Vertical Rescue Manual 40 99%

Thorne was conscious. He looked up at the stars, then at Lena. His lips moved.

Kai came down with the jacks. They worked in silence for 47 minutes, chipping divots into the wet walls for the jack feet. Every few minutes, a pebble skittered past Lena’s ear. The secondary seismic was coming. She could feel it in her molars. Vertical Rescue Manual 40

Kai pumped. The jacks hissed. The chimney expanded with a sound like a frozen lake cracking. The slab shifted one inch. Lena yanked the strap. Thorne screamed—a wet, awful sound—but the blood stopped. The tourniquet held. Thorne was conscious