The Radius | Book 2 | Living In The Radius

by Muga, D. M.

  Alexander had explained to the group that because of the friction between the transform plates and the Blue Hole Radius, multiple minor fault lines emerged and another major fault line. The new major fault line was named the Bear Ridge Fault, named after the mountain that it cut through.

  In the year 2801, the pressure beneath the Earth's surface was released along the fault lines, creating Bear Ridge Fault and multiple minor fault lines. The end result was similar to that of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. Whereas the earthquake in 1906 was a 7.8, the earthquake in 2801 was an 8.4. The end result was several newly created ridges in the region, surrounding the Blue Hole Radius.

  The death toll of the earthquake was relatively low, mostly due to people migrating away from the Blue Hole Radius over the last 780 years. The change to landscape was much more severe.

  The elevation of Crestline in 2023 was 4,613 feet. The elevation of Big Bear started at 6,752 feet. The elevation of Crestline now, in 3043, is 5,093 feet, with Big Bear Valley now beginning at 7,232. After the earthquake of 2801, a new ridgeline was formed along the northeast edge of the Blue Hole Radius.

  In a very over complicated way, Alexander had explained to the group that the Bear Ridge went on for close to forty miles and raised the Blue Hole Radius and a good amount of the surrounding area on the Pacific Plate, close to five-hundred feet in elevation.

  After several tries, Eileen and the others finally got the gist of it. The Blue Hole Radius was higher than when this whole mess had started. Big Bear Lake was drained off of the side of the Bear Ridge, down into the mountain side 480 feet below once the barrier of the Blue Hole Radius dissolved and time went back to normal.

  It was all very concerning and confusing to Eileen. She had been used to earthquakes, but this was different. She was waiting for the “big one” all of her life, along with every other Californian. Now she had found out that it had already happened, which begged the question of when the next “big one” would be?

  Despite Alexander telling them that there would be many little quakes and likely no major ones, she was still worried. Alexander had told them the small quakes were just the earth that was trapped in the Blue Hole Radius resettling.

  Although she had the fear that the ground would give out beneath her feet, he assured her that this was not the case, not with that much intact earth being held together for so long, with its deepest depth of six miles.

  She always circled back to the thought that the man telling her not to worry was part of the reason why the Blue Hole Radius came into existence in the first place.

  “Mommy! I’m finished eating! Can I go play in my room?” Claire asks.

  Jamie looks over to their daughter. “Yes, sweetie. Put your plate in the sink. And please fill your cup back up with water and take it into your room. You need to stay hydrated, sweetie.”

  “Okay, mommy.” The little girl says, as she puts her plate into the sink, fills her cup, and leaves the room, trying to be careful not to spill her cup of water.

  With Claire out of the room, Jamie speaks more freely. “I sure hope that your friend Alexander is as smart as you say he is. I hope even more that he’s right about the earthquakes... they are really starting to worry me.”

  “Me too, Jamie... me too.” Eileen responds.

  Ben replies, “Alexander has been doing a lot of research in the last seven weeks. If anyone has a good grasp of what’s happening… it’s that guy.” Ben smiles to comfort her, taking a sip of his water.

  “I even hear that they are trying to build a dam in the lakebed of Big Bear Lake. If they do that… the lake will return in time.” Ben adds, trying to make the conversation more positive.

  “And, if we ever get back to some sort of normalcy and we want to hit the slopes, what remains of the Ski Resort is close to 500 feet higher.” He smiles at this last part.

  “Oh, and you know how to ski, Ben?” Eileen asks.

  “Actually, no. I have only gone snowboarding. I’m okay… not great.” Ben replies.

  “Really? Me too. I didn't know that…'' Eileen responds. Even after spending the last seven weeks together and getting very close, there was still a good deal that she did not know about him.

  “But remember, we are close to 500 feet higher too, Ben.” She adds.

  Ben nods, thinking. He then turns his attention to Jamie. “Jamie, how are you guys on cold weather gear?”

  Jamie looks at him. “Good, I suppose. Why?”

  Ben continues. “I don’t mean to scare you anymore than you already are, with all of this earthquake and weather talk, but Alexander also told us that this winter is going to be different from what we are used to.”

  Jamie frowns, and looks toward the hallway, likely thinking of her young daughter playing in her room. “Well, that’s just great… isn’t it? I was hoping we would start getting better news after this rain let up.”

  Eileen watches as Ben reaches into his pack that he had brought in with him. “Oh, I hear the weather is supposed to be nice for a while. It’s our summertime, after all. But I just want to make sure that your family has what it needs for the winter coming in. Alexander tells me that it’s going to be colder and longer than what we are used to.”

  “Of course it is…” Jamie responds.

  “Here.” Ben pulls out the pouch that he had at the Marketplace. “Take this for you, Todd, and Claire. There’s enough in there for you all to go get some more supplies for the winter. There should be enough in there for Jim’s wife and daughter too. There’s more silver in there than gold, mind you, but each silver coin is worth at least $50 in these times and each gold coin is worth at least five times that. Don’t let the small size of the gold coins fool you and don’t let anyone take advantage of you all. ”

  Eileen’s stunned at his generosity. She knew there had to be a small fortune in that small little pouch, based on what they had spent earlier.

  “Oh, Ben… I couldn’t. I'm sure that we will be fine.” Jamie responds.

  “Jamie. I insist. I highly doubt that Todd would take this from me, out of pride. But that would be a mistake. We have what we need and there’s no reason to be greedy about it. Take the money and go see Mr. Dave Stine at the camping store. He’ll set you guys up real nice. Let him know that you know Eileen and me.” Ben tells her.

  “Ben, I don’t know what to say.” Jamie responds.

  “Well you don’t have to say anything, but I'm not taking no for an answer. If not for you and yours… for Jim’s family. Please” Ben asks of her.

  Eileen’s still silent, thinking of the man sitting across from her. Yes, he was bull-headed and brazen. But he was also kind and generous. Most people would not give away what he’s giving away now. To the contrary, she had seen, firsthand, people kill for much less.

  Jamie replies, sounding a little choked up by Ben’s generosity. “Okay, Ben. But you must at least take home a pie with you. I’ve been baking like crazy with all of this rain. I have apple and cherry pies.”

  Ben smiles. “Sounds like a deal. I’m a sucker for a cherry pie.” He puts the pouch into her hands.

  She smiles, wiping a tear from her eye. “I’ll make it two, Ben.” She takes the pouch and rises to go get the pies.

  Ben looks to Eileen as she leaves the table. “What do you say? Want to go to the lake tomorrow or the day after?”

  And just like that... he gives away an unknown amount of gold and silver and then wants to go to the lake for the day.

  “Well that was very nice of you, Ben.” Eileen says, thwarting the conversation back to what just transpired.

  Ben scrunches his face, obviously uncomfortable about it. “What that. That’s nothing. In times like these, people need to take care of people. Not be greedy and selfish.”

  You really are something else, Benjamin Reilly. Eileen thinks as she just stares at him.

  “So, what do you say? Lake tomorrow or the day after? I'm sure Uncle Steven would like to get some fishing in. It’d be a good excuse
to get Jim’s wife and daughter out of the house too.” Ben asks.

  Eileen smiles at him. “Sounds like a great idea, Ben. I actually planned on doing just that sort of thing, before all this Blue Hole Radius business went down.”

  Ben grins at her as Jamie enters the room with two pies. “Great minds think alike.” He sees Jamie enter the room. “Oooo! Pies!”

  Eileen laughs at him and so does Jamie.

  After their goodbyes and hugs, Eileen and Ben leave the Bradley home and head back to Steven's cabin, now all of their cabin, in the mid-afternoon.

  With Eileen in the passenger seat and Ben driving back to Steven’s cabin, she turns to Ben. “I know a lot has changed. But you were just joking about the whole beachfront property stuff, right? Because that'd be one massive earthquake.”

  Ben laughs. “I was just quoting an old country song I remember as a kid. Something about beachfront property in Arizona, once California falls off into the ocean. And no, I don’t think so. A ridgeline was created by the new Bear Ridge Fault… not a canyon or great depression into the ground. Alexander is probably the smartest man that I have ever met. If he says we shouldn't be worried… we shouldn’t be.”

  Eileen eyes him. “Okay… but remember that Alexander was one of the people that brought this whole situation down upon our heads in the first place.”

  Ben nods. “Very true, very true. And I think he knows that best, between all of us. I really think he struggles with the guilt on a daily basis.”

  Eileen thinks about this as she looks out onto the mountain scenery around her.

  “Don’t you ever catch him lost in thought? I mean, he doesn’t talk about his family much. But, none of us do… but we still think about them.”

  Eileen nods silently, knowing that this rang true with her and her thoughts about her father.

  They reach the driveway of the cabin moments later. Ben pulls up next to Steven’s Blazer. She can see that Steven and Alexander are unloading supplies from the back of the old vehicle.

  As they get out of Ben’s truck, Ben speaks. “Hey, Alexander!”

  Alexander turns, with two vests in his hand. “Hello, Ben.”

  “Would you please tell the wonderful Eileen that we are not going to fall into the ocean because of the earthquakes?” Ben smiles at her.

  Jerkface.

  Eileen eyes him as Alexander begins to speak. “Ah yes. Whereas, nothing is truly impossible, that particular scenario is highly improbable. Transform plates move alongside each other and are not divergent plate boundaries. What is more, transform plates move one to two inches a year. That’s about a range of 117 to 235 feet over the last 1,410 years.”

  Alexander turns to walk into the house to drop off the vests.

  Eileen catches Ben’s eye and flips him off. “Now you got him going again. Thanks, jerkface.”

  Ben smiles at her. “Anytime, beautiful.”

  He goes to the back-cab door on his side and she does the same on her side. They open the cab doors and start retrieving the cold weather gear that they had purchased earlier that day.

  “He may talk a lot, but he seems to know what he’s talking about. The guy is like a human Google.” Ben adds.

  Before Eileen can respond, Alexander steps back outside to get more of their acquired gear and continues speaking. “As I was saying… that’s a lot of movement over a lot of years. Which means a lot of adjustment and shifting. You must remember, that we didn't understand plate tectonics before the Radius and it looks like our predecessors didn't figure out much more about them after the Radius. Point in fact, they still haven’t figured out what’s actually within the Earth’s core. With all of that being said, the Bear Ridge Fault is evidence to my point, that it’s much more likely that mountain ranges will be created along these fault lines in our region and not shift away from each other. Therefore, not dropping California into the ocean. Does that make sense, Eileen?”

  Eileen looks to Alexander. “Yes, Alexander. Thank you. I feel much better about it now.”

  She hears Ben chuckle. “Keep it up, Ben.”

  This elicits laughter from Steven as he keeps on grabbing the acquired gear from the back of the Blazer. “Sounds like you're getting yourself into trouble, Benjamin. It’d be wise to shut your mouth, nephew. I’d be willing to guess that Eileen could likely kick your ass.”

  Ben fakes a shocked look at his uncle. “Uncle! That really hurts.”

  Eileen can’t help but laugh. “Your Uncle does make a good point.”

  Ben laughs too. “Uh huh.” He turns to his Uncle and Alexander. “Looks like you found them.”

  Steven grins. “Sure did! We found four vests, in excellent condition.”

  “Found what?” Eileen asks.

  Steven looks at her and smiles. “Four bullet-proof vests. Well, bullet resistant is more of an accurate term.”

  Eileen nods. “Oh. That’s good.”

  “Good, that’s great news!” Ben beams. “Who’s the manufacturer of them?”

  Steven looks back at Ben. “Three different manufacturers. Two AR500’s, one Safe Life, and one Spartan. But they are all level three with the buildup coatings.”

  Ben whistles. “Nice find, Uncle!”

  Eileen looks at Steven and then Ben. “I'm guessing that’s a good thing.”

  Ben looks at her as they carry the cold weather gear into the cabin. “Sure is. They are not military or anything, but they are reliable manufacturers and they’ll do the job.”

  Eileen nods. “Well that’s good. But he should have gotten five.” She grins at him.

  Ben tilts his head. “Why five?”

  “You need two, just for yourself. For the next time your dumbass runs into a firefight all alone!” She starts to laugh.

  “That’ll give me more time to get to you and save your butt again!” She erupts in laughter.

  Ben rolls his eyes. “OH! These shenanigans, again.” He begins to laugh.

  “You know! You aren’t a very humble guardian angel.” He adds.

  “Don’t worry Ben… I still have a couple vests in my stash of supplies. We can turn you into a tactical bubble boy…” She says, which makes her laugh even harder.

  On their way back out to the truck for another load, they calm down and Steven is walking toward them.

  “Hey Uncle. What do you think about making a lake trip tomorrow or the next day? We could take the Bradley families with us and get some sunshine, with this nice weather.” Ben questions.

  Steven keeps walking and passes them. “Sounds like a grand idea. I could get some fishing in. I'm sure there’s still a good amount of trout in Lake Gregory.”

  Ben nods, and they see Alexander. “Alexander? What do you think? Want to spend a day at the lake with all of us?” Eileen asks him.

  “It’s been a while, but I do enjoy fishing.” Alexander nods and smiles.

  “That settles it then. We’ll go to the lake tomorrow… while things are nice and calm.” Ben states.

  No later than he says it does his Uncle walk past him and smack him upside the head.

  “Hey? What was that for?” Ben asks.

  “For saying dumb shit like that, nephew. You better not have just jinxed us!” Steven replies.

  Eileen, Alexander, and Steven start to laugh at Ben.

  “Alright, alright.” Ben says as he knocks on the wood of the cabin wall.

  The four of them finish unloading their finds from the two different marketplaces in the mountain region, heading inside to sort their newly acquired gear and lumber. Eileen makes sure to call Jamie and confirm the lake trip with the two Bradley families. After everything’s sorted and put away, they sit down to a talkative dinner, discussing the events of the day.

  Eileen listens in astonishment to Steven and Alexander’s story at the Lake Arrowhead Village Marketplace. Hearing about the young couple that was wrongfully accused really didn't sit with her well.

  “We need to do a better job of making sure we don’t punish the wro
ng people.” She responds once the story is finished.

  “That’s for damn sure.” Is Steven’s simple response.

  The conversation slowly shifted to the impending lake trip and all of the fun activities that they would do. Steven and Alexander were excited to fish. Ben was very excited to go swimming, for some reason.

  Eileen had a good feeling he was just excited to get to see her in a bathing suit. That’s when she realized that she didn’t have a bathing suit... She quickly called Jamie once more, before they got ready for bed and their night shifts.

  Lucky for her, Jamie was close to her size and had an extra one for her to borrow. The men wanted to fish and swim. She was just excited to get outside in the warmth and wanted to lay out on the sandy shore of the lake underneath the warm sun. It felt like it would give her some sort of normalcy back… back from the world that she had lost seven weeks ago.

  4

  Alexander Mathis

  Alexander was just coming off his shift of night watch. He was the third of the night this week. The group shuffled it around every week, to make it as fair as possible. Alexander had found himself going to bed closer to 8:00 PM because he had found with the third shift, from 2:00 AM to 4:00 AM, he rarely fell back asleep. After Steven relieved him for the fourth and final shift of night watch, Alexander proceeded to get a cup of hot coffee and go sit himself in front of Ol’ Betsy.

  Over the last seven weeks, Alexander had learned a lot from Steven Reilly on how to operate the HAM radio referred to as Ol’ Betsy. He found it entertaining, enriching, and very distracting from his own personal thoughts.

  With his hot cup of coffee, he scans the airwaves for news of the High Desert area and the rest of the northern part of the Radius. Alexander and the others in the San Bernardino National Forest region were in the far eastern region of the Radius.

  He scans the airwaves on Ol’ Betsy to listen for stories of areas other than their eastern mountain region of the Radius.

  Alexander had heard a great deal of stories over the last seven weeks. What is more, he had done in depth research on the Radius, their predecessors, and the world… their Earth One. That, of course, was after he was done researching his family weeks ago. The work and purpose helped him avoid the thoughts of his wife, Michelle, passing away alone and too young. It also helped him push away thoughts of his youngest daughter, Sydney, reaching a similar fate despite having been so successful in life. Yes, his oldest, Aliyah, had a long and fulfilling life. Nonetheless, Alexander felt completely and utterly to blame for his youngest and his beloved wife's lonely demise.