Nothing.
The silence felt unbearable.
I remember digging faster despite knowing I shouldn’t.
My hands were bleeding.
My shoulders burned.
My knees felt like they would collapse.
But I couldn’t stop.
Because every minute that passed felt like a minute stolen from whatever was waiting below.
Then came the longest silence of all.
Several minutes.
No answer.
No movement.
Nothing.
One firefighter looked at me.
I knew exactly what he was thinking.
Maybe we were too late.
Maybe the dog had finally run out of strength.
Maybe we’d spent six hours chasing a miracle that no longer existed.
But something inside me refused to believe it.
So I kept digging.
And then…
Just as doubt began winning…
I heard it.
A single bark.
So faint it barely sounded real.
But this time it wasn’t distant.
It wasn’t muffled.
It wasn’t deep beneath layers of concrete.
It was close.
Very close.
Close enough that the sound seemed to rise directly beneath my hands.
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