Falling in Love : I love you, Today and Forever

Barely had Valerie and her team escaped from the building when a bomb went kaboom in the port, killing the silence of the place. The building behind them collapsed suddenly and the debris and dust covered the air.

The impact of the blast was so huge that Valerie and her entire team were thrown far away. The whole port lost its charm right away and the once beautiful place was now wrecked and in ruins.

"Ugh!" Valerie groaned as she tried to move her body. But in vain. Since she, Ryder and Preston had been the nearest to the building when the bomb had exploded, they had suffered the most. Her entire back was burning and the intense pain made her tear up immediately.

"Ryder." She gathered all the courage in her and called the man. But her voice was barely audible in the chaotic environment. She tried to move again. But pain shot through her shoulder and back and she stopped at once.

"Anyone here?" She shouted and tapped on the ground to gain attention on her. She was slowly losing her consciousness and she did not know how long she could hold on. The pain was too much for her bear and slowly, darkness was clouding her mind.

"Anyone....he...." She fainted before she could complete her words.

Meanwhile, Ryder who had heard a faint whisper from somewhere beside him forced his eyes open with great difficulty. His entire body ached. But it was not intense and with great difficulty, he managed to stand up. His ears were buzzing and it took him some time to comprehend where he was and what had happened.

His addled eyes turned wide at once when he saw the state the port had reduced to. The entire building in which they had been before they had found out about the bomb had been reduced to crumbles. He had no idea how many bombs had detonated. He sure had heard multiple explosions. But the situation had been too critical to think about it.

Clearing his mind, he looked around him and all he saw were injured people. While some were from his team, the others belonged to the enemy. He did not know if they were alive or dead. From afar, he could hear people shouting and he recognized some of the voices that belonged to his colleagues. But he was in no situation to care about them or reply to him.

Ryder was dumbstruck by how the situation had turned out to be. In just a blink, everything had changed and his colleagues....colleagues...Valerie....Preston...

Not even caring about his anguish, he started to search for his friends. From the explosion, he had already discerned the impact to be huge. The explosion had thrown them away in different directions. 'Please Val, Prest. Please be safe. Please.'

He cried as he started searching for his friends. They had to be here. They were near him when the bomb had gone off. He thought.

"Officer Ryder, I have called for a medical emergency and back up. They will be here soon." Ryder just nodded at the man who had spoken to him, his mind too worried to think about anything else. But the next instant, he snapped out of his confusion and looked at the man whose face was smeared with ash.

"Good. Gather all the people who are not that injured and start looking for the people. We do not know how many are alive. And try to give them first aid until the medical team arrives." He ordered. Although he was not the senior-most in the team, he still held a significant position in the Intelligence and now was not the time to think about the seniority. People's lives were at stake and they had to save them before it was too late.

Ryder started to look for people in the mess. The debris lay all around him and it took him some time before he moved away the ones that were in his way. Gritting his teeth, he moved one of the bigger debris when he noticed a leg underneath it. He could not make out who it was for the person had his face turned away from him. Obviously, he had fainted and Ryder had to be careful so as to not inflict more pain on the man.

Fortunately, the debris was not heavy and he managed to push it away. Squatting beside the unconscious man, he turned him around. "Barnie." He almost cried when he saw one of his teammates. He looked at his condition. He was bleeding from his forehead and his leg seemed to be fractured. Other than that, he looked to be fine. But Ryder was not sure.

Patting his cheeks, he tried to wake Barnie up. At first, there was no response from him. But after consistent patting, Barnie frowned and Ryder let out a sigh of relief.

"Barnie, can you hear me? Barnie, are you here?"

"Ummm...." Barnie groaned in pain and it took him some time to open his eyes. f𝘳𝒆ℯ𝑤𝚎𝚋𝗻𝚘𝘷el. c𝗼m

"Great. Barnie, stay awake. I need you to stay awake. Can you hear me? Nod your head." Ryder continued to speak to him and the man finally, managed to nod with great difficulty.

At this moment, five of his teammates who were less injured came running to him and Ryder nodded at them. While three people supported Barnie and lifted him before taking him to a clean place, the other man stayed behind with Ryder.

"Officer Matt, we do not know how many people are here and what their condition is. Let us start looking for them. It does not matter if it's our teammate or a member of Jared's gang, we will save all of them."

"Yes, Officer Ryder." The man replied and the two men cooperated in the rescue mission.

After a few minutes, Ryder cursed under his breath. The strength in him was deteriorating. He and Matt had already found three more people and fortunately for them, all the three were alive. However, Valerie and Preston were nowhere in sight and as time passed, Ryder's heart dropped in fear.

"Please be safe. Please." He begged and he started to look for them again, hoping against hope for the two to be alive.