He jerked his bag around to his front and struggled with the zip as they turned to face the stairwell. The teeth jammed for a beat before snapping free, he cursed under his breath while forcing them apart. Everything was a mess inside his bag. A history book jammed against his lunch. A pencil dug into his searching fingers. Somewhere deep, his fingertips hit smooth plastic. He closed his hand around the phone and dragged it out.

  “Keep moving!” Mr. Hargraves voice knifed straight through the alarm. “Don’t stop to get your things, you can live without them!”

  For a brief moment, Daniel’s hands hesitated around the phone—just long enough to feel the weight of Mr. Hargraves disapproving look. He clocked the phone in Daniel’s fist and the open bag, his eyes narrowing with the kind of look that required no words. The kind that assured him he would remember.

  “Keep walking.” Jay muttered straight into his ear. “Don’t give him a reason.”

  Bodies pressed in from both sides as the crows surged one more and pulled them down toward the stairs. A shoulder slammed Daniel’s bag. His ribs were clipped by someone else’s elbow. The entire line flinched—and ugly, coordinated ripple of fear—as the building let out another low groan, deep enough that it seemed to come from beneath the earth.

  Daniel’s knuckles turned white as his fingers grew tighter around the phone. He held the power button down with his thumb. For a heartbeat that seemed far too long, the screen remained black before recognizable logo of a small robot emerged from the shadows. He let out a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding.

  In a sudden, terrible flash, he thought of his little sister— out in the city on that school trip she had been looking forward to, right by the Big Ben with all that metal, stone and crowds. If their school could creak and tilt like this, what was happening there? And then another frightening thought washed over him, this time about his parents. His Mom at home with cabinets, plates and stairs, and his Dad at work somewhere with screens, glass and heavy shelves. In the space of a few seconds, the whole world turned into a map of places where someone he loved could get hurt.

  The stairwell was a stop-and-go funnel; they took a few steps, then stopped, then moved again. Heat pressed from all sides. Someone was really crying now, with big gulps of air the bounced off the walls and made everything feel tighter. A boy somewhere above shouted, “We’re all going to die!” quickly got silenced by a furious science teacher who grabbed him by the sleeve and simply told him to shut up.

  Daniel’s phone had just completed its slow startup process when they finally spilled out into the grey light of a London day. As soon as the home screen appeared notifications piled on top of each other, emergency alerts illuminated the top, and the vibration buzzed so loudly that the phone had almost slipped out of his sweaty hand. Network bars came and went. For a moment all he saw were missed calls from a number marked HOME, one from DAD, and a few ‘Are you okay?’ messages from a group chat about which he hardly gave a damn anymore.

  “Stay with your class!” some teacher he didn’t recognize was shouting through a loudhailer. “Do not try to go back inside!”

  Daniel hardly heard any of it. With his eyes fixed on his mobile’s screen, he jabbed his thumb at the missed call from HOME and moved towards the group of people he knew from advanced maths.

  Jay pointed toward a teacher calling his class. “That’s us,” he said, forcing a grin. “ Ordinary People Maths. Come on Leo, before Hargrave appears and body-checks us into a ditch.”

  Leo gave Daniel a quick look. “You good?”

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  Daniel didn’t trust his voice, so he lifted his phone in a small wave instead.

  “See you later Einstein.”

  The call connected on the second ring.

  “Daniel?” his mum’s voice hit him like a slap. “Daniel, are you okay? I’ve been calling and it kept going straight to voicemail.”

  “I’m okay,” he said at once, the words tumbling out. “I’m okay Mum. We’re outside. They have evacuated us.”

  There was a sound on her side that sounded like a breath collapsing. For a brief moment, she remained silent.

  “You’re…you’re not hurt?” she managed. “Nothing fell on you? Your head, your legs, you can move fine?”

  “I’m fine, mum.” He looked down at himself as if to check. Arms, legs, all were there. “Just a little …shaken, that’s all. Everyone is a bit freaked out.”

  “Okay,” the word came out on a shaky exhale. In the background he could hear the Tv turned up too lout and the flat, carful voice of the newsreader.

  “What is happening there?”

  “They’re saying it was a minor earthquake,” she said, and he could hear how much she didn’t believe the word minor. “They keep saying it’s ‘localized’ and ’no need to panic’ then showing pictures that make you panic anyway.”

  “Pictures of what?”

  “The Parliament. The river. The tower.” Her voice dipped, then went softer. “They’ve got helicopters over Westminster. The police are also there. They’re talking about a ‘structural issue’ with the Big Ben.”

  His mind skipped ahead of her. “Emily.”

  “I know, her class should still be there.”

  “Have you talked to Miss Riley? Or the school?” His voice came out too sharp, demanding.

  “I keep trying,” there was a rustle at the other end like she was pacing, moving the phone from one hand to the other. “The school office is either busy or the line just drops. Miss Riley’s mobile doesn’t ring at all.”

  He didn’t trust his voice enough to answer right away. A cold shiver run down his spine.

  “Mum?”

  “Yes, love?”

  “Is Dad at home?”

  “No,” the answer came quickly. “He’s left work as soon as things started shaking in town. He is going to try to get as close to Westminster as they’ll let him. The roads are a mess, but he’s on his way.”

  “Dad’s going in the city?” Daniel’s voice jumped.

  “We’ve argued about it for five minutes. But he’s not going to do anything stupid. He just wants to be near, in case they start bringing children out to some collection point. He said…” she cut herself off, then finished more quietly. “He said he can’t sit in his office pretending to work while his daughter’s somewhere on the news.”

  For a moment neither of them said anything.

  “Listen to me Daniel,” she said. “Your job is to stay exactly where your teacher tells you to be. Do not leave school on your own. Do not go anywhere near town. Do not go back into the building unless a teacher tells you it’s safe. One of us will come and pick you up. Do you understand?”

  He opened his mouth to say yes, but something else cam out first. “What if they send us home?”

  “Then you come straight home,” she said instantly. “No popping to a friend’s, no I’ll just go and have a look. Straight home.”

  He bit back the automatic answer of ‘I’m not a kid anymore.’ It felt wrong in his throat. “Mum, I can’t just do nothing while Emily…”

  “Yes, you can,” she cut in gently but firmly. “And you will. Because doing nothing is exactly what I need from you right now. Your sister is in the middle of it. That is more than enough for one day.”

  His eyes stung, and he blinked the tears away. “I just… I hate this,” he muttered. “Not knowing anything.”

  “So do I,” she said swallowing hard as her voice faltered. “Are you with anyone you know? You’re not on your own are you?”

  “I’m with my class,” he said glancing around. Meanwhile Mrs. Patel had arrived at the sports field, and was now pacing up and down with a clipboard, counting and recounting. “Everyone is on the sports field. Teachers are…trying I guess.”

  “Good. Stay with them,” she said. “Don’t wander off.”

  “I won’t,” he said. “I promise.”

  “Good,” she paused. “I’m so glad you picked up, I needed to know you are alright.”

  Daniel looked up just in time to see Mrs. Patel getting closer, clipboard clipped under her arm, her gaze settling on his phone in his hand.

  “I have to go Mum, Mrs. Patel’s here.”

  “I love you, Daniel.”

  “Love you, Mom. Bye.”

  “Mr. Cooper?” Mrs. Patel asked one eyebrow drawn higher, stopping before him.

  “Yes, sorry. I’m here.” With his finger still wrapped around the phone, Daniel lowered it and shoved it into his pocket.

  She held his gaze for a moment, then nodded and walked away.

  His father was on his way in the city somewhere. And his little sister was under the same gray sky, near a tower that the news were already calling ‘unstable’.