I Died When the Sky Fell, Now I Wake Up Holding Lightning novel · Chapter 23 of 24

Chapter 23: Third Night

"This is county dispatch," I said. "This is Greta Mullaney. I'm still here."

The key clicked under my thumb, and my voice went out over the dead county on the last transmitter standing.

I had said that sentence on the night I died.

"Shelters One through Seven are open. They are open to anyone. There is no list, and nobody is paying for a seat. If you can hear this, tell the person next to you."

I gave the addresses.

I gave them slowly and twice, and I gave the number of beds at each.

I told them which roads were clear and which bridge was on fire.

I told everyone listening who was frightened to put a hand on the nearest wall and breathe.

On the second hour, the radio on my jacket crackled.

"Dispatch, it's Abel. Three is open. We've got ninety-one people in the gym, and a dog."

"Copy, Abel."

"Dispatch, Emmett. One's full. I'm sending the rest to Two, and I want it on the record that I did the Ninth Street bridge without a scratch."

"On the record, Emmett."

"And Dispatch? Ward's here. He says to eat something."

"Copy."

The young dispatcher sat at the next console with her hands over her mouth.

She'd stopped crying an hour ago.

Now she was writing every address I gave in neat block letters on a pad and passing the pad to the staff, who ran it down the stairs to the crowd.

By midnight, the hundreds on the lawn outside had gone quiet.

They stood in the dark under the lightning and listened to my voice come out of the speaker over the door.

Then they started to go.

First in twos and threes, then in lines, down the hill toward the road, with their children and their bags, toward the doors I had named.

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