Free Just One Day by Sharla Lovelace Page B

monster had created a new sunroof. Through two floors.
    “Jesse!” I screamed, my voice raw. “Montgomery! Can you hear me?”
    I was angry at him for not staying. Angry at the tornado for taking so much. Angry at the day. Rage filled me as I shoved at the mattress pinning me down, but it wouldn’t budge. I shifted and squirmed instead, grunting, pulling myself inch by inch out from under it, clawing at the wet floor.
    The scene that slowly unfolded for me was too shocking for words. Not just the cans lay on the floor, but the shelves as well. Broken and splintered like toothpicks. The smell of opened food products permeated my nose as the grief of reality squeezed me from all sides. Food products were everywhere. Splattered and dripping down the walls, oozing down pieces of shelving. Glass shards from plates and shattered jars sat weirdly clustered in one corner, as if they’d been scooped up and dropped only there. Napkins and paper towels were shredded across it all, soaking up the colors like a weird art project. A fork stuck out from a newly exposed portion of wall. From the handle out. A chair I recognized from upstairs perched upside down in front of the door.
    “Oh my G—” I cried, feeling the crushing weight of what had happened. I stopped pulling and pressed my forehead to the wet wooden floor. My hot tears mixed with the cool rain that was still driving down through the hole, soaking everything. An overwhelming sense of despair crept over me, but the need to survive—to find Jesse—pushed through it.
    I wiggled onto my side and managed to pull one leg free. That’s when I saw what the weight was about. Pinning the mattress on top of me was a large section of ceiling. It had fallen right on me. I blinked against the rain and used my free foot as leverage against the weight to pull my other leg free.
    The sound of things slamming around outside the door stopped me cold, and my heart jumped in fear of another twister. Or of the building collapsing. Were more things going to cave in? But my panicked thoughts cleared with one word.
    “Andie!” came the roughened cry from behind the wall.
    Fresh tears flooded my eyes as relief poured over me. “Jesse!” I croaked. “Oh, thank you, God.”
    “I’m coming,” he said, and I heard the movement of more heavy things that must have blocked the way.
    Hearing his voice gave me a fresh rush of strength, and I kicked and shoved at my captor till I was free of it. I got up on shaky knees and tried to clear a path, but most of the objects, like one of the heavy shelves, wouldn’t budge.
    After several minutes of grunting, the door started to move. Every yank he gave pried it open a little more. I wished I could reach the door and push.
    “Almost there,” he said, his voice strained, as I saw part of his shoulder emerge so he could use it as leverage.
    Rain fell a little harder, but I didn’t care. As he finally squeezed through the door, seeing him alive and in front of me trumped everything. He was soaked from head to toe, with a rip in his shirt and red-rimmed eyes. He locked eyes with me and everything brave in me fell away as he shoved that chair aside and scaled those shelves like they were nothing.
    All inhibitions were gone, stripped away by adrenaline and fear. As soon as he was within my reach, I wrapped my arms around his neck and melted into his warmth. I felt arms come around me and hands in my hair, pulses going mad. I didn’t know whose I felt stronger, his or mine. He was crying too, as we sank to our knees together. I didn’t want to let go. Ever.
    “Are you okay?” he breathed, pulling back to look at me. His face looked ravaged with anxiety.
    I nodded, too overcome with tears of relief to voice it. I let my hands travel his shoulders, face, hair, as if that would prove he was really in front of me. “You—” I attempted. “I thought you were—” I couldn’t finish it.
    His face was inches from mine, his heart was pounding against