Earthquake Shock

by Marlane Kennedy

  “Dylan!” Fiona yelled as she and Joey climbed the hillside as quickly as they could manage. “Kevin! Are you there?”

  When they reached the top, they peered down the other side, frantically scanning the area for any sight of their friends. But all they saw was more rubble and smashed cars. That and the panicked faces of people with broken arms and bleeding cuts, struggling to make sense of what had just happened. The faces were all unfamiliar.

  The two picked their way down the hillside. Fiona cupped her hands around her mouth once more and shouted, “Kevin! Dylan!”

  There was no answer.

  “I don’t think they made it out in time like we did. They couldn’t have. Finding them will be impossible.” Fiona’s voice sounded frail and broken. Her face looked white, as if the reality of the situation had drained the color from her skin. “What are we going to tell their families?”

  Joey felt a growing sense of dread. A bloodied man who’d just been pulled from his car stumbled toward them and Joey shuddered. He wanted to run away from it all. But he couldn’t do it. He couldn’t leave his friends behind.

  “No. They are around here. Somewhere. We just have to find them,” he announced. And even though he didn’t want to, he took a few more steps toward the wreckage, with Fiona trailing close behind.

  It was then that he heard it. “Uhhhhng.” A faint groan slipped out from under several large concrete slabs. Fiona grabbed his arm and pointed. She’d heard it, too. “Someone’s trapped in there.”

  Joey could tell the slabs would be too heavy to lift. But when he looked more closely, he saw an opening where the slabs leaned against each other. He was afraid to peek into the dark opening. Afraid of what he might see. But he knelt down anyway, his knees pressing against sharp shards of rubble, and cocked his head.

  Joey couldn’t believe his eyes. It was Dylan!

  The older boy lay on his stomach, holding his cell phone to his ear. “Uhhhng!” he groaned again. It seemed more a groan of frustration than one of pain. Suddenly, he noticed Joey and a big relieved look took over his face. “Boy, am I glad to see you! My leg is trapped, and I’m kind of freaking out! I was trying to call for help, but I can’t get through anywhere. I think the lines are jammed.”

  Fiona dropped down beside Joey and peered into the opening, too. “Dylan! Thank goodness! Are you okay?”

  He nodded. “I think so,” he said slowly. Then he frowned. “My leg doesn’t hurt. At least not much — I just can’t seem to move it. I’m stuck. You guys gotta do something, man.”

  Joey hadn’t thought he would ever feel happy to see Dylan. But he was. Sure, Dylan pestered and teased, but he was a part of Joey’s life. And had been for a long time.

  All at once, Joey felt strange vibrations under his knees. He heard a scream in the distance. The concrete slabs covering Dylan trembled and threatened to fall in. Dylan lashed out with his hands. “Get me out of here!” he yelled.

  “We’re coming!” Fiona cried. She and Joey reached under the concrete and grabbed Dylan’s arms. They braced themselves and pulled with all their strength, straining and grunting as they worked to yank him free. Dylan did not budge.

  When the ground finally grew quiet, Joey and Fiona released their grasp on Dylan. The aftershock hadn’t lasted long. But Joey knew a stronger one could come along at any moment. They had to get Dylan out now! Joey surveyed the situation. The slabs that trapped his friend were really heavy and propping each other up. So even if he and Fiona could manage to lift one, it would cause the other to come crashing down. If only Joey could see exactly how Dylan was pinned beneath them, maybe he could come up with a plan.

  “Give me your phone,” Joey said.

  “That won’t help. I already told you the lines are jammed,” Dylan grumbled.

  “I need it for the light. I’m going to try to crawl in beside you — headfirst — maybe I can figure out why you’re stuck.”

  “You can’t do that!” Fiona said. “What if there is another aftershock while you’re in there? Those two pieces of concrete must weigh hundreds of pounds at least. If they fell …” She winced at the gruesome thought.

  But that was a risk Joey had to take. He reached in and took Dylan’s phone from him, then lay on the ground and soldier-crawled into the tunnel, digging his elbows into the rough debris as he inched along. It was a tight fit. And as the space narrowed, it became darker. He lit up the cell phone screen and turned it toward Dylan’s leg. Joey ran his hand along Dylan’s leg, but couldn’t figure out what was trapping him under the rubble.

  “His leg looks fine,” Joey called. But as he shined the light toward Dylan’s ankle, he cringed at what he saw and realized he’d spoken too soon. A metal rod stuck through the bottom part of Dylan’s jeans. And his white sock was stained an unmistakable bright red color. Dylan was bleeding.

  Joey wondered if Dylan was in shock. Maybe that was why he didn’t seem to be in pain. He gingerly felt around where the metal rod had pierced Dylan’s jeans, shining the light from the cell phone so he could see. He let out a sigh of relief. The metal rod had pierced the denim, but it had only grazed Dylan’s ankle — he was lucky. “I’ve solved the mystery of why you can’t move,” Joey called out to Dylan. “You’ve got a metal stake that went clean through the bottom of your jeans.”

  “Well, gosh, pull it out!” Dylan yelled.

  “It could be supporting the concrete above in some way.” Joey said. “If I loosen it, everything could fall in. We could both be trapped.” He paused. “Or worse.”

  “Maybe you should wiggle out of your jeans,” Joey heard Fiona suggest.

  “And walk around in my underwear? I don’t think so,” Dylan said.

  “Well, would you rather stay trapped?” Fiona snapped. Joey couldn’t blame her for the exasperation in her voice. They were all feeling stressed, on edge.

  Joey continued to inspect where the rod had impaled the denim. “The rod is too close to his ankle,” he said. “So there’s not enough room for him to get his foot free like that anyway. But if I had something sharp, I could cut him loose. It’s only an inch or two from the bottom of his jeans — just a quick slash and he should be able to crawl out. Jeans and all.”

  “I think I’ve got a pocketknife,” said Dylan. “I just put new grip tape on my skateboard, and I could swear I stashed the knife in my back pocket.”

  It was getting hot and stuffy under the concrete, and Joey was beginning to feel claustrophobic. He inched his way backward until he could reach Dylan’s back pocket, fumbled around until he found the knife, then wiggled himself farther into the cramped space. Going this deep was dangerous, but what else could he do?

  Joey set the phone down and carefully opened the pocketknife in the dark. He felt around until his fingers found the rod, and slipped the blade through the hole it made in Dylan’s jeans. Then he sawed back and forth through the thick material. It went pretty easily until he reached the hem, which was doubled in thickness. Joey worked as quickly as he could. And it was a good thing, too. At the moment the blade finally sliced through the last threads, the earth began to shake.

  “You’re free! Get out!” Joey shouted. He felt Dylan scrambling to slip out of the narrow space beside him. Joey tried his best to scooch backward, but it was slower than crawling in had been. He could feel the shuddering ground against his stomach and heard the scraping of concrete in motion just inches from his head.

  Suddenly, he felt a tug on his ankles. In one whoosh he was dragged into the open air just as the concrete slabs that had covered him only moments earlier gave way. He closed his eyes as tiny bits and pieces of debris hit his face. A second later the earth was still.

  “Who pulled me out?” he asked his friends, their shaky expressions a reflection of how he was feeling as he struggled to his feet.

  “We both did,” Fiona answered. “I took one ankle and Dylan took the other.”

  They all stared at the concrete slabs that now lay flat against the ground. No one knew w
hat to say. Finally, Dylan broke the silence. “My phone?”

  “I forgot to grab it. Sorry,” Joey said, knowing it must be in pieces under the rubble.

  He waited for Dylan to say something snarky or call him a name, but Dylan just shrugged and said, “That’s okay.”

  Joey asked, “What about Kevin? He was with you, wasn’t he?”

  Dylan glanced around behind them. He suddenly looked spooked. “Kevin. Oh, gosh, Kevin. You haven’t seen him?”

  “No,” Fiona said. “We made it to the other side of the highway when the earthquake struck.”

  Dylan shook his head. “It all happened so quickly. Kevin had just finished filming my kickflip, and we were about to follow you guys underneath the overpass. We tried to turn around and run, but this car down the road a bit slammed on its brakes and the one behind it had to swerve onto the sidewalk. It almost hit us. And it blocked our way back toward the skate park. That’s when I fell and everything came down on top of me. I think I heard Kevin calling for me, but I couldn’t find my voice to yell back at him. I guess I was in shock or something.”

  “If you heard Kevin calling for you he must be okay,” Joey said.

  Dylan looked at the ground and shrugged. All of a sudden it seemed like he was trying hard not to cry. “I don’t know. I couldn’t tell whether or not his voice was coming from under the rubble. Maybe he was buried, too.” His voice sounded kind of muffled. “I mean, I guess he could have been walking around trying to find me — that’s what I was hoping anyway. But, you guys, what if he was calling out to me for help? I’m just not sure. By the time I was able to answer him, I didn’t hear him anymore.”

  “So I guess Kevin could be trapped somewhere. Like you were,” Joey said.

  “He’d have to be close.” Fiona put her hands on her hips and squinted, scouring the area for signs of their friend.

  As they began to investigate, they looked under smaller pieces of concrete and peeked into the shadows of any opening they could find in the rubble. “Kevin! Kevin!” they shouted, their voices growing desperate.

  After a good twenty minutes of looking, hope of finding Kevin began to dim. “If he’s buried under here somewhere,” Joey said, “he’ll need more help than we can give him. What we need is a rescue team to come and lift the rubble. Maybe they can find him. Maybe he’s okay.” Joey didn’t sound very sure of himself.

  “You’re right. He could be lying in a pocket deep in there somewhere … just waiting to be rescued,” Fiona said. But she and Dylan seemed discouraged, too. Their shoulders slumped and their brows knitted together with worry.

  “It’s my fault.” Dylan’s eyes began to tear up. “We were right with you guys until Kevin stopped to tape me doing a stupid kickflip. We should have been on the other side with you.” He wiped at the corner of his eye. “I’m to blame.”

  “Come on. You couldn’t have known,” Fiona said gently. She touched his shoulder. “None of us knew.”

  Dylan just shrugged and stood staring at the ground.

  Suddenly, Fiona began to tear up, too, and Joey felt his face grow hot as he tried not to fall apart at the thought of what could have happened to Kevin.

  “So what now?” Dylan took a deep breath and looked up.

  “I guess we should head for home,” Joey said. “We’re the only ones who know where Kevin could be. We can tell his parents so they can get the police to bring a rescue team to help find him.”

  Joey remembered hearing news stories about earthquakes in other countries. Sometimes people were rescued alive and well, even days after the devastation. He wouldn’t give up on his friend yet.

  Joey, Dylan, and Fiona made their way around the collapsed overpass and trudged up the grassy hillside so they could head for home. Once at the top they carefully made their way down to the sunny spot by the road that Joey and Fiona had found minutes after the quake. Cars that had been occupied were eerily empty. They’d been abandoned. Now they were just ghosts on a once busy road.

  Fiona let out a shriek and pointed into the distance. For a moment Joey held his breath. He couldn’t handle any more drama right now. He just couldn’t.

  But it turned out he didn’t have to. Running toward them, with a huge smile on his face, was Kevin!

  Fiona and Joey were stunned. It was a miracle!

  “Dude!” Dylan rushed toward Kevin and threw his arms around their once missing friend, hoisting him up, spinning him around. “You’re okay! You’re really okay!” he shouted. Then he plopped Kevin down and shook him to make sure he was real. “Oh, man! I can’t believe it!”

  Suddenly, Kevin was laughing, and soon Fiona and Joey scrambled over to them, and joined right in.

  “Where have you guys been all this time?” Kevin asked.

  Joey explained what had happened, and Kevin’s eyes grew wide in amazement.

  “Ithoughtyouweregoners,” Kevin said. He spoke super fast, his adrenaline pumping out of control. “Especially you, Dylan! One moment we were running beside each other and the next everything came crashing down. I tried calling out for you. But when you didn’t answer, I figured the worst had happened.” He turned to face Joey. “So I started looking for you and Fiona. I knew you were ahead of us and was hoping to find you on the other side of the hill.” He gestured to the left.

  “We were looking for you and Dylan … but went around the other way,” Fiona said. “Crazy. We must have just missed each other!”

  “Well, I’m glad I finally found you guys,” Kevin said. “I was just about to give up and head for home.”

  “Home! That’s where we need to be. Enough talking. Let’s get going!” Fiona declared.

  The group picked their way over to the sidewalk and started off in the direction of their neighborhood. The path was littered with fallen trees and split by large cracks in the concrete, but it was still the best place to travel on foot.

  “Guys, look what I managed to hang on to!” Kevin held up his camcorder and began recording what was once so familiar and now seemed so strange.

  Joey had walked along this road a million times. It was so ordinary that he never paid much attention to the orderly buildings and well-kept homes. But now he took in every little detail. It was fascinating and disturbing at the same time. A few lucky houses had miraculously remained standing. In the late-afternoon glow of the setting sun, they looked smug, almost defiant. “Take that, you earthquake!” they seemed to say.

  Most, however, were not so lucky. The neighborhood was a total mess.

  As Dylan led them toward home, Joey noticed something else. The back pocket of Dylan’s jeans hung by a thread and a large gaping rip along the pocket seam exposed his boxers. Joey couldn’t believe what he saw:

  Tough Guy Dylan was wearing Star Wars underwear! If it were any other day, Joey would have laughed. Maybe even pointed it out to everyone. After all the teasing he’d endured, Dylan would have deserved it. But joking around seemed out of place today.

  And so they walked in silence.

  Away from the collapsed overpass, traffic was beginning to creep along beside the kids. Occasionally an anxious driver, frantic to get home, would honk his horn impatiently. Joey wondered what the honking would accomplish. Nothing, he thought. He glanced up at the line of cars every few seconds, hoping to see his father’s car. Every time he spotted anything resembling Mr. Flores’s gray sedan, his heart jumped. But it sank just as quickly when he’d realize someone else was behind the wheel.

  As they trudged along, Joey noticed neighbors congregated in front yards, inspecting the damage to their homes. Their faces lined with grim determination, some had even begun to pick up broken glass, scattered bricks, and pieces of siding. Others, overwhelmed by the sight of the destruction, could do nothing but sob.

  BOOM! The sudden sound of an explosion made everyone jump. Joey, Fiona, Dylan, and Kevin exchanged worried looks.

  “What the heck was that?” Dylan scrunched up his face. “I know it wasn’t an aftershock.”


  Moments later the wail of sirens could be heard in the distance. It was a reassuring noise, but Joey knew it would be a long while before everyone who needed help would get it.

  “I smell gas,” Fiona said. “And smoke.”

  A block later they found the source. A house was burning. Fire leapt from the front window as three kids huddled near their father, and a small concerned crowd gathered around them. A yellow Lab paced back and forth, his barks growing louder by the second. Joey heard someone shout, “Is everyone out?”

  “Yes, thank God!” the father yelled. “We were all outside when the explosion hit — even the dog. Must have been a broken gas line.”

  The sound of the fire truck’s siren grew louder. Cars dutifully pulled over, and soon the wailing noise was ringing in Joey’s ears.

  Kevin had been filming the whole time, and he zoomed in as the firefighters sprang into action. Joey felt like he was on the set of a blockbuster action movie. One with stuntmen and special effects and professional cameras. That’s how this should be filmed, he thought. Not just Kevin using his dinky little camcorder. None of it seemed real. He wished a director would leap out of nowhere and yell “Cut!”

  Joey and his friends left the burning house behind, knowing the firefighters would soon have it under control. But they had only gone about a block when a little girl emerged from behind a large green house with a dark wood door. She ran up to them, her eyes huge with fright. She looked like she was about five years old. Her hair was in messy, lopsided pigtails, her cheeks were wet with tears, and her chest heaved in sobs. “Mommy!” she gasped. “Mommy! I can’t find my mommy!”

  Fiona knelt down and held the girl’s tiny hands. In a calm voice she said, “Do you live around here, sweetie?”