"I know I can do it!" Erin snapped. She wasn't at all thrilled to be facing the possibility of death. Carefully shifting on her seat, she reached her right arm out to David and tried to pull herself up across the driver's seat. That was when the first earthquake hit, sending the car another ten feet down the side of the hill, and taking Erin with it.

"Erin!" screamed David. He froze for a moment, not knowing what to do. Erin, on the other hand, had pulled herself half way out of the car--she refused to let it pull her down the hill.

"David, get down here and help me!" she yelled at him. David tried walking down the hill to her, but wound up sliding down on the mud instead. He stopped a few inches short of her face, unintentionally splattering mud on her.

"Ugh!" sputtered Erin, wiping the mud from her mouth. "Get me out of here!" she ordered. David complied with her command and pulled her out from the car. They made their way up the slippery hill to the road and reached pavement just as the second earthquake hit. The two watched as David's car went sliding into the ocean below.

"Oh, God," Erin barely made out. If David had waited those extra thirty seconds to get her out of the car, she would've gone with it. The idea made her queasy and she sat down. David sat next to her.

"You okay, Eri?" he asked quietly (well, as quietly as you can talk over pouring rain). Erin shook her head "no" and let David hold her as she started to cry.

"Shh. You're safe now," David whispered to her. "We're okay." Erin just gasped, trying to catch her breath. She eventually did and David felt her relax.

"We gotta get out of here," Erin said. David nodded.

"There's a 7-11 around the corner," he said. "We can call the police from there, okay?" Erin nodded, and stood up, holding onto David for support. They inched their way along the road toward the glowing lights of the convenience store.

Trey stood up. "Then why does Eri always say that?"

"Cause Eri's living in a dreamworld where her best friend marries her brother and everybody lives happily ever after," answered Alyson. "Life isn't that simple."

"So you don't like me?" Trey asked.

"What did I just say?"

"Life isn't simple."

"Before that, you . . . freak," said Alyson, recalling what Trey'd said about her always calling him an idiot.

Trey smiled and walked back toward the direction from which they'd walked. "Come on, Alley, we got places to go, people to see, things to do, and hair to dry."

"Oh, God forbid your hair looks terrible for half an hour," said Alyson. Trey ran his fingers through his hair.

"Does it look that bad?" he asked, sorta worried.

"Worse," said Alyson, walking past him. Trey pondered that for a moment, questioning in his mind whether it really did look that bad or if Alyson was just saying that cause she was being her usual insultive self. Deciding on the latter, Trey followed her. They got back to her car a couple minutes later and climbed back in. Trey checked his hair in the rearview mirror. Alyson hadn't been just insulting him and he finger combed his hair until it looked semi-acceptable.

"So what're we gonna do?" asked Trey. He noticed her car phone. "Uh, genius?" he asked. "Couldn't we have just called from your car phone?"

"The battery's dead," Alyson said. "I have to get a new one."

Trey looked at her, exasperated. "Well, what were you waiting for? The end of the world? What were you gonna do if you got stuck out on the highway? Or lost? You're supposed to stay on top of these things, Al! What good's a car phone if it doesn't work?"

"I don't know, Trey!" Alyson exploded. "I don't like being stuck out here any more than you do! If I could get us home, I would!" She sighed and leaned back in her seat.

"So we have to sleep here," said Trey after a minute.

"Well, we don't have much choice unless you want to go sleep out in the rain on the road," said Alyson.

"Um, I'll stay here, thanks," said Trey. He looked out the windshield for a minute, then leaned back in his seat and closed his eyes, trying to go to sleep.

Colleen leaned against a food shelf while watching Rob try to find a release latch to the freezer door. His only source of light was a keyring flashlight so, combined with the fact that his fingers were freezing, he wasn't getting too far.

"There's gotta be a latch here somewhere," replied Rob through chattering teeth. "It's regulation." He ran his hand up and down the wall next to the door but found nothing.

"Lemme try," said Colleen, stepping over to the door. She grabbed Rob's flashlight and shone it upon the door, checking with both her eyes and hand for a latch. She found the rectangle of metal in a few seconds.

"Got it!" cheered Colleen. "You open it," she ordered Rob. "I can't feel my fingers enough to do it."

Rob grasped the handle as best he could with frozen fingers and pulled with all his might. Nothing happened.

"It's not working," he said, a touch of panic in his voice.

"Here, let me help," said Colleen. She put her hands on the end of the handle and pulled with Rob. "Come on, Rob! Pull!"

"I am!" shouted Rob. "It won't move!"

"Yes, it will," said Colleen through gritted, chattering teeth. With one more pull, she felt the stopper release and the door swung open into the cafe's kitchen. Rob and Colleen got out of the freezer as fast as they could, slamming the door behind them. Colleen promptly ran over to the sink and filled two cups with hot water. After dumping packets of hot chocolate into them, she handed one to Rob and sat down on the floor.

"Ninety degrees outside and we're drinking cocoa," remarked Rob, leaning against Colleen.

Colleen took a sip of her cocoa. "Yeah, well, it's better than freezing to death," she said. After gulping down the rest of her drink, she jumped up and put her cup in the dishwasher (hey, she's a clean person!). She grabbed Rob's from him even though he wasn't finished and put it in the dishwasher as well. Then she dragged him by the hand outside. She didn't want to get into some other problem in the cafe.

"Wait!" said Rob, halting in his tracks and about knocking Colleen to the ground.

"What?" asked Colleen in annoyance. I don't know why she was annoyed. She just was. I guess cause Rob almost knocked her down.

"I forgot my sunglasses," answered Rob. Colleen just rolled her eyes and pulled him to the car.

"Hello?" she barely made out.

"Courtney, it's me," came Chris' beautiful voice. Courtney sat up, startled.

"What about your. . .?" she started.

"Just listen," Chris ordered her. "Meet me in front of the ice cream shop on the boardwalk tomorrow. At three."

"Okay, but . . ." Courtney again started.

"Three o' clock," Chris whispered quickly, then hung up. Courtney placed the receiver back in the cradle and sat back against the wall. So it wasn't completely over. She was going to still see Chris, even if it meant hiding from everyone. Well, they were experts at that, so why should this be any different? Courtney sighed and snuggled up under her covers. She closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep, thinking of Chris and wishing the election were over so they could have a normal relationship like everyone else.