No response.
She pushed with her hand and eased up to sit, pulling her legs free of the cracked restraints to swing over the edge of the bed. She turned in the darkness. Something brushed her head, and she jumped back from the sound of swinging metal. Pushing her hand out in front of her in the dark, she reached up, searching. Her fingers made contact with one of the metal lights that had been trained upon her when she woke. It hung down over her now, loose and broken.
What had she done?
She eased her way back to the edge of the bed and slid her legs down. “Mama?”
Her feet found the floor, a coating of dust and small hard pieces of rock spread over it. Lena slid to her knees and reached her hands out, searching. She made contact with cloth, and then with the firm resistance of flesh beneath it. She ran her hand lightly up, crawling along. She’d found her mother, yes, but she was wrapped in Reyes’s arms. His body curled around on top of her as if he’d tried to protect her from the electrical arc before the blast.
She pushed at him. She had to pull her mother away. She could restart her heart. Reyes was heavier than he looked and solid. She pushed harder, the motions becoming short and hard with desperation. Get off. Get off. Get off.
“Get off!”
He coughed. He coughed again then rolled away from Lena’s pounding palms. Barely a second later, his hand shot up through the black and caught her hand. “Stop.” The command was low, his voice even more hoarse than usual. He made a soft, guttural sound as if trying to clear his throat with the least amount of noise. He coughed again. “Listen.”
In spite of her panicked need to reach her mother beneath him, she stilled. What was she listening for? The shouting in the hall? Someone called for a saw, a gun, anything. The door must be well and truly warped into the frame. They should have been able to access the room already. What else should she hear?
“Reyes, please…my mother.” She pushed at his shoulder.
He didn’t move.
“If I’m awake, they might wake, too. We need to get you out.”
Get her out? But he’d brought her in?
She shook her head in confusion before she remembered he couldn’t see her in the dark. “No. You were on the floor. They were standing where the blast—”
His hand moved up her arm to her neck and slid around the back of her head. He pulled her forward with gentle pressure, moving her head toward him. “I can’t hear you. My ears. But don’t speak louder, speak closer.”
Her lips touched the side of his head. She felt his ear, wet with fluid. Blood? The concussive noise had burst at least one of his eardrums.
She tried again. “You were on the floor. They were beside me and took a direct hit. They’re not waking up now. Maybe not ever.” She wasn’t sorry. She regretted that Lucas wouldn’t have suffered. “Reyes. My mother. I can restart her heart. You have to move.” She pushed again. “Move.”
“No. You can’t.” He shifted away, his hand out, keeping contact, bringing her head with him. “It wasn’t her heart, Lena. It was her head. I saw her face. Her brain bled.”
She made a small noise of negation. He had to be wrong. She could do it. Now that he’d moved, she would. She reached out for her mother, felt the soft, cool skin of her mother’s face under her hands.
“Lena.” Reyes’s voice denied her hope. “Even if you start her heart, her brain is gone. You can’t fix this.”
“I can!”
“You can’t. And if you don’t get out of here right now, they’re going to kill you, too.”
She sat. Her hands fluttered over her mother’s face, fingertips feeling the familiar shape of eyes, prominent cheekbones, delicate nose and jaw. She had always been jealous that Teresa got to look like their beautiful mother.
“I can. I have to. You don’t understand.” She shook her head back and forth, her hair brushing the side of his face. “I have to. She’s all I have.”
“No, Lena.” He gathered her up then pulled her across him and away from her mother. “You have your sister. Your brother. You have people you’ve never even met.” He set her on his other side.
He released her, and she sat, sobbing quietly. The banging on the door directly behind her had shifted, become methodical as they smashed something heavy against it.
Debris rustled as Reyes crawled away in the darkness. He pushed something large and heavy away, the grit on the floor scratching beneath it. One of the other men? Reyes grunted. After a pair of thumps, small rocks pattered across the floor. He made a hiss of satisfaction. A moment later, he returned, scrabbling in the dark as he crawled back across the floor. He sounded like he was right on top of her mother.