The Closet

Chapter 20

            John had been in the right place. He was safe.  He’d heard the explosion and then bits of steel and rock screaming about the side tunnel, clanging through the opening he was resting beside, but in a moment it was over and he jumped up and ran back into look at the door. The lock had been blown to pieces and there were scars on the door, but the door was unmoved by the explosion on its surface. The bolt had been slightly bent but using the crowbar he pried the handle up. Then, just as Jarom had done before him, he beat the handle sideways with the sledge hammer allowing the bolt to slip free from its seat in the door frame and the rock. He pushed the ponderously heavy door with his foot hard against the door frame and his fingers wrapped around the bolt.  It creaked open and he was in.

            His immediate interest was his brother, but Jarom was not visible in the coal-black room. What he did see nearly bowled him over. The shock from seeing hundreds of dried and decrepit corpses piled about with the rags of their clothing heaped upon them was overwhelming. He saw bodies in every position; alone and in pairs and lying one upon another in piles. His light didn’t penetrate to the other side of the room, but despite the age of the corpses, the pungent smell of rotted flesh was more than noticeable. 

Scanning the walls near the door, he finally located his brother and raced to him. Jarom was lying on the floor next to the wall, unconscious but breathing. John didn’t know what had caused Jarom’s condition, but he rightly assumed that getting them both out of the chamber as soon as possible was imperative. Jarom was on his back, and John grabbed his limp arms and began dragging him toward the door. John was only a little bigger than his brother, but the adrenaline pumping through his system energized him and in only seconds they were out the door. He continued dragging Jarom toward the main tunnel before he stopped to examine him more closely. 

            In the lamplight, he could see that Jarom was breathing rapidly and he could make out that his skin was pinkish. He put his ear over Jarom’s heart and could hear it pounding rapidly.  He knew that he had to get medical help, but saw no way to get Jarom out of the tunnel. He was about to begin dragging him toward their ladder shaft when he saw the flickering of lamp lights coming toward him from the round room. He didn’t know who they belonged to, but he hoped against hope that it was his father. He yelled and was answered back in a familiar voice that he knew and loved. 

            In a few moments his father had arrived, and seeing Jarom lying on the floor, did not waste time with recriminations. John briefly explained that when Jarom hadn’t been at school that day, he had come after him and had found him locked in the storage chamber. He said that when Jarom quit responding to his taps on the door, that he had blown the lock off with a hand grenade and that Jarom was inside and unconscious.

            That was all Frank had to hear, and he hoisted Jarom onto his back in a fireman’s carry just as Lacy arrived. Far from frantic in this emergency situation, she responded immediately when he told her to hurry back home as quickly as she could and to call an ambulance. John called, “Mom, wait!” Lacy hesitated and he continued, “Have them come to the cemetery. We can take him up the stairs there. “

She looked to her husband who quickly considered the difficulty of extracting Jarom through the tunnel. He nodded his agreement with John’s plan. She turned and ran as fast as the tunnel and the light would allow back to the ladder. Frank walked on more slowly, careful not to injure his son further by hitting his head on the walls or tunnel ceiling.  By the time he arrived at the round room he was tired. John was guiding him into the southwest tunnel and talking at the same time.

            “Dad,” he said, “The staircase is only a couple hundred yards down the tunnel. The stairs are wooden and some are missing and rotten, but we’ve been up and down it a couple of times.  You just have to go slow and be careful.”

            At that point, going slow was about all he could do. The 15 minute walk had diminished his energy reserves, and now considering climbing a rickety staircase 95 feet up with 135 pounds on his back was beyond his imagination, but this was his son and if he had to perform superhuman feats, he would do so until he collapsed. 

            At the bottom of the staircase, Frank set Jarom down on the ground for a moment to ready himself. He weighed in at just over 200lbs, but carrying more than half his weight was difficult. Jarom was still unconscious and his breathing continued rapid, but his condition hadn’t changed in the last 20 minutes. He told himself that the hard part was done; that he only had to climb up from here and he would be out of the tunnel and Jarom would be on his way to the hospital.  Marshalling his strength, he hoisted the boy onto his shoulders again and took one step up, and then another.

            John walked just ahead, warning him of steps that were dangerous. Frank had stepped on a rotten tread that had broken and he had fallen forward, but John helped to ease Jarom down to the steps above and he rested for a moment. By then they could hear the sound of the ambulance siren, but until they reached the surface and could signal them, the ambulance wouldn’t know where to come.  Again he settled his son’s inert body on his shoulders and began to climb. He felt a stirring in Jarom which gave him heart, and he climbed on.  At the top of the stairs, John lifted himself through the stone hatch and quickly lifted the gate off the hinges. He returned as Frank arrived and eased Jarom onto the floor of the tomb. Then he ran out to the street to flag down the ambulance. 

            Lacy was already there, but she didn’t know the location of the entrance either.  When John appeared, she pointed the ambulance crew to him, and he led them to the tomb entrance.  They passed through the gate and saw the insensate boy lying there. Checking his vital signs, they found his pulse and respiration were rapid and he appeared flushed with a red tone to his skin. They administered oxygen immediately and carried him out of the tomb and to the waiting ambulance. Lacy got in and with siren blaring, they raced off to the Heidelberg Military Hospital.

            Frank was still sitting dazed on the top step. He had recovered enough from his physical exertion to stand, but hoisting himself out of the opening was almost more than he could manage.  John lent him a hand and between them, Frank crawled out of the tunnel access and he and John stepped out of the tomb into the daylight. John set the gate back on its hinges, and the tomb once again looked undisturbed.