Sixteen

First and Last

June smiled as the cameras immortalised her handshake with Link International's Director, Justin Halbert. The moment could never be torn from the history books- the significance never forgotten. In many people's opinion of success, she had made it. The merger between her company and Justin's meant that- directly or indirectly- they would control most of the world's international travel from that moment forward. It was a life's work, and she was just getting started.

As social gatherings go, this one was elaborate. The 5-star hotel venue overlooked one of the largest indigenous forests left in the world and the rest of the city could be seen from the opposite side as a dusting of stars blanketing the black horizon. The actual stars were put to shame by the light of that night's crescent moon. June had planned the event to fall on the night of a full moon for the natural illumination that would flood the forest- transforming it into a dazzling sight- but she and her events' manager had obviously miscalculated. All the same, that thin sliver of a moon lit up the scene enough that a hum of appreciation cushioned every balcony and window. Success was in every detail of the evening. Having just completed her social rounds, she looked in appreciation over the crowd and noticed a couple of young associates throwing jokes and cheeky remarks back and forth over the lips of their wine glasses. The sight was endearing, and one of them had just mustered up the courage to fold a displaced strand of hair back behind the other's ear when the ground beneath the hall gave a low rumble that lasted for about five seconds. Somebody gasped and a glass was dropped- the crash coinciding with the cease of the tremor.

June was gripping a standing table to stop herself from falling. She looked around at everyone. Nobody seemed hurt, but she motioned to a waiter and asked him to get a medical team to search the place in case one of her guests had been injured somewhere in the hotel. He nodded and hurried off. The lights around them went dim and blinked out for half a second before returning to normal. Nobody around her seemed disturbed by the flicker after the tremor. Most people had found seats- presumably for stability- before returning to their conversations. June took a deep breath, then went to the bar for a bottle of water before beginning her social circuit once more.

"And that's when my boss walked in!" Laughter erupted from a balding man flanked by some of his chuckling work colleagues. He was dressed formally- as were they all- though his demeaner was casual. He seemed to have very few cares as he tipped the amber contents of his tumbler into his mouth and announced, "It was a day neither of us will soon forget, I can tell you that..." the rest of his words were drowned by more laughter and the image of the group briefly flashed into a fuzzy screen of white noise then stabilised once more.
"What was that?" Asked the young security officer's boss.
"I dunno. Maybe an after-effect of that rumble from before." The youth replied, "don't seem serious."
"Maybe," the head of hotel security sounded suspicious as his eyes scrutinized the [CCTV] screens that guarded the far wall of their surveillance room. "I'm gonna do a walk around just to be sure, and- hey!"
"What?" The security officer looked up at him from his crossword book.
"Stay alert until I get back. I want to know about any more glitches."
The young man sighed as he closed the book and tucked his pen into his breast pocket, "sure thing, Boss."
His boss nodded and left. A moment later, he could be seen by [CCTV] moving down the corridor towards the function hall.

June was just greeting her new business partner's wife when the building all around them began to shake. This time was much more severe, and a few screams were heard near the bar. She turned to look and saw that someone was being crushed by a large liquor cabinet. June ran towards the victim, shouting, "somebody get help!" as she moved. Before she got close enough to do anything, others had jumped to action and freed the woman from the crushing weight. A medic was rushing onto the scene as well. By the time June reached the bar, there was nothing more for her to do- save put a reassuring hand on the woman's arm and look around for others that were hurt. She noticed that there were two other medics attending hurt guests, but none had injuries as severe as what the cabinet had caused. Her shoulders eased slightly, then she noticed a man walk in holding a walkie-talkie and wearing a gun on his hip. She went to him.
"Ma'am" he nodded, as she approached.
June held out her hand, "Call me June."
He shook her hand and nodded, "Everyone alright?"
"For now, but if these tremors continue, I'm not so sure. I think you should-"
She was cut off by a sudden snap of darkness.