The sun hadn’t risen. Daylight wasn’t what caused the brightness.
The entire horizon was lit up orange and yellow. It was as if the entire sky … was on fire.
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“Holy Mother of God,” Ruben recited the phrase then closed his eyes. The first thing he saw upon standing up was the skyline ablaze.
After taking a second, he stumbled forward looking at it.
It looked as if the sun exploded, lighting every bit of the atmosphere on fire.
He knew it had to be moving his way, slowly and tauntingly.
He wasn’t a big science guy, but knew enough and watched enough online videos to know that when an asteroid impacted the earth it created a fireball.
Three of them had sailed across the sky.
The ground shook from their impact, and the blast wave knocked him over.
The fireball ignited the sky and he knew it would only spread.
It was still the middle of the night, that much he knew, yet it looked bright enough to be dawn.
After getting over the shock of the sky, Ruben faced the shock of his surroundings.
The entire camp was flattened. Fires blazed all around. The tents were gone and the school shed used as a canteen was flattened. Bits and pieces of it strewn about. A small fire raged where the canteen once was. The two story school which had survived the original quake had collapsed in the middle. The stadium could no longer be seen.
There were very little sounds, people calling out names, crying, shouting for help and occasionally the sound of an explosion in the distance.
The world had fallen apart.
Other than a few scratches, bumps and bruises on his body Ruben was fine. Those around him were not.
He saw legs and arms outstretched from under the rubble, but no one moved. It happened so fast. One second he was standing next to Roger and the next …
Roger.
He was standing next to Roger.
Ruben spun around, running back to where he had landed. He and Roger were not the only ones. There were a lot of people in that area. Joel and his engaged fan club encircled a fire that had been extinguished by the blast.
Ruben couldn’t be the only one alive,
“Anyone alive?” Ruben called out. “Anyone hurt?”
No one replied.
It couldn’t be. There was no way no one else survived.
“Anyone!” Ruben shouted louder. He then began the task of looking and checking everybody he could find.
He saw an arm, the finger nails painted some shade of blue and Ruben bent down to feel for the wrist.
There wasn’t a pulse.
He sighed out. As he stood he paused when he saw it.
That yellow emergency, wind up transistor radio of Joel’s. It was on the ground. Unscathed. Untouched.
He lifted the heavy object, wound it a few times and turned on the knob.
Static.
It worked.
He placed it in his back pocket and continued his search. Lifting pieces of metal and wood, Ruben continuously called out, “Hello! Anyone. Roger!”
Every single body he spotted, he checked.
How? How was he the only one to make it?
In the distance he heard voices, and shouting.
Maybe Roger was thrown farther. Perhaps he had to move away from where he was. Just because he ended up there didn’t mean that Roger did.
He kept calling his name, calling for anyone as he moved on.
“Ruben?”
Ruben halted in his search,
The voice was tired and raspy.
“Ruben!”
Ruben turned toward the call of his name and his shoulders dropped in relief.
Guy stood twenty or so feet away. There was no mistaking him. He stood next to Carter and they waved.
They made it. They were alive.
Ruben wasn’t alone.
FOURTEEN
“Why are you crying, Pap? Why are you crying? What’s wrong?” Carter asked, tugging on Guy’s pant leg.
Guy had broken.
Just after he had made the narrow escape from the tent, he watched seconds later as everything was engulfed by the fire, Guy stumbled backwards, sat down and cried. Something he hadn’t done in years. Even when his wife died after a long illness, Guy barely shed a tear. Yet, right there and then Guy lost it.
They had made it. When they did and he knew they were safe, he had reached his emotional end. Every bit of him was spent both physically and emotionally.
Guy had no other recourse but to stop, sit down and mentally break.
He hated that he did so in front of Carter. He simply could not go on until he stopped.
“I’m okay. It’s okay.” Guy told Carter.
“But why are you crying? Are you hurt?”
“No. No. I’m okay. Are you?” Guy hugged him.
“Yeah. Where’s my dad?”
“I don’t know. I wish I did.”
Guy believed he and Carter were alone. A few seconds after his meltdown and he had gotten himself together, Guy stood up and saw Ruben.
Ruben was searching. Lifting items and looking underneath, and that was when Guy realized that Roger wasn’t around.
They had their reunion, then after Guy found Carter a safe place to sit, they searched together.
Sadly, Joel, the radio and prepper guy didn’t make it. He was crushed beneath the debris from the shed. How awful it was, Guy thought. There he was, a man prepared for the end of the world, only to be taken out in the snap of a finger.
The search for Roger didn’t take long.
The man who was on the pop star’s security force, the one that got Guy and CJ on the shuttle … sadly, didn’t make it.
When they found him a good fifteen yards from where Ruben was last with him, Roger was curled up on his side looking as if he were sleeping.
He was one of many.
So many of the hundreds at that camp didn’t make it.
There was a sense of sadness and defeat. Drowning in their feelings until they found a clearing and stopped for the next few hours.
When the real light of day appeared things seemed less dismal.
The burning sky in the distance didn’t look as menacing as it did at night, and more people had emerged from the rubble. They were gathering, looking for food and water, all of them moving in some sort of slow pilgrimage after the sun had risen.
However, even though the enflamed horizon didn’t seem threatening, Guy knew that it was. The only option the survivors had was to walk away from it. And that was the only plan.
A group of people that remained from the camp, thirty or forty strong, meandered their way across the destruction. No real place to go, and no knowledge of what was ahead.
The need to get Carter to safety agonizingly outweighed the need to go back and search for his son.
Guy hoped and prayed that the world normalized soon. They would eventually happen upon help. Though it wasn’t anywhere in sight, it had to be out there somewhere.
He had seen enough natural disasters on television. The news showed the military always moving out to the affected areas. This Guy believed would be no different.
They had been walking amongst the others for hours, no real direction at all, just east. Away from the burning sky. The temperature felt like it surpassed a hundred degrees.
Things were looking up some, finally two large dump trucks rolled by stopping to pick up the survivors.
Thoughts of a catastrophic event that wiped out the world slowly left his mind. After all, would trucks come to transport them if the world had moved into extinction mode?
It felt good to stop, to sit down. Even if it was on the floor bed of a cold metal truck, crammed in with dozens of other people. He, Ruben and Carter were able to stop walking, resting some, and that was a good thing.
Those in the truck were frightened. It was evident by the conversation strangers struck up.
“Anyone know where we’re
going?” someone asked.
“Or what is happening,” another said.
“I saw a movie once,” a young man, no older than twenty, spoke up. “Some sun event or meteor hit the earth. It caused a fireball. People in Australia had like twelve hours warning. That was what the movie was about. The last twelve hours before the world ended. I wonder if the red sky means that. Nowhere to go,”
“Do you mind?” Guy asked. “There’s a kid here. I don’t want to scare him.”
“Sorry. I just … we’re in a truck going somewhere, but is there anywhere really to go?”
“I’m sure it’s not as bad as your movie. If you wouldn’t mind not talking about it, I’d appreciate it.”
“Sorry.” The young man lowered his head.
“He’s scared,” Ruben whispered. “He doesn’t mean anything by it. He’s just talking. He needs to talk.”
“I know,” Guy replied. “I don’t want Carter to hear or worry.” Guy pulled his grandson closer. “He’s been through enough. I don’t …” Guy paused when the sound of helicopters grew louder. He exhaled. “Thank God. I was beginning to worry.”
“That.” Ruben pointed upward. “Is a good sign.”
Guy agreed. He tugged Carter to him and smiled, but it was short lived. The smile quickly dropped from his face when a voice over a speaker came from the chopper.
“This is an evacuation area. You are advised to immediately move east. Please seek higher ground. Repeat, this is an evacuation area, you are advised to move east and to get to higher ground as quickly as possible.”
The announcement continued, not changing infliction, not pausing. A continuous warning message as they flew off.
Guy listened to the announcement even as the helicopter moved onward, fading from earshot.
Evacuation.
Higher ground.
At that moment the truck jolted as it immediately picked up speed.
The danger or event was far from over.
They weren’t just moving away from what burned in the sky, they were moving away quickly from something else. Something bigger. The need to get to higher ground told Guy it could only be one thing … another wave. They were already miles inland, with the urgency of the evacuation, Guy had to wonder how big that wave was going to be.
FIFTEEN
The night before didn’t unfold as brutally for CJ as he imagined when he and Mindy began their walk.
About two hours into their walk, an old truck passed them. It moved slowly as it bounced over debris. CJ didn’t even bother to wave, but the truck stopped anyways.
At first he believed it was a Good Samaritan move, until the young man in the passenger’s seat yelled out, “hey, are you Mindy Snow?”
“I am,” she replied. “Do I know you? Oh, are you one of my dancers?”
When CJ heard her ask that, he felt optimistic.
Then the young man replied, “I’m a fan. Do you need a ride somewhere?”
Mindy hobbled to the passenger side, explaining their quest.
The father and son team in the truck were on a similar one. They were headed home, trying to see if their family was alright.
“We were on our way back from the Long Beach,” the young man named Dallas said. “We got off the highway for food when it hit.”
“It’s amazing your truck survived,” said CJ.
“It didn’t,” Dallas replied. “This is the second one we found. We’re just trying to get home. We stopped at a make shift hospital the military had set up, my dad needed stiches.”
“So the military is up and running?” CJ asked.
Dallas nodded. “Was. Trying. The last quake destroyed the place we were at. We headed out after that. Hop on in.”
“Where are you headed?” Mindy asked.
“North. We live in South Park. We can drop you off somewhere. We should be passing Saint Francis Medical Center on the way. We can drop you there. You guys look worse for wear.”
“We feel it,” Mindy said, then looked at CJ. “Do you want to?”
CJ thought about it for a second. He needed to stop and take a break, stopping at a hospital would give him a chance to see if his father and son were there. “Yes, thank you.”
Of course, there was room in the cab of the truck for Mindy, but CJ had to ride in the back end. He was fine with that. It gave him time to think and to watch the reddened sky as they drove farther away from it.
The ride to the hospital didn’t take long, even though they moved slowly. However, any semblance of a working hospital or emergency set up at Saint Francis Hospital was gone. Perhaps at one time after the first quake they tried to keep things going, but there was mass confusion, small fires and people wandering aimlessly.
It was a mess.
One thing CJ noticed, the farther away from their starting point they got, the less complete devastation.
There were more partially standing buildings and the roads for the most part weren’t completely destroyed.
“Not sure, we should leave them here. I don’t think they’re helping people,” Dallas’ father said. “We should head home. That’s our best option. If mom’s not there, we can head to Community.”
“Do we have enough gas?”
“We should make it.”
CJ listened to their exchange, stepping away to look around. It just seemed so hopeless.
“You okay?” Mindy walked up to him.
“No.” CJ shook his head. “What are we doing? We are going farther away from where I left my son and father.”
“There’s no easy way to find them,” Mindy replied, pointing to Dallas and his father. “Our best bet is to find a place that’s communicating with other camps. Or the military. There has to be a way to check in. Somewhere out there, they are trying to help.”
“Somewhere out where?” CJ asked. “I don’t think we should keep going. We’re going to get so far away, I’ll never find them.”
“CJ, we were in an earthquake. We may not have news or phones, but a hundred miles away they’re watching on the news. We saw the helicopters. They’re just waiting until it’s safe to come in and help. Once they do, everyone will be reunited.”
“You sound very confident.”
“I am. I’ve been through several quakes. Most small, but one wasn’t. I don’t know how much of my career you know of, but ten years ago I was in Japan performing when that nine point hit. I thought the world was over. It just seemed that way. Everywhere around me was destruction. But within a day or two the trucks rolled in, the government sent help and I was able to go home.”
“Thank you.”
“We just need to find someplace that’s like a center of operations.”
“Or …” CJ looked around. “A place still standing.”
“I’m betting the farther in LA that we go the more we’ll find working and active areas. It’s the middle of the night, we’re tired. We either keep moving or stop and find a safe place to hold up.”
“Ready?” Dallas approached the pair. “We’re gonna head north to our house. See if my mom and sister are there. If not, we’ll try the nearest hospital. That’s Dignity. Not sure how the roads are or even if we can there, but we’ll try. My dad seems to think that if we keep going we may get to areas less hit.”
Mindy faced CJ. “Do you want to go or stay?”
Almost with reluctance, CJ nodded. “We’ll go. Thank you, Dallas, thank you very much.”
They loaded back into the truck and journeyed north, closer to downtown Los Angeles. CJ dozed off several times in the back of the truck, waking to the see the brightening sky of daylight. The ominous red sky that was now to his right, didn’t seem as bad.
Maybe it wasn’t some massive fireball headed their way, perhaps it was something totally different.
It was amazing how things seemed less helpless in the light of day. At least for CJ it was. For Dallas and his father things took another turn.
The buildings of their neighborhood suffered significant dam
age and when they arrived close enough to their home they parked, unable to get through the destructions. Homes had collapsed, the street had lifted in some spots forming ramps. Neighbors camped out in yards. CJ and Mindy followed the father and son duo to their house.
When they arrived there wasn’t much there. The front of the house had completely crumbled and the roof had collapsed inside.
Dallas and his father raced in and began sifting through in desperation.
CJ wanted to help, he felt he had to. But as they stepped inside to aid the sounds of low flying helicopters rang through, and shortly after their arrival came the repeated announcement that they were in an evacuation zone.
Evacuate.
Higher ground.
They flew in circles listing landmarks, miles away where transport would be available.
“Jesus,” CJ said. “Where in the world around here is higher ground?”
“This has got to be a joke, right?” Mindy asked. “It has to be.”
CJ chuckled in almost ridicule. “I don’t think they’re flying around saying that to mislead people.”
“We’re twenty miles inland,” Mindy said. “How is that even possible?”
CJ shook his head when he saw Dallas and his father emerge.
“They aren’t there,” Dallas said. “No sign of them at all.”
“What now?” CJ asked.
Dallas’ father replied. “We’re gonna try my sister’s house, they may have gone there.”
“Where’s that?”
“West of here.”
“West?” CJ nearly shrieked. “That’s the wrong way.”
“We have to find my mom and sister,” Dallas said.
“What about the warning. The evacuation,” CJ asked. “Getting to higher ground.”
“I’m sorry. But unless you’re coming with us,” Dallas’ father said. “You’re on your own.”
And within seconds, CJ and Mindy were.
Dallas and his father hurried away back towards the truck. CJ and Mindy were left in an unknown area with no sense of direction, no time limit and absolutely no way but on foot to get to higher ground … wherever that would be.
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