"Help me," Tay screamed as a section of the elevator started to buckle on top of him.

I grabbed his arm and yanked him up from the floor and held onto him. Frantically I kicked at the doors to the elevator, they wouldn't budge. By now it was deafening. We couldn't hear anything except the screaming of metal and grinding of cement splitting apart. The fluorescent tubes above us shattered and the elevator was filled with a dim red glow from the emergency light above.

"Taylor, your going to have to climb up, we can't get out this way," I yelled at him. He stared blankly at me.

Doing something I thought I'd never do I pulled back my hand and slapped him across the face. Once, then twice.

"Damnit, Taylor snap out of it, your family is up there," I screamed at him.

Taylor seemed to snap out of whatever he had drifted into and started clawing his way up to the open service way door above us. After pushing him up on top of the elevator I climbed up. Nearly slipping, everything was still shaking uncontrollably. Right in front of us was the first floor entry. The elevator had crashed through the secondary floor and rammed right down into the sub floor of the shaft. I pulled the door's open and pushed Taylor up, slipping he reached back down to pull me up. I heard a loud snap and looked up. The mechanical drive shaft and turbines of the elevator manifold had shook loose from their anchor at the top floor and they were plummeting toward me.

"Oh God Taylor help me," I screamed as he pulled.

I slid out onto the floor of the hallway as a mass of twisted metal collided with the elevator car at the bottom. If we had not escaped when we did, we would have been killed instantly.

We jumped up, it was nearly impossible to stand, everything around us was rocking left to right. The frame work of the hotel was buckling. We darted under a doorway and held on. All around us the ceilings were splitting open. Glancing to our left we saw a mass of people huddled under the conference tables. Zac and Ike were no where to be seen. A high pitched scream rang out from somewhere behind us and suddenly something smashed against us. I fell to the floor, stunned and unable to move. I barely saw Taylor's hand beside my face. My vision blurred and went dark. As I went unconscious the rumbling continued.

*          *          *          *          *

"This is CNN News, we are interrupting our normal news cast to bring you this urgent news special report. We are currently receiving word from the U.S.Geological Survey that an earthquake of massive proportions is currently tearing through southern and central California. Pin pointing it's epicenter is not possible. The Survey is stating that this earthquake started six minutes ago, at a ranking like nothing they've ever seen. They state that at eleven forty two am Pacific Daylight time that the richter scales registered a tremor of three point eight. This tremor grew to a size of seven point nine within less than a minute. They are stating that it has tapered off and is continuing at a level of...the current level is at 13.9 on the richter scale."

"We have been attempting to bring you some kind of live feed from our LosAngeles offices but so far nothing has been able to make it past the San Andres line. Wait! I'm getting in more information this second. It seem's that the earthquake began directly in the center of the San Andreas fault. It has spread outwards toward the California coast line. The following areas have been touched by this tragic incident. Los Angeles, Hollywood, San Jose, San Fransisco, Santa Rosa, Sacramento, Fresno, and San Diego. There are reports from the Mexican government that all of Baja California has completely sunk beneath the ocean surface. We are getting reports that tremors are being felt all the way inland as far away as Las Vegas."

"Once again a massive earthquake registering at...14.2 on the richter scale has hit Central and...we are generalizing this, has hit all of California. The tremors are being felt as far as Las Vegas, the states of Arizona and Oregon are reporting faint tremors. This earthquake is continuing as we speak. We are getting a transmission, it seems that KHJTV News chopper is in the air at this very moment over Hollywood, visuals are not available but we do have a audio feed. KHJTV Go ahead your are live internationally."

"This is Karen Williams entertainment reporter for KHJTV Los Angeles, what I am witnessing is indescribable. Through the dust in the air it's nearly impossible to see anything. Briefly we caught glimpses of this terrible tragedy. The rumbling has subsided now but aftershocks are still rolling across the landscape beneath us. What I did see was horrible, we were just over Beverly Hills on a live feed with our station. Covering the 'Middle of Everything' kick off concert that was to have taken place hours from now at the Planet Hollywood."

"At first all we saw were people running about, then we noticed that the trees, stop lights, telephone poles and anything that was standing had begun to rock back and forth. Soon we could hear the rumbling. I watched as the Beverly Hills Hotel began to collapse. The dust clouds were growing too dense for our engines and we had to move away. Departing the area we passed Hollywood. After this, there won't be much of anything left, besides the massive structural damage to every standing building in sight the landscape actually shifted. Los Angeles is gone. What remains is, well it's nearly impossible to see."

"Karen can you tell us anything about the landmarks, is anything left?"

"No, not that I can see, everything has gone down. From the Chinese Theater all the way to Los Angeles, it's all down. Everything, I don't think there is a building left standing ..."

*          *          *          *          *

I opened my eyes slowly, it was quiet. I could hear distant crackling, like perhaps a fire. I found it extremely hard to breath, I was being crushed under something extremely heavy. I tried to move but couldn't. Looking over my back I saw that the massive wood beam that made the doorway had fallen down on me. Above it was, was sky.

The sun was shining through a dense could of gray that was passing over head. I found that while I couldn't push the beam off of me that I could slide out from under it slowly. My head was pounding, and my left arm hurt with tremendous pain. I stood up and looked around. The entire hotel had collapsed. There were still massive chunks of it still standing. Much of the outer walls were still upright but most of the building had come apart and fallen away and in on it's self.

The room we had been in was an outer area, nothing had thankfully fallen down on us. Only the roof had collapsed. And the elevator, that was horrible. Then I remembered Taylor.I turned around and looked down at where I had been. There was sheet rock and plaster, splinters of wood and a foot of dust everywhere. Frantically I called his name.

"Taylor, Taylor are you there, are you ok," I screamed as loud as I could.

I heard nothing. A shifting started and an aftershock rumbled through. More of the outer structure fell away from the building. I heard a groan. I looked behind me through a pile of debris, all I saw was the top of a doorway, the door way that lead to the stairwell. Which extended up over the ruin about thirty feet and abruptly stopped in mid air.

I climbed over the debris and looked down into the entrance. Taylor was laying on his back, it appeared that he had been knocked out but nothing had struck him. The steel metal frame of the door had protected him from much of the falling debris. I was sure that if he hadn't been in the doorway he would have been killed.

"Taylor, Tay are you ok," I asked quietly as I pulled him up into a sitting position.

He slowly opened his eyes and looked at me. Even covered in dust and dirt, his gorgeous blue eyes shined. He smiled at me, I smiled back. I so desperately wanted to kiss him. He was alive, and all right. I heard a more feminine moan behind him. I looked up and saw nothing but a pile of sheetrock and wood splinters. The pile moaned again.

"Bloody hell," a feminine voice I knew all too well cursed out of the debris.

"Geri, is that you," I yelled as Taylor and I stood up and started to pull junk off of the top of the heap.

"No it's Marylin Monroe, of course it's me," she snapped still unseen under the rubble.

"Can you move," Taylor asked.

"If I could, I wouldn't be waiting for you two numb nuts to get me out," she replied angrily.

Taylor looked at me with a bit of a worried look.

"Geri it's me Taylor and, Taylor," I said aloud not realizing how weird that sounded.

"What? Oh wonderful I get my bum tossed down ten flights of stairs and who rescues me? Some guy with a stuttering impediment!"

"GERI It's Taylor Hanson and Taylor Quest," I yelled at her not so kindly.

"Oh, oh God help me get out of this," she said as she started shoving and kicking at the pile from the inside. A fist flew out of the rubble, pulled back in and two hands popped out shoving more debris aside. Then her face squeezed out, covered in dirt with a slight trickle of blood running from her hair line.

"Well are you two going to stand there watching me crawl out of this like some kind of warped, nevermind I don't have the strength to go on," she said slumping over.

We jumped and grabbed her arms and slowly pulled her out of the pile and helped her to her feet.

"Thank you so much, another few seconds and I might have rescued myself, now what the hell happened?!"

"All I can guess is the 'Big One' finally hit," Tay replied.

"Yeah, that makes sense. I was coming down the stairs when I felt a tremor. I stopped and looked around. It was then everything started to bloody shift and twist, dust was falling all over me and I couldn't see. I was running down the stairs and I just felt myself getting tossed off the steps. I remember hitting the wall, that's where I got this, damn that hurts. And I balled up and fell down the rest of the way. I screamed as I saw I was about to hit the bottom and then I blacked out. I awoke to hear you talking to Taylor and that's when you pulled me out," Geri said as we started climbing our way toward the grand ball room. Or what was left of it.

The breeze was blowing and a tattered 'MOE' banner flapped in the wind. Taylor jumped and started screaming the names of everyone he was with, Isaac, Zac, his parents, all his sisters and brothers. I thought I had heard a faint yelling but I wasn't sure. We helped up a few people who were still alive, many of them were not. I heard a female voice come from behind in the resteraunt. I pulled open the doors to get a face full of smoke. The kitchen must have caught fire. I heard a girls voice calling from deep within the smoke. I ran back to the hall way and ripped down a curtain and dumped over a water cooler that had made it through the quake untouched and soaked the curtain. After pulling it over my head I rushed into the room.

"Hello, is anyone in here, there's a fire we have to get out of here," I screamed as I peered out of the curtain into the smoke. The electricity must have been still working slightly because the room would brighten and dim sparaticly. The resteraunt was the only room that still had it's roof.

Much of the walls were bare with everything on the floor. I heard more screaming and yelling coming from deeper in the resteraunt. I called out and got a reply.

"Is anyone in here, we have to get out the resteraunt is on fire," I yelled out.

"Yes, help me, I'm over here," a girls voice screamed. Suddenly I felt someone against me. Taylor had caught up with me and was under the curtain now.

"I couldn't find them, Chris was ok, he said that mom and dad and the kids had gone to eat lunch in here," Taylor told me as we pawed around in the dark.

"Where is Geri," I asked.

"She's out there helping people, she's really cool, she's a tough chick," Taylor replied with what I thought to be a smile. It was too dark to tell. Then we heard more screaming right in front of us.

I felt a tug and looked down, there was a girl on the floor with long dark hair and she was pulling on my leg. A beam from the ceiling had fallen and was on her left foot.

"Help me get up, I can walk I just need help," she said.

"I dropped the curtain, the flames and smoke weren't that bad back where we were. I pushed with all my strength at the beam and it tilted slightly and she was able to get her foot free. She stood up and turned around.

"There are people over there, back there and down there, and well I'm not sure if my friend is ok," she exclaimed. Her face was extremely familiar.

But it was smudged with soot and dust and that made it even harder in the dark. Still her voice was so familiar I almost could recognize it.

"Well are you going to stand there like an idiot or are you gonna help me," she snapped as she struggled to lift their table that had fallen on her friend.

"Fuck it, I'll do it myself," she snapped again. I heard a voice come from under the table it called her name.

"Love, Love where are you," the voice called.

'Love,' where had I heard that name? I seemed to remember that there was someone. Jennifer Love Hewitt! I was shocked as hell, then I remembered where I was. I was snapped out of my daze and pushed her back and heaved with all my might as debris slid off the collapsed table and fell as I heaved the table over to the side.

The girl wasn't recognizable, Jennifer on the other hand was, now that I knew who she was. She, and her 'sweater', ok ok she wasn't wearing one but still I did giggle to myself when I thought about the last time I had heard about her. It was on TV and someone made the joke about 'I Still Know What You Did Last Summer." That it starred Jennifer Love Hewitt and her sweater. She looked up at me and smiled.

"Thanks, I didn't mean to snap like that," she said as she smiled. Her cute smile shining through the gunk. She helped her friend up and headed out a window nearby. I turned around to see Taylor moving deeper into the back of the resteraunt. I was walking over toward him when I nearly tripped over something. I looked down and saw an arm sticking out from under a beam.

I followed the arm to a blue sundress and pushed away a chunk of sheet rock. The beam had fallen from the ceiling and the end had landed square on the chest of Cindy Crawford crushing her like a walnut. I winced at this and felt bad. Sure she might have been a ditz but I was sad nonetheless. Just as I suspected there was no pulse. I stood up as Taylor walked over. He glanced down and gasped.

"Oh man, Cindy Crawford, that's bad man real bad," Taylor remarked as he got a little misty eyed. It was then I remembered how he had met her before, and made a big deal about it. I put my arms around him and hugged him. Another shock ran through the area and we lost our balance and fell to the floor. Jennifer came trampling back in cussing at her cell phone.

"Nothing works, the cell phones, the pay phones, either it's dead, busy or tied up," she exclaimed throwing the cell phone down as she looked over at Cindy.

"Oh my God," she said slightly shocked but not wimpish like most girls would have.

"Taylor Hanson," she asked as she pushed a lock of his blond hair behind his ear.

"Yeah, hey," he said sniffling raising his head from my shoulder.

"Oh whoa, I'm so glad your ok," Jennifer said as she lost her balance as another shock jolted the remnants of the building.

"We had better get out of here," Taylor said as he looked behind him.

"I thought your parent's might be in here," I asked as I looked into the back of the resteraunt.

"There's no one back there except some old people," he said as he looked back at us.

"Well help me get Cindy up and out of here, I don't want her going up in smoke with the rest of this place," Jennifer commented as she uncovered Cindy's body from the sheet rock. Taylor and I lifted the beam slightly as Jennifer pulled on Cindy's arms dragging her out from under the beam. I picked her up and carried her outside to the lawn where we laid her down and covered her up with a curtain.

"Who's that," some reporter asked as we headed back in.

"Cindy Crawford," I commented with out looking. Little did I know the reporters mouth dropped open and he sat down looking like a lost kid.

We went back in, the flames had gotten hotter and were starting to fill the back area. I heard a coughing coming from back there and someone started to stumble out.

"Come on Joan, that's it, you can do it, this old bird isn't down yet, oh hi kids, got any water I'm parched," Joan Rivers coughed as she stumbled out into the light. Hair a mess, dress blackened and torn, eyeliner running and coughing like a tuberculosis patient.

"Joan Rivers! Oh my God, you survived," Jennifer called out.

"Ha, hey kiddo, nothing can keep a Jew down, not even the 'Big One,"

Joan chuckled at us as we helped her out through the window.

We all started to laugh a bit, Joan was making it a bit easier for us to handle things. Her comedy was a real uplift. Taylor saw Chris and ran over to him and came back to us. It seemed that the family had gone out to eat elsewhere and they were able to contact them over the radio, they were fine, a little shaken up, but they were fine. Fine after they had carefully crawled out of the back of their van that was hanging by a sewer pipe over a hundred foot drop in the middle of Sunset Blvd.

We were standing outside near the road way. By now more people had gathered, a few cops had rolled up in some really banged up patrol cars. They were driving mostly on the lawns because the streets had been shattered by the quake and foot deep cracks and pot holes were everywhere. I walked over and leaned against a limo that a tree had fallen over on. We were all talking when Geri came up smiling at us.

"How's it all goin'," she asked with a smile.

"Oh much better, Tay's family is fine, Joans got some water and Jennifer's friend will be ok," I replied as everyone started laughing at Joan who was acting suddenly ill and decrepit after a sip of water she exclaimed 'Oh God, it's California tap water, I think I'll die!' I felt a nudge from the limo. It shifted and banged a bit. We all turned around, there was a pounding on the window. We heard a woman shout 'get back'. Then before we knew what was happening a high heeled tan shoe smashed through the window. We all flinched and jumped back as Mary Hart pulled herself from the limo.

"I've seen it all now," Joan cracked as she sipped more of her water.

"Give it a while Joan, I'm sure we can top it," Mary replied as we helped her out of the window and helped her stand up.

"Are you ok Ms. Hart," I asked with concern.

"Oh yes thank you, so was that an earthquake or was that an earthquake," she asked as she looked down dusting her herself off. Not noticing the decimation all around her. She then looked up and saw it all.

"Oh dear God," was all she said as she covered her mouth. The sight was truly unlike anything we had thought could happen. There wasn't a home in sight standing and the Beverly Hills Hotel was completely destroyed. Smoke was rising in the distance and faint gas explosions could be heard. Another aftershock rumbled through knocking us all to the ground. The rumbled continued for another fifteen seconds and subsided. There wasn't much left to crumble away.

Taylor tapped me on the shoulder and pointed to a secluded bush. I followed him over there, not realizing Geri had seen us leave.

"What's up," I asked.

"I just wanted to thank you, for well, for saving my life," Taylor said as a tear formed in his eye.

"Oh hey no problem, after all you did pull me up from the elevator shaft as that machinery came down," I reminded him.

"Yes, but if you hadn't snapped me out it down there we wouldn't have made it out at all," he replied.

"Taylor, I, well I just," I stuttered at him. Not knowing what to say. I was so in love with him, I couldn't say a word. Just knowing that he was ok was making it all bearable.

"Shh, don't say anything," he said placing his soft index finger over my lips.

He smiled softly at me, slowly he leaned in. I could feel his breath on my lips.

"Ahheeeem," we both snapped our heads around to see Geri peering in at us from outside the bushes.

"And what are you two love birds doing, you know shagging in public isn't legal in England either," she said with one hand on her hip and a smirk on her face.

"We weren't, I mean I was, well he," Tay stuttered a bit flushing.

"Hey, just thought I'd let you know I got two helicopters on the way, one for your family Tay, and one for us three," she smiled.

"How did you get helicopters," Tay asked in shock.

"I'll have you know your talking to a United Nations Good Will Ambassador," Geri exclaimed proudly as she held her chest up. Which only looked funny, her suit was ripped all over, her hair was hanging down from it's bun in strands. She had a small scab on her forehead and she was missing a shoe.

"Geri, you know your a real nut," I said as I giggled at her. Taylor and I smiled at each other and he put his arm around me. I was really starting to get comfortable when another after shock hit us. This tossed Geri right into our laps and sent Taylors tour bus over on its side as a section of the road way sank. After the rumble subsided we could hear Joan cursing, her water had spilled everywhere.

"Anyone got any liquor?!" she yelled out. We all burst into laughter.


On to Chapter Three

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The Day the Earth Moved is Copyright © 2000 by Taylor W. Quest.
This work may not be duplicated in any form – physical, electronic, audio, or otherwise – without the author's written permission.
All applicable copyright laws apply. All individuals depicted are fictional with any resemblance to real persons being purely coincidental.

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