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like a giant's fist
't inflate. There was only a wet, rasping sound in her tha new world. Surviv
than the pain. He knelt, his face appearing in the narrow gap between the concrete slabs that pinned her.
as deafening in the ruins
from the corner of his mouth, and he wipe
le not reaching his eyes. He tucked the
each for him, to grab the cuff of his jeans. Her fingers twitched,
cker of something-annoyance, maybe-cros
t shudder. A deep, grinding roar vibrated up through the floor, th
away without a
y sky disappearing as the concrete descended
gid air flood
s flew open, staring at a smooth, white ceiling. A modern chand
k and suffocati
n't the
waist. Her hands flew to the bedsheets, clean and c
ant rumble of traffic. Not the wail of emergency
ed out of bed, her bare knees hitting the poli
hock. A glorious
as r
was
, trembling violently, closed around her phone. The scree
red at
mber
like it stopped completely, then restarted
mo
e hit Seattle. Thirty days before
ragged, shallow bursts. Instinct, born from five years of starvation and injury, took
gged, infected wound had tormented her for we
ity table for support. Her legs felt like jell
fore. No sunken cheeks, no permanent fear etched into the lines
nizing relief. She bit down hard on her lower lip, the taste
rol, her phone vibrated on the floor.
m F
to get those transfer papers sig
bers of her relief. The memory of his face, smiling as he left her to
their future, only to be kicked out two weeks later when he sold it for cash. That house h
her chest. It was the memory of the rebar, a gh
EMT. She knew how to function under pressure. She forced the
ing arctic. The fear was still there, but it had crystalli
e electronics, the closet full of clothes she would never wear again. It
d already begun, ticking aw
essage from Ford to 'unread'. Let him think she was
oving aside flimsy dresses and high heels. She dug into the back, pulling out a p
comforting abrasion. She dressed quickly, her mo
protocol wa
s the man who thought h
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