“Sarah, be care-” but before Jim could finish his hectic warning, he was interrupted by Emily’s miserable cries.
“Em, are you okay?” Austin asked.
Emily just cried.
Austin wriggled around to look. When the earthquake started, Jess had grabbed for Emily. Austin had heard Jess called their daughter’s name, and that was it. He felt something wet by his hand.
“Jess?” he called.
“Hope, are you okay?” asked Morgan worriedly.
“I’m fine, you?”
“My arm hurts.”
“Jess?” Austin asked again nervously. “Alex?”
There was no reply from either.
Kelsey felt Walker over and determined that he was okay despite his cries. The same with Kitty. Jacqueline was fine and got up to find some candles, as the power was out.
“Mick?” Marie asked.
“I’m okay. I think. You?”
“Sore. Avie?”
“I’m o-” Avie was cut off by a scream.
“Oh my gosh!” Jacqueline cried.
The next moment she was throwing up all over the floor. As Avie was closest, she grabbed the one lit candle before it went out, or started burning down the house. She stood up, her legs a little shaky.
“Oh no,” she gasped. “Oh please no.”
“Avie? What is it?” Kelsey asked.
“It’s Jess… oh gosh…” Avie’s voice started choking up with her tears. “You… you can’t let the kids see this.”
“What’s wrong?” Austin demanded, panic leaking into his voice. “What’s wrong?”
“She’s…. she’s dead,” Avie burst into sobs.
**********
Sarah raced up the stairs to where her eleven-month old daughter had been sleeping. When she entered the room, it was to her horror that she saw the crib had been knocked over, and it was now resting precariously on the corner of the changing table. It could slip at any moment.
To her relief, Nadine was crying. Which obviously meant that she was alive. But was she crying because of the shock of being in an earthquake or was she hurt? Sarah’s anxiety was laid to rest when she picked her up and set the crib straight. Nadine had been well protected with bed covers and pillows. She had been safe despite the tip.
Sarah was crying herself, but from sheer relief, as she held Nadine to her chest. She slowly turned around and headed back down the stairs.
“Oh my gosh,” she wept. “Oh Jess… please no…”
Jess had grabbed Emily when the earthquake had begun. In her effort to get them both underneath the table, she had put the five-year-old in front of her, so she would go under first. However, the cabinet behind Jess toppled over and crashed down on her head, pinning her against the tabletop with her body drooped below. The glass of the door cracked and dug into her skin while a carving knife that had slipped from it’s place bit into her neck. Blood dripped from her head and neck onto the floor and the tabletop. In the light of the candles and torches, the final expression on Jess’s face looked horrifically gruesome.
Mick and Jim were pulling the cabinet off Jess while Austin, stained with blood, cried beside her. The cabinet settled back into place and her body sagged, then dropped off, the carving knife lodged in her neck. A chair that had been in the path of the cabinet had been the other Alex had occupied. It was now broken from the force of the cabinets’ fall and had trapped the lower half of the poor unconscious boy. Mick started to pull off the broken chair, horrified at what the weight and force of it all may have done to Alex.
Jim then noticed the horrified, upset expression on Sarah’s face. He was next to her in three steps and put his arms around her.
“C’mon,” he said quietly, not knowing what else he could possibly say.
He led her into the lounge room. Kelsey and Jacqueline had made an effort to shift the furniture back into place. Hope was keeping the little kids entertained while Marie worked at making a splint for Morgan’s arm, which was quite obviously broken, and Avie cleaned her sister’s blood off Emily.
“Is she okay?” Avie asked Sarah.
Sarah couldn’t speak. She nodded and then burst into tears, which Avie found contagious, and the sisters cried in each others’ arms.