Part 5
Under a toppled utility cart, something orange snagged against a wheel. Water worried at the torn cloth until one end lifted free.
Owen looked at it, then at the passage beyond.
The specialist clipped onto the safety line and shifted the cart enough to fit through. He checked the overhead supports, walls, and floor all the way to the rear fire door. The cart was the obstruction; no framing had come down there. Water stayed below his knees.
His report came back over the radio. Frost authorized Owen and Walter to follow.
Owen attached his tether. Walter lowered himself under the cart, clumsy for a moment as he kept his bad hip clear. Owen went after him on hands and knees, feeding the dog’s line forward instead of pulling him back.
Beyond the cart, water covered Owen’s boots and reached his calves. The specialist led, stopping at each doorway. Walter checked two openings and continued to the end.
The rear fire door stood crooked in its frame. Its lower edge had bent inward a few inches, leaving a narrow opening above the floor. Walter put his muzzle there and barked again.
“Owen?”
Celia’s voice was faint beneath the barking from inside.
He knelt beside Walter. “We’ve got your location. Tell me what’s holding you.”
“A shelf frame. My ankle’s underneath it.” She drew a breath. “Both dogs are crated on the exam counter. Water hasn’t reached them yet.”
Owen relayed it. The specialist tested the door, felt the frame give, and pulled his hand away.
“We don’t force this side. Back to the lobby.”
Walter held at the gap. Celia said his name, and his ears moved forward.
Owen gathered enough line to guide him without a jerk.
“People are coming for her. With me, Walter.”
The dog looked back once before following.
Frost redirected the rescue team to the exterior isolation entrance. Now that they knew exactly where Celia was, they could reach her without trying to dismantle the rack in the main hall. The outside doorway was partly submerged but unobstructed. A crew went in with lifting equipment and a low stretcher.
Owen and Walter waited at the front threshold, still connected to the safety line. Walter stood facing the west wall. Owen could feel the tension in his body through the harness handle.
From the SUV came Kip’s thin cries. Owen looked toward him, but the evacuation crew was moving across the doorway with equipment. He stayed clear of their path.
Frost raised two fingers. “Two minutes. That’s all.”
At the west exit, a responder appeared carrying a crate. A cattle dog crouched at its back. Wade took it and headed for the transport van.
The second crate came out next.
“They had them up on the counter,” the responder called. “We’ve got room to lift the frame off her now.”
Owen eased his grip on Walter’s harness.
A vibration passed through the wall beside the ruined service entrance. Upstream, the debris jam had released, sending the backed-up water down the channel. It spilled across the low yard and struck the damaged doorway.
Frost shouted for withdrawal.
Owen caught the front doorframe with his free hand. Walter’s hind feet went out from under him. The current turned him sideways and carried his rear legs toward the west hall.
The long line pulled taut. Owen saw the angle of it, the dog’s body swinging toward the wreckage, and stepped with the water rather than hauling against it.
He dropped to one knee and caught the harness handle as Walter passed. His shoulder hit the frame. The safety tether stopped him from going farther.
“Hold on, boy.”
Walter paddled for a floor he couldn’t reach. Owen got an arm under his chest, then brought his hindquarters in, keeping the bad hip against his body. The old dog shook violently against him.
Outside the west entrance, the crew emerged with Celia on the stretcher. Her face was white, one leg held steady by a responder. As they passed the front of the building, she saw Walter and lifted a hand toward him.
“He brought us straight to you,” Owen said.
Celia’s hand dropped to the blanket.
“I knew that bark.”
Frost’s final order cut across the lot. Owen carried Walter through the lobby, the last crew withdrawing behind him.
Ruth’s truck had reached the high end of the parking lot. She was beside the SUV with a lead already clipped to Kip through the crate door. The puppy was throwing himself toward the sight of Walter.
“Emergency clinic,” Owen said. “We need to go.”
Ruth opened the rear passenger door and spread a blanket. She climbed in beside Walter without asking another question. Owen secured Kip’s harness to a rear-seat tether; the puppy settled at her feet and reached a paw toward the blanket.
At the clinic, a technician brought a wheeled stretcher. Walter tried to rise when they moved him, but his left hind leg buckled. Owen kept his hand beneath the dog’s jaw until the treatment-room doors closed.
Kip sat against Owen’s soaked boots and watched those doors.
Ruth came back from her truck with a towel. She held it out, then pointed at his hand. A narrow cut ran across his palm where the line had pulled.
He wrapped the towel around it.
“I put him in there.”
“You asked him for a search,” Ruth said.
“He shouldn’t have been near that water.”
She sat beside Kip and laid a hand on his back. “We don’t know what’s happened yet. Don’t give yourself the whole verdict before the doctor gets here.”
Owen leaned forward, elbows on his knees. Every few minutes Kip lifted his nose toward the treatment room, then rested again without moving from Owen’s feet.
Dr. Helen Dorsey came out almost an hour later. She pulled a chair close instead of speaking from the doorway.
“He’s very cold and badly exhausted. We’re warming him now. His heart rhythm is steady, and his temperature is climbing.”
Owen unwound the towel from one finger. “His leg?”
“The arthritic hip is strained. There may be soft-tissue injury, and I’m watching for nerve involvement in that left rear leg. The first images don’t show a broken bone.”
“Will he be able to stand?”
“He’ll need fluids, pain relief, treatment for inflammation, and monitoring until morning. He can’t stand without support tonight. I don’t yet know how much is exhaustion and pain, or whether there’s new damage…”
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