Chapter 4: Earthquake

"It's finally over; we can finally rest after that torturous canyoneering. I've never been this tired in all my life," one of the students said while carefully going down a narrow trail on a steep mountain slope.

"At least we had fun, even though it's very tiring. If you ask me, I would come back here someday with my family," someone said in the group of students. 

"I can't believe we still have to walk for 30-45 minutes after our rest at the foot of the mountain. I swear I will go to sleep immediately when we arrive at our retreat house." Another student complained.

"You guys should be lucky to experience this. You should be thankful to see the beauty of the world, even if it's a small part of it." Mr. Yap said to the students that he was leading with the guides.

They were in one line; behind Mr. Yap were Reese, Renz, and Rey; after Rey were Lian and the rest of the students, and all of them were exhausted to the bone. Most of them were on the verge of collapsing in a second, but the determination to go down the mountain to rest and relax made the students even more determined to continue than to rest in the mountain sloop.

"Dude, why are you so quiet? I mean, you're always quiet, but this is unusual. During the entire canyoneering, I did not hear you talk. Why don't you talk to your energizer bunny behind Rey? This could be your last chance. Seize this moment and talk to her." Renz encouraged Reese.

Reese looked behind Rey to see who Renz was talking about. Then he saw Lian walking a little sluggishly.

"Dude, Energizer Bunny? You always said the most outrageous words, huh? Anyway, even if I had the courage to talk to her, I don't think she would like to talk to me. Beside, this is not the right time," Reese said without looking back at Renz.

"If not now, when? Don't forget we are about to graduate in two weeks. If you let this chance go, I don't think you will have another chance like this in the future, especially since you rarely go out in your house," Renz said while poking Reese from behind with a stick.

Reese just shrugged and did not reply to Renz. 'Renz was right—if not now, when? Even though I would love to talk to her, the problem is that I do not have the guts to do so. What if she rejects me or does not acknowledge my presence? That would be humiliating, to say the least,' Reese thought while sighing, 'if only I was good-looking, confident, and funny. It would be so much easier to talk to her.'

While Reese was wallowing in self-pity, the mountain started to shake. It wasn't strong, but it wasn't weak either.

"Earthquake! Get down, get down now!" Mr. Yap commanded the groups while panicking as he started to lie down.

Even though the students were panicking, they were alert enough to follow Mr. Yap's command. All of them were praying that it would not get worse. An earthquake was very dangerous; especially in this kind of environment, a land slide could happen at any time.

Some small and not-so-small stones were hitting the heads and backs of the group. It's a good thing that they had their protective gear on. If not, it would have been a lot worse for the group.

The earthquake shook the province of Badian. Terror struck the people as small shacks and weak abandoned buildings collapsed into the ground around the province of Badian. Especially the visitors to Kawasan Falls. They knew Kawasan Falls was the most dangerous in the province if an earthquake hit because it was prone to landslides.

Seven seconds ticked by before the earthquake subsided and calm silence came back to the province of Badian.

When the earthquake stopped, the people let out a sigh of relief and immediately checked on the other people. Even though the earthquake shook them to their core, at least they were fine.

As the group checked each other, Mr. Yap stood up and said.

"We better hurry up before the aftershocks hit. But be very careful with your steps and hold each other's hands." While looking at the still panicking and terrified students.

"Du..Dude, fa..ffaster. This shit is scarey as fuck," Renz stuttered, his voice laced with nervousness.

But before Renz could hold Reese's hand, the ground collapsed on Reese's. Reese was horrified when he realized he was about to fall into the hole. He tried his best to grab on to Renz's outstretched hands, but it was already too late. "Shit! Reese!" Renz shouted while trying to save Reese. But the ground was still collapsing. Renz had no choice but to retract his hands as he backed off immediately, or he might fall into the hole too.

While going down, Reese was trying to hold on to something to stop him from falling, but to no avail. "Ahhhhh!" Reese shouted as he plummeted.

'Am I going to die here? I can't fucking accept this. I don't even have a goal in my life yet, and I am still a virgin.' Reese thought before he passed out before he hit the water.

(Splash)

The group above was panicking once again because of what happened. The students at the back did not even know what exactly happened. They started asking questions.

"What happened? Why is there a hole there?" asks a panic-stricken student.

"Reese fell into the hole. I tried to grab his hands, but it happened too fast; I couldn't even fucking touch his hand," Renz said as he paced around the hole with tears streaming down his cheeks.

Reese, Rey, and Renz have been best friends since freshman year. If anything bad happens to any of them, it will be the most devastating and hurtful time of their lives. Renz was blaming himself for not being quick enough to help Reese. Rey then came to the side of his friend and tried to comfort him. He also had tears in his eyes.

"Calm down; it already happened. All we can do now is call for help. We are already close at the foot of the mountain," Mr. Yap said, then pointed at one of the guides. "Quickly go to the camp and ask for help and bring the students. It's not safe here. Who would have thought this place was hollow?"

"No, I'm not going; I will never leave Reese here. I would rather help than wait there," said Renz as 

Rey agreed with his friend. "Yeah, Mr. Yap, there is no way we're going to leave Reese here." 

Lian also agreed. Some other students also agreed with Renz, Rey, and Lian. 

"Brats, this is not negotiable; all of you should go back to the camp now. This is a very dangerous place. I don't want to see other students get hurt on my watch. So please go back to the camp and wait for us." Mr. Yap commanded firmly while looking at his stubborn students.

Mr. Yap was right—this place was dangerous if all of them stayed and waited. The students had no choice but to follow Mr. Yap's command. Except for Renz, Rey, Lian, and some other classmates of theirs who were on good terms with the three R's, The Three R's was the nickname their classmates made up for the three of them.

Then the guide quickly followed Mr. Yap's order and ran with most of the students, who was also scared shitless.

"Let's call Reese; I heard a splash earlier; he might hit a pond or body of water below. He might still be alive," said Ben, the only big guy with a soft heart.

'Ben was right; Reese might still be alive below,' they thought.

Then they started calling Reese's name, but no matter how loud they shouted, Reese did not respond to them.

"Damn, I wonder how deep this hole is; I can't even see shit down there; it's so fucking dark."

"You're right; I wonder what's down there."

"Reese is definitely down there," one of the students said jokingly.

The group just looked at him like he was crazy. This was not the time to joke around. Their friend, Reese, fell into the hole and no one knew if was fine or worse, dead.

"I'm sorry guys, I'm just trying to lighten up the mood," He said embarrassingly.

Everyone just shook their heads and continued pacing around the hole.

"Renz, do you think Reese is still alive down there?" Rey asked Renz worriedly.

Renz just looked at his best friend for asking a stupid question.

"Oh sure. Let me jump first in there and ask him if he is still alive, then I will answer your dumbass question. You dummy," Renz answered sarcastically.

"Come on, Renz, don't be a dick; Rey was just asking," Lian said to Renz, a little bit angry.

"I know, I know, I am just angry with myself and fucking worried. I'm sorry, Dude. You know me." Renz apologized to Rey, and Rey just nodded. 

"So what should we do now? We can't just stand here and do nothing," Lian said to the group.

"All we can do right now is wait for the rescue team to arrive and pray nothing bad will happen," Mr. Yap replied to the group.

"And we can continue calling Reese; Maybe he was just unconscious," suggested Lian.

Everyone agreed.

As time passed multiple aftershocks hit the province of Badian making everyone agitated.