turned his head to look at Annie. Her eyes were closed and she looked as if she was deeply asleep. Her eyelashes showed dark against the dust that masked her face.
‘Annie,’ he whispered to her, ‘we’re all right. They’re here now.’
She didn’t answer but he held her tighter and with his free hand he tried to brush the coating of filth off her face.
The ragged circle of light grew wider. He could hear people talking, giving orders, and the quick movements and the clink of their tools as they worked. The girl in his arms looked so defeated. He was afraid that now, after all, it was too late.
‘Please hurry,’ he begged them.
They wanted him to talk, and now that it was over he was too weary to speak. The questions came one after another as the men came closer. Steve saw the light glinting on their helmets and their shiny boots.
‘What’s your name?’
‘Is she your wife?’
‘Do you know the woman’s name?’
‘I’m thirsty,’ Steve said.
A moment later they lowered a little bottle of water down to him. He reached up with his free hand and then lifted his head just enough to tip the bottle to his mouth. It ran out between his lips and down his chin, clear and cool. He let his head fall back again.
He told them his name. ‘Her name is Annie. I think she’s badly hurt. When the collapse came.’
‘That’s all right, don’t worry.’ They were trying to soothe him, he knew that. ‘We’re going to try to put a doctor in beside you.’
A moment later someone came sliding downwards and the dust rose chokingly. Steve braced himself, waiting for the extra shock of pain from being touched. Since the light had come, the pain had intensified. He wondered if he could bear it without screaming out.
The doctor crawled into their tiny space.
‘I’m Tim,’ he said, and Steve thought it was just like at a party. He would have laughed, but for the pain in his leg. ‘And there’s Dave, and Tony, and Roger and Terry up there. They’re all wonderful diggers. They’ll soon get you out.’
They lowered a bag down to the doctor. He had a torch, too, and the light burned into Steve’s eyes. It was so bright that he couldn’t see Annie’s face any more, and he didn’t see the flash of the hypodermic either as the doctor slid the needle into his arm.
The pain receded after that. Steve lay and watched the doctor’s black shape hunched between them. He bent over Annie, touching her, and the sticky patch in her coat. Steve heard him rummage in his bag and the tiny, metallic clink of his instruments.
‘She won’t die, will she?’
After a moment the doctor said quietly, ‘I don’t know yet.’
Hurry up, damn you all. Why does it take so long?
‘Okay, Steve,’ someone called out to him. ‘Hold on just a few minutes longer.’
The police commander crouched at the lip of the hole. Under the lights he could see the colour of the woman’s coat. It was blue, and she was wearing black boots.
‘The descriptions tally, sir.’ One of his men had checked the computer-stored descriptions of people reported missing through the long day. ‘And the man is conscious. He says her name is Annie.’
The commander nodded. For a moment he had been thinking of his own wife, and seeing her crumpled amongst the debris.
‘How long?’ he asked the fire chief.
‘Ten, fifteen minutes.’
The men were working in frantic silence now. There was a girder to be lifted and hoisted away before the smaller chunks of rubble could be moved. Once that was done the victims could be lifted out on to stretchers.
The commander looked down at the doctor’s head, and then glanced at the stretcher party, waiting. The ambulances were drawn up beyond the tarpaulins.
‘Her husband’s waiting at the barrier,’ he said. One of his men was already moving, but the commander said, ‘Wait. Leave it for another five minutes, until they’re ready to bring her up. He’ll be in the way here, and if she’s unconscious he can’t help her. Take him into the trailer and tell him, will you?’
Steve didn’t know how long it took, in the end.
The doctor waited beside him, holding up a bag and tubes that ran into Annie’s arm.
The firemen tried to joke as they came closer.
‘You’ll be tucked up in bed with a nice nurse in good time for Match of the Day, mate.’
‘What time is it?’ he asked them.
‘Ten past six. You’ll have to leave now, the store’s closing.’
He was laughing now, weak laughter that didn’t begin to express his happiness. He loved all the firemen, and the doctor. It wasn’t all ending. There were still chances.
When the men in their boots and helmets were almost beside them, Steve turned his head to look at Annie again. Her eyes were open, fixed on his face.
‘You see?’ he said, and smiled at her. ‘I knew we’d be all right.’
He saw her look at the doctor and the fireman and the whites of her eyes showed startlingly in her dirt-blackened face. Then she came back to Steve again. Her lips moved and he heard her say his name, just once.
‘Ready?’ the fireman asked. The doctor nodded, his mouth tight with anxiety.
‘We’re taking Annie out first,’ they said to Steve. ‘You’re fit enough to wait another minute or two.’
It must be hurting her. Steve clenched his fists, futilely trying to absorb some of her pain as they slid the harness under her body. He wanted to hold her hand, but the doctor’s fingers were at her wrist. They began to winch her upwards and he saw the dark, ugly mark where she had been lying. Her eyes were closed again. She swung for an instant before the doctor and the firemen steadied her and the tubes dangled at her side.
Her hair fell back and he remembered how he had seen it brushed back over her shoulders, so long ago, when he had reached to open the door. It was grey with dust and ragged where she had torn it free.
Everything was dark again, and he had an instant’s recall of the hours they had clung together.
They were taking her away now.
Steve blinked up into the painful brightness of the lights.
‘Annie,’ he said. ‘I love you.’
Martin followed the policeman down the trailer steps.
He knew, now. She was here, and she was alive. Just.
His
