On Griff's new television, the image of a running Canseco broke up. Broadcast visuals were replaced by a green-patterned screen. Al Michaels was halfway through the word "earthquake" when the sound also shut off. In the coach's cottage, plates flew from counters and smashed on the floor.

Still holding his beer, Griff pulled Cadance under her drawing table. While the room shook, and books were wildly hurled across the room, they huddled together, as if under a tarp in a hurricane season storm. Briefly, the sound of Al Michael's voice returned: "That's the greatest open in the history of television." A bowl of chips slid off the table and landed at Griff and Caydance's feet.

The 15 seconds in which the earthquake took place was an eternity in the cramped space beneath the drawing table. Loud noises and the sound of crashing boulders sounded from the direction of the access road below the coach's cottage. "Avalanche", they said in unison. Griff's new television flew across the room, accompanied by the sound of breaking glass.

"Good thing I kept the old one," Caydance whispered in his ear.

"Durango told me that the coach's cottage was retrofit when they did the whole campus," Griff observed. "Also, the football field stands. The Civil Engineering Department pointed out that if and when they were used, the stands were public access, and there were liability issues."

Two minutes after the shaking stopped, Caydance and Griff emerged from under the table. Half a minute later, a high magnitude aftershock occurred.