Disclaimer: I don't own Human Target and intend no copyright infringement.
A/N: Bad news, folks: Real life has been a little rocky for the past six months or so and I decided I need a bit of a break. I came up with the bright idea of taking that break in the guesthouse of a remote Benedictine monastery, not realizing that remote Benedictine monasteries and their guesthouses don't tend to have a connection to the internet. In other words: I'll be cut off from fan fiction for a week – GAAAAH! I'll be back on the 16th, 18th at the latest. I hope you don't give up on this story in the meantime. I know how annoying slow updates are and I'm terribly sorry for the inconvenience. I never planned to stay away from ff net – in fact faith and fan fiction are what helped me make it through the last few months.
See you (hopefully) next Friday,
Cedric
Tall buildings are usually constructed in one of three possible ways – with steel, with in situ concrete or with prefabricated concrete members, also known as "large penal systems". The building where the CasGrov offices were accommodated was an LPS building. A set of concrete parts had been made at a factory and transported to the site, where they had been lifted into place with a crane and then joined together. A very effective method to build houses, and safe, too.
Unless, of course, the panels aren't joined together correctly.
There are only so many earthquakes a building structure that's flawed can take before it, in a very literally sense, gives in, even when the final straw that broke the camel's back, or, in this case, cracked the load-bearing flank walls on the 12th floor, was just a minor 4 on the Richter scale earthquake.
"What was that?", Ames asked, frowning. The groaning sound had stopped just as suddenly as it had appeared, but something about it had made her skin crawl.
"Whatever it was, you better get out of there", Chance replied in a no-nonsense tone. He was worried, too. Buildings are not supposed to groan.
The damaged walls on the 12th floor threatened the structural supports to the floors above, thanks to the weakness of the joints connecting the vertical walls to the floor slabs. In less than ten minutes the flank walls would fall away, leaving the floors above unsupported. This would cause the progressive collapse of everything above the 12th floor.
Ames didn't know she had less than ten minutes left to make it below the twelfth floor, but her gut feeling told her to hurry up. Hoping she wouldn't catch the attention of the guard in the lobby, she started running down the stairwell.
It was going to be a long way down.
… … …
"I'm calling 911", Winston decided. "The quake probably destabilized the building, like the one in Fillmore two years ago, remember? They better take a look."
"I'll call Ilsa." Chance activated his mobile.
"She said something about going to bed early and getting some rest."
"Well, she's the one insisting on a transparent information policy, isn't she?" Chance grinned and dialed Ilsa's number.
Winston rolled his eyes. Chance could be such a child. Then: "We're not going to call Guerrero?"
"He's over at Akemi's, for dinner… you know how much he hates disturbances when he's busy…"
Someone picked up the phone on the other end of the line.
"Talk", a very familiar voice bellowed.
Chance was surprised, mildly put. Had he dialed the wrong number? Chosen his friend's instead of Ilsa's, out of habit?
"Guerrero? I thought you were at Akemi's. What are you doing at Ilsa's?"
"Dude!"
Realization dawned on Chance. Unconsciously rubbing his wrist, he quickly explained the situation with Ames, then put the phone down.
… … …
When Ames reached the tenth floor, the building started making sounds again, this time rather high pitched metallic screeching noises that made the hairs on her neck stand up. Winston and Chance in the van suddenly grew very tense. They could not only hear the noise over Ames' earpiece, it permeated the walls of the car, too, although it was parked around the block.
"Ames, RUN!", Chance yelled while Winston called 911 again to tell them that this was URGENT.
"I think I'm hearing something", Ames replied between gasps for air.
"Yes, you're hearing a building crumbling to pieces right above your head." Winston cut the connection with 911 again. In the distance sirens started to wail.
"No, there's something else, screaming, I think someone's trapped in one of the elevators!"
"Ames, you're not going to check. Firemen are on their way, they're professionals, let them do their job, get your ass out there, it's not safe." Chance tried it with his calm, strict voice.
"Says who?" Ames was already on her way to the row of elevators in the lobby of the 10th floor and indeed, there were people trapped in there. The cleaning crew, most likely.
"I'm on my way!" Chance jumped out of the van.
"No! Something's wrong with the building, you're not going in here!" Ames immediately recognized the problem: The elevator doors didn't open anymore. She took the combat knife she had made a habit of wearing after seeing the boys armed like that, called out a brief warning to the people inside and pushed it up to the hilt between the doors.
Outside, Chance was stopped by a fireman. They were cordoning off the surrounding streets.
The tricky thing with using a knife for other purposes than cutting something is that the blade might break. That would have been disastrous, there was no other instrument around Ames could have used for leverage. Thankfully it was made of high tensile steel. Guerrero had sent it to her in the aftermath of the Scotland disaster.
"Best money can buy. Owner doesn't need it anymore", the note had said.
He would have never said so, but Ames had interpreted it as his way of telling her to take care.
Gradually, inch by inch, the doors moved and from the inside quickly fingers, then hands appeared and helped pushing them apart. Together they managed to produce a gap wide enough for most of the people to squeeze through. One man, however couldn't possibly get through. He was too overweight.
The building's screeching, meanwhile, had taken on an even fiercer quality. Chance, at the fire department's barrier that kept him from getting closer to the building, realized with worry that the firemen were reluctant to go into the building, although the guard from the lobby was apparently informing them about the cleaning crew.
Firemen that didn't go into a building although people needed help? That spoke of a very dire situation.
"Ames! You got to get out of there!"
"Almost done!" Ames helped the men and women out, one by one, and sent those that were free outside. The floors and walls were constantly trembling now. This was not good, not good at all.
The overweight man still trapped in the elevator looked at her with eyes large as a frightened horse's. "Go! I won't make it!" His wobbly voice betrayed his attempt at bravery.
A horrible ripping sound momentarily blocked out all other noise.
The whole cab shook violently.
One of the elevator cables had broken.
The man screamed.
"Just a few inches more and you'll fit through." Ames regained her balance and continued working frantically on the gap.
"Try and use your feet as extra leverage", Chance advised via earpiece, running around the firemen's barrier, trying to find a way into the building.
"How stupid do you think I am?" Ames and the man both used their feet to push the doors further apart.
"My name is Frank", he told Ames.
"Nice to meet you, Frank", Ames replied and despite the dire situation, they both had to smile at this exchange of niceties.
The second elevator cable ripped and the cab fell several feet deep before the last cable stopped it. It wouldn't last long, both Frank and Ames knew that, but there was still a chance…
"I swear I'm going to start a diet tomorrow. Do sport! Walk to work every morning!"
A horrible crunching sound overlaid his voice. Ames knew what it was, her instincts kicked in, she jumped backwards, away from the elevator – the final cable ripped, the cab crashed down the well.
Chance knew what had happened immediately. Ames' horrified sob was all he needed to hear. "It's not your fault. Now run! Run… please!" He still hadn't found a way into the building.
Tears in her eyes, Ames started running down the stairs again, significantly slowed down this time, though. While jumping away from the elevator she had sprained an ankle.
She had barely noticed that the building's groans and shrieks had turned into a low rumble when the low rumble already became an angry grumble and then, a split second later, a rolling thunder.
The floors above the twelfth had sandwiched and the first twelve floors were carrying all their weight now.
Outside, in a huge cloud of dust, Chance realized what was happening and basically screamed "RUN! AMES! RUN!" It was only a question of time till the first twelve floors would collapse, too.
"What do you think I'm…"
With a mighty thunderclap, the building came down.