Chapter 1: The Earthquake
Runea was laughing and enjoying herself at the new nightclub, she didn’t want to come at first but was glad that her friends dragged her down there, Runea is a kind and shy person who doesn’t usually go out and party often.
Runea was dancing and being cheerful when the ground started to shake, the glasses on the clubs shelves came crashing down and than the power went out and she fell to her knees, she studied the crowd to see if she could find any of her friends.
Leanne was at the club ordering a drink when the earthquake hit, the other friends at the club were either dancing or sitting at a table chatting, she wasn’t much of a dancer and was too young for alcohol, and she didn’t like to lie so she ordered a soda. She sat waiting for her drink to come when the ground shook, she was thrown of her stool and onto the floor, the shaking stopped but everyone was in a panic, she called out for her friends but couldn’t see them anywhere.
Runea looked all around for her friends, but everyone was in a panic because of the earthquake. Runea was worried and got up on her feet and jumped up and down looking over the heads of all the people in the nightclub to see if she could find any of her friends. Runea saw Leanne by the bar yelling for the others, she smiled and pushed her why towards the bar.
“Leanne!” She shouted waving her hands in the air to catch her attention.
Leanne heard her name being called over the commotion of the crowd and saw Runea and ran to her giving her a big bear hug.
“Runea what happened?” She had to yell to be heard over all the noise, “What’s going on?” As she said it she looked around the club to see if any of the others where there.
Kail was sitting in a restaurant about ready to take off and make his expensive meal into a free one, he took a napkin and wiped the butter off of his mouth. He looked around the place to see if anyone was watching him. A small kid about seven years old was staring up at him, Kail frowned and tried to be friendly by giving a smile but it scared the kid off.
“Humph, stupid kid” He muttered, just then the ground started to shake and he remembered Runea telling him that she was going to be at the nightclub with some of the others, so Kail made a mad dash towards the exit and down the street.
Runea hugged Leanne and shouted,
“I don’t know, a minute I was dancing and the next some massive earthquake hits, I don’t know where the others are, they should be in the mess of a crowd. I just hope they are okay.” Runea was scared, it took her a second to realize it but she was shaking.
Leanne saw that Runea was shaking and put a reassuring hand on her shoulder, it was her nature to be a motherly person.
“everything is going to be okay,” Leanne said trying to convince herself as well as Runea.
“I’m going to call Kail to see if he is alright,” she said as she pulled out her phone and speed-dialed Kail hoping he had his phone on him.
“Please pick up Kail,” she said as the phone started ringing.
Kail wish he had his phone so he could call Runea to make sure she was alright but he forgot it at home, a crowd of people were running out of the night club and he had to shove his way past to get in, When he saw Runea and Leanne he calmed down a bit and ran up to them and grabbed Leanne’s shoulder,
“Are you okay?” He shouted over the voices of the crowd
Leanne looked around at the destruction in the night club,
“We should probably go back to the apartment, our parents will be worried about us,” she said trying to reason what the earthquake might have been, she smiled as she thought about what might have happened. It seemed to small to be an earthquake.
“Good idea,” Kail said to Leanne, he started to leave the night club and put a arm around Runea giving her a comforting squeeze as they left the night club.
“I just know my parents are freaking out right now.” A smile came across his face as he imagined his mom jumping under a table with a cooking pot on her head and a wooden spoon in her hands in a fighting position as if she was prepared to fight the earth % C
“Hey! Where’s Clay, I thought she was with you guys.”
“It wasn’t that long ago that I was speaking to her. She is probably still inside looking for us,” Runea said, “Let’s go back inside and check, I’m worried that this was something unnatural, what I mean is that we never get earthquakes in this area and even if this was an earthquake it seemed to be a little bit to short.” Runea said twirling a strand of her hair nervously.
Leanne nodded what Kail had said even though she didn’t really hear him. She was still in deep thought and was paying more attention to some of the panicked people around her to see if anyone knew what was going on, she couldn’t wait to turn on the news and see what was really happening.
It always killed her when she didn’t know what was happening. As she stared out at the people in the street she couldn’t help but think of what a great picture it would be, she shook her head to clear her thoughts thinking that this was not the time or place to bother with that.
Nicki looked around franticly and started to run, people were running everywhere and was bumping into her.
“Move please,” She yelled over the screams. She held onto her bag strap making sure that it didn’t fall off of herself. She spotted Runea, Kail and Leanne by the new nightclub and ran to them. Suddenly a person grabbed her shoulder and turned her around, who she faced was a odd looking man.
“Run!” The man shouted and then let go of her and ran off into the crowd.
“Kail! Runea! Leanne!” She shouted as she got to them.
Leanne spotted Nicki and sighed grateful that another member of their makeshift group was alright.
“Nicki!” Leanne screamed giving her a hug, “Are you alright?” She asked Nicki even though she didn’t look injured. “Do you know what’s happening?”
Kail looked out at the streets, It seemed different to him, now he noticed that instead of just people running around like a stirred up ant hill he saw people with scars and all over them. He stared out into the chaotic street until he heard a familiar voice, he turned around and saw Nicki.
He liked Nicki because ironically her crazy personality kept him sane, he ran over to her and gave her a big hug.
“I’m so glad your okay.” He said holding back some tears..
"I'm fine." Nicki said looking around at the wreckage of the nightclub and out the hole where the door used to be. "Well, from what I'm seeing right now, people are very scared of earthquakes." She said, Nicki was pretty calm. Maybe her experience of her wild adventures into the forest and other places might come in handy
Through the dust and the smoke Clay managed to see Runea's tamed and silky hair, she almost felt guilty when she grabbed it and tugged on it slightly to catch her attention in the thick crowd. Tears were in her eyes from fear of what was happening.
"Runea." she said sobbing, but caught her composure and stopped shaking and tried to remain calm. “What’s going on?”
Runea let out a surprised scream when she felt her hair tugged on, she turned around and found Clay standing in front of her crying, "Clara!" Runea said saying her formal name, Runea gave her a big hug.
"I’m not sure myself, but there was an earthquake and now there are people running around everywhere, I’m scared too." Runea tried to stop herself from shaking how could a night of fun turn into this and panic.
Leanne heard Runea scream and turned around to figure out what was wrong.
“Clay!” She yelled embracing her friend. "Clay! You're alright! Thank goodness!" It seemed as if their whole group might be alright, but they were still missing some people. "We need to keep going guys, our families are bound to be freaking out." The truth was, she didn't really care about her parents, but she really wanted to see what was going on. She was sure the news would give her some information at least.
"Clara!" She was glad everyone was okay at this point, Everyone in the streets was still running away from some unknown thing. "I want to see what's happening." She said and looked at her friends as if she was the only one who wanted to.
Leanne looked at Nicki. "I do too, but how? No one around here knows what is going on!" She sighed and looked at all the frantic people running around. She was beginning to wonder why everyone was so scared. If it was just an earthquake then it was over and people wouldn't be freaking out as much. She got quiet again as she thought this through.
Clara broke herself away from the embrace and now was being more serious having regained her thoughts and wasn’t crying anymore, Clay couldn't help but get slightly agitated.
"Our families are out there and we shouldn’t be just standing here waiting to see what will happen!” She yelled and once again tears welled in her eyes at the thought of the of her family, she turned away from the group. Never before she let anyone see her broken times, and now was not a good time to think of negative feelings.
"Anyway, we should go find out what's going on and what's happened to our families" She was now looking up at the direction the apartment was trying to hide her tears away from the other.
"We should go now," Kail said in a very serious voice. He started to walk towards the door but almost fell over, he had hurt is ankle running to the bar but only just realized the pain. He pretended nothing was wrong and did his best not to limp as he headed towards the doors.
Nate was at the library quietly reading a book about experiments that have been done on hamsters when the earthquake happened, he book the book into his bag and ran out of the library and headed home to check some important stuff that he was working on at home, while he was running to his house he noticed that there was an odd amount of people screaming and running about, he didn’t give it much of a thought and dodged around all of them until he got to the nightclub, he thought of his friends and also of how weird this whole situation was.
"hey guys are all you alright?" He yelled over the crowd and ran up to them.
Runea nodded her head at Nate, "Yes, but I think we should give the others a text or call to tell them to meet up with us back at the apartment gates."
She pulled out her cell phone and started to dial some numbers, "Once we do that we should go and check with on our families." Runea placed the phone to her ears and her eyes widen in surprise she was pointing at the sky in the direction of the apartment. "What is that!?" Smoke was rising in the air, "That’s near the apartment!" Runea was really worried and felt the panic once again to rise up in her, she d this feeling of panic and being fragile with this whole mess.
Nicki looked at where Runea was pointing and noticed the smoke. She gave a small yelp and started to walk off toward the apartment. "Come on!" She yelled and opened her bag to get her hat.
Clay didn't react to Nate because she couldn't help but stare at Kail for his change in pace and reaction to the situation. She didn't notice him until he was already in front of the group. When she heard Runea's shriek, her eyes widened too as she followed her eyes towards the apartment. Clay almost let out a curse but shook it away and followed Kail and Nicki.
Nate looked up and saw the smoke and nodded at Nicki and started to follow the her but looked back and said to Runea. "it might be a fire in the apartment! hurry up with those phone calls and lets go!"
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