His whole body trembling, Max cautiously loosened his grip around Collin's neck and let his body relax. He reminded himself to breath, closed his eyes and laid his head on the floor. Then he waited. He waited for the white dust to stop drifting downward, the earth's screech to become softer and for distant car alarms to grow louder. Somewhere outside, a window lost its final battle and shattered on a sidewalk.

The top of the Winningham Blue Building was still in motion. Slowly, it too tapered off until finally, the forty-third floor came to a full standstill. Somewhere in the midst of the chaos, Jenna stopped screaming. Now her cheeks were stained with dried tears and she was seated on the buckled floor with one of her bruised and battered legs straight, and the other bent outward and back. For a long moment she did not move, listening instead to the hellish screech in the earth. When it began to fade, she rested her head against the wall and watched Seely's chest rise and fall.

The older woman had somehow managed to move out of the doorway into the foyer and now she lay on her back with her head jammed against one wall and her feet against the other. Seely's face was gaunt and her eyes were closed. Still Jenna did not move. Little by little, the squeal in the earth grew softer and yielded to a sound not unlike that of a far away train, moving slowly and patiently on its tracks.