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I took it, and he pulled me painfully up onto the rocks. “Can you climb?” he asked.
I nodded, not seeing any other way. He couldn’t possibly carry me up the precarious structure. I inched my way up as swiftly as I could, and somewhere near the top, I glanced down at Wesley. Zayn had joined him, and they were both firing. In the flashes from Zayn’s Uzi, I could see hundreds of bodies stretching out into the chamber, all moving towards us as one.
“Come on, don’t stop,” West urged me from the top, and I climbed the last few feet. The rocks shifted under me and I fell backwards. West’s hand flew out and caught mine, tugging me forward as one of the lower rocks crashed down the pile. The pile was only about eight feet high, but the stone split as it hit the floor, narrowly missing Zayn.
“West, what about the others?”
“They’ll come in a moment. They are buying us time. Now come on. If I can get you up, I can cover them from up here.”
I tucked the Glock into my trouser pocket and looked up at the gaping hole above me, wondering how the hell I was going to reach it.
“Right,” West muttered. He got rather unsteadily to his feet, wedging himself against a more solid rock before he bent down and wrapped his arms around my knees. “You good?” he asked, looking up. I gazed down at him, and for a moment, time seemed to stand still and everything went quiet. His dark hair, which I had always seen perfectly styled and swept back, was ruffled and covered in dust. A lock had fallen over his eye, and I reached out and brushed it away, my fingers lingering as I moved them over the smooth skin of his brow. His blue eyes fixed on mine, and there was something in them I didn’t recognise. Something far away from the cold indifference I usually found there.
The rocks underneath us shifted, and West glanced down then back up at me.
“Reach up, Victoria!”
I placed my hands on his shoulders, holding on tight as he straightened and lifted me towards the hole. I reached out and grabbed the edge with my good hand, and he shifted his grip, pushing me higher. A loud rattling noise suddenly sounded below, and I felt him sway underneath me. Terror shot through me as I hung from the edge with one hand. If he let go, I’d fall.
“West!” I yelled, looking down at him.
He looked up, and his expression seemed to change to one of relief. He shoved hard, launching me up, even as the pile of rocks gave way beneath him.
“West!” I screamed as I hung by one hand, watching him fall away. Something hard fastened around my wrist, and then I was being dragged up through the floor. My arm felt like it was being torn from its socket, and a second hand clamped around my other wrist, making me scream in pain. I came up into the tunnel, my legs scraping against the edge of the hole, and then I collapsed on the ground, breathing hard as adrenaline coursed through me. I took a deep breath and looked up into Jack’s face.
“Jack!” I cried. He held out a hand to help me up. I threw my arms around him. Pain shot through me as my wrist hit his back, but I hugged him hard. “West and the others, they are down there.”
“We have to go,” he urged, wrapping his arm around my shoulders and trying to pull me away.
“No, you don’t understand, they need help. We need to get them out.”
“We don’t have time. They can climb out, but there’s more hatay on their way here. We need to go now, Tory.”
“But there are mummies down there!”
He frowned. “Mummies? Like in the movies?” He shook his head. “Tory, we have to go now.”
“I won’t leave them,” I argued, pulling away from him. He sighed, and I thought he had given in, but he lurched forward and grabbed me around the hips, lifting me up over his shoulder.
“No, no, put me down. We need to help them. Jack! Jack!” The pain in my side intensified as I fought him, and I gasped from it. Jack ignored me. I might as well have been hitting a rhino for all the good hammering on his back seemed to do. He carried me down the tunnel, and soon the chasm vanished from sight and was swallowed by the darkness.
