One Direction Preferences

There's a Natural Disaster

Niall: You were in a hallway of a building when the shaking began, knocking you off your feet, your shoulder knocking into the wall. A blonde guy a few feet behind you, although barely able to keep himself upright, staggered towards you, holding onto you as the earth continued to violently quake. You were pressed as close to the wall as you could be, muffled cries of terror leaving your mouth as the stranger held your face to his chest. A cracking noise sounded around you and then you felt the ceiling begin to crumble and that was it you knew it was over. You sent a mental goodbye out to your family and friends, and you tucked yourself closer to this man. But then it wasn’t over. Everything had gone dark and the air was a little bit difficult to breathe, but his strong arms were still tight around you and his heart still throbbed loudly in his chest. But you were both alive. After that realization sank in, he pulled away from you, hardly able to breathe at all even as the dust settled. He was panicking, you could tell and so you didn’t know what to do but let your fingers reach up and scrabble against he debris that was perfectly collapsed all around you, though not crushing you. One wrong move could lead to it all collapsing, but you tried to push things out of the way until a hint of fresh air poured in. You grabbed his shoulders, dragging him over to the source, and he inhaled which calmed him down enough to gasp out his name. “I’m Niall.” 

Liam: It began as a low rumble in the ground. The locals seemed to think that it was normal that the ground would slightly jump, the small stones and grains of sand on the beach would leap and rattle, scattering around before falling still again. Over the past week that you’d been there, you’d grown used to the occasional grumbles of the volcano at the peak of the island. Liam thought it was strange, but his curiosity made him want to stay and go take a tour of the volcanoes. Along with a tour group, you hiked up the mountain, not getting close enough to the actual peak for anything really entertaining; it was a semi-active volcano. Liam was laughing and smiling at you the whole time, making jokes to help ease your nerves as you got higher and higher up. The heat was unbearable and your stomach was coiled tight with anxiety. You wanted to leave. To get off the mountain, off the island. Liam kissed you and cuddled you and finally the tour was over and you were safely back on the beach, relaxing in the sun on the sand. There was still something whispering in the back of your mind, but every time that you tried to listen closer, it got quieter and quieter. It was the middle of the night when there was frantic knocking on the door of the suite, and Liam went to go answer the door, coming back pale-faced. He didn’t climb back in bed, but instead went to the closet, shoving your clothes back into the suitcases you’d brought. “Liam? Liam, what’s wrong?” You asked, sliding over to him and wrapping your arms around his waist. “We’re being evacuated, Y/N. We have to be outside the hotel in thirty minutes, they think the volcano is going to erupt soon. Everyone’s being evacuated.” Well, that was an abrupt end to your vacation. You quickly helped him toss everything into the suitcases and then you were outside the hotel, being driven to the airport and flown away from the island. No sooner had you landed than word reached you of the massive eruption of that volcano. It ruined the island, eating the entire town that you’d been in only a dozen hours before, leaving all of those people homeless.

Harry: One morning on the news, the serious woman seemed nervous and scared as she stated that there seemed to be an outbreak of a new disease in South America and it was quickly spreading up through Central America and into the United States. Already over 200 cases had been reported outside of South America. It was feared that some people who had been exposed to the disease had already flown out of the Americas, possibly bringing a spread of the disease to the rest of the world. It was recommended that everyone remain indoors until more could be learned about this possible pandemic. Harry and you listened to that recommendation, just deciding it would be best to hide in your beds and ignore the world outside. From the sound of it, it quickly became comparable to the Black Death of the Middle Ages, and neither of you wanted to take any part in that. The doctors who were working on a cure for it, quickly came down with the symptoms and had to quit or die trying. People were terrified and starving, and the news, when it was able to be broadcast, notified everyone of the symptoms and warning signs. Dizziness, trouble sleeping, nausea, blood when they cough, pain in the tongue and behind the eyes. They were all random symptoms and didn’t go together at all. Over the weeks that you and Harry tried to hide away, people began showing up at your door. Family and friends of both of you, the other boys showed up eventually, but you couldn’t let anyone in for fear that they would contaminate you. It was terrible to watch the news and see that the deathtoll was rising, that there were celebrities dying that you’d either admired or had even known. And then came the morning when you rolled out of bed, woken by the feeling of something caught in your throat, and when you cough, your hand was speckled with blood. Neither Harry nor you had ever been more terrified.

Louis: The snow was thick on the top of the mountain where Louis had brought you to ski with a group of friends. The snow had been shifting underfoot all day, making you feel clumsier than normal, so a little after noon, the two of you went back to the ski lodge, leaving your friends out on the slopes. You were standing at the window of your room, looking out over the bright snow to the slope a fair bit away. That’s when it happened. At first you just thought it was something in the corner of your eye, but then you realized that the huge rushing cloud of white was displaced snow, an avalanche pouring down the mountain. You watched in silent horror as it swept down, overtaking the skiers that had been at the top of the slope, then it rushed downward, eating up the people as it went and that’s when Louis noticed your stillness and he joined you at the window. Both of you stared in fear, knowing that your friends had been out there still skiing and had you not come in when you did, there was a good chance that you both would have been out there too. Down in the lobby of the lodge, the proper authorities for the situation showed up. Search and rescue, medics, all of those kind of people. There were some people in the lobby, instructing the people that had been safely inside when it happened on what to do now. They said that there were definitely survivors, who soon began streaming in, covered in snow and shivering, shock blankets wrapped around them. But as more and more people filed in, you didn’t see your friends among them. Louis wrapped himself around you in an armchair near the massive hearth, both you with your eyes trained on the only entrance. All you could do was hope that they were okay. 

Zayn: Of all the places to be, you had to be in the hotel in the bottom of the valley that was only kept dry because of a dam that held back hundreds of thousands of gallons of water. That didn’t bother Zayn until it was three in the afternoon and a loud crashing sound came from that end of the valley. Suddenly the people around you were dashing away, grabbing their family or anything they needed within arms-reach and they ran. As soon as you saw the trees toppling over under the force of the rushing waves, you ran like hell, dragging Zayn along behind you as he gaped at the filthy water that was trying to catch up. People were climbing up in trees, onto roofs, and even scaling the radio tower in hopes of staying dry and alive, but you didn’t know where to go and Zayn couldn’t even swim, not like that would help in the water’s current. A shallow stream of water began to rush past you, reaching up above your ankles, and you couldn’t hold in the tears anymore, blinking them away quickly so they wouldn’t blur your vision as you attempted escape. You reached your hotel again, sprinting up the stairs and hoping that the rooftop was high enough to stay out of the water’s reach. As the water rose up through the stairwell with you, only a flight or two of stairs behind at all times, you wondered if that’s sort of what being on the Titanic felt like. Luckily, you broke onto the roof just in time to see the water crash into the side of the building, spraying the rest of the hotel’s guests, but for the time being, it seemed as if you were all safe at that height.