We didn't know know it was coming. The day started just like any other. Normally the biggest threat to our life is a gun, maybe a bomb, another person. But this threat? We were so unprepared for what Mother Nature would send our way. How do you prepare for something like this?

XxXxXxX

Things are dark when I open my eyes, but I know that's a mistake because it should be just after two in the afternoon. Everything is so quiet, too quiet really, and I can't quite figure out why I'm laying on my back. My right arm comes up to my face to investigate a shark pain in my temple and it comes away slick and coated in my blood and dust.

My eyes begin to adjust as the sun filters through small cracks around me, and I see debris everywhere: pieces of walls, ceiling, cement, furniture, odd and ends. My throat is coated in dust and my lungs must be, too, because I suddenly realize I'm having a hard time breathing. I sit up just enough that I am leaning on my elbows, not able to move my neck too much without my vision going dark around the edges as pain shoots through my neck, back and arms. I see a bookshelf is laying across my legs semi-pinning me down.

My ears begin to ring, starting very quiet, but getting louder and louder until I need to press both hands to my ears. I realize it's not coming from outside, but is a response from my body to what is happening, from the loud crash that occurred just moments ago. Pieces start to come back and I realize what had happened: an earthquake. More than one. It must have been a bad one. I remember a nearby explosion shortly after the earthquakes ended probably as a result of damage that had occurred.

"Maggie?" I force myself to ask despite not being able to get a good breath. I cough a few times and call out louder. "Mags?"

I don't hear a response and start to worry. If I remember correctly, she was just in front of me when it all happened. I force myself to sit up all the way. In front of me, where Maggie should have been the floor is gone, collapsed, though I can't tell how far down from where I am. All I know is we are on the twelfth floor of a high rise. And that's a long way down.

"MAGGIE!"

Two hours earlier-

"Let's just finish this interview and go from there," Maggie says trying to convince me, though I think we've hit a dead end. I'm not sure what she thinks we've missed, but all the suspects of our current case either have alibis or are just pictures from an apartment building that anyone could have been in. It's noon and I think eating lunch is a better way to spend our time than interviewing the one last guy who showed up on film.

I give her the look, but she shrugs it off like she always does when she thinks she's right. Unfortunately for me, she usually is. Finally I nod and she smirks before pulling open the large glass door to the high rise and holding it for me.

"Ladies first," she says teasing, but I ignore her with just the smallest of smiles playing on my lips.

It's more than five minutes before the secretary even gives us a glance while on the phone with someone who sounds important, but I grow tired of the cold shoulder and flash my badge. That gets her attention quickly.

"Oh, I'm sorry," she starts, seeming nervous. "How can I help you?"

"We need to speak with Alexander Jones," Maggie says no nonsense.

"He is out to lunch. Can I take a message?"

"No, we need to speak to him as soon as possible. Do you know where he eats?" I ask.

The secretary shakes her head, though I'm not completely convinced.

"We'll wait," Maggie announces.

As we walk away, the secretary picks up the phone again and I hear her say his name. By the way Maggie looks at me, she hears it to.

"A friendly heads up or a warning?" she muses aloud.

Maybe there is something going on here after all. I can't help but roll my eyes because I can already hear her 'I told you so,' and picture the look she'll have on her face if she's right.

By one I'm tired of waiting, all out of patience. Maggie and I make eye contact, stand and march to the front desk in sync. I notice her name is Samantha.

"Where is Mr. Jones' office? We'll wait there," I say, effectively announcing that I'm not in the mood to play games with just my tone of voice.

"Oh, well... that's not really necessary, is it? You could just try again tomorrow?" she asks shyly. That's when I realize that we've maybe just been played.

"What floor?" I demand again narrowing my eyes and pursing my lips.

"Twelve," she says quietly, eyes slightly wider than before.

I take off toward the elevator and Maggie is hot on my heels.

We arrive on the twelfth floor to a similar waiting room with yet another secretary, but I know we are in the right place because a plaque on the wall announces we've arrived at Lance and Jones Law Office.

Either the secretaries have been in contact, or she just knows she can't hide the fact that Jones is in since we can see him sitting at his desk from the entrance, but she removes herself from behind the desk and motions for us to follow saying, "Right this way, please." She knocks on the open door to get his attention, and Jones smiles at us.

"How can I help you today, Agents?" he asks calmly.

"Do you know Rachel Whitaker?" Maggie questions.

Jones pauses as if In thought before shaking his head.

"No, I don't think so. Should I?"

Are you familiar with the apartment building of the corner of Lexington and 56th street?" she tries again.

"I'm not sure what you are getting at." Jones is trying to act annoyed, but he's a terrible liar.

"Answer the question," I push.

"I'm not... no."

"Interesting," Maggie counters. "Isn't this you in that apartment building just days ago?" She holds out a security camera photo.

I think maybe we've caught him his as the murderer of Rachel and is going to confess on nothing more than a photograph and our good luck, but his hand goes for a desk drawer and in the amount of time it takes him to grab a gun, we both have ours out and pointed at his chest.

"Think about this," Maggie says cool and collected. "Don't do something you can't undo."

"It's too late," Jones says shaking his head. He has a crazed look in his eyes and I know nothing Maggie says will make a difference. I'm about to call it and take the shot before he can pull the trigger, but the room begins to shake, the floor under our feet begins to sway, and the building groans around us.

I know exactly what is happening. I hear a few distant screams as the shaking gets worse and the groaning gets louder. Things begin to crash to the floor and the whole world seems to just go to hell.

Jones, gun dropped and forgotten, lunges toward the door. Maggie is closer to him and jumps on him, taking him down. I try to get in there, but the shaking only grows making it hard to keep my balance. I fall forward and hit my knees and wrists hard, but continue to fight forward trying to help. I see Maggie get a good kick to the jaw as Jones crawls out of her grasp, but she manages to stay on him and get a better hold.

Suddenly a loud crackling noise and boom fills every part of me, reverberating through my head and chest before something hits me in the head.

XxXxXxX

Things are dark when I open my eyes, but I know that's a mistake because it should be just after two in the afternoon. Everything is so quiet, too quiet really, and I can't quite figure out why I'm laying on my back. My right arm comes up to my face to investigate a shark pain in my temple and it comes away slick and coated in my blood and dust.

My eyes begin to adjust as the sun filtering through small cracks around me, and I see debris everywhere: pieces of walls, ceiling, cement, furniture, odd and ends. My throat is coated in dust and my lungs must be, too, because I suddenly realize I am having a hard time breathing. I sit up just enough that I am leaning on my elbows, not able to move my neck too much without my vision going dark around the edges as pain shoots through my neck, back and arms. I see a bookshelf is laying across my legs semi-pinning me down.

My ears begin to ring, starting very quiet, but getting louder and louder until I need to press both hands over my ears. I realize it's not coming from outside, but is a response from my body to what is happening. Pieces start to come back and I realize what had happened: an earthquake. It must have been a bad. I remember a nearby explosion shortly after the earthquake ended probably as a result of damage that had occurred.

"Maggie?" I force myself to ask despite being able to get a good breath. I cough a few times and call out louder. "Mags?"

I don't hear a response and start to worry. If I remember correctly, she was just in front of me when it all happened, tackling Alexander Jones. I force myself to sit up all the way. In front of me, where Maggie should have been the floor collapsed, though I can't tell how deep from here. All I know is we are on the twelfth floor of a high rise downtown. And twelve floors would be a long way to fall.

"MAGGIE!"

The bookshelf across my legs needs to go. Now. I brace myself against it and push to get it off my legs. The part of my right leg that was pinned between the bookshelf and some rubble is bleeding and looks pretty bad, though I don't feel as much pain as I know I should. Adrenaline, I guess.

I pull myself to my knees slowly. The ringing in my ears continues, but other noises are filtering through, though they sound like I'm underwater. I crawl to the large hole in the floor where Maggie used to be and look down. I'm not sure if I'm relieved or terrified when I don't see anything. Maybe both. It's just a lot of rubble and debris, too dark to make out any real details. But I do know if she's down there, she's either hidden, already moved, or covered.

"Maggie!" I shout again. Nothing. No sign of Jones either. I pull out my phone, but am not surprised to see there is no service. The earthquake probably took out all service downtown. Maybe further.

I need to get down there, to see if I can find her, but I know the elevator is out of the question. The stairs are probably close to where the elevator is, so I push myself to my feet and head, slowly, in that direction.

In the two hundred meters or so it takes to get to the elevator, I come across five people in two separate groups. Three will finish today with only mental scars, one appears to have a broken arm from falling, and one has a bad gash across her face. After checking in with them, I continue toward the elevator. One of the five told me how to get to the stairs, but it takes me almost ten minutes to get there with all the furniture and debris in the way.

I have to really shove on the door a few times to get it to open once I find it, and I'm thankful I'm not going up because it's completely blocked about halfway up the staircase. I head down the stairs carefully, but stop as an aftershock vibrates through the building. I feel a little panic at the intense swaying in the building and hear more crashing and breaking from the building around me.

As the floor stills, I continue my descent to the 11th floor. I push the door open and immediately freeze because there in front of me is a huge pile of cement and ceiling. I see a hand reaching out from the pile unmoving. I feel for a pulse, but know there couldn't possibly be one. I wish I was wrong, but I'm not.

The only positive I can think of is that the woman has painted nails. It's not Maggie. I still can't help but wonder about all the people who will miss her.

I continue in the direction of whatever is directly under Jones' office. I don't see anyone else, dead or alive, and am wishing I had some company. The adrenaline is wearing off and my body aches all over. The pain in my head is growing by the moment, and I'm not able to put my full weight on my leg without nearly collapsing.

"Maggie? Can you hear me?" I call out as I approach the location I'm looking for. It's a complete mess. The closer I get, the harder it is to continue forward as I slide between, over, under pieces of the building.

"Mags! Maggie?"

I'm about to start panicking again, not sure what else to do to find her. I start to pick up and move anything I can get my hands on, though it feels like I'm not making any progress. I know I'm dangerously close to losing my mind.

"Damn it, Maggie, where are you?" I'm nearly screaming. I lean against an intact wall to catch my breath when I hear it. The slightest moan, so quiet, I'm not sure how I heard it. But I'd know that voice anywhere.

"Maggie! I hear you! Where are you?"

It's quiet again, and I hold my breath, wondering if maybe I made it up, if I was so desperate to hear her that I convinced myself I did. But then I hear her again.

"OA," she moans.

"Keep making noise! I'm coming."

I start clearing a path in her direction, pausing every now and then to listen to where she might be. I know she's hurt because she hasn't cracked a joke about being stuck and she is still so quiet even with how much closer I am. I must have cleared three layers and moved forward a couple meters, but still she can hardly speak.

I get to a large section of the twelfth floor that is still partially connected above us, but it's long and spreads from wall to wall sectioning off a small part of one corner of the room leaving maybe a two by one meter area. There are little cracks that allow me to peek in, but it's too dark to see much.

"Maggie, are you doing okay? I'm close."

It takes her a minute to respond and from here I can tell how hard she is working to breath. I wonder if she bruised or broke a few ribs.

"It's not good," she manages shakily as I grab my phone out of my pocket again to use as a flashlight.

"I know, but it's okay. I'll have you out of there soon, alright?"

I switch the light on and hold it up to a crack in the barrier between us. It shines on her feet and I move the light up checking for injuries. As I get to her stomach I gasp. Because Maggie didn't only fall ten feet and get trapped behind a cement barrier I can't move. She landed on a steel pipe which has impaled her side just below her rib cage.

AN: Well, that happened. This story started off so different, but I'm glad I went with it because it is so interesting to think about these two trying to survive a situation caused by weather and bad luck instead of other people (and offen more bad luck). Let me know what you think about this unique kind of danger. I'll try to have the next part out by Wednesday depending on how things go. I don't anticipate this being a long one, maybe just two more chapters, but we'll see! Thanks for reading!