The ground continued to shake, sending massive waves underneath; it caused the land to transform and rip apart. Trees were falling left, right and centre as their roots were pulled from the soil. Anything without anchor was no match for gravity, as everything all fell, trees and men included. 

Cameron tried his hardest to get up and reach Jake once more, but the onslaught of the shockwaves kept him pinned down. Although, even if he could get up in this state, he would have found it challenging to find Jake as the earthquake has separated them too far. There were also new obstacles scattered all around. Besides, there was no point when he saw Jake get crushed by a gigantic tree; if he didn't die from excessive bleeding, it would have been from being crushed instead. 

The shocks unceasingly came for what seemed like hours and hours. When it was finally subsiding considerably, Cameron was finally afforded to look around from his position upon the ground. He saw no one. He couldn't see anyone from his squad, at least from his angle. It was so impossible, yet it seemed like all of them had been separated. 

Finally mustering all the strength left in his body, he pushed his body off the ground and used his knee for more momentum. He got up but struggled to maintain his balance with all of the tremors of the land. But prevailed and managed to hold his stature by squatting low to stabilise his centre balance. Once again, he looked around to see what had happened to his team and the surrounding. All that his eyes could see was complete and utter chaos.

The shaking started dwindling, so Cameron could start searching in earnest. It was hard to spot anything but the rubble before him, but he prevailed, and finally, with his peripheral vision, he spotted a rectangular metallic glimmer. It was one of the dog tags of his comrades; he was optimistic for a moment before realising that it seemed that it was not attached to someone. 

It was then that Cameron took no hesitation to go where he had seen the dog tag and see whether one of his team members were under the trees and rubble left by the giant earthquake. He was still immobile by the continuous shaking, but it seemed to finally subside to a stop. He had to walk a couple of hundred yards before he was in front of it. This meant that the whole ground shifted that much before stopping; it made it extremely hard for Cameron to imagine the total damage that the earthquake had reckoned upon the land.

Cameron crouched down to pick the heavy branches that covered where he last spotted the metallic tag and found it was completely covered and caked with thick mud by then. He brushed the sludge off the necklace to inspect who's it belonged to. The tag was written in bold capital letters Henderson Liam W, his social security number, his blood type A POS and states Catholic ad his religious preference. Cameron was determined to find Liam; in fact, he would have been happy just to see anyone from his squad alive and well. So he looked and looked but alas was not successful. 

It had been at least fifteen whole minutes since the earthquake had dissipated, and Cameron had been looking for the others when finally he heard a loud grumble from nearby. The bushes in front of where he was heading started to move around. Cameron felt an enormous amount of anticipation. He hoped that it was one of his men. It was as if his silent pleas were heard from above. Liam, who appeared dizzy, propped himself up using the fallen tree to leverage himself to a standing position.

"Uh, Sir… what the hell was that?" Liam asked, dazed and confused, holding his forehead where blood dripped down to his chin profusely before continuing his array of questions, "that was an earthquake? It can't be that fucking insane?"  

"Yeah I think it was, but I can't imagine it being weaker than an 8 magnitude earthquake possibly even a 9," Cameron said, who was still slightly shocked at seeing Liam, who seemed to finally find his voice after a short while.

"I've been looking around after the shakes, I was yelling everyone's names and I've gotten no responses until you," Cameron said as he walked towards the obviously injured man and got a handkerchief from his inner pocket to hand it over to him. "Have you seen where the others might be or know their whereabouts?"

"I-I- must have passed out sir, I didn't come to until I heard some footsteps, which were apparently yours si-irrr," Liam answered with a slight slur to his words. He took the piece of cloth and pressed it on the gash on his forehead.

"I thought so, you are at least half a mile away from where we originally were separated from," Cameron stated. "Do you know how you got so far?"

The question had shocked Liam to silence. He couldn't believe what he had heard, half a mile? All he could remember was the ground underneath his feet crumbling before splitting. He saw many trees fall from there, and he tried to dodge them all, but it was almost impossible to move with the relentless trembling. He suspected that it was one of the branches that had hit him from the back of his head and taken him out cold. He also concluded that he must have hit his head further when he fell face first. How he got so far, he had absolutely no clue.

After much deliberating, Liam decisively told Cameron about his many theories. This left both men to ponder the topic for a short moment before ultimately looking for the missing men.

"Are you sure you're fine to be walking around?" Cameron asked once more, worried that the other man could be suffering from a significant concussion; he suspected it even more so after hearing him slur his speech.

"Yes Sir!" Liam said as he gave a slight nod, looking at Cameron with a determined face.

Cameron wasn't entirely convinced, but he needed help with the search since they only had a few hours of sunlight before nightfalls. By then, it will be impossible to shift through the muddled land. So with the minimal amount of time they had, they searched as thoroughly as they could but to no avail. It was as if all the remaining nine men had vanished into thin air.

To both Cameron and Liam's surprise, there were multiple large cracks on the ground. It was gaping and large. It was no surprise that there would be destruction and slight alterations to the surface of the lands, but no, these were far too drastic and severe as to not surprise anyone who might see them. The crevasses were wide enough to fit a few SUVs, and some ranged for miles and miles long. It was so deep and vast that it made it so hard to see the bottom of the openings, especially with the darkness that continued to loom as the sun went down. 

Cameron and Liam had ominous feelings and thoughts that some if not all the other men had fallen trapped or to their deaths within the abyss. It seemed as if each were waiting for another to voice this notion aloud. 

"The men," Cameron finally cracked, broke the silence that befell the atmosphere started, before progressing to mention, "They might have fallen within these gaps." 

"I was thinking the same sir," Liam replied in a tired tone. The bleeding from his injury on his forehead has long diminished to a stop. But the pounding of his head was constant and never-ending. It felt like someone had been chipping away at his skull with a chisel and hammer piece by piece, and a loud ringing was unceasingly resounding in both ears. Liam was feeling himself reach his limit. He feared that he would put a bullet through his own head just to stop the pain.

"You can drop the formality, there are no one else around. We haven't been successful at finding the others or the transmitter. Let's rest for now and search again tomorrow," Cameron said, sensing that Liam was in no shape to continue the search and leaving him by himself to continue the search may prove to be irresponsible, seeing how this played out with Rogan. Besides, he was also extremely fatigued. All that fighting, catastrophic earthquake and the endless search with no luck has spent all the energy that they had left. Cameron was, in fact, surprised that neither one of them had passed out yet, especially Liam, who had lost some blood due to his injuries.

Cameron and Liam said no more; there was no need for words. They picked one of the few trees that stayed upright. Cameron helped lean Liam against it before slowly lowering him down to the ground. He could feel the burn on his thighs as he went down; his muscles were protesting against any more movements they too were done. 

As they sat down perched on the trunk of the giant tree, tranquillity surrounded them. There were no sounds except for the steady breaths they each exhaled, the usual loud nocturnal insects and birds that once disturbed their sleep were absent that night. It was as if even they were no exception to the effects of the earthquake.

—————-

An hour and a half had passed, and Liam had dozed into slumber beside Cameron. The little canister of water that Cameron kept inside his inner jacket had been expended, though there wasn't a lot, to begin with, only a couple hundred millilitres. It was only enough for a mouthful. Cameron had lied and told Liam that he had drunk some earlier when he was alone to get the younger man to drink the rest. He had felt bad for Liam and his condition because despite his extreme exhaustion, at least he wasn't injured. But now, he could feel the dryness of his mouth, the humidity and hotness of the forest drawing his thirst for water out.

Despite being drained of his energy and hydration, Cameron found it hard to ease into sleep. So he thought of his younger brother Jeremy; he knew that he would be disappointed in him. That thought was complex for him to process, so Cameron thought of it no more, though the next subject that crossed his mind was Rogan's and Jake's death, with the possibility of the others too. How could he face Rogan's girlfriend Jamie to tell her that he had plans to propose to her? Cameron could barely imagine it, so it was even more challenging for him to fathom how he could face Jake's parents, who had been so kind to him and his small family and had often treated him like their own son. How could he tell them that their son took a bullet meant for him? He might as well have pulled the trigger himself.

These intrusive thoughts gave him a splitting headache, his chest felt heavy, and he felt silent tears fall from his eyes for the first time in many years. Not only had he fucked up many lives, but he had also ruined his brother's future. He would have to pull him from the private school he excelled in and have him return to the shitty public school that was given absolutely no resources from the government. Jeremy, who once had a bright future, would now instead be looking into a bleak and uncertain pavement, and it was his own brother's fault.

Cameron felt that pathetic and weak, tears? He didn't deserve to cry, at least not yet. Cameron still needed to face them all and beg for forgiveness. So to stop any more tears from falling down, he looked up. What he saw made him scoff in contemn. The sky was filled with so many stars that it cast a white glow over the forest; it made it seem ethereal and mythical. If there was a god out there, then they were mocking him, he thought scornfully. 

"Fuck you," he said under his breath as to not wake his companion, but the words held enough conviction and venom to travel as far the darkness beyond the star before him.

Just as he was about to close his eyes, finally mentally as exhausted as he was physically when a loud rumbling came forth from below. An aftershock, no another earthquake perhaps even more significant than the last. One that won't just mark the land but would shift and alter it. He shot up fully awake, fearing the worst.

"Liam wake up!" He shouted, his voice drowned out by the rumbling.

"WAKE UP!" Cameron shouted once more while shaking the sleeping Liam awake.

Liam's eyes finally flutter open and puzzled by the sudden disturbance. "Whats-"

"It's another earthquake!" Cameron interrupted with an explanation, pulling Liam up to his feet. He tried to distance themselves from the giant tree and into a clearing.

"Hurry!" He said, dragging Liam behind him as he worried about the tree falling and crushing them to death. 

Liam found it hard to move his body; it felt like it wasn't his own, so Cameron had to drag him along. They didn't get far before the full-blown intensity of the earthquake forced them to fall on the ground. 

Cameron held Liam by his forearm before he felt the earth below quiver under his palm between him and Liam. Then it started rapturing and opening into a crevasse like the ones he had seen before. And from the side, he could see the sturdy tree they were resting on lifting and leaning opposite them from the ground, its roots making snapping sounds as they spilt in half. Then suddenly, it stood up straight before leaning toward where they were crouched. They were either going to be crushed by the tree or fall into the crevice forming bigger and bigger by the minute.

"We need to move or we'll die!" Cameron urgently blared out to Liam who's jaws were slacked and eyes wide with shock. The tree was moments from falling, the opening getting larger and larger. He knew he could manage to get away from both, but there was still Liam, who seemed to have been paralysed.

Liam, who was still immobile, was not only slowed by his concussion, but his brain could not process what was about to happen. His brain and body had abandoned him. Cameron recognised and perceived that Liam's lack of movements was due to the shock. So in that brief moment, he decided himself and chose to risk it and save Liam. 

Cameron willed his body once more to get up and move, almost praying to the deity he was cursing at just moments ago. Just like that, he felt a surge of adrenaline he didn't think he had and jumped to the other side of the gaping hole to where Liam stayed wilted on the ground. Cameron looked once more to his left where the tree was falling from and saw that he had no time to drag Liam away with him. So with his last bit of strength, he grabbed him diagonally by his vest and belt, lifting him off the ground and throwing him away from the tree and the expanding crack on the ground. 

It was as if the force from being thrown and hitting the ground had aroused Liam to awaken, see, and realise what was transpiring before him. He saw his squad leader Cameron get pierced in the back by a split brach attached to the giant tree. They made one last eye contact before Liam saw the ground only a few feet away from him devour the tree along with an impaled Cameron down into the void.