There was a rumbling that shook the ground underneath my sandals and I couldn’t decide if it was thunder or something much worse. Both would be bad. The roof had been leaky lately and if it rained the mold would kill us in a month’s time. If it was that other earth rumbling thing then there was really no point in repairing the roof’s leaks.

Everyone in the market had stopped all activity with the first rumble. Money was held over open palms, goods suspended by trembling hands and all eyes glued the north hill whose peak hid the terrible origin of the rumbling. No one panicked, at least not yet, all movement still frozen by the fear. We were all trained, all prepared to race from the market, fleeing like wild chickens chased through the dirt roads by the hungry street kids. As I stared at the mountain, watching in frantic desperation, hoping the clouds that hung above our heads were the source of the rumbling, praying rain would drip from the gray fur of the sky and everyone would sigh and remember that there weren’t supposed to be any more attacks.

The second rumbling rattled the ground harder still and suddenly the entire market was seized by chaos. I did not hesitate and like so many around me I dashed down a side alley, trying desperately to get home before the fourth earth shaking rumble. The alleys that twisted and bent like blue veins under white skin were all filled with the strange blurred shapes of children running home and men racing to return to their wives. The homeless scoured into corners, trying to force themselves closer into the dirty clay walls of the huts around them. I saw one of them, a small woman who was cradling an infant child. She had the sort of skin that looked like leather and as she ducked underneath water drains to hide the black soles of her feet caught my eye.

With the route to my house engrained in my memory I swerved, ducked and flew through the streets, pushing the able bodied out of my way and trying as best I could to maneuver around the few lagging elderly who blocked the path for everyone else trying to go home. When I turned down the even smaller alley and jumped through the curtain into my house, my breathing was ragged and my pulse accelerated. I was a good runner, everyone in the village had to be, but my lungs ached with a bitter sting. It was as if they were disappointed that they had to be so abused, so overworked.

The only sound was the occasional padding of feet slapping against the dirt paths as they made their way home. Occasionally a squeal or some other unintelligible noise would cut through the silence that lurked like a deadly gas lurking under our noses. I walked farther into my house, past the dying morning fire, through the room my parents shared and then the room I shared with my brother until I reached the very back of the house.

A third rumble sounded as I opened up the latch hidden under the measly string rug my mother had weaved. I jumped into the darkness of the hole underneath the wooden latch. It was black as the pupils of my eyes and I knew immediately that the hand that grabbed me was my fathers. I felt the callousness and the frayed hem of his sleeve. No one spoke and no one moved.

The uncertainty of it all was palpable, like an oily fat I could feel slicking down my throat. The rumblings were supposed to be over. No one else was supposed to die. But I put the thought away from my mind. There wasn’t any point in remembering old promises and old expectations. There was only the cellar and my family and I reached around the dirt floor to find one of their hands.

As we all exhaled, quietly as possible, I felt the heat brush against my rosy cheeks, felt its comforting caress. Even as the ground rumbled for a fourth time and the dust of the hard packed dirt ceiling trickled my nose I waited eagerly for the next warm breaths from my family to remind me that I wasn’t singular in the darkness. To remind me that just maybe we’d be safe. To remind me that the rumblers could hear everything, smell everything...find anyone. The breath was human touch, a comfort that kept me quiet, kept me sane.