Mordock started screaming.
Hank pushed himself to his hands and knees. An arm went around his back.
'Hank! Hank!'
Chris was crouched beside him.
Staring at Mordock, he got to his feet.
The man was shrieking and flapping his arms. He was all ablaze, his face bubbling.
He vaulted the counter.
'No!' Hank shouted.
Mordock's feet came down on the belly of the fat man. He stumbled off and fell to his knees, igniting the puddle of gasoline from the second bucket. He squealed, got to his feet, and ran for the doors.
He left flaming shoeprints on the carpet.
He crashed head first through the glass door on the left, fell flat on the concrete just outside the hotel, and lay there.
Chris was already running towards him. Hank chased her, caught her by the shoulder, and pulled her to a stop.
'We've gotta help him!'
'Forget it. He's finished.'
'What'll we do?'
A drop of water splashed the side of Chris's nose and slid off.
Hank looked up. The ceiling sprinklers had been set off, but they weren't showering water down - they were dripping. He couldn't believe it. 'Crazy son of a bitch must've turned off the water.'
He whirled around. The area surrounding the registration desk was an inferno, flames climbing the wall behind it, engulfing the counter, lapping at the ceiling, spreading over the carpet.
He spotted a pair of pay phones near the restroom doors. They were clear of the fire, for now. He grabbed Chris's hand and pulled her towards them. 'Got any change?'
'I think so.'
They reached the phones. She dug into her bag, came out with a change purse, opened it and took out a quarter. 'You call,' Hank said. 'I'll be right back.'
As she lifted the handset, Hank dashed for the tourist area. He pulled open a glass door. There must have been nearly a hundred people in the huge room: wandering the gift shop, standing at the snack bar, sitting at tables, waiting in line for the next tour to start.
'Give me your attention!' he yelled. A few people looked at him. Others continued about their business. 'There's a fire in the lobby! Everybody get out! Stay calm, you've got plenty of time.'
People started shouting, 'FIRE!'
Couples grabbed each other's hands. Parents clutched children, picked up the small ones. Everybody began to rush for the exits along the side and rear of the room. There were plenty of exits.
They'll be all right, Hank thought.
At the rear of the room, two elevator doors slid open. A tour group returning from the cavern.
'Thank God,' Hank muttered. He ran for the elevators as they began to empty.
It's too early for Paula's group, he thought. No, it's not. She's here. Please!
He scanned the people leaving the elevators. Must've been thirty of them. He couldn't spot Paula.
He was nearly there when a fire alarm began its deafening honk.
The guide, an attractive young woman, turned to her group and raised her arms. 'Everybody stay calm!' she shouted. 'Follow me. We'll be outside in a few seconds.'
Hank reached them. 'Paula!' he called. 'Paula!'
Not there.
Clamped with fear, he rushed to the guide. 'Are you Darcy?'
She shook her head, 'I'm Lynn. Darcy's down below. What's going on?'
'Fire in the lobby.'
'Oh, wow.'
'Take 'em out,' Hank said.
Lynn started leading her bunch away.
Hank rushed past them.
The alarm went silent. The lights went off. He threw himself into one of the elevators and pushed its 'down' button. Nothing happened, he pushed it again and again.
Not going anywhere, he realized. Power's out.
Something seemed to collapse inside him.
Paula.
My God.
He told himself she would be safe down in the cavern.
Safe, maybe, but trapped.
Chris. Her girl's down there, too.
***
Chris, holding the glass door open, gazed into the tourist area. The huge room was deserted except for a few people in a bunch near one of the side exits. And Hank.
Hank was running towards her.
Chris stepped through the doorway. Hank stopped in front of her. He looked grim. Chris took hold of his arms. 'What's wrong?'
'Paula and Darcy are still in the cavern. The other group got out just in time, but they're… the elevators…' He shook his head.
Chris felt a numbness spread through her.
'I'm sure they're safe,' Hank told her. 'The fire can't get to them. It's just that… I don't know how they'll get out. Did you get through to the fire department?' His voice seemed far away.
'Chris? The fire department?'
Darcy can't get out.
'Chris!' He grabbed her shoulders, shook her. The fog in her mind seemed to lift. 'Did you get the fire department?'
'The phones were dead.'
'How…? The crazy bastard must've cut the lines.'
'But I found the fire alarm. I broke the glass, and… that'll bring the fire department, won't it?'
'I don't know. I doubt it.'
Chris felt warmth on her back and looked over her shoulder. Flames danced beyond the glass door. They hadn't reached the door yet, but they were close. 'Come on,' Hank said. 'Let's get out of here.'
'Shouldn't we… there might be people in the rooms.'
'They would've heard the alarm.'
Chris nodded. The alarm hadn't lasted long, but it had made a terrible clamour. Nobody could have slept through it.
'What about a deaf person?' she asked.
'Do you know of a deaf person staying here?'
'No, but…'
'If we ran around knocking on doors, he wouldn't hear that, either.'
'No. Yes. You're right.'
Hank put an arm around her shoulders and guided her diagonally across the room to one of the side exits. Outside, Chris squinted in the brightness. She started to search her handbag, then remembered that she had left her sunglasses beside the pool.
Hank pulled her along, rushing her farther away from the hotel. People were wandering around. There were a lot of cars. She realized that she was on the main parking lot behind the complex.
So disoriented, she thought. Gotta pull myself together.
They stopped.
'My car,' Hank said. 'Want to get in?'
She shook her head.
'Wait here, Chris. I'll check around. Maybe someone has a car phone or CB.'
He hurried away. Chris, watching him, leaned back against the side of the car. And lurched off it, gasping, as the sunheated metal seared her buttocks through the thin fabric of her swimsuit.
She rubbed herself.
She realized what she was wearing.
Swell, she thought. My clothes are in the room.
She looked at the hotel. From out here, no one would ever guess the conflagration inside. The only sign that anything might be wrong was a thin screen of grey smoke rising into the sky on the far side - probably pouring out the lobby door that Mordock had smashed.
Chris wondered if she could get to her room.
I'm not going back in there.
Besides, the corridors might be filled with smoke.
No great loss, she told herself. My clothes, but… oh, Darcy. Darcy had a whole steamer trunk full of things.
As long as she's all right…
Chris remembered seeing the stuffed kitten, Snow, on Darcy's bed that morning. Snow. Santa had given her Snow when she was four.
Tears suddenly flooded Chris's eyes. She lowered her face into her hands and wept.
***
A family outing. A goddamn parade. Daddy held the little kid on his shoulders for a better view.
'You got a car phone?' Hank asked the man.
The man glanced at him, said, 'Sorry,' and pointed. 'See there, Andy? See the fire
in the window?'
Hank hurried on. A few of the tourists were in their cars and driving slowly through the lot, trying to leave. But most were standing around to watch the fire.
Hank flinched as something burst. He looked at the hotel. Black smoke was rolling through a second floor window near the middle, probably just above the lobby. The noise he'd heard must have been the window pane exploding.
He glimpsed claws of flame in the smoke. They curled up the outside wall.
Someone squeezed Hank's wrist. An old woman in round spectacles smiled up at him. Her thick lenses were like magnifying glasses; made her eyes huge. The whites were yellow and webbed with red. 'How did it start, duke? Y'see how it started?'
He shook his head.
'My land, ain't this the berries?' Her hand shook his wrist as if she were demanding an answer.
'Yeah,' Hank said. 'The berries.'
'She's goin' up in smoke. Wouldn't you say so, duke? Goin' up in smoke.'
'Right. Excuse me.' He freed himself from the woman's bony grip and hurried away.
Not far ahead, a young man and woman were sitting on the hood of a Jeep Wagoneer. They both wore cowboy hats. They both had bottles of beer. Clamped between the knees of the woman was an open bag of potato chips.
'Have you got a car phone?' Hank asked. 'A transmitter of some…'
'Nope,' the guy said. 'What's the trouble?'
'We've got to report the fire.'
'It hasn't been reported!'
'I don't think so. We tried to call right after it broke out, but the phones were dead.'
'Shit, that fucker's gonna burn to the ground.'
As he said that, his eyes went wide. Hank whirled around in time to see a section of the roof cave in. Seconds after the crash, a galaxy of glowing embers floated up through the smoke. Flames began to chew the ragged edges of the crater.
'Take this, pal.' The man gave his beer to Hank. 'Come on, Luce,' he said, and leaped off the hood.
'What?'
'We're gonna lay rubber outa here and report this bitch before the whole fuckin' place goes up.'
Hank clapped him on the shoulder, then waved some bystanders out of the way to make room for the Jeep to back out of its parking space.
Once out of the lot, it picked up speed.
No matter how fast it goes, Hank thought, it couldn't reach town in much less than twenty minutes. Then it might be another twenty minutes before the first fire truck could arrive. At best.
Maybe, somehow, the fire's already been reported.
But Hank doubted it.
He continued his search for someone with a car phone or radio transmitter.
***
Standing on the bumper of Hank's car, Chris spotted him near the far side of the lot. He was wandering among the spectators, stopping briefly and moving on.
'Looking for someone, honey?'
She nodded, and glanced down at the man. He wore a blue T-shirt and jeans. His T-shirt read, 'Save a Tree, Eat a Beaver.' His eyes were inspecting the merchandise.
Chris realized her shirt was open. She started to button it.
'Aw, now.'
'Don't bug me, okay?'
'I happen to have a fully equipped bar over in my trailer. You look like a martini might do you a world of good.'
'No, thank you.'
'Some fire, isn't it? I hear a couple of folks got cooked. They say there's more than a hundred trapped in the cave.'
'Including my daughter. Get outa here.'
'Well, excuuuuuuse me.' He turned away. As he walked off, Chris heard him mutter something that sounded like, 'Tightass cunt.'
She flinched at the roar as another section of roof collapsed. The fire was spreading more rapidly to the right - to the east… in the direction of the cave elevators.
A man with a home video camera crossed the driveway at the front of the parking lot. He stepped over the curb and made his way closer to the burning complex.
A young woman in a guide uniform rushed up behind him.
Thick, reddish-brown hair. She had to be Lynn, Darcy's roommate.
She grabbed the man by the arm, spoke to him, turned him around and walked him back into the lot.
Chris leaped down from the bumper. She hurried forward, weaving between parked cars and spectators, scanning the area ahead, trying to spot Lynn.
And found her near the front.
'Lynn!'
The girl turned to her. For a moment, she looked confused. Then she raised her thick eyebrows. 'Oh, Darcy's mom, right? Hey, you know, I'm sure Darcy's just fine. I mean, there's no way in the world the fire's going to get down in the cavern. She's totally safe, you know?'
'I have to talk to you.'
'Sure. Shoot. You got any idea where Mordock is? He ought to be helping with the crowds, you know?'
'He's dead.'
Lynn's eyes went wide. She didn't appear bothered by the news, just surprised. 'No fooling? Dead? Ethan? The owner?'
'That's right. He's been dead from the start. You've got to help me, Lynn.'
'Sure. Just name it.'
'Darcy's trapped.'
'Yeah, I know. The pits, but like I say… I mean, I wouldn't wanta be stuck down there myself, but it's safe, you know?'
'How is she going to get out?'
Lynn shrugged. 'I guess the elevators.'
'The place is burning to the ground,' Chris pointed out, trying to keep her patience. This girl seemed incredibly dense. How could she be a guide, like Darcy? in a little while, there won't be any elevators.'
'Well, yeah, I guess not. But the shafts, they'll be there. They aren't going anyplace. So the fire department can maybe lower ropes or a basket or something.' As if reciting, Lynn added, 'The shafts are a hundred and fifty-three feet deep.'
'That's pretty goddamn deep.'
'I'm sure the fire department will have a way to get to them. Don't you think so?'
'I suppose.'
After the fire's cold, Chris thought. After the rubble has been cleared from the shafts.
'Are there supplies down there?' Chris asked.
'You mean like food? Nothing like that. There's plenty of water, though. You shouldn't worry about it, really. I mean, I can't imagine they won't be out in a few hours. By tomorrow, anyhow.'
'I took the tour, yesterday,' Chris said. 'Darcy talked about a natural opening to the cavern.'
'Yeah, but that's all blocked off.'
'With a rock wall like the one on the inside?'
'I guess. I've never seen it up close.'
'Do you know where it is?'
'Kind of.' She pointed to the east.
'Come with me.'
'You've been there?' Hank asked.
The girl shrugged. 'Well, see, I wasn't what you might say actually there.' A voluptuous ditz, Hank thought. 'I mean, I saw it from the other side of the valley. Tom that's the guy who helps with the boats down in the cavern - he's down there, too, you know.'
'What about him?' Hank asked.
'Well, it's just that Tom's the one that showed it to me. We were on this dirt road over across from it. So I couldn't see it too well.'
'But you know where to find it?'
'I think so.'
Hank opened the passenger door of his rental car. 'How about climbing in. I'll drive us over there.'
'Gee, I don't know. I'm sort of like on duty, you know, and I really don't know…'
'Is something more important,' Chris asked, 'than getting those people out of the cave?'
'Well, I guess not. But you can't get in. Like I was saying, it's all walled up.'
'We'd better take some tools along,' Chris said. 'A pick or something.'
'You'd need lights, too,' Lynn told them. 'Really, you oughta just wait for the fire department. They'll get everybody out.'
'Eventually,' Chris said. She looked at Hank. 'What do you think?'
Hank gazed past her at the blazing hotel. The entire east wing was now engulfed, so the area housing the elevat
ors was already being consumed.
'The fire department isn't even here yet,' he said. 'By the time they get this thing out, there might be a ton of rubble covering the elevator shafts. They'll have to bring in heavy equipment to clear all that away.' He turned to Lynn. 'How far is it through the closed part of the cave to that other wall?'
'About half a mile. But it's dark and there aren't any walkways or anything. I mean, it'd be the pits, you know? And there's that chasm somebody might fall into like Elizabeth Mordock. I don't think…'
'We could probably get to them in a couple of hours,' Chris said.
'Depending on the walls,' said Hank.
'Really, you two, I don't see what the big hurry is. The fire department can take care of it. They'll get 'em out.'
it's our daughters down there,' Hank said.
'But they're safer staying where they are until the fire department can…'
'How do you know that?' Chris asked her.
'Well-'
'What if something's gone wrong down there?'
Hank felt a sudden tug of fear. 'What do you mean?' Frowning, Chris shook her head. 'Maybe somebody's been hurt. If they don't already know they're trapped, they'll find out pretty soon. People might panic. There might be arguments, fights. God only knows. I just think, the faster they're out of there, the better.'
'Same here,' Hank said. 'Let's go for it.'
***
'On the bright side,' Greg said, 'we've got light and heat.'
After the initial confusion, nearly everyone had stood up and approached the blazing remains of the elevators. Darcy stood with the others in a semi-circle, Greg at her side. Some held out their hands as if to warm them at a bonfire.
A man said, 'Who's got the marshmallows?'
His little girl frowned up at him. 'You're not funny, Daddy.'
'How in God's name do we get out of here, now?' a woman asked.
Darcy didn't care about that. Not at the moment. Staring into the flames, she could only think about her mother.
Something awful had happened up top. A fire, maybe an explosion. Maybe a nuclear blast like the man had suggested so long ago.
Mom's all right, she told herself. Please. She has to be.