The actual distance to the land was short, but progress was slow as more and more people exited the shops and cafés. We were a densely packed crowd.
I tried to remember what Kathleen had said about the support posts. If there was only one weak link, the rest had a security factor built in. That is, if they had been correctly built. But over the years, the seawater had weakened the beams, and the quake had provided the last push.
That’s when I heard another crack in my back, a sound like a moist wood breaking open.
The full width of the pier behind me flipped on its side, pouring the hapless people still fleeing in the water. The floorboards moved under my feet. Two teenagers scampered past me, their thin phone cords hanging from their neck like leashes.
Now the pier’s floor had become
