title E1 - Aftershock

description Cielo's Resilience Amidst Tragedy and Loss in the Pacific Northwest's Earthquake Aftermath
What happens when the ground beneath you shatters, leaving chaos and despair in its wake? In this gripping episode of American Afterlife, titled "Aftershock," we journey through the harrowing aftermath of a catastrophic earthquake that strikes the West Coast, from California to Washington. Through the eyes of Cielo, voiced by Scarlett Estevez, a resilient young girl, we witness the stark reality of survival in a world turned upside down.
The episode opens with Cielo's vivid recollections of the earthquake's devastating impact, painting a haunting picture of total destruction and the immediate panic that ensues. As she navigates the treacherous landscape, listeners are drawn into her emotional turmoil, grappling with trauma and the haunting specter of loss. Cielo's quest for supplies leads her to encounter other survivors, each carrying their own stories of heartache and resilience. The echo of death lingers in the air, serving as a constant reminder of the fragility of life.
Amidst the chaos, Cielo crosses paths with Mr. Francois, her French teacher, who finds himself trapped and injured. Their poignant interaction becomes a beacon of hope, illustrating the profound connections that can emerge in times of tragedy. As they share their fears and hopes, the themes of survival and the indomitable human spirit come to life, showcasing the strength that binds us even in our darkest hours.
This episode of American Afterlife not only captures the raw emotions faced by those left behind but also delves deep into the challenges that define the human experience. With the Pacific Northwest as a backdrop, Cielo's journey reflects the struggles of many, including the Mexican immigrant community, as they navigate the ruins of their lives and seek solace in one another. The narrative resonates with the haunting realities of survival, echoing the sentiments of Pedro Hoffmeister and the broader implications of community resilience in the face of disaster.
Join us as we explore the profound effects of calamity on individuals and communities, and witness through Cielo's eyes how hope can flourish even in the shadow of overwhelming loss. "Aftershock" is not just a story of survival; it is an exploration of the American Afterlife and the enduring spirit of humanity amidst the wreckage of life as we know it. Tune in to discover how, even in the depths of despair, the human heart can find a way to heal and rebuild.
Presented by Pair of Thieves — and they’ve got something for you.
Want a pair of exclusive American Afterlife x Pair of Thieves limited-edition socks? Head to americanafterlife.com/pot to claim yours while supplies last.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

pubDate Tue, 21 Apr 2026 07:00:00 GMT

author Gamut Podcast Network

duration 1351000

transcript

Speaker 1:
[00:03] Everybody talked about it since I first moved to Oregon. The big one. The big one. The earthquake that trashed the whole west coast. California up into Washington. Total destruction. People had plans. Had their family memorize them. They stuck five-gallon buckets full of supplies in their backyards. Our school made evacuation routes. But you know what happens when shit actually goes down? You don't think about plans. You don't think at all. You just scream and cry and try and survive.

Speaker 2:
[00:54] You're listening to American Afterlife, a podcast series based on the best-selling book by Pedro Hoffmeister. Episode 1, Aftershock.

Speaker 3:
[01:15] No, honey, put that back, we're not getting candy today.

Speaker 1:
[01:19] Can you grab pickles?

Speaker 3:
[01:21] I did. Steph likes dill, you got sweet. Steffy, I said just one treat today, put that back where you found it. But they say sandwich pickles.

Speaker 1:
[01:32] Bread and butter, those are the sweet ones. Steffy, come on, put those back.

Speaker 4:
[01:36] Who puts sweet pickles on a sandwich?

Speaker 5:
[01:39] That's completely... 9.1 magnitude that has devastated from Mendocino County up into British Columbia. Initial estimates have been...

Speaker 3:
[02:16] Remaining Cascadia survivors in the south hills of Eugene, Oregon, should head to Laurel Woods Golf Course for final evacuation. If you're unable to travel or require medical attention, signal feedback for officers from the disaster.

Speaker 5:
[02:28] Who is supposed to put the bill for the recovery effort?

Speaker 3:
[02:31] Who do you think?

Speaker 5:
[02:32] My man, Dr. Pratt!

Speaker 1:
[02:42] It wasn't so bad right after. Feels weird to say that since, you know, I mean, of course, it was bad. It was fucking devastation. Worse than any of the predictions. I mean, half of Eugene was underwater from the broken dams. The rest was in ruins. But after the helicopter came, after everyone evacuated, the whole town felt like it was mine. And it never felt like that before. Wasn't so bad. I mean, couldn't even smell the bodies yet. I hid while they searched for survivors. It was easy. They didn't look very hard. I heard on the emergency radio that the quake hit from Northern California all the way through Washington State. We were right in the middle of it. Too much shit to handle. Too many people to help. The National Guard didn't have time to look for me. And I didn't want to get found. I was lucky enough to be up on the hill when it happened. It took maybe half an hour for the water from the broken dams to roll in. The ice cream shop on Agate where the girl used to give me all the free samples. Suddenly it was just a roof. All that ice cream trapped under water. Maybe the girl was too. Anyway, I spent my first couple of days going house to house, taking whatever I could find. The houses in my neighborhood were all, like, crooked. Their upper stories were caved in, and some lower stories, too. Trees straight through the roofs. I had to be careful where I went, you know? Because if an aftershock hit, the whole place might come down on top of me. The Albertsons was in pretty bad shape. That's the grocery store. Albertsons, right off 30th. It was all folded in on itself, like the cake you fucked up in the oven. But I took my chances, and it paid off. It's weird. Mom and I used to be so careful at the store, you know? Checking prices, making lists, counting out coupons, sticking to the budget. I guess what I'm trying to say is that it wasn't as bad as you might think. Not at first. When I was alone. Or, I mean, when I guess I thought I was. I'm tired. Can we stop now?

Speaker 5:
[06:25] Lucas, it's been a week. What do you have for me?

Speaker 4:
[06:29] You know, she's still traumatized, but I'm easing into it, sir.

Speaker 5:
[06:36] How much time do you think you have here, Lucas? I have guys breathing down my neck.

Speaker 4:
[06:41] I think we're, you know, we're moving in the right direction. I'm not sure if you've had enough time to go through my last report, but Cielo's stopped sleeping on the floor, moved to the cot.

Speaker 5:
[06:52] These are important guys, guys who shouldn't even know my name, but they do know my name, and they're fucking unhappy with me.

Speaker 4:
[06:59] I, of course, with a little patience, she's opening up.

Speaker 5:
[07:05] These are not patient men. These are men who want some answers, but I can't get them the answers because apparently my overall demeanor is not conducive to whatever the fuck. I need you, Lucas, and I need you to push.

Speaker 4:
[07:18] But, sir...

Speaker 5:
[07:20] I have the bloody bodies of ten guys inside a warehouse that was supposedly fully evacuated, and a teenage girl who can tell us what happened. All right.

Speaker 4:
[07:29] All right.

Speaker 1:
[07:50] Who's there? Hello? I'm coming. It was the first time I had heard another person's voice since it happened. I kind of freaked out. I know I said I liked the time to myself, and I did. But something about hearing another voice, you know? Maybe it sounds dumb, but I thought for a second it might be someone my age, or my mom. But it wasn't. It was just Mr. Francois trapped under that shelf. Hang on. I'm coming. Come on, open up. Is someone in here? I'm coming in. Mr. Francois. That's just what the other kids called him. Hello? Are you in here? Oh.

Speaker 5:
[09:13] I was alone, I thought I was all alone.

Speaker 1:
[09:23] Jesus fuck. He was all squished, like smashed, flattened, part of him at least. Pinned under this big wooden bookcase that fell on him. I mean, his legs, right up to his stomach, it was... It was bad. So bad that I didn't even recognize him. But he recognized me. Cielo?

Speaker 5:
[09:56] Is that you?

Speaker 1:
[09:59] It's Cielo, but how... Oh. Wow. Hi. It was Mr. Francois, my French teacher. He was the teacher who always goofed around with everyone. And gave his class French nicknames. Um, Cielo. You know, Sky. So he called me Ciel. He always annoyed me, honestly. Always joking around. But he wasn't joking anymore.

Speaker 3:
[10:33] What?

Speaker 5:
[10:36] What day is it? How long has it been?

Speaker 1:
[10:42] I don't know. A few days?

Speaker 5:
[10:45] Why are you here? I thought they took everyone out. I tried to shout. They couldn't hear.

Speaker 1:
[10:55] I didn't want to go. Are you thirsty? Do you need water? Hang on. Of course. You're gonna be okay. I'm here now. I mean, I couldn't just leave the guy there, stuck. So I spent the afternoon next to him. Well, as close as I could without the smell. It smelled like blood, but worse than blood. It smelled hot. I know that doesn't make sense. I think the shelf kind of, it kind of catches insides inside, so he didn't die. I gave him more water around sunset, dug through his cupboards, trying to find him some food. I had been inside a lot of people's houses already, scavenging, digging through their private lives. But something about knowing him made it feel different. Like I was intruding. Finally found some crackers, but he didn't want to eat. You don't want it? Okay, there are plenty if you want some later. You should really get to the store. These are pretty stale, man. At one point, he gestured towards a picture on the ground near him. Glass in the frame was all busted up, but the photo itself was fine. It was a girl, probably 10 years older than me, maybe 25. His kid or his grandkid, I don't know. He pointed at her and at me. I got what he was trying to say. I spent the rest of the day with him. When the sun set, I found some blankets in a spare room and curled up in the corner. He kept waking up in the night. It was kind of worse when he wasn't making any noise. I'd have to like check his pulse and make sure he wasn't dead. But eventually he'd wake up and be at it again. I'm here. I'm here. Go back to sleep. He kept talking in his sleep. Just gibberish. But that didn't bother me. It was nice hearing someone else's voice.

Speaker 3:
[14:22] Shh.

Speaker 1:
[14:23] It's okay. Yeah, he woke up at one point. It seemed like he was in a lot of pain. He just sort of looked at me, like, near turn to talk. So I told him everything about my life, about where I was when it happened, about my mom. Anyway, he fell asleep after a while. So did I. But he woke me up around sunrise. What is it? Hey, whoa! Oh, I...

Speaker 5:
[15:04] my...

Speaker 1:
[15:05] my...

Speaker 5:
[15:05] Shh!

Speaker 1:
[15:06] Do you want more water?

Speaker 5:
[15:08] No, no, no, no.

Speaker 1:
[15:09] What do you want? What can I do?

Speaker 4:
[15:11] Oh, it's the...

Speaker 1:
[15:14] What? What is it? The shelf? The ceiling? I don't understand. Your stomach? No, no, if we take it off, it'll...

Speaker 5:
[15:27] Oh.

Speaker 1:
[15:30] I can't. Cielo. But I don't even know how to move it. I can't lift... Okay, hang on. Let me find something. For, like, leverage. I'll be right back, I promise, okay? I'll be right back. What choice did I have? He was in pain. He was dying. But not very fast. So I found some piece of metal in the garage.

Speaker 4:
[16:05] This...

Speaker 1:
[16:06] should work. I'm gonna get that off of you. That's what you want, right? Are you ready?

Speaker 5:
[16:24] Okay, here we go.

Speaker 1:
[16:40] Oh shit. When the thing lifted off him, he just sort of spilled out everywhere. He made this noise, like he was choking, like he was drowning somehow. I almost slipped and lost my hold and dropped it back on top of him. But I didn't. And then he stopped making noise. He wasn't hurting anymore.

Speaker 4:
[17:26] Oh my god.

Speaker 1:
[17:28] It was fine. I was fine. I just did what I needed to do. That's it. Can I go now?

Speaker 5:
[17:40] Yeah. Yeah. Of course, Cielo.

Speaker 4:
[17:44] We can be done for today.

Speaker 1:
[17:47] Great.

Speaker 4:
[17:50] That must be hard for you to relive. Thanks for sharing it with me. Thanks for talking to me. But listen, will you tell me about where we found you? How you wound up in that house in the woods?

Speaker 1:
[18:16] I don't want to talk about that.

Speaker 4:
[18:18] Right. I understand. But my boss is really, we're all really curious. If you knew those guys inside. Did you see what happened to them? Do you know who killed them? Did you kill them, Cielo? Cielo?

Speaker 2:
[18:56] You've been listening to American Afterlife, an audio drama by Benstown-McVay Podcast Network Production, in association with Aurora Productions, and in partnership with Gamet Podcast Network, based on the best-selling book by Pedro Hoffmeister. Be sure to stick around after the credits for a post-podcast interview with a member of the cast and crew, produced by Dave Chachi Dennis, Mike McVay, and William Stewart, directed by William Stewart. Podcast adaptation, written by River Donahey, based on the best-selling book series American Afterlife, by Pedro Hoffmeister. Published by Crooked Lane Books, featuring Scarlett Estevez as Cielo, Joshua Messnick as Lucas, and Ted Evans as Charles. Additional voices by Phil Levitt, Darren Silva, MJ Block, Francesca Calvo. Narration by Sean Andre. Sound design by Jacob Urbanek. Studio engineers, Darren Silva and Megan Vasquez. Production manager and marketing, Susan Aksu-Majarian. Additional marketing, Robbie Gessel. If you enjoyed American Afterlife, please consider leaving a review on Apple Podcasts, and following us on Spotify.

Speaker 1:
[20:22] Hi, I'm Scarlett Estevez, and I'm so excited to be playing Cielo in American Afterlife. When I first got the script, I felt very connected with Cielo, and I didn't really know why, because our life situations are very different. She grew up very different from me, but she had this like kind of fire in her, and like getting to play her, I felt like we kind of shared it. I've done a lot of voiceover work, and I've also done like TV and film, but it was definitely a completely different feeling podcasting it, because it's like voiceover, because I'm not really being recorded except for now. But I'm also sitting with another person in a room, which makes my delivery and my readings so much different. I really got into this character, and I feel like we really kind of bonded. So I hope she finds what she's looking for.