Page 104 of Tough Justice

Her eyes rolled back, and she fell to the ground.

“No!”

“Deck!” Brett rushed toward him, shotgun raised. “You okay? I got the fire under control, but those gas tanks are buckling and could still blow any second. We gotta— Oh, fuck.” He lowered the gun.

The ladder rattled, telling Deck that Thor was on the way back up. “Help me get him up.” He and Brett reached into the hole to help Thor up the rest of the way. Some feeling had returned to his right arm. Deck prayed the key was really down there and that Thor had found it.

His dog’s ears appeared first. When the top of his head cleared the rim, he and Brett reached beneath Thor’s front legs and pulled him up the rest of the way. “Thor?”

Thor coughed, opening his mouth and spitting out a large black key.

The relief at seeing the key was so great, it actually made his knees go weak. Deck grabbed the key and shoved it into the lock. He whipped open the gate and fell at Tori’s side. Using his shirt, he wiped her face, concentrating on her nose and mouth first then her neck and chest. She was still breathing. Barely.

The sound of metal bending under pressure was like a gunshot.

“Deck, we gotta go,” Brett warned again. “That tank’s about to blow us to Kingdom Come.”

Deck picked Tori up in his arms. “Get that medical bag from the trunk of her car,” he shouted. “It’s loaded with naloxone. And bring all the water you can find. I’ll meet you up there.” Again, he prayed. This was bad. Really bad. Dan Prince had nearly died from a minute exposure on his clothes. Tori may have gotten it directly in the face.

Brett took off running.

“Stay with me, Tori. Thor, let’s go!”

Thor bounded ahead, turning back to make sure Deck was following.

He carried Tori through the tunnel, coughing and barely able to see through the smoky haze. Thor barked, and he followed the sound, racing past what was left of the lab. The propane tank on the back table creaked as it began to buckle. If he didn’t get them out of there before that tank blew, Kingdom Come would have two new residents, three counting Thor.

Deck’s heart jackhammered as he raced up the stairs. Tori’s head lolled over the side of his arm. He couldn’t tell if she was still breathing. Getting naloxone into her was the only thing that could save her.

By the time he got to the top step, he was coughing and breathing hard. Evan had relocated the two cuffed men a hundred yards from the entry to the bunker.

Deck took off running. Thor bounded ahead of him, leading the way.

Sirens wailed. Red-and-blue lights flashed as a wagon train of emergency vehicles turned off Poudre Canyon Road.

An explosion rocked the ground, powerful enough to make him stagger. Gently, he laid Tori on the ground. It was too dark to verify if she was breathing, so he rested his hand between her breasts, waiting to feel the rise and fall of her chest. He didn’t.

Brett was there with Tori’s bag and two gallon jugs of water. He set them down then opened the bag and shined a light inside.

“She’s not breathing.” Deck checked for a pulse at her carotid, relieved when he felt one. He tore the cap of one of the jugs of water then sloshed some on Tori’s face, hands, and torso. After positioning her neck, he pinched her nose closed then began administering mouth-to-mouth. Beside him, Brett was already tearing the wrapper off an auto-injector. “Get more ready,” Deck gasped between breaths, knowing one dose would never be enough.

Brett removed the safety clip then stuck the auto-injector into Tori’s thigh.

Deck kept administering rescue breaths, praying she’d start breathing on her own. “Give her another,” he ordered.

“You got it.” Brett pushed the second dose into Tori’s thigh.

Headlights illuminated the field as patrol cars and an ambulance rolled up. Seconds later, paramedics rushed over and started opening up cases.

“We’ll take it from here.” One of them placed a bag-valve mask over Tori’s face and began squeezing the bag. “What was she exposed to?”

“Gray death.” Deck watched as Tori’s chest rose and fell, but not on her own.

The other medic nodded to the wrappers and Tori’s open bag. “Naloxone?”

“Yeah.” Deck watched helplessly as the medics began an IV.

“Bring it with us,” the first medic said. “We might need more than what we’ve got in the ambulance.”