“No! No! Mommy!” Tommy struggled, pounding his fists against the wall. The building shook with each hit. Robert poured on as much energy as he could, keeping Tommy pinned.

Suddenly, Tabitha’s arms were around him. “Hold on, dad!” she yelled above the din. She put every last ounce of energy she had left into a tremendous leap that carried them up and out the skylight she originally entered through.

They landed, not quite as gently as she intended, on roof of the building across the street. Robert turned back to look at the building they had just come from.

With Robert’s force beam no longer to keep him pinned, Tommy charged forward to where his mother lay. But the damage he had done to the wall was too great. In the end, Tommy had been the last support, and the building collapsed on them. At the last moment, Tommy fell across Elizabeth in a last attempt to protect her from the debris.

Across the street, Robert and Tabitha held each other, the only family they had left.