13

Ray

Ray and Liam both ended up under the kitchen table. Each of them clung to a table leg as the floor vibrated beneath them. The aftershock felt almost as powerful as the main quake, and it definitely lasted almost as long. Ray counted thirteen seconds.

Cans and bottles rolled across the kitchen floor, banging into Ray’s legs. He was prepared for that.

He wasn’t prepared for the ceiling fan to crash to the floor about a foot from where he was crouched.

As the fan landed, Ray heard a high-pitched shattering noise and a lower, deeper crunch. The fan’s blades turned just slightly, as if a faint breeze was blowing them.

Over the rumbling noise of the actual quake, Ray heard everything his family owned jostling, cracking, groaning under the pressure of this powerful tremor.

When it was over, Ray and Liam climbed out from under the table. Ray stared down at the ceiling fan.

“Ray.”

How are we going to fix all this? he thought. Everything’s ruined. Where do we even start?

“Ray!”

Ray finally looked up at Liam.

“The walls are leaning, Ray. The whole building is leaning. Don’t you see it?”

Ray squinted at a wall. It did look more slanted than usual.

Liam grabbed him by the shoulders. “Listen, man, we need to get out of here! Now!”

Ray knew Liam was right. And yet he couldn’t make himself move. Was this how Sasha felt all the time?

Probably not. Because there was nothing actually wrong with Ray’s legs. Liam proved this by dragging him into the living room.

Ray felt a switch flip inside his brain and suddenly he was able to focus again. “Okay, come on, we’ll take the fire escape.”

“Why—” Liam started to ask.

“Closer than the stairs,” said Liam as he led them to the living room window. “And we can’t trust the elevator.”

The window glass hadn’t held up well against two earthquakes. Ray found a dishcloth lying on the floor and used it to wipe down the sill. Then he climbed out onto the fire escape’s scaffolding, with Liam right behind him.

The sound of the earthquake was gone, but Ray heard a new sound now. A sort of deep groan, as if the whole building was alive and on the verge of puking. Ray clattered down the first flight of fire-escape steps.

He smelled smoke in the air, but he didn’t think it was close by. Another flight of steps—they were at the third floor landing now, dashing across the landing to the next set of stairs.

Was the building starting to shake? Or was the fire escape just rickety? Had to be the fire escape. The scaffolding rattled under Ray’s pounding feet, sending shock waves through the rest of the metal structure.

Ray focused on the ground below. The fire escape was attached to the back of the building, where there was a small parking lot for residents. Ray was relieved to see only a few cars in the lot. That meant hardly anybody was in the building.

Aside from him and Liam.

Ray gripped the railing, but his palm was slick with sweat. He was taking the steps at a run now. He had barely started down the second-to-last set of stairs when his foot slipped.

In his head he saw the fallen ceiling fan, its blades moving in broken confusion. For some reason his brain jumped to that image, instead of picturing his own legs in a twisted heap or his own skull split open.

Liam grabbed him before he fell. He only missed one step. “Easy—you okay?” panted Liam.

“Yeah, thanks.” Ray grabbed the railing with both hands and kept moving.

Okay, no: it wasn’t just the fire escape that was shaking. Something was wrong with the building. It felt as if a shiver was passing through the whole structure.

One more floor to go. They’d reached the ladder that hung straight down over the final drop. Ray swung himself onto it, forced himself to take one rung at a time. When he reached the bottom rung, about five feet off the ground, he jumped the rest of the way.

Liam landed right behind him and grabbed Ray’s arm. “Run!”

Behind them, the building’s groan changed to a roar. Ray sprinted across the parking lot without looking back.

He slowed down when he reached the alley at the end of the parking lot. Liam wheezed to a stop and looked over his shoulder. Then he breathed a long, stretched-out sigh, half in horror, half in awe.

Ray pulled in several deep breaths. Yeah, he did smell smoke. But as he’d thought, it was far away.

He braced himself and turned around to see the damage.

His apartment building had sunk about twenty feet into the ground. The entire first floor had disappeared. The rest of the structure sat at a dramatic slant, leaning at almost a forty-five degree angle.

They stood there, trying to catch their breath. Ray lifted his hands to the top of his head while Liam bent forward, resting his hands on his knees. Ray felt his phone buzz in his pocket. It was a notification. “Hey,” he said. “I think I’ve got service again.”

Liam spent a few more seconds panting while Ray called 9-1-1.