143: A

It was decided that we should start back down. Trevino would accompany the Gomez family if the rest of us wanted to stay, but the tour might resume at the bottom, to head for the Pyramid of the Moon and the smaller residential areas in a half an hour.

We all decided to head back.

At the bottom, Ariana was feeling nauseated, and decided to go back to her vehicle and wait. Marcos, her brother-in-law went with her and Gomez stayed with Felicity who was all bandaged up now and feeling better. Especially after having another energy bar--- chocolate chip--- and a coconut water. She munched away happily--- telling us all about her rescue from falling--- in little girl Spanish.

Rafe privately told me how proud he was of my calm and professional abilities. He was kissing the corner of my lips and I was just starting to revel in the soft feel of his hands against me, when I heard a strange echoing popping noise.

Rafe held my arm tighter, and the guys were all looking around for the source of the noise when suddenly there was a huge--- boom. I can't explain that noise---- it lit up the atmosphere around us with heavy thunder. The instant feeling of terrible dread accompanied it. Like the air itself reverberated with confusion and helplessness. The explosion went on and on--- in slow underwater sound.

Rafe ducked, framing my head with his hands. Ben dove for me too, covering both Rafe and I.

There was screaming, and then another larger ---boom.

The ground shook--- and those of us who could--- tried to look around--- tried to ascertain what was causing it. You don't immediately think of terrorist attacks--- you think of thunder and earthquakes. And if earthquakes---- would there be more? How to get away from dangerous ruins and falling debris?

And the awful clogged throat feeling in your chest.... Not being able to breathe---

Gomez had turned--- he screamed hoarsely for Ariana, and I too--- turned to find her, and Marcos both lying flat in the Avenue with about a dozen other people. Gomez started to run to her--- his legs looking like slow motion underwater--- and then I realized it was the shock wave effect. The air around us shimmered with the pressure difference from the explosions. Carlos was holding Gomez back, and Trevino had grabbed his arm, and Rafe's, and was dragging them to the shelter of the ruins to the right of the Avenue.

As soon as we could stand I grabbed Jeremy's hand as he started to push us all toward the ruins--- an opening in the rock and cement. I turned once, and saw people scrambling for the ruins, racing and slipping, falling... and screaming.... Black uniformed figures were pounding down the Avenue in our direction---- carrying guns.

This had not been an earthquake---- nor had it been thunder and lightning. The storm was coming from giant plumes of black rolling smoke covering the area next to where we had parked. I craned my neck to get a peek as we ran--- still feeling that unbelievable ache inside of dread and fear. All I saw were flames and black smoke shooting hundreds of feet into the sky blocking what light there had been and reaching out to touch the already black clouds. There was no sun.

No time to think---no time to wonder----Tim had us all corralled--- his gun drawn, his back to us, when from the east I could see the organized formation of plainly dressed paramilitary heading to engage the black suited Mexican Military.

We ran through the first walls, and Trevino kept us going through the maze like rooms, further and further away. But that didn't stop the sounds of screaming, the shimmer of pressurized shock blasted air as another much larger explosion shook us all to our knees. The cement windows facing the Avenue shattered with the blast like Legos popping apart. The rocks inside them shot upward.

I crouched, my hands frantically covering my head as debris rained down on us, Gomez and Carlos were hunched over. A shock wave smashed me to the wall knocking the breath out of my chest, and I motioned for Gomez to reach me.

"Come on!"

"No! It is me they want. Oh, Ariana! F---this! Carlos----." Gomez pushed Felicity at me and pulling his own gun, started back the way we had come. Shocked at his words, and at the sudden appearance of his gun, I nevertheless reached for him, as did Mutt who was directly in front of him, trying to push him away from the opening. Tim blocked their way also, as Carlos, whipped out another gun and smashed his way to Gomez's side.

There was no time to understand. The flare of explosions had settled--- our eyes were smeared with cement dust and crackling with static. My lids were swollen and filmy--- as I tried to see. Black, choking frothing smoke covered our faces. The heat of it made me gag and want to throw up. I pulled my shirt up and covered my mouth.

I whirled Felicity toward where I thought Rafe was and found he was not there. The dust and shimmer were blinding. Felicity was screaming, so I covered her mouth, coming away with a bloody hand, I searched her for more wounds, and found her cheek had been grazed, either by cement flying or---- she suddenly jerked. I felt the bullet plow into her flailing arm like a carton of fluff. I looked up, presumably for the source and saw Tim lying on his back, a clean shot spilling his brains into the dirt beneath him. Aiden yelled and started toward him, when Carlos also jerked back and fell against the wall. Aiden shielded his body, hid behind the wall and then leaned forward and shot the paramilitary coming straight for us. Through the maze of black rolling ash and debris I peered up and out the closest window---I saw two guys fall, but more were coming.

The walls around us were too tall to climb, and the only way to move was to keep going into the maze. I picked Felicity up crushing her limbs to my chest, covering her with my shirt, and rushed toward where Trevino, now aiming his gun through the window was yelling at us to move.

I made it to another room. The pings and whizzes of bullets clashing and smashing was riotous. It felt like all hell was breaking loose. Trevino yelled, but the sound did not reach my clogged ears instantly like it should have. Black noise was deafening. The screams of panic split and pierced the thunder and echoed all around, and the yelling in Spanish completely eluded me. I couldn't understand even one word that was being screamed. I lay Felicity on the dirt ground and checked her face, crouching over her. She had stopped squirming--- and lay as if in shock, staring toward where her father had last been seen. Blood from a large scrape-like cut was from flying debris. I checked her arm--- her wrist had a shot directly through the palm and the joint there. With shaking hands I quickly tore off her shirt and ripped it with my chattering teeth till it was a piece I could tie around her to keep the pressure there. I tied a rock into the shirt and tightly applied the pressure. I held her hand up in the air.

"Stay right here." I gave her the palm down sign, but she was fluttering between consciousness and crying. I pushed us both closer to the wall under the window Trevino was firing from, looked up at him and saw Rafe beside him firing a gun also. Every few seconds, he backed his head against the wall, and Trevino gave him more bullets. Black smoke rolled in the window covering them--- I shook hard, pressing my wrist to my mouth---wanting to scream.

But---- I am a doctor. I have seen trauma. I have seen disasters. I am trained not to lose it. I searched frantically through the choking dust for signs of the wounded. My kit was still in my hands. I twisted it angrily---- fighting tears of pain and panic. I would not panic.

Back the way we had come, Carlos and Gomez were sheltered beneath another window, in another room, firing over the heads of Jeff and Jeremy and Levi. I saw Lavon and Aiden still on either side of the door, Jake lying on his back also, on the ground, one hand waving feebly. Through the mist of dust and particles, I bent over and clawed my way to Jake. Jeremy whirled around, red-eyed like a demon and saw me. He forced his legs to hold him--- balanced against the wall, and tried to clear a path through the smoke with his blood streaked hand. He staggered up, reaching for Jake's arms, we grabbed him and yank/ pulled him out of the danger from the doorway.

"He's shot in the stomach I think." Jeremy yelled through the vivid haze that was dust and shock. Minute explosions as bullets lodged and bounced against and through the ruins all around us and over our heads caused us to jump and dodge and cower--- staggering and shoving our bodies like puppets.

I used my teeth again to start a rip in his shirt to get it off. There was nothing underneath but his G's and skin. I frantically pulled up the white undershirt. I couldn't see! I swiped my shaking hands under my eyes, trying to unclog the hateful smoke and cement dust that crushed us. I started to roll him, and then noticed the blood seeping from below his belt. I quickly undid the belt and saw the gunshot wound, complete with intestines falling out. My mind cleared of haze for a moment only, as I took his pulse--- too fast, his breathing too shallow and then stopping. I grabbed the other part of Felicity's top and dumped my water bottle on it, wringing it only a little as I covered the gaping wound, swallowing hard against the fear. Then I yanked on Jeremy's shirt--- till he realized what I wanted and ripped it over his head, using the whole thing to make another bandage over the gauze I had in my kit, wrapping it, I told him to keep the pressure steady and keep talking to him.

Then I smeared the ash over my eyes one more time, to clear them, to make myself see. I sensed the shadow of Ben's body jerking erratically as he loaded Jake's gun as he made for a window further down the maze. Seeing him, Jeff jumped up and started to run too, and only made it a few feet before he crashed to the ground clutching his leg and screaming. Rafe turned to see him, leaving his face exposed. I threw myself against the wall and covered my face, hoping I was in his way and he understood my sign. For one amazing second his eyes met mine and he did understand and backed to the side of the window just as shots whizzed past and embedded in the cement wall, sending shards flying.

I crawled to Jeff. I had more bandages in my kit. It was in the upper thigh, but the outer side, thank God. It had also gone clear through. I ripped the pant leg down the side, and checked his pulse and breathing.

"Stop screaming, you're okay." I commanded. "It's a flesh wound, and went clear through." I tore the pants down the front all the way, used little scissors to get through the very bottom, and then squirted antibiotic ointment inside, wiping the blood away. I wrapped it steadily in gauze, and then tied his pant legs over it. "Keep pressure. Elevate as much as you can. Don't try and be a hero. You're a rock star. Not a hero."

Jeff nodded, his eyes wide and panicked, clouding with fear. "Aubrey, what the hell is going on?"

Our voices were tense and low--- utilizing an urgency no one had ever heard before. "I assume it's the local cartel and the military, and apparently they are after our friend Gomez. At least that's what he thinks. Stay put!" I crawled--- protecting my head as best I could, dragging my kit in my hand amid the havoc to where Carlos had fallen in the doorway.

"Aiden, can you spare five seconds to come and help me move him? He's alive, but has taken a number of shots." I couldn't get to him by myself, he was in a vulnerable and visible position, but because he was down they weren't aiming at him anymore. Aiden didn't even look at me.

"No." He yelled and kept firing. "You want to die? I've gotta keep these idiots away."

Trevino was staggering back to us. "Sir." He yelled to Gomez. "Sir. I can get you out of here."

"I'm hit." Gomez yelled back, eyeing us for just a second as he returned to firing at the paramilitary and the military who were now firing at each other from across the Avenue. No other tourists were in sight. There was yelling and the acrid aroma of burning metal and rubber.

"Sir, these are your men. If you can get out, you can talk to them, get them to retreat and these civilians can get out."

"They are not my guys, amigo. They are CJNG. They want me dead."

"Who does the military want then?"

Gomez didn't answer. "They are retreating anyway."

I pulled Carlos by myself. It wasn't easy, he was heavy, and unconscious.

I finally got him to a safer location and checked his pulse. He was barely alive. I had enough bandages to wrap his flesh wounds, one in the ear, one in the shoulder. But his groin was exposed the way that Jake's had been. I bent over him feverishly, praying the whole time that this would stop and that we'd be safe.

Gomez was out of bullets. He threw the gun down and stared around frantically. He saw me on the ground helping his friend and crawled to me as bullets whizzed by his head. I ducked and screamed.

"I am Gomez Nemesio, I am head of the Sonora Mexico cartel. These men are my brothers, men I trained who have defected, who have a New Generation cartel of their own. Because they often work with the military, and sometimes against them we have parted ways. Now they want me dead. I can see they have taken out your bus, and several vans and other vehicles. Your man is down also. If I surrender, they will probably kill me."

I stared into his blurry blood spattered God-forsaken face, my own eyes watering with a continuous stream of tears and mucous. The stringent acrid taste in my mouth gagged me and I covered my lips with my bloody hand. How could I digest this information? I couldn't even process--- I hunched there swaying like tinder in a fire. "What do you want me to do? I need to get Carlos to a hospital, or he will die. His wounds are bad enough he may die anyway. He is bleeding out. He might have an hour. Is he really your brother?" I felt the panic assailing me, I wiped my eyes which were streaming sweat and tears.

"He is my brother in every way that matters." Gomez was digging in his pocket. He came up with a card and a pen. "This is my mother. You must get Felicity to her. Ariana and Marcos are gone. I will be also. Whatever happens, you must get Felicity to my mother." He looked up at me, and then down the walkway to Felicity crying on the floor near Trevino's leg. He almost went to her, and then he gave me the most piercing stare ever.

"She is too young to understand." He kissed me, presumably for her and then turned and squared his cut and bleeding shoulders—facing his rivals, his nemesis, his maker. For one split second I could see into his soul, the deep shock of a life I had not known—and couldn't ever know--- and the piercing revelation that I held the last moment--- the deepest living torch of his being.

I scrambled back to Felicity, crushing her devastatingly as her father surrendered, hands in the air, yelling his pledge to kill them all when the time came. I heard the shouts, heard the guns going off, heard my own screams above Felicity's.

Then there was silence. Aiden crawled on torn and blistered knees to my side. "They are retreating, Aubrey. Don't move." He eased by me, checking on the others.

I rocked Felicity, not sure if I could do anything more. Her ineffectual clawing rendered my heart broken and bleeding for her as she lay against me, trying to get away, get to her father. She screamed, Papa! Papa!

The pounding of military boots against the cobbled and broken ground arrived at the little maze like ruins we were hiding in. A deep broadcast reverberated in our choked heads. The clicking of heels, the clacking of loading machinery--- weapons the likes of which I'd only seen in movies. It made me shudder and shake and bury my face against Felicity's screams.

"Drop your weapons, come out with your hands up. This is the Mexican Marines. Line up outside!"

My eyes searched the fall out. This was it. Who were they really? Did they actually have control of the place?

Rafe was against the wall still, his face covered in cement, and smoke, his eyes glued open with blood and sweat. They sought mine as I rocked the child--- smoothing her long dark hair, trying to hush her terrified and heart-breaking pleas. His eyes were wide and determined, fear and pain etching a travesty of impossible acceptance in his eyes. These were things nobody expected to see. Nobody wanted to experience. This was war--- and senseless brutality. I could see his hands shaking, his lips moving in silent words nobody would ever hear.

Trevino was next to him. He threw his gun out the window and yelled. "I am Trevino Flores, I am a guide at the ruins. I have American tourists with me. I am unarmed. We have three men badly injured." He ran to the doorway with his hands up.

"Don't do it, Rafe." Ben whispered. Jake groaned and we all turned to look at him, Jeremy bending over him, trying to keep him down.

"Aubrey. I have to help Aubrey."

I pulled Felicity with me, hugging her tightly around my waist, and carrying her locked into my arms.

"I'm here, Jake. Don't worry. I think it's over. The authorities will get us to safety. Don't try and get up." My voice sounded false--- sounded distant--- sounded like grating shells against pavement. I staggered---- slipping--- crashing----

"Aubrey." He whispered.

"I'm here, Jake. I'm here."

"Aubrey."

"Jake! Stay with me, Jake!" But his head lolled to one side. I dropped Felicity and grabbed his wrist. The big arm was thickly corded with muscles---- arms that had held me many, many times. His pulse was faint. "Jake!"

I heard the military men shouting for us all to come out. "Throw down your weapons and you will not be harmed."

"We have injured men! There are women and children." Rafe yelled back---- his voice sounded unnaturally heavy---- as if the weight of what he'd seen and done stole his actual life force and replaced it with something far deeper. Something not functional---- something buried in tragedy and reality.

"If you don't come out now, we will come in firing, assuming you are CJNG. Come out now, throw your weapons down."

"Oh, God." Jeff muttered. He threw the gun he'd been holding to the door and struggled up with Levi's help. I stood up and looked out the window; an armed contingency was forcing Trevino to the ground.

"I'm an American doctor, I have wounded men that cannot be moved. Two of our security men, and one tourist and one child. What assurance will you give us?" I yelled this---- noting the blood stained bandages, the sick smell of burnt flesh as I drew in breath to yell again.

"Who is the doctor?" I forced my legs to hold me---- stumbling as I made my way to the window beside Rafe. I was close enough to see the stubble of dark hair caught with white and gray spider webs of dust. His hand rose, holding a gun---- I felt my knees buckle.

"No, Aubrey."

"Tell everyone else to come out except you and the injured. Once they are out we will move the ambulance close and you may load your injured. We will have our driver take them to the hospital."

I swallowed black bile---- gagged and sank against the window again, my arms and legs so stiff and trembling I didn't know if I could make it back to the injured. My eyes pleaded with Rafe's.

"No, Aubrey." He dropped the gun with a heavy bounce against the dirt and rock, and lifted a hand slowly--- as if it too were too heavy to move. It seemed to come at me in slow motion. "Don't." His eyes filled with tears, and they streamed down, as his lips trembled. His face crumpled---- the shaking forcing us together.

"I will be okay." I burbled against his collar--- smelling the copper and acid of blood and fear. My shoulders shook as if an earthquake were dividing me. "Go out and surrender, all of you. Trevino is safe, you will be too. The CJNG have gone, and Gomez is---- gone."

"I can't let you do this."

"It's the only way, Rafe. Go quickly before they change their minds."

He pushed me back--- looking frantically into my eyes, searching the outside where the military waited for our decision. Back to the scene of bloodshed--- Felicity screaming and pawing ineffectually at Ben. His chin jerked back and forth.

"No."

"We have to. I'm a doctor. They'll kill Carlos."

"No, Aubrey. This isn't our fight."

"Rafe---- please. Please. I'll go with them to the hospital and you can get me there."

"I don't trust them!"

I shook--- jerking---- as he gripped my shoulders harder than he ever had, pinching them painfully.

"This isn't right."

"It's the only way, Rafe! Please! He's going to die!" I jerked away from him, seeing his hands raise to his face as I dropped down beside Felicity.

"Give me the girl." He choked. "You stay with Jake and Carlos."

He couldn't pry Felicity's hands off me for anything, so I simply kissed him hard. My eyes rim full of tears. He staggered over to Levi, and lifted him to his feet. The look of pain and comprehension dawned and Levi shook his head.

"No, Aubrey!"

I struggled to my feet with Felicity clutching my neck. I bounced her--- smoothed her hair, and turned my back as Rafe and the guys stumbled out of the choking haze. Leaving me there with the dead and dying.

As they hefted and wheezed, choked and staggered I kept my eyes on the window, and their trusting emergence. I prayed so hard--- out loud, as I buried my hands in the crying child's hair and kept my tears from falling---. As soon as they were out, they were forced to the ground, boots in their backs and their hands tied behind them. I balled my fist into my mouth to keep from screaming and whirled away to stumble back to Jake with Felicity on my chest screaming.

With two clenched shaking fingers I reached for his pulse. His eyes were glazed over. I couldn't find it.

A booted foot cleared my vision. A loud strident voice introduced himself, but I couldn't understand him for the ringing in my ears.

"Are you the American doctor?"

"Yes."

"Whose child is she?"

"She is mine." I said, standing. "My friend is dead."

There were two of them now. My eyes rose to where Jeff lay against the wall, hit, bandaged in the upper thigh and unable to move. His dark hair was a bloody mass of smeared cement and rock, blood trickled down to his chin, but his eyes were steady on me.

"Tell me who these two are."

I struggled up against Felicity's weight. She was sobbing softly, her arms locked around my neck. I walked to Jeff's side. "This is my husband, he has been hit in the upper thigh, it is a clean flesh wound, and needs to be treated. I will need to ride in the ambulance with him. This other man is my traveling companion. He is one of our security. He is gravely injured." I looked into Carlos's frightened eyes and saw his comprehension.

I heard the men outside asking for ID's and passports. I had ours in my back pack. I told them so, and was allowed to retrieve them. I kept quiet, shaking inside, holding onto Felicity. The ambulance did indeed come to the maze apartment and a stretcher was brought for Carlos. I helped Jeff up. We stepped out into the sunshine and saw for the first time what was left of our main bus.

"Oh my God." Jeff said. "What the f--."

"Jeff, you owe me five." I gritted out, trying to keep our connection in this hellish nightmare. He grabbed me by the shoulder as I helped him hobble to the ambulance behind Carlos. His BO was almost unbearable.

They none too gently shoved Jeff inside, and then I worked Felicity's hands loose. "Baby, sit with Jeff while I get in. I can't get in and hold you too."

"Don't leave me." She screamed, arms and legs alternately flailing and then clamping around me.

"I won't leave you."

"Momma! Papa!" Thank God she was just calling them, and not seeing their dead bodies which had not been moved.

My eyes sought Rafe's out in the Avenue of the Dead, with black billowing smoke and the wailing of sirens. There were about ten of them---- standing now, with threatening uniformed military guns pointing directly at them from not twenty feet away. I couldn't swallow, couldn't see---

Ben--- head held high, refusing to look down, refusing to shut up--- was yelling at them in Spanish, telling them who we are and what we were doing and demanding they call the American Embassy. Jeremy and Levi, Mutt and Holli---- I could see them all through the smoky haze that was my vision.

My eyes scanned frantically for Rafe. There was a higher ranking man--- older, with his braids and awards on his lapel---- beside him was a mercenary--- someone dressed in khaki's and billowing white, holding a machine gun at a doubled over person on the ground, a person who had just been kicked viciously in the side. I felt sick---- literally knew I was about to throw up.

I had been about to haul myself into the back of the ambulance. Now I turned and started to run.

"Leave him alone!" I screamed in English, my feet recklessly pounding the hard packed dirt and cement. Through the smoke and dust the wind whipped my words. I saw the higher ranking official peer up through his cap to stare at me. "Leave him alone!"

He flicked something with his finger and a terrible crashing sounded in my ears as I was tackled from behind by at least three fierce flying bodies. My face skidded painfully across the cement, my arm smashed beneath my off balanced weight, as I rolled and came up, scrambling for Rafe. Another thug grabbed my arm and twisted it. I went down, kicking. If they thought that was all it took to subdue me they were wrong.

I lunged and twisted--- ate dirt--- scraped my knees, breathing heavily, thwarting their next moves.

"Aubrey."

I was close---- close enough to see he'd gotten to his knees. Somebodies boot lodged my cheek to the ground and another dug into my back, forcing me flat against the pavement. I could hear screaming--- and yelling and Felicity----

"Aubrey--- stop!"

Above it all, was Rafe, his hands tied behind his back, his stoic, unhurt body kneeling, staring at me, a rope had been pulled taut around his neck, and the higher ranking official was staring at me, now prone on the ground.

"She's with me." Rafe yelled, pulling against the rope, his face contorted with rage the likes of which I hoped never to see. He got one foot up and tried to haul himself to his feet. One of the khaki dressed guys kicked him back down.

"She's American. She's the doctor! She's with me."

The big man casually walked around the sight of prisoners lined up in front of his firing squad to come and stand with his boots in my face. I struggled against the men holding me.

"Why do you fight them, senora? Hold still, and I will allow you to rise." His voice was calm, and pleasant and like a serpent---- I closed my eyes to keep from getting more grit.

"I'm a doctor! You are hurting my people! I'm an American doctor! Let me go!"

Suddenly my hair was snarled and snagged in his rough grip--- as he used it to haul me to my feet. Someone grabbed my hands and bent them behind my back to keep me from using moves to get free or hit their leader. I didn't go with him easily. He dragged me kicking and fighting to Rafe's side.

"You know this man?"

"He's an American pop singer! He's playing a concert tonight in Mexico City. You're an idiot! When the embassy hears what you've done-----?"
He slapped me hard across the face. I jerked back---- having never been hit like that before in my whole life. My eyes watered, and I whimpered--- feeling the blood rush to my cheeks and the grit and grime I'd collected slip into my mouth and nose.

"I asked if you know him!"

"Of course I know him, I'm traveling with him! Let me go! Let me go now!" He did, shoving me down, and I staggered and went down hard on one knee. Fortunately it also put me on a par with Rafe's enraged countenance.

"Is this the woman you claim is the doctor? Perhaps she is your groupie? Your fan?" This was said with sinister mockery. Rafe kept his mouth shut and his eyes on me---- dark eyes pleading with me.

"I'm a doctor." I said in monotone. "You have our passports. You have our paperwork. You know why we are here. You know who we are. Let us go! You have no reason to detain us, none."

Rafe's eyes kept pleading, his mouth worked against itself trying not to yell, trying to remain calm. How could anyone remain calm with a rope around his neck--- being treated like this for no reason!

I felt his composure---- and took courage from it. I got myself back to my feet, even though it hurt---- my knees and arms were skinned and bleeding, and the side of my face and eye where I'd already been injured were now swelling. But Rafe remained steady, staring at me---

"I will let you accompany the ambulance, Ms. Mann. You are a doctor as you say. But this man will be taken to another facility for questioning." He shoved me back the way I had come, and I tried to tear myself loose and return to Rafe's side.

"Aubrey---- stop it." Rafe finally yelled. "Stop fighting it. It's going to be okay."

This isn't okay! I clamped my lips shut, shaking my head, raggedly shaped curls flying in my face, spit forming on my cracked lips.

I looked behind me at Rafe now standing, hands behind his back, his head held high, his eyes on mine. I stared hard, memorizing every feature. It was like he was sending me a beam of light, and courage.

"It's going to be okay, Aubrey." He yelled in English. I nodded, seeing them bringing other lines of tourists to the parking area that wasn't burning. Fire engines were racing closer to us, up the long road from Mexico City thirty miles away. I saw that the visitor's center had been targeted also, and was burning. Military men were working to bring out the burnt bodies of those who'd been caught inside. I choked, and my eyes fled back to Rafe's. He was staring at me still--- head up--- lips trembling, but firm.

The back doors were slammed closed and the ambulance, wailing and lights twirling, hurried down the Avenue of the Dead.

Carlos started to code.

I leaped to straddle him, starting CPR. There was no one else to help. I had to keep going.

**********