'Amy, will you be my Valentine?' the red paper heart sat on Amy's desk, ready for her to read. Jake was having second thoughts, though. What if she didn't like him back? Before he could change his mind, Amy walked in. Her long brown hair swung over her shoulders as she walked to her desk. Her neatly trimmed and painted fingernails picking up the valentine. Her bright, heart-shaped eyes looking it over before searching the classroom for him. She locked eyes with Jake, and walked over to him.

"Was this you?" she asked, her lovely voice questioning him. Looking down at his feet, Jake timidly responded.

"Yeah." Amy stood there for a few seconds, waiting for the follow-up question, "So, uhh, want to go to the Spring Fling together?" he finally asked. Before she could respond, though, a force jolted the classroom, so large, it sent kids flying out the windows, and down the streets that surrounded the school. Jake was flung away too, sharp glass of the window piercing his back. He smacked against a house, and everything went dark.

Jake woke up to the sound of the wind. Looking around, Jake could see the school, but it was about four or five blocks away. Jake had been wedged between a large hedge and the house he had hit. Looking behind him, he saw an indent of his shape in the siding.

'Holy cow!' he thought to himself, What could make the whole earth jolt like that.' He sat against the edge of the house listening to his surroundings. Cop cars sounded, fire hydrants were burst. He could see all the playground equipment had been blown away. Trees were down, and houses were flooded because of burst pipes. That wasn't the least of it, though. The wind sounded all around, and Jake could feel some of it from his area that he was in, but most of it was blocked by the hedge. Struggling to get up, he finally stood, his head extending above the top of the large bush. That was when he was hit with the full force of the three hundred and seventy mile-an-hour winds. His neck was whiplashed, and he was sent sprawling back to the ground.

'What could do all of this?' he thought. Suddenly the answer hit him. His class had learned about it a long time ago, yet he felt as if it had been yesterday. He had been interested in it, but never thought it possible. The class had gone over what would possibly happen to the surroundings, and the world, all of it bad.

"Holy crap! Holy crap! Holy crap!" Jake started panicking. The world had stopped spinning.

Within moments, things went from bad to worse.

Clods of earth tore loose from the ground, flung through the air. Jake clung to the wall of the house, his knuckles white against the windowsill, but it was no use. Roof tiles flew away first, torn off like a flock of angular birds swirling together into the distance. A stone slammed into the window inches away from his fingers, shattering it and sending broken glass into the interior. Inside, voices screamed.

Jake clambered through the broken window and into the house, hoping the walls would be enough to protect him. He saw who had been screaming: another boy about his age, and a girl a few years younger. The boy had lines of blood on his face but looked otherwise unhurt. The girl curled up on the floor, shaking nervously with her arms clasped around her knees.

"Who are you?" the boy asked, stepping protectively in front of the girl. "What's happening?"

"I'm Jake," said Jake, "and I'm not sure, but I think the world stopped spinning."

"If the world stopped moving, but the atmosphere kept moving at the same rate..." The boy's eyes widened. "That would be a force of almost four hundred miles an hour. Like getting hit with every hurricane and tornado in history combined." He reached out his hand. "I'm Theo. This is my sister, Elle. Our mom was out buying groceries, but if the wind really is that bad..." He gulped. "Nice to meet you, Jake. Hope your Valentine's Day was going okay before all this happened."

In the chaos, Jake had totally forgotten it was Valentine's Day. He thought about Amy--her hair, the elegant way she walked, how she had looked so purposefully at him right before this all happened. He'd seen kids blown away by the initial jolt, but he wasn't sure if she was one of them, or if she had survived. Maybe, if he was lucky, she'd found shelter somewhere and he could find her again.

"Hopefully we don't die right now," he said. "I have an idea. I learned about this in school once. The earth spins slower the closer you get to its axis, so if we can somehow make it to the North Pole, we'll escape all this." How they could get to the North Pole when any cars and trains would be blown away in seconds was another question, but he figured he'd think of that part later.

"Sounds like a plan." Theo smiled. Elle stood up, slowly relaxing. Jake could almost believe they would make it after all.

Suddenly, the horrible sound of scraping and cracking stone echoed through all their ears. The foundation beneath them shifted, then tore loose from the ground entirely. Jake fell sideways against the wall as the whole house was sent spinning through the air like something from the Wizard of Oz. He felt himself spinning, tossed around like a bean inside a maraca. His mouth opened up unbidden and he heard the sound of screaming coming from it. The rug from the floor flapped around, cabinets swinging open to spill out plates and bowls that shattered against the walls and floor.

A few seconds later, his head hit a granite countertop. He blacked out before he could even feel the pain.

When Jake awakened, the first thing he noticed was darkness and cold. He shivered.

Wait... dead people didn't feel cold. He was alive! He tried to stand, but his body was clearly waking up slower than he was--it didn't want to move yet. Looking around, he saw walls made of concrete, plated with tiles. Electric lights were stuck at regular intervals across the ceiling, but none of them were lit up--the only light came from the flicker of candles set along the wall. Long tunnels stretched out in either direction, disappearing into darkness. Craning his neck, he glimpsed the corner of a sign on the wall behind him, but he couldn't read it in the dim firelight. If he listened closely enough, he could still hear the wind howling above, scouring the planet's surface clean of everything that had ever lived on it.

"Oh, you're awake," said a woman's voice, precise and clear. "What's your name?"

Jake moved his tongue experimentally, making sure it wasn't paralyzed or anything. "I'm Jake," he said. "I came here with two other kids. Where are they?"

"They're still unconscious, healing." The speaker walked closer, and he saw her more clearly now: a short, middle-aged, dark-skinned woman wearing a bright yellow vest. A symbol was stenciled on the back of the vest, a pointed tower with a tornado surrounding it. "Jake, you've been knocked out for almost five days. We weren't sure you were going to make it. Luckily there are doctors here with medical supplies to stitch up your head and fix your back."

"Where am I? Who are you?" Jake clambered to his feet and finally looked around fully. He could read the sign now: Broadway. This was a subway station, he realized. The wind had blown him all the way to New York City.

"We call ourselves Nova Everwick," the woman said. "A group of survivors who were on the subway when the event struck. Now, we're all that remains of the city. Come on, I'll show you the main settlement. I'm Tara, by the way."

He followed her down the train tracks. As they walked, he saw lights in the distance--many small lights, in different colors and shapes. Finally arriving at the next station, he saw it lit up by a combination of Christmas string lights, flashlights, glow sticks, and one bonfire in the center of the room. People chatted and talked, some sitting in a circle around the fire, others near the wall. A makeshift map was drawn on the wall in spray paint, showing the location of this station as well as a food cellar, medical room (where he had come from, surely), sleeping room, and something called a court room. Like a lawyer? The area felt homey and lively, despite the disaster above.

"How did you find me?" he asked, taking a granola bar from a small pile near the fire. He bit down on it, not realizing how hungry he was. Obviously, being asleep for five days made a kid really need food. The chewy oats and peanuts were clearly a little stale, but he didn't care at all. He savored every single bite, rolling it around in his mouth.

"A man in a mask," said Tara.

"Huh?" said Jake through a mouthful of peanuts.

"You asked how we found you. You and your companions were dropped off at the entrance to the subway by a person wearing some kind of bodysuit. He had on a silver mask that looked like a cross between a gas mask and an owl face. He set you down, then walked away into the ruins."

Jake hastily swallowed the food he was chewing. "But no one can walk in the ruins. The wind is too fast." He closed his eyes and heard it, still blowing in the distance. Technically, he wasn't sure if wind was the right term for what was happening, but nothing else about this crazy apocalypse had a scientific name either.

"Mm." Tara nodded. "We don't know how he survived or where he went. But you don't need to worry. You're safe now."

He wished she hadn't said that in such an ominous-sounding way.

Jake didn’t sleep that night. He lay on a thin mattress in the sleeping room, staring at the ceiling where glow sticks dangled like those dim green stars you stick up in children's bedrooms. Theo and Elle slept nearby, both still recovering, their breathing soft and steady. Jake envied them. His mind wouldn’t stop spinning, even if the world itself had. Every time he closed his eyes, he saw the classroom exploding outward, kids vanishing into the sky like scraps of paper under a strong fan.

He sat up.

Across the room, Tara stood in the doorway, arms crossed, watching him.

“You’re restless,” she said quietly.

“Hard not to be,” Jake replied.

She nodded and motioned for him to follow. “Come on. There’s something you should see.”

They walked through the tunnels, past sleeping families, past a man sharpening a metal pipe, past a woman painting a mural of the city skyline as it used to be. The deeper they went, the colder the air became. Finally, Tara stopped at a metal door marked AUTHORIZED ONLY in peeling red paint. Inside was a small control room. Old subway equipment sat against the far wall, dusty monitors, and a radio console that looked like it belonged in a museum. A single lantern lit the space, casting long shadows.

Jake frowned. “What is this?”

Tara pointed to the radio. “It started two days ago,” she said. “A repeating signal. Same pattern, same timing. Every hour.”

Jake stepped closer. The radio hissed with static, then became clear:

beep… beep-beep… beep…

beep… beep-beep… beep…

“It’s Morse code,” Jake said slowly. “I learned some in Scouts.”

Tara raised an approving eyebrow. “And?”

Jake listened again. “…S… O… S…” he whispered.

Tara nodded. “Someone out there is alive, with equipment strong enough to broadcast through the storm.”

Jake felt a spark of hope ignite in his chest. “It could be Amy.”

“It could be anyone,” Tara said. “But whoever it is, they’re not close. The signal is faint. Our tech people think it’s coming from somewhere north.” She placed a hand on his shoulder. “I’m telling you this because Nova Everwick has a rule: we don’t go topside unless absolutely necessary. But if someone is calling for help…”

Before Jake could respond, a loud clang echoed through the tunnels, metal striking metal, followed by frantic shouting.

Tara stiffened. “That’s the perimeter alarm.”

Jake’s pulse spiked. “What does that mean?”

“It means,” Tara said, grabbing a flashlight and a crowbar, “that something just entered the tunnels.” She handed Jake a second flashlight. “Stay behind me.”

But Jake barely heard her over the sound of his own thoughts, and...something else. Echoing faintly through the tunnels, carried on the cold underground air, was a sound he recognized instantly. A girl’s voice.

“Jake!”

It was Amy...or something that sounded exactly like her.