4

Sasha

The fire alarm was going off. It kept a shrill beat, echoing off the cinderblock walls of the school.

Slowly, Sasha lowered her arms and sat up straight.

She wasn’t anywhere near the wall anymore. Her chair had drifted into the middle of the room.

To her right, toward the windows, glass shards covered the floor.

To her left, piles of fallen books sat in front of empty shelves. Study tables had slid against bookcases. A large potted plant had tipped over in front of library’s double doors. Ms. Midio, the librarian, shouted, “Someone call 9-1-1!” Sasha couldn’t actually see Ms. Midio—she just heard her urgent voice.

Liam and Ray crawled out from under their table in front of Sasha. Their chairs—and the books they’d spread on the table—now lay on the floor several feet away.

“That was crazy,” gasped Ray. “I don’t think I’ve ever felt a quake that big.”

“You okay, Sasha?” Liam called over the bellowing fire alarm.

“As far as I can tell, yeah.” She reached down and unlocked her wheels. They looked okay—no obvious punctures.

Ms. Midio was still shouting. “Is someone calling 9-1-1? Can anyone hear me? Answer me, please!”

“On it!” shouted Sasha, pulling her phone out of her jeans pocket. “Are you okay, Ms. Midio?”

“I—I’ve hit my head, I think.”

Liam stood up. “Where are you?” he called. “We can’t see you.”

“Behind the front desk. A—part of a light—fell from the ceiling—”

Liam rushed toward the front of the library, climbing around overturned chairs and spilled books. Ray moved closer to Sasha and pulled out his own phone.

Sasha had never called 9-1-1 before. She’d been in no shape to do it when she needed it two years ago. Someone else—the driver who hit her—had made the call. Still, dialing the numbers made her think of the intersection of Pleasant Street and Miles Avenue. She swallowed the sour taste in the back of her throat.

The 9-1-1 dispatcher’s voice came through her phone, asking the nature of her emergency. “Hi, yeah, I’m at Garrison High School, in the library, and someone was hit in the head during the earthquake, possibly by a falling light fixture . . . ”

“Is she conscious?” the dispatcher asked immediately.

“Yes—”

“We’ll get someone over there as soon as we can. Response time is going to be slower than usual because of debris blocking some of the streets and because of the huge need right now.”

“Okay, I understand. Should I hang up so you can answer more calls?”

“We’d appreciate that.”

Sasha ended the call. By now, Liam was almost at the front desk. “Ms. Midio, help is one the way,” he said.

“Don’t try to move her,” Sasha called to him. “Especially her head.” As the daughter of the school nurse, she’d picked up on some first aid tips here and there.

“Just stay still, Ms. Midio,” Liam said. He disappeared behind the front desk. Sasha couldn’t see him anymore, but she could still hear him. “Here, I’ll get that off you . . . Better? Yeah, just stay right there—”

“I’m all right. I can sit up,” Ms. Midio groaned.

“Uh, okay, just take it easy. Great, okay, now just sit like that for a minute. Help will be here soon.”

The principal’s voice came on over the PA system. It was hard to hear her with the fire alarm still buzzing, but Sasha managed to get the gist of the announcement.

“ . . . Teachers need to evacuate the school immediately . . . Gather in the parking lot . . . Need to stay calm . . . Proceed in an orderly fashion . . . ”

Ray moved toward the windows, stepping around the bigger shards of glass. “People are already pouring out the front doors,” he reported.

“Do you see my mom?” asked Sasha.

Ray shook his head. “She’s not jumping out at me. Too many people. We’d better get out there.”

Up at the front of the library, Ms. Midio was saying, “I’m fine, I’m fine now, really.” She stood up, and Sasha finally saw her. She wasn’t bleeding, but her hair was mussed and her expression seemed a little dazed. Liam grabbed her arm to steady her.

“Okay, Ms. Midio,” Liam said. “If you think you can walk, let’s get you outside. Then you’re gonna sit down and wait for the paramedics. Got it?”

She nodded.

“All right, let’s go.” He turned toward Ray and Sasha. “I’ll be right back, guys.”

“No, we’ll meet you outside,” said Sasha. Standard earthquake procedure: you’re not supposed to go back into a building after you’ve exited.

But Sasha wasn’t sure Liam heard her over the blare of the fire alarm. Plus he was focused on keeping Ms. Midio upright and on moving the giant fallen plant away from the door.

In her mind, Sasha traced a path from her current position to the library doors. As a little kid, she’d run obstacle courses in gym class. Now, she saw most of the world as an obstacle course. She’d learned to dodge stairs, curbs, steep drops, sections of sidewalk pushed up by tree roots.

But this was on a whole other level.

Ray was already starting to clear a path for her, shoving tables and chairs and books out of the way. Sasha wheeled herself forward, a half-turn at a time. Don’t be impatient. Impatience gets you nowhere. That was one of the first lessons she’d learned after her accident.

Still, she couldn’t keep her heart rate from kicking up a few notches. Garrison High School had been built to follow the state’s earthquake codes, which meant it should be able to withstand a powerful quake. But it had also been built in the 1990s, and Sasha’s mom was always complaining that the building needed more upgrades than the school system could afford.

Sasha didn’t want to stick around to find out how badly the building needed those upgrades.