Chapter 1

I looked at myself in the full-length mirror in my hotel room as I combed my hair prior to going out for my business appointment. My business rigout was geared to impress but not frighten, for we wanted them to come on board with our group: pale grey slacks, tee-shirt with the group name. ‘Be Select with us’ it proclaimed topped by a crisp unbuttoned white shirt that I could button again once the message was proclaimed. Lasty a clean handkerchief in each side pocket of my slacks, and my wallet in my back pocket. My essential business papers were secure in my briefcase inside the wardrobe for when I later wanted to produce them to explain how our group operated to the benefit of all our stores. I knew what I was going to say at this introductory confrontation, even if I had to alter it on the fly to suit local circumstances, such as a proud shop owner who doesn’t want to lose his store’s independence. Looks are also important in imposing yourself, and I was now fully prepared to make my proposal to the local businessmen, the advantages of collective bargaining with suppliers by offering huge contracts as a group. My aim was to make us appear friendly but efficient.

Hair combed, face clean-shaven, neatly attired; ready to step out and walk to the site for the meeting. That nearby location had determined my choice of hotel: a family-run ten-bedroom unit; old but good, and comfortable as well. Today’s weather was also helping, being pleasantly warm and dry.

The weather had been unusually fine for the time of the year, and had remained so for the last few days. It boded well for my impending discussion with this local grocery store which had a reputation for honest dealing with the public. It was a family venture that prided itself in its local connections, endeavouring to source as much as possible from local farms and other suppliers. That was what had made it a target for us to invite them to join our group. Their suppliers might be keen to expand their sales to our group, or to those of our stores that were not too far distant for deliveries. I saw benefits on all sides, and would present us as their next step up in the grocery business. We were nowhere near competing with the largest chains like Tesco and Lidl, but we were heading in that direction. I was confident in my impending presentation.

At that moment, the world intervened in the worst possible way. It turned normality into a version of hell.

The deep rumbling sound that began and continued for some seconds initially meant nothing to me other than loud cracking saying the hotel was starting to collapse, possibly through a structural fault, but the violent shaking that followed immediately afterwards was recognisable as an earthquake; it could be nothing else, yet this was not a known earthquake area.

I was in immediate shock and went rigid for a second or two, but then survival mode took over. I acted without deliberate thinking, merely doing what felt right in the changed circumstances.

I looked for a supporting wall to protect me from falling debris that might prove slightly fatal. The outside corner came into my vision and I ran into it, panicking all the time. This event scared me to death, and might mean I literally was about to die. I wanted to avoid that life exit scenario one way or another.

The ceiling continued to crack above me, so I checked the position of the room’s doorway for getting out that way if possible. The door I was looking at suddenly popped out of its frame and shot across the intervening space to the opposite wall, then rebounded in my direction, twirling as it did in an exotic ballet that held no meaning other than immediate threat.

This physical activity all seemed to move in slow motion in my mind. I instinctively flung up my arms to offer some semblance of protection for my head, but the top and bottom of the door, on reaching the horizontal, amazingly struck the two walls of my prison, wedging themselves into the corner walls with a loud thud; and abruptly stopped moving, leaving me penned into a triangular space made up of two brick walls with the plaster facing already peeling off, and a varnished solid wooden door completing the trap. It felt claustrophobic, but hey, I was alive for the moment; that was a plus, even if temporary.

Slowly the terrible shaking faltered, and all the discordant noise around me began to lessen as debris began to settle. I started to relax a little. There was the sound of collapsing structures around and possibly within the hotel, slowly subsiding as wrecked walls and floors fell into a new stable position, but that was not the end of the matter. My own triangular prison walls started fracturing in several places, no doubt due to pressure building from above. I returned to worrying again.

I thought: here it comes, my demise is imminent, but instead of it all falling on top of me, the corner exploded outwards, the compressed air pressure taking me with it. It was perhaps simple physics exerting itself, but that is just my guess. I expected to land fatally on a debris field one storey below me, but instead I was tumbling over bricks, plaster and wood at almost my present level. This layer of destroyed materials must have been deposited during the start of the building collapse; possibly the roof had come off first, and my corner shelter had exploded outward on top of that.

On landing, I yelped in sudden pain as my outer frame was attacked by bricks and other sharp objects as I rolled over the debris layer Then I came to rest on what had once been either a floor or a wall or something else relatively flat. The attacks on my person ceased being added to, thank God. However, the ongoing pain caused me to lose consciousness for an indeterminate period but probably quite short, then I came to with the realisation that I was painfully bruised all over and bleeding in a number of places around my body.