Suddenly, the entire room shook, throwing Jon to the floor. What sounded like a massive explosion echoed all around him.
"What the ..." he started to say, before part of the ceiling collapsed on him.
Jon opened his eyes, but saw nothing but darkness. He tried to get up, but something seemed to be holding him down to the floor. As his eyes adjusted to the near darkness of the room, he saw that debris from the ceiling had collapsed onto him and that was why he couldn't move.
With all his strength, he pushed and pulled the debris off of himself. It took a few minutes, but eventually he got enough of it off to be able to stand.
He stumbled out of the room in a dizzy stupor, not quite sure what had happened. As he approached the stairs, he began to smell smoke.
Emerging onto the main floor of the school, Jon looked around with wide eyes. He was in shock, sure. After being pinned down in the basement and all, he was a little freaked out by what could have been happening in the school above him. But he never could have imagined this.
It was mass panic.
Students hurried back and forth, most of them injured badly, but not so bad that they couldn't move. Police and firemen charged through the halls, trying to maintain order and to put out the fire, which raged on here and there.
A police man walked towards Jon. "Are you okay?" he asked, placing his hand on his shoulder.
Jon nodded.
Somewhere close by, Jon heard a girl screaming. And then another girl screaming from the other direction.
Jon walked down the hall (if you want to call it a hall - most of it had been obliterated) and back to his classroom.
"Sorry, son. You can't go that way," another police man said, stopping Jon.
"What ... what happened?" he asked, looking towards where his classroom was. Now it was nothing but a giant pile of debris.
