AN: I have no idea what this airport looks like, so I'm basing it off a terminal I was in at Pearson International.
Chapter Three
Rachel
The airport is such a fascinating place. Sometimes, when I'm bored of the mall, I spend a little extra money and come out here to just shop around.
Technically, I was a town over from where my house was, but it was worth it to come out here today.
For the first time since Hanukkah almost six months ago, my dad was coming for a visit. His plane had already come in, and I was waiting for him to get through customs. It was going to be just me and him this weekend, my sisters each had their own thin; Jordan had soccer, and Sarah was taking piano, so dad and I were going to hang around this town, stay in a hotel by the airport and just have a good time.
"Ray!" I heard my dad call, and I rolled my eyes at the nickname, but waved back to him as he beamed, pushing his way through the crowd. As soon as he reached me, he dropped his luggage and embraced me tightly.
"Look at you." He said, holding me out at arms length, "You're going to be taller than me soon."
"You should see Jake then."I said with a smirk and he looked somewhat alarmed.
"You're all growing up so fast." He muttered, "Tom will be off to college soon- I remember when that kid was born."
"Yeah, yeah." I said, looping my arm through his, bending down to grab the handle of his wheelie bag, "You're getting old."
"Just you wait." He said, "Once you hit thirty, the years just fly by."
"Yeah, yeah." I said again, leading him through the airport. We were making our way slowly towards the 24hr car rental the airport had, but it was as far away from my dad's gate as you could get, so we strolled along, taking our time. Him asking me about school, and me asking him about the latest stories he's done.
We stepped on the long, two story escalator, laughing at some story dad had been telling when we both stopped as the ground under us started to rumble. The crowds around us stopped, the whole place went quiet, allowing the sound of the rumbling to be heard.
People started screaming, those that were like me and my dad who were on the escalator started rushing up or down, knocking my dad and I apart. He called for me a few times, getting pushed farther and farther down the escalator from me as the ground shook so hard I lost my footing, my teeth rattling together.
A few people tripped over me, one falling down the stairs, taking a few people out with him. A woman stumbled on her heels, in her attempt to not trip over her suitcase, her calf hit my shoulder and she stumbled backwards and over side of the escalator and she fell with a scream.
There was a horrible grinding noise and the escalator finally came to a sudden stop, knocking even more people over, some tumbling into me, dragging me down the now stationary metal stairs.
The quake continued, seemingly getting stronger and stronger. Over the sound of the earth moving, large cracking sounds rang out, concrete and brick falling around us, crashing into the floor and into the people below.
I was scrambling, wiping blood from my eye as I tried to grip something so I didn't keep getting dragged down the steps; I was still pretty close to the top and still had a long way to fall.
The quake made it impossible for me to get back to my feet, so I sat on my hands and knees, staring awkwardly up the escalator.
More large cracks broke out, and I suddenly heard my dad's voice behind me. I turned to look over my shoulder, seeing him fighting his way back up through the people, close enough I could see the color of his eyes, but not close enough for us to reach each other.
There was another large crack, like a bone being snapped, and I looked up. Two large cracks were running over the concrete ceiling starting from either side of the room, creeping up towards each other; the glass skylights cracked and shattered raining glass down on us all. I ducked my head, covering my eyes and face, and once the glass finished falling, I looked back up as the two cracks met, then splintered, and finally, large chucks of concrete began to fall right over us.
People around me screamed. I screamed as large pieces of stone and rebar falling around me, smaller chunks and shrapnel sprinkling over my head and back.
My dad screamed my name again, and I turned around, hoping to stand and get to him. As soon as I made eye contact, large block on concrete, taller than my dad, fell between us, smashing through the already twisting escalator with a horrible sound.
The ground under me disappeared; my dad disappeared. For a moment I was floating- staring off across the airport, watching concrete falling like rain as the whole ceiling finally collapsed. I saw a glimpse of the bright blue sky and everything went black.
***
Moans of pain was the first thing I heard. The second was the sound of shifting rubble as people got themselves untrapped, or were moving around.
A man spotted me, rushing over to my side. He was one of those 'biker types' long white beard, leather jackets with some club stamped on the back. He large hands fell onto my shoulders, surprisingly gentle.
"Hey sweetie." he said in a gruff, smokers voice. "You alright? Anything broken?"
"I don't think so." I mumbled, pressing the heel of my hand to my head, which was pounding. The man reached into his pocket, pulling out crumple blue bandanna and started to gently blot my forehead. When he pulled it away the first time, it came away an odd purple color as my blood stained the fabric. Silently, he gently cleaned me up, his winkled face showing no emotion until finally he sat back, gently patting the top of my head.
"Think you can stand?" he asked, and I nodded. He stood, holding his hands out but didn't help me. He let me stand on my own, testing my legs. My ankle was tender, but that was about it.
"Here." he said, holding out the bandanna, which was saturated with my blood, "You're still bleeding, hold it to your head."
He looked around and so did I. The destruction was intense. The whole terminal had collapsed in on itself, there was no ceiling anymore, just a wide open space staring up into the bright blue sky
I wasn't injured because I landed on most of the rubble, and with a sinking feeling I looked around frantically, "Dad? Dad!" I called, stumbling over in the direction I believed he was in. But there was no one around. Not my dad, none of the other people who were farther down the escalator, just mounds of concrete and metal.
"You were here with your dad?" The man asked, and I nodded, scanning around, looking for any sign of him.
"We were on the escalator." I said, my voice shaking, "He was in front of me- where is he? Dad!"
The man shushed me a bit, patting my shoulder before he moved past me, carefully moving around, peering through any holes he could find, shifting rubble if he saw something.
The man and I searched for a few minutes and I realized I was crying, and I began to seriously contemplate morphing into an elephant. Screw the secret, screw the fact that this man could very well be a Controller. My dad was more important!
Just as I came to a decision, the man froze, his head tilting, listening. He suddenly collapsed, digging a bit in the dust and stone, and he stopped again, listening.
"Your name Rachel?" He asked suddenly, and I gasped, racing over to him, collapsing beside him pressing my ear to the ground. Faintly, I could hear a voice crying for help, and then calling my name.
"Dad!" I screamed, digging frantically. The man began digging with me, moving the heavier stones he could until finally, a hand broke through the dust, waving around in the air. The man grasped it and pulled hard. He struggled and struggled, pulling the hand first, then the arm, until my dad's head and shoulders appeared and finally he was laying beside me panting for breath, his arm over his chest his eyes closed.
I sat beside him, crying asking him over and over again if he was okay. He ignored me for a moment, catching his breath before he puffed out a small laugh, opening his brown eyes.
"I'm alright kiddo."
"Your leg looks broken." The man said, scanning my dad up and down.
"Thank you." My dad said to him sincerely, and the man smiled at him in a very bitter way, looking over at me with such an intense stare my heart jumped.
"I was here with my little girl too." He said, voice wavering. My dad stared at him for a moment, before reaching forwards and grasping the mans elbow.
The three of us sat there, unsure of what to do next. More people began to emerge, all injured in someway, looking just as lost as I felt. Slowly a group collected around us, many sitting down, resting, others picking through the rubble, listening for cries for help.
An eerie silence fell over us all, except for the few cries of small children, far off in the distance, some ways away from the airport, the faint sound of an alarm started going off.
My dad sat up quickly, and the man looked up towards the sky in alarm. There was a moment where everyone hesitated, before people began scrambling up once again, running off through the terminal.
"What is that?" I asked, jumping to my feet. My dad grunted and groaned, pushing himself up, trying to get to his feet. Eventually, the man snapped out of his daze and grabbed one of my dad's arms and throwing it over his large shoulders.
"Go kid. Get somewhere high." He grunted, basically dragging my dad forwards, who cried out in pain as his leg dragged along the ground, but he didn't protest.
I didn't question him. I pushed in front, stumbling over the rubble, looking for a staircase or someway to get higher than what we were. I turned around a pillar that hadn't collapsed and saw staircase that was mostly intact, that other survivors were scrambling up.
"Rachel, go." My dad grunted at me, as the man maneuvered them slowly down the rubble pile.
"But-"
"Go!" My dad snapped as the man paused, allowing my dad to catch his breath. I hesitated again, but turned and ran for the stairs. Rushing about halfway up before turning to look back.
The man moved slowly, but they made it to the base of the stares, carefully, he helped my dad climb the stairs one by one until the caught up to me and the three of us made our way up.
We were the last group to reach the top. About thirty of up stood cramped on this small platform that was suspended in midair, held up by the staircase, probably not safe at all, but all the adults huddled together, those with kids held them tightly, as we all looked off in the distance. From this height, and with the roof completely collapsed, you could see all the way out to the ocean.
People began screaming and crying, as more and more alarms started blaring around the airport and we watched a massive wave break over the shore.