novelraw Chapter 109: The Warning
Chapter 109: The Warning
The house smelled faintly of tuna and boiled pasta, as the lingering scent of mayonnaise clung in the air.
Dinner had been nothing spectacular...just a cold pasta salad bulked out with canned fish, peas, and celery...but after a day of little movement, even something simple filled the hollow ache of their stomachs. They sat scattered in the living room afterward, mugs of coffee and tea in their hands, as the flicker of the television giving the space a warmth the lamps didn’t provide.
The screen showed a cooking show none of them had ever heard of before. A woman with a shrill voice whipped egg whites while a man narrated about the importance of "soft peaks." Elias sat slouched in the corner of the couch, stirring honey into his tea without looking at it. Lachlan had one leg thrown over the armrest of a chair, grinning faintly at nothing, his mug was balanced on his knee.
Zubair, always the disciplined one, sat upright, his coffee untouched as eyes flickered toward the door more often than the screen. Alexei sprawled on the rug with his head propped on a cushion, tossing commentary at the show with that easy sarcasm that made even mundane moments feel lighter.
Noah had claimed the remote. That should have been warning enough.
"Why are we watching this?" he muttered suddenly, stabbing the button with his thumb. The screen cut mid-sentence, the whisk frozen in the chef’s hand. "Nobody cares how to whip egg whites."
The image blinked and reformed into the middle of a football game. The crowd’s roar filled the room, too loud after the steady hum of the cooking show. Alexei groaned.
"Of course," he said, rolling onto his back. "Our fearless comrade wants sports. Predictable."
"It’s better than desserts," Noah shot back, leaning forward like the score mattered.
Lachlan laughed, tipping his mug in Noah’s direction. "Better than your face when the sugar lady said, ’fold gently.’ Thought you were going to cry."
The teasing passed easily through the group, a current they were all used to riding, but Sera didn’t join in.
She sat on the edge of the sofa, eyes half on the television, half on the window where the Chinook’s unseasonable warmth still held against the glass. The men bantered, the game ran on, and she felt the skin between her shoulders tighten.
Then the channel flicked again, sudden and jarring.
"This isn’t the game," Noah started to protest, but the words died.
The screen showed a news desk. A pale-faced anchor clutched papers in both hands, reading in a tone far too steady to be natural. A red banner scrolled across the bottom: BREAKING NEWS – SEISMIC ACTIVITY.
"...the Country N Seismic Monitoring Network has confirmed a magnitude 9.2 earthquake off the coast of Country G. Officials say aftershocks are possible. At this time, there is no expectation of a tsunami impacting our shores, but citizens are urged to remain off the streets. Stay indoors. Stay calm. Authorities will provide updates as information becomes available..."
The anchor’s voice droned on, but Sera had already stopped listening.
Her body moved before her thoughts caught up. She shot to her feet, the mug of coffee still half-full on the table behind her, and crossed the room in three strides. The men looked up, startled.
"Sera?" Elias called after her, but she didn’t answer.
Her door slammed against the wall as she shoved it open. The room smelled faintly of cedar and detergent, the little nest she had made for herself neat and orderly. She didn’t bother with order now. Every blanket, every change of clothes, the stack of notebooks, the hidden box of chocolate bars—all of it vanished into her space in a blur. Oogie Boogie, the plush that never left her bed, disappeared into the void with everything else.
Her pulse thundered in her ears. She didn’t need the news to tell her what a 9.2 quake in the North Atlantic meant. She had heard rumors of what brought about the destruction of Country N. It might not have been an earthquake on the other side of the world... but she knew what came after.
By the time she raced back into the living room, the men were still sitting there, staring at the screen as if the words might change if they read them enough times. She didn’t stop to explain. She grabbed the Hummer’s keys from the hook by the door, her go-bag already waiting at the threshold like a loyal dog.
"Wait—" Noah was the first to move, standing as she wrenched the door open. The rush of warm night air curled through the room. "What are you doing? Where are you going?"
She didn’t answer.
Her boots hit the porch, then the gravel drive. Behind her, Zubair was already on his feet, silent and immediate, Elias and Lachlan close on his heels. Alexei, for once, had no joke, only a sharp curse as he lunged for his coat. They didn’t question. They simply followed her example.
But Noah wasn’t like them. He followed her out onto the porch, his voice climbing higher as he shouted out into the darkness.
"Even if there is a tsunami, there’s nothing to worry about. You heard the TV. They said everything will be fine!" His arms flung wide, a boy trying to slow a tide with nothing but words.
Sera didn’t stop.
The Hummer loomed in the driveway, its black bulk steady against the flickering porch light. She yanked the door open, slid into the driver’s seat, and jammed the key into the ignition. The engine roared to life, loud and final.
The others piled in after her, unhesitating.
Zubair and Elias slammed the back doors just as the vehicle lurched forward. Lachlan cursed, halfway to buckling his seatbelt. Alexei laughed once, breathless and sharp, the kind of laugh that belonged more to adrenaline than humor.
Noah froze on the porch, the gravel crunching under his slippers, the porch light cutting him in half—one side shadow, one side pale.
"Stay inside!" he shouted. "Sera!"
But the words were drowned by the grind of tires on gravel. The Hummer surged forward, headlights cutting a stark tunnel through the warm night. Elias reached out to grab the door, still half-open, as the vehicle swerved onto the road. Zubair pulled it shut with a decisive slam.
And then Noah was gone, swallowed by the dark behind them, while Sera kept her eyes on the road, hands locked steady on the wheel.