Indiana Goes West (Mail Order Brides of Pioneer Town, Book 1) by Ruth Hartzler Page A

mixture of debris and the burning wood that escape surely
would have been impossible.
    “Morgan!” Indiana cried, but there was no
answer.
    She sank down on a big rock and sobbed
helplessly, while the city burned around her.
     
     

Chapter 19

    “Indiana!”
    Was it a dream? Had someone called her
name?
    Indiana looked around, but everything was
gray. Everything she saw was covered with gray; not another color
was to be seen. It was worse than the most frightening nightmare
she had ever had.
    “Indiana.” The word came again.
    Indiana stood up. What if Morgan was alive,
and buried under the rock? She frantically attacked the rock with
her fingers, until the name came again, only louder.
    Swinging around, she saw an apparition behind
her, leaning on the remaining column and surrounded by a halo of
swirling ash.
    Morgan? Or had he died and this was his
ghost?
    As Indiana stared, the apparition moved. He
was alive! Indiana ran to him. “Morgan!”
    The two clung to each other tightly for what
seemed an age.
    “Morgan, are you badly hurt?”
    Morgan coughed, and then said, “I’m okay. The
roof collapsed, but I managed to get out. It took me a while, and
it was difficult to work hard and breathe through the smoke at the
same time. I’ll be okay after a bit of a rest. More importantly,
are you okay?” He held Indiana at arms’ length and looked at
her.
    She nodded.
    “How did you find me?”
    That question remained unanswered for the
moment, for at that time, Indiana noticed the sky filled with
flames and flung herself back into Morgan’s arms.
    Morgan turned slowly to look, in dread of the
scene before him. Buildings were on fire, and other buildings were
falling down. He took Indiana’s hand. “Let’s head for the sea!”
    The pair hurried back to the street. The
flames had faded, and Morgan and Indiana were engulfed by darkness,
the like of which they had never known. It was blacker than a
closed room on the darkest night.
    A sea of voices in uproar flooded toward
them, children crying in terror, women wailing, and men shouting
urgently to their families.
    Morgan had a tight grip around Indiana’s
waist, and suddenly he pulled her into a doorway, out of the crowd.
“It’s not safe to be in that crowd while we can’t see. If we get
knocked over in the street, the crowd will crush us.”
    When Indiana trembled violently at his words,
he hurried to reassure her. “If we can get as far away from here as
possible, we should be all right.”
    “So you don’t think we should stay under
shelter, away from the fires?”
    “No, I think we need to get out of here. It
could get worse than this, and if so, we don’t want to be around
when it does.”
    “How could it possibly get any worse than
this?” Indiana asked, partly to herself. To Morgan, she said, “But
the falling buildings are dangerous. Should we risk going back into
the open? Are you sure we shouldn’t stay here and weather the
storm?”
    Just then, the building next to them
collapsed, showering Morgan and Indiana with profuse amounts of
ash.
    “There’s your answer,” Morgan said as he
pulled Indiana back into the street.
    Indiana looked up for the source of light,
and saw a wall of flames sliding along a nearby building. “Run!”
she said, pointing to the flames.
    She and Morgan ran, hand in hand, in the
direction of the sea. As they ran, they saw people sheltering from
the falling rocks under porches and in partly collapsed buildings.
They passed people burdened down by carrying large bags of
possessions.
    As Morgan and Indiana ran, as fast their
exhaustion and the smoke would allow, they saw that roads, bridges,
houses, and most buildings lay destroyed. Many were on fire.
    Every time they thought they had escaped the
crowd, another group of panicking people appeared and swept them
along, presumably people who had just now changed their minds about
sheltering in buildings. At times the crowd proved an obstacle to
them, and at other times it