They had been touring the building for a little over half an hour, when the tremors began. At first, it was only the smallest jolts, tiny vibrations under you shoes. But they began to grow. In several minutes time, they escalated to the point where every bone in one's body began to shake. People were running everywhere in a mass of confusion. No one knew where to go, what to do. Thoughts raced through Shtalenkovs head as the group ran for the nearest emergency exit, across the massive hall in which they had been admiring the great pillars. There weren't supposed to be earthquakes in Germany, at least not this bad. Why was this happening? Would they make it out before something collapsed?
Unfortunately, the answer to his last question came all too quickly. Just as a massive jolt sent the whole party scrambling to the floor, on of the massive pillars, damaged in previous years from the great fire and the war, gave out at the base, and came crashing down towards them. For some reason, Shtalenkov felt himself shrink from consciousness.
His vision was hazy at first, but slowly, very slowly, things cam back into focus. Glancing around told him almost nothing, considering how much dust and debris floated ghostly through the hall. Checking himself for broken bones and such, he slow lifted himself to his elbows, so he could more clearly make out his surroundings. Off to his left were the three college students, all looking to be unconscious and one, Levi, with a nasty gash on his forehead. Turning the other way, he could barley discern Dieter Hartwin, the parties guide. The two Forensic experts from the FBI were nowhere to be seen. Slowly, he crawled over to Hartwin, and gently shook his shoulder. The German gave a small moan, then rolled over onto his stomach. Shtalenkov pushed himself to his feet, then walked over to help Hartwin. The man was slightly pale, and shaky, but otherwise seemed fine.
"Are you ok comrade?"
"What? Oh, yes, fine, thanks."
"Good, I will go check on the others."
After waiting a moment to make sure he could stand on his own, the Russian walked over to where the college students lay. The girl, Becky, was slowly coming to, and the second boy, Lee, was beginning to get to his feet. Levi was still. Shtalenkov knelt down to inspect his forehead. There was a good three inch gash, although the wound seemed to have clogged itself. There was a small piece of skin on one edge of the wound, although it was horribly pale, and not matching of the boys skin. The Russian glanced up, looking for a piece of debris or such that might have struck him. There was nothing. As he had been inspecting the members of the party, the dust had settled, leaving everything to vision once again. For twenty feet around, there was not a single piece of furniture, glass, or shattered pillar to be seen. "Extremely strange." The thought flashed through his head, but he had no time to think harder on the subject as Levi began to come around.
"What the hell is going on?"
Lee shook his head, trying to clear it of the last bits of grogginess. This sort of thing was supposed to happen in central Europe. Especially not when he was here, as a tourist. He helped Becky to her feet, before seeing Levi and going over to help the Russian. Levi was awake now, and close to alert. He kept uttering, "I tried to stop them. I really tried, but they took them, I couldn't, I was paralyzed. Really, I tried, I truly tried…" No one could make sense of the mumbling, and it scared Lee. He and Levi had been friends since High School, and Lee knew him all to well to be one of those made of particularly tough stuff. Seeing him in this kind of state shook him, and deeply.
"Ok everyone, lets just, stay calm, and ummm, well, lets just stay calm."
It was Becky. By looking at her he could tell she was as shaken she was. He tried to calm himself as much as possible, before getting up and walking over by their tour-guide. He was staring at the pillar that had fallen. Lee took his first good look at the room, and realized they were blocked in. The Pillar had fallen across the great oak doors which they had entered, the a massive pile of rubble lay in front of the emergency exit on the south side of the hall. Was blocked in the best term, or trapped? Looking around, he realized they were too far into the building for there to be windows. No way out. But sureley they would have rescue crews cutting their way in at any second. But no, it was all wrong. The hall was quiet, completely quit, the only sound being the mutterings of Levi, and the calm, soothing voice of the Russian, trying to comfort him. He turned to say something to the German, when he realized that the man had his gazed fixed on something behind his shoulder. His eyes were large with fright, and he stood stock still, as if frozen in place. Just then, Lee Herald, and under-grad majoring in government at the University of Yale, heard the moaning.