by Bobby Akart
“It’s migrating,” said Oliver as he delivered a satellite image to Dr. Lansing. “I’ve never seen anything like it on a plate boundary, mum.”
“Neither have I, Oliver,” she responded calmly. Now was not the time to panic. What was happening across the Central U.S. into Canada flew in the face of all prior earthquake modeling. “In the past, New Madrid seismic activity was concentrated along the Reelfoot Rift. We know the continent contains many fossil structures that would seem equally likely candidates for this kind of concentrated seismicity.”
“Dr. Lansing! We have an estimated M6.3 centered just north of Evansville.”
“Wabash?” she asked.
“Yes, ma’am. The epicenter is right in the heart of the Wabash Valley Seismic Zone at the border of Indiana and Illinois, forty miles north of Evansville.”
Dr. Lansing shook her head in disbelief.
“Oliver, it turns out we may all be right,” she began, referring to the opinions of other geophysicists.
“How so, mum?” he asked.
“Well, those who claimed that New Madrid’s heyday was over pointed at other nearby faults as the so-called new kid on the block. Wabash Valley is one of them. Think about it. There hadn’t been an M6 in New Madrid for over a hundred years until this weekend. Wabash Valley had experienced three M5s in the last two decades. I’ve seen evidence that Wabash has produced M7s or greater in the past.”
The North American crust was filled with cracks and faults where an earthquake could occur at any time. Many faults remained undetected and weren’t placed on the geologic map until they unexpectedly revealed themselves.
When the North American continent tried to separate hundreds of millions of years ago, it left behind crust cracks and ruptures that could sometimes pull apart. The rock comprising this part of the world was one-point-seven billion years old, and the seismic waves could travel very long distances through Earth’s crust.
This stood in stark contrast to the western U.S., where the rock was hotter and thus the shock waves were dampened and contained. Then again, the superheated rock was part of Earth’s complex volcanic plumbing, which presented a whole different set of problems, such as the Yellowstone supervolcano, an extinction-level event waiting its turn to erupt.
“Dr. Lansing, we’re registering minor earthquake activity in the Precambrian rock outcrop of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. These tremors could be nothing more than the Wabash wave spreading.”
“We can’t assume anything at this point,” said Dr. Lansing. She moved to the center of the room. “We are in the midst of an historic seismic event. As scientists and geophysicists, we’d love to grab the popcorn and watch it unfold like a real-life disaster movie. However, our job is to analyze and advise those who are trying to save lives. Let’s calm down and focus. We’re going to reassign tasks based upon the breadth of this event. Oliver, split the team up according to the current heat map.”
The USGS had the technological capability to generate a heat map during an ongoing earthquake sequence. The infrared map revealed heat flow from the earth as earthquakes opened up cracks and fissures.
“Yes, mum,” he replied.
She took a look around the operations center and then walked with purpose to her office, where she closed the door behind her. She needed to get away to clear her head. Ordinarily, she’d task Oliver or another member of her team to perform predictive models of subsequent aftershocks. This time, she felt compelled to do it herself.
It was time for the prophetess of doom to prognosticate.
Chapter Forty-Nine
Sunday, December 23
Near Lake Cormorant, Mississippi
Beth shrieked as a surge of energy from beneath the ground threw both the car and Willie into the air. He landed hard on his back against the gas pump island. His hat fell off and rolled toward the highway intersection. Then a fierce wind blew across the standing water, blowing moisture across them and picking up his hat until it landed next to the car.
“Arrrgggh!” screamed Beth, a soprano’s groan that accompanied the baritone’s growling noise that accompanied the building earthquake. She was going into preterm labor. “Nooo! It’s too early!”
Willie recovered from being knocked across the parking lot, and he made his way back to the car. “What can I do? The closest hospital is Baptist Memorial in Southhaven.”
“How far?”
Before Willie could respond, the ground around them opened its jaws and began to swallow hunks of the earth. To their north and east, the ground was heaving up in waves until splits in the earth became large cracks. The water near the cracks rushed into them, draining the field but soaking the dirt further. The cracks began to run in several directions. They crossed the highway and then stitched through a field across Star Landing Road, which led toward the interstate.
Willie began to run around the car to the driver’s side. He yelled, “We’ll go back. It’s only a few miles. We’ll try to find a way through the flood.”
“We can’t—arrrgggh!” Beth’s contractions were coming fast and furious. Something was wrong. “No time!”
“What?” asked a panicked Willie, who was standing at the front bumper. He held the hood with both hands as the ground continued to generate a roar that sounded like a fleet of dump trucks roaring by at a hundred miles per hour. He was knocked to the ground again and crawled around the car until he reached Beth’s open door.
She was breathing heavily, gasping for air every few words. “Can’t wait. We have to. Do it. Here.”
Willie’s eyes grew wide and looked around nervously as he spoke. “I don’t really know—”
Beth caught her breath and reached out to touch Willie’s hand. “Just listen to what I say.”
An earsplitting screeching sound could be heard, followed by a series of loud pops and snaps. Beth turned sideways in her seat and looked toward the highway. Willie stepped away from the car.
The power poles on both sides of the Shell station’s entrance had cracked, and the power lines were snapping loose from the transformer. A wheezing sound accompanied the transmission lines as they were released from the poles and snapped across the parking lot until they lashed the white, yellow, and red canopy over the gas pumps. The power lines acted like giant whips, tearing open the thin metal bearing the Shell logo. The whiplike force started to topple the canopy over.
“Close your door!” he shouted to Beth, who groaned as she reached for the handle. A part of the canopy collapsed and landed across the pavement just in front of their car. Another piece scraped across the hood until it landed on the driver’s side. The shaking earth caused it to rattle and bounce around until it rested against the sidewalk adjacent to the building.
“Willie!” Beth shouted as another contraction gripped her. They were becoming stronger, longer, and more frequent. She was breathing quickly to deal with the pressure exerted inside her.
He came racing back to her. She was opening the door and exiting the car.
“Where are you going?”
“The back seat. Please put Anthony in the front.”
Beth held both hands under her belly and grimaced as she stood outside the car. Willie opened the back of his patrol car and hoisted Anthony up and out of the back seat. Remarkably, her son had remained calm throughout the melee.
Beth only had the strength and breath to muss his hair. “Thank you for trading seats with Mommy.”
Anthony hesitated when he saw his mother’s amniotic fluid on the floor of the car. Willie helped Beth into the back and then gave Anthony the DUPLO blocks to occupy him. He paused to pat the child on the head and then began to close the door, glancing downward to ensure none of the young toddler’s limbs were in the way. He knelt down and retrieved his hat. He manipulated it back in shape and placed it on Anthony’s head. For the first time, the young boy smiled at Willie.
He took a deep breath. It was time for him to man up. He found Beth inching her way backwards across the seat unt
il the back of her head rested on the armrest. He pushed up the sleeves on his navy-blue sweatshirt with the Mississippi Highway Patrol insignia across the front. The state didn’t mind their troopers using their vehicles on select occasions for personal purposes for so long as they wore some form of apparel identifying them as a trooper. Most of the guys wore the windbreaker-style jackets. In the winter, Willie donned his sweatshirt.
“Okay. What do you need me to do?”
Beth was still having difficulty breathing. After each word, she gasped for air. “Towels. Blanket. Knife. String.”
“Okay. Stay here.” Willie dashed toward the inside of the Shell convenience store before Beth laughed at her comical instructions. She moaned in pain as punishment for the chuckle.
“Momma. Hurt.”
The sound of Anthony’s voice comforted her. “No, honey. Not hurt. I’m having a baby.”
“Not a baby. Not a baby.”
“I know, honey. You’re my big boy. You enjoy your blocks, and Momma will be done in a—errrrr.”
Beth couldn’t finish her sentence as another contraction struck her. She tried to stifle her reaction to the pain, and she immediately wondered if she’d be able to contain the screaming as she gave birth. She was certain it would upset Anthony.
The earthquake continued to rumble across the landscape of Northern Mississippi. She’d grown accustomed to the rhythmic shaking and wondered if the rocking might actually assist her with delivering her newborn.
Beth began to breathe rapidly again. She closed her eyes as she prepared herself to give birth. She’d have to abandon all modesty as she revealed herself to a stranger. She pushed the elastic waistband of her maternity jeans down until they were around her ankles. She gently kicked them out of the back seat onto the asphalt. Then she eased off her panties and kicked them out as well.
Willie appeared at the open door just as her panties hit the ground. He immediately averted his eyes and looked toward the front seat.
Beth took a deep breath before she spoke. “Willie, you’re gonna have to look.”
“What? Where?”
“My, you know. My maternity ward.” Beth giggled at the joke, and then, as before, she was punished with a strong contraction that caused her to yell.
“Arrrgggh!”
“No. Why?” he asked.
“Because.” Gasp. “When I push her out …” Gasp. “You have to catch her.” She gasped again and took a deep breath and exhaled rapidly.
Whoosh. Whoosh. Whoosh.
Beth couldn’t see the expression on Willie’s face, as he was still looking away, but in that tense moment, she could only imagine.
Chapter Fifty
Sunday, December 23
Near Lake Cormorant, Mississippi
He’d done as well as could be expected on his limited shopping expedition into the Shell station. Between the looters and the destruction caused by the earthquake, the small convenience store was in shambles. He was able to find a couple of packages of shop towels, several green beach towels bearing the logo of the Lake Cormorant Gators football team, and some fishing line. He also grabbed a few bottles of Evian water, which was the only beverage remaining in the store’s inoperable refrigerated coolers.
Willie got it together and forgot about the immodesty of the birthing process. He had a job to do, which was to be there to help Beth through it and, as she said, catch her child when the time came.
Beth had moved into the transitional phase of her labor. She’d been through it once before and swore she’d never forget the pain she endured. She promised herself and the universe she’d never give birth again without an epidural. She had to break that promise, unfortunately.
Willie had not been in the hospital room when his daughters were born. For one thing, he was too squeamish, and secondly, Carla forbade it. She was surrounded by her mother and ladies from the church. That’s just how things were done in Tunica. Over the years, Willie had experienced all manners of bloody horrors. Mangled bodies from vehicle accidents and gunshot victims were just two of the most common tragedies he came across every year. However, despite his lack of experience in the birthing process, he gave Beth some excellent advice.
“Just do what feels right.”
Beth nodded as her face scrunched together. She began to push as her body felt her daughter enter the birth canal. There was an unmistakable urge for her to bear down on her child, urging the young life to come out into the world.
“Arrrgh!” she shouted, abandoning all attempts to muffle her pain for Anthony’s sake. She began to breathe heavily.
Willie had played high school sports many decades ago, but he knew when someone was starting to hyperventilate. He knelt into the back seat and reached for Beth’s hand. It was a touching gesture that calmed her almost immediately.
“Breathe, Beth. Easy though. If you pass out, who’s gonna tell me what to do?”
Beth chuckled and then scowled. She took a deep breath. “You can’t make me laugh. I’m having a baby!”
This caused her to laugh again, and seconds later, she felt the urge to push.
“Arrrgh!”
She started breathing fast again but then immediately controlled herself.
Willie was still holding her hand. “That’s it. That’s it. Steady, now.”
She continued to breathe in and out. Barely ten seconds had passed, and it was time to push again.
And push she did. A long, sustained, I-wanna-get-this-over-with push.
“Arrrgh!”
“I see her head, Beth. Sure ’nuf. I see it.” Willie’s excited voice caused Beth to smile. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and then waited for the signal from her body. One second. Two seconds. Three. Now!
“Arrrgh!” She pushed again. She didn’t need a nurse, or her husband, or even Dr. Willie Angel to encourage her to do so. She knew what to do.
Willie eased back and supported the baby’s head in his massive hands. Beth didn’t have to instruct him on what to do. Something primal and instinctual guided Willie that day.
“Her head is really big, but I’ve got it,” said Willie.
Beth grimaced. She contemplated all of the things she would do to Willie when this was over for that comment. However, it was time to push again.
“Arrrgh!” Whoosh-whoosh-whoosh. She breathed quicker and easier now.
“I’ve got shoulders. Two of them!” Willie’s exuberance was the most unexpected aspect of the birth of Beth’s second child. That, and the earthquake, of course.
“Lift them slightly,” said Beth as she prepared to push again.
With one final groan and a mighty shove, her newborn daughter came out easily into Willie Angel’s hands.
The bluish baby girl was slippery, so he gently rested her on several shop towels, which he determined to be cleaner than the beach towels hanging on a rack.
He began to shed tears of his own as the cool air struck the naked newborn. She filled her lungs with her first breath of air and let out a mighty squall that caused Anthony to begin rocking back and forth in the front seat. He marveled at how small she was, most likely weighing three pounds but certainly less than four.
Willie worked quickly to dry the baby off, and then he swaddled her in clean shop towels with a blanket for warmth. He took another towel and wrapped it around her head to help her retain heat. Then he readied the fishing line, tied it around the umbilical cord a couple of inches from the baby’s belly, and severed it. He quickly stemmed the bleeding and used a ripped piece of cloth off a shop towel as a makeshift clamp.
He was as efficient as an expert maternity nurse. Then he leaned forward and presented the beautiful new life to her mother.
Tears streamed down Beth’s face as she held her child for the first time. Willie leaned in and unbuttoned her shirt to reveal her skin. Beth had been wearing front-clasped maternity bras for the last several weeks. He looked down at her breasts, and then the two made eye contact. She smiled and nodded, providing hi
m approval to expose her breasts so she could bond with her baby.
Now both stand-in doctor and mother were crying tears of joy. A new life had been brought into the world in the midst of the destruction of part of the planet. They’d done it together under the most bizarre of circumstances. Beth held her baby close and reached up to touch the teary-eyed man who’d saved her life and gave life to her baby girl.
After they shared a moment, Beth was reminded by her uterus there was still some work to do. It had begun to contract ever so slightly in order to separate the placenta from the inside of her body. She looked up to Willie.
“Do you happen to have a first aid kit in the car?”
He rolled his eyes and shook his head. “We’re supposed to, but our stock never got replenished after the hurricane two months ago.”
Beth sighed and then took a really deep breath. Her baby had fallen asleep on her chest. She felt the contractions in her uterus intensify.
“Um, Willie, my placenta will be coming out soon. I can urge it along by rubbing my belly, but when the time comes, I’m gonna have to push it out.”
“Okay. What do I do?”
“First, if you have an extra blanket, would you mind putting it under my butt?”
Willie reached down and retrieved one of several extras. Beth used her heels to arch her back so he could slide the towel underneath her.
“Okay. What’s next?” he asked.
“This could take ten minutes, or it might take thirty minutes. I won’t lie. There’s gonna be a lot of blood, and my placenta, my insides are gonna come out. After that, I really need some gauze bandages to, you know, keep the maternity ward from getting infected and stuff.”
Willie backed out of the car and looked around. He saw a building just past the Shell station that was unaffected by the fissure that crossed the two roads. He leaned into the car with his arm resting on the roof.
“How much time do I have?”