Quake by Andy Remic Page A

pine and disappearing beneath the swaying hotel - which buckled like a melted toy, folding around the dancing flames from the boiler room, debris exploding outwards as the earthquake’s tremors eventually subsided.
    Dust billowed, followed closely by fire. Sirens were still wailing, and helicopter searchlights swept the landscape.
    Behind Carter another section of the hotel collapsed with an inferno roar. He could hear the stampeding of boots.
    He looked down into the woman’s eyes and released a pent-up breath. ‘Thank you,’ she said softly and reached up to kiss his cheek. Carter gazed once more into the darkness that had so very nearly claimed them.
    ‘A close call,’ he muttered—
    And then felt it. A presence, behind him. Carter rolled free of the naked woman’s embrace and stared up at Natasha’s face. Her gaze was unreadable, skin glowing on one side from the hotel fires, eyes gleaming as a helicopter searchlight swept over them.
    Natasha helped the woman to her feet and draped a blanket around her shoulders, talking softly to her as she shivered, fear deep in her eyes.
    Carter shuffled away from the rip in the earth as stones trickled free at the edges and disappeared into deep blackness.
    ‘This day just gets better and better,’ he muttered, finger touching a tiny cut on his face and coming away stained with blood. ‘Fuck me,’ he hissed, gaze transferring from his finger to the abnormal crack in the world’s mantle. A deep sigh escaped his lips and he calmed his raging mind.
    They took the rescued woman to a red and white ambulance that had paramedics swarming round it, helped her into the back, then surveyed the full destruction caused by the earthquake. Rescue and emergency services were stretched to their physical capabilities by this sudden disaster.
    Carter and Natasha watched sadly as brave Swiss firefighters battled the flames. They held one another tightly under the falling snow. A policeman tried to usher them into an ambulance, but Carter waved him away. ‘I need a whisky, not the fucking hospital,’ he drawled.
    They moved away from the throng of emergency services and the darkness started to close in around them away from the lights and the fire. Natasha lifted her ECube into her hand and her gaze met Carter’s. ‘It would seem we have a message.’
    ‘What wonderful timing.’
    Natasha activated the tiny screen, chewed on her lip and then smiled up at Carter. ‘Some shit is going down; we are summoned to an urgent meeting in London, at the new Spiral_H buildings.’
    ‘So, then,’ he pondered. ‘Our plan of action is that we find another hotel, get cleaned up, get some food ... then flag ourselves down some transport and—’
    ‘Now, Carter. They’re coming for us now ... ’
    ‘Bastards,’ said Carter with feeling. ‘They fucking know we’re on holiday. I knew we should have left the ECube at home. Fucking work. Do they know about the earthquake? We’re not in a fit state! We need some R&R!’
    ‘It’s important,’ said Natasha softly.
    ‘Not as important as my down time. Come on, we might be able to salvage something from the cabin - if the bastard is still standing.’
    ‘The police are cordoning off the area - we’ll be lucky to get in. They’ve set up a temporary shelter for the quake victims, further down the mountain pass.’
    Natasha met Carter’s gaze, looking at his steely eyes, the cuts on his face, his dust- and blood-stained clothes.
    ‘Believe me, we’ll get in,’ he said, and taking her hand, led her towards the darkness of the hotel cabins and the yellow police tape.
    As they walked through the snow, a roar echoed from the valley below. They stopped, turning, glancing past the flames and horror of the smashed hotel, and beyond to the glittering town of Zermatt ... The roaring increased, rumbling from below and above, the sounds bouncing from the mountains and hillsides, reverberating and increasing until they became so loud as to drown out