The Earthquake

Begin the story off right with some crazy disaster, eh?

We felt the first tremor at the university.

It was basically any other day. I know exactly how cliche that sounds, but I can assure you, it is most definitely fitting. School lunches were horrendous, provoking my group of friends to sneak off campus to the nearest sandwich joint. I was putting off my homework, ignoring the dirty looks the over-achievers gave me when I received my perfect test score despite my lack of studying and formulating an all-too-complicated plan on how to avoid doing my economics worksheet. Teresa was honing her aim with crushed straw wrappers, tossing them at the far wall’s dart board and laughing about something ridiculously un-hilarious. Nora didn’t usually speak much, but today her spirits were high, and her smile wide. We had met up accidentally with Blaze, a charismatic type surrounded by his own group of friends with an appetite for something actually edible. So here we sat, numbering seven in all, around a much-too-crowded table and lamenting our last few minutes of freedom.

“Easy there, Steph.” Blaze teased. “You gotta give the university another chance to kill you before you choke to death.”

I dropped my fork with attitude, chewing an abnormally large amount of food. I always attempted to fit the last pickings of my meal into one scoop at the end of lunch. “Death by food might be better,” I replied through mangled tomato. With that, I gathered my lunch remains and managed to toss it into the nearest trash can with grace and stood up. “Come on, the bell isn’t gonna wait for us.”

Even though I was the one with the big talk, it was Blaze’s friend Ryder who had to usher the chattering group towards the glass doors of the sandwich shop.

We had arrived back on campus, making our way through the courtyard, when the unexpected tremor jumped us.

It came with a loud rumbling, shaking the earth for a quick second before disappearing, just like that.

Conversation stopped. The courtyard was a deathly quiet, and my mind switched from clever humor to concern. If you’ve ever felt a tremor, you’d know you really can’t comprehend what happened right away. It feels like the whole earth just burped, interrupting everyone’s day, before going completely back to normal and leaving you to wonder if you had just experienced what you had experienced.

“Did you feel that?” Teresa was quiet, as if not to disturb the beast we stood on.

Though it was obvious our frozen group had, we nodded all the same. Sarcasm had gone out the window.

“What was it?” Ryder looked around for some clue, but the courtyard just fluttered along like it naturally did. Birds chirped. Flowers swished in the slight breeze. I tried to break out of my head.

“Probably just construction or something.” I waved it off, successfully sending the group back into a more light-hearted state, though I didn’t quite know how believable it was.

The rest of the school day went along in it’s cliche line. I took a small nap in history, ignored the afternoon announcements, drew an epic dragon picture all over my notes. After classes were over, I had made plans to meet up with Nora, so I migrated through the buffalo masses of students in the hallways to reach the front entrance. I probably should’ve noticed the dreary weather, but my focus in this building had been well broken semesters ago.

“Hey!” I greeted petite Nora, who was leaning up against the side wall, books in hand and trying to fix her dark hair. “You ready to split?”

She pushed off the wall as I adjusted my bookbag. “Yep. You have tea at your house, right?” Her gray eyes twinkled. Nora was a tea-lover to the max.

I rolled my eyes. “Of course we do, when don’t we? You know how my dad is. Come on, I have a game I want to beat while you do all that pathetic studying.” I nudged her arm playfully, disregarding her whimper of how truly lazy I am. I opened the front doors, stepping out into the fresh air, only to be blasted by a strong, chilly wind that ran directly through every sinus path my head offered. “Whoa,” I gasped, covering my eyes from the pelting winds. “It’s really windy out.”

Nora sheltered her own face. “Kinda sudden for a storm to set in,” she mused as she followed my hurried steps down the front stairs and to the curb. The flowers from earlier were now bending low under the new weather.

I quickly slapped mine and Nora’s bags into the compartment of my father’s motorcycle, which I had most definitely not borrowed without permission, and handed my friend a helmet. “Let’s get home, I’m already shivering.”

The sky was coated in clouds, settling low with dark grays and blues and swirling with the brutal winds. My motorcycle, with two girls on it, thankfully was not subject to the whipping breezes, and we made it to my house with ease, pulling into the much more serene garage and dismounting the black steed. It was strange how quickly this storm was approaching, as just earlier in the day the sunshine had been gorgeously warm and the weather calm.

I led Nora into the house. “Alright,” I said, tossing the keys onto the kitchen counter, “I have about a half hour of this game left, if you wanna make tea and do your homework downstairs with me.”

She nodded, ripping tangles out of her hair whilst wincing. “Okay, meet you there.”

Nora and I were good chill buddies; we could spend hours doing absolutely nothing next to each other without a problem. She was so laidback, I loved having her over. I started up my console in the basement and dimmed the lights enough for my friend to do her homework but still set the mood of my game. She joined me, steaming tea in hand, and we fell right into our nothingness cycle.

It had been at least an hour by the time I actually neared completion of the game. The final boss was on my screen, and I was so engrossed that I barely heard Nora get up to retrieve another cup of tea. In fact, nothing would have successfully yanked me out of my moment.

Nothing but what happened next.

My tv fizzled, and went dark. Around me, the already-dim lights snapped off. I was left in sudden darkness and silence.

“Noooooo!” I cried out in anguish, chucking the controller at the ground and collapsing in a heap of I-didn’t-save-my-game-fast-enough sorrow. “Why me?!”

Finally, I gained enough willpower to reach forward and click the tv button on again. It didn’t respond. Frowning, I hit it again. Nothing. I went into obsessive mode, furiously tapping the stupid button, but the tv stayed dark. Over my sorrow, rational concern set in. “Nora?” I called warily upstairs. “Is the whole house in a power outage?”

There was no response. My concern was definitely outweighing my prior childish behavior now. “Nora?” I called again, frozen in place. A sense of apprehension swelled into my throat.

A couple seconds passed, then: “Stephanie, get up here. Right now!”

She sounded so aghast, I took the stairs two at a time. “What is it?” I called back, spinning onto the ground level and ducking into the kitchen.

Nora was staring out the picture window, tea mug slipping out of her palm and dribbling hot water onto the floor.

“What is it?” I repeated, running to her side and looking outside too. My jaw dropped.

Outside, the storm had hit.

Trees were bending precariously amidst pounding rain, swaying and snapping as their branches and leaves tumbled to the swelling ground. The earth was imbalanced, shivering and rumbling, and as I stood there, taking it all in, my house began to shiver, too.

Nora dropped the mug fully, shattering it on the hardwood floors as we fought for sudden balance. The ceiling beams swayed, the floors groaned, the vases tumbled and crashed. A puff of dust swept down from above us, and the picture window buckled under the switching pressures, cracking just slightly in a nearly perfect line. The tremor stopped.

I stood, arms outstretched in poised readiness. The storm raged on outside. I counted several seconds, switching into a well-educated and prepared mind. Nora was wide-eyed, watching the storm and me, flicking her gaze between us both. Nearly twenty passed before the house began to shiver again, this time bringing a heavier influx of dust and cracking noises. The amount of time threw me into action. I ignored the shaking construction. “Nora!” I cried over the drone of the house. “Get your stuff and call Blaze and Teresa! We’re getting out of here. Tell them to meet us up at the lookout.” I turned on my heels and sprinted to my bedroom, fumbling for my canvas backpack and digging through my room under the splintering wood above me. My father had taught me about this kind of thing, and although it had only happened once before, when I was very young, I had a good head on my shoulders. This was a destructive earthquake, worse than even I could remember back when I was child, and we needed to get to bedrock immediately.

I managed to cram my wallet, some clothes, soap, and excess items into my bag before sprinting back out to Nora. The tremors hadn’t stopped this time, and upon looking outside, I noted the ground was already beginning to rip. Nora was chattering wildly on the phone, backpack in hand, so I guided her into the garage. She had to get the phone calls in before the phone lines went down.

We yanked helmets on and straddled the motorcycle as I gunned it up quickly, skidding it into a small donut to exit the garage. We zipped out into the storm, narrowly avoiding a powerline’s trajectory to the ground. The motorcycle screamed at the burst of power I gave it, but I was more focused on jumping the curb and angling the machine onto the shaking road. Nora yelled something, losing her call and cowering against my back under the crashing rain. It was coming down hard, soaking us nearly instantly. I battled the winds on the bike, handling the motorcycle with necessary skill as we took off down the winding residential roads at top speed. Around us, trees curled and dipped, some losing strength and snapping to the ground. I weaved through branches and puddles, the ground bouncing beneath us. I had no time for fear, though; we had to make it to the lookout. By now, it was clear the tremors were not going to stop anytime soon.

“Steph!” Nora screeched into my ear, and I saw her hand point past my line of vision into the distance.

I squinted, peering at whatever she was pointing at. My heart spat adrenaline and I slammed the breaks with my whole weight.

We skidded to a stop, curving sideways to the edge of a giant tear in the earth. My foot slapped the flooding ground, keeping us upright as we caught our breath. By now, the roads were milling with several other people, all rushing to cars and trucks to escape the ripping ground. We were cut off by the tear, which was progressively opening into what seemed like a six-inch width. The entire road ahead was bobbing, floating on the bubbling water the cracks around us were spewing into the streets. The sight was bewildering. Time and earth moved around us, but Nora and I were stuck in total shock at the extremity of the tremors’ effects. The world was in total chaos, our very land being torn from under our feet. Eventually, I broke out of my temporary trance and kicked the motorcycle back into action, hopping around the tear using a shivering sidewalk and managing to maneuver the bike through a slim alley and onto a larger road, this one headed east towards the lookout.

Nora was still screaming something, but I was completely bent on winding through the buildup of honking cars the streets had accumulated. “Did you get ahold of Teresa and Blaze?” I shouted back at her, narrowly avoiding a sideview mirror on a rusty Subaru and making it to the side of the road, where I gunned the gas once again, uphill to a walking trail that led to the lookout.

“Yes!” She cried back, hugging me tighter as the bike bumped along the coarse gravel trail.

I kept a steady speed, and at about halfway up the trail, just as I suspected, the tremors were not as strong. The bike began riding more smoothly, and though the winds and rain still battered our legs and arms, I could see the sunlight actually peek through onto the tip of the mountainous ridge. That was where we were headed. The lookout. I drove on desperately, not letting off the gas until we were up there.

Finally, I pulled the motorcycle into the etched-out dirt platform, escaping the rain enough to a slight drizzle and parking against a pinnacle rock formation. There was a moment of silence on the lookout as I sat, unmoving, with Nora behind me. Before us, we stared at orange, dusty rock and the normal landscape past it. I killed the motorcycle, letting the humming gurgle to a stop. I was numb, and the shock was beginning to settle in. Nora did not move. We stared at the orange rocks.

Then, I stepped off my motorcycle, turning slowly to face the valley behind me.

The sight was horrendous. I had no breath in me to gasp, so all I could do was let my eyes grow large and my jaw drop.

The valley--my home--was not a valley anymore. From up here, so removed, we felt and heard none of it, but the motion was constant down there. Clouds undulated and weaved among one another, stirring dark and ominous above the soaked ground. Dust clouds rose from several buildings, and as I watched, the ommitance was followed by the building disappearing altogether. Slowly, the proud city crumbled, torn apart by the visual shaking and snaking tears. They migrated from the south end to the north, splitting off now and then to attack new areas.

The city was collapsing. Not only that, but it was caving. I didn’t realize it at first, but Nora did. “Steph,” she whispered, now next to me. “The sea.”

I looked to where her trembling, porcelain finger was pointing. Water was bubbling from the cracks with a flooding ferocity now, but out to where the harbor was, there was no water.

I blinked. The ships were beached, falling to their sides. Squinting, I couldn’t see out far enough to the new shoreline past the rolling clouds. “Where’d it go?” I managed to say, gaining back my vocal ability. Not usually a problem I had.

“I don’t know.” Nora shifted uncomfortably. “But it can’t be good.”

We watched in bitter silence for another extended moment, unable to summon emotion. The moment was broken by a violent vibration from Nora’s sweatshirt pocket. She stared at it a moment before recognizing it as her cell phone, then rushed to answer it.

“Blaze?” She questioned breathlessly.

I leaned in to listen, though it was to no avail. It was definitely Blaze, but all I could hear was murmured shouts. Nora’s eyes searched the dusty ground as she tried to take all the verbal stimulation in at once. “Wait, wait, wait,” she finally interrupted. “So you’re almost here?”

I leaned closer, hopeful, but still could make none of it out. Nora did not shove me away, as she usually did when I got obnoxiously close to her.

Author's Note

Well, you know the drill. What do you think?