side. Mark is dark haired and tanned, hair on the short side and a commanding
look about him. He's used to being in charge. Mark puts his hand up,
signaling to Big Tom that they mean no harm.
We're unarmed . . We mean you no harm . . We're just
trying to get to a phone.
At this point he glances past Big Tom and notices for the first time that the
farm buildings are devastated, scanning the view in silence. His question is
more of a statement than a question.
I don't suppose your lines are up, though.
Not yet at ease, Big Tom is on guard.
Put your hands on your heads. We've had some
unwelcome visitors and I'm taking no chances.
Red has come up behind him, hands him the second rifle to hold while he
quickly pats the visitors down, nodding at Big Tom when no weapons are found.
Big Tom hands the spare rifle back to Red and welcomes the two men.
Come on back and have some soup, you look like you
could use some.
38
-Stories-
It's suppertime, the last traces of the setting sun fading rapidly, and the
group is gathered around the coals of a small fire, kept small and low so as
not to attract attention. Martha is putting her outdoor kitchen away, stacking
chipped plates and dented pots and pulling a sheet over them as cover, to keep
them clean. The new guests ate everything put before them. Martha has
seasoned the water used to cook carrots and given it to them as soup, a
bedtime snack. Nothing goes to waste.
Brian's slender hands are trembling as he brings the bowl up to his face,
slurping the soup repeatedly, still famished. Mark is telling what he heard on
the radio before the plane hit rough up/down drafts due to incipient hurricane
winds at the shift.
The winds were like a hurricane, but different. Our
plane hit some bad drafts. I couldn't hold it. We
could hear the radio news guy talking about . .
Cars are abandoned on the Golden Gate bridge in San Francisco, which is
blocked due to this, but people are flooding across from both directions, a
look of desperation in their eyes. An abandoned toddler is crying where he
stands, no one bothering to pick him up.
Rioting in cities, where panic stricken people were
crowding the bridges, trying to move in both
directions at once, just trying to get someplace else,
anyplace else.
Looting is rampant, like the LA riots but more widespread in all areas of the
city. Fires are everywhere.
And looting in the cities. The police just weren't
around, at least not paying attention. No law, and
anything goes.
Mark's face is like a mask as he relays all this, keeping his emotions
disconnected so he can get through it.
Services were failing. People failed to turn up for
their jobs. Power outages went unrepaired. Phone lines
went dead. Gas pumps were locked and the stations
closed.
Mark pauses a minute, keeping his emotions in control. Mark shakes his head.
A never-ending mid-morning on the East Coast, taking
its toll . .
Then Mark's story gets personal.
We saw some of that too, from the plane ..
39
Cars are littering the road, pulled over to the side, and a bridge with
traffic lined up on both sides. Abandoned cars on the bridge had created a
traffic jam that was only getting worse as more cars were pulling up at both
ends. People were walking in small groups across the land, too, setting out
on foot.
Highways and especially highway bridges were blocked
with cars that had run out of gas, abandoned where
they stood. And all the while we could hear the Earth
moaning. I don't ever think I'll forget that sound.
Big Tom nods in agreement with Mark on the sound, and Mark continues.
We heard that religious groups thought the end of the
world had come, and lots of people, even atheists,
were committing suicide, taking their whole families
with them, taking the kids out first, just like that
Jim Jones crowd.
Mark leans back, resigned, his eyes dropped to the feet of those around the
campfire, as the story gets personal.
Brian and I were overland when it hit .. We lost
control, first the compass went crazy ..
In the cockpit of the small plane the compass starts behaving erratically.
Brian grabs for their maps as guidance. Mark has one hand on the controls and
with the other is shaking open a map, a frantic look on his face. Brian's
slender hands are fluttering in now and then, trying to help open the map.
Then the sky started to dance around .. And when the
winds kicked in, we had no choice but to land and land
quick!
Mark falls silent for a minute, searching his memory for what he might have
missed.
We've been to the beach plenty, and I can recall
looking out at that broad expanse of water and
wondering once what it would be like to have it rise
up and rush at me. You know, a really big wave.
Happens, after a quake or something.
A large coastal city is in profile and at a distance so that both the water
and city have half the view. The water begins to rise on the water edge side
of the scene, then raises rapidly, a huge wave as tall as some of the sky
scrapers moving toward the city. The wave moves steadily, steadily rising as
a tide rather than as a towering wave about to crash down. This is seen
inundating the city rather than crashing at it from the side.
The last thing we heard was the radio announcer, screaming.
40
. . It’s coming . . “Oh my God, we're all going to
drown.” Then the radio suddenly went dead.
Netty has been brushing Tammy's hair as she sits numbly, her stony lack of
emotion being taken for a quiet nature. Netty puts the brush aside.
We were at the Clearwater Resort, waiting it out as
the phones had gone dead and no one knew what was
happening. I was up in my room, changing .. I heard a
woman's voice pleading .. Not my babies, please,
they're so little. Then I heard gun shots, then