▌Chapter 4 ─ Destruction ▌

━━━━━ RAY FLEW THE helo to where Emma was stuck at. He looked over at the Hollywood sign he was passing, watching it shake back and forth until eventually it started to fall down or crumble apart. He exhaled, turning to look at what was ahead of him. The ground below started to lift up and down breaking apart.

Powerlines started to break off causing energy sparks to explode. Ray looked at the tall buildings that stood in the distance. They were shaking around, pieces of them falling off and plummeting to the ground.

"Oh, my God." Ray breathed out.

The glass on the building that Emma was in started to break off and fall down. People were screaming trying to get out of the building before the building would collapse in on itself. Emma picked herself up and looked around for Daniel's sister.

"Susan!" She hollered out for her.

"Emma!" Susan shouted back. The blonde ran over to her.

"Susan! We gotta get to the roof!" She told her.

"We've gotta get out of here!" Larissa ran over to Emma grabbing a hold of her while Susan ran over to the door.

"No! This way!" Larissa shouted.

Emma let go of her and turned back around to look at Susan as she pushed the door open. "Get out of my way!" The door closed behind her.

"Susan! Susan!" The building took another hit and Emma fell to the floor. She picked herself up and pushed over to the door, opening it and looking out to see that a chunk of the building had fallen off. Susan was no longer alive. After what Emma saw she closed the door. "Oh, my God."

More people were screaming, Emma walked away from the door as one of the lights went out and started to break off from the ceiling. Emma held onto the chairs using them to get to the other side.

"This way! Get over here!" A man shouted out to everyone that remained in the room. A fire explosion occurred in the kitchen, Emma screamed and looked away. When she looked back the chief was on fire and screaming. A man walked over to her and grabbed a hold of her arm.

"Ma'am, we got to go!" He told her.

"Okay. Okay." Emma replied.

"Keep moving! Keep moving!" Another man shouted. She came up to the front and saw Larissa holding onto her arm.

"Larissa. Larissa." She called out to the waitress. "Larissa, you have to come with me!" Emma told her. She grabbed a hold of her, as did her other friend. "We've gotta get to the roof!"

More of the building started to fall apart behind them as they walked towards the exit. They pushed through and Emma looked at the people that were going down.

"Everybody! There-There's a rescue helicopter coming!" Larissa was pulled away from her as she ran up the steps. "Wait! We've gotta get up!"

The building moved some more and the wall that led to the elevator opened up. Someone that was coming down fell into the shaft. Emma looked over, holding onto the railing as the elevator came down. She then took off running up the steps, still holding onto the railing.

"Oh, my God. Oh, my God." She breathed out. She passed by a few people and ran up the last set of steps towards the exit door. "Ray, you better be right about this."

Emma opened the door and ran out, everything was swaying back and forth and the building's across were starting to tumble to the ground. She looked behind her to see the water in the pool moving around trying to escape from the pool. Emma turned back around and looked at the part of the building she had just come out of.

It was starting to fall apart and crumble in on itself. The ground that she was on started to crack around her. It broke off and fell down a level, causing Emma to fall down. It continued to fall down the levels throwing her around, until it eventually caught itself on another level of the building.

Emma could hear a ringing in her ear, the dust settled and she picked herself up slightly looking around at the destruction. She then groaned slightly, picking her hand up to her ear to feel blood. She pulled her hand back to look at it. Then she looked around at what was left. Water was falling down some of the rubble.

Emma started to crawl towards it and eventually she picked herself up and climbed up the broken cement. She made it to the top of what remained of the part of the building. She looked back seeing the chopper come towards her. A smile fell onto her face as she looked up at him.

"Ray."

She picked herself up and climbed up to a better part of the building. Eventually she came to a stop and looked at him as he stared back at her. An explosion went off, causing her to duck down.

"Whoa!"

Ray had to readjust the chopper slightly to avoid the explosion. Emma looked around as the fire started to spread around her.

"Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Uh..." She then turned around and looked for a better advantage, and she saw it. "Up there!" She shouted pointing to where she was going to go. Emma took off running towards the highest point in the broken building. Ray moved the chopper to where it needed to be.

Ray turned on the autopilot and moved to the back of the chopper opening the doors. He threw the basket out as Emma continued to climb. She was so close to making it off the building. When she went to jump on another part of the broken cement it fell down and she almost slid off but was able to catch herself.

"Oh, shit." She breathed out, as she looked down the elevator shaft. Ray looked around the building that was near them and was starting to fall down.

"Come on, Emma. Come on. We gotta go." Ray said.

Emma picked herself up from the ground and started running again. He looked up, one of the larger buildings started to fall behind them. Emma stopped and looked behind her as the building collapsed to the ground. Dust started to escape from it and head towards her.

"Emma, run!" Ray shouted.

She did as told and took off running again. The dust followed behind her and as she ran the cement underneath her started to break away. She jumped, as the dust covered her. Ray couldn't see anything. He moved back when the dust came up towards him.

"Emma." He pushed back into the chopper and started to pull the rope back pulling the basket up with it. When it came back up there was no sign of Emma.

"Ray!" She called out. He scooted back to the edge of the chopper and looked down to see Emma holding on for her life. "Ray."

"Emma." He held his hand out to her, and she grabbed a hold of his. "I got you!" He then pulled her into the chopper. The two fell backwards.

"Oh, Ray."

"Emma, are you hurt?" He asked her.

"Um..."

"Are you hurt?"

"I don't think so."

"Okay. It's gonna be okay, but listen. We gotta get outta here. I need you to get to the front left seat. I'll be right there. Okay?"

"Okay."

She picked herself up and moved to the seat. Ray pulled the basket back in and closed the doors. He then moved to the front and sat down in his seat, he took over and started to get the chopper out of the dust. When they were in the clear Ray looked to see another building falling towards them.

"Shit." He proceeded to move the chopper out of the way of the building. Some of the debris hit the wings on the chopper and they started to spin out of control. The door was ripped off the chopper. They continued to spin around until eventually Ray was able to get control of it.

"Ray!" Emma called out, another building was starting to fall down.

"Hold on!"

Ray turned the chopper to avoid the building, luckily for them it got stuck on another building and didn't fall down. When they were finally in the clear, Ray looked over at Emma as she looked back at him. He proceeded to place his hand overtop hers.