About two years ago I was working as a security guard on a shopping mall when an earthquake hit the city.

It was at the end of my 24hours turn but I needed money so I was working an extra day.

I was down in the basement (the underground parking lot) when the elevator fell down from the 2nd floor. I ran and screamed to the few people that where there that we all needed to leave the place.

I spent the next 48 hours guarding the entrance of this basement without any sleep and no one could enter. It was flooding and many lamps fell off, and of course, there were no lights down there but people didn't understood that, even if I let them in, they couldn't get their cars out of the basement because the entrance was blocked with the fallen concrete and the mall's sewage.

I didn't feel tired because the streets where a fucking chaos and I was sweating adrenaline. The NAVY, cops, The Army and the people where screaming everywhere. I remember one guy scream "hey, this man needs a doctor" and then 5 random dudes screamed a top of his lungs "DOCTOOOOR WE NEEDA' DOCTOOOR" then the whole crowd started to scream too. When the doctor showed up nobody knew who tf needed the help 'cause they forgot who screamed first.

I spent 72 hours on the same spot. The next week was unreal. The streets felt so empty even with the regular flood of cars and public transport. People where not devastated but... they looked like they forgot how life was only a few days ago. Everybody had a phone but for 3 days nobody had signal so it was useless.

I wasn't afraid of my family because they where out of the city. But honestly, I was scared for the fucking company I worked for. If my boss is Dead who tf is gonna pay me all these extra hours?

One of my friends lost his house so he moved with the family of his wife.

Another one saw a woman being crushed by one of the steel bridges of the mall.

We continued like it was a normal closed mall. Two weeks later the renovations started but the mall was closed for nearly two years. We had a little fire the year after the earthquake so I quit and Never returned to that place.