I pick Bia up and tie the rope around both of us. The extra weight and the splint make it difficult to climb up but I persist until we reach the top. I fold her in my arms and walk without pause until she is safely in the first-aid tent, where I told the General I would meet him. Her arms are braced around my neck and her head has fallen on my shoulder. When I lay her on a cot, her weary little eyes are barely open. She hardly makes a sound as I assess her broken leg and foot.

“Bia!” General Briggs yells, barreling inside the tent.

“Daddy!” she cries, hugging his neck as he squats beside her.

“Thank God you made it out alive.” His hands brace her face.

“Daddy, Aedon is still in there. We have to get her out!”

“We will, baby, I promise. Right now we need to get you to the hospital.”

“Did Aedon set your foot, sweetie?” I ask her.

She nods. “She said something about my foot wouldn’t have any blood if she didn’t.” Tears start to stream down her dirt-smudged cheeks.

“She was right from the looks of this fracture,” I smile to her. “Must have hurt really badly.”

She wipes her nose with her dirty sleeve. “I was brave like Wonder Woman.” Her sweet little eyes light up at her father.

“I’m so proud of you, baby.” General Briggs squeezes her hand. “Now that I’ve laid eyes on you, I need to call your mother and let her know you are okay. She’s been so mad that I wouldn’t let her come down here and help find you.” He stands and pulls me aside.

“How is her leg?”

“Thanks to Aedon, she’ll be fine. She will need surgery on that ankle, some pins to stabilize it, but, she’s young. She’ll heal.”

“As soon as I’m done calming your mother down, I’m taking you to the hospital.” He tells Bia.

“No, I want to help rescue Aedon!”

I step over and sit on the edge of the cot with her. “Sweetie, Aedon would want you to be taken care of. That’s her job, that’s what we do.” I wave my hand around the tent. “Besides, you’ve already saved her.”

She cocks her little head to the side. “What do you mean?”

“Thanks to you, we know how to get to her. If you hadn’t been brave enough to walk out on your own, we may have lost both of you.” I rub my hand down her knotted locks of hair.

“So, I am a superhero!” A smile lights up her grubby little face and I can’t help but laugh.

“Yes, yes you are.”

The general walks back in with a paramedic and a stretcher. I help him get Bia on it and give him instructions on what to tell the emergency room doctor. “Load her up, I’ll be right there,” the General orders. He turns and faces me. “I owe Aedon my daughter’s life, but you are not to dig tonight. I need the light of day to make sure that the area is stable and equipment lined up.”

“But…” I stand to protest.

“No, buts. If it were anyone but Aedon, you would agree with me. You wouldn’t risk your crew’s life.” He points a stern finger in my direction. “Now go back to your hotel and get some rest.” He turns and walks out of the tent.

I have no intention of leaving here. My mind is wide awake and anxious energy is rolling off me in waves. I walk out of the tent and wait until General Briggs follows the ambulance off-site in his dark sedan. Working quickly, I load a few medical supplies, some bottled water, a protein bar, and a flashlight into a backpack. Darkness has fully taken over as clouds scatter in the sky, hiding the stars. The breeze has picked up and chilled the night air even further. Aedon must be freezing in there. She gets cold so easily. I remember laughing at her the first time I spent the night at her apartment at college. We had just finished making love and she got up to clean up. When she came back, she was dressed in flannel pants and a long-sleeve shirt. It was the dead of summer out. I teased her about it, but she dressed that way every night.

I shake off the thoughts and head back to where I found Bia coming out of the tunnel. I turn on my headlamp and pull my bag tight to my shoulder. Other than my flashlight, the tunnel is choked by total darkness. “Hello!” My voices echoes back to me from the end of the tunnel. I make my way further inside until I reach an area that collapsed during the explosion. Sliding my bag off my shoulder, I pull out the flashlight so I can get a better look around.

“How the hell did Bia get through this mess?” I wonder out loud to myself. A large steel door is blocking the end of the tunnel, cracked open ever so slightly to the room beyond it. I shine my light into it. In the dust of the concrete, I can see fingerprints that are drawn back like she was clawing to get through. “Damn, she is a superhero as far as I’m concerned.” I set the flashlight on the ground, angling it toward the pile of concrete blocking the door and get to work moving the debris.

Hours later, sunlight begins to seep through the front of the tunnel. I haven’t made much headway because most of the concrete fell in large, heavy chunks. I sit on the tunnel floor and gulp down a bottle of water. My radio starts to screech. I can’t make out what’s being said, so I walk toward the opening of the tunnel to get better reception.

“Where the hell are you?” Wren’s voice cracks loudly over the radio. I press the button on the side to talk back, but he keeps yelling.

“If you would shut up, I’ll tell you where I am.”

“General Briggs is on a war path. I came to the tent this morning when you weren’t in the hotel. When I told him I couldn’t find you, he went ballistic.”

“Tell him I’m fine. I’m down in the tunnel where I found his daughter. Aedon is still alive and I’m trying to get to her.”

“I caught all that from him, but he told you not to dig!”

“Look, we can argue about this later. I need a team down here and something to move heavy concrete. Are you going to help me or not?”

“Of course I’m going to help you, but we need to make sure that area is safe. Tell me exactly where you are.” The radio hisses with static behind his voice.

I tell him how to get to the tunnel and what to bring with him. About ten minutes later, I hear his voice calling my name.

“I’m down here. Use the rope to get down. The main entrance to get inside collapsed!” I yell up the hole.

Wren curses his way down the rope until his feet are on the ground. “What the hell, Ashe? You shouldn’t be in here. There is no way we’re going to get equipment down here,” he says, walking toward me.

“Bia made it out this way, we can make it in the same way.”

He stops in front of me and grabs my hand, turning the palm upward. Raw, aching blisters cover my fingers and palm. “How long have you been down here?”

I snatch my hand from his. “All night.” I snap.

“I know you want to get to her, but you need to use your head, man. This isn’t safe.”

Anger boils underneath my skin. My head starts to pound under the pressure. “I don’t give a shit if it’s safe or not. Aedon is trapped inside this building that could collapse at any moment and you want me to what? Sleep?! Not dig because I might get hurt? I don’t give a fuck about what happens to me. Aedon is still in there. My question to you is, why aren’t you doing more to get her out?!”

His fist connects with my jaw, knocking me backward. “Do you think you are the only one that loves her?! I would give my life for her, but this isn’t the way to do it. You may in fact disturb enough of this shit to finish collapsing the building and you know it! If you want to save her, get your head out of your ass and figure out a safe way to get to her!” He walks back over to the rope and climbs out.

Wiping the blood from my lip, I take several deep breaths trying to calm the demon raging inside me. I haven’t taken my meds and I can feel the old me coming back - the cocky bastard who always needs to be right, to be the best. Sleep deprivation feeds him and he’s hungry as hell. I reign him in, telling myself that Wren is right, but I’m pissed off as hell that he loves her. That is something we will have to deal with later. Right now, I need to focus on a safe way to get her out of her own living hell.

I snatch the rope and dig my heels into the wall, climbing back out. Wren has Ander on his phone. He’s having him pull up maps of this area and looking for anywhere we might safely start digging.

General Briggs sedan pulls up. He marches directly in my direction. He yanks off his sunglasses when he’s a few feet from me. “You’re lucky I don’t have your ass removed from this site!”

I put my hands up in the air in surrender. “You’re right, sir. I won’t happen again.”

“You’re damn straight it won’t.” He interrupts Wren. “You are to keep an eye on him at all times. He is now your responsibility.”

“Mine? He doesn’t listen to me. In fact, when he’s like this, he doesn’t listen to anyone.”

The general turns toward me and then puts his hand on my chin, drawing it in his direction. “Is that what this is all about?” he tips his head toward Wren.

“Yeah, something like that,” he says and then turns his attention back to Ander.

“How is Bia?” I ask and see the tension leave his face.

“They took her to surgery last night. The surgeon said thanks to Aedon, she will be fine. He said if she wouldn’t have set her foot, Bia would have lost it. Aedon is the only reason you are still here right now and the fact that I happen to like you.” His face softens loosening his tight brow.

I place my hand on his uniformed shoulder. “I promise to keep my heroic tendencies in check.”

He takes my hand down and looks at it. “These hands were made for surgery, not for digging, now go get them taken care of and then come back here and get a plan together.”

I salute him and head for the tent.

When I come back with my hands wrapped in gauze, I see Wren talking to a rescue team. “Bring all the equipment you can to this area.” He points to a map brought up on his phone. We are going to stabilize this area first with wood beams. There is an area clear, just under here.” He points again to the map. “Any questions?” They all shake their heads and scattered for equipment.

“I see you found a spot to get inside.”

He looks up at me. “Ander did with his mapping and the drone, we could make out areas that were blank space, meaning empty. He spoke to the engineers here and they formulated a way to stabilize it so we could get inside. It’s nothing short of a miracle Bia was able to make it out this way.”

“I’m sorry about losing my cool earlier.” I hang my head down.

“I’m sorry I hit you,” he chuckles.

“That didn’t sound very convincing,” I laugh back.

“About what I said…at some point we are both going to have to face the fact, that we are both in love with her. I’ve been lying to myself and her about my feelings.”

“I know that, but now is not the time. We need to work together to get her out of here alive. The longer we take, the less chance she has and we are both going to be broken hearted.”