What The Eyes Don't See

5 | Crash and Chaos

All at once, daylight exploded into the mood-lit interiors of the café. A large cloud of dust had risen, the particles still flying all around. Pieces of rubble had flown in every direction, smashing objects, hitting the walls, even falling on people. And then someone screamed. Anay looked at her. She was a girl, holding her forehead, stemming blood from the fresh wound. Someone else looked dazed at his laptop, whose screen was smashed by another fragment of the rubble. The very next moment, collective screams of people rent the place. Someone stood up and rushed to the door, and then another followed. What had been a normal day at the café turned to a scene of pandemonium within seconds, as everyone rose at once to get to the nearest way out of the café.

Anay stood rooted to the spot in utter shock. He had realized that the debris had fallen on the exact spot where Shanaya had been standing making the payment moments ago.

"Shanaya! Shanaya!" he screamed, looking at the mound of rubble now on the floor next to the payment counter.

There was no reply.

Something inside him blacked out. He lost all hope in that moment. Something just snapped. He knew he would not get past this. This was not meant to happen. He had just met Shanaya; hadn't even got to know her well. Was she there? Trapped under the debris? Tears and shock took hold of him.

Another portion of the ceiling collapsed, this time right behind him. The glass façade crashed. People screamed again, those stragglers who hadn't yet been able to find their way out. Anay saw, with great horror, that a splinter was embedded in his arm. A tiny one, but it brought him back to his senses.

Then he heard a shout, "HEY, YOU! HELP ME OUTTA HERE!" It was the man behind the counter, apparently the owner, who had just been laughing with Shanaya.

"Shanaya! Where is Shanaya?" Anay asked.

He came running to the mound and began to look. No, it didn't seem that she was under that slab. No, of course not! She wasn't there! She must have run out! Joy suddenly swept over him as that thought struck him.

"Hey, help me!" the man screamed again.

This time, Anay looked at him closely and then stared, wide-eyed. The man was trapped. Part of the roof had fallen directly over the counter. Anay leaned over the counter and saw—the man's leg was trapped under the rubble.

Anay looked around. The café was almost empty now; Shanaya had definitely run out. Outside, there was chaos. But this man was in here. He could not leave him. He hopped over the counter and said, "I'll get you out, man!" Furiously, he began removing the pieces of debris around the man's leg.

"That hurts!" the man screamed as Anay tried to shift a particular piece of concrete that was right over his knee, which was evidently broken.

"Hang on!" said Anay. "This is heavy, but I'll get help." But as he said that, there was another rumbling. Anay looked up in fear. Another portion of the roof's concrete was now dangling precariously right above their heads, and this was a much larger piece. It had parted away from the beam structure on three sides and was now just dangling from a fourth. It could fall down at any moment.

"There's no time!" Anay screamed. "Try to move, man!"

The man winced as he put all his strength into moving his foot, ignoring all the pain. He lashed around his arms to try to move, but the slab of debris on him was too heavy. And then, it moved. If only by a fraction, it moved.

The man screamed, "Try to take it off now! Do it now!"

Anay bent to do whatever he could. He put his hands on the slab, not caring that its jagged ends now punctured his own flesh and grunted as hard as he could.