When the Walls Fell (30 page)

Like nearly everywhere else in the city, the survivors stumbled from their houses out into the street. Most people huddled in their nightclothes and chattered anxiously. Nob Hill had been spared the worst of it. Most of the houses were still intact, but she knew that the rest of city lay in ruins. Already, the smoke from dozens of fires filled the morning sky. The worst was yet to come.

Chapter Twenty-Six

S
imon looked down the block in the direction of City Hall, but he couldn’t see much. The penumbral eclipse that would take them home was scheduled to begin in less than an hour. And he had no idea when the next would come. They had to try to get to his watch, which was still locked up in the jail at City Hall, before then.

He came back to Elizabeth’s side. “We should go.”

“What do you mean?”

“The watch. We have to at least try to retrieve it. It’s possible the earthquake destroyed it, but if there’s a chance we can return home, Elizabeth, we have to take it.”

He could tell from her expression that she knew he was right, but wasn’t ready to accept it just yet. Unfortunately, they didn’t have the luxury of time just now. When did they ever?

“Max is hurt,” Elizabeth said, but Simon could tell even she didn’t buy her own excuse.

“The others can take care of him. Elizabeth, we don’t belong here. You know that.” What he didn’t say, couldn’t say in front everyone else, was that he wanted to start again with her, to build a new life back home.

Elizabeth looked around at the others. “I just didn’t think it would be this hard.”

Much to his chagrin, he found himself feeling much the same way. He’d grown surprisingly attached to these people. He hated to press the issue, but they didn’t have time to spare. “We need to go. And if the watch has been destroyed you might get your wish anyway.”

“That isn’t what I’m wishing for,” she said. And he could see in her eyes, as difficult as it was, she’d made up her mind.

The group had gathered in Mrs. Eldridge’s front yard and Elizabeth plastered on a smile and joined them. “Simon and I have to go.”

“No,” Teddy said. “So soon?”

“I can’t tell you how much each of you means to me.”

Her voice was already beginning to quiver dangerously.

“All of you,” Simon added. He hated emotional scenes, but Elizabeth needed this. He ignored the fact that he felt a traitorous lump forming in his own throat. He cleared it and let Elizabeth say her goodbyes.

“I don’t know what to say,” she said. “You all know how I feel about you.”

Mrs. Eldridge stepped forward. “We do. And that’s more than enough, dear. Another rule to live by: Never say goodbye.”

Elizabeth nodded and wiped the tears from her eyes with the back of her hand. “Right.”

Teddy looked like he was ready to burst into tears when he suddenly brightened and dug into his jacket pocket. “I almost forgot. I made you something!”

He held out a long silver chain with a small, ornate watch key on the end and dropped it into Elizabeth’s outstretched hand.

“What is it?” she asked.

Teddy grinned. “The moon.”

Elizabeth had no idea what that meant, but when did she ever know what Teddy really meant? He looked back at her with such joy and sadness, she had to bite her lip to keep from crying. She slipped the chain over her neck and hugged Teddy for all she was worth.

“It’s time,” Simon said, coming to her side.

She sniffled and nodded.

“Those fires will be coming this way,” Simon said to Gerald and Mrs. Eldridge. “You should gather what you can and leave now. I’m afraid nowhere in the city will be safe soon.”

Mrs. Eldridge looked down the street and then back to her beautiful house. Gerald put an arm around her shoulders. “We’ve been through worse, Lillian.”

She smiled up at him and nodded.

“You two had better hurry,” Gerald said. “That fire’s getting closer awfully fast. Be careful.”

“We will.” Simon put his arm around Elizabeth and eased her away from the house and out into the street. Together they started the long, dangerous journey to City Hall.

***

He’d seen photographs, of course, but nothing prepared him for the reality of a disaster on a scale like this. Houses leaned against their neighbors, teetering on the edge of collapse. Bottom stories were flattened under the weight of what rested above. Facades had been shorn off completely leaving the rooms inside looking like a child’s dollhouse. In many cases, too many, entire buildings were no more than piles of brick and stone.

People wandered aimlessly, lost in a haze of shock and disbelief. A horse-drawn fire truck raced down the street, bell clanging and dog barking. A man clutched a bible to his chest and preached of damnation and salvation. Smoke billowed out of small fires that were soon to grow into flames that would devour what was left of the city.

But the worst of it were the sounds—the thunk of brick hitting brick as someone tried to dig out a loved one from the rubble. The cries of children for their lost parents and the agonizing wail of someone who’s just realized they’d lost everyone they loved.

Simon pulled Elizabeth more tightly to his side. If emotions were colors, this world would have been black. There was so much pain and agony in the air that every breath made him sick to his stomach. He knew that the initial shock, the numbness that comes from a sharp blow, would soon fade. He prayed they were long gone from this place by then, but the deeper they got into the city, the more difficult it became.

The streets were cluttered with debris and overturned carts. A giant rift had opened in the middle of one street. It was easily four feet wide and God only knows how deep. The fissure made a jagged path down the center of the road and Simon could see part of a cart and a horse’s stiff legs sticking up from the hole.

City Hall, or what was left of it, loomed in the distance. The great dome was no more than a framework now, like a giant birdcage. He felt hope slipping away.

“Help me!” someone cried from the side of the road. “Please!”

It was a young boy, no more than twelve. He stood on top of a pile of rubble and called to them, to anyone for help.

“Simon,” Elizabeth said at his side.

He knew there would be hundreds, even thousands of cries like that today. They couldn’t help them all.

“Please, my sister’s under here!”

But they could help this one. Simon ran to the boy. “Where is she?”

“Under here, I think,” the boy said. “But I can’t lift it.”

Simon and Elizabeth scrambled across the loose stones and saw the large slab of masonry. It must have weighed several hundred pounds.

They tried, but there was no way the three of them could move it. It was far too heavy. Then, he noticed a small hand wedged beneath the stone. He’d had enough of dead children on this trip. This girl would not be another.

He saw a man across the street and called out to him. “You there! Help us!”

Elizabeth ran to the man and practically dragged him back. He had a large gash on his forehead and was covered from head to toe with a fine dust.

“There’s a little girl trapped,” she said and that seemed to rouse the man. His eyes cleared a little and he climbed up next to Simon.

“On three,” Simon said. “One, two, three.”

Together they lifted the stone slab and tossed it aside. The boy jumped down into the hole and emerged with a little girl clinging to his side. The other man helped him navigate a path across the debris to the street.

Elizabeth stared after the boy and his sister until Simon took her arm and led her away. He didn’t blame her. Any moment of triumph amidst the horror had to be savored. But he couldn’t give in to the emotions. If they lingered they’d be swallowed up by the need.

“This way,” he said and led them down the side street he recognized from the night of his escape.

It was difficult to tell what had been where. City Hall was a complete ruin. He judged the distance from the street corner and saw the uprooted remains of the large oak Max had been leaning against.

“This is it,” he said.

The door he’d escaped through wasn’t there anymore. The entire wing looked to have collapsed.

“The blueprints showed that the cell was about 25 feet this way,” Elizabeth said as she ran along the edge of the debris.

Simon followed her until she stopped. “Right about here.”

“It was in the filing cabinet by the door,” Simon said as they both clambered over the stones. Elizabeth kept catching her toe on the hem of her skirts, but he knew better than to tell her to let him do it. They were, after all, partners, in this together.

They tossed stone after stone aside and tried to find where the doorway had been, but it all looked the same now. They dug for what felt like hours, but was only minutes. Time felt like it was stretching out and then contracting. He felt his hope slipping away when Elizabeth called out to him.

“Over here!”

He picked his way over to her and looked where she was pointing. Something metal caught the light. He moved more stones and saw that it was one of the brass plates on the front of the cabinet.

It took all the strength either of them had left to move some of the large stones. Somehow, the cabinet hadn’t been completely crushed by the weight of the ceiling collapsing on top of it. Through the hole they’d dug Simon could see that the top drawer had been split open. Please let the watch be all right, he thought, as he lay down on top of the rubble and reached down into the hole.

He felt his way around the inside of the drawer and his fingers brushed against something smooth and metal. He strained against the rocks, forcing his arm further into the hole. He felt the edges of the watch and wrapped his fingers around it and pulled it out in triumph.

He handed Elizabeth the watch and reached into the hole again. He grabbed on to the small jewelry box and stuffed it into his jacket pocket. They made their way out of the rubble and onto the grass. The world around them was still in chaos. Bells clanged in the distance, men shouted and bits of building continued to crumble.

Elizabeth ran her fingers over a large dent in the watchcase. “Do you think it’ll still work?”

“Open it.”

The watch hands still turned and the small moon inset was sliding to a new phase. But there was no way to tell if the watch would still take them home.

“I’m sorry,” she said.

He tilted her head up, surprised to find tears in her eyes. “Whatever for?”

“This is all my fault. I believed the Council even when you told me not to. They could have made up any old story and I would have bought it hook, line and sinker. I’m a schlemiel.”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” he said wiping a tear from her cheek with the pad of his thumb. “Everything you did, you did out of love. Don’t you think I know that? Don’t you think I love you all the more for it?”

“What if we never get home?”

“Whatever happens, Elizabeth, I don’t regret one moment I’ve spent with you.”

He leaned down to kiss her and just as their lips met, the paralyzing, electric blue light snaked up from the watch and engulfed them both. And sent them home.

***

She was finally free. Her head was swimming, but she was free. Something was wrong though. She hadn’t expected it to be dark. Why did she taste soot in the night air?

Someone bumped into her from behind and she nearly dropped the watch. Finally, her head began to clear.

The clatter of hooves on cobblestones made her turn her head and she saw someone jump into the back of a carriage.

No.

She started to run, but a strong arm grabbed her. “That’s as far as you go.”

She spun around to see a guard from the hospital and then another.