PART 4

CHAPTER 4

The earthquake lasted less than 1 minute but it would certainly take months to repair all the destruction it had caused. Entire constructions had collapsed onto the ground and the ones that remained standing had been seriously damaged, including the school building. In some streets, large holes had been opened and chaos was spread all over town.

Minutes after that horrible tragedy, the noise of sirens filled the air, mixing up with the desperate cries of the ones who had survived the catastrophe. The fire-fighters and paramedics started to work fast, though, due to the magnitude of the disaster, it was difficult for them to know where to begin.

Susan was the first to open her eyes and move, instinctively placing her hands on her belly. The last thing she remembered was being under a wooden table holding Monica and praying for their lives. The Irish angel was lying next to her and when the teacher realised that she was unconscious, she became twice scared. They were now in a partially dark place, with some light bulbs still blinking, underneath tons of concrete. But, somehow, the corridor where they were had been partially intact. Although the access to the stairs was blocked, as well as part of the corridor itself, the beams that supported the building were miraculously able to resist to the impact the earthquake had caused and kept the structure still standing.

As the table they had used for a shelter was a bit small for the two of them and Monica could hardly protect herself, Monica did everything she could to save the teacher, practically forgetting about herself, and when Susan moved to her right side she could notice how hurt the angel was, “Monica? Can you hear me?” she asked, frantically.

But the Irish angel didn’t reply to her calling at first. Susan moved and turned to her friend, carefully touching her bruised skin, “Monica, for Heaven’s sake, answer to me!…” her voice was a crying one. Slowly, and rather painfully, the angel finally moved her head and opened her eyes; a huge block of cement had hit the table, breaking a piece of it, and falling above her leg.

“Oh, thank God, you’re conscious!”

“Susan?… Are you ok? Are you hurt?” Monica’s voice was still weak.

“I guess I’m not so hurt, there are just some scratches. You protected me and now you are the one who’s hurt!”

Carefully, Monica placed her hand on her forehead and could feel the blood flowing from a nasty cut, “I’ll be fine…” she tried to move, but her leg was stuck under the concrete, “I can’t move my leg …”

“Let me help you…”

Gathering all her courage, and still trembling with shock, the teacher abandoned their shelter. The wooden table that protected them was nearly destroyed, like everything else around them, and the constant blinking of the light bulbs allowed them to have an idea of the real state of the school.

“Jesus… We’re stuck in here, Monica…”

“At least the children had already left the building when the earthquake started…” the Irish angel replied, and, a second later, a memory made her heart jump, “…Andrew and Grace!…”

*

Not far from where Monica and Susan were, at the laboratory, Andrew opened his eyes and looked around him: destruction was everywhere and a sensation of panic was creeping over him as the worry for the people inside the building. He was also hurt, that was true, but fortunately, the board where the students used to do their experiments served as a shelter for him and for the little girl who was still clutching his t-shirt with her small hands.

“Grace?” he called, and heard a quiet sob in response. Immediately, he pulled away just enough to look at her pale and scared face. She remained voiceless, with tears in her eyes and couldn’t even breathe properly, much more because of the tragedy that had just taken place. She had scratches and bruises in her arms and face and her clothes, as well as his, were covered with dust.

“It’s over now, sweetie... Everything will be alright now, just try to stay calm, ok? It was an earthquake, but the tremors are over...”

“I... I’m so scared...” she sobbed, holding the blond angel, and started to cry again.

“Shh... Everything will be alright now, honey...”

“You promise?”

“I can assure you that God is with us, dear, and He is watching over us all...” he wasn’t just referring to both of them but also to his dearest friend and Susan.

“Can God see us now?” she asked, somewhat hopefully and trying to control her tears.

“Oh, yes, dear, He can.” Andrew smiled shortly with the spark of hope in the girl’s voice, “And we must trust that He will take care of us. But there are two other people here in school, Monica and Susan were helping me to find you...”

“I came down here cause I lost one of my books and I thought it was here... But I should have gone home, to finish my homework, as Monica told me... Now I’m stuck here...”

“We will find the way out of here, dear... Now that the tremors have stopped we have to find Monica and Susan and get out of this place. Come, I’ll help you.” he placed some strands of her hair behind her ear and, slowly, they moved from under the huge wooden lab table, now partially smashed.

*

The firefighters started the procedures to rescue people stuck under the debris in the neighbourhood and also in the school. As time went by, lots of people who had survived the earthquake started to arrive at the city hospital, taken by the several ambulances sent to different points of the city. The school building had been seriously damaged, but the people who were cleaning it at the moment of the tragedy were in another annex and the firefighters were able to rescue them.

“Sir, do you know have any idea of how many people were in the building? Were the kids inside?” a fireman asked.

“... no... the classes had already finished...” one of the employees said, extremely hurt, and lost consciousness a second later.

“Take the stretcher, let’s take this man t the hospital, quick!”

At that moment, a red Cadillac and a caravan stopped almost together nearby the school and their drivers got out of the vehicles almost at the same time: the same look of perplexity and an immediate feeling of panic and despair crept over them.

“... Oh Father... Please... Please tell me that’s not true!...” Tess prayed.

The man who had got out of the car practically together with her gave a few steps away from the vehicle and couldn’t believe in what his eyes were seeing, “Susan! Susan!” he shouted, immediately trying to make his way to the building.

A firefighter came towards the two newcomers and stopped them from coming closer, “Sir, madam, please, stay away, this is a risky area, you can stay together with those other kids, over there.” he pointed to the children who were in the school bus.

“No! You don’t understand, my wife, she’s a teacher in this school, her name is Susan Bale!” the man insisted, causing Tess to stare at him twice scared.

“Well, apparently there weren’t other people inside the building, sir, just the people in charge of cleaning the school, but they are being rescued by now.”

“Are you sure there aren’t people in the building?” the angel asked, though fearing the answer.

“Yes, I’m positively sure. One of these people has just told us...”

A middle aged man, with some bruises on his face, came closer to them, “No! You’re making a mistake here! There were people inside the building!”

“What are you saying?!” the firefighter asked, now surprised with that piece of information.

“There was one little girl missing. Andrew, the school bus driver, went inside to look for her.”

Those words were enough to make Tess’ heart jump in her throat. But the man hadn’t finished his report.

“And there were also 2 teachers inside the building: Mrs Bale and Monica. It was Mrs Bale’s last day, so Monica was helping her to pack her things.”

Hearing that, the fireman turned to his colleagues and shouted, “There are people under the debris! Let’s move on, we have to find them!”

The man who had just arrived ran his fingers through his hair in complete despair, “It’s my wife who is in there! She’s pregnant! She’s 8 months pregnant! Please, please, help her!” he pleaded, as the firefighter tried to back him and Tess off.

“We’ll do everything we can, sir.”

Quietly, Tess closed her tearful eyes and offered a silent prayer. She covered her mouth with her hand a minute later, “... my angel babies... Please, I beg You... let them be safe... Take care of them, Father...”

*

In the basement floor, Monica and Susan finally managed to remove the block of concrete that had fallen on the angel’s leg, and, with a lot of effort, she also stood up and went back to the corridor, contemplating the destruction around them, “How are you feeling?” she asked, forgetting about her own injuries and extremely worried about Susan’s condition.

“I’m terrified, Monica! We’re buried in the basement under a three floor building! Look at the stairs: it’s fallen to pieces! What’s gonna be of us now?” she cried, her hands were shaking with fear.

But Monica held them in her own, “The first thing we should do is to remain calm, Susan...”

“How can I possibly be calm, Monica? Look around us!”

“Susan, please, you’re carrying a life inside you!”

The teacher placed her hands over her belly and cried, “My baby... What’s gonna happen to us now?”

“Honestly, I don’t have any idea of what’s going to happen in the next few hour. But I do know that, whatever happens, God is with us and He’ll be watching over His children. And that’s the most important thing to have in mind, always.”

Although she was desperate, the teacher sensed the truth in the angel’s words and nodded her head. Monica looked the corridor ahead of them: besides her assignment, there were two other people down there and one of them she loved wholeheartedly.

“Andrew! Can you hear me?!” she shouted, “Please, answer to me!... Andrew!”

The passage was almost completely blocked, but the sound of her voice immediately reached the blond angel’s ears, bringing relief to his worried heart.

“Monica...” he whispered, still holding a crying Grace in his arms, “Thank you, Father...” he turned to the little girl and gently stroked her cheek, “Come with me, sweetie.”

They left the lab, but didn’t go very far, as the corridor was blocked by a pile of wreckage which nearly touched the ceiling. He and Grace were in one side of it, and his dearest friend and Susan, in another.

“Monica? Are you ok? Are you hurt?” he cried, his heart still filled with worry.

Hearing her dearest friend’s voice, the Irish angel heaved a sigh of relief, “Susan and I have some scratches...” she avoided telling him about her leg, “What about you and Grace?”

“We are fine, but now all of us need to stay together.”

“There’s no way we can remove so many blocks of concrete, Andrew. How could we ever reach you two?”

But the blond angel was already working on it: he climbed the pile of concrete and started to remove the upper blocks carefully.

“I guess I can open a passage here. If you and Susan climb up these blocks, you can come to this side. We have first aid material inside the lab.”

“Ok...” Monica replied, secretly yearning to hold her dearest friend. But those moments of relief soon ended: pieces of the ceiling above Monica and Susan started to fall, and the whole structure threatened to collapse at any moment.

“Oh no! No! God, please, don’t do this with us!” the teacher pleaded, despair taking control over her once more.

Although she was also scared, Monica held the teacher and tried to calm her down, “Ease Susan, we’ll get out of here...”

Andrew started to work twice faster, terrified with the impending tragedy. But the pieces were falling down quickly and a big crack appeared on the ceiling, now causing both angel and teacher to be terrified.

“Please, Andrew, be fast or we’ll die here!”, the woman pleaded.