The man tightened his grip on the girl he had in a strangle-hold in his arms and looked around for the nearest exit, panic on his face. He turned towards the side door and ran in that direction, pulling the girl with him. Just as he escaped through the door, another spray of tiles shot down from the roof, knocking him on the ground and cutting a wide gash across his forehead. A bolt of fire burst across the sky just outside the nearest window. The horrible vibrations stopped as suddenly as they had begun. The man jumped up and was halfway across the yard, the kids running behind him, when a huge river of mud tore across the grass. As they all stared in fright at the oncoming mud, it roared over them like an avalanche of brown snow. Clara screamed and fainted. Maria grabbed her hand and held on tight. Christina struggled against the unrelenting flow of mud and dug her way to firm ground. She snatched an iron pipe that the mudslide had ripped from a fence and dumped nearby. She held it out to Maria who grabbed the other end and pulled herself and the still unconscious Clara to safety. Urgently she reached the pipe out again to Grant who was choking on a mouthful of mud.
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