Jay's Arc

Chapter 2 of 2

Jay stepped into the far chamber and found the scratching. A girl crouched behind a stack of crates, prying at a sealed grate with a bent bar. Green and blue hair hung over her face. Her Adidas shoes were caked with dirt. She looked up, unafraid. "You built this," she said. "You bolted the beams wrong." Jay pointed at the ceiling. A support beam hung loose near the door, one bolt half-torn from the wall. "That one swung during the quake," Jay said. "If the next tremor hits, it drops. It brings the roof down on all of us." The girl stood. "Wendy," she said. "I came in through the vent. My brother's out there and I need this shelter standing when I go back for him." She said it flat, no waver. Then she looked at the beam and frowned. "You can't reach it. Too high." The winged cow drifted near the ceiling, wings beating fast. Jay watched it hover level with the loose bolt. An idea landed. "I can't reach it. But I don't have to climb." Jay grabbed a coil of strap and a wrench. The mechanical buffalo stamped in the doorway, steel flanks scraping the frame. Jay looped the strap around the beam's low end and tied the other end to the buffalo's harness. "Hold it steady," Jay told the beast. "Pull when I say." Wendy climbed onto the crates. She caught the floating cow and lifted it toward the loose bolt. The cow's small horns nudged the beam. Jay handed Wendy the wrench. "Turn the bolt back in. I'll take the weight below." The floor jerked. A tremor. Dust rained down. The beam groaned and swung an inch. Jay hauled the strap tight, and the buffalo dug in its legs and pulled. The beam stopped. Wendy braced against the crates and cranked the wrench. Metal bit metal. One turn. Two. "It's slipping," Wendy said. Her arm shook. The cow beat its wings harder, holding position. Jay leaned back with all his weight on the strap. The tremor rolled longer. A crate toppled. Wendy did not stop cranking. Three turns. Four. The bolt seated. "Second one," Jay said. Wendy dragged the wrench to the torn bolt and drove it home. The beam locked flush against the wall. The shaking faded. The buffalo snorted and eased off the strap. Jay tugged the beam. It held solid. The roof would hold. Jay slumped against the crates, breathing hard. Wendy climbed down and set the cow on the floor. It trotted off, wings folded. "Fixed," Wendy said. She wiped her hands on her skort. Then she turned to the grate she'd been prying. "Now open this. I got in through that vent. If it locks, my brother's sealed out for good, and I'm not letting that happen." Jay looked at the grate. Beyond it, the vent ran back to the surface, back to the breaking world. The shelter was safe. Getting Wendy's brother in was not.