Before the Darkness (Refuge Inc.) by Leslie Lee Sanders Read Free Book Online Page B

am." Adam had to
    stop there. He couldn't go too deep. He
    shrugged, looking into Elliot's hurt brown eyes.
    His stomach ached. He wished he had the balls
    to cradle Elliot's face in his palms and brush
    apologetic kisses from one corner of his lips to
    the other, but he had to think about his survival
    and consider his iancée. Lusting after Elliot was
    doing him no good. It was making him take a
    step back, back to a place he didn't want to be.
    "Look, I—"
    "What was that?" Elliot stood still, looking
    around with his big brown eyes.
    "Huh?"
    "Did you feel that?"
    At that exact moment the earth beneath
    Adam's feet began to shake. "An earthquake."
    "Another one? Shit."
    The vacant vehicles on the littered road
    began to sway as the rocking got stronger.
    Chunks of concrete and brick fell from what was
    left of some of the buildings, and far in the
    distance the screeching sound of heavy, hot
    steel twisting and bending cut through the air.
    Then like a bomb detonating, the sound of a
    building collapsing tore through the night
    behind them. Then unexpectedly, like a thief
    caught red-handed, the trembling stopped.
    "What was that?" Elliot asked. "You think
    it was an aftershock."
    "Maybe, let's keep moving."
    A pained yelp cut through the silence,
    sending a cold chill down Adam's spine. He
    turned around facing where the sound was
    coming from. Again, an agonizing howl tore
    through the silence.
    Elliot brought his hand up to his wide
    mouth. "Oh, no. Something's happened to that
    dog."
    They stood silently, listening for proof
    that the dog was in trouble. When the squealing
    cry sounded again, Adam hastily made his way
    to the crying where whining and whimpering
    noises came from under a pile of wood and
    rubble. "It's trapped in there." He sat his pack
    and the lashlight down, angling the light to
    illuminate the massive heap of concrete ruins,
    and then he began lifting and throwing huge
    blocks off of the pile. Elliot joined him, picking
    up and clearing away as much debris as they
    could.
    They cleared as much as they could
    manage. The only thing left standing in their way
    was a big, solid slab of concrete. When Adam
    lifted one end of the heavy slab it teetered. The
    back end lowered allowing him to lift his end
    only about a foot high.
    "Crawl in there and tell me if you see it,"
    he said through clenched teeth as he bore the
    immense weight of the slab.
    Elliot grabbed the lashlight and shined it
    in the space under the debris. "I don't see
    anything. Hold on."
    Adam heard the heavy clunking as Elliot
    moved away some more blocks. "This is really
    heavy," he warned, hoping Elliot would hurry.
    He couldn't hold it for long.
    Elliot crawled nearly halfway inside. "Oh,
    I see it!"
    "Grab it."
    "I can't. I think it's stuck."
    "Let me take a look," Adam said, the
    weight of the slab tiring his arm muscles. Just as
    Elliot crawled out Adam dropped the slab and
    took a few deep breathes. "Can you lift that?"
    "I can try." They exchanged positions and
    Elliot lifted the hefty slab, testing. "I can't hold it
    for long."
    Adam took his cue and grabbed the
    lashlight. He crawled into the hole and shined it
    in the direction of the whimpering. The dog's
    head stuck out from a smaller pile of crumbled
    concrete blocks. Adam crawled closer and
    carefully dislodged a block, freeing the dog,
    except it didn't come out of the rubble as he
    expected it to.
    "Think it's really hurt." He called out to
    Elliot. "I'm gonna pull it out."
    "Just hurry. This thing is heavy."
    Adam crawled forward, breathing in dust
    and dirt as his face grazed the ground. He
    reached into the smaller crevice and carefully
    took hold of the scruff on the back of the dog's
    neck. He gently yet quickly pulled the dog out of
    the narrow opening and into the cavity with him.
    He tried to back up out of the hole and pull the
    dog with him, but there wasn't enough room
    and he didn't have a tight grip. His heart raced
    as he felt the concrete slab slowly