Lily pointed toward the cabin.
“She went in.”
Her eyes filled again.
“Then there was a big crash.”
Tess touched her shoulder.
“And the man?”
“He ran around the back.”
“Did he chase you?”
Lily thought about it.
“No.”
“Did he tell you to run?”
Another pause.
“He yelled for somebody to get help.”
Colter and Tess exchanged a glance.
Fear had filled in details the child had never actually seen.
Colter understood that feeling.
Adults did it too.
They simply used more complicated words when they did.
He walked toward the cabin.
“Anna?”
No answer came.
“Anna Mercer?”
A faint noise rose from beneath the porch.
Tess heard it too.
“There.”
They hurried around the side.
Behind the cabin, old wooden doors lay nearly flat against the ground, marking what had once been a cellar entrance.
One door had collapsed inward.
A heavy beam rested diagonally across the opening.
Colter dropped beside it.
“Anna?”
This time a voice answered.
Weak.
Breathless.
“Here.”
Lily cried out.
“Mommy!”
“Lily?”
The change in the trapped woman’s voice was immediate.
“Lily, are you all right?”
“I got help!”
Anna began crying.
Not loudly.
Just one broken sound of relief from somewhere beneath the earth.
Colter looked through the opening.
A woman lay several feet below on a dirt floor, half beneath splintered boards.
She appeared to be in her thirties.
Dust coated her dark hair.
One ankle bent awkwardly beneath her.
Beside her was a flashlight still shining.
“You’re going to be okay,” Tess called.
“I’m a paramedic.”
Anna closed her eyes.
“Thank God.”
“Did anything fall on your chest or head?”
“No.”
“Can you breathe normally?”
“Yes.”
“Any numbness?”
“My ankle hurts.”
“Then don’t move it.”
Colter and the riders shifted the beam carefully until there was enough room for Tess to descend.
She examined Anna while Colter kept Lily above.
“There was a man,” Anna said as Tess checked her pupils.
“I know,” Tess replied.