Chapter Two

The Unexpected

Laura shivered, pulling her fleece pullover tightly around her shoulders, as she pushed open the revolving door that led into the lobby of the Mall of Texas, -which had once been a twenty-five story office building- where most people were employed and where nearly everyone did their shopping. The lobby was crowded, just as it always was, filled with mothers and their small children, employees finishing the last of their breakfast, putting off going to work as long as possible and shoppers trying to decide which floor to hit first. Laura, herself, was heading for the eighth floor, where she had found a job working as a sales clerk in a large clothing store.

Elsa Sanders, the woman Laura had first met a year ago in New York, was standing in front of the elevators, taping her foot impatiently as she waited for a cab to arrive. Her arms were crossed over her chest and there was a scowl on her face, the expression that always seemed to be on her features; she and Laura worked together and Laura knew that beneath the scowl and the untamable mass of curls, Elsa was really a good person.

"Hey Laura." Elsa greeted when Laura joined her beside the elevator. "What's up?" The doors to the elevator finally slid open and they entered together, joined by a pair of giggling pre-teen girls and a mother and her twin boys.

Laura told Elsa there was nothing new and for the rest of the ride to the eighth floor, Elsa told her that she believed her new neighbor was a stalker. Laura nodded politely throughout the story, but her mind was on Sam and how strange he had been acting lately; he was hiding something from her and he had never done that before. Making sure was making a big deal out of nothing, but she couldn't help but wonder; today at lunch, she'd ask him about it and she'd make sure that he didn't dance around the answer.

"Earth to Laura?" Elsa said, jarring her out of her thoughts and causing Laura to look up at the woman. "Are you all right?" She questioned and Laura saw that the elevator had stopped at their floor and she was the last person inside the cab, with Elsa holding the doors open so she didn't ride the elevator to another floor.

Laura hurried out of the elevator. "I'm fine." She answered. "Just a little preoccupied." Elsa nodded, almost knowingly, as they walked away from the elevator and down the tiled hallway with various shops and stores on either side of them.

"I see that." Elsa said as they passed the book store, where the mother with the teenage boys was attempting to shop. "Thinking about Sam?" Laura looked up, a semi-surprised look on her face. "You just had that look in your eyes." She clarified and Laura nodded, agreeing that her mind had been on Sam.

The clothing shop where they worked was next to a pet store, something Elsa complained about every chance she got, and the food court, something that Elsa didn't complain about; the metal gate was still in place, sealing off the store until it was opened again the next day, and the store itself was dim, encased in shadows. Elsa pulled a key ring from her purse and shifted through the dozens of keys until she found the one that would unlock the partition. "Must be nice to have someone to think about." She mused as she bent down to unlock the gate. "Of course, I do have my crazy stalker neighbor but..."

Laura helped Elsa push the gate up, standing on her tiptoes and stretching her arms high above her head to make sure that the gate was pushed up high enough so that it locked in place. Once, she had made the mistake of just shoving it up and the gate had fallen back down, trapping her inside the store since it could only be unlocked from the outside; Sam, who worked at the hardware store on the level below, had come looking for her and found her locked inside the store. After he had stopped laughing, he had managed to track down Elsa and get the key to the gate; Laura was not too keen on repeating the experience.

Once the gate was locked in place Elsa and Laura entered the store, Laura flicking on the lights as she walked inside. "Sam's been acting strange lately." She told Elsa. "And I can't help but wonder-" Before she could even finish her words, the other girl was ready to offer advice.

"Sam's a guy, guys are always acting strange." Elsa reminded the dark haired girl. "You don't have anything to worry about, Sam loves you." Laura smiled at the thought; Sam did love her, she had never doubted that fact. "Now that the crisis has passed," She continued, once again shattering Laura's thoughts of Sam, her sweet, perfect Sam. "Go into the storeroom and start unloading the new shipment of jeans."

Laura sighed, stuck with manual labor again (Elsa had stopped buying her excuse about the long lasting effects of blood poisoning several months ago, despite the fact that Sam's mother said it was a possibility) and headed toward the storeroom to do as she had been instructed.

At least no one would interrupt her thoughts about Sam for a while.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Laura!" Elsa shouted over the constant barking of the dogs in the pet shop next door. There was no answer. "Laura!"

From her spot in the store room, seated on the floor surrounded by cardboard boxes and bubble wrap, Laura rolled her eyes. She had been patiently and peacefully doing her job for the last three hours, what did Elsa have to complain about now? "What?" She shouted back, hoping that she had been heard over the yapping of the dogs. Ever since they had arrived at work four hours ago, the dogs had been barking nonstop, something pretty rare since the animals rarely had anything to sound off about. Laura was about to go next door and complain but she knew there was nothing the pet shop owner could do about the noise.

Elsa headed out from behind the counter, keeping an eye on the two pre-teenage girls that were browsing the shelves and laughing, going in the direction of the storeroom. She opened the door and peeked inside; Laura was sitting on the floor behind a mountain of cardboard boxes and piles of merchandise. "It's almost lunch break, you want anything from the food court?" She questioned, causing the dark-haired girl to look up in surprise; she'd been alone for hours and clearly wasn't expecting the sudden appearance of her co-worker.

Laura shook her head. "No, I'm going out to dinner with Sam." She answered, a tiny smile turning up the corners of her lips. She couldn't help it, the mere mention of Sam made her smile.

Elsa nodded. "Okay, keep on eye on the store until I get back." She commanded, heading out of the store room, leaving the door open behind her. Laura shifted her position so that she could see out the open door and into the store beyond; she noticed that everyone she had rode the elevator with was in the store, including the mother with the twin boys, who looked bored and restless as they watched their mother move from rack to rack, checking prices first and then the garments. Elsa headed out of the store and into the food court; Laura checked her watch, Sam was due in twenty minutes. And then she'd finally know what had been causing him to act so secretive lately.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jason finally returned with the rictor scale it had taken him nearly four hours to come across; in all the worry and chaos generated by the super-storms, no one had paid much attention to or cared about other natural disasters. And this was evident to Jack when he saw the machine his partner had managed to lug it; it was rusted and covered with dust and bits of snow. "Sorry boss," Jason apologized as he shut the door behind him. "I had to go up to Texas to find this."

Jack assured him that it was okay and the mention of Texas caused Sam's heart to skip a beat. It was almost time for Laura's lunch break and he was finally going to do it, he was finally going to propose, something that made him both nervous and excited; but, then again, the prospect of being around Laura did that to him anyway.

"Dad," Sam began, "I'm going to go meet Laura-"

Jack looked up. "Can you help us with this for a minute, Sam?" He questioned, though it was clear that he didn't feel good about keeping his son from the girl that he loved.

Sam checked his watch; he still had twenty minutes before he was due to meet Laura. "Sure."

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Elsa was trying to figure out if asking the teenage girls if they were actually planning on buying anything was a good idea; as she took a sip of her soda, she decided against it. Customers were customers, maybe sooner or later they would buy something. She set her soda back onto the counter.

From inside the storeroom, Laura was humming quietly to herself -an old Faith Hill song- as she finished folding a pair of jeans; she was planning on finishing up with her half of the storeroom chores before she went to lunch with Sam so that when she came back she could make Elsa slave away. She could see Elsa from where she sat; the woman was no longer watching the teenagers but staring down at her soda can. Laura was about to call out and ask her what was so fascinating about an aluminum can when a faint rumbling sound reached her ears. At first, she thought it was thunder, but it disappeared too quickly for her to place it; shrugging her shoulders, she went back to her folding.

Elsa was staring down at her coda can as though it was the most captivating thing in the world; the can itself was shaking, sliding around on the completely flat and level surface of the counter. For a moment, the movement of the can reminded her of that movie, with the dinosaurs and how the water in the cups would shake whenever a dinosaur came near but, as far as she knew, there were no dinosaurs around.

And so, with the dinosaur theory out of the question, Elsa couldn't figure out what was causing the can the shake the way it was. She looked up, trying to figure out if anyone else in the store was noticing anything weird; Laura was still plodding along with her work, the girls were modeling clothes in front of a full-body mirror and the mother was fussing at her children. You're cracking up, El she thought to herself, rolling her eyes. Maybe so.

But then she felt it, a gentle rumbling beneath her feet; Elsa looked down, as though she expected to see the floor beneath her moving. The floor was stationary as always, but there was no mistaking the rumbling, which she could hear as well as feel; the vibrates moved up her legs, eerie and unnerving. Elsa looked up, the others were noticing it as well. Elsa had lived in California for most of her life, before she had moved to New York when she had been twenty-five, deciding she was going to be a Broadway star and when you lived in California, you knew what the beginnings of an earthquake felt like. And she was sure as hell feeling them now; but it was impossible, she'd never heard of an earthquake in Mexico before. But you'd also never heard of a single storm that could make the new Ice Age, now did you?

Elsa looked over in Laura's direction; the younger girl had noticed the rumbling as well and was looking around with her eyes even wider then they normally were. "Laura-" She started but the flicking lights caused her words to freeze her in throat.

The ground beneath her feet started to shake and Laura looked around, trying to figure out what was going on; the boxes around her teetered and one crashed to the floor, spilling out tee-shirts and jeans. She heard Elsa call her name and then the lights flickered once before cutting out completely; from where she sat, she could hear two shouts of surprise.

Laura got to her feet, intending on getting out of the storeroom before whatever was happening could get worse. And what was happening? She had absolutely no idea and she was terrified. The ground was shaking and groaning, and she almost couldn't stand, her footing too unstable; it seemed impossible but Laura was beginning to wonder if she wasn't experiencing the beginnings of an earthquake. In Mexico? her mind questioned.

With a groan, the shaking got worse and Laura was knocked to her feet; whether she was in Mexico or not, this was certainly an earthquake. She could hear the building creak, metal squealing, as the shifting of the earth started pulling it apart. Laura shivered, whimpering slightly, as she curled into a ball, tucking her chin and covering her head; she couldn't believe this was happening and she wished Sam was here.

The boxes around her crashed into the ground, many of the them falling onto her; Laura knew that she was all right as long as the metal shelves didn't fall on top of her. The storeroom door slammed shut, pushed by the trembling ground and she was completely alone. Beneath her, Laura could fell the ground seem to stretch apart and she prayed that the ground wouldn't actually split around her. She squeezed her eyes shut tightly, feeling completely helpless as the building stretched and crumbled around her.

The sound of grating metal filled her ears and Laura looked up seconds before the first of the trio of metal shelves crashed toward the ground, catching her in the back and knocking her head in the head. The last thing Laura was aware of before everything became black was praying that Sam was all right.

Elsa dropped to her knees and pressed against the counter, urging the others in the store to find something solid to use for stability and protection. The twin boys were crying, and the mother was unsuccessfully trying to get them to calm down. Glass shattered and Elsa realized that the many mirrors in the store were breaking; she hoped that no one was around the falling glass.

The walls of the store were beginning to crumble, plaster and other unidentifiable chunks slamming into the ground and Elsa covered her head. There was a metallic grating sound as the metal gate that sealed off the store when it wasn't in operation was jarred lose and came crashing to the ground.

As the building continued to crumble around her, all Elsa could do was hope that it would be over soon.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As soon as the ground began to groan and shudder, Jack Hall knew exactly what was taking place. He had only been through one earthquake in his entire life, when he had been twelve visiting his aunt in California, but once was enough. An earthquake was beginning and he didn't need a damn rictor scale to tell him that.

"Get down." Jack commanded, shoving Sam toward the ground, pushing him beneath the desk. Jason followed suit and Jack managed to squeeze in beside his son.

The lights cracked and popped, plunging the room into the complete darkness; Sam moved closer to his father, unable to fight the instinct that said that a parent would always protect its child. However, he doubted there was a lot anyone could do to protect anyone at this moment.

Above them, things slid and bounced off the desk, crashing onto the floor with considerable force. Jack could feel the very screws of the desk begin to give way and he hoped that the desk wouldn't collapse on top of them; every piece of the desk was solid cherry wood and could render sufficient damage.

A text book flipped off the desk and landed solidly on Sam's leg before dropping to the ground; Sam pulled his legs inward until his chin was resting on his knees. He felt the familiar solid bulge in his pocket, pressing against his thigh: the box that held Laura's engagement ring. Laura! Sam's heart began to hammer in his chest as he thought of her; was she all right? Had the earthquake traveled that far up? Was she hurt? He wanted to go to her, to make sure she was all right, he had never wanted anything so badly. My sweet Laura, Sam thought, the sound of the crumbling room and groaning Earth heavy in his ears, please be all right.

The heavy rictor machine screeched across the desk, knocking off everything in its path, including the computer monitor, which shattered on the ground harmlessly. The rictor scale itself, however, crashed into Jack's knee, shattering both bone and machine; Jack groaned in pain, grabbing onto his knee, knowing that bone had been broken.

"Dad?" Sam questioned, looking over at his father. "Are you all right?" Jack didn't look all right, his eyes were squeeze shut tightly and his teeth were bared in a grimace of pain.

Jack didn't have time to answer, for the screws holding the desk together finally groaned and broke lose, sending the surface of the desk tumbling onto those that had taken shelter beneath it.

Sam's last thought was not of his father but of Laura before everything went completely dark.