Authors: Fredric Shernoff
"It's an earthquake, right?" Kylee asked. She was surveying the scene with an impressive calm but her eyes conveyed concern.
"I don't know; I've never been in one before. It seems like there's a lot more happening."
"Yeah, I noticed." She pointed down the boardwalk to where the casinos and the Pier Mall flickered and sputtered in the distance. "Whatever's happening is going to blow the power out soon." As if she had magically decreed it, the lights went out one by one.
"Great. What we needed was some darkness. At least we've got the weird lights in the sky."
Theo stood up and offered Kylee his hand. "We need to get off the boards. We have to find the others."
"Yeah, you're right. Let's go."
Holding on to each other, Theo and Kylee left the boardwalk and wandered down the side street to Atlantic Avenue. The main street was a disaster. Cars were abandoned in the middle of the road, though some had rammed into buildings and poles along the sides of the street. Fire hydrants spouted water into the air. "Oh my God," Kylee said. "Look at the people."
There were people lying unconscious or worse in the street and on the sidewalks. Others, clearly alive, clung to the ground in fear. Still others wandered aimlessly, stumbling against the roll of the earth. A middle aged Hispanic man, his eyes wide saucers of panic, approached them. He muttered, "No, no, no…" over and over. He was bleeding from a cut on his shoulder and his tanktop was stained red. As he passed Theo and Kylee, he tripped and fell. The man scrambled to his feet and ran on, continuing his refrain. "No, no, no…"
Theo put his arm around Kylee. He still hadn't quite processed everything that had happened, certainly not the part where he was almost killed and had been saved by this amazing girl he had just met hours earlier.
"So what do you think? Is this Hell?" the voice behind them was shaken but still definitely Bill. Theo turned around and was relieved to see that his friend appeared to be unharmed.
"I don't know," said Theo. "It's something bad, that's for sure." Just then something occurred to him. "I left my cell phone in the car! Maybe we can call somebody and find out what's going on."
"Oh crap," said Kylee, "I left mine on the beach. It's underwater by now."
"Wouldn't help anyway," said Bill, holding up his phone. "There is absolutely no service. Not even one bar. Even the GPS signal is all wonky. Last time I tried it said I'm in the middle of Springville, Utah."
"I'd take Utah right about now," said Theo.
"Well, ok, so what other option do we have?" asked Kylee. She gestured to the wreckage all over the street. "We can't drive anywhere while the ground is shaking. Besides, there are too many people all over the place."
Bill hunched down as another small, concussive blast sounded "Ryan had this idea that he could get a signal from on the roof. He tried the motel and got nothing. He and Michelle are trying the building next door. It's much higher."
Theo nodded. Leave it to Ryan to come up with some tech idea that might actually work. "And Mark and Jamie?"
"Won't leave the motel. Mark thinks the world is coming to an end. It's that crap we saw on television earlier."
Theo shrugged. "Look around you man, can you honestly say he's wrong?"
The rumbling intensified again. "Get down guys," Bill said, "I think another shockwave is coming."
The three of them hit the ground and covered their ears. Theo closed his eyes but could still see the light of the biggest flash yet blooming in the darkness of his eyelids. A second later the boom arrived. Even with his hands over his ears, he could feel his poor, battered eardrums take a hit. Suddenly the ground kicked up. Theo felt himself tossed into the air at least a foot and tried hard to roll when he landed. He bumped his shoulder a little but was otherwise fine.
Theo sat up and saw Bill and Kylee looking horrified in the direction of the motel. The old building had shaken loose from its foundation in the sand and now the slow, continuous shaking of the earth was releasing clouds of dust and chunks of concrete. The building swayed methodically.
Bill got to his feet and Theo and Kylee followed. Bill ran toward the motel. "We have to get them out of there!" He made it ten feet when a massive wave slammed over the boardwalk and struck the buildings along the shoreline. The Sea Sons motel groaned and finally gave in to the elements. Theo felt time slow to a crawl. He saw the motel lean away from the wave and fall, imploding in a cloud of mud and dust.
Kylee screamed and Bill dropped to his knees. Theo grabbed the back of Bill's shirt and, with strength he didn't know he possessed, lifted his friend to his feet and dragged him away from the collapsed building. Bill snapped to his senses and the three of them ran across Atlantic Avenue to the far side. The wave flooded the street and then sucked backwards toward the ocean. Though some dust rose high into the turbulent sky, most of the debris was stopped by the building behind where the motel had stood, or fell into the retreating wave.
Similar dust clouds in the distance told of other collapses and a vast destruction that they had only begun to experience. Theo kept his arms around Kylee as she wept. Bill only stared toward the former motel with a blank expression.
Just then, the ground stopped trembling. Theo looked around and saw other people shaking themselves off and taking cautious steps. The grinding motor sound lessened until it appeared that it too had ceased. Though sirens and car alarms still rang out far away, the overall lack of sound was a shock to his ears. Theo stepped in front of Bill and Kylee. He had to speak; had to do something to break the silence.
"Guys, I don't know what happened here. I'm not sure anybody knows. I don't know if this is over or just the beginning. We don't know for sure what happened to Mark and Jamie. We don't, Bill! But what I do know is that we need to find some place to hide for the night. Some place safe. Bill, you said Ryan and Michelle are at the building down the street. We know that damned wave hit it too, but maybe it's ok. I think… I think we should go there now."
Theo paused and watched astonished as Kylee and Bill got up and started to walk in the direction of the tall condominium. His experience being a leader was somewhat nonexistent. He had felt compelled to say something but truly hadn't expected the others to jump to follow his suggestion.
The condo building was much larger than the Sea Sons motel had been before its collapse. It had, as Theo suspected, also fared much better. Theo figured Ryan and Michelle had entered through the parking garage but the entrance was partially blocked by a large, yellow bar with "14' maximum height" printed in large black type. The bar had fallen off one of its two chains and landed on a car that was stopped in the entrance. The water reached to the top of the car's tires, but the vehicle appeared to be empty.
"Should we move that bar out of the way?" Bill asked as he walked to the entrance.
"No," Theo said, surprising himself again with his quick and decisive reply. "It's too dark in there and we don't know what we'd be stumbling into. We need to find another way to get to the stairs."
"Well this won't work," said Bill as he pulled on the lobby door. Locked.
"I have an idea," Kylee said, "if one of you gentlemen would give me a hand." She ran toward the boardwalk side of the building, slowing as the pooled water from the monster wave got deeper.
Bill and Theo followed. Kylee reached the end of the building where some fortunate condo owners had balconies that looked out over the beach. Not so fortunate anymore, Theo thought.
"Ok, someone needs to help me up here." Kylee pointed to the second floor balcony. Bill splashed over to her and positioned himself to launch Kylee upwards. She jumped off his hands and grabbed the ledge of the balcony. With impressive strength she pulled herself to a crouching position. The balcony door was shattered, as were most windows and doors they could see. Kylee disappeared into the darkness of the condo. Theo had enough time to start to think this was a very bad idea. They had no clue who or what was in that apartment.
There was a click of a bolt rotating and Theo turned to see Kylee emerge from the lobby door. "I know," she said, "I'm awesome." Theo smiled. He had to agree.
Emergency lights had powered on in the stairwell, but several had failed either from the damage to the building, the moisture from the wave or just lack of maintenance. Either way, there was just enough light to make sure they didn't fall on the slippery concrete.
The stairwell seemed endless. Theo lost track of the number of floors as they climbed. Glancing at the building from the outside he had guessed there were maybe twenty but as exhausted as he was it seemed like more.
Finally, they arrived at the door to the roof. Theo had a moment to consider what they would do if the exit was locked, or maybe sealed by damage, but then Bill pushed on it and it clicked open.
The roof was shockingly free of debris. The wave had only reached the first few floors of the building, and the earthquake seemed to have had little effect. Theo tried to spot Ryan and Michelle but could see very little. The stars had been subdued by the debris and smoke in the air.
"Oh man I thought you guys were dead!" Ryan's voice called from the shadows.
"Ryan!" Bill shouted. "Where the hell are you?"
"Behind you." Ryan stepped out from the blackness. Michelle was hiding behind him. Bill made his way over to them. Theo observed that whatever spark had existed between his friend and Michelle earlier tonight had been extinguished by the trauma of what had transpired. He glanced at Kylee and wondered for the first time where they would go from here. Where would any of them go?
Ryan eyed them with dawning realization. "Where's Mark?"
"He and Jamie were in the Sea Sons when it…" Bill's voice trailed off as he turned away from the group.
"Oh no." Ryan's face fell.
Theo stepped forward and took Ryan by the shoulders. "We don't know anything yet. We aren't even a hundred percent sure they were still in there and if they were there's a chance they could be okay. We had to get away from the tidal wave and we haven't been able to go after them."
Kylee put her arm around Michelle. Bill was sitting on the roof a few feet away. He was lost in his thoughts.
Theo released Ryan once he had determined his friend was processing everything in a reasonable way. "Bill said you came up here to look for a cell signal. Any luck?"
"Not even close. I figure either something is blocking the signal within some radius that we can't determine yet or something took out the nearby towers."
"You think?" Kylee said, a little smirk crossing her face, "Maybe it was, I don't know, the earthquake?"
Ryan didn't seem to see the humor. "The earthquake may have been the particular culprit, but I think it, and the tidal wave, are symptoms of something bigger at work here."
"Okay," said Kylee, sitting down in a cross-legged position, "what do we do?"
Theo saw her deep eyes looking at him hopefully. "There's not much we can do now but wait for the morning. Ryan, how many people are in this building? Any idea?"
"I'm sure there are a few refugees hanging around, but by and large most of the people are gone. We saw them streaming out when all the craziness started. And besides, the ones on the first few floors, well…" He didn't have to continue.
"Fair enough," said Theo. He walked over to Bill and extended his hand. "I think the higher we are, the safer, for now at least. Let's go down to the top floor and see if we can find a vacancy."
The group of weary teens made their way down to the highest hallway. Ryan used his iPhone's LED light to illuminate a few feet in front of them. They all tried various doors and found them locked. Theo was about to suggest that they break in when the edge of the small light found a door that stood partially ajar.
They cautiously entered the apartment. Moving in a tight pack, they explored each room. Pictures had fallen off the wall and shattered on the marble in the living room. Dishes were scattered and broken all over the kitchen. Mostly, though, the place was in good order considering the unusual disaster that had befallen it.
Theo suggested that the residents of this penthouse suite had bolted and forgot to close the door. It seemed a plausible enough explanation. Ryan claimed a guest room down a marble hallway. He left his phone light on in the center of the living room. To Theo's surprise, Michelle slowly followed Ryan. He turned and saw Bill also watching as Michelle departed. Bill sat dejected on the living room couch and pulled his feet up.
Theo felt terrible for Bill. The night's events had hit him hard. But then, whatever this was had impacted all of them. It occurred to Theo that he had no way to get in touch with his family. They couldn't know that he was alive and unhurt and he knew nothing about their safety. Had this thing hit Philadelphia? That thought led itself to another question, one that followed him as he entered the master bedroom with Kylee and curled up in the king size bed with her in his arms.
As Kylee dozed off, Theo stared at the seemingly endless darkness above him. Finally sleep came to him, and as he drifted away that one thought kept floating through his mind.
If we are in the midst of a huge disaster, where is the media to cover it? Where are the National Guard helicopters? Where is everybody?
Waking once in the middle of the night, Theo had considered the possibility that somehow dawn was never going to arrive. Maybe the sun itself had gone out along with the bright lights of the boardwalk. When he woke the next time though, sunlight was trickling through the blinds on the bedroom windows.