Ok, I know the story is a little cheesey, far fetched maybe....Whatever you might think about it, this is the first time I have tried to do something like this and it would be cool to get some input, suggestions, anything.If it sucks let me know.  Here is part 2....

 

I was driving, listening to the radio, and checking out the damage.  And I somehow got out of the neighborhood I had been living in, and made it to the high way.  Traffic was at a complete standstill.  I remembered how the big Earthquake that hit San Francisco during the NLCS in ’89 had brought down bridges and over passes, so I figured that this probably was causing all the mess.  As I look off to the horizon, I was again in shock when I saw the Dallas Sky line.  The Familiar façade of distant Sky Scrapers was only partially there, and Giant plumes of black smoke were blowing smoke from at least 50 different places that I could see.  Reunion Tower was still standing, but the Giant ball that used to be on top was no where to be seen!  At least 2 buildings looked like they had broken in half, and smoke made it impossible to tell what else had been damaged/destroyed.  I pulled into the parking lot of a Wal-Mart store not far from where I used to live, and I just sat there listening to the radio trying to find out what the hell was going on. 

I listened to the guy on the radio say that the quake had caused heavy damage in downtown, and there were reports of at least 2 other large earthquakes in Chicago and Los Angeles.  How could an earthquake strike all three places at once?  That’s five earthquakes, five BIG ones, to hit at different place in less than 4 or 5 hours.  I am no seismologist, but it didn’t take being one to realize that there must be something unnatural going on here.  I had never heard of a ‘Seismic’ Weapon before, and neither had anyone I knew.  I felt very overwhelmed at that point, and for the first time all Morning I started to feel the grip of terror rising within me.  The shock must have been wearing off me, but I felt no relief.  Did this mean the United States has been attacked?  Will this lead to a Nuclear War?  Are we at war?  All of these thoughts were racing through my head, as I tried to get a grip on my sanity. 

I looked across the Wal-Mart parking lot and there were people all over the place.  Everyone was standing around looking toward Downtown, and there didn’t seem to be a lot panic which I figured was a good thing.  I could hear sirens coming from literally every direction.  I heard the EMS system kick in over the radio, so I turned up the volume to hear what was being said.  The report told us that The President had declared martial law, and that Military Personnel were being dispatched to Dallas, Chicago, and LA.  The announcer asked that everyone try to remain calm, explained what people are supposed to do during an earthquake. I still couldn’t believe it, and I still can’t!  So I sat in my car in Wal-Mart’s parking lot listening to the news almost all day before I decided to try to find shelter somewhere.  I didn’t want to drive anywhere, so I went inside Wal-Mart to see if I could spend the night inside the store.  It did not seem to have been affected by the quake, but when I walked inside I saw how wrong I was.  Entire walls of Merchandise had been knocked over, and there was stuff everywhere.  People had been going nuts in there all day it seems, so I started to look for an employee.  There were 2 or 3 large gatherings of people off to one side of the store so I headed over there.

As I got close to the first group I could hear the store manager telling people that they were trying to get clear that entire area, and that we would be given blankets and pillows later.  I thought that was nice, but I what would they do if we just started to grab stuff anyway?  Hell a riot might break out at any time, gut I didn’t say anything to anyone.  I sat next to some people who, like me, had lost their house and had narrowly escaped before there house disappeared.  Nancy and Ryan Williams had lived a couple of blocks from me actually I soon discovered.  They had an 11 daughter, Trish, who they were about to drop off at school when it all started.  As Ryan told the story, he and his wife laughed as the recounted the shock they felt and saw in each other.  It was nice to see humor, and I enjoyed the moment with them by having a laugh or two of my own. 

The next day we saw the first of 5000 Army and National Guard troops that were sent to Dallas to keep things from getting out of control.  I was told that because Martial Law had been declared that meant that FEMA and the Military were both taking control over most of the functions of local governments, and we were told that plans were being made to evacuate everyone to one of several ‘tent city’s’ the Army was building.  That seemed suspicious to me, and at first I didn’t like the idea.  So did a lot of other people, and the Officer who was telling all of us this said that ‘under no circumstance will people be allowed to remain behind inside the designated disaster zone.’  I didn’t really care about staying behind at this point.  My house was gone, and if everyone was being forced to leave I was sure that also meant that I wouldn’t be going to work for a little while. 

 

To be continued

ThThis is an original story I am working on.  I hope you like it. 

 

 

 

Today is February 12, 2006 and the world will never be the same.  Two days ago it all started when I turned on the morning news before work, and there were reports of several large earthquakes that had taken place during the night in India and Pakistan. The damage was pretty bad according to what was being said, but that was half a world from here.  In other more northern parts of the country winter usually has its way with everything until March or April, but not in Dallas.  The cold air always somehow seems to stall before it gets all the way down here, before the Jet stream pushes any would be winter storms toward the Eastern Seaboard and on.  Dallas is also 300 miles from the nearest ‘Inactive’ fault line, so earthquakes are not even in the vocabulary here unless you moved here from California or elsewhere. 

          I was drinking my second cup of coffee when the ground started to shake.  At first it was a low rumble, and I went to the window to look and see what was causing all the noise.  Then suddenly the whole house seemed to slide across the ground, and I was knocked over by the wall that leads to the kitchen!  It is so hard for me to explain what I felt at that moment.  What does the mind of a sane and rational person do when he experiences something that was believed not to be possible?  It didn’t even register at that moment that I was in an earthquake.  I thought that maybe the house was struck by a Crashing airplane, and that thought left in an instant.  Then I looked toward where I had just been standing and I saw that the walls were beginning to fracture from the stress of the shifting forces at work beneath, and suddenly half of the room was swallowed by large sections of the roof and insulation.  It all came crashing down in an instant, and it was really like someone had hit the slow motion button on reality.  I looked up and I could see the blue and purple sky of daybreak, and the chilly early morning air rushed all around me as half of the living room started to sink with everything else that sat on the edge of a growing fracture of the Earth. 

Up until this point I had not fully grasped the reality of the situation, I understood that this was probably an earthquake, but how could an earthquakes happen in my living room? How could it happen in this part of the country?  The conflict that arose in my subconscious by this must have been the reason why I didn’t react very quickly.  When the roof collapsed right in front of me I barely flinched, and somehow things fell all around me but nothing big hit me.  Thank God.  But now there was a growing crack in the earth where my TV had just stood, and I didn’t want to be stuck with what was left of my house if started to fall into the ground.  I was able to get free through part of the old window and a gap in the wall.  I look up and down the row of houses on my street to see what else had happened and I couldn’t believe my eyes.  Every house on my side of the street was either gone or lying in ruble!  I will never forget that moment, or the feeling of terror that began to erupt from deep inside my belly.  Then there was a flash and a wave of heat just before I felt the shockwave caused by an exploding gas line.  I was knocked off my feet and hurtled backward until I landed on my back at the end of the driveway! 

I felt my head and looked down to see if I had been injured.  My ears were ringing, and I felt a little dizzy but nothing serious.  I started to look back to where my house, or what was left of the front of it, was I was truly shocked.  I just stood there frozen in disbelief, and I might have stood there for hours if the ground had not started shaking again.  I drive way, like the living room had done just minutes before, ‘slipped’ quickly to the left about 3 or 4 feet knocking off my feet.  The concrete of the road was beginning to look like fractured glass, and the side walks and driveway were quickly becoming gravel piles of pulverized concrete. Car alarms and sirens were beeping from all over the place, I heard a women screaming across the street, and there was there really weird rumbling sound that was like a the roar of a jet engine only it was coming from beneath me and not above.  The ground started to move up and down like a wave in the ocean, and I could actually see waves moving across the ground as the shaking seemed to go on an eternity. 

And then it stopped.  I didn’t know if it would start again, I didn’t know anything at that point.  Hell the whole world didn’t seem to be making sense, and I needed to get somewhere.  Anywhere.  I got in my car, started it up, and tried to see if the radio stations were on.  Apparently a few had been knocked out, because the first two stations I had programmed were all static.  Suddenly the ground began to rumble again, so I decided to get the hell out of dodge!  As I started down the road I finally took notice of my neighbors who apparently were all over the place right after the first big shock happened, only I had been so consumed I guess I didn’t notice.  The gas line that exploded was also pushing a rather large and very hot jet of burning gas from somewhere down in this gulley or whatever you call it that swallowed half my street!

 

To be Continued