SkyFall

Earthquake

"I know! I was like sooo pissed!" I rolled my eyes as the two girls in front of me gossiped. "She keeps spreading stuff about me, but I have bigger boobs than her!"

"Hey! Are you going to help me on this or what?" Beth laughed.

I snapped out of it and answered back sheepishly, "Oh, yeah. Where were we?"

"Well, what was the currency exchange-" I zoned out when I saw one of the gossipy girls, Clarissa, staring right at me over her computer. I expected her to turn away, but she didn't. Instead she grabbed a piece of paper and held it to her face while she whispered something to her gossipy friend, Delilah. Delilah peeked up at me over her computer, giggled, and looked back down to hide her face.

"You know, I can hear you," I snapped. Actually I couldn't, but they didn't need to know that. I slammed my hands on the table and began to get up, when I felt someone grab my arm.

"Quit it!" Beth whispered angrily. "If you make a scene with these two, you'll never here the end of it!" Beth was right. I could already imagine all the rumors that would be going around saying that I nearly killed these two. And of course they would exaggerate the whole story, leaving me as the talk of the school for the rest of the year.

"Fine..." I mumble as I slowly sat back down. Suddenly, Clarissa and Delilah seemed very interested in their essay. Yeah, right.

"Anyways," Beth says. "What is the currency exchange rate of U.S. dollars to Uruguayan pesos again?" We were in the computer lab for Spanish class, working on our essay of a Spanish-speaking country.

I looked down at my notes. "One U.S. dollar equals to about 20.57 Uruguayan pes-" I stop talking when the earth suddenly began shaking violently.

"EARTHQUAKE," someone calls out from the other side of the room. Bookshelves shook so brutally that they fell to the ground, scattering the books everywhere.

"EVERYONE GET UNDER THE NEAREST TABLE!" Senior Arambula, the Spanish teacher, yelled out. My mind was racing. My heart was pounding. Yes earthquakes happened in California, but they were small and very rarely felt. I had lived here all my life and never felt a single earthquake; until now that is.

"Dawn!" Beth screeched. "Get the hell under here!" She grabbed me and yanked me under the table. Lamps and picture frames fell off a desk near by. A printer fell, followed by multiple computers.

"Oh my GOD!!!" Clarissa and Delilah were squawking like a flock of birds. I cursed myself for having to be under the same table as them. Beth started in a fit of coughing.

What's going on? Dust clouds from outside seem to have entered the room. Parts of the ceiling fell with a crash onto the tables above us, leaving more dirt in the air. I looked at Beth; her eyes were wide with fear, making me freak out as well. My heart was in my throat and there were dark shadows on the edges of my vision, threatening to close in.

The lights above us fell, crashing onto the floor and darkening the room. The two birds started squawking again, but I had no time to laugh or find it funny, I was only focused on my breathing. It became harder and harder as the seconds crawled by.

Is it because of all the dirt in the air?

I looked back at Beth and to my horror she was slumped on the ground, unconscious. Her long, wavy hair was pooled around her. The two birds had stopped squawking. I looked over to them only to find out that they were unconscious as well. What the hell was going on? I started coughing violently. I looked around once more, until the dark edges of my vision finally closed me in.

*

*

*

"How many were there?"

"In the school? 1,400 with the school staff included."

"Injured?"

"More than half."

"Deaths?"

"None reported yet."

I groaned as I tried to move around. I felt weak and my body ached like if I just ran a marathon. My lungs felt sore, if that was even possible. Slowly, I opened my eyes, wondering where the voices were coming from.

"Look. This one's waking up."

The bright lights burned my eyes, but I forced them open. Where the hell was I? Where's Beth? Two figures were in front of me, but they were blurry. I had millions of questions, but when I tried to ask them, only a croak came out.

"Go to sleep," one of them said. It was a male's voice. He didn't have to tell me twice; the next thing I knew I was asleep.

*

*

*

I woke up for the second time, not as exhausted as before. I opened my eyes without a problem, only to find an I.V. needle in my arm. Had it been there before? My dark brown hair was a mess and I was wearing a hospital gown and sitting on a cot. Whoever changed me better have been a girl... The room was packed with other patients; their beds in neat rows. Some had oxygen masks on, others had their arms or legs in casts, and others had I.V. like I did.

"You hungry?" a nurse asked.

"Sure." I gobbled down the hospital food while she took the I.V. needle out of my arm.

"Here. Take this," the nurse said as she handed me a pill and a cup of water.

"Do you know what happened?"

"Well, I don't know much, but apparently we were hit by an asteroid and had to go into an underground base."

I nearly choked in my water. "What?"

"I know, it sounds crazy, but it's dusty up there, on the surface. So dusty that patients are having lung problems," she said gesturing to the people with oxygen masks. No way. This lady's out of her mind.

"Do you know where the people that were with me before the earthqu- uhh asteroid thing- are at?"

"No, sorry," she said with a sympathetic smile. "We put you guys in wherever there was room available. They're scattered all over the rooms." I waited until she left to hop out of my bed. She never said I couldn't snoop around. I was a little stiff and sore, but it wasn't anything I couldn't handle. I'd feel more comfortable with actual clothes on, but I guess this will have to do.

****

I entered a few rooms with little luck. I hadn't found Beth or my other two friends. The next room I entered was the same. Everyone was sleeping and those who weren't didn't pay any attention to me.

I felt someone grab my arm. "Hey, chick," she said with a cough.

I managed a smile at our greeting that we always gave each other. "Megan!! Are you okay?" Her light complexion was smudged with dirt and her pin-straight, light brown hair was tangled. She didn't look good, and her eyes drooped with exhaustion.

"I'm fine," she coughed. "They took my oxygen mask off because I was better."

"So have you heard?"

"That we're in a freaking underground base??? YES! This is so crazy! I hear that we'll never be able to go back up again."

"We'll someone's a gossiper," I teased. "Never go back up?"

"Nope. I also heard that they knew an asteroid was coming and they couldn't do anything to stop it, so they started building a secret base. It has limited supplies, and we're running out fast. Dawn, I'm scared, I think we're gonna die..."

I swallowed. "No, Megan, don't worry about it. They have to have some back up plan if they knew this was gonna happen."

"Like what? Live on the moon?"

I gave a weak smile. "Hey, you never know."