Jenna was long gone.
*
In the chopper, Jackie suddenly lost her temper, "Damn it Seely, you can't die now!" She intertwined her fingers and cupped her hands over her eyes. "Think, Jackie, think." For several long moments, she peeked through her fingers at the heart monitor, comparing the latest readings to the previous ones. Finally, she dropped her hands and took a forgotten breath. "Good girl, you've slowed your heart rate. Hang on, Seely. Just hang on."
A good thirty miles from the epicenter, Michael couldn’t believe the destruction around him. The chopper pad had huge cracks, trees were slanted at odd angles and the leveling jacks on the back of the command center lay in the dirt, allowing the trailer to tilt.
Even so, he gathered his courage, yanked open the door and got back to work. A few minutes later, he placed a call to Jackie, "I've got the equipment back up."
"Good, what can you tell me about Seely's daughter?"
"Michelle's house is totaled, but they're alive and out in the front yard. She's got a nasty cut on her arm, probably from flying glass and her husband is limping. The girls look scared, but uninjured. Both cars got buried in the garage.” Michael paused to catch his breath, “Good thing we put that hidden camera in the sprinkler head last week. You coming to get me?"
"No. If the equipment is working, you'll be more help to us there. ...Uh oh."
"What?"
"The Bay is churning again. Get out, Michael! Run!"
*
The new snag held only six minutes and twenty-three seconds before the intense pressure crushed its outer perimeters and sent hairline fractures coursing through its mass. When it disintegrated, it created another resounding explosion. The opposing walls of the fault once more moved in their predetermined directions, sending forth a new round of appalling, ring-shaped shock waves across the surface of Washington State.
From the bowels of the earth, the boom of breaking rocks again surged upward. Instantly, the windowless steel and concrete Winningham Blue skyscraper dropped another two feet while slipping three more feet toward the water. And again, already loosened land dropped into the bay. Just as before, the top floors of all the buildings snapped back, and then pitched, twisted, swayed, bulged, and loudly protested. Yet their anguished cries remained obscured by the gigantic rumble of the moving earth.
The terror caused Seely to lose her breath. Instinctively, she clutched her chest and gasped for air, again finding herself powerless to prevent her body from sliding back and forth with the cruel sway of the top floors. The building's possessions took on new life, sliding, bouncing, falling and crashing.
*
The colossal aftershock hit a short two minutes after Max and Collin finally shoved the heavy transmitter aside and crawled out from under the control room console. Collin made it across the studio and yanked on the doorknob just half a second before the earth jolted again. Nearly the strength of the first quake, the new impact quickly caused him to lose his balance.
Behind him, Max grabbed Collin's shoulders, and then he shoved until Collin was in the doorway. A second later, Collin had a hold of Max's shirt. Both men paused just long enough for the building to thrust upward again, and then Collin yanked Max into the doorway beside him. The thin door jamb offered little protection. More glass shattered, equipment bounced, nails popped out of walls, objects crashed and Collin's futile groans were drowned out by the clamor in the earth. Above them, more chunks of plaster peeled away and dropped to the floor, and then insulation fell, leaving bare rafters. In the walls, added steel I-beams suddenly became exposed.
Intermittently, Max shifted his gaze from the studio ceiling to the smaller one over the stair landing. The smaller one had yet to lose all its plaster and seemed to be holding better. Still, Max kept an eye on both. High above the studio rafters, a crack appeared at the top seam of the "V" shaped roof. With each new wave, the crack widened -- inch-by-inch – until rays of hot July sunshine streamed down from above. Still, the earth continued to move. The gap in the roof steadily grew wider, causing shingles and boards on the northern side to slip further and further down. One whole half of the roof slid completely away, exposing KMPR's attic to sunshine and clear blue sky. Max listened, but the noise of the quake completely obliterated the crash.
Next, he turned his eyes toward the southern half of the roof.
*
This time, Sam heard the explosion and hurled himself to the ground. His narrow strip of land surged still farther upward, and then once more followed the rapid roll of the earth. Face down with his arms spread wide, the constant movement offered different abstract views of the golf course. He watched in disbelief as the clubhouse collapsed, forcing a cloud of dirt high into the air. Large chunks of green grass began splitting into smaller ones and trees renewed their unnatural tilt forward and back. A woman several feet away fell and didn't get up again.
A three-foot strip of earth crumbled and slid away from Sam's island. Suddenly, his right hand was dangling in midair. Sam's heart skipped a beat and his mouth dropped open, "I repent, Lord!"
It was headed straight for Sam's dangling hand. Already belching dirt and water, the threatening fissure quickly shot through the empty pond and started across the sunken, gyrating patchwork of grass.
*
In the Winningham Blue Building, only ten seconds had passed since the earthquake roared back to life. Sucking in great gulps of air and tumbling with each sway of the top floors, Seely too cried out, her words mute in the horrendous noise of exploding earth, screaming metal and breaking concrete. "Please, make it stop."
On Third Avenue forty-three floors below, the reinforced cement ceiling of the buckled and ruptured bus tunnel quickly gave way. Whole sections plunged downward, taking with it electric and telephone cables, water and gas pipes, dirt, pavement, cars -- and people. As well, the ground hastily eroded beneath buildings on both sides of the sudden ravine.
Across from the Winningham Blue, the thirty-five-story Mainland Tower shifted off its imbedded foundation and tilted toward the sunken street. Caught in its own gigantic swaying motion, the twenty-forth and twenty-fifth floors bulged, straining to hold the structure upright. Suddenly, steel girders snapped at the seams where the twenty-fifth floor joined the twenty-forth. The strained and agitated top ten floors of the Mainland Tower plunged toward the Winningham Blue.
*
Wedged in the doorway beside Max, Collin held fast to the top ledge and bent his knees in an effort to absorb the repeated bouncing. In the studio, plaster, glass, fallen pictures, dirt, and equipment rapidly hopped across the floor. The overhead fan dangled by a single wire and again swung violently.
Then he saw it. Through the open space where the window once was, he watched the six-story apartment building across the street begin to crumble. Bricks broke free of mortar and hurled to the ground, and then the entire face of the building slid away, briefly exposing inside carnage and terrified people huddled in corners. Suddenly, the rest of the building dissipated and crashed to the ground, its noise absorbed by the rumbling earth and all the other ongoing carnage. Behind it, a smaller apartment building buckled and shook, but then the dust storm from the first building rose to obstruct his view.
Horrified, Collin's heart sank and his mouth dropped open. He watched until the folding, dust filled cloud lifted higher, and then at length, he dropped his eyes. The floor beneath his feet rolled, the walls twisted and the taste of dirt filled his mouth. Even so, he let out a wounded, disturbing whimper, "...Beth."
*
Seely was disoriented. The earth still convulsed, the thunderous noise still roared, the building still shook, and steel girders still squealed, but the top floors of the Winningham Blue oddly stopped swaying and now her body bounced instead of sliding. Perplexed, she put aside her pain and deeply wrinkled her brow. She lowered her eyes and concentrated until she was convinced that the violence was decidedly less. Yet, lying on the bathroom floor, high above the fallen Mainland Tower building that was now embedded against the Winningham Blue, the cause for the change escaped her.
*
Just in time, Sam Taylor jumped off his golf course island and slid down the side of the newly formed embankment. Less than a foot away, the fissure ripped through the earth, widening as it went. Instinctively, he rolled in the opposite direction, righted himself, and then scrambled toward the trees. His attempt to run on land that moved beneath his feet made his legs look and feel disjointed. Odd patches of green turned in different directions. Beside him, another island jutted five feet higher than his sunken valley. He clawed at the dirt, shoved one foot into the hole, grabbed a hold of the grass, and hoisted himself up.
Sam wasn't watching when the belching fissure ripped through his deserted island and swallowed his red golf bag. Instead, he sprinted as best he could toward the trees, his heels often sinking into newly displaced earth. As soon as he reached the forest, he lunged for the lower branch of a pine, and then scurried up. When he was high enough, he wrapped his arms around the swaying trunk and held on for dear life.
Finally, the earth slowed, the ground movement stopped and the bending tree came to a rest. A small white dot sailed past his face, hit a branch and dropped to the ground. Sam narrowed his eyes and leaned forward. There, four feet below him, a golf ball rolled to a stop.
*
At last, the vibrations in the Winningham Blue building diminished. Somewhere, glass still tinkled, dust still rose and plaster still fell, but Seely only heard the thud of her own heart beating against her ribs. Crumpled on her side, she was afraid to move. Blood stained her dark hair, her face was the color of ash and her body quivered with fright. For nearly two minutes, she lay in the same cramped position, struggling to quiet her breathing and steady her violated nerves. It was then that she noticed the near total silence – no traffic, no buzz of electrical equipment, no clatter of computer key boards, no whining elevators, no planes, no traffic, no generators and no wind. Only the 'shhhh' of that illusive train and the tedious, bit by bit settling of the now fragile and frail structure, which was the only thing that was keeping her from falling nearly 600 feet to the ground. At length, a new involuntary tear rolled from the corner of her eye and dropped to the floor.
*
Jackie made sure Michael was still okay, and then ordered the air crane moved. Carl quickly banked and soared to a new position just south of downtown -- and the three dimensional diagram of the Winningham Blue changed with it. But the heart monitor was flat-lined and the mock image of the woman was gone. Deep in thought, Jackie checked and rechecked the equipment, typing in new commands and over-riding old ones. Still, the mock woman did not appear.
Slowly, she turned in her swivel chair and looked out the window. The ghostly, windowless building seemed to stare back at her. Pieces of gold trim hung from the windowsills and large chunks of fake blue marble were missing. Beyond it, a new wall of water was pulling away from the shore, leaving live fish flopping on the exposed seabed.
Just then, Michael's voice came through her earpiece, "Hang on, I'm going to reboot." She watched as all the screens went blank, and then held her breath as one by one, color, images and graphs came back up. The heart monitor remained flat-lined, but at last the mock woman was there – deep within the walls of the building.
*
Seely tried to concentrate on saving her own life, but her thoughts were of her family, "My babies…please help my babies." Her eyes filled with more tears and she just let them flow. The vibration caused by the tsunami increased again and she thought she could hear roaring water crash against the lower floors of the building. Alone and afraid, she waited until all was once more quiet, and then cautiously tried to turn her upper torso.
Her bruised and cut body cried out in pain, yet nothing hurt as much as the cramp in her chest. She stopped moving and waited for it to let up. A minute passed, and then another. When it subsided some, she tried again, turning on her back, and then putting her hands on the floor. Straining, she inched herself up until her back was against the foyer wall and her necklace fell back in place. Seely clutched her left bicep and held on tight. Above, a small piece of paper seesawed through the air and landed in her lap, but she didn’t notice. Seely slowly lifted her shocked and hurting eyes toward heaven, "I am old, let me die." Then faintly, she heard movement in the hallway.
As abruptly as she had left, Jenna tromped across the fallen door and poked her head back into the foyer. A new set of tears stained her cheeks, a ghastly bruise covered the left half of her forehead and she was furious. "The elevators are broken!"
Seely opened her arms and allowed her dear friend into her embrace. But as she began stroking Jenna's hair, the crushing pain intensified. Gasping for air, the sound of her own voice seemed weak and somehow foreign, "Jenna,...help me. Heart…attack."
The younger woman quickly let go and sat up," What? What can I do?"
"Find…my purse."
In a whirl of urgent movement, Jenna shoved rubbish aside and tossed tiles away. Finally, she spotted the thin purse strap. She grabbed it and pulled until the purse came free. She knelt down, unzipped it and dumped the contents on the floor. Finding the small bottle at last, she unscrewed the lid and poured six small tablets into her hand. "How many?"