“No.” Alura sniffed back her tears.
“Well, you stay with me and don’t let anything happen to yourself, and I promise I’ll take you and your husband or boyfriend. Pet gopher. Whatever tickles your fancy. We’ll all go for a nice, long vacation after this.”
Alura cried out in sudden agony.
“What happened?” Ember shouted before she could stop herself.
“It’s fine,” he said in that same calm, even tone. “I got her free and—” His voice broke off as he tilted his head to listen to something. “What’s that sound?”
It took her a heartbeat to hear it.
“Shit!” Ember studied the sky for what she heard. “It’s another run!”
His expletive was much more colorful and vulgar.
Worse? The rope holding them slipped from the additional weight of her sister’s body as he lifted her free and began climbing for the surface. The anchor holding it in the ground started to come loose.
Ember grabbed it and held fast. “I’m pulling!”
He didn’t speak. Rather, he moved faster as he struggled to get himself and Alura out of the hole as quickly as possible.
The rope slipped even more, threatening to send them both even deeper into the wreckage.
“Help!” Ember shouted for assistance with the rope and anchor. But with the new run headed for them, everyone was fleeing to save their own asses.
No one cared that she was in the open or that her sister and her rescuer would die when additional bombs fell.
The anchor slipped more.
As if he knew intuitively what the others were doing and that there was no help to be had, the captain shot out another line from his belt. “Get your sister up. She’s a lot lighter. Easier for you to pull free.”
“What about you?”
“Don’t worry about me. Get her to safety, Major! Move!”
Ember let go of his rope to pull at Alura’s. He was right. It was much easier to lift her sister up without his extreme muscled weight added to it.
Moving as fast as she could, she got Alura out of that hole and helped her off to the side where the medics had set up a makeshift triage. Without hesitating, she started back for their rescuer. But she’d barely taken a step before the second round of bombs hit.
The ground shook even more than it had during the first run. Alura screamed from behind her as part of the triage came down around them.
Ignoring her sister’s panic and shaken by the day’s events, Ember pushed herself to her feet and ran back to the hole to help their blessed benefactor.
It was too late.
Nothing remained of where he’d been.
Nothing. Only flaming rubble.
No! Sick to her stomach, she stared at the smoldering remains. That last run had completely obliterated the opening. Flaming chunks of building had crashed down over it. There was no sign whatsoever of the captain.
Not even his helmet. And no way to reach him without heavy equipment or an exosuit.
For a moment, she feared she’d vomit as she remembered the kindness of the unknown man who’d saved Alura’s life.
And hers. She didn’t even know his name. Why hadn’t she thought to ask so that she could at least notify his parents personally? Offer up a prayer for his kind soul?
Had he not sacrificed himself, she’d have been right there when that building came down. Alura, too. How in the name of the gods could this have been his fate for such a noble and decent act?
