Pushing Boundaries Ch. 09

When they were a floor above her and safely away from the rising water, Keona turned her focus downwards and tried to freeze the top layer of water; hoping that it would slow down its speed.

A quick look up confirmed that Riley was nearing the ground floor while Eian and Alex were two or three floors away. Giving one final blast of energy, Keona froze as much water as she could --aware that by doing so, she was putting pressure on the water beneath the solid ice to start chipping away at the shaft's foundation.

Satisfied that she bought them a few more minutes of grace, Keona continued up the flight of stairs; catching up with the others and helping the little girl by carrying her once more. She vaguely heard Riley's yelp of joy as he made it out to safety and then sensed her father's relief at breathing fresh air once more.

But Keona was growing weary. While she could hear Alex urging her to go on, she could feel her body growing weaker by the second. Still, she pushed on until Alex was finally out through the lift opening and she could see the stream of moonlight not too far from reach.

She felt Alex reaching forward to lift the little girl from her back and for that one moment when she was all alone in that lift shaft, Keona felt tears threatening to fall.

It was finally over...

As she reached out a hand to clasp around Alex's wrist, a violent tremor from within the shaft caused her to lose her balance; losing her grip on the bars of the ladder and falling backwards as the walls around her started to collapse.

"Keona! No!" Without thinking, Alex jumped in after her; his only thought to be with his mate, the woman he would rather die with than live without.

"Alex!"

Whatever happened next appeared to be a blur for neither Eian nor Riley was in time to catch Alex but they felt a strong gust of wind moving past them and into the crumbling tunnel of doom.

And then a second later there they were on the patch of grass in front of everyone; clutched around Marine's arms --Alex in one hand, Keona in the other.

"Marine..." Riley wept at the sight of her. In that final moment, he really thought that the two new friends that he had made were really going to die... after all that they had gone through. If Marine had not been quicker, their lives would have been lost for the lift shaft was destroyed completely. All that he could see through the lift opening were rubbles of concrete.

The Alpha was already on his knees, pulling his only daughter into his arms --to hold her for just a little while more. He had brought her into this world and he had no intentions of letting her die before him.

"Daddy... I'm alright... really," she whispered; her face buried at the side of his neck.

"It is... everything's alright now," he whispered back before letting her go slowly. Looking up, Eian saw that the others were gathered around them now:

Mike with Kendall, Riley, Marine and Alaron, Draven, Dominic, Hedva and her team of scientists, the victims of experiments and finally, Alex, Keona and himself.

"It's time to go home now."

This chapter in their lives was over now. Whatever lies in the future... they'll face it when it comes.

****

THE END