Chapter Text
Shrill beeping jolted Takeru out of his sleep. He peered into the dim room, his cell phone sending odd shadows across his bedroom walls.
It felt late for someone to be calling him.
Takeru yawned and reached for his still-ringing phone. He squinted at the bright screen with bleary eyes. It took him three precious seconds to understand the words that were flashing before him.
EARTHQUAKE EMERGENCY ALERT
TAKE SHELTER IMMEDIATELY
Takeru went cold, scrambling out of his twisted sheets and dropping to the floor. He rolled under his bed, eyes wide in the dark. He clutched his screaming phone with white knuckles. Maybe it wouldn't be too bad. Takeru had experienced a few small quakes before. They were unsettling, sure, but... He'd never been through one at night.
“Mom?”
Was she even home yet?
Takeru licked his lips, his heart hammering in his chest. How long did he have until the-
The apartment vibrated beneath him and Takeru sucked in a sharp breath. He braced himself the way they taught him in school. He curled into a ball and buried his head in his arms, his shoulder pressing uncomfortably to the underside of his bedframe. A low rumble reverberated up through the floor, growing louder. Everything on his desk clattered across the wood. A line of pencils was the first to take the dive, followed by his schoolbooks.
His lamp fell behind him and Takeru flinched at the lightbulb popping, scrunching his eyes shut.
A crash was followed by a shout in the downstairs apartment.
Takeru held his breath and prayed for it to end now, please.
In reply, the apartment gave a sickening lurch. Takeru swayed with the motion, his heart beating a tattoo under his ribs. Big one. This was a big one, a really, really big one-
"Mom!"
Something in the kitchen shattered.
Every muscle in Takeru’s body coiled tight. A frightened cry ripped out of him as something huge crashed to the ground in the living room.
A bang like a gunshot rang through the apartment and glass rained around the bed. Shards were flung beneath it, bouncing off his back.
“Mom!”
His scream was lost in the unholy groan that sounded like it came from the very bones of the apartment complex. Takeru's fingers dug into the carpet, his knuckles white.
Make it stop!
All light from beyond the window snuffed out at once and plunged the room into darkness. Takeru bit his lip to hold back the sob that threatened to escape.
The shuddering suddenly gentled, the world coming back to rest. Something in the kitchen rolled to a stop.
Takeru's phone had gone silent.
All he could hear was the sound of his own terrified breathing, and he flinched hard a moment later when every smoke detector throughout the building started wailing in tandem.
Takeru couldn't move. The building had stopped shaking, but now he was shaking, and he couldn't move. He didn’t want to see the state of his home. Didn’t want to see anyone who had been hurt, hear anyone who'd been hurt- If he was under his bed, he was safe.
Trembling fingers pressed a button on his phone.
Ten fourteen pm.
No service.
It was ten twenty-two when Takeru gathered the courage to crawl out from under his bed. The mounting terror of being alone finally won out against the fear of what he might have to deal with now.
Aftershocks, was all his rattled mind seemed to be capable of thinking. What about aftershocks? How long does it take for aftershocks to happen? What if that was a foreshock and there’s a worse one coming? No, no, no, don’t think like that. Oh my god, where's Mom?
Takeru forced himself to reach up and flick the light switch. Nothing happened. The power was out. He peeked through his window blinds and out into the night. It was pitch black across the city. In the distance a transformer blew and momentarily illuminated the skyline, a light with no sound. It was too far away to hear.
Takeru took a deep, unsteady breath and swept his phone around his room.
It wasn't too bad. Besides the fact that it now looked like someone much messier than he lived there, there wasn’t anything outwardly dangerous glaring at him.
He pointed the light up to the ceiling and froze.
Trickles of dust and tiny chips of drywall sprinkled down on the far side of the bedroom. Takeru couldn't see any visible cracks, but that didn’t stop the sight from disturbing him.
Slowly, he crept across the floor and dragged his backpack out from under his overturned desk chair. He unceremoniously dumped its contents onto the floor and dragged it to his dresser. All the drawers had slid open, so it was easy to stuff some clothes into the bag and take a sizable pile under his arm.
With his mind full of buzzing static, Takeru got to his feet and cautiously opened his door. His phone light glinted back at him in a sea of broken glass. Frigid winter air was creeping into the apartment, raising goosebumps up his arms. Takeru swallowed a shaky breath and dropped some of the extra clothes over the glass. He gingerly stepped onto it, repeating the process until he had safely crossed to the shoe rack.
There were people outside. He could hear footsteps pounding beyond the front door. Shouting. Takeru felt a mile away from it all.
Takeru tugged on his snow boots and picked his jacket up off the floor, giving it a good shake before snaking his arms into the sleeves. He tried to ignore the crunching under his boots as he walked to the fridge. He had to step back quickly when he pulled the door open, and food fell out and added to the mess on the floor.
In the feeble light of his phone, he picked out a couple of juice drinks and some fruit. That, along with some snacks from the cupboard (which were mostly on the counter now) went into his backpack as well. He zipped it up, mind oddly blank.
What am I doing? Am I going somewhere? Won’t Mom come home, and… I should be here, right? The cell towers are out, so how are we supposed to find each other if I leave?
Light suddenly flooded the room and a resounding boom sent Takeru to his hands and knees. He was under the kitchen table, heart thundering in his ears. The echo of the explosion seemed to reverberate across the city and lodge itself in Takeru’s brain. He was sure it must have stopped, but he swore he could still hear it.
Takeru blinked. Something hurt. His knees. His hands. There were tears pouring down his face and acknowledging them wrenched a sob from his chest. He swiped at his cheeks with the backs of his hands. His palms were stinging, and the pain kickstarted his brain. Sirens were howling outside. There were people running on the walkway outside. Running. They were running, and Takeru wasn't. His nose burned. It smelled funny in here.
It smelled funny.
Gas.
Takeru launched to his feet, bursting through the door and into a world of chaos. There were people in the streets, on balconies, voices yelling, the world a flurry of movement in the dark. Hundreds of flashlights sent beams in all directions. Takeru watched the strange sight with growing nausea before taking off for the stairway. There was no one else on his floor anymore, doors hanging open and the apartments dark and quiet inside.
The stairway was a different story. People flowed down the stairs like turbulent water.
Takeru had been to concerts. Had been on the floor with a rowdy audience. When all this was over, Takeru would look back and say with the utmost certainty that being in the stairwell was just like being in a mosh pit.
If the mosh pit was terrified and running down nine floors worth of stairs.
All he could see were jackets and backpacks and elbows. It was a dark and disorienting mess, voices echoing off the walls and blending together. Takeru gripped the strap of his backpack tighter as he rounded the corner of the fourth floor.
Almost there almost there almost there-
The stairs twitched under their feet and the crowd stumbled as one. Strangers grabbed onto one another to prevent whole groups of residents from tumbling down the stairs.
Aftershocks aftershocks aftershocksaftershocksaftershocks
Takeru wasn’t even aware that he had started crying again until a strong arm wrapped around him and he was held tightly to that someone's chest. The man tucked him under his chin while the mob hunkered down to ride out the wave of shaking.
“Hey, I got you, kid. Okay? I got you. You’re good. It's stopping already." The voice came so close that Takeru could feel his breath on his ear.
Takeru felt himself nod and let himself be pulled to his feet. They moved downwards again. Takeru kept a white-knuckle grip on the stranger’s coat, a bigger hand knotted in his own. Takeru had no idea who he was but the last thing he wanted was to let go of someone who appeared older and calmer than he was.
They spilled out into the road. The icy January air was a slap in the face. His stinging hands throbbed.
The stranger led him away from the building and into an area lit with camping lanterns.
“Kid, you okay? Are you hurt?” The man crouched down in front of Takeru and gave him a searching look. He was younger than Takeru expected. College maybe? “Kid?” the young man pressed when he didn’t immediately reply.
Takeru startled, blinking down at his hands. One of them was smeared with blood.
“I- I dunno…”
The stranger clicked the light on his own cell phone and peered closely at the cut, holding Takeru’s smaller hand gently with his own.
“I think you’re alright. I don’t see anything stuck in there, it's probably just a bad scratch.”
Takeru nodded, not feeling capable of saying anything more. He felt like his lungs were empty no matter how much he tried to breathe. There were so many people out here. So much sound, and flashing lights- and where was Mom and what if she wasn’t okay and where was Dad and Nii-san and what if something bad happened to them?
A scream behind him had him whipping around, his heart in his throat.
The other man was faster, his face blanching. He grabbed Takeru by the shoulders and held him firmly in place.
“Don’t look, okay? Look at me. Just keep looking at me.”
Takeru obeyed, blue eyes filling with frightened tears once more and his whole body quaking.
“-you listening? Did you get separated from your family in the hallway? Do you need help finding them?”
Takeru’s throat finally unstuck but now he felt like he was going to throw up. “I don’t know where Mom is. I don’t- she wasn’t home yet. I don’t know- I don’t-“ He heaved in huge breaths and somehow there wasn’t enough air.
“Okay, you’re with me then. My name is Mamoru. What’s yours?”
“Takeru!”
Takeru spun at the familiar voice, nearly pulling out of Mamoru's grip in his haste.
“Mrs. Hida!”