Chapter 1:

The door of Apartment 17 was bolted shut. A muffled explosion could be heard in the distance and the building shook slightly with it. Luke was standing with his hand against the door listening to all this, his eyes the size of golf-balls.

"What's going on?," he heard his friend ask.

He turned his head so that he could look at Daniel. His face was filled with alarm.

"You think I know?"

Another explosion sounded and room rocked again.

'What the hell is happening,' Luke wondered himself.

His eyes fell on Emily next. She had still been sitting on the couch but now the shaking of the place seemed to rattle her out of her shock. They had all been sitting on that couch watching an episode of Friends when the first earthquake started. It was Luke who had locked the front door of the apartment, but now he considered the possibility that it could have been a bad idea.

'What if the building collapses?'

There had never been an earthquake this big in Cape Town before.

"Should we leave?," Emily asked.

Daniel flashed her an unbelieving look but Luke reckoned that even though the question sounded stupid on the surface it actually made sense in a way. The bigger part of his brain agreed with Daniel though.

"I don't think we should leave yet Em," Luke said back to her.

She folded her arms, "I'm scared the place might fall down on us."

A tremor raced beneath their feet that seemed to further solidify her theory.

"What if you're wrong?"

'What if it's worse?'

None of them said anything for a couple of seconds, absorbing the situation. Luke's mind was still trying to process the events that had already unfolded.

It was cut short by a horrible scream that flew through the open kitchen window and echoed around the walls of the tiny lounge. Daniel covered his ears and Emily flinched.

"What the hell was that?," Daniel whispered as he lowered his hands.

Another scream came, even louder than before and laced with terror. Luke's mouth suddenly felt dry. The sound of running footsteps drummed from bellow (the room that they were in was three floors up) and a scraping noise followed too, like something was being dragged around.

Emily opened her mouth to speak when an inhuman shriek rang out. All three friends flinched and an instinctive scream of his own rose up Luke's throat. He clamped his jaw down tightly to stop it and accidentally bit his tongue, drawing blood. There was a loud thud and then silence. Luke pressed his back against the door and gazed at the window in fear. He didn't know if he had the strength to look. Emily surprised him by inching towards the glass pane. She was always curious by nature no matter the occasion. Even now, when it felt like the world was ending. In the back of his mind Luke realized that that was exactly what he thought, what he 'knew'.

He watched as she peeked over the edge and let out her own small scream. She spun her head away and looked at the two boys. Luke saw the raw horror behind her eyes.