“Kathy. Are you all right?” He whispered. “How long have you been hiding here?”
Kathy Santos threw her arms quickly around Steve’s neck and said in a very low excited voice.
“Oh Steve. I’m so glad it’s you. I was so frightened when I heard that shot. I was so afraid someone was shooting at you.”
Steve Sidel at that moment realized for sure that this was his future wife.
“No. I was over by the doors. I’m just so glad that it wasn’t you.”
Steve had placed his arms gently around Kathy’s very small waist and he hugged her with
an intensity he hadn’t known existed five minutes before. They were still in a very tight embrace when Kathy suddenly loosened her hug for a moment and said to Steve.
“Oh. I almost forgot.” She gestured behind her with her head. “This is Tyrone. He is a security guard here and we have been hiding until we could tell what was happening.”
“Well Tyrone, as far as I know some people were trying to rob the place when the roof caved in, so that must be the people with the gun.”
“Steve. I lost my memory for a while but, I think I have regained most of it back. I vaguely remember being hit on the back of the head by a petite blonde so she must be part of the robbery plan. I have a gun so maybe we can catch them off guard.”
“I’m really happy to hear that you have a weapon. It might be the edge we need but, I suggest we stay put until we can figure out what exactly is going on. We might need the element of surprise to make a difference in what is going on.”
Kevin Backlin and Bill Forham had just reached the door to the kitchen when they heard the shot. They had helped several couples up from the floor that were disoriented and told them where the opening was to get out of the hole. They figured most of the guests were probably under the north end of the building and from what they could see, that part of the lobby’s roof had collapsed. The north end of the lobby was the cocktail bar area and most people had been gathered in that area when the sinkhole started. From their limited field of vision the entire north side was totally under a mass of building parts and dirt and it would take shovels and heavy duty lights, that the firemen carried, to rescue the people trapped in that area. That is if there was any left to be rescued. They had concentrated their search area to find the people that could be rescued quickly because they knew the whole place might become submerged by the lake and saving a few was better than rescuing people that might not be alive anyway.
When they heard the shot, they decided immediately that the robbers were behind it and they stopped their search to decide on a course of action.
“Listen Bill. I don’t know about you but, I think it would be very stupid for us to walk right back into the arms of those gun toting maniacs and let them either shoot us or take us hostage. I think we should maybe try to find another way out of here and then we could take anybody we ran across out the new way so we could avoid those criminals.”
“I couldn’t agree more Kevin but, do you really think there is another way out?”
“Remember those sound testings we did three years ago? This place was honeycombed with caverns. I think if we concentrated on the outer walls of the lobby we just might run into one of those passage ways that would connect with this building since we are below ground level anyway.” “You know Kevin. That’s really a good idea. If we found a cavern it would probably lead toward another collapsed building and we might find an opening we could use. We could lead everyone out the back way and get them away from the threat of the robbers. Let’s go see what we can find.”
The two men headed toward the closest wall that they knew was an outside wall and started shining the light from the floor to the ceiling. They traveled the length of the wall until they came to a doorway and Kevin pushed on the locking bar that ran the width of the door. In the direct beam of the flashlight they could see a sign that said “Push in case of Emergency” and they both nodded thinking to themselves that this was definitely an emergency. The door would not budge from its closed position and Kevin shrugged his shoulders and motioned for Bill to continue working their way down the wall. They continued down the wall for another twenty feet and they ran into what looked like an interior door.
“I thought this was an outside wall.” Questioned Bill. “Why would they have this type of door leading to the outside?”
“Maybe it’s some sort of maintenance room. You know for brooms and mops and stuff. They have to have some sort of storage area around here.”
“Well, try to open it Kevin. We won’t know till we try.”
Kevin turned the knob and felt no resistance but when he tried to push it open it would not budge.
“I think it’s just stuck because of the way the building settled Bill. Give me a hand and we can try to force it open.”
Kevin and Bill both put their weight against the wood center of the door and it slowly started to push open. A large pile of dirt fell through the top portion of the door and they kept forcing it further open with their body weight. When it was three quarters of the way open, they stopped and Bill shined the light through the opening. They could see through the beam of the flashlight a small computer room obviously set up for running the lighting in the lobby and the automated parts of the kitchen and office areas. Kevin forced his way past the partially opened door and saw an outside door on the back wall in the beam of the light that Bill was flashing past him. The door was an opening inward door and he turned around to face Bill.
“Let’s give that one a shot. We can pull it open so maybe we will just see a big dirt or stone wall or maybe it will be a way out.”
The two men walked over to the cream colored door and both held their breath as Kevin put his hand on the knob and slowly turned the handle. They both had a sudden feeling of total failure when the opened door revealed a solid limestone wall that filled the entire doorway.
“Damn.” Shouted Kevin as he banged his fist on the soft crumbly stone. “We have to find a way out of here.”
Kevin and Bill turned around to walk back out of the computer room when they heard a sound behind them. They both turned quickly around just in time to see the entire limestone wall vanish out of sight. They walked quickly back to the doorway and peered into the opening. A well-formed cavern was behind where the boulder had stood and there was a gap about five feet wide in the floor of the cave where the boulder had disappeared.
“You must have dislodged it when you banged on it Kevin. It sank out of sight like the rest of the stuff around here. Look. I see light down the tunnel. It must lead to another collapsed area. Let’s go see what we can find as soon as we make some kind of bridge to get over this hole.”
“You bastard. Why did you shoot the deputy? He looks no older than a kid. I hope you have a conscience because you really did a number this time.”
“Shut up you dumb broad. You saw him reach for his gun. I didn’t really have a choice.”
Paula Howard glared in the weak light at Frankie Medford. “You didn’t have to aim for his heart. I saw the bullet strike him in the chest. You could have shot him in the arm or leg. You just wanted to kill him.”
“Who cares? He was a cop anyway and I hate cops. If he dies, he dies. Tough luck.”
Frank Medford stuck the gun in Paula’s back and said.