Jed’s expertise and words of encouragement were all that our small group needed, something to push us onwards to freedom. Battered, bruised, and impaled, we were all worse for wear but all able to move in our own ways. The screeching of Jed’s wheels, the skipping of footwear against the dusty floors, our journey was a mash of annoying sounds that kept me grounded as pain circulated my body.

I could complain all day, but seeing the others’ wounds, I couldn’t help but feel like whinging wouldn’t do much help. The feelings were impacted even more as the corpses of the less fortunate continued to rear their ugly, lifeless, faces across the floors. Did I ignore them to this point, or was my spot just clear of any victims?

Whatever led to these events didn’t matter, it had happened and I had to deal with it. Keeping pace with the others, I was set to walk aside the other man with a fucked arm. We exchanged names, his being Neil. He was a bit shorter than me, and younger at 19, though his hair probably masked both of those points as it was down to his back. Long, dirtied, blonde hair. I could have sworn he was in his 20s at first glance.

It seemed Neil was going to apply for a new job, though the collapse put a heavy damper on those plans. Thankfully he thought he might be able to apply for reimbursement or “sorry funds” for being hurt in the earthquake. I wasn’t too sure he would get much, aside from free medical care. Possibly a disability allowance if his arm came out unusable. We bonded over our limb damage, bringing some laughter into the dark underground.

The women were all friends, chatting ahead of Neil and myself. Reminiscing their lunch meetup was all they had to worry about was the splitting of the bill at the end. Lending aid to their friend whose leg looked a state worse than my arm, they hobbled forward closer to Jed. The hobbling was similar to my own as I fought back an unconscious state from the loss of blood and the pain of my wounds.

As we continued on in the abyssal tunnels, a new sound started to fill the cavernous hole we found ourselves within. Instead of rumbling or shifting of rock, we heard the repeated sound of a helicopter’s propeller. Smiles appeared across all our faces at the sound of rescue.

“Hey! We’re down here!” Jed shouted.

“We’re stuck in the shopping centre!” one of the women added.

“Can you hear us?” another continued.

Instead of an echoey return, we were met with the continued noise of the constant propeller and our own breathing. I could feel a sinking feeling in my chest, which I am sure the others felt the same, as we could only think that our cries went unheard.

“We’re near an exit, we just need to get there”, Jed reassured us all.

The group all agreed with nods, yeahs, and even hastened steps as they marched onwards. Both Neil and I were the ones who had no idea of the underground’s designs, the others were knowledgeable, so we followed their lead.

Turning corners, vaulting debris, picking up the wheelchair to clear short walls. We all worked together to get out as a group. Each step caused the propeller noise ahead to get louder and clearer, we were obviously going in the right direction. With incredible tunnel vision, we started to get faster and riskier in our movements.

I could see that the bandages of the impaled-leg-lady were becoming bloodied as she pushed herself harder than she needed to. I didn’t say anything, why would it matter when we are saved?

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Steps got louder as we became heavy-footed in our approach to the stairwell to heaven. Large light shafts shone down to us as the rubble-hugging stairs were still clear enough to climb, if a bit difficult for Jed. Our group started to laugh and cheer as escape was within our grasp.

“Here!” one of the women shouted.

Getting close to the stairwell we could make out the top, the sun shining off the yellow tape of police lines. The blinking red and blue lights of emergency vehicles and the chatter of people above.

“Get back!” a manly voice yelled from above.

His voice was followed by a stampede of feet and screeching tyres, moving away from the exit.

“Wait!” Jed called out to them.

They were running for no reason, the rumbling returned. I could hear the sound of cracking concrete ahead, car alarms, alongside the emergency sirens. Another earthquake erupted throughout the underground as we all tumbled to the floor from the shaking. Rocks started to fall from the roof, as well as new buildings crashing into the underground.

Showing her true colours, one of the healthier ladies ditched her friends as she darted for the stairs. Jumping and clawing her way upwards, she made it halfway before the roofing of the stairwell cracked, crashed, and came tumbling down. Letting out a final shriek of fear, she was crushed under the debris, a loud crunch and crash as she was now one with the earth.

“Away from the stairs!” I called out, pulling Neil to the side.

Jed pushed fast on his wheels to back away, the two remaining ladies hobbling to a far wall. As we all retreated, the rumbling got worse and worse, the ceiling completely falling in as the stairway was no more. With it came another rush of dust and grey smoke, leaving us all in a choking mess when the shaking finally stopped.

Coughing out a mess of phlegm and dust, I try to get the others’ attention. “Everyone ok?”

Shoddy replies of hums and coughs are what I get, followed by a shrill scream from one of the women. I quickly scramble for the torch as I move it around to see what is happening. The half-crushed body of one of our fellows could just be seen poking out from a large boulder, lifeless eyes full of tears and spatters of blood from her lower body.

Looking at her mangled body makes my stomach turn again, irritating me to no end as my head is already a mess from the loss of blood. My knees shake either from shock, or as an aftermath of the earthquake, as I fall to my ass after losing my footing.

“Shit, shit, shit”, Neil repeated over and over.

Our morale was cut to ribbons at seeing our exit destroyed, even more so after another person lost their life to the quakes and collapses. It hurt on a whole other level, after knowing the person before they had died, alongside the potential of them being able to escape with us.

Any thought of anger or feelings that she was selfish faded away, as they were covered in mourning and depression. Sure she ran to save her own ass, but who could blame her in this situation, for all we know she was going to get help for us or to let people up top know we were down here. I am sure as hell no mind-reader, so all I can do is hope her intentions were pure.

“Damnit. Hey! Anyone up there!?” Jed yells to the collapsed ceiling.

The echoes, the fucking echoes are all we get in return. The sound of propellers has long since gone, alongside our hope of escape to the surface before more of it comes down on us.

“Fucking hell. Fuck!” Jed continues to yell in frustration.

“We’re gonna die down here”, one of the women starts repeating.

“There’s gotta be another way out”, the impaled-leg lady states.

Heads dart around, to one another, looks of desperation across all of us. I can’t give any input, I haven’t even seen a damn map to this point, just directions on boards to the shops… Wait, the directions!

I quickly move to another set of directional arrows, most are useless to me but my eyes lay on one. A homeware store that notes how many floors it contains, going all the way from the underground floors into a taller topside building. I knew I had seen something like that at one point, the wonders of sectioning out your wares to make it easy to find what you need.

“Here! We can go through this store to the surface if it’s still there!”