Chapter Thirteen: In the Wake

*It took people a few moments to realize what was going on. When they finally snapped out of their fear a mad clamber began.

"Earthquake!" Someone screamed. Students leapt up from their seats and began to run for the door screaming and yelling all the while in the dark. Serena could hear Molly scream beside her.

"Molly!" Serena cried out, tugging on the girl's uniform. "Come on! Stop screaming and get down!" The two girls fell to the floor and scrambled beneath their desks. But the ground continued to shake. The room was nearly empty by now, but through the falling dust and semi-dark room, Serena could make out a figure coming towards them.

"Come on girls! This isn't just a small earthquake; and there's no telling how strong the foundation of this old building is! Let's go, you need to get out of here now!" Quatre yelled over the booming noises that surrounded them.

"Alright!" Serena answered. But Molly sat, still shaking. "Molly, we have to go! Molly? Molly, snap out of it!" Serena shook her friend, but no response.

"She might have gone into shock!" Quatre yelled.

"What do we do? Trowa hasn't covered shock victims in class yet!" Serena tried to remain calm, but her frustration was getting the better of her temper.

"We can't do anything for her! Come on, let's get out of here Serena!" Quatre's heart ached saying that.

"What about Molly?" Serena cried out angrily.

"We'll come back!" Quatre wanted to shoot himself for that sentence. He hated to leave his teammates, his friends, in dangerous situations, but he didn't have a choice this time. If they didn't leave Molly, he and Serena risked getting themselves injured as well. He had the responsibility to at least get the healthy out, and then come back to save the hurt.

"You just said you didn't know how stable the foundation was Quatre! The building could collapse and you want to leave her? No way, not happening while I'm here!"

"We don't have a choice Serena! I can't carry her down all those stairs in this mess with the shaking, and if she's already in shock…"

"It might get worse if we leave her!"

"Maybe. But time is running out! This earthquake is huge!"

"No kidding." Serena grunted as she staggered to pull her catatonic friend out from beneath the desks. "Fine then. You go Quatre! Just go! Molly and I will be fine!"

"I'm not leaving you behind!"

"You were going to leave Molly!" Quatre sighed. This girl was too stubborn for her own good, but she did have a point. As much as he hated it, he realized she was right- he couldn't leave either of them behind. His conscience would kill him if he couldn't save both of these innocent lives.

"Fine! Hand her to me! Then you have to promise to run out of here!"

"Ok!" Serena stood and tried to hand Molly's shivering form to Quatre; who bent down and lifted the girl over his shoulder, grunting hard all the while.

"Let's go!" He yelled. Serena nodded and followed. As they ran out the door, Serena tried to clear a path for Quatre. The halls were littered with debris. Cabinets containing displays had tipped over; glass shattered all over the floor. Lighting fixtures had been shaken loose and fallen to the ground, and electrical wires scattered across the floor, mingling with the glass and lighting. Even small portions of the floor above had collapsed down into the halls as they ran. And suddenly the shaking stopped. As the rumbling subsided, Quatre and Serena paused their running and tried to desperately catch their breaths. All around them was silence.

"Has it ended then?" Serena whispered.

"Yes." Quatre managed to look at his watch. "It lasted for nearly five and a half minutes. That has to be the longest quake ever."

"And the most jolting ever." Suddenly Molly broke their silence. She moaned and shivered. But her eyelids fluttered and her eyes seemed to focus.

"Quatre? Serena?"

"Molly? How do you feel?" Serena asked, concerned for her friend.

"Horrible. What happened?"

"You went into hyperbaric shock." Quatre answered. When he received questioning looks, he explained. "You had so much pressure on you in the moment that your body shut down to try to compensate for the fear."

"Well. I still feel like crap." Molly whined. Serena laughed, and Quatre grinned.

"Think you can walk?" Quatre asked.

"Sure. Sorry you had to carry me. Some soldier I'll make…"

"Don't worry about it Molly. It could have been worse." Serena grinned.

"How?"

"You could have peed your pants. Now that would have been bad!" All three of them laughed.

"She's right, don't worry Molly. Besides, you all have a while to go before you're soldiers. Come on, we still have two floors to go before we can get out."

"Alright." Molly agreed. And the three continued their trek down the stairs.

As they reached the exit, they could see through the broken glass doors that the entire academy had gathered on the circle of lawn in the center of the courtyard… the same place they had gathered on orientation day. It appeared that the barrack leaders, Trowa, Hiiro, Wufei, and Duo, were all counting heads, and that Lady Une had taken over Quatre's group.

The three approached the doors and Quatre managed to open them for their small group to get out. As Quatre and Molly began walking towards the others, they realized Serena wasn't following them.

"Serena?" Molly asked distractedly. She was more interested in Trowa, who had turned in their direction and was waving them over.

"Yeah, coming. I feel like I'm forgetting something though."

"Whatever it is, I'm sure you'll think of it when we're safely outside of the building Serena." Quatre gently took hold of her wrist and pulled her. "Come on."

"But…"

"Serena, is your locket really more important than your life?" Molly asked, not realizing what she had just said.

"My locket!" Serena gasped. "Oh God, I left my locket in that classroom!"

"Locket? Serena, it's replaceable, don't worry about it." Quatre coaxed her.

"No, you don't understand! That locket isn't replaceable!" She cried.

"Any thing can be replaced." Quatre told her again. By now the group of trainees was disbanding into smaller groups and going back to their barracks. Lady Une was with Quatre's group, and Sally Po had taken over tending to any of the injured. Relena was walking away with Trowa's group, while Trowa was making his way towards them.

"Trowa!" Molly cried in relief.

"You all ok?" Trowa asked as he reached them.

"Yes, we're fine. Molly gave us a bit of a scare, she might need to be checked over by Sally, but other than that-"

"Serena!" Molly screamed. Quatre and Trowa's heads turned to watch as Serena's form disappeared into the building once again.

"I have to get my locket!" She called back.

"I'll get her." Trowa half sighed, half yelled.

"No, Trowa! That building's ready to collapse! If you go in there to get her and it does, then what's going to happen to you?" Molly pleaded.

"We can't just leave her in there, its dangerous." Quatre reasoned.

"You were going to leave me!" Molly accused.

"You heard that?" Quatre blushed.

"Of course! I was in shock, not dead!"

"I wouldn't have left you, I just wanted to get Serena out before I moved you." Quatre told her.

"Sure. Well, now you can go back and get her!"

"Who?" Wufei jogged up to them.

"Serena! She went back into the building!" Quatre told him.

"What for? Idiot woman! Always brainless and sentimental! Well, we can't do anything for her but leave her."

"Wufei, you don't mean that!" Quatre reprimanded him.

"He'd better not." Trowa spoke up. "Serena isn't just some sentimental woman, she's the sentimental woman who made your comrade and friend Hiiro Yui smile. You'd risk letting him become the Perfect Soldier again after she dies?"

"No. What I'm saying is I won't risk any more lives to bring her back out. She shouldn't have gone back in in the first place!"

"But she did, so now you have the responsibility to go back in and get her Wufei!" Molly clarified for him.

"Who?" Came the operative question for a second time. This time the small group turned to face none other than Hiiro Yui himself.

"Hiiro, I know you're not going to like this, but…"

"Serena's in the building." He finished for Quatre.

"How did you know Yui?" Wufei asked.

"Lucky guess." He grunted as he unbuttoned his uniform shirt to reveal a white tank top. He pulled out a gun from a hidden holster and checked the bullets.

"Yui, what are you doing?"

"What does it look like he's doing Wufei? He's going in after her!" Molly smacked Wufei on the shoulder. He glared at her, but with Trowa standing so close to the girl, he dared not make another move. One outburst from the usually quiet boy was enough for him.

"Hiiro, it's dangerous. There could be severed wires, broken glass, unstable stairs, caving ceilings, and more!" Quatre warmed him.

"I'm not worried about any of the above. Call the Une, Relena, Sally, Zechs and Noin."

"Noin? Zechs? When did they get here?" Trowa asked. Molly looked on with blank interest. She didn't know who Noin and Zechs were.

"Came with Relena. Noin is watching my barracks. Sally's with the injured and your group Wufei, and Relena is with your group Trowa, and Zechs is with your cabin Quatre."

"Looks like the only one of us doing his job is that slacker Maxwell." Wufei groaned.

"Hiiro, why do we need to call them?" Quatre pressed on.

"I'm not worried about broken glass. But aftershocks are an extreme possibility." He finished. "Get them out of the buildings. This is an old military base from before mobile suits were created; the buildings weren't made to stand up to the quakes."

"And your going into the building even knowing all of this?" Quatre choked.

"She's in there."

"She's a girl Yui! Not worth risking your life to save hers!" Hiiro took one look at Wufei and punched him across the face. Wufei stumbled back and landed on the ground, cursing.

"That's for interrupting us this morning." Hiiro blankly explained. Placing his gun back in its holster, he gave a short nod to the others and then took off. *