The Quake

Very short story about an office worker experiencing an earthquake.

The building shook, lurching and jumping, and the little china horse fell off the mantel. I staggered and tried to regain my balance. I stumbled my way to the door, books fell, vases came crashing to the ground shattering to pieces, everything in the office was being violently shaken by the earthquake. I entered the hallway where others were trying to escape as well. We meagerly ran towards the stairwell, stumbling and bumping into each other and the walls. The main lights flickered out and red emergency lights took their place. The sounds were loud and frightening; deep rumbling mixed with the sound of cement splitting and crushing. We made it to the stairwell where we attempted to descend six floors to the main level. People lost their balance from the shaking and tripped over themselves and each other. I narrowly avoided being knocked down by someone as people rolled down the stairs. No one stopped to help them, I couldn't either as I did not want to risk being run over myself. The walls cracked as we ran, splitting into vein-like patterns. The sounds of people screaming, the violent shaking and rumbling of the building, everything blended together into a horrible droning noise as my adrenaline raced, the only thought in my mind was to make it out safe.

I realized we had reached the bottom floor. I turned and practically fell through the door. I noticed some people had continued running down the stairs to the basement, most likely mistaken about which floor we were on. I left them and ran towards the entrance doors, people pouring out of doorways, pushing, shoving, tumbling to the ground as we all frantically tried to make it to our freedom. The circular spinning doorway was clogged, people shouted and yelled as they tried to force their way through. Someone managed to break a hole in the large front window window with a chair, people began flocking towards it. I was forced through quickly by the wave of people behind me. I managed to avoid the sharp edges of the glass, but judging from the blood running down the glass and smeared on the sidewalk outside, not all were as lucky as I was.

We emerged from the building and as the sun washed over me, I felt a sense of calm despite the fact that the ground was still shaking violently. I was relieved to be out of the building. People were gathered on the streets, clinging to each other, to street signs, leaning on cars as the earthquake continued with unrelenting ferocity. I heard a sharp crack and saw a line in the middle of the road. It extended down the entire street, and suddenly the road separated with an unbelievably loud crack, and a fissure split the four lanes in half. People screamed and backed away as the crevice grew larger and wider. Some people fell, trying with every last bit of strength to hold onto someone or something before plummeting into the darkness below. All I could do was back up against the building I had just escaped as the cement cracked and broke, widening the gorge and shortening the amount of space between the building's wall and certain death. We backed up as far as we could, people pushing against one another. Suddenly the quake stopped. I stood there a moment, tightly pressed against the people behind me. We all slowly relaxed and stepped away from the wall, still with several meters between us and the edge. People groaned and cursed at each other, as I am sure they were hurt in the commotion.

I am not sure what caused me to do what I did next, possibly an overwhelming sense of curiosity. I walked to the edge of the crevice and leaned over, looking down into the gaping chasm. It was so deep you could not see the bottom, only expansive blackness waiting to swallow you up. As I leaned back, the cement beneath my feet cracked loose and gave out. I slipped and fell back, bouncing off the edge, instinctively reaching behind me for anything to grasp. My nails scraped against the pavement as I slid over the edge and plunged towards the dark. I couldn't even scream, my throat felt like it was in a vice, my body numb and tingling, and the gut wrenching sensation of falling overcame me-

And I jerked up to a seated position in my bed. I was breathing heavily and my heart raced. I looked around my dark room, realizing it had only been a dream. I let out a sigh of relief and a little chuckle, then gently fell backwards onto my pillow.

Author's Note

My first short, only about 790 words.

Reviews

[Sunflower 20]

i like it, theres alot of suspence and a little bit of rhyming in there too.
the only advise i would give is to change the layout so its easier to read.
other than that, great job!

P.S maybe you could read some of my stories? although they're a bit
longer than yours... ^_^

[Detective Watts]

Nice. The ending was SERIOUSLY cliche though. I mean, I'm fairly happy with cliche's normally but that last paragraph was a bit to much. Can't wait to see the next thing you write.