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He didn’t know how much time had passed, and he’d turned off the phone earlier to conserve battery charge. Just in case they needed it longer.

They weren’t talking. There was too much to say between them.

He just held her, and prayed.

They must have slept. Sean wasn’t entirely certain. When he opened his eyes again, there was noise.

Lots of noise.

“It’s search-and-rescue.” He almost yelled it for her to hear. “Yell!”

They kept yelling.

Then they saw it.

A beam of light. Coming right at them.

It was a woman. Young. No older than Autumn Jane, but Sean didn’t recognize her. She’d pointed the small penlight at herself just briefly. Enough for him to get the impression of a surprisingly beautiful face and light eyes. “I’m going to lead you out. There’s a path, but it can be a bit n-narrow in a few places. Detective?—”

“Callum. But I think under the circumstances, you can call me Sean.”

“Oh.” She said it quietly. “I believe we’ve met before.”

He got the impression it hadn’t been a pleasant meeting. He wracked his brain, trying to recall. Nothing.

He didn’t remember her.

“Detective Callum, you’ll probably have to shift to your side about thirty feet from here. I think Dr. Evers is going to have to be first.”

The table shifted above them again. “Let’s go.”

The hardest thing he ever had to do was stay behind while Autumn Jane crawled through the rubble.