Ean’s Rare Gift – Chapter 12

Karina

“The main building at the estate has collapsed and trapped the newcomers!” Yuri yells over the howling of the wind and rain. “No one outside of the neighborhood can get here to help. I found a few willing to brave the rain. Can you come?”

Ean glances up the stairs at me, and my stomach drops. We were just having unbelievable, mind-blowing sex, and now this?

I nod and hold up a finger. “Yes! We’ll help,” I call down to them both.

Inside the apartment, I cross to the kitchen, blow out the candles, and reach up to Ume. “We have to go help the people at the estate. Hopefully, we’ll be back soon.”

She chirps, and I can only hope her words are reassuring. We’re going out into a typhoon, and I don’t know if we’ll be back.

“If there are problems or this building is in danger, go to my café or Ean’s family estate. Hopefully, you know those places?”

She chirps again in response, and I have to assume she understands me.

We take the stairs two at a time, and Ean and I follow Yuri through the streets. The wind is so strong it almost knocks us off our feet. It whips around the buildings and drives the rain even harder.

“Oooh!” As we round a corner, I fall sideways, and a gust of wind slams into me.

Ean grabs me and pulls me to him. “I’d be happier if you went back to my place,” he shouts over the wind. “It’s only a block away.”

I shake my head. “No! I’m coming.” The air and water are warm, and I am soaked to the bone. “I’ll be fine!”

We hold on to each other as we make our way through the darkness, and the rain pounds down so hard that it stings our skin. Lightning flashes in the distance, but it’s too far away to help.

The closer we get to the estate, the more I realize how bad this situation is. The winds are howling, and trees are bent over from its force. When we finally make it to what used to be the main building, the storm has destroyed it. There’s nothing left except broken pieces of wood and shattered glass.

“Oh my God,” Ean says, shielding his eyes from the torrent of rain. “It’s worse than I thought.”

Thank the heavens most of the buildings in the town are brick and mortar or even brand-new construction. We always knew these old estates were a liability, but I never thought a storm would destroy them. Most of them have been here for three hundred years.

Right, Karina. And three hundred years of wear and tear have definitely taken its toll.

The wind is getting stronger and more violent by the minute. Tree branches snap off, and debris flies about like missiles. There’s no sign of it stopping anytime soon, either.

“Over here,” Yuri calls out, directing us farther in.

The building the newcomers squatted in is not too far from the edge of the estate, nearest the pine trees that are only a decade old. I gasp as I get close enough to see the damage. Two trees have fallen on the building and collapsed the roof. The wind carries away shouts from inside, calling for help.

Yuri bangs on the boarded-up door. “We’re here!” He signals to one of the other men he brought with him and approaches the door with a crowbar.

Ean backs up and shines his flashlight at the caved-in roof. All I see is the driving rain illuminated by the flashlight’s beam. “Look!” He points at a section of the roof. “That probably fell on them, and it’s right above the main living space.” He looks at the door and then the roof again. “Even if they get in there, they won’t be able to reach the people inside.”

I could maybe climb in there.

“I know what you’re thinking,” Ean shouts over the rain and wind. “You’re not climbing in there.”

Busted. “What about around back?”

Battling the rain and wind, we circle to the rear of the building, stepping over downed trees. Yuri approaches from the opposite side, and he sees what we see. The tree knocked down half the wall when it crashed into the roof. There’s enough room for me to fit through the crack.

The thought makes my stomach lurch as I weigh the risks. But getting someone out is worth trying if there’s a chance.

We both look at each other, and in unison, we shout to Yuri. “I’m going in!”

Yuri nods and comes forward to help us widen the hole. He and Ean pull the brick wall down in chunks and make the opening slightly bigger. It causes bits of the roof to come down too, but this is a risk we have to take.

“Here,” Ean says, offering me his hand. “You go in first and be careful. We’ll try to make the hole bigger while you’re in there.” He gets down on one knee. “I’m not proposing. You can use my knee as a step.”

This guy, he can make me laugh in almost any situation. I chuckle as I grasp his face and lay a kiss on his lips. Before he responds, I step up on his knee and haul myself into the building.

As I make my way into the wreckage, I brace myself, trying to find survivors. Debris is everywhere, some of it so large that I have to climb over it or push it out of my path. Cries of help come from deeper inside, but they’re muffled by the wind. The caved-in roof is right where Ean thought it would be, on top of the woman we spoke to earlier. A beam has her leg pinned to the floor.

“Help!” she cries when she sees me.

I rush to her side and pull at the beam, trying to free her leg.

“You’re going to be okay. What’s your name?”

“Gita. Gita Nakamura,” she says with a grunt.

“Okay, Gita. Get ready to move.”

She nods in response, her face turning white.

I tug until it finally slides off her leg, allowing me to lift her up. She’s dazed and confused, and her leg is bleeding, possibly broken. I drag her away from the wreckage and towards the hole in the wall. But we have little time to celebrate as more pieces of rubble threaten to collapse the building at any moment.

“Who else is here?” I ask her, leaning down close so she can hear me.

“Two others. Everyone else left hours ago. We’re the only ones who stayed.” Her lower lip quivers, shock taking over now that the immediate danger is over.

I glance over my shoulder at the room beyond the destroyed roof. They must be in there.

The hanging bits of roof creak in a gust of wind. If I’m going to go, I need to go now.

My search leads me deeper into the darkness until I come across two figures huddled in a corner, cowering from the howling wind and rain outside. They’re trapped.

“I’m here!” I call to them. One figure looks up at me with terrified eyes. “It’s okay,” I say, trying to reassure them. “Did you try to move this?”

“Yes,” the man replies, nodding vigorously. “More of the roof came down.”

“I need help here!” I call in Ean’s direction.

I rush closer, heaving the roof off him and helping him get to his feet. The woman screaming for him grabs onto me for support, her body trembling from the cold.

A loud crash rings from outside, and a chunk of roof plummets straight for us. I try to dodge, but it’s too late. Pain strikes through my back as a roof tile hits me, and I stumble forward, tripping and hitting the floor as I go down. My chin bounces off the floor, and I see stars.

Shit. What just happened? I blink through the pain and the rain streaming over me.

“Karina!” It’s Ean! His hands grasp my back and wrap around me as he brings me up to standing. He was trying to make the hole bigger and free up more space. But as he did so, that chunk of the roof came down and hit me.

“Are you okay? We have to get out of here.”

He does a quick check-up on me, running his hands from my head downward.

My back aches, and my chin is bleeding. Ugh. That’s going to leave an enormous bruise.

“I think… I think I’m okay.” I shake out my arms and touch my head. Yeah, I’m okay. It’s not too bad — just a few scratches and bruises — but it could have been worse if Ean hadn’t been there when it happened.

“Let’s go!” He shouts from my side. He and Yuri lift the man and woman up, helping them through the wall to the outside. I climb out first, and then Ean follows.

“Is that it?” Ean calls over the wind.

I didn’t think the wind could get any stronger, but it seems to blow continuously now instead of in gusts. Past the edge of the estate, another tree blows over and lightning streaks across the sky, illuminating the nearby buildings. It’ll be tough against the wind and rain, but we have to find shelter soon or risk being hit by debris or worse.

“We need to get out of here,” I yell, knowing we don’t stand a chance against this storm.

Ean nods. “Let’s bring these people to my place. There’s room for them in the office space.” The rain has battered him, and he looks as exhausted as I feel.

We start running, dodging left and right as we make our way through the estate and then the street towards town. The rain slams down hard, and the wind whistles in my ear as if trying to keep me from seeking shelter. I’m blown sideways and fall over twice. Ean and Yuri pick me up and help me until we’re within sight of the first buildings of town.

Suddenly, an eerie siren breaks through the wind, rising and falling, in and out of hearing. The sound is haunting, and the hairs on my arm and neck stand on end. I remember the teachers telling us about disasters and how things were really dangerous if the siren ever went off.

“What’s that?” Ean shouts, his eyes wide.

We look around in horror, trying to spot the source of the sound, but we can’t see anything in the mayhem. The ground trembles beneath us, and fragments of structures fly like missiles, making it almost impossible to move forward.

The siren stops, and that’s even more chilling than hearing it in the first place.

My knees wobble, and I clutch at Ean. “I’m scared.”

He doesn’t answer because he’s just as scared as I am.

The town horn, which I’ve never heard before, blows three times, pauses, two times, pauses, one time. Oh no.

Before the Terrans came to this world, Orihimé was in a technological dark age. The only way to communicate emergency situations without some kind of network was with the town horns installed in every city on the continent. But with our technology in place, the town horn system went into disuse. We learned about it in grade school because disaster preparedness is drilled into us from birth.

I don’t remember the code, though. What’s the code?

Yuri’s face falls, and his jaw drops open.

“Move!” he yells, and a bolt of fear runs up my spine.

The ground shakes even more. Ean turns, his eyes wide.

Yuri begins to run.

“Landslide!”