Chapter One
The rumbleof the earth as it undulated like a wave, was something Dr. Marie Hughes was never going to forget. She hid under her desk as books and the shelves that housed them tumbled to the ground, and glass shattered all around her. The building groaned as if trying to fight against the wave and was losing.
When would it end?
It seemed interminable, as if the shaking and shuddering of the building had been going on for hours, when in fact it had merely been seconds.
Was the old Guatemalan building the hospital inhabited going to survive? Or was it going to implode around her?
What about the patients who were scatteredaround the three-story building? How many of them were hurt or worse?
What about Mr. Ricco? Her favorite patient. She’d left his room ten minutes before the earthquake hit, his laughter ringing in her ears after she’d told him a lame joke. His eyes were bright with merriment and his smile wide. For a few brief moments she’d taken away his pain. Marie hoped and prayed that he would be alright. That all the patients in the small hospital would survive. Realistically, she was aware that her hope could be misguided.
What would’ve happened if she’d been in the ancient elevator instead of her office? Would the old chains have held the cart?
Finally, the shuddering and groaning stopped. The building creaked and the odd sound of something hitting the ground lessened.
Was it safe for her to move from her shelter?
Or was something waiting for her to move to crush her?
She’d grown up in Los Angeles, so earthquakes weren’t new or an unknown entity for her, but this time it was different.
It was louder.
Stronger.
More aggressive.
Had the epicenter been close by? Is that why itseemed so very different this time to all the other earthquakes she’d lived through. Or was it because the buildings she’d lived in had been built to withstand the effects of earthquakes.
Having the engineering infrastructure that made them sway with the motion and not try and fight it like this building had appeared to be doing, was the reason they didn’t collapse. She was no engineer, so she didn’t have the answers.
Marie counted to sixty and then another sixty before she crawled out from under her desk. Over to her right, there was a hole where a wall had once been. The stone was scattered inside and outside the building. The desk where her colleague had been sitting at only a few minutes ago was crushed. She was glad that Ophelia had gone to check on something when she had. That single action possibly saved her life, unless she had been in another location in the building and hadn’t found a safe place to wait it out.
She coughed as the dust from the collapsed wall settled into her lungs. Quickly she pulled out one of her masks and covered her face. She couldn’t stay where she was. She needed to get out there and help evacuate the building. If there was a strong aftershock, then the odds of the building remaining upright wasn’t great.
Carefully she made her way out of the smalloffice. The sounds of people screaming, crying and moaning appeared louder within the wrecked building.
Glass shards from the windows and bits of the ceiling littered the floor, and Marie took her time making sure the ground beneath her was stable. The last thing she needed to do was injure herself. She would be of no use to anyone then.
What would take her less than a minute to get to the stairwell took her almost five. At least the stairs looked solid and appeared to be safe to climb.
Where is everyone? Am I the only one who survived?
Marie expected to see other staff members making their way toward the patients. The hospital wasn’t staffed with thousands like the inner-city hospital she’d worked in before taking this six-month contract in Guatemala. There was only a staff of twenty. They were stretched thin, but they made it work, and the last couple of months had been the most rewarding of Marie’s career.
She wouldn’t think she was the only one who had made it through, and if she was, then she would do what she’d been trained to do—save people.
Determination fired through her as she made her way to the second floor. The door from the stairwell was hanging off its hinges, and like the first floor, debris was everywhere, but she heardvoices.
“Ophelia?” she called out hoping her friend would answer.
“Marie? Is that you?” Appearing out of the settling dust, Ophelia came rushing forward. “Oh my god, I’m so glad that you’re okay.”
Marie clutched Ophelia close. “I’m so glad to see you. I was so worried. What’s the situation?” she asked, pulling down her mask. As good as it was to see her colleague, there were patients to consider, not to mention everyone who needed medical help outside the hospital walls.
“I don’t know. I haven’t had a chance to look. Juanita has a cut on her head and a possible broken arm. Frederico is okay, but a wall came down blocking the hallway to the patients, he’s attempting to move rubble so we can get through. I don’t know about the other floors.”
