Chapter 104: Diogo
The moment I hear her scream, I shout her name, my voice echoing through the night. I'm frantic to reach her, to dive from a sixth-floor window and rescue my wife. Arms reach for me, pinning me, holding me back. I turn to beat at them, to force them back, but Emery shoves herself into the fray.
"Don't!" she snaps, gripping my arm. "The last thing she'll want is for you to fall and kill yourself."
"She needs me," I snarl in Emery's face.
She shakes her head. "She needs you alive, Warlord."
I try to shake my men off, but they've managed to get a solid hold on my arms and shoulders while Emery speaks. Grayson has somehow inserted himself between me and the window. I will throw him out that window if I have to, but Emery's words are starting to penetrate the black haze that took me over when I heard Taran's frightened scream. I concentrate on Emery's voice and force myself to internalize each word.
"Think about what she would want. If she thought you could escape through the window, she would've insisted you go with her, but you aren't capable of making that climb any more than I am. Only Taran. And she might be hurt, the baby " Her voice trails off for a few seconds as the words choke her. She closes her eyes for a moment, and then continues, "They'll need you if she fell. She could be hurt and she needs you alive if she's to recover. We have to be smart, use our heads. Now, tell me Warlord, how do we get out of here? We need you to guide us."
Finally, I nod. "Enough." My voice comes out sounding as tired as I feel. "I won't jump."
I shrug the hands off me and pace away from the window. I need to clear my mind of Taran if I'm to help the people still trapped in the building. There are five of us left. Five lives depending on a solution. Depending on the man who leads them, who dictates their futures.
"We need to go back up," I decide. The fire is still below us. If it hasn't consumed the stairwell, we can still climb up to the floors above in an effort to get away from the smoke and flames. If the building collapses we're fucked anyway and the safest place to be in a collapse will be the reinforced stairwell. We'll either die by fire or by building collapse. Neither prospect sounds pleasant. "We need to go higher."
The man closest to the door checks it for heat and then wrenches it open. He jumps back as a blast of hot air and smoke pours through. He covers his face with his shirt and peeks into the stairway, then jumps back coughing.
When he can speak, he says, "It's hot and there's almost no visibility, but I think we can still get through. As far as I can tell, nothing's blocked."
"Cover your faces and run up as fast as you can. There are missing windows on floors ten and twelve. Stop there and take a breather if you need to." I bark the instructions through a throat ripped ragged from smoke inhalation and coughing. "Don't stop unless you have to."
Emery looks at me with fear in her eyes. She's smaller and older than the rest of us. We're built for battle, she isn't. I stride toward her, taking her arm in a firm hold. "You'll stay with me. Be sure to keep up."
"I don't think I can," she says, her voice thready.
"You will." I pull her toward the stairwell.
"Deep breath," I instruct and then drag her with me into the smoke-filled landing.
Without pausing, I start running up the stairs, taking them two at a time. Emery runs as fast as she can, her face buried in the crook of her elbow, tears streaming down her cheeks. Tears prick my own eyes as smoke fills the air all around us. My heart is pounding and my lungs scream for relief. I embrace the pain, looking past it toward the goal. Pain is life. As long as we hurt, we are still alive.
Emery starts to stumble, lagging behind, my arm stretched out behind me as her weight drags me back. I haul her back up and tuck her into my side, half dragging her with me as I climb. I can hear my men clattering behind us, one of them so close he'll pass us in a minute.
I lift my face and shout, "We'll stop on twelve."
Two more floors. Every part of me is screaming for oxygen and Emery is nearly limp in my arms, her feet tripping over each step. She's almost as light as Taran, having spent years starving on only half her food rations. But as small as she is, I'm still struggling, the energy I'm expending to carry her while running is depleting the last of my strength.
My man edges out in front of us, shooting past as we near the twelfth floor. He flies through the door, sprinting for the windows just as the floor begins to shake and a rumbling sound goes through the building.
"Get back here!" I shout desperately, trying to call him back. It's too late. As he turns to look at us, the floor collapses out from under his feet and he disappears.
I look up and to my horror, the ceiling is collapsing, the floor above falling into the one we're standing on.
"Get back!" I fling my arm out, smashing it into Grayson and throwing him back.
I pick Emery up and fling her against the inside wall of the stairwell, flattening her against the concrete, protecting her with my body. The terrible roaring of a building collapsing all around us is the last thing I hear as something sharp hits my head and the world goes black.
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