Los Angeles. Two and a half years ago.

“What time are we meeting them?” Lucas asked.

His boyfriend Ahmed leaned out of the hotel bathroom. “Eight o’clock, sugar.”

Lucas and Ahmed had travelled to the City of Angels for the weekend with his Collective teammate and good friend, Brad Jacobs-Brown and his girlfriend Harriet Hamilton. They were celebrating the engagement of Brad’s sister, Tiffany, to her long-time boyfriend Russ Charlton.

The group of six have been friends for a while and shared many evenings and weekends together. Tiffany and Russ lived in LA so it was the perfect excuse for Lucas, Ahmed, Brad and Harriet to fly in and put themselves up in hotels.

“Are you going to be ready in time?” Lucas teased, which got a finger gesture answer.

“Watch it, you!” he called out.

It turned out though when they arrived later at five to eight, they were the first ones to arrive. The elevator doors opened to the top floor roof bar the boys soaked in the bubbling activity and ambience. Trendy young people, couples on dates and after work drinks were all taking place amongst a cool soundtrack of loud house music and sprawling plant features. Thirty storeys up, and the views of Downtown cast against the evening sky were breath-taking.

First to the table, they ordered the first bottle in readiness for the rest to arrive. The remaining four turned up together ten minutes later and excited hugs and congratulations were exchanged in person for the first time since news of the engagement.

“Oh my God you guys, this is so great! Thank you for coming!” gushed Tiffany, setting down in her seat.

“C'mon! Show me, show me!” Ahmed pleaded, reaching out for Tiffany’s hand with the sparkly ring on it. “Good job with that, it's truly beautiful,” he said turning to Russ.

“Oh well I had my sister help me. She’s better with that kind of thing than I am,” Russ laughed.

The evening went on as the friends caught up and discussed early wedding plans and hopes. The drink flowed, food consumed and the music played, drowning the restaurant in chilled out vibes.

By eleven thirty, LA residents Tiffany and Russ announced that it was time for them to go.

“Yeahhh, I'm afraid we’re up early tomorrow, but you guys please stay and have fun!” wished Tiffany, putting her handbag strap over her shoulder.

“Well, if you insist!” Brad joked, having no intention of leaving anytime soon. He gave his sister a hug good bye. “I’m so proud of you, sis. I love seeing you this happy!”

“Thanks Brad. And thank you for sharing tonight with us. I love you.” Tiffany and Russ walked off, through the crowds and towards the elevator door used only for access to the top floor bar and restaurant.

“Shall I get another round in?” Ahmed asked. “What are you all having?”

“You got the last one Ahm. This is mine,” Lucas insisted.

“Ok well I’ll come and give you a hand,” offered Brad, remembering how difficult Lucas finds it to keep a tray of drinks flat.

Once at the bar, Brad spotted his sister get into the just arrived elevator.

“I’m so glad she’s found someone who makes her happy,” Brad confided. Lucas looked at Brad and could see how much he meant that for his sister.

“Yup, he’s a real-” Lucas was interrupted by a text alert. He was able to receive it milliseconds before everyone else due to his cognitive pairing with technology. It was an alert notifying citizens of an earthquake warning when tremors have been detected, but it wasn’t sent out quick enough.

A mild shaking hit the building, which intensified rapidly. The crowd went deftly silent and the music cut out. The noise of glasses banging into each other and plates falling on the floor was amplified by the absence of music.

The trembling eased as suddenly as it started and someone, possibly the general manager of the restaurant, called out, “Is everyone ok?!”

Some diners who had been at tables had got under them and sought refuge from anything that could have fallen on them. The calm also brought with it anxiety that this wasn’t the only tremor they were going to feel. In the distance, an earthquake alert siren sounded across the city.

“There are some people trapped in the elevator!” someone from across the restaurant shouted. Lucas and Brad looked at each other and then ran over.

“Where is it stuck at?” Brad urgently asked one of the members of staff.

“Between floor 27 and 26,” she answered.

“We gotta go and do something,” Lucas said looking around for Harriet and Ahmed. He saw them running over and he beckoned them to be quicker.

“The elevator is stuck between two floors with Tiff and Russ in it,” he explained to them.

“Sweetie, we’re all being evacuated down the stairwells,” Harriet told Brad. “Do you want us to stay with you?”

“No sweetheart, I need you to g-” but Brad was unable to finish. A much stronger, more violent tremor began, throwing people, furniture and serve ware onto the floor in all directions. Even from as high as they were, the rumbling and the growling of the shaking ground could be heard as much as it was felt.

Lucas, Brad, Harriet and Ahmed hit the ground hard, and Brad managed to reach out for a supporting column twenty five metres away with one hand, the other pulling in Harriet close to him. Glass shattered from the windows and the night air came whooshing through. The floor began to crack in multiple places, buckling and bending from the stress and pressure, the tearing of the flooring and the concrete beneath making a deathly crashing sound. The crack got bigger and split the room, with half of the floor dropping and giving way. Screaming people fell, along with the furniture. Brad was forced to let go of Harriet and reach out for the newly formed cavity in the floor.

After a few minutes of aggressive ground seizures, it all eventually eased. This time, there were more screams and shouts, people picking themselves up but now with visible injuries and fresh blood stains on their clothes. Lucas found Ahmed ten metres away and helped to pick him up. He surveyed the scene and found Brad using his elasticity to reach down into the space between the two parts of the floor. People were running to head for the stairwells and get out if they could.

Brad’s neck snaked away from where his body was and headed over the crowds to Lucas.

“Get Harriet and Ahmed to go. Can you go and check on Tiff?”

“Yes, I’m on it. Are you going to be ok here?” Lucas asked. The scene was carnage and there looked to be many lost and trapped in the floor collapse.

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“I’ve got this. We’ve got this,” Brad responded, his head and neck recoiling back to its normal position.

“Ahmed, get Harriet out of here. I’ll see you outside soon, okay?” Ahmed stole a quick kiss before grabbing Harriet and heading for the stairs.

Lucas ran towards the staff area against the flow of the fleeing crowd and began searching for an axe or crowbar. Something to get the elevator doors opened in the elevator shaft that served the exclusive roof bar. There! Tools, including a crowbar. It would have to do, he thought. He ran back out and looked over to Brad who was trying to pull injured people up from the rubble.

The elevator doors were quickly prised open and Lucas peered over the edge, down the shaft. He could see the elevator roof and was relieved it hadn’t made it further down. Along the walls of the shaft were ledges and a tiny ladder on one wall. Lucas stuffed the crowbar down his trouser leg and began to descend, calling out for Russ and Tiffany. As he got further he could see the diminished integrity of the cable system holding the elevator. Once at the elevator, Lucas got off the ladder and gently kneeled on the roof, yelling out again.

“Can you all hear me in there?” In response, the elevator occupants shouted back. From the muffled shouts, he estimated there to be at least seven people in there. “I’m going to try and get you out of there!”

There was a panel that could be lifted to provide access to the inside, which Lucas started to prise open with the crowbar. After three attempts, the panel sprung out and up so he could set it aside. There were cries of relief from those inside. Leaning over, he checked them over and spotted his friends who were happy to see him.

“Thank God you’re here! Where’s Brad?” Tiffany asked.

“He’s fine. Let’s get you out of here first. We’ll have to go one at a time and you’ll have to climb up the ladder back up to the restaurant. I’m really sorry it’s the only way out right now,” he added, noticing fear and reluctance from one woman.

The first person to be boosted out ready for their climb up, was a girl struggling with the claustrophobia of being confined in the elevator. Lucas pulled her up but the shift in weight and motion caused the elevator to groan.

“You’ve got to start going now,” Lucas told the woman before turning back to the trapped. “Tiff, you next?”

“No, take Sandra first.” Sandra was just another stranger from the elevator but she was the scared woman who didn’t like the idea of doing the ladder. With encouragement, verbal and physical, she was lifted up and nudged towards the ladder.

“Just follow her. You’ll be fine. Now go!”

Next up was Kenneth, Sandra’s husband, who was just short of having a panic attack himself. Once he was out, another tremor began, but it was a lot milder and didn’t last long.

“It’s just an aftershock, Kenneth. You’ve got this!” Lucas said hurriedly. Let’s just get everyone out quick, he thought.

“Tiff?” Lucas asked, hoping she’d let him get her out next.

“No, take Lee here. He’s got two kids at home,” she answered. Lee wasn’t as tall and was a bit harder to get out. Lucas stretched out- just… a… bit… more.

“You guys ok down there?” It was Brad. He was looking down on the elevator. Lucas turned to look up and noticed Kenneth was only a few rungs up the ladder.

“Kenneth, get moving will you?! Lee needs to get up soon.”

“Here, grab my hand,” Brad called down, his arm now stretched down the three storeys to Kenneth. He was hysterical at this point and he freaked out at the sight of Brad’s extended arm, releasing his grip and falling back onto the lift floor.

On landing, it clanged loudly, shuddered and swayed. Lucas held still, Kenneth sobbed and those left in the elevator gasped.

There was more creaking and suddenly, the lift completely gave way, the wire giving up and not having the strength to go on. Brad’s hand grabbed onto his friend Lucas instinctively as he started to free fall with the elevator.

Lucas, suspended in the middle of the shaft being held by his friend, shouted out as the elevator fell with Kenneth still laid out on the roof. Those still in the elevator could be heard screaming. Brad pulled Lucas up and over the elevator door on the thirtieth floor.

Sandra then made it up under her own steam but she was hysterical having watched her husband go down with the elevator. Brad swore, relieved he had just saved Lucas from going with the elevator.

“Are you ok man?” he asked, propping himself up on his elbows. Lucas’s eyes were wide, his ability to speak gone. “When did Tiff get out?” Lucas still couldn’t speak. “Lucas, you did get her out?” His eyes widened and he went pale. “Did she get out?!” he yelled.

“She- she… no,” was all Lucas could manage.

Brad collapsed fully on his back. “She was still in that elevator?!” He started to lose it, grief and panic washing over him.

“She w-was helping others to g-get out,” Lucas stammered. He was so close to getting them out.

So close.

“Oh my God, I can’t believe you left her to die, you son of a bitch!”

“Woah! No, no, no! I didn't! Hey, I tried Brad! I really did!” Lucas shouted back through the tears he was fighting back.

“No! No! Don’t you dare. You left her to die! You weren’t quick enough or strong enough to get her out!” he accused, jumping up and spewing a string of swear words towards the object of his hatred and loss. He glared at Lucas, who was now sat against a wall in complete despair.

He didn’t know what to say.

He had tried his best.

He had just lost two of his best friends.

“You’re pathetic,” Brad spat, looking at Lucas cry. “This is all your fault. Don’t you ever forget it.”

The stairwell doors burst open and a team of fire fighters came through, heading to the gaping hole in the middle of the floor. Brad shouted out, a noise of pain and anger rolled into one.

“Brad, I’m so-”

“I don’t want to hear another word from you. Stay away from me.” And with that, he turned and headed for the stairwell, Lucas left to console himself amongst the devastated restaurant.

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In the next issue, Agwé #4, ‘Pure Shores’...

Kimona learns more about the differences between the world she left in 1939 to the world she lives in now, as she tunes into the ocean’s pain.