Here we go chapter 4, please enjoy and review. I apologise now for all geographical errors made on my part about the landscape of San Francisco, I am English and I have never been so any and all locations you do not recognise I have made up.
Randy had been trying to follow Bret's map but the streets looked so much different when parts of them weren't even there any more. Mickie wrapped her arms around her body, it was not warm out here and she was only dressed in her shorts and a vest top, normally quite appropriate night wear but not really great for walking the streets in the middle of the night. Randy noticed as Mickie shivered and rubbed at the goose bumps on her upper arms. "Hey are you cold?" Randy asked her knowing the answer full well, but knowing she would probably deny it. "I'm fine, thank you though." Mickie said walking slightly taller and trying not to let Randy see she was in any kind of discomfort. "Ok fine well I am cold, so I suggest we see if we can find anything to wrap up in." Randy said knowing that Mickie would not deny his own request for extra clothing. "OK sure where do you think we should look?" Mickie said scanning the area, but all she saw were more apartment buildings and more rubble. Maybe we could try some of these buildings, I am sure there are clothes everywhere, no one will be using them." Randy said heading off to an open door way. "We can't steal people's clothes." Mickie said running up behind him and taking hold of his arm. "Why not I am sure if they wanted them, or needed them then surely they would be wearing them." Randy said as if the solution was that simple. Mickie dropped his gaze then looked back up at him. "Stealing is stealing and if we happen to steal from the wrong person we could end up in much worse trouble than a little bit cold." Mickie said feeling uneasy about being inside this apartment building. "Come on maybe we will find something on the way." Mickie said pulling slightly on his arm and Randy had to give in and turned to open the door.
The ground was moving again, Mickie felt like the last couple of hours had just been a nightmare, that she had dreamed the previous quake. Now she was experiencing the real one. The floor above them began to crumble, both from the previous damage and the new shaking. Randy ran them under the stair way and half covered Mickie's body with his own. Mickie could see new dust rising from bits of ceiling hitting the floor and the glass in the front entrance was shaking, she was sure it was going to shatter but it held fast, the shaking subsided and Mickie let out the breath she did not realise she had been holding. She was also clinging on to Randy pretty tightly. He had his arms around her waist and his front was pressed flush against her back as the crouched under the stair way. Mickie's arms were holding tight to Randy's and even though the shaking had stopped she did not make any attempt to move. "I think it's stopped." She said but still not moving just peering out from under the stairs, but no one was coming down them to get outside to safety. "I think so probably an after shock." Randy said, he was also reluctant to let go of Mickie. He felt safe with her wrapped in his arms, even though they were covered in dust and scared to death there was something oddly calming in holding her close to him. Mickie moved first she let go of Randy's hands and moved forward. Randy let her go and followed her, pushing open the door Mickie saw that part of the outside of the building they were in had now collapsed in to the street, it was pretty bad down there before the aftershock now it was impassable. "Damm it." Randy exclaimed as they saw the damage and he knew walking down the next street was going to take another twenty minutes. "We could try climbing over." Mickie said as she inspected the pile and saw that it was pretty firm. "I am not sure it's worth it." Randy said standing beside Mickie and looking up. The pile had to be twenty foot high, ok it was a slope not a sheer wall, but it was bits of furniture, walls and got knows what, all being held up by sheer luck. "If another aftershock hits it could all come down on top of us." Randy pointed out, taking a glance at Mickie but he knew what she was thinking, she had already made her mind up. Climbing this pile would take them ten minutes perhaps, going back up the street walking to the next one and down it would take double that, and they were taking the chance that it may also be blocked, perhaps with something much worse. "I think we can do it, as long as we are quick and don't stop to look at anything I think it is a better option than starting again." Mickie said as this was already the third street they had tried. The first had a downed power line that was still live and covered half the street, they did not dare try to get passed it. The second street had a collapsed building almost the first one on the row and it had not taken them long to discount that street. It was on the third street they found their way until they got caught up in the aftershock. Randy was mad that it seemed like they were being prevented from getting to their friends by some higher power, like it was not meant to be. "Ok we climb it but we do it fast." Randy said giving Mickie a curt nod and indicated for her to go first.
Mickie was finding the going much more difficult than she expected. A lot of the rubble was loose, she had slipped several times but managed to catch herself before she did any serious damage. Randy was just behind her, he wasn't having much better luck but at least if Mickie fell he would be able to catch her. It was better that Randy was behind at first he had gone first, but a loose bit of rock had caught him off guard and he had fell back down whipping out Mickie as he went. Luckily they had only beet four foot of the ground and no one had been hurt except Randy's wounded pride. After that they had decided Mickie would go first. Randy had to trust that what she could stand on, he could as well. For a while they seemed to be going more sideways than up, but Mickie could not find a stable part of the pile, none with anywhere to actually stand on anyway. Mickie finally found a way up, she placed her hands on a ledge just above her eye level and hoisted herself up on to the slab of stone which looked like it had once been somebody's roof. She turned round and offered Randy her hand as he boosted himself up on to the slab. Sanding up next to her he looked around. He noticed he could see quite a distance, he could see between the building and over people's gardens. He could see all the way to the golden gate bridge. The bridge itself was still there, but it looked odd in some way. Randy couldn't quite figure out why, maybe it was the angle they were seeing it from, but it did not look damaged but it also looked incomplete. Mickie was thinking the same thing as she tilted her head to the side and scanned the world below them. Smoke rose up from many places, some were from natural fires started by the earthquake and the pipes and cables that the main event had exposed. Others had been set by people looting, and some had been set for fun. It was hard to tell from this distance which one was which but Mickie knew that without some intervention soon the fires that seemed pretty isolated now could soon become far more dangerous. There was far more building damage than she had first thought to. Many building were still standing, but almost as many were not, many had at least partially collapsed, and more than Mickie had first realised were no longer part of San Francisco's sky line. "My god, look at it." Mickie said turning to look at Randy, who's eyes were transfixed on the Golden Gate bridge. "I know it's almost like a dream." Randy said not moving and not looking at Mickie either it was making her nervous. "What's wrong?" She asked him placing her hand on his arm. "I'm not sure." Randy said snapping his eyes down to where her hand connected with his arm, and then he looked at her. "Come on let's get down off of here, I don't know about you but all this destruction, seeing it is giving me the creeps." Randy said sitting down and placing his feet on a ledge below him. Mickie had to agree with him, at least at ground level you only had to deal with it one place at a time up there, you had to look at it all in one go and it was too much to take in.
The descent was as tricky as the assent, Randy led the way down this time. He had too be extra carful on the way down. If he slipped or got on a loose pile he could cause an avalanche effect and end up bringing the whole thing down on their heads. Mickie half slid half climbed down the pile, she had never been so happy to have her feet on the floor. Dusting her legs and arms off she looked at Randy and gave him a smile. "Maybe next time we should walk round." Mickie said as Randy flicked dust out of his hair. "Next time, god I hope there is not a next time." Randy said giving her a rye smile and taking the map out of his pocket. "Looks like we go all the way down to the end of this street and cross over the main road, once there we only have to walk one more block up and we are there." Randy said checking out the crude but effective map Bret had drawn them before he left them to take Maddie and Tyler to safety. Without it they probably would have been going in circles. "Sounds like we could be there within the hour." Mickie said as Randy put the map back and made sure it was secure as they continued to make their way down the street. "Yeah as long as no one drops another building in front of us I am sure we will." Randy said grinning at her like an idiot. Mickie had to smile and it actually felt good to be smiling at something so silly. "Hey it could be worse, the ground could literally open up and swallow us." Mickie said not really meaning it but she knew it was possible. "Great you know there are some days you just know you should not have gotten out of bed." Randy said remembering that his bed was in several hundred pieces and probably on fire. Randy couldn't help but smile, it seemed almost perverse to smile about something so horrible, but it was that or they were going to end up breaking down in tears. Mickie was sure she saw movement up ahead but the fresh dust and the smoke from a nearby fire was making it hard to see. "Randy is there someone up there?" Mickie asked slowing her pace so she could get a better look at whoever was up there. "Yeah and I'm not sure they are on their own." Randy replied also slowing his pace, knowing they couldn't go back the way they had come he looked around them for anything he could possibly use as a weapon.
It was too late for Randy to find anything the people up ahead of them had spotted them. As they emerged from behind the curtain of smoke Randy could see that they were all teenagers, probably between sixteen and eighteen and they were all carrying some kind of weapon. One guy had what looked like a bike lock chain, another a switchblade, one guy was carrying a tire iron that seemed to have blood on the end of it. Mickie averted her gaze from that pretty quickly, but she kept looking from one face to another. The boys all seemed to be pretty happy with their discovery. "Hey you two, if you want to came this way you're going to have to pay us." One of the lads called, he was the one with the tire iron and he seemed to be the leader of this particular gang. "We don't have any money on us." Randy said standing up to his full height. Although he was far bigger than any one of these guys, he would be no match for all three and they had weapons, where Randy only had his bear hands. "Oh yeah how come I don't believe that." The lad said as they formed a semi circle around Mickie and Randy. Mickie shot her eyes from one guy to another and finally looked at Randy. "Here look." Randy said turning out his pockets and showing them all he had was a piece of paper. "What's that?" Another lad said pointing at their map. "Just a map, so we can find our friends." Randy's aid opening it and showing them that there was no money inside. "Ok fine if you don't have any cash you could pay us another way." The lad with the tire iron said looking Mickie up and down and licking his lips. Mickie felt a shiver run down her spine and he skin once again erupted in goose bumps. The other lads in the group all nodded in approval of their leader's idea. "I don't think so." Mickie said her voice coming out much smaller than she intended it to. "Oh no, then we might just have to have some fun with you instead." The guy with the chain said, swinging his weapon around his hand. "Hey come on all we want is to go and find our friends, we don't want to take your street or anything, now what do you say you just let us go." Randy said his voice getting more dangerous with every word he spoke. The lads seemed to back away for a second and Randy thought he had managed to talk them down. "Now where's the fun in that." The guy with the tire iron said and advanced on them.
Suddenly a gun shot rang out. Mickie ducked her head and span round at the same time, trying to avoid any bullets and see where they were coming from at the same time. She saw a man coming out from a door way riffle in hand sight trained on the three lads behind Mickie and Randy. "Get out of here you good for nothing Arse lickers, or the next thing you will feel is my cold hard bullets." He shouted. It only took the lads a second of hesitation before they turned on their heel and ran back the way they had come. "Who ever you are thank you." Mickie said giving the man one of her million dollar smiles. "No problem, I hate punk kids." Hew said lowering his gun and looking from randy back to Mickie. "You know I have a apartment, its got food beer, and me and my friends are camped out there, why don't you guys come along and grab a beverage with us?" The man asked them and he looked very happy with his suggestion. "Umm thank you for the offer, but we have to go, you see our friends are at a club and we don't know what has happened to them. We really need to find them as soon as possible." Mickie said still smiling at the man, her smile dropped as he slowly raised his riffle and pointed it this time at Randy and Mickie. "It wasn't a question."
Ok there was chapter 4, please review, or I may not update as quickly as you might like.
Warning the next chapter will be rated T + I know there is no such thing but its not quite an M but this is where it gets serious folks, if you want to see that then review.