darkness above fell a rain of glowing embers that spiraled down around him.
Ethan blinked into the flames, and saw a figure moving with them, the flames curling around her body like snakes. For a moment he thought Rachel had been caught in the blast, but then he saw blond hair shining in the light of the fires, saw Joanna standing on the edge of the darkness. Ethan staggered to his feet as his legs quivered beneath him, and struggled toward her, the searing flames ahead stinging his eyes.
“This way!”
Mahmoud leaped from nowhere through the clouds of cement dust and falling embers, his hair and face caked with dust. He grabbed Ethan’s shoulder and yanked him away from the fire.
“What are you doing?” the Palestinian demanded.
Ethan saw the phantom image of Joanna spirited away on the crackling flames before him. Above the humming in his ears he heard the cries of Palestinians fleeing in the darkness, the screeching of women and the haunting cries of children awoken by the blast. Nausea poisoned his innards and swelled into his throat, and he jolted forward as a thin stream of bile splattered into the darkness at his feet.
“Come on!” Mahmoud shouted.
Ethan staggered along with him, trying to ignore the acid burning his throat as they stumbled across the broken remains of the building, illuminated now by the shimmering flames.
“Hurry, there will be more,” Mahmoud said as they reached the entrance to the tunnel.
Ethan clambered down the ladder on legs weakened from shock, Mahmoud following him underground once again into the cloying heat. Ethan reached the tunnel floor and turned to his right, regaining his senses as he jogged along the passage. He emerged into the subterranean chamber to see Hassim and Rachel looking panicked and confused.
“What happened?” Rachel asked.
“I don’t know,” Ethan said, guzzling water from his mug and turning to see Mahmoud join them in the tunnel.
“Air strike,” the Palestinian said urgently. “Somebody knows that you are here.”
“We have to get aboveground,” Rachel said, her features pale as she looked at the earthen walls surrounding them.
Mahmoud, his pistol held at the ready, gestured with a nod of his head to Hassim.
“Go, there is nothing more that we can do for you here. You must seek protection from Israel.”
Hassim was about to leave when the sound of thunder blasted through the tunnel.
Ethan had no time to react before the shock wave rushed down into the chamber, solid and unstoppable. Ethan felt himself hurled sideways as though clubbed by a giant baseball bat, saw Rachel flung to the ground in a blaze of confusion and noise. Hassim slammed sideways into a wall and crumpled to his knees. Mahmoud crouched before the blast, rolling over as dust and debris filled the chamber in a dense, choking cloud.
Ethan’s knees connected with the earth with a dull crack as grime filled his nose and throat. Fighting an instinctive panic, he struggled to get to his feet as the lights in the chamber flickered around him.
Rafael charged forward, his scarf wrapped across his face to protect him from the thick dust that swirled in diaphanous eddies down the tunnel toward him. Like a demon flitting through the catacombs of hell, he sprinted toward the light of the chamber as the second detonation thundered through the darkness, the walls of the tunnel shuddering beneath the blow. The light ahead flickered as the shadows of tumbling figures were cast through the glowing veils of dust.
Rafael rushed on with scarcely a pause, reaching into his pocket and producing a small pair of bolt cutters. As he reached the chamber he glanced left and right, then reached up to his left and with a single swift crunch sliced through the electrical cables running along the ceiling.
The light vanished, and he heard shouts of alarm from the chamber as the occupants were plunged into complete darkness.
The tunnel’s collapsed!”
Ethan heard Mahmoud’s voice shouting out to them, but in the darkness he could see nothing as grains of grit scratched across his corneas. His exhaustion suddenly overwhelmed him as he lost his balance and staggered, his darkened world gyrating and pitching. His voice when he called out was choked and raspy.
“Rachel? Hassim?”
For one long, terrible moment he heard no reply as he fumbled in the darkness with his hands outstretched. Something brushed his fingers, someone moving past him, and he heard the sound of rapid footfalls in the darkness.
“Rachel?”
“I’m here,” came her voice from another direction in the inky blackness.