“Cough… cough!”

Danny stood up shakily from the ground while coughing heavily. The shakes had just stopped after 5 minutes of helplessness. There was just nothing anyone could do when the earth itself brought you down on your knees. The only thing Danny and his classmates could do was wait it to pass.

Danny waved his hands in front of his face trying fruitlessly to disperse the concentrated dust lingering in the air in order to breathe more easily and to better see around him.

After getting up Danny started to take in his surroundings. It was a scene of pure chaos, there was rubble, broken glass and furniture mixed with pieces of random debris scattered all over the floor. The peaceful coffee shop of just a few minutes ago was no more. It was as if a bomb had exploded in the middle of the room, leaving nothing unscathed.

“Is everyone alright?”. Danny asked his classmates that were also starting to recompose themselves near him.

When the quakes got too hard to bear, people scattered. Some had thrown themselves on the floor placing their hands over their heads to protect it from any falling objects. Some went hiding under the tables seeking any form of shelter, even if a flimsy one.

Danny in particular rushed towards the door to the kitchen of the café. During his preparations last week, he had read many articles about survival in the most varied situations. Danny didn’t expect a natural disaster when guessing what might happen, but luckily, he was well informed on what to do in a wide range of scenarios.

He remembered seeing somewhere that in case you found yourself in the middle of an earthquake, to avoid getting buried, one of the safest places to hide was under doorframes, provided you took care to not get slammed by the door itself.

Hiding under the tables was also a sound choice, however, in that split second, Danny feared that the tables might give in under the strain of the rubble falling from the ceiling, burying him underneath. What he was most concerned about was getting stuck, since he didn’t think there would be any rescue coming and even if there was, it would probably take a while.

Danny then chose to take his chances under the doorframe that led toward the café’s kitchen. Seeing that a few tables got broken down during the commotion proved that Danny had made a wise choice.

“I’m okay”.

“Me too, I just bruised my elbow when diving under the table”.

His classmates got up while indicating they were safe. Luckily it appeared that none of them took cover under the most ravaged spots. None of them had suffered any serious injuries as well, only spotting a few bruises here and there.

“Meredith! No!”.

Their assessing of each one’s situation got interrupted by a heart wrenching wail. Looking at the direction from where the scream had come from, Danny saw the elder man holding his wife’s head and shoulder, while trying desperately to pull her out from under a big pile of rubble.

It looked like a part of the ceiling gave in while the earthquake was ongoing, falling right where the couple had been staying just a few minutes ago. The pieces of concrete, mixed with glass and wood completely buried the woman’s lower body. Everything under her chest got crushed under the immense weight pressing on her.

The old lady probably died immediately and hopefully didn’t have to suffer too much. Her eyes were open wide clearly portraying her inner feelings of surprise and disbelief of her sudden demise. Around her unburied upper body part, there was a pool of blood rapidly growing, mixing with the setting dust to form some kind of sandy blood clot.

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She probably didn’t even get a chance to scream in pain, which is why her husband was only realizing her predicament now most likely.

Although it was already night time, some sparse lights came through the broken windows and, together with the clear skies and moonlight coming through the new added holes on the roof of the building, allowed Danny to have fairly good grasp of the nightmarish scene inside the ruined coffee shop.

“Please help me! Help me get her out! I need to take her to the hospital!”. The despairing man looked towards Danny and company pleading for assistance.

Everybody could clearly see that the woman was gone and there was nothing that could be done. The man was having none of it however. He kept digging frantically with one hand, trying to free her corpse while holding her close with the other arm, as if afraid that she would disappear if he let go.

“What are you standing there for?! Come help me! Quick!”.

The old man scolded his audience for their inaction. However, that only served to fuel the feelings of sympathy and pitying gazes he was receiving all around, with no one approaching him.

What should they even do in such a situation? The woman was dead. There was nothing anyone could do to change that. They might instead get injured if they carelessly moved the rubble that was on top of her around.

Of those present, the one most familiar with the couple was the clerk that at some point joined Danny and gang while they were watching the poor man’s futile efforts.

The old couple were regular clients at the coffee shop, coming almost every day to enjoy the peace and quiet in their retired routine. The boy had some kind of friendship with them even though they enjoyed their solitude and mostly kept to themselves.

During the last months he worked at the place, the waiter got increasingly familiar with them and their habits, and even chatted with them on a few occasions. He wanted to help the old man, but he didn’t know what to do.

The clerk felt conflicted inside. For one he wanted to do something, anything to help, be it getting closer to help the man dig, or to draw him away from the grisly scene. He shouldn’t have to see his wife like this, that wasn’t how the man would probably want to remember her.

On the other hand, the boy felt stuck in place while he watched the elder, he grew accustomed to see as a calm and composed person that rarely smiled, so frantically pushing aside the obstacles between him and the rest of his wife, to the point that his nails were coming of and his fingers bled.

That scene in front of him felt so personal and intimate, so filled with raw and unhinged emotion that he simply had no right to intrude upon. It was as if he was watching a play while shackled in his seat, impeded from taking any action and interfering.

Him, Danny and the others watched silently without uttering a sound, in some kind of an unspoken agreement. It was as if any word uttered would taint that sacred trance, pointing out to the wailing man that his wife was gone, and no one wanted to be the bearer of such news.

They held their breaths for a few moments, and when Danny finally couldn’t wait anymore and approach the man to tell him to let her go, something completely unbelievable and out of what anyone present thought possible actually happened, shattering that previous status quo.

The change was not a good one though. The woman everyone previously assumed dead suddenly groaned before rapidly moving before anyone could react. She grabbed the old man’s head with both hands before pulling him towards her and taking a huge bite out of his neck.

The man barely had time to feel joy at his wife signs of life before an excruciating pain made him scream with every single breath he had.

Danny stopped his step midway when that horrific scene presented itself before him. All around him people were caught off guard and stared in shock at the flailing man, while their minds drew blanks, not fully comprehending what they were witnessing.

Their hesitation was understandable though. The change in situation was way too fast, their mind simply could not keep up with the changes both in terms of facts and feelings.

The stupor only last for a moment though, before the room exploded into action. Some screamed in terror, some cursed to chase away their inner fears, some rushed towards the screaming elder to help separate him from the arms of his wife.

Everyone chose different courses of action at that moment, while having similar terrified feelings within. Danny’s inner thoughts were very different from those around him though.

While everybody else was fretting over what they should do and trying to comprehend what they were witnessing, while acting purely on instinct, Danny grabbed his backpack that was lying on the ground and ran towards the man while thinking:

“What the fuck?! Since when do demons have anything to do with zombies?!”