“There has been a cave in,” Monroe said as he lay on his stomach and looked into the darkness.

              I grabbed the back of his black shirt and got down on my stomach and tried to see what he had seen. “It’s too dark. How do you know?”

              “There is a great deal of dust in the air. If the earth had not come down somewhere close by, the air would only be stale.”

              “I’m going in,” Derek said, about to move past us.

              “Derek, we must have our heads about us if we are to find those who are down there. We need torches to see by and you have left your most important tools on the ground.” Jacob nodded once then walked away, searching for items to create torches out of. Derek slapped his side where his long blade rested and remembered that he had removed it to help move the statue. I could see his pale face turning flush as he leaped off the monument to retrieve them.

Chapter Thirty One

The hole was almost big enough for Martin to wiggle his way through. He had Tanda stand back just in case his movement caused the soft earth above their heads to come down. Martin then came out through the opening head first, moving his shoulders at an angle that made it easy to get them through, but was having a harder time pulling the rest of himself free. His body still wasn’t one hundred percent healed, by any means.

“Give me your hands and I will pull you,” Tanda said as she started stepping closer.

“No! Back up and stay where you are. It is too dangerous where there is no stone to hold the earth. If we are both buried, who will go for help?” he did his best to smile to reassure her that all would be okay but it was a hard thing to pull off.

A few handfuls of dirt and pebbles rained down on the back of Martin’s head. “Oh, please hurry, Martin.” He grabbed both hands full of debris and pulled with everything he had and when his feet made their exit the ceiling gave way. The tunnel turned to darkness when the earth collapsed; covering Martin and the torch that Tanda had stuck into the ground. The cloud of dirt slammed into Tanda and all she could do was scream, “Martin!” ***

“Everyone be quiet!” Monroe said as he leaned back closer to the opening. “I think I heard a scream.”

Derek was over Monroe’s back and into the abyss before Jacob could strike his flint to light the makeshift torch. We could all hear him yelling out Tanda’s name over and over, as his voice became harder to hear. Fala took off after Derek, then Jacob and Monroe followed with the light. The rest of us were down in the tunnel and about to head toward the glow when we heard Tanda’s cries. It was then that I left Tammy in the care of Garvin and Sydney and took off running. I knew by the sounds she was making that something was horribly wrong.

By the time I had caught up to Jacob and Monroe, Derek was walking back towards us with Tanda wrapped in his arms. She was covered in filth from head to toe and the only remotely clear area on her beautiful face was where her tears had cleared a path down her cheeks. “It just caved in. There was nothing I could do.” Her sobs were so violent that it was hard to understand what she was saying.

“Where’s Martin?”

“Renee,” Derek shook his head.

“Bullshit, Derek. Where is Martin?”

“Fala’s back trying to dig around to see if he’s still…”

I didn’t stick around to hear anything else. There was no way that my maker was dead and I was going to go get him myself. I heard Derek yell ‘turn right at the junction’ but it didn’t take long before I couldn’t see much more than arm’s length. Once I found the junction and turned right, the glow that Jacob’s torch lent was completely gone. But I never stopped. I heard something that sounded like stone hitting stone, followed by a moan. I took off running in the pitch black, colliding once again with a solid mass and ended up flat on my backside.

A hand touched me under my arm and I started swatting as if a hundred spiders were crawling on me. I wouldn’t describe the sound that I made as a ‘scream’ because it was more like a squeal, but whatever, or whoever, had touched me had scared the hell out me. Sparks flew into the dust filled air to the left of me, then the sound of flint hitting stone sounded again as sparks flew and flame came to life. Martin stood by Fala, both covered in earth. I spun around to see who had touched my arm and was shocked to see Monroe.

“You could have let me know that you were with me.”

“I only caught up when you fell down,” he smiled.

I turned my attention back to my maker and got to my feet, refusing any of their help. I had to swallow the lump in my throat and count to ten in my mind to help fight the tears, because had I opened my mouth at that very moment, my relief of seeing Martin standing there would have come out in bigger sobs than Tanda’s cry of panic. “Could you please hand Fala the torch, Martin?”

“Is that the only greeting that I get the second time that we…you run in to me in a dark tunnel?”

“This isn’t the time to be funny. Please, hand Fala the light.”

“As My Lady wishes.”

Fala gave me a strange look, but took the torch. I waved my hand for Fala to step to the side, then did something that shocked Martin so much that he actually let out his own type of yelp. I dove on him, knocking us both down on the heap of earth that he had just been pulled from and began kissing him all over his dirt covered face. I didn’t care. I wasn’t going to put anything between us again. Just the thought of him being truly dead had my mind wondering what the rest of my world would be without him, and I didn’t like anything that had rushed through my mind.

“I believe your other little one’s come this way,” Martin said, pushing the strands of hair out of my face.

“I don’t care. I love you, Martin and I am so sorry for being so stubborn. I can’t stop what I’m doing but I don’t have to keep putting those that I love in such compromising situations.”

Martin lowered his eyes as a small laughed escaped. “You are speaking the words that I was meaning to tell you before you spoke to me.” He rolled me over to where he lay looking down at me. “I surrender to your way and I join you in your fight to stop the madness that the elders have set in place. I adore you and I always will, my love.”

“No matter how bad that I’ve wanted to hear you say those words, all I care about is you and Tanda being okay,” I said, pulling him down so I could continue to kiss every part of his face that I could.

“Finally, now can we get the hell out of this God awful city? I’m ready to kick some elder ass,” Derek said, then let out a yell that caused more rubble to fall.

“I would hold that enthusiasm a bit longer if I were you, young Derek. And I think we should be making our way to the safe room, before the younger ones have to be carried. Dawn is close at hand,” Cates yawned and raised his nub, running it across the top of the tunnel ceiling. “Good thing those stones came down before the earth landed on you, old one. Good roots,” Cates grabbed a large tree root that hung free from the tree that kept its footing. “If this had been over even by one foot, you would have had more on you then just soil. You were very lucky this night.”

“Yes, I am very grateful for that old tree hanging on. And to our good friend here who pulled me free.” Martin stood and pulled me to my feet, then walked over to Fala and took his hand. “I owe you my life.”

“It was my honor.”

“A life for a life. If you are ever in need, I will be here for you, my friend.” They shook hands and Martin patted Fala on the back.

“I love you too, Fala, but can’t one of you lend him your shirt so he can wrap it around his waist. Nudity isn’t a big thing, but it can get a little odd having a man with his business just swinging away, walking wherever. So, I’m just saying,” Tammy said, leaning on the curve of the tunnel wall.