Emma knew she was falling before she felt it, covering her head. There was just a rush of air, and she was sure she screamed, but there was a ringing in her ears that made her hear nothing at all. The fall felt like it lasted an eternity, and then she was colliding with the ground, painfully.
Suddenly, it was like she could hear again, only it was all so much louder. She could hear explosions and screams, and the sound of feet thundering around her. She had enough presence of mind to scoot aside, in between the two cars she'd fallen close to so she wouldn’t get trampled. Everyone else must have finally seen what she had and they weren’t taking their time, anymore.
It all sounded like some tragic movie scene, and all she could do was lie there and shake, too afraid to try and move, feeling the ache in her body from her slam into the ground, but she couldn’t tell if she was hurt. She could hardly think at all.
Then she felt hands on her back, and she knew instinctively it was Chase. She realized he was saying something, but she couldn’t hear him, not around all the noise in the atmosphere, in her own mind.
How long had it all taken, from the time she saw the plane coming down, threw herself out of the car and started running? It felt like it an eternity, and yet all that energy was suddenly gone. She felt she would fall if she tried to get up, and wondered if it was an after effect of the adrenaline.
When the explosions finally subsided, Emma looked up. She met Chase's eyes as soon as she pulled her arms from around her head. She pushed so she was sitting up, ignoring Chase's anxious expression for the moment, glancing around.
From this vantage point, all she could see were running legs all around There was fire and smoke everywhere coming from the direction everyone was running from. Slowly, standing up with Chase's help, she stared around at the aftermath.
The town was wild, with people running away or staring in awe at the wreckage. Emma couldn’t understand why it wasn’t horror, why people would stand to watch the carnage when it made her stomach sick. And of the ones running, some tripped, and they either tripped others or got trampled. Those that wouldn’t move were shoved off to the side, but those that fell either picked themselves up or let themselves get stepped on. It was chaos like she'd never seen, never thought she'd have to see.
She didn’t want to, but she turned around to watch the direction they were all coming from. She'd already noticed the smoke and fire, but seeing it was a different matter. She felt her heart clench, even though her mind was suddenly too silent. The feeling of morbid curiosity overcame her—was that why there were people just watching?—she stepped onto the hood of the car in front of her so she could see the extent of the damage.
How far had she run away? Because it seemed to have been a great distance, though she hadn't had much of a head start, maybe a handful of minutes, if even that. A shudder went through her body when she considered, momentarily, how it could have ended for her if she hadn't seen it coming. Then she saw it, Chase's car, crumpled under the plane. It wasn’t completely gone, but the front was crushed, and it had pushed the back of the car up so she could see it above others still lined on the streets. The familiar paint, even though she couldn’t see much of the vehicle itself, made her sure it was the one. She just stared at it, tempted to get closer even though she was sure, and she knew that she narrowly escaped.
Chase as well, actually. When she pulled herself out of her mind, she realized he was still right there beside her. She let herself down and stood next to him. He was messing with his phone, looking frustrated and like he wanted to throw it, probably at one of the people running around screaming like crazy even though everything else had settled.
"What is it?"
He shot a quick glance at her. "I'm fucking trying to call an ambulance, but my stupid phone isn’t working," he snarled at the innocent object in his hands.
It startled Emma for a moment, because Chase wasn’t one to curse easily, and they few occasions it did happen still surprised her. Bus she supposed she couldn’t exactly blame him with the current situation. She glanced around again, glad she'd thought to move out of the way or she likely would have been stomped on. She stood between the rear and front of two cars, and the only reason no one had bumped into either of them, was because everyone was rushing for the free path between the lines of cars.
Finally noticing what she was doing, and giving up on what he was trying to do, he looked around as well and noted the craziness surrounding them. His arm went around Emma's shoulder in silent support, and she leaned into him gratefully. The adrenaline must have been washing out of her bloodstream, because she suddenly felt weak. Not enough to collapse, but she really wanted to.
Then Emma was reminded of her sister's threat that the world would end, and felt her eyes widen slightly.
Was there... even the slightest possibility that she hadn't been spouting more nonsense...?
No, it couldn’t be.
She calmed herself, knowing the world wasn’t over yet, but searched for a better reasoning.
But what could possibly have caused what just happened? Electricity going off everywhere was one thing, but cars and planes didn’t have any electrical connections on the ground, there was no reason why they also shut off. Then she heard a scream that cut off her thinking and she looked around to see that most of the people had gotten away, but there were some that couldn’t. She looked around, knowing what she had to do, but looking for help that wasn’t available.
So she shook Chase's arm until he glanced down at her. "We should try and help out. We can't just wait for an ambulance that might never come."
He glanced down at her, his jaw firmed in determination. "Let's go."
They got closer to the wreckage, and her heart started fluttering again, moving too fast. She didn’t want to be too close to this thing. Especially once they got close enough and saw it was uneasy, unbalanced on the cars. Light metal groaning made her shiver, as she imagined it falling and attempting to crush them yet again. Even though morbid curiosity was still there, she stopped herself from looking too closely at Chase's car. Only the front of it was crushed, which meant they would have died—or Chase would have, if he hadn't followed her like she'd thought, hoped.
She shuddered, not wanting to think about what would have happened if he hadn't trusted her enough—or cared enough to go after her even though he thought she was acting a bit insane.
"Be careful, Chase," she warned as they headed for a car.
It was too close to the plane, and it looked so much bigger up close. She'd expected that, but it was a little scary. For a second, she wondered whether trying to help was worth it, but then she felt a twinge in her chest and felt guilt for even thinking of turning back. Besides, she'd already gotten this far.
The first car she approached had a young coupe inside. She knocked lightly on the glass but neither of them seemed to notice or move.
"Hey!" she called, knocking on the glass again. "Can you hear me?"
Still no movement. After a few seconds when they didn’t try to communicate back, she glanced over at Chase on the other side of the car. He was trying to open the door, but it was obviously locked. The man sitting on that side had his head on the window, so he couldn’t exactly crack that. It was clear they were hurt, likely unconscious. Neither one looked like they could wake up to undo the locks.
Suddenly, the sound of groaning metal grew louder. Emma looked up at the ominous sound, and felt her eyes go round.
"Chase!" she all but screamed, but he must have seen it with her, because he was coming around to her side and taking her elbow.
The airplane began to tilt, some metal screeched as the cars already under it were being crushed as it moved. They were forced to abandon the hurt couple to save themselves. It wasn’t ideal, but there was no time to think. They didn't get too far, but it was far enough that when the plane fell and rolled, they weren’t nearby to feel the damage. A few more cars were crushed, but there wasn’t an explosion this time.
There was a crash that shook the ground when the one of the wings hit the ground and stopped it from moving, then a painful screech that made them both cover their ears as the wing snapped, and another mini quake when the body of the plan landed on the ground. They stumbled, holding onto each other to stay on their feet.
Emma looked back when everything settled again, horrified that the couple she had just tried to save must be dead. She didn’t think she could try to get that close again, but there might still be people around. She was lucky enough to be fine, and she hadn't managed to save the couple, but there were still people that would need help. She wouldn't play the coward and just run again, not when she could help someone, the help she would like to have had she been the one in trouble.
"Do you still want to go back over there?"
She looked up to find Chase looking down at her. Emma wasn’t sure she would be able to speak, so she gave a sharp nod. A smile flit across his face, there and gone in a second.
"We can still help some others while we wait for help from the ambulance." He frowned and looked around. "Or at least any medical personnel that can manage to get out here."
Right. If all cars weren’t working, it made sense neither would an ambulance. But without working phones, how could they even contact anyone?
Though they might not need to. The crash was loud enough up close, it could have been had from a bit of a distance. It was the best they could hope for, that or one of the screaming runners thought to go get help.
Emma thinned her lips. She couldn’t think of that, not just then. She had to believe help was coming someway, somehow. If she waited to think about it, she was going to have a breakdown. There was some internal amusement as she thought that, remembering the same thing nearly happened to her just the day before. The problems she'd thought were so overwhelming then paled in comparison to the current situation.
"It's the end of the world, kids. I'd suggest you help yourselves."
The voice was unexpected, it startled Emma enough to give a small squeak. She and Chase turned around, only to freeze. An old woman stood behind them, and she had a gun in her hand.
