Chapter 1

I SURVIVED THE SAN FRANCISCO EARTHQUAKE, 1906

CHAPTER 1 APRIL 18, 1906 RINNCON HILL 5:12 A.M. SAN FRANCISCOO, CALIFORNIA The sky was still dark when the ground began to shake. Most people in San Francisco were still sleeping. Just a few were awake. Shopkeepers arranged their stores, getting ready for the day. Carriage drivers fed their horses. Newsboys ran down the sidewalk to pick up their newspapers to sell. And eleven-year-old Leo Ross was in a broken-down building, high on Rincon Hill. When the rumbling started, Leo thought it might be thunder. He had no idea that deep below

the city, two gigantic pieces of earth were pushing past each other. Powerful shocks exploded up through the underground layers of dirt and rock. All across the city, streets ripped open. Buildings swayed. Walls crumbled and houses came crashing down. Broken glass, hunks of wood, and piles of bricks tumbled into the streets. Leo stood in shock as the floor beneath him rose and fell like ocean waves. Hunks of plaster hit him on the head. Windows shattered, spraying glass all around. He tried to scream, but his throat was coated with dust. He wanted to run, but he couldn't even stand. The shaking was too hard. And then there was a sound like an explosion. The ceiling above his head burst open. A brick hit him, smack, on the back. And then another, thud, hit him in the shoulder. Crash! Dozens of bricks poured down. Leo fell to the floor and curled into a ball. The bricks kept coming, raining down.

He couldn't see. He couldn't breathe. Soon he would be buried alive.