I Feel the Earth Move under my Feet
A/N: for the fun of it, certainly not for profit…
Chapter 1 - Shock
The first anyone knew was by the sound of it. It sounded like a great rumbling. Then the shock wave of the earthquake struck. Perry and Della had been working late – again. Simultaneously, they knew they were in deep trouble. As the building swayed left then right, Perry reached out to and grabbed Della. He pushed her under his desk, then he tucked himself as close to her as he could get. His stretched out his arms to protect her as best he could.
Wall hangings came rattling loose and down with a crash. Perry's lit cigarette rolled out of the ashtray onto the carpet. Furniture danced about the room. Ceiling tiles came raining down followed by insulation bats. In the space of 90 seconds, the world was wrecked all around them. The sprinkler system in the corridor outside the office began to flood the hall and then his office. The lit cigarette was quickly extinguished by soggy carpet. Alarms began concussing the airways with their dire warnings.
Just as soon as things stopped vibrating and thrashing about, Perry drew Della out from under the desk. He held her close to his chest and buried his face in her dust-covered hair. For her part, she hid herself in the warmth of his embrace.
At long last, he lifted her chin and looked deeply in her eyes, "Della?"
She nodded weakly, "I'm okay, Perry. You?"
"Will be," he began. "Let's get out of here after we find Paul."
After retrieving a flashlight, they eased the door open and found that things were little better there than in his office. He turned back toward what had been his office.
"The files are all locked up?"
Della nodded, "Sure, but I don't know if they could survive that."
Perry took her hand in his and guided her down the corridor toward Paul Drake's offices. More insulation and ceiling came crashing down behind them. Water continued to pour out of sprinkler heads, swirled down the corridor, and oozed into offices along the way but at least the alarms had stopped clanging after a few minutes.
"Perry, this is really dangerous. We'd better hurry before the whole building comes down around us tonight!"
Mason pulled at the debris in the corridor as they drew closer to Paul's offices.
"Paul! Paul!" he called out. "Anybody in there?"
Together they tugged the debris away from the main door enough for Della to squeeze through.
"Perry…can't see a thing in here. It's dark as pitch," she relayed to him.
He threaded his hand to her, "Here, take the torch."
Things were still sifting through from ceiling to floor. Della moved cautiously over and through furniture and filing cabinets that had been violently moved from their normal places. The flashlight added its own ghastly apparitions to the whole mix as it passed over the room.
"Paul? Paul? Perry and I were still in the building. Are you still here?" Della called.
She scanned each room until she found a leg sticking out from under a pile of cabinets.
"Perry! I found somebody!" she screamed.
Mason tore at the debris blocking his access. He fought his way through, pushing his large frame through a space meant for someone much smaller than he.
"I'm in, Della. Where are you?" he called to her.
"Over here, Perry," Della had already begun to move things off the body.
Mason dove into the heap and pulled things around until the person was uncovered enough to be checked for life. Mason reached a hand toward the throat. Della was feeling for a pulse at the wrist. All was silent as they bowed their heads.
"Can you tell who it was, Perry?"
"I think it was Hatcher, but I can't be certain," he responded.
The building trembled.
"Della!" shouted Mason.
"Right here."
"Let's get out of here while we still can," Perry commanded. "That did not feel like an aftershock. That felt like the building getting ready to give way."
They extracted themselves from the office and headed for the stairwell. It was blocked two floors down by immense shards of concrete.
"Come on, Della, back up we go. Do you have any sensible shoes by your desk?"
"Sure, Perry. I keep a pair for when the days get longer than long," she replied casually.
"Then we'll get them. The ones you're wearing look great but won't get us far through the tangle of what's left of this building," he commented with a grin.
They wound their way back to his offices. Della swapped shoes just in time for a minor aftershock. More ceiling debris collapsed on top of them. It was morning before Mason came back around. Light sifted in from all points around them. He could no longer hear the sounds of rushing water and guessed that the fire department had shut the water off to the building or the city services were completely knocked out. However, he was still soaked to the skin and cold.
Mason shook his head, which only served to remind him not to do that again. The wave of nausea was nearly irresistible. When the wave passed, he began to hunt for Della. Her hand extended under a pile of rubble. Fear rose in his throat as he searched for a pulse. An instant seemed to be an eternity, until blessed relief, he found her still alive. He wiped his smudged face on his sleeve.
"Thank You, God in Heaven!" he whispered as he tore into the rubble to extricate her.
Mason soon discovered that a massive support column separated them. It had fallen and pinned her legs and lower body. The building held her fast. Insane with rage, he continued to rip away at the other rubble until all that remained was the one column. He scooted under it and wiped away the dirt from her face. Gently, he bent low and kissed her softly.
"Della, I'm here. I won't leave you, no matter what," he spoke in hushed tones to the unconscious form.
Hours passed as Mason sat amid the wreckage next to Della. He had removed his jacket and covered her carefully with it. He had even retrieved his outer coat from what was left of his office and encased her in as much warmth as he could devise. Occasionally, he would heard the building creak and moan. Mercifully there had been no more aftershocks that he had felt. He ran his fingers through her hair and stroked her face tenderly. Every so often, he double checked her pulse. His head wobbled as he dozed from his own concussion. The scratching noises from his now wrecked office brought him back to life.
"Hey!" he shouted. "We're in here!"
It took firemen three hours to extricate Della from the column and debris field. It took almost that long to remove Mason from the scene to the ground level. Paul greeted him at the foot of the building.
"Perry," Drake approached his friend. "I've been frantic with worry when I could not find you or Della last night!"
Mason looked stricken, "Della's still trapped up there. A support beam fell across her in the aftershock. We stayed late, heading for dinner when it hit. Like an idiot, I thought a sensible pair of shoes…we went back…Hatcher is dead…all my fault…"
"Perry, you're not making a whole lot of sense," Paul cautioned him. "Come over here and sit down."
Drake handed Mason a canteen of water, "Here, drink this."
Mason squeezed his eyes tightly then poured some water into his hand and wiped off his face then drank quickly and deeply.
"Hey, not so fast, you'll…"
Almost immediately Mason vomited the water back up. When his retching calmed down, he rinsed out his mouth and sipped slowly this time.
"Sorry, Paul," he murmured.
"It's all right. Now, try and remember your medic training from the war and go slow," Paul cautioned to which Mason nodded. "How about I take you to the hospital and get you checked out?"
"I'm not leaving without Della," Mason said flatly as he looked toward his office balcony. "Until then, tell me how bad the city was hit."
"Bad enough. They've found a dozen or so dead but scores are unaccounted for. I had to pull all kinds of strings to get them down here and looking for you two," Paul reported in his usual tone of voice. "There are roads out… Multiple downtown buildings sustained some kind of damage. Some of the newer ones won't survive. A lot of folks are living in their backyards between fear and destruction."
Mason smiled at him, "Glad you did, Paul." He went on, "Della and I were within minutes of leaving for dinner when the quake hit. We got under the desk. When it was over, we went looking for you, thinking you might still be in the building, too – found Hatcher instead. He'd been crushed under the collapsed ceiling and who knows what else. Then we made for the stairs and were blocked. That's when we went back and the whole world fell in on top of us. It's my fault – I suggested she needed better shoes to hike through the mess."
The two men sat on a concrete railing waiting. An hour or so later, a Stokes litter was brought down the ladder with Della bundled inside. Mason insisted in riding with her to the hospital in the same ambulance. Paul trailed along in his car.