`` what do you think is happ - `` someone said and then there was unspeakable wrenching noise , like someone had taken one of the cargo containers that made up the colony wall and peeled it apart , right on top of our eardrums and then i was tumbling to the ground because there was an earthquake and i screamed and bet that everyone else in the shelter did too but i could n't hear it because then came the single loudest noise i had ever heard , so loud that my brain surrendered and the noise became the absence of noise , and the only way i knew that i , at least , was still screaming was that i could feel my throat getting raw .