This might be a lost cause.
Her own eyes blurred.
And then she heard the rumble, as the ground started to shake.
CHAPTER 4
At first, Hannah didn’t understand what was happening. The sound wasn’t loud; more like a slow roll of thunder. The vibration of the ground under her knees felt more like a large vehicle starting up than anything else.
But then it grew stronger, until she had to put a hand on the ground to keep her balance. Someone somewhere was shouting. It took her a moment to make out the word.
Earthquake.
Irish didn’t stop the chest compressions, but she could see he was struggling to maintain his balance too.
A loud crackling echoed from her left, and she snapped her head up.
“The sidewalk!” said Oscar. He’d dropped to a knee, and now had a hand on the ground.
He was right—the sidewalk was splitting, slow cracks crawling along the pavement.
Firefighters were shouting, both live and from the radio on her shoulder. The team that had rushed into the house a minute ago came flying through the door, stumbling on the steps.
She’d thought nothing could overpower the cacophony of the trucks and radios and discordant fire alarms, but the new sounds brought on by this earthquake were deafening. Metal shrieked from everywhere, and Hannah could swear she saw the porch supports at the front of the house start to buckle. From the street, more shouts, more splitting pavement. Metal on metal as fire trucks began to slide and collide with each other.
“What the hell is going on?” said Oscar. He must have lost the needle; Michael’s hand was bleeding.
Wind ripped between the houses, sudden and cold, pulling smoke and debris from across the court. More shouts from the hose teams as water blew back, away from the flames, showering the rescue team with ice-cold droplets. Fire was in the air now, bits of flaming ash flying wildly.
One of the porch supports groaned, then cracked fully. The roof over the porch sagged.
“We need to move,” said Irish.
But they couldn’t. The ground bucked again, and Hannah watched the grass split and separate. The gap spread in a line from Michael’s body all the way to the road. She swore and shifted to the other side of his body, beside Irish.
It gave her a better view of the destruction around her. At the house next door, wood cracked and split. The house swayed for an eternal moment, as if buffeted by the wind.
And then it collapsed.
Flames and smoke billowed from the destruction, and the hose team fought to stay on their feet, aiming water at the structure, trying to keep the fire from spreading. Water sprayed wildly in the wind.
Then the ground rumbled again, and the sidewalk around the hydrant fractured. Water shot from the ground in a massive fountain. The fire hoses lost pressure and died.
Another rumble. The grass cracked and split again, stretching off into the darkness. The front yard seemed to be shifting in pieces, rolling like the sea. The house behind them creaked and threatened to collapse like the first. The fire trucks on the road bounced and shifted. People were yelling now, fear in their voices. Her radio was going crazy as people called orders and updates. She couldn’t make sense of any of it.
Another house across the court collapsed. Firefighters ran to escape the flying debris.
More wind blasted her cheeks, bringing smoke and ash.
And then, out of nowhere, one of Michael’s brothers skidded to his knees beside her.
One of the twins. She had no idea which. His clothes were filthy too, his skin darkened with soot.
She put a hand on his arm to push him back. “Gabriel—”
“Nick,” he corrected her. He grabbed Irish’s arm. “Stop.”
Irish didn’t stop—though his efforts lacked the fervor of his initial attempts to save Michael’s life. Hannah could read it in his expression. It had been at least three minutes.
The ground rumbled and shifted again. Irish swore and fought to keep his balance. “Kid, you need to get out of here before that house falls.”
“It’s his brother,” Hannah said. Her voice broke. “Nick—Nick, I need—”
“Stop. Both of you stop.” Nick’s voice was rushed and panicked. He grabbed Irish’s arm again and almost shoved. “I said stop.”
Irish stopped. Time seemed to hold still, the earth shifting below them, the wind slamming into them.
“Just stop,” Nick said again, his voice more steady. Wind whipped at their clothes and made Hannah shiver. The house behind them gave another loud creak. “Wait.”
She stopped. Held her breath.
For an instant, she thought maybe Nick knew something they didn’t, that all Michael needed was his brother’s presence and he’d sit up and ask what was going on.
Michael didn’t move.