Chapter 80
Nick
Callum has to lean heavily on my shoulder, but we manage to get out of the Avant & Co building.
The emergency exit stairs are blessedly intact, and aside from a slight tremor, there are no aftershocks while we hurry down the stairs.
Though a large part of me wants to stop on each floor and check for other stranded survivors, I know that right now, it’s most important for me to get Callum out of here and regroup with my team.
If they’re alive.
My radio was crushed in the initial shock of the earthquake, and I don’t have any cell service, so I have no way of contacting anyone.
The earthquake destroyed the lobby of the Avant & Co building. The marble has been pulverized, every inch of glass shattered.
“Holy shit,” Callum mutters as we limp together towards the main entrance of the building.
The glass doors have been blasted out, and we have to crawl over mounds of sharp and treacherous rubble to get there, but we make it.
Outside, I get my first glimpse of the devastation this earthquake has wrought.
Many of the older buildings have been reduced to rubble. Street lamps and telephone poles are down, or leaning at wild angles. The pavement has buckled and split in many places, and geysers of water shoot up from broken pipes.
The air is hazy with dust and smoke, and loud with car alarms and distant sirens.
People are crowded on the streets, looking lost and confused. Someone is directing them down the street, shouting about getting away from the unstable buildings.
No, not “someone.”
Vinnie.
And, there, clearing debris off a fallen man: Charlie.
And there, administering emergency first aid to a woman: Mila.
My heart constricts. Where’s Tristan?