since her nerves were so frayed, she let out another gasp, but she was extremely relieved when she recognized Gavin's dark and dusty hand.
"Gavin!" She cried. "I've got him!"
Viktor was at her side in a flash. With his help, they managed to ease the majority of the rubble out of the way, like they were playing a retarded game of Stacko Uno. Once his torso was revealed, Viktor tied the rope that Sergeant McCarthy had lowered around Gavin's waist and Viktor tugged him out with him easing himself out slowly and Laurel pushing aside the smaller pieces pinning him down.
"Thank God," Laurel said, flinging her arms around him.
She was shaking and practically in tears; she did not think that she could face the fact that he was gone. He was here, warm and solid, in her arms. A little banged up, yes, but still there.
Suddenly Jennings came scrambling over to them. "Get out, now! I noticed some trip wires; I'm guessing the idiot who owned this house had some security measures set up in case something happened to his equipment. I think this whole place is rigged to blow!"
Viktor swore violently. Gavin made a platform with his hands for Laurel to step on, boosting her up until Sergeant McCarthy was able to grab her wrists to pull her out. It was faster than using the rope; Viktor tethered himself to it while the sergeant managed to get Laurel out of the cellar. Jennings gave Gavin a boost once Laurel was free. It was a tighter squeeze for him; he was not as slight as Laurel was and the other Enforcers had to help dig away more rubble to make the hole somewhat larger.
Once Gavin was out, Viktor had to give Jennings a boost. The problem was that no one was tall enough to jump out on their own; they had to use the rope to be pulled out. Since Viktor had tied himself to the rope first, it looked like he would be last out although Laurel knew that he had wanted to be the second one out, since it was obvious that she was going to be the first.
Jennings was even harder to free than Gavin. He had much broader shoulders than the latter, not to mention that he was more muscled and therefore heavier. It took several tries and some very creative cursing before he was in the upper room, lying on his stomach and holding the rope to pull Viktor out.
"Climb, Viktor!" Gavin called down once Jennings was out of the way.
Viktor was already doing just that; he swarmed up the rope as best he could. Thanks to the training from the Enforcers that they went through every day, he managed to make it up in double quick time.
Laurel rolled over, breathless from the quick escape from the underground laboratory. But they weren't free yet; the house could still blow and kill all of them in the blast. One explosion was bad enough. She had no desire to get caught in a second one.
"On your feet, intern!" Sergeant McCarthy barked, grabbing her arm and hauling her to her feet.
Under his strict instructions, the Enforcers, Jennings and the three interns staggered out of the ruined house, slipping and sliding over the blocks of wood and stone, until they reached the truck. They had barely made it more than a half-a-dozen steps before the house completely blew sky high behind them.
This time Gavin shielded Laurel with his body; even behind the truck, the explosion shook the earth. The blast was at least twice as powerful as the one that had caused the laboratory to blow up. Laurel bit back a sob as she remembered the last time someone had tried to protect her with himself; the reminder of the AR technology and Gavin's actions reminded her too acutely of Kieran and their last traumatic day in Phantasia.
It was a good thing that Sergeant McCarthy had ordered them to go behind the truck. Wood, metal and stone hit the truck in a whirlwind of debris and the truck itself tilted on its wheels from the impact of the detonation. The Enforcers shoved back; the truck stayed upright. But that didn't stop their ears from ringing afterwards.
Once the ringing had subsided, everyone looked at one another, their faces reflecting the exhaustion and anxiety that each of them felt. But Sergeant McCarthy did not let them dwell on it for long.
"Hayes, try to start the truck; if it fails, see if there is another vehicle nearby," he ordered. "This technological expert will definitely have some sort of functioning vehicle, provided it hasn't blown to kingdom come. If you aren't hurt, Enforcers, make a protective perimeter around us; Jennings, tell me what happened down there. Laurel, make sure that Kinley and Silver are not dying. Is that clear?"
"Yes, sir!" Came the collective response and everyone hustled off to do their respective work.
Laurel turned to Gavin and Viktor, but Gavin crushed her in a tight hug, almost as desperate as the one she had given him when she realized that he wasn't dead.
"Don't ever do that again," he told her fiercely.
"Get caught in an explosion?" Laurel asked.
"Get taken hostage by an idiot of a Dickinson," Gavin said, his eyes boring into hers. "Next time, they might not be as gullible as he was."
A small smile curved Laurel's lips, but it vanished as quickly as it appeared. "Gavin, Campbell thought that I was pregnant," she whispered. "He really believed it. That's why he protected me from the blast; he thought that I might be having a miracle baby! He's dead... and it's my fault because I lied to him!"
Gavin put a hand to her mouth to stop the words from tumbling out. "Laurel, he started that lie," he said in a low voice. "He knew what he was doing. I don't think he believed for one second that you really were pregnant. But he did believe that you are fertile, which is why he saved you. Plus, that's what Enforcers do; we protect people."
Laurel wanted to break down, but now was not the time. She tightened her jaw and stepped back from him, wanting to switch to her professional doctor mode so that she could get away from her emotional turmoil.
She had lost her main kit in the explosion, but she still had her smaller one with her. Quickly, she fished out a small bottle of purified water and doused Gavin's wounds in them, cleaning them and wrapping them in bandages so that they wouldn't get infected. Wishing that she could just use her healing powers on him, she gave him a shot of painkillers and an antibiotic; he was hurt more from the explosion than he was letting on. Once he was patched up, she turned her attention to her brother. He was also wounded, but fortunately, she had managed to use her healing powers on him before Jennings and Gavin had been found, so his wounds were significantly less severe.
Just then, two Enforcers came up, having gone with Hayes and his partner in search of a vehicle. They approached Sergeant McCarthy, who was talking with Jennings.
"Sergeant, Hayes found a car," one of them said. "But it isn't big enough to hold all of us. It can take six max and there are eleven of us."
Sergeant McCarthy turned to Laurel. "Medic, how hurt are Kinley and Silver? Do they need to get to the hospital desperately? Is anyone else hurt?"
"No, no one is," Laurel said, zipping up her med kit. "They're not doing too badly, but I don't think they should be walking or doing anything strenuous if I had my way. If there's a choice, I'd want Gavin and Viktor to go by car back to the city."
"Right," Sergeant McCarthy said. "Hayes obviously goes to drive; you said the car can fit three more, if Kinley and Silver go by car, right?"
"Yes," he said.
"Jennings, Silver, you two go with them," Sergeant McCarthy said authoritatively. "I value your skills as a medic, Silver, but I have three very good reasons you should go in the car. 1. The boys might need your medical expertise if their wounds become infected. 2. You're not trained as a soldier and you would not be able to defend yourself if we're attacked. 3. Jennings tells me that you might be pregnant?"
Laurel blushed. Her cheeks flamed; she did not know why Jennings would tell the sergeant that, unless he had some ulterior motive that she did not understand. It was also embarrassing, much as she liked Gavin, it made her seem easy, like she would spread her legs and sleep with anyone.
"Get Hayes's regular partner to go with them too," Sergeant McCarthy told the Enforcer who had brought him the news about the car. "We can't have three injured and one pregnant person in the car with only one Enforcer to protect them. Go!"
Laurel gave Sergeant McCarthy some of her supplies and explained how to use them, but he insisted that she keep most of them in case she or one of the others succumbed to their injuries on the ride back to the city. She also insisted that their injuries weren't that serious, but he was adamant about her having most of them.
Sergeant McCarthy traded some of her supplies with a gun; he gave Laurel a sidearm that she knew how to fire and Viktor a spare rifle. All of Viktor's weapons had been lost in the basement. He also gave Brandy, Hayes's partner, and a reliable communications expert, a solar-powered radio to communicate with the Enforcers back in the city and also with him; the sooner a car could come back to get McCarthy and the others, the better.
The car was not big at all; Laurel, Gavin, Viktor and Jennings had to sit crammed together in the backseat, wincing every time one of their wounds throbbed. Hayes drove and his partner, Brandy, sat up front with Hayes. Brandy, who knew something about communications, was working on the handheld solar-powered radio he had on him, rotating the crank the whole time.
The engine of the car was noisy and not working at extremely high capacity. They moved slowly and with each groan of the engine, Laurel feared that the car would stop altogether. However, it was much faster than walking.
Laurel was exhausted, but she didn't dare let herself sleep. She kept pinching herself to keep herself awake, but she could tell it was harder for Gavin, Viktor and Jennings. Although they were trained to stay awake and fight off sleep as the soldiers they were, they had been doing much more physical activity than she had.
She occupied herself with checking Jennings' medical condition - he was a little bruised and banged up, but not bad, considering that he had just been through an explosion - and when that was done, she made sure to wake the soldiers on the hour and shine a light in their eyes to make sure that they didn't have concussions.
Finally, Brandy snapped his fingers after what felt like four hours but was most likely two at most. "Got it!"
Everyone jerked awake, the three soldiers immediately reaching for their guns. Laurel's hand went to her scalpel instead of her sidearm; she was more used to the fine blade than bullets.
Brandy cranked the handle on the radio three more times and then a voice came out of the handheld.
"... and we'll take Silver to the Facility. We already have him in custody. There was a little issue with taking him in, but we handled it. His older siblings were out, so there was no one to stop us. We'll issue the formal report about his breaking of the Hephaestus Laws tomorrow morning before the other Silvers return. Over."
Laurel made a strangled noise in her throat when the voice finished speaking. Gavin clapped a hand to her mouth and motioned for Brandy to change the channel on the radio. Before he could, however, Viktor grabbed his wrist to stop him from doing so; someone else was responding to the first Enforcer.
"Well done, Dean," came the response, a cold icy voice that sent chills up Laurel's spine. "Now get off the channel before someone overhears you, idiot! Over and out."
The radio went silent and all Laurel could hear was her blood pumping in her ears.