Date: Sun, 03 Jul 2005 17:39:40 +0000
From: Taylor Quest <swingerdude20@hotmail.com>
Subject: The Day the Earth Moved Chapter 2

DISCLAIMER: This story is a work of fiction. The plot and actions
herein are entirely fictional with no basis on actual events. This
story is for pure entertainment purposes only and does not suggest
the actual sexuality of any or all characters involved. This story
contains sexual situations between consenting males. If this is not
legal in your area, don't read it.

The Day the Earth Moved
By Taylor W. Quest

Chapter 2

     "Holy shit," Tay yelled as a section of the elevator started to
buckle on top of him.

     I grabbed his arm and yanked him up from the floor and held onto
him. Frantically I kicked at the doors to the elevator, of course they
wouldn't budge. By now it was close to deafening. We couldn't hear
anything except the screaming of metal and grinding of cement splitting
apart. The fluorescent tubes above us exploded and the elevator was
filled with a dim red glow from the emergency light above.

    "Taylor, your going to have to climb up, we can't get out this way,"
I yelled at him. He stared blankly at me.

    "Damn it, Taylor snap out of it, your family is up there," I
screamed as I slapped him.

     Taylor seemed to snap out of it and started clawing his way up to
the open service way door above us. After pushing him up on top of the
elevator I climbed up. Nearly slipping and falling on my ass. Everything
was still shaking uncontrollably. Right in front of us was the first
floor entry. The elevator had crashed through the secondary floor and
rammed right down into the sub floor of the shaft. Somehow I pulled the
door's open and pushed Taylor up. I found myself slipping as he reached
back down to pull me up. I heard a loud snap and looked up. The
mechanical drive shaft and turbines of the elevator manifold had shook
loose from their anchor at the top floor and they were plummeting toward
me.

     "Holy shit, Taylor help me," I screamed as he pulled.
     Before I knew it I slid up and out onto the floor of the hallway as
a mass of twisted metal collided with the elevator car in a shower of
sparks at the bottom. If we had not escaped when we did, we would have
been killed instantly.

     By now it was nearly impossible to stand up, everything around us
was rocking left to right. The frame work of the hotel was buckling. We
darted under a doorway and held on. All around us the ceilings were
splitting open the floors were sinking. Glancing to our left we saw a
mass of people huddled under the conference tables. Zac and Ike were no
where to be seen. I high pitched scream rang out from somewhere behind
us and suddenly something smashed against us. I fell to the floor,
stunned and unable to move. I thought for a moment that I barely saw
Taylor's hand beside my face. My vision blurred and went dark. As I went
unconscious the rumbling continued.

--

     "This is CNN News, we are interrupting our normal news cast to
bring you this urgent news special report. We are currently receiving
word from the U.S. Geological Survey that an earthquake of massive
proportions is currently tearing through central and southern
California. The Survey is stating that this earthquake started six
minutes ago, at a ranking like nothing they've ever seen. It is reported
that at eleven forty two am Pacific Daylight time that the Richter
scales registered a tremor of three point eight. This tremor grew to a
size of seven point nine within less than a minute. They are stating
that it has tapered off and is continuing at a level of thirteen point
nine on the Richter scale."

 "We have been attempting to bring you some kind of live feed from our
Los Angeles offices but so far nothing has been able to make it past the
San Andres fault line. Wait! I'm getting in more information this
second. It seems that the earthquake began directly in the center of the
San Andreas fault. It has spread outwards toward the California coast
line. The following areas have been touched by this tragic incident. Los
Angeles, Hollywood, San Jose, San Francisco, Santa Rosa, Sacramento,
Fresno, and San Diego. There are reports from the Mexican government
that all of Baja California has completely sunk beneath the ocean
surface. We are getting reports that tremors, power outages and
structural damages are being caused all the way inland as far away as
Las Vegas. Other sources report that analysts are concerned about the
integrity of the Hoover Dam."

     "Once again a massive earthquake registering at fourteen point two
on the Richter scale has hit the state of California. The tremors are
being felt as far west as Las Vegas and in the north the states of
Arizona and Oregon are reporting tremors as well as Washington. This
earthquake is continuing as we speak. We are now in contact with a news
source on the scene, it seems that the E! Entertainment TV News chopper
is in the air at this very moment over Hollywood, visuals are not
available but we do have a audio feed. E! Entertainment TV Go ahead your
are live across the world."

     "This is Jules Asner for E! Entertainment Television, what I am
witnessing is not only devastating but indescribable. Through the dust
in the air it's nearly impossible to see anything, we're not even sure
the chopper will be able to stay in the air much longer. Briefly we
caught glimpses of this terrible ongoing tragedy. The rumbling has
subsided now but aftershocks are still rolling across the landscape
beneath us. What I did see was horrible, we were just over Beverly Hills
on a live feed covering the kick off conference with Hanson at The
Beverly Hills Hotel that was to be followed by a concert this evening."

     "At first all we saw were people running about, then we noticed
that the trees, stop lights, telephone poles and anything that was
standing had begun to rock back and forth. Soon we could actually hear
the rumbling. I watched as the Beverly Hills Hotel began to collapse.
The dust clouds were growing too dense for our engines and we had to
move away. Departing the area we passed Hollywood. After this, there
won't be anything left, besides the massive structural damage to every
standing building in sight the landscape  has actually shifted. Los
Angeles... is gone. What remains is, well it's nearly impossible to
see."

     "Jules, no doubt the loss of life will be in the millions, what
about the integrity of the buildings, can you tell us anything about the
landmarks, is anything left? Is there any hope?"

     "No, everything has gone down. From the Chinese Theater all the way
into Los Angeles, it's all down, it's all gone. Everything, I don't
think there is a building left standing....."

--

     I opened my eyes slowly, it was quiet. I could hear distant
crackling, perhaps a fire. I found it extremely hard to breath I knew I
was being crushed under something extremely heavy. I tried to move but I
couldn't. Looking over my back I saw that the massive wood beam that
made the doorway had fallen down on me. Above it was, was the sky.

     The sun was shining through a dense cloud of gray that was passing
over head. I found that while I couldn't push the beam off of me that I
could at least slide out from under it slowly. My head was pounding, and
my left arm hurt like a mother. I stood up and looked around. The entire
hotel had collapsed. There were still massive chunks of it standing.
Much of the outer walls were still upright but most of the building had
come apart and fallen away, or in on it's self.

     The room we had been in was an outer area, nothing had thankfully
fallen down on us. Only the roof had collapsed. And the elevator, that
was horrible. I turned around and looked down at where I had been. There
was sheet rock and plaster, splinters of wood and a foot of dust
everywhere. Frantically I called Taylor's name.

     "Taylor, Taylor are you there, are you ok," I screamed as loud as I
could.

     I heard nothing. A shifting started and an aftershock rumbled
through. More of the outer structure fell away from the building. I
heard a groan. I looked behind me through a pile of debris, all I saw
was the top of a doorway, the door way that lead to the stairwell. Which
extended up over the ruin about thirty feet and abruptly stopped in mid
air.

     I climbed over the debris and looked down into the entrance. Taylor
was laying on his back, it appeared that he had been knocked out but
nothing had struck him. The steel metal frame of the door had protected
him from pretty much all of the falling debris. I was sure that if he
hadn't been in the doorway he would have been killed.

     "Taylor, Tay are you ok," I asked quietly as I pulled him up into a
sitting position.

     He slowly opened his eyes and looked at me. Even covered in dust
and dirt, his gorgeous blue eyes shined. He smiled at me, I smiled back.
I groaned inside, even in the midst of all this hell I so desperately
wanted to kiss him. He was alive, and all right. I heard a more feminine
moan behind him. I looked up and saw nothing but a pile of sheetrock and
wood splinters. The pile moaned again.

     "Bloody hell," a feminine voice I knew all too well cursed out of
the debris.

     "Geri, is that you," I yelled as Taylor and I stood up and started
to pull junk off of the top of the heap.

     "No it's Marilyn Monroe, of course it's me," she snapped still
unseen under the rubble.

     "Can you move," Taylor asked.

     "If I could, I wouldn't be waiting for you two numb nuts to get me
out," she replied angrily.

     Taylor looked at me with a bit of a worried look.

     "Geri it's me Taylor and, Taylor," I said aloud only realizing how
weird that sounded after I said it.

     "What? Oh wonderful I get my bum tossed down ten flights of stairs
and who rescues me? Some guy with split personalities!"

     "GERI It's Taylor Hanson and Taylor Quest," I yelled at her not so
kindly.

     "Oh, oh God help me get out of this," she said as she started
shoving and kicking at the pile from the inside. A fist flew out of the
rubble, pulled back in and two hands popped out shoving more debris
aside. Then her face squeezed out, covered in dirt with a slight trickle
of blood running from her hair line.

     "Well are you two going to stand there watching me crawl out of
this like some kind of warped, never mind I just do not have the
strength to go on," she said slumping to the side.

     We jumped and grabbed her arms and slowly pulled her out of the
pile and helped her to her feet.

     "Thank you so much, another few seconds and I might have rescued
myself, now what the hell happened?!"

     "All I can guess is the 'Big One' finally hit," Tay replied.

     "Yeah, that makes sense. I was coming down the stairs when I felt a
tremor. I stopped and looked around. It was then everything started to
bloody shift and twist, dust was falling all over me and I couldn't see.
I was running down the stairs and I just felt myself getting tossed off
the steps. I remember hitting the wall, that's where I got this, damn
that hurts. And I balled up and fell down the rest of the way. I
screamed as I saw I was about to hit the bottom and then I blacked out.
I awoke to hear you talking to Taylor and that's when you pulled me
out," Geri said as we started climbing our way toward the grand ball
room. Or what was left of it.

     The breeze was blowing and a tattered 'Hanson' banner flapped in
the wind. Taylor had calmly been searching for his family but by now it
was seeming pretty hopeless. I felt awful as I watched him jump and
start screaming the names of everyone he had been with. Trying to ignore
the situation I focused on what he was doing and I tried not to laugh at
one point, simply because he called out to so many names I was starting
to wonder just how big his family really was.

     My head jerked around as I thought I had heard a faint yelling but
I wasn't sure. We helped up a few people who were still alive, many of
them were not. I heard a female voice come from behind in the
restaurant. I pulled open the doors to get a face full of smoke. The
kitchen must have caught fire. I heard a girls voice calling from deep
within the smoke. I ran back to the hall way and ripped down a curtain
and dumped over a water cooler that had made it through the quake
untouched and soaked the curtain. After pulling it over my head I rushed
into the room.

     "Hello, is anyone in here, there's a fire we have to get out of
here," I screamed as I peered out of the curtain into the smoke. The
electricity must have been still working slightly because the room would
brighten and dim sporadically. The restaurant was the only room that
still had it's roof.

     Much of the walls were bare with countless photos of celebrities
shattered on the floor. I heard more screaming and yelling coming from
deeper in the restaurant. I called out and got a reply.

     "Is anyone in here, we have to get out the restaurant is on fire,"
I yelled out.

     "Yes, help me, I'm over here," a girls voice screamed. Suddenly I
felt someone against me. Turning around I found that Taylor had caught
up with me and was under the curtain now.

     "I couldn't find them, Jammer was ok, he said that mom and dad and
the kids had gone to eat lunch in here," Taylor told me as we pawed
around in the dark.

     "Where is Geri," I asked.

     "She's out there helping people, she's really cool, she's a tough
chick," Taylor replied with what I thought to be a smile. It was too
dark to tell. Then we heard more screaming right in front of us.

     I felt a tug and looked down, there was a girl on the floor with
long dark hair and she was pulling on my leg. A beam from the ceiling
had fallen and was on her left foot.

     "Help me get up, I can walk I just need help," she said.

     "I dropped the curtain, the flames and smoke weren't that bad where
we were. I pushed with all my strength at the beam and it tilted
slightly and she was able to get her foot free. She stood up and turned
around.

     "There are people over there, back there I think and down there,
and well I'm not sure if my friend is ok," she exclaimed. Her face was
extremely familiar.

     But it was smudged with soot and dust and that made it even harder
in the dark. Still her voice was so familiar I almost could recognize
it.

     "Well are you going to stand there like an idiot or are you gonna
help me," she snapped as she struggled to lift their table that had
fallen on her friend.

     "Fuck it, I'll do it myself," she snapped again. I heard a voice
come from under the table it called her name.

     "Love, Love where are you," the voice called.

     'Love,' where had I heard that name? I seemed to remember that
there was someone. Jennifer Love Hewitt! I was shocked as hell, then I
remembered where I was. I snapped out of my daze and pushed her back and
heaved with all my might as debris slid off the collapsed table and fell
as I heaved the table over to the side.

     The girl wasn't recognizable, Jennifer on the other hand was, now
that I knew who she was. She, and her 'sweater', ok so she wasn't
wearing one but still I did giggle to myself when I thought about the
last time I had heard about her. It was on TV and someone made the joke
about 'I Still Know What You Did Last Summer." That it starred Jennifer
Love Hewitt and her sweater. She looked up at me and smiled.

     "Thanks, I didn't mean to snap like that," she said as she smiled.
Her cute smile shining through the gunk. She helped her friend up and
headed out a window nearby. I turned around to see Taylor moving deeper
into the back of the restaurant. I was walking over toward him when I
nearly tripped over something. I looked down and saw an arm sticking out
from under a beam.

     I followed the arm to a blue sun dress and pushed away a chunk of
sheet rock. The beam had fallen from the ceiling and the end had landed
square on the chest of Cindy Crawford crushing her like a walnut. Sure
she might have been a ditz but I was sad nonetheless. Just as I
suspected there was no pulse. I stood up as Taylor walked over. He
glanced down and gasped.

     "Oh man, Cindy Crawford, that's bad man real bad," Taylor remarked
as looked like he didn't even know how to react. He covered his mouth as
I stared down and then back up at him. It was then I remembered how he
had met her before, and made a big deal about it. I put my arms around
him and hugged him. Another shock ran through the area and we lost our
balance and fell to the floor. Jennifer came trampling back in cussing
at her cell phone.

     "Nothing works, the cell phones, the pay phones, either it's dead,
busy or tied up," she exclaimed throwing the cell phone down as she
looked over at Cindy.

     "Oh my God," she said in shock looking down. She then glanced over
at us.

     "Taylor Hanson," she asked as she pushed a lock of his blond hair
behind his ear.

     "Yeah, hey," he said sniffling raising his head from my shoulder.

     "Oh whoa, I'm so glad your ok," Jennifer said as she lost her
balance as another shock jolted the remnants of the building.

     "We had better get out of here," Taylor said as he looked behind
him.

     "I thought your parent's might be in here," I asked as I looked
into the back of the restaurant.

     "There's no one back there except some old people," he said as he
looked back at us.

     "Well help me get Cindy up and out of here, I don't want her going
up in smoke with the rest of this place," Jennifer commented as she
uncovered Cindy's body from the sheet rock. Taylor and I lifted the beam
slightly as Jennifer pulled on Cindy's arms dragging her out from under
the beam. I picked her up and carried her outside to the lawn where we
laid her down and covered her up with a curtain.

     "Who's that," some really beat up reporter asked as we headed back
in.

     "Cindy Crawford," I commented with out looking. Little did I know
the reporters mouth dropped open and he sat down looking like a lost
kid.

     We went back in, the flames had gotten hotter and were starting to
fill the back area. I heard a coughing coming from in the back and
someone started to stumble out.

     "Come on Joan, that's it, you can do it, this old bird isn't down
yet, oh hi kids, got any water I'm parched," Joan Rivers coughed as she
stumbled out into the light. Hair a mess, dress blackened and torn,
eyeliner running and coughing like a tuberculosis patient.

     "Joan Rivers! Oh my God, you survived," Jennifer called out.

     "Ha, hey kiddo, nothing can keep a Jew down, not even the 'Big
One."

     Joan chuckled at us as we helped her out through the window.

     We all started to laugh a bit, Joan really was making it easier for
us to handle things. Her comedy was a real uplift. Taylor saw Jammer and
ran over to him and came back to us. It seemed that the family had gone
out to eat elsewhere and they were able to contact them over the radio,
they were fine, a little shaken up, but they were fine. Fine after they
had carefully crawled out of the back of their van that was hanging by a
sewer pipe over a two hundred foot drop in the middle of Sunset Blvd.

     We were standing outside near the road way. By now more people had
gathered, a few cops had rolled up in some really banged up patrol cars.
The streets had been shattered by the quake and foot deep cracks and pot
holes were everywhere. I walked over and leaned against a limo that a
tree had fallen over on. We were all talking when Geri came up smiling
at us.

     "How's it all goin'," she asked with a smile.

     "Oh much better, Tay's family is fine, Joan's got some water and
Jennifer's friend will be ok," I replied as everyone started laughing at
Joan who was acting suddenly ill and decrepit after a sip of water she
exclaimed 'Oh God, it's California tap water, I think I'll die!' I felt
a nudge from the limo. It shifted and I heard a thump. We all turned
around, there was pounding on the window. We heard a woman shout 'get
back'. Then before we knew what was happening a high heeled tan shoe
smashed through the window. We all flinched and jumped back as Mary Hart
pulled herself from the limo.

     "I've seen it all now," Joan cracked as she sipped more of her
water.

     "Give it a while Joan, I'm sure we can top it," Mary replied as we
helped her out of the window.

     "Are you ok Ms. Hart," I asked with concern.

     "Oh yes thank you, so was that an earthquake or was that an
earthquake," she asked as she looked down dusting her herself off. Not
noticing the decimation all around her she had her classic Entertainment
Tonight smile. She then looked up and saw it all.

     "Oh dear God," was all she said as she covered her mouth. The sight
was truly unlike anything we had thought could happen. There wasn't a
home in sight standing and the Beverly Hills Hotel was completely
destroyed. Smoke was rising in the distance and faint gas explosions
could be heard. Another aftershock rumbled through knocking us all to
the ground. The rumble continued for another fifteen seconds and
subsided. There really wasn't that much left to crumble away.

     Taylor tapped me on the shoulder and pointed to a secluded bush. I
followed him over there, not realizing Geri had seen us leave.

     "What's up," I asked.

     "I just wanted to thank you, you know, for saving my life," Taylor
said as what I thought was a tear formed in his eye.

     "Oh hey no problem, after all you did pull me up from the elevator
shaft as that machinery came down," I reminded him.

     "Yes, but if you hadn't slapped me we wouldn't have made it out at
all," he replied.

     "Taylor, I, well I just," I stuttered at him. Not knowing what to
say. I was so, so... What was it? Was I in love with him? My heart
jumped as I realized it. In love with him, not just a crush, a crush
wouldn't have made me risk my life. A crush wouldn't have made me feel
like this. I've had crushes before they weren't anything like this. I
couldn't say a word. I just stared at him, just knowing that he was ok
was making it all bearable.

    "Shh, don't say anything," he said placing his soft index finger
over my lips.

    He smiled softly at me, slowly he leaned in. I could feel his breath
on my mouth.

    "Ahheeeem," we both snapped our heads around to see Geri peering in
at us from outside the bushes.

    "And what are you two love birds doing, you know snogging in public
will land you in a tabloid," she said with one hand on her hip and a
smirk on her face.

     "We weren't, I mean I was, well he," I stuttered trying to cover
for Taylor.

     "Hey, just thought I'd let you know I got two helicopters on the
way, one for your family Tay, and one for us three," she smiled.

     "How did you get helicopters," Tay asked in shock ignoring her
comments about the situation she had found us in.

     "I'll have you know your talking to a United Nations Good Will
Ambassador," Geri exclaimed proudly as she dusted her chest off and
tried to stand tall. Which only looked pathetic, her suit was ripped all
over, her hair was hanging down from it's bun in strands. She had a
small scab on her forehead and she was missing a shoe.

     "Geri, you know your a real nut," I said as I giggled at her.

Taylor and I smiled at each other and he put his arm around me. I was
really starting to get comfortable when another after shock hit us. This
tossed Geri right into our laps. After the rumble subsided we could hear
Joan cursing, her water had spilled everywhere.

     "Anyone got any liquor?!" she yelled out. We all burst into
laughter.

Chapter 3 coming soon!

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