City of Ruins

TWENTY-SIX



It takes Mikk and Roderick nearly an hour to move enough rock for us to squeeze through. We have to slide past jagged edges that can destroy our environmental suits.

I’m thin. I have no trouble getting past. But I worry about DeVries and Kersting. They’re big men—DeVries is tall, and despite the exercise he’s getting, Kersting is still too wide.

I get through, sliding my back against the black wall, worrying that I’ll dislodge something else or that the groundquake will happen again and I’ll get buried under tons of rock. I continue to regulate my breathing, but it does little good.

I’m as nervous as a new diver on a training run. It’s a good thing I don’t have to rely on my oxygen canisters. I’d use them up in record time.

Finally, I squeeze out and there are Mikk and Roderick, their environmental suits on the floor, their shirts off, their bodies covered in sweat and black dust.

They look better than they ever have. I want to hug them, but it would be awkward with me in my suit and them without theirs.

“Boss?” Mikk asks.

I nod, and then he does hug me, wrapping his powerful arms around me and pulling me close.

Clearly he has no qualms about having my suit rub up against his bare skin.

I step back and Roderick grins. He doesn’t hug me—people usually don’t hug me at all—and I smile at him.

Then I realize he can’t see me through my faceplate.

“The air’s okay here?” I ask.

“It’s fine.”

“The corridor’s open the rest of the way?”

Roderick shrugs. “We were more worried about you. We didn’t hear. We thought you might be dead.”

I thought they might be dead, too, but I don’t say that. “We didn’t know there was a groundquake.”

“How could you not know?” Mikk asks. “That was the scariest experience of my life.”

“The ground didn’t shake,” Roderick says. “It felt like it was coming apart.”

I hear DeVries’s voice, but I can’t quite make out what he’s saying.

“Let’s help them out,” I say. “Then we can debrief you.”

We turn toward the opening and pull the Six out. Or rather, Mikk does, one by one. I step away from the rock pile and pull off my helmet. It’s warmer without the helmet, but I feel free. And I feel like I can breathe normally for the first time since I saw the debris.

I look at the walls here. They are as unblemished as the walls inside the corridor.

Roderick watches me. “It grew back,” he says.

He’s not needed to help the Six out. Mikk just takes their hand, gives them a bit of encouragement, and then has them step out. Carefully he guides them to one side before reaching for the next.

They seem as relieved as I am. All of them see that my helmet is off and remove theirs as soon as they can.

“It was weird,” Roderick says. “It started as soon as the ground stopped moving. The rocks were falling all around us. They kept tumbling, but Mikk pointed to the wall. The black was filling in the ruined areas, and then it smoothed right out.”

“You didn’t get hit or anything?” I ask.

“We covered our heads and crouched—or I did. Mikk stood in the middle and looked up, figuring he could run to avoid it all. But it missed us, mostly. Some smaller rocks hit my back and shoulders, but didn’t do any damage. I don’t know if they hit Mikk.”

I can imagine him, standing in the center of the corridor defiantly, as if challenging the falling rock to hit him.

“We really thought you were dead,” Roderick says softly.

“I’m sorry,” I say. “We didn’t feel anything. But when we got out . . .”

I let my voice trail off. It would do no good to let them know how frightened I was. “Well, we’re not out yet, are we?”

“No one has come down for us?” DeVries asks. He has joined our conversation. His face is shiny with sweat. I can’t tell if that’s from the exertion or the warmer temperature in the corridor without our suits on.

“No,” Roderick says.

“That’s not a good sign,” DeVries says.

“It’s not?” Roderick asks.

“Think about it,” DeVries says. “What would you do if you had a team underground and the ground shifted?”

“I’d try to get to them,” Roderick says slowly.

DeVries nods. “No one is here yet.”

“Does that mean we’re trapped?” Quinte asks from behind me.

“There’s no way to know,” I say.

“What else could prevent them from coming?” DeVries asks.

I look at him, surprised. He’s usually so level-headed. He sounds levelheaded, even now. But he’s not thinking clearly.

“We’ve had damage down here,” I say. “We have no idea what’s happened on the surface.”

The others have joined us.

“What do you mean?” Kersting asks.

“We only know a few facts,” I say.

Rea starts, “The ship, the—”

“Ship?” Mikk asks.

“In a minute,” I say, just like I had to when we met up with Quinte and Al-Nasir. “What we know about Vaycehn is that it’s plagued occasionally by death holes. We have no idea what happens underground when a new death hole appears.”

Mikk breathes out a curse.

“You think there could be a new death hole on the surface?” Roderick asks.

“I think anything’s possible,” I say. “And there’s no sense in worrying about what could be. We have to concern ourselves with what is.”

They’re all looking at me. Quinte and Seager look frightened. Even DeVries seems uneasy.

“And the only way to know what is,” I say, “is to carefully make our way out of here.”

“I don’t like being underground,” Roderick says softly, speaking to me.

“I’m not fond of it myself,” I say. “But this is where we’ve chosen to work. Let’s just be smarter about it the next time we come down here.”

If there is a next time.

If we get out at all.

* * * *