Indiana Goes West (Mail Order Brides of Pioneer Town, Book 1) (11 page)

“I’m glad then, for I need you alive to fit
in with my plans. In fact, your beloved Indiana and her dear mother
are dining with me at this very minute, oblivious to the fact that
you’re not far from them. Deborah and I are making wedding plans
for Indiana to be married to me as soon as possible.”

Morgan suddenly found his voice. “You’re
lying!”

Cade laughed, a dry, gloating laugh. “No, I
can assure you, Morgan, that I have made a deal with Indiana. I
won’t kill you, if she marries me.”

The sound of Cade’s maniacal, gloating
laughter stayed with Morgan long after Cade had left the area.

Chapter 18

Indiana fell into an exhausted sleep. She was
awoken early in the morning by an earthquake. The shaking was
violent. All the hairs stood up on the back of Indiana’s neck. She
knew at once that something out of the ordinary, something truly
awful and worse than a tremor, was happening.

Indiana hurried to the top of the stairs and
looked down at the room below her. Deborah, Montana, Leah, and
Misty were gathered there. Leah was rubbing her eyes and yawning.
The earth was still shaking violently.

Deborah looked a little untidy, not her usual
perfectly groomed self. “Girls, we have to get out of the house
now! Hurry!” Her voice rose to a shriek.

I can’t go
, Indiana thought,
not
without Morgan.
What will I do? I’ll have to go to Charles
and tell him everything
.

“Indiana! Are you listening?”

“Sorry, Mother. What did you say?”

Before Deborah could reply, a tremendous
explosion threw Indiana to the ground.

Misty was the first on her feet. “Indiana!”
she cried.

The staircase had collapsed, and there was no
sign of the others. Misty and Indiana made their way out of the
back entrance of the house, cringing as structures fell down all
around them. It took a considerable time to make their way through
the rubble.

When they finally reached the street, Indiana
and Misty froze on the spot, clutching each other. People were
screaming and running around. In the space of five seconds, the two
young women were surrounded by a crowd running in terror.

Misty pulled Indiana into a doorway. Indiana
simply shook her head, too scared to speak. Panic surrounded her,
and she was at a loss to understand what was happening. One
thought, however, was foremost in her mind, to free Morgan. “Misty,
find Mother and tell her I’m okay.”

“What? You’re not making any sense.”

“Don’t worry about that. Find Mother and tell
her that Cade Hollway has imprisoned Mr. Chase.”

“What?” Misty then let out a cry as a piece
of burning wood landed on her arm.

Indiana held Misty’s arm and looked at the
small round burn spot on it. Just then a sheet of flame lighted up
the building opposite them. The debris was now blocking the rays of
the sun. Within seconds, the whole area was in dreadful
darkness.

“Run, Misty, run. Now!” Indiana urged
her.

“What about you?”

“I’ll be all right. Run!”

Indiana stepped back into the street, then
immediately regretted her decision, as a panicked crowd carried her
along. She tried hard to keep her footing, as she well knew that if
she fell, she would likely be trampled to death.

As far as Indiana could tell, the crowd was
pressing her in the direction of Cade’s apartment, so she didn’t
fight to go in another direction. Flames lit the way at
intervals.

Debris filled the air. A few times she could
smell her own singed hair. Although it was early morning,
everything was blacker than night, apart from the frightening
sheets of flame which came at intervals, providing the only
light.

Although she was utterly beside herself with
sheer terror, Indiana’s one thought was to reach Morgan. With some
difficulty, and bruised by the bustling crowd, Indiana finally
managed to reach Cade’s apartment.

When Indiana reached the wall, part of it
collapsed, just missing crushing her. In fact, the whole front of
the house seemed to have left its foundations, and was leaning
toward her.

Without thinking, Indiana ran inside, just as
one of the columns lining the porch fell and slid right at her. She
jumped sideways, and then ducked as another column fell and
exploded with a deafening crack. Indiana was unspeakably terrified
at the sight, but it only served to spur her on to find Morgan.

The building was on fire. Thankfully it
appeared to have been deserted. Indiana looked around, wondering
which direction to try. A young man ran out. Indiana caught him and
shook him by the shoulders. “The cellar, where is it?”

The youth stared straight ahead, terror in
his eyes.

Indiana shook him again. “The cellar?”

The young man pointed behind him, then pulled
away roughly and fled in a mad panic.

Indiana was overtaken by a fit of coughing
from the smoke, but hurried in the direction that the man had
pointed. Her way was soon blocked by a wall of rubble. Indiana
tried to remove some of the rubble, but her efforts were futile.
She peered through a large crack that had opened up and saw bottles
of wine lying on the ground, so figured that this must be the
cellar.

The ground above the cellar was piled so high
with the mixture of debris and the burning wood that escape surely
would have been impossible.

“Morgan!” Indiana cried, but there was no
answer.

She sank down on a big rock and sobbed
helplessly, while the city burned around her.

Chapter 19

“Indiana!”

Was it a dream? Had someone called her
name?

Indiana looked around, but everything was
gray. Everything she saw was covered with gray; not another color
was to be seen. It was worse than the most frightening nightmare
she had ever had.

“Indiana.” The word came again.

Indiana stood up. What if Morgan was alive,
and buried under the rock? She frantically attacked the rock with
her fingers, until the name came again, only louder.

Swinging around, she saw an apparition behind
her, leaning on the remaining column and surrounded by a halo of
swirling ash.

Morgan? Or had he died and this was his
ghost?

As Indiana stared, the apparition moved. He
was alive! Indiana ran to him. “Morgan!”

The two clung to each other tightly for what
seemed an age.

“Morgan, are you badly hurt?”

Morgan coughed, and then said, “I’m okay. The
roof collapsed, but I managed to get out. It took me a while, and
it was difficult to work hard and breathe through the smoke at the
same time. I’ll be okay after a bit of a rest. More importantly,
are you okay?” He held Indiana at arms’ length and looked at
her.

She nodded.

“How did you find me?”

That question remained unanswered for the
moment, for at that time, Indiana noticed the sky filled with
flames and flung herself back into Morgan’s arms.

Morgan turned slowly to look, in dread of the
scene before him. Buildings were on fire, and other buildings were
falling down. He took Indiana’s hand. “Let’s head for the sea!”

The pair hurried back to the street. The
flames had faded, and Morgan and Indiana were engulfed by darkness,
the like of which they had never known. It was blacker than a
closed room on the darkest night.

A sea of voices in uproar flooded toward
them, children crying in terror, women wailing, and men shouting
urgently to their families.

Morgan had a tight grip around Indiana’s
waist, and suddenly he pulled her into a doorway, out of the crowd.
“It’s not safe to be in that crowd while we can’t see. If we get
knocked over in the street, the crowd will crush us.”

When Indiana trembled violently at his words,
he hurried to reassure her. “If we can get as far away from here as
possible, we should be all right.”

“So you don’t think we should stay under
shelter, away from the fires?”

“No, I think we need to get out of here. It
could get worse than this, and if so, we don’t want to be around
when it does.”

“How could it possibly get any worse than
this?” Indiana asked, partly to herself. To Morgan, she said, “But
the falling buildings are dangerous. Should we risk going back into
the open? Are you sure we shouldn’t stay here and weather the
storm?”

Just then, the building next to them
collapsed, showering Morgan and Indiana with profuse amounts of
ash.

“There’s your answer,” Morgan said as he
pulled Indiana back into the street.

Indiana looked up for the source of light,
and saw a wall of flames sliding along a nearby building. “Run!”
she said, pointing to the flames.

She and Morgan ran, hand in hand, in the
direction of the sea. As they ran, they saw people sheltering from
the falling rocks under porches and in partly collapsed buildings.
They passed people burdened down by carrying large bags of
possessions.

As Morgan and Indiana ran, as fast their
exhaustion and the smoke would allow, they saw that roads, bridges,
houses, and most buildings lay destroyed. Many were on fire.

Every time they thought they had escaped the
crowd, another group of panicking people appeared and swept them
along, presumably people who had just now changed their minds about
sheltering in buildings. At times the crowd proved an obstacle to
them, and at other times it swept them along so fast that they
struggled to keep their footing.

The ground was still shaking, but even this
was becoming normal to Morgan and Indiana, so accustomed they were
to the continual vibration.

Morgan and Indiana stood for a moment in the
opening to catch their breath. Indiana looked up in terror at the
giant, towering column of fire spurting high from one building.
While she was distracted, a group of people burst into the street
and carried them along. This time, the force of the crowd pulled
Morgan and Indiana apart.

When Indiana was finally able to detach
herself from the crowd, she saw that Morgan was gone.

Chapter 20

Indiana was moving down the hill, her
thoughts only on Morgan. It was strange, and she knew it, to be in
a ruined city that was only getting worse by the minute, separated
from her mother and sisters, and still her mind was screaming his
name over and over.
Morgan, Morgan!

Fires were burning all around her, but they
died down as she reached the level ground at the base of the hill.
There were people there, on one side of the street, and Indiana
stopped to take them in. There were about ten of them, one family
it seemed, ranging in ages from no more than six, to an old man
with soot and ash covering his pajamas. Indiana turned and looked
up the hill, back toward the worse of the fires. It was strange, an
eerie light from the burning orange and yellow flames.

“Water,” a voice said, and Indiana looked
back to the family on the side of the street. The old man was
pointing at her, Indiana thought at first, but then she realized he
was pointing past her, just a degree or too. A red-headed woman of
around thirty, possibly his daughter, just as dirty from soot and
barefoot to top it off turned and followed the man’s finger.
Indiana assumed he was asking for a drink, until she turned and
looked as well.

Running at an angle to the street she had
just come down, there was another street that rose to crest a hill.
About halfway up the street there was a section of ruptured paved
road, and sticking through the black jagged hole was a thick pipe,
which had apparently just burst open. Frothy white water was
rushing out of the pipe, and due to gravity, came swirling and
leaping down toward Indiana and the others. It was certainly better
than fire, but Indiana knew that she would be unable to stay on her
feet when the water reached her, and it was due to do so within
seconds.

Indiana was thrown from her feet as the water
slammed into the back of her legs, soaking her from her heel to the
back of her thigh. She fell backward, splashed through the water,
and came down hard on the pavement. She struggled to get her head
above the water, but she couldn’t. Her lungs were burning. The
water had forced itself into her mouth. It tasted dirty, having
picked up a number of pollutants from the filthy city street. Her
head broke the surface, and she gasped for breath.

A young man stepped forward, and seized
Indiana’s arm. She braced against the running water, which was
lessening its power.

The chilly, gray water flowed away, and was
now only ankle deep. Indiana wiped her face with her hands, and
took a deep breath. “Is everyone okay?” she asked the family. It
seemed as though they were all accounted for.

“Yes. Are you all right?” the red-haired
woman asked, and Indiana nodded.

“I have to find someone,” she said, and she
turned and ran.

She sloshed through the water as she went,
and thankful that it was lessening. She figured that while
overwhelmed, the drainage systems on the road were doing their job.
The water had even been a blessing in disguise. She ran by a
butcher’s shop which had clearly been ablaze. The wood was
blackened and smoldering, but the flame was gone, extinguished by
the flash flood and leaving nothing but thick white smoke which
hung in the air.

Indiana was beginning to despair. Everywhere
she turned were people, but none of them Morgan. She went on to the
hotel. Surely he would go there. When she rounded a corner and saw
the place, she almost fell to her knees. Ahead of her the hotel
stood, or rather, half of the building did. It was like Cade’s
home, but even worse. Half the building stood as it once had, but
then it stopped in jagged lines, and the other half was just
gone.

Tears stung her eyes and she placed a hand
over her mouth.