Chapter 1

The world ended on a Tuesday afternoon.

One moment, I was on the floor of Leo' s bedroom, helping him build a skyscraper out of brightly colored blocks, the next, the floor bucked like a wild animal.

A low growl rumbled up from the earth, and the skyscraper we' d spent an hour on trembled, then collapsed into a plastic heap.

Leo, my five-year-old son, looked at me with wide eyes, his smile faltering.

"Daddy, what was that?"

Before I could answer, the growl became a roar. The entire apartment building screamed. The walls groaned, and a spiderweb of cracks raced across the ceiling.

Instinct took over. I lunged, grabbing Leo and pulling him under his small, sturdy wooden desk. I curled my body around his, making myself a shield.

"It's okay, buddy," I whispered into his hair, my voice shaking. "Just a big truck passing by."

It was a stupid lie, and we both knew it.

The world outside was a symphony of destruction. The shattering of glass, the tortured screech of metal, the deep, guttural crunch of concrete giving way. Dust and darkness swallowed the light from the window. The air grew thick, choking me.

Leo whimpered, burying his face into my chest. I held him tighter, my own heart hammering against my ribs. The desk above us groaned under an immense weight, and then, with a deafening finality, everything went black.

Silence.

A heavy, absolute silence that was somehow louder than the noise before it.

We were trapped.

The space was tight, a coffin of splintered wood and crushed drywall. I could feel the immense weight of our home now resting just inches above my back. Dust filled my nose and mouth, a gritty paste that made every breath a struggle.

"Daddy?" Leo' s voice was a small, terrified squeak in the dark.

"I'm here, Leo. I'm right here," I said, trying to keep my own panic from seeping into my tone. "We're just playing a new game. It's called 'underground explorers'."

I felt his small body tremble against mine. "I don't like this game."

"I know. But we'll be okay. We just have to be brave and wait for the game to be over."

I tried to shift, to assess our situation, but I was pinned. My legs were wedged awkwardly, and a sharp pain shot through my right shoulder. But I was alive. Leo was alive. That was all that mattered.

We stayed like that for what felt like an eternity, listening to the groans of the rubble around us. I talked to him, told him stories about superheroes and brave knights, anything to keep the fear at bay. My throat was raw, my voice a rasp.

After a while, he stirred.

"Daddy," he whispered, his voice thin. "My leg hurts."

A cold dread washed over me, colder than the concrete dust chilling my skin.

"Which leg, buddy?"

"My left one. It's... stuck."

I maneuvered my hand in the suffocating darkness, my fingers brushing against his small jeans. I followed the line of his leg down until my hand stopped. It was pinned, trapped beneath a heavy concrete beam that had crashed through the floor. I pushed against it, my muscles screaming in protest, but it didn't budge. It was like trying to move a mountain.

"It's okay, Leo. I'm here. I'll get it out," I lied, my voice cracking.

His breath was coming in shallow gasps now. "It hurts a lot."

Panic, raw and unreasoning, finally broke through my carefully constructed calm. He was seriously hurt. He was trapped. And I was completely, utterly helpless.

"HELP!" I screamed, my voice swallowed by the tons of debris. "IS ANYONE THERE? MY SON IS TRAPPED! HE'S HURT!"

I yelled until my throat was shredded, until my voice was nothing but a hoarse whisper. The only answer was the continued, oppressive silence.

Despair began to set in, a heavy blanket smothering the last embers of hope. I held Leo, whispering apologies he couldn't understand, my tears mixing with the dust on his face. We were going to die here, in the dark, beneath the ruins of our life.