Salyers’s greatest terror was that the
crushing pressure on her head was
becoming greater and greater. She
prayed for calm and wisdom, realiz-
ing that if the men began working on
top of her, it could push the pressure
on her head to a breaking point. She
also wondered why the men thoughtthey were at the day care center, three
stories below her office.
But then the voices were gone.
Eerie silence returned. Her breath
was coming much faster now, and
she began to feel sleepy. But I’ve got
to pick up Josh at school, so I need
to stay awake to do that, she thought.
Salyers had continued to rotate her
left arm and hand. She prayed that
her hand was visible and that she
would be able to wave it if she again
heard voices.
Suddenly, she heard a shout off to
her left: “Hey! Here’s a live one!”
Then Salyers felt someone take her
left hand and hold it and rub it. Her
muscles first went limp with joy and
relief—then she squeezed the hand
as hard as she could. When the man
asked her name, she summoned all of
her strength to say, “Priscilla!”
The man realized how hard it was
for her to talk, so he did most of theBut her mind was too clear, she
thought, for her to have had a stroke
or heart attack. She told herself, If I
can just get my head up off my desk ...
Nothing. Salyers realized there was
little she could move except for her
left wrist and hand. Her mouth was
filled with earthy-tasting powder.
There was a powerful pressure on her
head from something that seemed to
be slowly crushing her skull.
She was facedown with her rump
higher than her head, which was
twisted toward her right. Her right
arm was pinned under her, and her
left arm splayed outward. With the
fingers of her left hand, Salyers be-
gan trying to dig into the dirtlike sub-
stance of the powdered concrete. She
also began to pray for God to give her
the strength to survive.
Oddly, her most immediate annoy-
ance was a piece of chewing gum in
her mouth that had become an irri-
tant. The gum was infused with a foul
grit, and Salyers desperately wanted
to get rid of it. But her mouth and jaw
were so tightly constricted that it was
impossible for her to spit it out. It was
all she could do to breathe.
About 30 minutes into her entomb-
ment, Salyers heard the far-off voices
of men. Then, suddenly, close by, she
heard a man speak sharply: “OK, this
is the day care center. We have a lot of
children in here.”
Salyers tried to speak, to scream, to
let the man know she was there. But
she couldn’t make her mouth work.
SOMETHING SEEMED
TO BE CRUSHING HER
HEAD. SHE THOUGHT,
IS THIS A STROKE?rd.com 97Special Report