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was a child. A young child. He called out again. Calmly, reassuringly, despite his fear.
He heard a couple more scratchy coughs before the sound turned into hiccupping sobs.
“Can you hear me?” Cal shouted.
After some soft sniffles, he heard a hesitant, “Yes.”
“Okay. I’m with the police and I’m going to help you.”
Cal heard whimpers this time.
“What’s your name?”
There was a pause, another sniffle. “Kayla.”
“Okay, Kayla. Are you hurt?”
“I... I don’t know. But my mom...”
“Your mother is with you?” Cal felt a chill permeate his bones.
“Yes. She...she’s sleeping.”
Oh, God. “All right, Kayla, try to stay calm, and I’ll get you out.”
“When?” she asked hesitantly. “It’s dark in here. I’m scared.” Her voice quavered. “And Mommy... Mommy’s sleeping. I can’t...can’t wake her up.”
“Listen, Kayla. I’ll get you out,” he repeated. “Real soon.” Cal hoped he could keep his promise.
He yanked his radio off his belt. “I’ve got a child here. Condition unknown. With her mother. She says her mother is asleep.” He lowered his voice to a whisper. “She hasn’t been able to rouse her. I’m betting unconscious.” He paused. “At best.” He flashed the light around. “It doesn’t look good down here,” he reported to Command.
“Can you get to them from where you are?” Williams asked.
“No. I don’t think so.”
“All right. We’re sending you help.”
“Make it fast. I don’t know how much time we have.” He was worried about the oxygen supply where the kid and her mother were. He had to do what he could to get some airflow in. He scanned the area around him and found a couple of metal scoops. Based on their size, he assumed they were decorative, but they could’ve been used for beans in the coffee shop. The good news was they were sturdy enough to be functional. He gave Scout another firm command when the dog started digging, then he used a scoop to clear away debris in an attempt to make an opening. All the while, he tried to keep up a conversation with Kayla.
His radio crackled, and the incident commander’s voice came on. “A firefighter is on his way down to you. Have you made any progress?”
“No.” He heard the frustration in his own voice.
“Can you get to her with help?”
He almost groaned from exertion and exasperation. He heaved away a large chunk of concrete. “I doubt it. Not from here,” he growled. He’d hardly scratched the surface.
“Do you have an update on her condition?”
Cal lowered his voice. “Alive. Other than that, I don’t know.” He moved away, just in case the girl could hear him. “Her voice is fading. I don’t know how much oxygen there is. The doorway here is sealed solid, and wouldn’t be a source of air for her and her mother.”
Cal heard some background chatter.
“Okay,” the incident commander said, “we’ve got the building plans. Let’s locate her so we can determine if there’s another way in.”
After a hurried conversation, they decided that the girl and her mother were likely trapped in an interior corridor, and the elevator shaft would be the only feasible way to get to her. The firefighter they sent in arrived while Cal was still on the radio.
“We’ll need you and your dog to help us locate her from the other end,” the commander said. “Come on out and leave Mark—” referring to the new arrival “—to keep the girl calm.”
“Ten-four.” Cal moved back to the doorway and signaled for Mark to join him. “Kayla?” he called out.
Nothing.
“Kayla,” he shouted, trying to keep the rising panic from his voice. “Can you hear me?”
“Uh-huh,” came the subdued answer. “I’m sleepy. I’m going to lie down and go to sleep with Mommy.”
Cal’s eyes locked on Mark’s momentarily, and he knew they shared the same fear. Kayla was running out of oxygen. “I know you’re tired, Kayla, but please try to stay awake for me, okay? Don’t move around but try to stay awake. Can you do that?”
“I’ll try.” The words were so faint they could barely hear them. They were slurred, too, which worried Cal greatly. She was close to losing consciousness, he was certain. And that was just one step away from... A vision of his sweet Haley flashed through his mind again. He began to dig furiously. No. He would not let Kayla die. Mark rested a hand on Cal’s shoulder. “You’re needed to locate her from the other side. Leave this to me now.”
Cal didn’t want to stop, but he knew the firefighter was right. “Okay,” he said. “Kayla, I’m going to come and get you, but I have—” he glanced at the badge on the firefighter’s shirt “—Captain Eagan with me. He’ll be here if you need anything, okay?”
“Yes.” She’d clearly worn herself out or was already losing consciousness. She didn’t have the energy to cry anymore.
In hushed tones, Cal explained the situation to Mark. “You have to create an opening,” Cal said. “I doubt she has enough time for us to get her from the other side.”
Mark had both a pick and a shovel with him and continued where Cal had left off.
Cal signaled to Scout, and they went back in the direction they’d come. Outside, he met up with two more firefighters and a building engineer, and was directed to where they could access the elevator shaft. The elevator had failed in its normal mode with the counterweight plummeting, meaning the elevator itself was at the top of its trajectory, so the shaft was clear. The two firefighters entered the building with him, and he, Scout and one of them were lowered down the shaft to the ground floor. With the firefighter’s key and some effort, they were able to open the elevator landing doors.
Cal could immediately see what had happened. As he’d suspected, when the floors of the building had collapsed, they’d blocked off the entrance to both corridors leading off the lobby. The entrance to the corridor where Kayla and her mother were trapped looked even less accessible from this side.
Cal feared that if the corridor was the only way to get to Kayla, they wouldn’t reach her before she ran out of oxygen. He had to believe that with the tools Mark had, he’d be able to create an opening sufficiently large for air to get in. When Cal gave Scout the hand signal to locate the girl, Scout bypassed the corridor entrance altogether. The rubble must have masked Kayla’s scent. In seconds, he was barking and scratching along what would’ve been a side wall.
Hope surged through Cal as he and the firefighter rushed over to where Scout was digging. They might still have a chance. He instructed Scout to move back and wait, and squatted to get a better look. A structural column had collapsed, and the beam it was supporting had tumbled down on top of it, but there was a small triangular opening at its base. The gap was filled with crushed concrete and other debris, but it appeared to be loosely packed. Cal and the firefighter worked feverishly to open up the space. If the little girl had depleted the available oxygen, every second counted.
The time seemed interminable, but it actually took them less than a minute to create an opening under the column. The good news was that air was now flowing freely into the space. Cal hoped fervently it wasn’t too late.
Crouching down by the opening, he shouted, “Kayla, it’s Cal. Can you hear me?”
There was no response. No sound of movement.
He