“Help save me. I don’t want to die.”
The majority of the water was pouring into the chasm and it resembled a miniature Niagara Falls. The over splash that didn’t fall in the hole was forming a small river that was starting to fill the tunnel where the men stood watching. The screams continued and the lead fireman shined his high intensity light at the doorway leading from the main lobby. They saw a man being forced by the heavy current trying to hold on to the doorway with both hands but they could tell the force of the water was winning the battle.
“Hold on man. We’ll try to grab you.” Two of the firemen who were carrying a ladder pushed past Kevin and Bill and tried to lay it across the opening in the floor. “Just try to hang on.” Continued the Lieutenant. “We’ll be there in a second.”
The man kept screaming as his grip on the doorway got weaker and weaker. The firemen managed to stabilize the ladder in the heavy flow of the water by having several of the other fireman put their weight on the base of the ladder. One of the firemen began crossing the ladder after securing a rope around his waist that was tied to the fireman closest to him. He was halfway across the ladder, struggling against the heavy weight of the water when, the man lost his grip on the doorway. He washed up to the opening and the fireman grabbed the tail of his tattered tuxedo just as he was falling over the edge. The fireman reached his arm to place it around the man’s neck and the tail of the tuxedo ripped apart from the rest of the suit. The fireman was still holding the ripped tail in his right hand as the man disappeared from view in the waterfall. The fireman knew the image of the man going over the edge would burn in his mind for a long time because of the look of horror on the man’s face and the sharp contrast of the black tuxedo and the man’s white albino features.
Steve Sidel, gripping his flashlight in his right hand, waded through the muddy water, which had dropped back to waist level. He headed north toward where the roof caved in looking for some sign of his brother. He knew it was a slim chance that his brother would give up but, he figured it was worth the chance. They were never been close, Steve had gone to college, graduated, gotten married and went to work as a computer programmer. Sam(Stretch)Sidel had dropped out of school in the eleventh grade. Hung around with a gang of street punks and made a living selling drugs and committing a large amount of petty thefts. He was arrested fourteen times as a juvenile and been placed in detention only three times. When he hit eighteen, three of his street pals and he stole a car, robbed a gas station, and tried to rob a liquor store when they were caught by an off duty detective who was buying his nightly booze fix. Sam was sentenced to three years in state prison but served only nine months because of overcrowding.
The day he was released from prison, he and two ex-gang members were caught in an attempted rape of a middle-aged housewife who had been shopping in a mall. They grabbed her as she was unlocking her car and forced her into the back seat with Sam and one of his pals pinning her down. The third member of their little group grabbed her keys and roared out of the parking lot looking for a deserted area to fulfill their pent-up sexual desires. Sam and the boy in back managed to rip the clothes off the terrified women and were getting ready to assault her even before they found a place to park. An unmarked patrol car, whose occupants had just finished lunch at a fast food restaurant across from the mall, saw the woman’s car peel out of the parking lot and radioed for back up when they spotted the woman screaming in the back seat.
The patrol car followed for several blocks until they were advised that the backup units were waiting directly ahead. They hit the siren and placed a flashing light on the dashboard and attempted to pull the fleeing vehicle over. The driver of the stolen car pushed down on the accelerator in an attempt to lose the pursuing car when he ran into a roadblock that had been set up. He swerved to avoid the two police cars that were blocking his path and lost complete control and crashed into the glass front of a coin Laundromat. The three startled customers in the laundry scattered as the car came to a stop halfway through the front window. The terrified lady jumped out and ran naked out the back door while the three would be rapist sat stunned in the car. They were hustled, not too gently back to jail and Sam was sentenced to ten years in state prison.
He served only three years and seven months before being released and had continued with his life of crime but only on a lower profile. He had gotten the idea to extort money from rich widows while serving his latest jail term and had only been arrested four times since his long stint in prison. He served only six months at the longest of his four arrests and he met Frankie Medford while serving the latest time.
Steve approached the crumbled roof that was laying in the lobby and noticed an opening he could squeeze through. When he managed to get his entire body through the tight area, he looked around with his flashlight and saw several bodies floating in the now still water. He waded through the murky water and saw another opening on his left side. Just as he cleared the fallen debris and found himself in a larger area he heard a gruff voice out of the darkness.
“Well, welcome back. I was wondering what happened to you and that dark haired dame you tried to pass off as the governor’s wife. I ran into your brother shortly after I almost drowned in that torrent but, I’m tough and he explained to me who you were and to think you almost had me fooled.” Steve Sidel could see in the light of his flashlight that Frankie Medford was pointing a gun at Steve’s chest as he approached him out of the darkness. “I liked the idea of having the governor’s wife as a hostage but I think you’ll make a nice replacement. Come on move it. I’m going to get out of this stinking mud pit with your help.”
Frankie jammed the gun in Steve’s chest and forced him back out through the small opening. “Don’t try any fancy moves computer boy or you’ll get a large bullet hole in you. Let’s get the hell out of here.”
The sheriff watched as the TV crew interviewed various witnesses. He heard a lot of different versions of the same story and he figured in a few days most of the tabloids would be paying large sums of money to the different survivors. He thought they would base the rate of payment to each person the tabloid featured in their magazines, not on their personal experiences but on how well they could articulate to the public. The more interesting way the same story was told, the more circulation they would achieve. Fact of life. A boring person didn’t sell copy even if they were captured by aliens. A very interesting person could find a gopher turtle and sell a million copies if they told the experience in a very people oriented way.
A small garrison of national guardsmen arrived at the entrance to the lobby in full battle dress and heavily armed. They were lead by Sergeant Sutton and they began to descend the two ladders that led to the roof. They were a picture of military discipline and would shame a swat team in their punctual movements and well-rehearsed battle plan. The sheriff watched spellbound as they split into two strategic groups when they reached the bottom of the ramp and began to wade through, the by now, knee-deep water.
The lake pumps, having been earlier shut off by Becky McClellan did not refill the lake when the level dropped and the flow of water due to the lower level was almost at a standstill. The sheriff descended one of the ladders and then the ramp in order to follow the exquisite moves of the national guardsmen. He walked about five feet forward in the slow-moving water until he could get a good view of the operation and marveled at how well they performed their job. The bright lights that they had carried into the sunken lobby lit the place up like a movie set and the sheriff could see quite a few piles of sodden clothes that were jammed against fallen beams and against the back wall. He knew without looking closer that the piles of clothes contained unfortunate people who had drowned in the sudden flood from the lake.