Reese stumbled over to me and fell down beside my legs. I crouched down next to her, and we covered our heads with our arms. The little white tiles came off the walls around us, falling like ceramic snowflakes onto the ground. A few hit me, sending a sharp pain to my fingertips, cutting into my skin on my forearms.

“I think we need to get out.” I yelled.

“If we go outside we might get hit by the light wave.” Reese answered.

“Maybe, but if we stay here we might get crushed.”

The shaking suddenly stopped and things went quiet apart from the sound of the occasional piece of debris still hitting the floor from above.

Covered in dust and tiny pieces of glass in concrete, we got up and gently dusted ourselves off. The gymnasium hadn’t fared well in the shaking, the outer walls to the shower room had been damaged and offered no protection from the outside.

I could see out into the main gym and the bleachers that had only recently held cheering fans were now just a twisted mess of metal and shattered concrete blocks.

The basketball hoops hung limply casting long shadows across the once polished wooden floors which were now cracked and splintered into varying sections. Strewn across the floor were mangled pieces of gym equipment and shattered glass from the trophy cases.

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“We are lucky that we were in here.” I breathed as I took in the devastation and destruction in front of us.

“Yes, but we won’t be lucky for long if we stay here. We’re exposed now with that wall missing. That light that causes the disintegration process could come in more easily.” Reese said, looking around us, studying the damage and pointing to the end of the shower block where the back wall of the room had fallen away.

“When the next wave comes we’ll count out how long the attack goes for to give us a clearer sense of both durations of earthquake timing and non-earthquake timing.” I suggested, thinking that if we knew both parameters we could work out a solid plan to help us escape to the car park.

“Agreed.” Reese replied, looking at me with tired eyes. “I don’t know how much more this building will be able to withstand. I think we count the next wave, gather the data and move as soon as we can.”

The sound of glass breaking came from out in the main entrance and made us both jump. It was followed by the sound of something metallic being dragged, scraping the broken floorboards. Shivers ran up the back of my neck as my imagination went into overdrive at the thought of what could be causing it.

Reese pushed me behind her and got into a combative stance, fists clenched in anticipation of what was coming. I braced myself too and saw a metal rod laying on the ground. I reached out and grabbed it, holding it like a baseball bat ready to swing into action.

“Prepare yourself Ariah.” Reese whispered.

I gulped.