- Joanna Anderson -

Paul Smith had entered the building on business. His appointment was on an upper floor, so he had taken the elevator in the office tower. When the car stopped on his floor, he got out and oriented himself before starting down the corridor. This was a nicely furnished area, and he noticed the large planters aligning it.

Suddenly, the building violently shook. He managed to keep his balance, but fell to the floor as the building violently rose into the air several feet. Then it tilted to the side at a precarious angle, and Paul found himself thrown against the wall, which was now near horizontal. The building then stabilized momentarily, but one of the planters tipped over and rolled on top of Paul before he could get out of the way. Although he seemed to have avoided injury, he was unable to move the heavy planter off of himself, and so he lay there.

The building water gong fire alarm began its claxon call, but then fell silent. That was ironic, as the building lost power and then a tremendous explosion was heard and felt. Paul saw several of the building's windows shatter from the force, but he was uninjured and considered himself lucky.

But not for long, as the building suddenly fell downwards several feet and came to a sudden and violent stop. Paintings on the wall lost their grip on their mounts, and one fell directly on Paul, luckily the painting itself hit him in the head and not the wood frame.

There was a lot of noise. He could hear people in the offices screaming and hollering out in pain, but there was also noise from outside the building; it sounded like a jet engine at full throttle.

And then he began to smell smoke. There was only one thing he could do. He retrieved his cell phone from his pocket and dialed the number. Hopefully, she would be there!

"Caroline here."

"This is Paul. I'm trapped in the office tower. There's been some sort of accident, the building shook and exploded, and now I think it's on fire! Can you rescue me?"

"Hold on! I'm on my way!"

***************************************************

Caroline dropped the cell phone and raced to the office tower. She had never run this fast in town before, but time was of the essence, Paul was in danger! As she accelerated, her clothes began to smoulder and then burst into flames from the heat generated by her extreme speed. But she didn't care that she was naked, not when Paul was in need of rescue!

She quickly arrived at the building and surveyed the incredible scene before her. The once proud and mighty office tower was leaning at a 45-degree angle and had sunk partially into the ground. A large gas main had ruptured and was on fire, the flames shooting out hundreds of feet and impacting the upper half of the building, which was showing the effects; the brick and concrete facade was crumbling, beginning to expose the structural steel underneath.

She could hear the screams of those trapped inside, even over the roar of the flames. But she couldn't hear Paul, and there was no way he could hear her.

Quickly deciding on a course of action, Caroline hurried over to the large gas main. Standing directly in front of the powerful flames, she disregarded their intense heat as she wrapped her arms around the large heavy-wall pipe and began to squeeze. The steel yielded to her force and began to crinkle and buckle. She continued to squeeze with far more force than an Anaconda, as the pipe opening became smaller and smaller. Finally, she pinched it shut, stopping the fire.

But it was too late to save the building; it was so severely damaged that the top half began sagging downwards, the structural members having been softened by the fire so much they had lost their integrity. But she wasn't concerned with the building; her concern was for Paul!

She called out to him. She trained her ears on the building, then she heard him respond! She raced directly to the area and broke through the wall with her fist. Sticking her head through the opening, she saw him there, with a large planter atop him. But he was alive!

Caroline grabbed the large heavy planter with one hand and tossed it aside as one would a used tissue. "Are you all right?"

"Yes, I think so," Paul replied. "I just couldn't move that planter off of me."

"Here, let me help you up," Caroline said as she gently lifted him up into her arms and carried him from the building.

She hadn't made it far when the top half of the building finally completely gave way and thudded to the ground, kicking up a tremendous amount of dust and debris. But this upset the balance of the structure, and the bottom half of the building pulled out of the ground.

***************************************************

Joanna Anderson had been trapped in sewage under the building, with her head stuck in the concrete floor of the bottom floor. But now she felt herself being jerked upwards. Finally she was out of the sewage! But then her head slipped out of the hole in the floor and she splashed back down in the foul water. Now she could see up, however, and so she jumped up and out, and back onto the ground.

Joanna surveyed the destruction before her. Then an evil grin spread across her lips as she realized she was the cause! Her! She had done this! And it was so easy! God, what a power rush!

Caroline placed Paul on the ground. "Are you sure you're all right?"

"Yes, I think so," he replied as he tried to stand up. "Nothing seems to be broken, although I'm sure I'l have quite a bruise here."

"What do you think caused all this?" Caroline asked.

"I did," came the reply.

Caroline spun around to see Joanna. She was quite a sight, with raw sewage still dripping off her.

"You?"

"That's right. I lifted the building. And I destroyed it. Me!"