Second Chances in New Port Stephen - Chapter 26

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Second Chances in New Port Stephen - Chapter 26

It lasted for what seemed like forever and also not long enough. When Nick straightened, his
lips were wet. Eli watched them part, like Nick was about to say something.
Then came the groan.
“Did you hear that?” Nick got his flashlight out again, sweeping the light through the dark.
Eli was too busy trying to compose himself to really register what was happening. He blinked,
his hands falling away from Nick. “What?”
“Listen.”
Eli froze, hearing the sound again, but closer this time. Like there was someone in the room with
them making a pained moaning sound that morphed into a screech.
“It’s coming down,” Eli whispered. Then, louder: “Nick, the building’s coming down!”
“Go, run!”
They raced for the door, lights bouncing, the grind of steel and concrete loud in Eli’s ears. He
slipped on something wet and went down on one knee. Nick hauled him up by the arm.
Eli couldn’t stop chanting, “We’re going to die, we’re going to die.” And in the most pointless
way possible. Fuck, the headline would haunt his family for generations. Florida Men Destroy
Abandoned Building, Themselves.
“Get up, we’re not dying,” Nick said, and then immediately tripped over a broken chair that was
in their path.
Now Eli was the one pulling him toward safety. The ground under his feet seemed to go all
liquidy for a moment, like the earth had given up on being solid. There had been an earthquake
on the eastern seaboard about a decade ago, with the tremors reaching New York, and all Eli
could think was it was happening again. Except Florida didn’t get earthquakes, did it?
“We have to move!” He yanked at Nick’s wrist until he was upright, and together they stumbled
out of the library’s gaping maw. Eli looked around wildly with his phone clutched in one hand.
Everything was shaking, tilting slightly to the left: trees, fences, the surrounding buildings. Holy

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shit, what were you supposed to do in an earthquake? “Do we stand in a doorway?” he shouted
over the sound of support beams collapsing.
He still had Nick’s arm in a tight grip, so he felt rather than saw Nick twist around to look behind
them. “Oh my god,” he whispered.
Eli turned too and saw that the library they’d just escaped was—falling. It was sinking down into
the ground, slowly at first, and then faster, faster, walls and windows and everything within
turning into a cacophony of destruction.
“Sinkhole.” Nick said it in a weirdly calm way, like he was comforted now that he understood
what was going on.