Chapter Text
Another day, another big load of nothing. Despite the sun shining through the window in a beautiful mid-Autumn day, inside the small apartment, the man’s mood was stormy. With a frown, he throws his phone away, closing the book he was focusing on just minutes before.
“Fantastic…” He sighs, the latest one of many, throwing his head back against the backrest of the simple couch he’s currently occupying.
“Y’know, if you sound any more pathetic, I might have to give you up for adoption at the nearby animal shelter.” Comes the snarky response from the other room.
“Yeah? Have you ever thought about going to fu-”The rest is cut off when a pillow nails him square in the face.
“It’s no wonder they haven’t called back. I’m sure the University would looooove to have that kind of attitude representing them out there, huh?” The other man, his arm still held forward after the throw says, the teasing tone half-mocking and half-reprimanding.
The assaulted man flails for a second in surprise, before grabbing the pillow and pulling it off his face, scowling. He levels a glare at his companion, before making a vague gesture in the direction of a door to the side.
“You’re always free to leave, yeah?” The other, now leaning against the wall next to a different doorway, just shrugs.
“Maybe, but I gotta have that coffee you promised, first.” He points a thumb behind him. “Chop-chop, grumpy.”
“Yeah, yeah, don’t get your panties in a bunch, I got it.” Getting up from the couch, the sour one stretches, rolling his neck to and fro to get rid of an annoying kink before pushing his hands in his pockets and stalking past his friend. “You realize you could just make it yourself, right? Maybe at your own place?”
“Sure, but apparently someone needs to keep an eye on you and I was going to stop by a shop near here anyway. Might as well bum some of yours.” He finishes with a grin.
“You’re a regular comedian, Mendes.” He grumbles as he goes around the small kitchen, bringing out a couple of mugs and other utensils to start on the task.
The other man steps into the room, immediately opening one of the higher cabinets and pulling out a jar with coffee grounds, knowing his shorter friend would need to stretch to reach it.
“You’re just a sourpuss, Ferreira.” He offers the jar to the other one, while reaching over with the other hand in the cabinet for the sugar.
“Well, not everyone’s lucky to move here with a job already lined up.” Ferreira snarks, busying himself with his prep.
“You mean not everyone’s lazy like you to half-ass search it.” Mendes replies, pulling a seat at the table and dropping himself on the chair.
“I’m half-tempted to chuck this jar at you.” The man says, while measuring the correct amount for two servings.
“And waste the money spent buying it? Doubt it.” Mendes crosses his arms, waiting.
“Obviously. You’re not worth the money that went into this.”
The two keep trading barbs while the coffee maker works its magic. The smell permeating the small kitchen helps de-escalate the mock-argument and the two are soon back to catching up on random, frivolous stuff. How the guys they used to hang out back home are doing, the latest news of the political world, recent purchases of note… they jump from one topic to the other, only pausing to sip the hot beverage. Soon enough, Mendes stands up.
“Alright dude, I’ll be going. Try to not be such a grump next time, yeah? What kind of host treats a visitor like that?” Ferreira stands up too, putting the used mugs on the sink and heading towards the front door.
“Visitor? Please. You lost visitor privileges years ago. You’re part of the fam and you’ll be grumbled at accordingly.” He opens the door and his friend steps through before turning back.
“Right. Well, see ya Thomas.” He puts his hand forward and Thomas shakes it.
“Yeah, ‘till next time, Paulo.” Paulo turns to leave and Thomas shuts the door. “Now, what to do with the rest of my day?”
As it turns out, turning on his computer and wasting time randomly browsing for hours is as good an answer as any. There usually wasn’t much to do on the weekends anyway and he had no pressing matters to attend to, so why not turn his brain off a little? By the time he decided to turn off the machine, it was already dark out.
“Man… another day of nothing. I’m starting to get pretty antsy about the whole thing. Then again, nothing I can do at this point; either I get it or I don’t. Getting worked up about it isn’t gonna do anything.”
Deciding that he didn’t feel like moping in silence, he turns on the TV to check the news like the adult he supposedly was. Even at 27, he still felt like a brat that didn’t know his place in the world and that bothered him more than he’d ever admit to another human being.
“…While the cause is still being investigated, the earthquake is estimated to be at least a 7.5 in the numerical seismic activity chart. The close proximity to the coast worries the authorities, who advise the people who live in the area to leave immediately and find shelter as soon as possible.”
“Earthquake, huh? I miss when I didn’t have to worry about those…” His half-lidded eyes watched the boring reporter’s monotone delivery, until the scene changed.
“This is the map of the projected area of effect. If you or a loved one lives in this area, please head to the nearest shelter.” Thomas sat up on his couch in shock. The image on the TV was a lightly detailed map of his city. In fact, his exact location was in the second closest circle representing the area of effect.
As soon as his brain registered that fact, the lights flickered. That’s when he felt it; his apartment shook side to side. In fact, the entire building was shaking. He only had time to jump to his feet before a horrible noise sounded out all around him. Alarm bells started blaring in his head and every hair on his body stood on end before a different sound caught his attention. A cracking sound reverberated in the walls, as if something heavy was pressing in on all sides. A second, louder crack followed at the end of the first. The pipes inside the walls creaked a terrible metallic grinding screech and, by then, panic had fully set in.
Thomas looked around, mind whirling on what to do next. He couldn’t decide if he should just run out the door or at least grab his phone first, in case someone needed to talk to him. Speaking of, the screen lit up and a unique ringtone started playing; that was Mom’s ringtone. Still, there was no time to talk right now, right now he needed to-
Another cracking sound, only this one was coming from outside, from the window. That’s what it was, right? His mind was struggling to keep up with all the sudden sensory overload and he was frozen in place. He should be running, right? Right. Making sense of things could wait.
Just as this thought went through his mind, the apartment shook again, and shifted. He could feel the floor beneath his feet change inclination, and that pushed every other thought aside. Shifting had to be a bad sign. Apartments don’t naturally shift. Which means the best time to get the hell out of here had passed and the second best was RIGHT NOW.
Panicking, he took a couple steps in the direction of his door before the apartment shifted again, at an increased angle. The rational part of his mind supplied that this must mean the building was leaning, while the instinctual part of his brain was screaming in his ear to just fucking GO. He took another step when he heard something burst. Looking behind him, he saw the glass on the window explode, with similar noises coming one after the other from the newly unobstructed window. Clearly the most sensitive parts of the structure were giving in, which was probably a bad sign.
Right, grab phone, get the fuck out. Simple. He took the device from the couch (which was still ringing, and how did the fact slip him completely?) and shoved it in his pants pocket. His hand was shaking so much it took three tries before he dropped the device in and, when he felt it was secure, turned to start running out of his little home. Said home, however, disagreed with him, and several things happened all at once.
First, his TV shut off suddenly, followed by the rest of the lights in the apartment. Then a hole burst in the wall where a water pipe was violently torn and started pouring water inside. Next, a web of cracks started forming in the walls, with chunks of paint and concrete falling and breaking all over the floor. The floor shifted yet again, this time a considerable amount. Caught off-guard, Thomas’s legs gave out under him and he fell, heart hammering in his chest and stomach roiling in disorientation.
He made to get up, but found his legs wouldn’t obey his brain anymore. He was shaking and couldn’t feel his limbs, even though his senses were in overdrive. His body shut down and he couldn’t move no matter how much he wanted.
Another shift, only this one wasn’t like the previous ones. This one didn’t happen and stop, but slowly tipped little by little. The angle grew and grew and it finally clicked for Thomas: the building was coming down. Whatever foundations the apartment building had were done and now the whole thing was tipping over like a cut down tree. There was no escaping anymore. He was going to die.
‘Huh. So this is how I go, eh? Never expected something like this. I knew I wouldn’t have a glorious end or anything, but I at least hoped to live until old age. Maybe get lucky and die in my sleep.’
The building continued falling over, and Thomas was thrown from the floor in the direction of the window. Time seemed to slow down as his brain worked to process everything. He could see the opposite wall growing distant, could feel gravity rocketing him backwards, but it still took him a few seconds before the pieces connected in his mind. As he flew out the window, he saw pictures flying by him. Moments in his life, in no particular order.
‘So life does flash before we die? Neat, I guess.’ He could see the sides of the building coming apart, hear the foundations giving in as well as several voices screaming in terror, too jumbled up to make anything out.
As he felt himself rapidly accelerate towards the ground, he found that all the panic from before had vanished. He was still afraid, that hadn’t changed, but his mind was serene in the last moments. The final thoughts that crossed his mind were:
‘I hope whoever finds my stuff doesn’t guess any of my passwords. I’d like to keep my files and stuff intact.’
And…
‘Man, mom and the family are gonna be sad there won’t even be a body to bury. Or it’ll probably be too wrecked to, anyway.’
After that, there was only darkness.