I have time.
I could do this.
Two steps through the bedroom door, and I dove under the bed, looking around blindly until I heard a tiny mewl from up near the bedhead.
“Lucy, it’s okay,” I cooed. “It’s me, Marshall. You know me. Come on, sweetie. Let’s get you safe, yeah?”
I kept a rambling stream of consciousness, babbling about nothing as I struggled to army crawl in the narrow space under the bed until I was face-to-face with my prize, her tiny green eyes the only things I could see in the semidarkness.
Ever so slowly, she snuck forward until she could sniff at my outstretched fingers. The resulting loud purr was heaven to my ears, as was the tiny pressure of her nose to my fingertips.
“That’s it, Lucy. Come to papa.” I willed her forward, and the moment she licked my wrist, I turned my hand and grabbed at the scruff of her neck, making her mewl in surprise. “Shh, sweetie. It’s okay.”
Using my toes to pull myself backward, I scrambled out from under the bed. The very moment I was free, I tucked Lucy in the upturned bottom of my sweater and spun around to face the door, holding her tightly to me with one hand.
That was when I registered the noise.
A freight train.
Christ.
I was out of time.
I couldfeelthe glass windows vibrating to my left as I bolted through the house toward the pantry.
Ten steps.
Seven steps.
“MARSHALL!” Daniel stood at the top of the stairs, one arm holding the shelter door open for me as he roared my name and reached for me with his other hand.
I sped up.
Five steps.
Four.
I was so close.
“Rose! Bathroom!”Daniel bellowed down the stairs, his fingers twitching to get me to safety.
Three steps.
Two.
The world exploded.
Like a pinball, I was flung to the side, my right shoulder slamming into the pantry wall, before I bounced forward into Daniel’s outstretched arm with anoof.
The momentum pushed us both through the open doorway, punching into the door hard enough to ricochet it off the wall behind it.
Lucy shrieked from being squished between my body and Daniel’s, and as we were flung backward, I felt pinpricks of pain as she scrambled out of my sweater to climb me until she was free of us.
Instinctively, Daniel wrapped his arms around me, but it wasn’t enough. We were moving too fast, too hard for him to protect either of us, inadvertently ensuring that neither of us were safe as we tumbled down the stairs together, the swirling wind and debris from the destruction of Daniel’s house following us down.
The echo of the door thumping loudly against the wall and the doorframe, useless in its protective capabilities because Daniel hadn’t been able to lock it, merged with Rose’s screams and Bucky’s frantic barking from further inside the shelter.
“D-DADDY!”
