Aftershock

by Vanessa Acton

  Sasha got this a lot. “I’m fine, thanks!”

  In her head, she switched between two thoughts.

  You’re doing this.

  And: Harper is okay.

  Harper has to be okay.

  18

  Liam

  They saw the hotel from a block away.

  Or what was left of it.

  “The whole thing fell apart,” Liam choked out as he ran alongside Ray. He didn’t have much breath to spare.

  The hotel was a pile of brick. Brick, for goodness sake. Nobody had built with brick in California since, like, 1906.

  This is not good, not good, not good.

  The last time Liam had felt this painful sense of panic was two years ago, when he’d heard about Sasha’s accident. When he’d only known that she’d been rushed to the hospital “in bad shape,” which could’ve meant dead.

  One look at the rubble of the hotel told Liam what this could mean.

  Ray started shouting. “Harper! Harper! We’re coming!”

  Liam wanted to join in but didn’t have enough air in his lungs.

  And where was Sasha?

  Ray reached the wreckage first. He paced the edge of the brick mountain, still calling Harper’s name. Liam caught up just as Ray started climbing.

  “Don’t!” Liam warned him, heaving in air. “You could—cause a shift. Could crush her. Stay off it.”

  “Harper!”

  “If you—shut up—a second—we might—actually—be able to—hear her.”

  Ray went quiet. They both listened for Harper’s voice but heard nothing.

  “Okay,” said Liam. He had his wind back now. “It’s a big building—was a big building. There’s a lot of ground to cover. She could be anywhere. Let’s circle the whole thing. You go left, I’ll go right.”

  He raised his voice to a shout: “Harper, if you’re here and you can’t talk, that’s okay. But if you can find some way to make noise—if you can tap on something, a piece of metal piping, maybe. Any kind of noise . . . We’re listening. We’re here. We’ll find you.”

  He started moving along the perimeter of the ruins. Ray headed in the opposite direction. Smoky, bitter air wafted toward them from another part of town. Liam felt his sweat drying in uncomfortable prickles. Come on, Harper.

  Tap. Tap. Tap.

  It was the sound of one dull, hard object against another dull, hard object. Not as clear and piercing as metal-on-metal would’ve been, but it was audible.

  “Here!” shouted Liam. “She’s somewhere over here! Good job, Harper! Keep it up!”

  Before Liam could stop him, Ray started scrambling over bricks, moving toward the middle of the destroyed structure.

  “Be careful, you idiot!” Liam yelled after him—right before he did the same thing.

  They stopped about a foot away from the source of the tapping. Ray ripped aside a chunk of the ceiling and stared down through layers of debris. Liam thought he spotted a flash of blonde hair. “Harper?” Ray called. “Tap once if you can hear me.”

  Tap.

  Ray’s face split in a huge, stupid grin. “Tap twice if you’re glad we’re here.”

  Tap, tap.

  “That’s freaking emotional blackmail, man,” Liam laughed as he wiped the tears from his eyes.

  Then he stiffened. “Wait a minute. Where’s Sasha? She should be here by now.”

  19

  Sasha

  “Hey, hon, are you okay?”

  Sasha was breathing hard, pumping her arms with all her strength, and focusing on the ground in front of her. She knew a vehicle had pulled up alongside her, but she didn’t look up when she heard the stranger’s voice. Just kept wheeling Peg forward. She was only two blocks from the park. You’re doing this.

  “I’m fine, thanks.”

  “You sure there’s not—someone you’d like to call, or anything?”

  “Nope. I’m doing just fine,” she retorted, still not looking up.

  “It’s just—um—is there any way we can help?”

  In frustration, Sasha raised her head. The guy talking to her was leaning out of a vehicle that looked like a movers’ truck, except that it was bright red. Printed across the side of the trailer were the words Edson Fire Department, Urban Search and Rescue Task Force.

  Sasha rolled to a stop. “You’re not busy?”

  “Just had a false alarm on this block. We’re between calls.”

  “In that case,” said Sasha, “go straight to Neptune Park. Please. I think my friend is trapped in the Prospect Hotel.”

  The guy stared at her, completely caught off guard.

  “I’m serious!” she snapped. “Go! Right now! I’ll meet you there.”

  “You’re sure you’ll be—”

  She hadn’t lost her temper about this kind of thing in a long time, but Harper was worth it. “I CAN TAKE CARE OF MYSELF! WORRY ABOUT HER! GO BEFORE I GET ANGRY!”

  The truck drove off. Later, when Sasha had time to think about it, she couldn’t help but enjoy the expression on the guy’s face. He couldn’t have looked more astonished if she’d stood up and started walking.

  20

  Liam

  “Thank everybody’s gods,” Liam sighed. “There’s a rescue vehicle.”

  And his phone was buzzing: an incoming call, through the video chat app, from Sasha.

  Liam answered it immediately. Sasha’s face appeared, sweaty but otherwise normal. “Are you okay?” he asked. “Where are you?”

  “I’m almost there,” Sasha panted. “But I sent some help ahead of me. There should be a search and rescue truck heading your way—”

  “They just pulled up. I see the dudes getting out now.” He glanced at Ray, who was frantically waving to the rescue workers. “We’re flagging them down. And Sasha—we found her. She’s here, she’s responding to us. That’s all we know for sure, but—”

  Ray’s flailing hand accidentally smacked Liam in the eye. Liam automatically swatted Ray’s arm in response.

  Sasha saw this but ignored it. She was focused on the important point: Harper was alive. “I’ll be right there. I’m going to hang up so I can use both hands. Tell her I’m on my way.”

  Liam grinned. Crap, he was crying again. “I think she knows.”

  21

  Ray

  Hospitals were soul-sucking prisons of fluorescent lighting. And yet Ray was glad to be here. Because this was a part of the hospital for people who were going to be okay. At the moment, he’d rather be here than anywhere else.

  Harper had two cracked ribs and a dislocated shoulder. Oh, and a “slightly punctured lung,” as one of the nurses had called it.

  Not that they hadn’t all seen worse.

  But all three of them showed up ready to pamper Harper.

  “Check this out,” Liam said to her. “I made a ‘We Heart Harper’ playlist on my phone. Let’s get our dance on up in here.” He hit play and the faint sounds of eighties techno filtered into the hospital room.

  “Feel free to ignore that,” said Sasha with a groan. “Here, I made you a card. I had to steal a blank sign-in sheet from the front desk to make it because I didn’t have any paper. Oh—I also stole the pen. I should probably give that back on the way out . . . ”

  “And I,” announced Ray, “come bearing seven candy bars. I used up literally all my change at the vending machine downstairs.”

  It was the best they could do on short notice. Especially considering that only Liam’s home was safe right now. Sasha’s house still needed the gas issue fixed, and Ray’s apartment building was missing its ground floor. Ray and his parents would be staying at Liam’s place. Harper’s dad, who was currently speaking with a doctor in the hallway, had invited Sasha’s family to crash with him for the night.

  Harper didn’t seem to have a problem with their measly offerings. She was laughing and crying and trying unsuccessfully to sit up in the hospital bed.

  “You guys, I’m so sorry for the way I acted before. I can’t bel
ieve I was so horrible about such a stupid—”

  “Harper, it’s okay,” Ray cut in. “Forget it.” Sasha reached out and took Harper’s hand.

  Harper swallowed a hiccup. “I should’ve known I could always count on you guys.”

  “Yeah, you should’ve,” said Liam. “But we really are sorry about Friday. If we hadn’t left you behind—if we’d helped you look for your keychain—maybe none of this would’ve happened.”

  She shook her head. “It was just a keychain. I mean—it wasn’t just a keychain, but a lot of things matter more. I shouldn’t have gone back for it.”

  “To be fair, you didn’t know an earthquake was about to hit,” Ray pointed out.

  “Yeah, but that building’s been condemned for a long time. I knew it wasn’t safe to go poking around in there. I shouldn’t have done that, on Friday or today.”

  “I think each of us did at least one stupid thing today,” said Ray. “So, we’re all in the club.”

  “Even Sasha?”

  “My mom thinks it was pretty stupid of me to go to the park,” Sasha said. “She wishes I would’ve waited for her to drive me—even though driving was also a bad idea. Basically, there weren’t many smart options open to me.”

  “Man, Harper,” added Ray, “I wish you could’ve seen Sasha tearing across the park to get to the hotel. I thought she’d put rocket boosters on Peg.”

  Harper smiled. “I saw you all when the rescue workers got me out. I’ll never forget that.”

  Liam took one of the candy bars. “Well, to quote our book for English class, all for one and blah-blah-blah, right?”

  Sasha laughed. “We’re definitely going to fail that presentation.”

  “On the bright side, school’s closed for a while, so we have time to work on it,” Liam said cheerfully around a mouthful of chocolate.

  Harper laughed too, though she winced a little when it clearly caused her some pain in the rib area. “I’m sure it’ll work out fine.”

  Right then, Ray didn’t think about his damaged apartment building. He didn’t think about how he and his parents would move on and start fresh together. He didn’t think about the days and weeks and months of effort that it would take to rebuild their lives.

  He just thought about his friends: Sasha still wearing her mountain bike tires, Liam shamelessly eating a candy bar he hadn’t bought, Harper smiling as she looked at each of the others in turn.

  They’d been through worse days. They’d get through this one.

  About the Author

  Vanessa Acton is a writer and editor based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She enjoys stalking dead people (also known as historical research), drinking too much tea, and taking long walks during her home state’s annual three-week thaw.