First Pages: GENESIS

But the family seemed to have a straight shot. Henry and Connie rallied up the kids, heading cautiously toward the restaurant.

I looked around for a vantage point that would allow me to make it to the restaurant from where I stood, but I had no such luck. I turned around and started down the hall searching for a way to arrive from where I was. I passed a few rooms and realized that if we were unable to find the entrance to that tunnel below us, we would need some sort of rope to climb down through the hole. I went into the first two bedrooms and grabbed the sheets off of the beds making quick runs and packing any helpful materials I could find.

As I went back into the hall, I stumbled upon an emergency evacuation map and saw that I could get to the restaurant if I just kept following the hall. Further down, there was a fire extinguisher on the wall and a fire ax behind glass. I pulled the extinguisher off and put it in the backpack, broke the glass and took the ax from the case. If anything, I figured that the ax should help me get through any doors blocking my path to the restaurant.

I reached what was supposed to be a hall leading me straight to the restaurant, and instead was met with a collapsed ceiling. However, the upstairs floor had crumbled down as well, creating a makeshift ramp which I used to climb up, as I hoped that my progress would no longer be hindered once I made it through. At the top of the ramp, I found that a few of those rooms had splintered into the rooms below. It was dark and I couldn’t make out if anyone had made it out or not, but I didn’t really have the luxury of waiting around to find out.

Through the windows of the collapsed rooms I could see that heavy rain had begun to fall outside and was pelting the glass with such force that it made me reminisce of summers past during the 4th of July holidays and throwing poppers at one another’s feet. But the fond memory of youthful naivety wore off quickly as a bright flash of lightning filled the sky and thunder boomed causing me to jump a bit. I then reset my mind to the task at hand…I had to make it back to the family. TURN PAGE >>