Page 43 of Mountain Target
Two.
The third house was exactly like the others—small and rundown, and she wondered again how anyone could live here.
“Stay out here.”
Val bristled at Beau’s curt tone but swallowed down her retort. This wasn’t about her. This wasn’t about either of them.
She stood out in the snow as Beau led the way into the small house, Alex right behind him, both men tall enough that they had to stoop to make it past the small doorway.
The moments stretched into eons, and Val meant to stay outside. She’d gone through medical school—she knew magic happened when people follow procedure, and she was good at following directions. But then came a terrible noise, loud as thunder.
Another earthquake.
Her entire body quivered in fear, and she realized she’d been more affected by the previous evening than she’d assumed.
It took her a moment to realize everything was calm outside. The ground wasn’t moving.
The noise was coming from inside the house.
She approached the entrance, heard shouts and grunts—recognized Beau’s voice.
Something’s wrong.
The thought of him in danger pulled her out of her panic, and before she knew it, she was moving.
She stepped through the threshold and into chaos. The living and kitchen area were nearly identical to those in the first house, but here the entire ceiling had collapsed, wooden beams and crushed furniture covering every inch of the ground.
As she watched, another piece of the ceiling fell on the men. Alex curled his body around a small white shape.
They found the girl.
A few feet away, Beau, Lorenz and Hugo, their faces and clothes grayed by the falling dust, struggled to lift a fallen beam off a man on the ground.
“Aghhhh,” the man groaned. Beau grunted.
“One. Two. Three. Lift!”
Inch by inch, the men lifted the enormous beam, but they weren’t strong enough to budge it, and the man was in no shape to crawl out of the way on his own.
Lorenz grunted, an almost animal sound.
How long can they hold on?
“Alex,” Beau grunted through gritted teeth. “Can’t … let … go.” His neck corded with the enormous effort of holding the beam off the man.
But Alex didn’t reply. He’d thrown the rubble off his body and was kneeling beside the body of a little girl who couldn’t have been a day over five.
“No. No,” he cried out. “She’s not breathing. She’s not breathing.”
Val’s gaze connected with Beau, and something electric passed between them. Despite her panic, something cleared inside Val’s mind.
Get the girl breathing.
She ran beside Alex. The ground reverberated against her shins, hard enough that she knew she’d be bruised the next day, but she ignored it.
“I’ve got her,” she said. “Go help them.”
Alex didn’t need to be told twice. He shot her a grateful glance and was off.
