Nora heard a return answer a moment later from within a spot that the roof had collapsed over. “It’s neat in here, Mama. You need to come see.”
Uh . . .Nora and Simon exchanged a worried glance and hurried into the building, right where Simon exited a minute ago. Nora climbed down gingerly over the exposed rebar, her voice cracking. “Tilly, you just can’t go ahead like that.”
“Simon said it was safe. I heard him!”
Fear coated her body in sweat as Nora walked down fast, scraping one of her hands in the process. “No he didn’t! You got a bad foot, Tilly. You can’t just . . . where are you?”
Nora’s heart pounded as she ran ahead until she saw her, inside the main structure, transfixed by the large partitioned rooms ahead. Simon had already gotten to her side, much faster than Nora was.
Relief flooded her seeing Tilly unharmed, and she joined her daughter and Simon before finally calming enough to explore. The walls had crumbled, showing a line of seats facing forward and remnants of a screen ahead.
Nora spun in a circle, awed by the scene. “Woah.”
Tilly tugged on her sleeve. “It’s so cool!”
The roof here had fallen in on spots and the seats sat, mostly decomposed, from the sun and elements. That was all Nora could absorb for a moment, as she took it in and imagined what the building was like completely intact.
Ahead, the large screen looked like the Mars board. There were a lot of half torn down bulletin boards, all in a line but separated by broken down walls. In front of them there were chairs lined up, facing forward. Nora examined the chairs and moved some rubble off one. The stone covering had kept the synthetic leather seat mostly intact from the outside elements.
Simon watched her speculatively as she sat down on it and faced forward to the half-destroyed screen.
“Like this?” She looked back at Simon. “Sit and watch?”
He nodded, his tone hushed. “So odd to see you like that, at the movies as if it wasn’t destroyed.”
Tilly bounced on a seat next to her. “There’s so many seats.”
Nora got out of the seat and crouched down next to it, examining how the rusted-out bolts were attached to the concrete beneath. She motioned Simon over, pointing close. “Maybe we can take one of these out and put it in the hover for a seat for you? Then you don’t need to use the container. A few of these don’t seem that bad.”
He bent down next to her, looking where her finger pointed. “That could work.”
“Oh, what is that?” Tilly jumped out of the chair, impulsively leaping ahead.
Nora reached for her but only caught air as Tilly ran off. “Wait, Tilly! Slow down!”
Simon was faster than Nora as he stood and rushed after Tilly.
But then Nora saw it happen in slow motion. Adrenaline pounded in her veins while she dashed away to follow the pair.
Tilly was pulling on a piece of silicone sheeting to see behind it. She did not notice that her actions were disturbing some of the rubble that had settled way high above that the synthetic fabric was attached to.
Before a few of the rocks fell, Simon was at her side. The rocks were tiny but high enough that they began to hit the ground hard like missiles, falling into other rubble that then started to slide as well. Simon pushed Tilly out of the way, rocks hitting the ground all around them.
A rumble happened and Nora’s heart pounded as Simon moved with Tilly, the rubble lurching underfoot as it shifted from Simon’s running and whatever Tilly had disturbed.
Tilly tripped on her bad foot and crashed to her knees. Simon crouched over her, taking the brunt of the rubble that fell from high above on his back. It fell with a sickening smack to the ground. Nora winced as she saw it happen and heard the loud shriek of pain that came from Tilly. After the rocks stopped falling, Tilly hopped up a minute later, eyes wide in horror.
“Tilly! Simon!” Nora, walking closer as fast and as carefully as she could, hauled Tilly back to look at Simon, who now had a thick layer of rubble on top of him. Tilly stepped back, letting out a whimper, holding her leg to herself that had a shallow cut.
Nora let out a whimper as well. Her heart caught in her throat. “Simon! Oh no.”
He raised his hand, hunched over, as if in answer. “Do not come closer, Nora. It is unstable.” The tinny quality in his voice that had not been present since she first powered him on was back again.
That, more than anything else, made a sharp spike of fear flare inside Nora. She shaded her eyes and willed herself to see clearer through the disturbed concrete dust as she pulled Tilly back even more.
Simon had mostly made it out of where the rock fell, but his back had gotten pierced by the rubble, and he had a dent from a hard blow.
Can he get out?Nora watched as Simon moved the rubble pieces, shifting them out and crawling his damaged body forward. He was still strong, very strong. Nora paced side to side.I need to help. Oh, Simon.She ran forward, despite his cries to stay back, and grabbed him by the arms to pull him the rest of the way.
