The Earth Fell Beneath Their Feet

The waves of a mordant sea crashed into a wall of endless rock. Along the vertical shore a forest stood, a vast tower of green. Trees clung to the edge of the cliff with dying urgency before relinquishing their grip to fall into the cold bite of water. All animal life had left the shoreline to seek refuge in the deepest parts of the forest growth. The rain and hail and heavy crash of waves ate through the stone and living wood. Deep at the base of the cliff face gaped a cave entrance to a catacomb of tunnels. Water rushed in quickly and tried to drown out the interior. The screams of men and women languished from the depths of the maze.

“We need to move, now!” A male voice commanded, “Anybody who hasn't got their hands full of something, grab the supplies, the food, anything!” Ragged figures dashed through the rising water to rescue wooden crates and metal boxes. Large groups of men and women and a few children sloshed their way up precarious wooden ramps to the surface where the tunnels had caved in long ago and created long gorges. Everyone carried bulging leather bags and a some clung to machetes strapped to their waists. One child held a small green square with soldered transistors and a fan. It was a computer chip, long since broken but still played with as a toy. Similar trinkets could be seen hanging from necks and tied to wrists.

“The tide sir, it's takin most of the food!” A man screamed over the wind and crash of waves at the man with the commanding voice.

“Nick!” The commander yelled back, “What about the radio? Did you find it?”

“Sir...It was lost in the first waves, we have no communication outside of what's left of North America.” Nick sounded desperate and everyone nearby stopped hoisting crates and stared at him. The commander wiped the salt from his eyes and blinked painfully. The sea water had filled his high rubber boots and held him down forcefully. He felt so tired, he just wanted to float away on the waves with the rest of his country. But then there would be nothing left.

“We...Get to the surface, everyone! No time for thinking, just move, move!” The commander shouted at the wide eyes of his followers. His voice echoed off of the tunnel walls but was extinguished in the cold black water. The catacombs were full of frantic movement and shouting once again. The commander reached into his pocket and pulled out a small tarnished army tactical knife. The days of killing are over, and yet I'm still surrounded by death, he thought morbidly. He stashed the knife away and ran to help lift a metal container with a long bearded older man.

Chunks of the cliff face plunged into the water as the ocean picked up it's feverish violence. Most of the group of men and women had reached the surface and had tried to set up shelter against the heavy rain. Children screamed in fright and adults attempted to calm them with echoed phrases that their parents used to tell them.

“Everything will be alright.”

“Don't worry, I've seen worse than this and gotten through it ok.”

“Close your eyes and it will all be over soon.”

But all of them knew it would not be alright. They were the survivors of the catastrophic weather that had rampantly destroyed their land and their homes. A few men dared to look at the edges of the world. They were on an forested island, or what appeared to be an island, in the middle of a vast dark ocean.

The commander reached the surface and set down his load to survey his company. Everyone looked to him for an answer, any answer to their question of survival. His eyes tightened when he realized he had none. Not even their wondrous technology had been able to stop nature's destruction. What could he do? The commander turned his battle scarred face to the sea and watched the waves come in relentlessly. He placed his hand on a tree trunk and wondered how this forest could be all that was left of America; How he could be the leader of the last of his people; How no one would every live to remember their history.

“Sir, what should we do?” Nick asked, his voice barely holding together. The commander turned to him slowly with his eyes trained on the ground.

“Learn to swim,” he chuckled quietly. The sky cracked and shook the ground, the waves crashed against the rock, and the rain tore away the earth.  

Reviews

[Marie]

THis is good. You capture the people and their coming doom very well. THe last line sums it all up.

Never use a phrase like "...ran to help lift a metal container with a long bearded older man." Sounds like the container had the man in it.