The Darkest Night (Surviving the Fall 7)

“Mm. Not surprising. You don’t have much in the way of pain management.”

“Yeah we didn’t get our pharmacy renewal license in time so I had to throw out all the morphine.” Dianne made an exaggerated expression. “Sorry about that.”

A slight smile, one that appeared genuinely spontaneous, appeared on the corners of Tina’s mouth before she replied. “I’ll dose him up again here soon with what you do have. His liver’s already having a rough enough time. I don’t want to be stressing it too much with a bunch of pain meds in his system.”

Dianne leaned in and whispered to Tina. “What do you think his chances are? Truthfully?”

“If he was lucid and talking to you? Pretty good. I’m most worried about the infection. He’s bound to have one and most of the antibiotics you have aren’t really what I was hoping for. I’ll have to keep a close eye on him and make sure nothing serious develops.”

“What if it does?”

“Then things get a lot worse. For all of us.”

Chapter 10

Kansas City, Missouri

Sitting in the cramped car surrounded by shaking buildings and the ever-present threat of being crushed was not a pleasant experience for Rick, Jane and Dr. Evans. Going through all of that while trying to find a path out of the city that was least likely to wind up with one or more of them being killed was even less pleasant. While the vehicle’s navigation system had onboard street-level maps of pretty much every city in the country without regular updates the maps quickly fell out of date. This was especially true for places like Kansas City which were going through rapid growth and expansion phases and thus had near-constant changes to their streets both physically and in name.

“This isn’t West 34th anymore.” Jane pointed out the side window as they zipped across an intersection. “It jus

t turned into Malone Parkway.”

“Malone?” Dr. Evans typed in the name into a search box on the center console and a pair of streets on the map became highlighted in yellow. “That’s not for another block. I guess that’s another change.”

“Do I still take a right-hand turn at 19th?” Rick kept his eyes on the road.

“Yes. I think so.” Dr. Evans zoomed in on the map. “Yes, definitely. We’ll see if that dumps out where it should.”

Rick ground his teeth together, trying desperately not to let his emotions get the better of him. Driving the small car through the streets of a crowded, overbuilt city would be challenging on a regular day. Adding in the fact that the tremors were continuing to grow in frequency and severity made the drive so much worse. They had nearly crashed several times already, either because a tremor took them by surprise or because part of a building or overpass had collapsed in their path. They had also nearly been the victim of falling debris two times, but Rick hoped that keeping them going at a high rate of speed would considerably reduce the chances of that occurring.

Based on Dr. Evans and Jane’s readings of the map on the center console they were approaching the middle of the city and would soon be halfway to getting out. With the sole intact elevated highway becoming too compromised to use in moving throughout the city they were forced to stick to the surface-level roads as they wove between hordes of burned out or abandoned vehicles and collapsed or partially collapsed buildings.

The question they had upon first approaching the area—wondering what had happened to most of the skyscrapers that the region was famous for—was soon answered as they entered into the heart of the city. The downtown area was centered around a large park approximately four square blocks in size. The seventeen newly constructed skyscrapers had been built around the park, turning it into both a focal point and a natural island in the midst of a sea of metal and glass. Unfortunately the island itself had been consumed by the metal and glass, sucked under by a tidal wave caused by the earthquakes.

Seven skyscrapers stood around the park, six on the east side and one on the north. The other ten that had been on the north, west and southern sides of the park had all collapsed, leaving no more than a few stories of their structures still standing. Millions of tons of debris from the ten buildings lay strewn around the area, though most of it covered the park at the center of where they used to stand.

A few had toppled over onto nearby buildings, though the majority of the damage caused to the other buildings in the area was from the earthquakes and not from the impact of the skyscrapers. While many of the buildings on the outskirts of town had shown signs of damage in the form of cracks on their interiors and exteriors the ones in the center were much more heavily damaged—if they were even standing at all.

Even though only a small fraction of the downtown area was visible to the trio, Rick immediately realized that they would have to find a path around the center of the city if they wanted to escape. “Damn!” Dr. Evans cursed as he looked up and saw the swath of destruction laid out before them. “Give me a minute here.” He looked back down at the map while Rick turned around to start getting them away from the center of the city.

As Rick drove along he felt another tremor, but unlike the others that merely caused the car to vibrate and shake the one they were experiencing was actually making the car buck off of the ground by an inch or so. “Guys?” Rick looked at Jane and Dr. Evans. “Can I get some help here?” Jane and Dr. Evans were frantically arguing as they looked at the map, trying to decide which route to take when a particularly powerful tremor hit. The car bounced off the ground and landed with the tires slightly off-center, causing them to veer off of the road. Rick barely managed to keep them from smashing into the side of a building and he shouted as he continued accelerating. “Just choose a road already!”

Jane leaned forward and jabbed her finger at the screen, causing it to ripple with rainbow hues as she pressed on the panel. “Go there! Take a left at the next intersection! The buildings aren’t as tall, so maybe we’ll be safer!”

“Left at the next intersection. Got it.” Rick held tight to the steering wheel, feeling it and the entire car fight him with each tremor. Jane and Dr. Evans watched the buildings on both sides of the road as they tore past, growing more alarmed at how much the structures were swaying and shaking. Bricks and glass fell off onto the sidewalk and street and dust began to fill the air. While the other tremors had slowed down and even stopped after a while there was no sign of that occurring anytime soon.

“Look out!” Dr. Evans shouted and Rick hit the brakes, spinning the wheel to take an immediate right. A mess of cables and stoplights were falling into the street just ahead of where they had been driving. Rick turned left again at the next street and kept going forward, not certain that the path they were taking would lead them anywhere useful.

As they continued winding their way around the center of the city on the northern side, Jane kept watching as the lone northern skyscraper drew ever closer. Standing at ninety-six stories tall with another hundred feet worth of antennas on top, the building was swaying back and forth like a tower built—and about to be destroyed—by a child.

The movements of the tower seemed like they were taking place in slow motion due to how large the structure was, and while she thought at first that it would slow down and stop she soon realized that the shaking was only getting worse, not better. “Rick?” Jane said, quietly. “Rick!” She said his name again, more forcefully.

“What?!” Rick’s attention was focused completely on driving and he didn’t bother looking back at her as he replied.

“That skyscraper’s going to collapse.”

“What?” Dr. Evans leaned forward and gasped as he looked up at the building. “Holy shit… Rick, we have to move faster!”