The sound of the excavator grew louder while one wall of the hole lit up.
It was her. Her ankle and calf muscle. The outline of her body materialized in his mind. She was face-down and he was kneeling at her feet. He squatted and started digging like a dog, ejecting dirt back through his legs. He had to get to her face as quick as possible, but he didn’t want to stand on her, making any trauma that might have happened already worse.
There was her hip.
He moved up and to the side, estimating where her head was, and continued digging. His arms burned, his hands numb from the scraping wet cold earth. He felt a loop of her hair, then the shape of her skull.
“I’m coming, Piper! I’m coming!”
Wolf doubled, then tripled his efforts, ignoring the cramps seizing his arms and shoulders.
When the overhead light dimmed he looked up to see the excavator was in position. The underside of the massive, gouged metal scoop loomed directly above.
Wolf kept digging, but kept a curious glance at the scoop as it remained motionless for another beat. And then with a sickening twist of his stomach Wolf realized his mistake.
The scoop slowly swiveled downwards, dumping a full load of earth onto his head.
Chapter 36
Wolf covered his head with his arms and felt the brunt of a hundred bowling balls slam onto his back. Rocks, dirt, and mud covered him in an apocalyptic whomp.
Then there was silence. The dirt was packed in his ears, up against his face, every curve and crevice of his body pushed by the heavy earth lying on top of him. Pushing down on Piper Cain.
He opened his eyes and immediately regretted it as dirt pressed in, packing underneath his eyelids. He tried to take a breath and dirt shot into his lungs. He nearly went berserk, trying with all his might to free himself from death’s stranglehold.
His body felt like it was packed in concrete. With each moment he was frozen in place, the more panic built inside of him.
Ryan’s smiling face flashed in his mind. His grandson running to kick a ball and falling onto his butt. He started crying. He needed help getting up. He needed comfort.
Wolf flexed every muscle in his body. A muffled grunt sounding a thousand miles away bellowed from his chest. He arched and pushed up with his legs, and he felt the earth slide off of his back.
He had to breathe!
He freed one of his legs, propping it up to the side like a kickstand, and rolled sideways.
With agonizing slowness, a tremendous weight slid off his back, sloughing away. He felt cool air caressing his face. He took a deep breath, again coughing on dirt. On his hands and knees he tried to clear his lungs, only faintly aware of more dirt raining down, the deafening sound of metal on rock, close to his head. He suddenly realized he had to move fast to avoid the next load, or he wouldn’t have the energy to fight again.
But it was too late. He felt another slam against his back and he was flung into the hole wall in front of him.
With stars swimming in his vision, he watched as the metal scoop pulled away from him and then disappeared up and away. The light of the machine pierced his tearing eyes, then it snuffed out again as the scoop with its glinting metal teeth came back down.
He put both hands up, brought up his legs, clenched his jaw, tensing every muscle in his body as he prepared for a grisly death.
Then the dirt underneath him shifted and dropped forward.
He opened his eyes and saw the scoop pull up and away again. The light was on him one more time as the bucket swiveled to the side on its retracted boom.
Wolf brushed the dirt off his face and blinked, seeing the side wall had been completely removed.
McBeth’s silhouette came into view as he stumbled down into the new hole he’d created. “Shit! I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to dump that first scoop on you! I didn’t realize it was still half-full!”
Wolf got off the dirt and kicked his feet into the new section of hole. Pushing McBeth back, he turned around and began digging again.
McBeth got next to him and helped.
Wolf went straight for Cain’s head. It was much easier now that they could pull at the dirt and get it out of the way in between their legs into the new hole.
There’s no chance. She’s dead. It’s been too long.
He dug harder.
A few seconds later they heaved, grunting with all their might, and Cain’s body spilled out sideways. Wolf sat back, catching her on his lap.
She lay face-up over his thighs, her eyes closed, her lips covered by a strip of duct tape. An extension cord wrapped around her wrists and behind her back, and another one around her ankles.
He put one hand behind her head, brushed the dirt away from her face, and peeled off the duct tape.
It’s been too long.
He put his lips to hers and breathed in twice. Her lips were cold and sticky from the tape’s glue. Her chest rose and fell with all the life of a CPR dummy. He started chest compressions.
“Get out! Move!” A male’s voice yelled.
McBeth was ripped away by someone who had climbed down. Wolf realized there were now red and blue lights slashing into the hole from above.
“Is she okay?” Rachette was next to him now, Yates crowding in beside him.
Wolf checked her carotid and felt nothing. His hands were numb. “I can’t feel anything.”
“I’ll check.” Rachette reached over and put his fingers under her jaw. “I feel it! It’s weak, but it’s there!”
“She’s not breathing.” Wolf put his lips over hers and pushed air into her lungs again. “Untie her hands.”
Rachette slipped his hands beneath her back and got to work. “Shit. It’s tight.”
Wolf breathed in again. The air escaping back out of her lungs made a sighing sound as if
