"Earthquake!"The word flashed in my brain.A roaring sound filled my ears.I tried to slide beneath my desk.The desk did a wild tap dance,slipping and sliding towards the centre of the room.I twisted my body and grabbed at the windowsill behind me,somehow kicking free of my dancing chair.I tried to stand.My legs skated away as if on a bucking escalator. My fingers shook,grasped and held the windowsill tightly.Somewhere through the roar sounded the terrified scream of some wounded animal.I looked behind me and tried to steady my gaze on the other kids but the scene was a dizzy nightmare.Some of the class were sitting in the middle of the room,surrounded by chairs and desks.One girl was screaming.A boy was trying to claw his way across the floor to the door in a crazy overarm crawl. My grip froze me to the windowsill. I cried aloud,"I'm going to die.I'm going to die.Save me,I'm not ready to die,I'm not ready!" I hunched forward on my knees and pressed my face against my clenched fingers.I looked at the backs of my fingers and stupidly noticed the fragile pale hairs growing out of the pores.The fingers would soon cease to exist.Somehow the impending horror of my death was too terrible to even cry about. Suddenly,I became aware that the rocking had ceased.Perhaps I wasn't going to die. The roaring sound was made by  _  .
a wounded animal people screaming children running an earthquake