Shadows (14 page)

“
No,
”
she replied, waving her hand in
front of him, gesturing for him to stop.
“
I am not your
prize, your conquest for a night. I am not some trophy you can
fight over and boast about with the boys in the abandoned storage
area on twelve. Have you got that?
”

Charlie pursed his lips,
softly nodding his head.

“
Can we talk
about this?
”
he asked.

“
Just ...
Just leave me alone, OK?
”
she replied, and
she turned and stormed up the stairs, leaving him standing there
with blood dripping from his lip.

Susan felt an overwhelming
sense of revulsion at what had happened. She had to get away from
Charlie and clear her head. She dropped her pack off in the porting
station on the next floor and told the attendant she was feeling
sick and calling it a day. It wasn't a lie. She wasn't physically
sick, but she felt as though she were with the chaos of so many
conflicting thoughts running through her mind. She needed some time
to straighten her thinking. She needed to talk to her mother. Lisa
would hear about what happened and no doubt piece together why
she'd left. Susan would face her another day. For now, she wanted
her Mom.

Susan walked out of the
porter's office, hoping she wouldn't run into Charlie on the
stairs. That would be awkward. She wanted to tell him what had
happened with the hairband, but the conflict she felt was more than
just her revulsion to the fight. She felt sick to know someone she
loved could act so brutally. What she'd witnessed seemed to be more
of an animal attack than a fight, and that shook her. She needed
some time, some space. Tears streamed from her eyes. Everyone she
passed stared at her, making her feel worse. She wrapped her arms
around her waist, feeling self-conscious as she headed up the
stairs.

Susan hurried, knowing she
had to traverse over twenty floors to get to the garment factories
on twelve. Her mother oversaw a group of cutters and two teams
working on the looms. Her mother would know what to do.

Susan was passing the
hydroponics farm on nineteen when the quake hit. She'd felt tremors
before, but never anything like this. The initial pulse came out of
nowhere, surprising her, passing through her and rattling her
teeth. She could feel the low sonic wave pass through her chest
cavity. It was as though someone had thumped her on the sternum.
Her feet left the stairs as the entire silo shook. She had her hand
on the rail, and clenched her fingers to stop herself from falling.
Several other porters on the stairs ahead of her slipped and
tumbled, rolling down the steps in front of her.

At first, she thought there
had been an explosion, but the deafening crash that cut through the
air was too sharp. It didn't resonate. Cracks appeared in the
concrete wall beside her, running down the shaft. The stairs shook.
The lights went out, plunging the Great Fall into darkness,
terrifying her. It took a few seconds for the emergency lights to
kick in.

Something plunged past,
diving headlong into the deep. It was only when the scream
registered in her ears that she realized someone had fallen, a
woman. Several men fell past as well, screaming as they plunged
over a hundred floors to their death. Above her, the sound of metal
twisting and breaking cut through the panic around her. A dark
shadow blotted out the emergency lights above before crashing into
the staircase ahead of her, crushing the railing and showering her
with fragments of rock and dust. The huge concrete slab rebounded,
colliding with the wall opposite her before catching the edge of
the lower landing as it hurtled through the heart of the silo. The
landing crumpled and swung perilously out into the Great Fall with
two men clinging onto the crushed, sloping metal frame. Susan
blinked and then there was one: a young teenager hanging onto
life.

Everything happened so
fast, Susan didn't know what to think. She froze, clinging to the
railing as someone else tumbled past on the stairs, calling out for
help.

The disintegrating concrete
slab continued to wreak havoc hundreds of feet below her, crashing
into the stairs and landings as it broke up. In that moment, she
realized what had fallen. Part of the dome over the Great Fall had
come away.

Water cascaded down from
above, pouring into the stairs surrounding the void and turning the
shaft into a waterfall. Streams of water ran down the stairs,
undulating over her boots while falling onto her from
above.

People were screaming, so
much so Susan couldn't tell from where. Someone scrambled past her
on all fours, rushing up the stairs against the flow of
water.

“
Silo's
dead,
”
he cried.
“
We're all
dead.
”

Within seconds, he was
gone, up around the bend in the stairs. Water continued to pour
down from above, soaking her coveralls. Susan sunk to her knees,
with her arms wrapped around the railing, still holding on for dear
life even though the shaking had stopped. She wasn't sure how long
she sat there in the rain, with water streaming down past her but
she was in shock. She couldn't move.

“
Help!
”
came a cry from below her. For a
second, she thought she recognized the voice. It was Charlie! Her
body spasmed as she realized it was some other boy Charlie's age
holding on to the ruined remains of the landing leading to
hydroponics. His feet dangled over the Great Fall. Blood dripped
from his arm, washed away by the torrent of water cascading down
from the sewage treatment plant above.

“
Got to do
something,
”
she told herself.
“
Can't leave him.
”

At the time,
Susan didn
’
t understand why she spoke in such clipped
terms, but subconsciously she was struggling with the realization
that she had to act or the boy would die. Deep down she wanted
someone else to do something to help the boy, anyone but her. So
many conflicting emotions ran through her mind: fear for her own
life, shock at what had happened, anguish at seeing people falling
to their death, horror at the speed with which the silo had spun
out of control, and an overwhelming sense of helplessness. She had
to help that boy. She couldn
’
t stand the idea of
watching someone else die needlessly, not when it was within her
power to help.

Susan got to her trembling
feet. Her hands refused to let go of the railing. She had to force
herself to move down the stairs, swapping hands as she went.
Whereas once the stairs had seemed so resolute, now they felt
frail, almost flimsy beneath her boots. She gripped the rail as
though her life depended on the strength of her fingers. She was
safe. The concrete slab had struck above her with a glancing blow,
leaving her section of the stairs intact, but mentally she couldn't
bring herself to let go. Fear coursed through her veins.

“
Please, help
me,
”
the boy cried out. He was holding onto the crushed
landing with one arm. His other arm hung limp by his side as he lay
on the twisted metal floor sloping into the Great Fall. Susan
wasn't good with estimating angles, but she figured the wreckage
looked as though it were on a thirty degree slope.

“
Hold
on,
”
she called out, quickening her pace down the curve of
the stairs leading to hydroponics. Water made the steel steps
slippery.

Rain washed over the
teenage boy. He was younger than her, she could see that, but
probably only by a couple of years. He swung his feet, trying to
reach the edge of the landing, but by swinging his body he was
applying torque, causing the platform to groan and twist as the
crushed supports swayed beneath him.

“
Stay
still,
”
she yelled, reaching the bottom of the
stairs.

Where once the stairs had
lighted on a landing now there was a twisted mesh of steel falling
sharply into the wide expanse of the shaft. The railing had been
torn off. Jagged strands of metal poked out from the wall where the
landing had only minutes before sat so securely.

The boy was about ten feet
below her.

“
Please,
hurry,
”
he cried.

Scared faces peered out
from inside the darkened hydroponics level.

“
Get a
ladder,
”
Susan cried,
“
or some
rope.
”

“
I'm
slipping,
”
the boy yelled.

“
Hold
on,
”
Susan said, trying to figure out how she could get
down to him without falling herself.

“
I'm
scared,
”
he said, his voice trembling.

“
We're all
scared,
”
she replied.
“
But we're going to
get through this. You're going to be OK. Just hold
on.
”

Water continued to cascade
down from above, soaking both of them.

“
What's your
name?
”
she asked, trying to distract him while she
began climbing down beside him.

“
James ...
James Ackerman.
”

“
Hello,
James,
”
she replied, making sure she had a good hold on
the stairs as she tested the landing, slowly shifting her weight
onto the frail, crumpled structure.
“
I'm Susan. I'm a
porter. I'm going to get you out of here, OK. Just hold on a little
longer for me, James. OK?
”

The landing swayed with her
weight, leaning further into the shaft.

“
I've got
some rope,
”
someone cried from the hydroponics
level. Through the stream of water pelting down upon her, Susan
struggled to make out the form of several men standing there with
rope around their waists. One of them threw the rope down for the
boy, but with only one good hand he couldn't grab it.

Susan reached across and
grabbed the rope, pulling it toward her.

“
Listen
James, I'm going to come down beside you and grab you, OK? And
these guys are going to pull us up.
”

He didn't
answer.

Susan wrapped the rope
around her forearm, clinching it tight in her right hand. She
pulled on the rope and could see the men bracing themselves further
back on the hydroponics level.

She let go of the staircase
and stepped down onto the crushed remains of the landing, hoping to
walk her way down the steep incline to the boy, but her feet
slipped from beneath her with the water raining down from above.
The landing shook as she fell against it with a thud, and she found
herself spinning around as she clung to the rope. The metal
groaned. Not a good idea, she thought, not a good idea at all, in
fact, that was a really stupid idea. If she could have taken back
that moment she would have as she was in danger of becoming as much
a victim as he was.

Susan held onto the rope
with both hands. The men began slowly lowering her down next to the
boy.

“
I ... I
can't grab you,
”
the boy said.
“
I can't
let go.
”

“
I
know,
”
she said, as she came along side him. Their
combined weight caused the landing to twist to the right, falling
further away from the edge of the hydroponics level out into the
middle of the Great Fall.

Susan knew how afraid he
was as she felt the same. She had to let go of the rope with her
left hand in order to grab him, but every instinctive fiber of her
being cried out against that act. It took deliberate focus to reach
out and wrap one arm around him. She reached around his waist,
grabbing at his coveralls, making sure she had a good hold of his
pocket as she took his weight.

“
Grab the
rope,
”
she cried.

“
I
can't.
”

“
You have
to,
”
she yelled.

The platform
twisted.

He was scared. She was
yelling at him. Despite her frustration, she could see she wasn't
helping.

Susan
softened her voice, saying,
“
Listen, we're almost
there. You can do this. Grab hold of me. I won't let you
go.
”

Water fell as rain within
the silo, streaking down through the shaft and soaking
them

James looked her in the
eyes. She could see the turmoil in his mind, the desire to trust
her running in conflict with the uncertainty of letting
go.

“
It's
OK,
”
she said calmly.

She felt all his weight
shift to her left hand as he let go and grabbed at her
shoulder.