Natural Disaster: Cracked

Chapter 3

The quake had hit Dublin with hardly any warning. He'd been used to quiet, cautionary rumblings before the main one hit. But this? One moment he was fine, talking and walking to their sight-seeing destination, stopping into a little shop along the way. The next, he was blinking back into full consciousness, wondering what the hell had hit him on the back of the head and taking a moment to realize that it had been the floor.

The quake jerked the ground out from under their feet, and what had been a nice, calm day suddenly exploded into crumbling and shaking chaos.

Avi's world tilted and spun, the impact of his head with the floor knocking his equilibrium off. His ears filled with a high-pitched ringing as he grappled to find steady earth. Fingers brushing into debris and hissing at the unpleasant scrape of his nails against a brick. He blinked blearily, feeling sluggish and like nothing was quite real.

Hands shook him at the shoulder, pulling, tugging him upward and forcing him unsteadily onto his feet. "C'mon," the voice attached to those hands urged, sounding familiar but not settling correctly into his brain, "We've gotta get outta here! Move Avi, let's go!"

He squeezed his eyes shut for a moment, looking around in what felt like slow motion to find the source of the voice. Shook his head to clear it and touched his hair under his beanie to check for blood. His hand remained clean. Who is that?

The hands tugged on him again and, with a clearer head, he turned to find Kevin pulling desperately at his arm and away from where the roof of the shop began to cave in. "Come on," he urged again, and finally, Avi responded like he knew he should, quickly following his best friend out of the building.

What felt like a metric tonne of adrenaline dumped into his system as they darted out onto the street, dodging the pedestrians who were sprinting past them and seemingly headed all in one direction. "Where's Scott?" he asked aloud, looking around in a panic, trying to find the last of their trio while maintaining his balance. The earth seemed determined to throw them back onto their asses.

The pair of them scanned the mass of people until finally, the missing young man collided into Kevin from behind. "I was just trying to get coffee," he rambled, gesturing wildly, "I was just triyng to get a fuckin' coffee and this happens I'm-"

Scott was cut off as the ground gave another violent heave and an almost deafening crunching noise sounded a few streets over. Ice dropped into Avi's stomach.

I know that sound.

Turning back to glance at his friends, the three men shared a silent, fearful look before he turned and sprinted in the opposite direction of the crowd, trusting that they'd be close behind him. They didn't have to go far.

Upon reaching one of the bridges that reached over River Liffey, the three of them skidded to a stop and could do nothing but look on in horror. The bridges had collapsed. The river had widened and flooded with sea water, forced apart and swallowing up debris of the buildings nearby. Avi squeezed his eyes shut as a straggler fell over the edge, plummeting into the depths below.

No no no no no no. The rest of them were headed to the other side, today.

Scott swore aloud. "Kirstie, Mitch, and Esther and Launa," he said, his voice shaking, "They're on the other side, aren't they?"

He fought the urge to clock the blonde in the jaw for stating the obvious, instead turning his focus to the edges of the split. "There's gotta be something," he mumbled, darting his gaze around and walking along the edge, "There's gotta be. There has to be something to get us across."

"Who whoa whoa," Kevin patted his shoulder, "There's no way we're getting across this."

Avi whipped his head around, to stare the other down. He could feel himself beginning to snap and snarl, his temper splintering and threatening to lash out. "Watch me," he spat, stopping short and growling low in his throat when his friend maintained a grip on his arm.

"Yeah, watch you hurt and kill yourself," he retorted, tightening his grip when the other made to pull away, "C'mon man. We've gotta get away from here. We can't help them if we're hurt or dead, right?"

He flickered his gaze over Kevin before searching the edges of what was left of the river, realizing he'd been breathing hard and clenching his fists. Uncurling his fingers, he ran the tips of them over the indentations his nails had left in the flesh of his palms. The earth gave another sickening roll, and the crack next to them groaned and creaked.

"This thing could keep getting bigger, too," Scott piped up, drawing closer to the other two, "It's safer if we get away from it."

Silently, Avi nodded and began to move away, giving one last look over his shoulder with a furrowed brow. Please be okay. Please.

______

The rest of the city, at least what they saw of it, wasn't promising. Buildings had completely collapsed down to their foundations, pieces of them strewn across the street. Survivors wandered seemingly aimlessly. Upon really observing and tentatively asking, it became clear that no one really knew where to go or what to do.

"Let's find a homeless shelter, or emergency center," Kevin suggested, "Or a church. Somebody's gotta be helping the people who are stranded in this town."

Avi sighed heavily. 'Stranded'. The word didn't set well in his bones. It hung heavy on his shoulders and his legs already ached at the mere memory of the last time that word applied to him. I don't know how I'm gonna do this again.

I have to.

Yeah, but how?

He resisted the urge to tug on his hair as he brought up the rear behind Scott and Kevin. This is all wrong. It wasn't supposed to go like this, dammit. We were supposed to do our own things today, meet up with the rest of the crew, and then we were supposed to try to start working things out, tonight- He drew in a shaky breath and held it tight behind his teeth. Panic creeped at the edges of his nerves. Heart thudded too fast against his ribcage. Deep breaths, Kaplan. Calm down. Freaking out is not going to help.

Things happen for a reason. There's a reason you were sitting the way you were in the car back then, and there was a reason you were by yourself in Colorado when the quakes hit, there. It'll be okay. It'll be okay. It'll be okay. It has to be okay.

Avi didn't realize he'd slowed his pace to a crawl until Kevin's hand found his back, quietly urging him forward. "We'll be alright, man," the older man told him, voice quiet, "We're supposed to be here and do this."

He let his hands drop to his sides, not daring to meet his friend's eyes. Not daring to breathe aloud his fear.

But what if it's not meant to work out in a happy ending?