Worlds End Worlds Start

By John Bateman

All the scientific people say that Yellowstone will erupt again, but no one knows when. Everything is still a guessing game. They say that it could be a super volcano. This is a volcano capable of producing a volcanic eruption with an ejected volume greater than 1,000 km (240 cu mi). This is thousands of times larger than normal volcanic eruptions. Super volcanoes can occur when magma in the mantle rises into the crust from a hotspot but is unable to break through the crust, and pressure builds in a large and growing magma pool until the crust is unable to contain the pressure. Such is the case for the Yellowstone Caldera. They can monitor and watch, but it is still a guessing game. I based my book on one type of eruption that may take place, which is a Plinian eruption. These eruptions are marked by their similarity to the eruption of Mount Vesuvious in AD 79. Plinian eruptions are marked by columns of gas and volcanic ash extending high into the stratosphere, a high layer of the atmosphere. The key characteristics are ejection of large amounts of pumice and very powerful continuous gas blast eruptions.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Apr 10, 2015
• ISBN: 9781503523548

John Bateman

I was born in the southwest corner of Wyoming where I spent the earliest part of my life on a small farm/ranch. As I grew up, so also did the small town in which I lived. There were many hardships as I grew up as most small-town kids experience because of the lack of work for the adults. When I turned eighteen, I enlisted in the Marine Corps and served my country for four years. I spent eighteen months of my enlistment in the Far East, with the last six months of it in Japan. After my time with Uncle Sam, I managed to get a job as a food service manager in the neighboring city of Rock Springs, Wyoming. From there, I went back to school and became an industrial mechanic at one of the Local Trona mines. During my last years of employment, there seemed to be a lot of controversy about Yellowstone and the Volcano which exists there. It seemed to be a constant topic on television, and I became interested in it. When television aired a special on its eruption, I decided I wanted to write a story that I had been toying with in my mind. After I retired, I just sit down one day and began to write. Worlds End Worlds Start is the product of this endeavor. I understand it is not as professionally written as writers such as Koontz or King, but I hope those that read it will enjoy it.

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Copyright © 2014 by John Bateman.

Library of Congress Control Number:   2014921607

ISBN:      Hardcover      978-1-5035-2353-1

                Softcover       978-1-5035-2355-5

                eBook            978-1-5035-2354-8

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Rev. date: 04/08/2015

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Worlds End

2. The First Reports

3. Addition To The Family

4. Another Lost Soul

5. Terri Phillips

6. Cristi Anne Morris

7. Jerri Dee Baxter

8. John Baxter

9. The Trip Home

10. Watching The Coming Storm

11. Bob Baxter

12. The Attempted Take Over

13. Annie Oakley Osborn

14. The New World Begins Spring

For the Cover: puyehue_volcano_near_osorno_in_southern_ chile_june_2011_first_in_half_century - Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY tati01691). Changes were made to the image.

Yellowstone Caldera and Mount St. Helens - Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY Image Editor). Changes were made to the image.

Joseph Wright of Derby - Vesuvius from Portici – Detail - Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY Marshall Astor – Food Fetishist). Changes were made to the image.

Damage to building New Brighton - Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY martinluff). Changes were made to the image.

Damaged house following Feb 22 quake - Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY martinluff). Changes were made to the image.

Amid the gray and blackened waste, great earthquake, San Francisco - Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY Boston Public Library). Changes were made to the image.

Union Street, torn by the great earthquake, San Francisco, Cal. - Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY Boston Public Library). Changes were made to the image.

INTRODUCTION

A ll the scientific people say that Yellowstone will erupt again, but no one knows when. Everything is still a guessing game. They say that it could be a Super volcano. This is a volcano capable of producing a volcanic eruption with an ejecta volume greater than 1,000 Km (240 cu mi). This is thousands of times larger than normal volcanic eruptions. Super volcanoes can occur when magma in the mantle rises into the crust from a hotspot but is unable to break through the crust, and pressure builds in a large and growing magma pool until the crust is unable to contain the pressure. Such is the case for the Yellowstone Caldera. They can monitor and watch, but it is still a guessing game. I based my book on one type of eruption that may take place, which is a Plinian Eruption. These eruptions are marked by their similarity to the eruption of Mount Vesuvious in AD 79. Plinian eruptions are marked by columns of gas and volcanic ash extending high into the stratosphere, a high layer of the atmosphere. The key characteristics are ejection of large amounts of pumice and very powerful continuous gas blast erupt ions.

Short eruptions can end in less than a day, but longer events can take several days to months. The longer eruptions begin with production of clouds of volcanic ash, sometimes with pyroclastic flows. The amount of magma erupted can be so large that the top of the volcano may collapse, resulting in a caldera. Fine ash can deposit over large areas. Plinian eruptions are often accompanied by loud noises, and earth movement, such as those generated by Krakatoa. Again speculation, but what if the eruption causes the fault lines in the western American continent to rupture, how much and how bad will they move, and what are the losses going to be?

CHAPTER 1

WORLDS END

I t was the 26 th day of June, the last Sunday of the month. Spring had been beautiful and green, the flowers were in blossom, the trees all came to full leaf and everything was growing. Then summer came in with a torrent of rain to keep it that way. Scott had talked Angela, his first daughter into staying for the summer and after spending most of the spring back and forth to the hospital and doctor’s offices, the new baby K was doing better. In a month he should start getting a few things from his small garden and even with all the recession he was able to keep work and had managed to stay just ahead of his bills. Life was good.

Scott had been working the afternoon shift; Three to eleven and was standing at his lathe as his shift was drawing to a close. He slid his finger over the spec sheet, and then checked the settings on the lathe to make sure they were correct as he did with every cut to make sure, then sat and watched the machine turn in a mesmeric spin. There was just a little less than an hour left, just enough time to finish this piece and clean up his work area, but it had been a long Sunday night shift anyway. The valve he was working on was like the other hundreds he and Jim had done for Boeing, and after checking his figures, had starting the cut on the valve he had just mounted, then watched the spinning of the spindle with the tool, now cutting the needed measurements of the valve. When the cut was done, the computer on the machine would shut it off, so he let his mind wander to the fishing trip he and Jim were planning to take in a couple of weeks.

They were going to the upper Gray’s river in Wyoming where his dad had taken him on numerous occasions while he was growing up. They had talked about it several times during the spring and were waiting for the high water run off to finish. Scott had told Jim about one of his favorite camping sites where they could cross the Gray’s to get to a couple of small creeks that were fed by springs coming out of the mountain on the opposite side of the river. His dad was the one that had discovered them, and then taken the boys there. Where the creeks entered the Gray’s, there were several beaver dams you could start fishing in, then you could go up the small stream for over a mile catching fish. Standing in the center of a clump of willows so you couldn’t be seen by the fish Scott had caught several large trout from ponds on more than one occasion. When you first started out you had to work your way through the thick willow growth to access the ponds, but as you went up the mountain the only thing you had to maneuver were the big, not big, but Huge rocks and out cropping that the stream cascaded over and around. At the bottom of the cascades, the moving stream had wash away the earth forming large deep pools of clear cold water that would support several native trout in each. When you could sneak up and around these fisheries, there was fishing that was unbelievable. He couldn’t remember a time that the group hadn’t caught enough fish for supper and also taken their limits home. The camp was a public camp site, so there were privies and each parking spot had a precast fire pit. Scott thought that there would be plenty of spots, as not many people actually traveled that far up the Grays with anything larger than small camp trailers.

After fishing in the morning, you could sit and enjoy a cool beer and a warm fire in the late afternoon as the Sun settled early behind the mountain of the deep valley that the Gray’s ran down. His mind wandered in pleasant bliss, to the streams that he was remembering up the road a mile or two from the camping spot. He didn’t think that many people actually new they were there so they weren’t fished a lot. You had to find a shallow place to wade across the Gray’s then hike back to them or up to them, but if the water was still high it could pose a daunting and very dangerous task just getting across the river. His memory flashed back to one occasion when he actually slipped and was swept down the river several hundred feet before he could regain his footing and a shiver ran down his back as he could remember still, just how cold the water was. He could also remember his dad breaking out in a roarus laughter watching him being swept down the creek. He was in a world all his own, thinking about dropping the Mepp’s spinner under a bank, again one that he could remember fishing, then letting it slide down over the glistening rock and back under the bank, then a huge native trout striking the lure and that’s when the first shock wave struck.

It began as a low rumble, immediately bringing Scott back to reality thinking it was his machine and it was going to cause him some kind of trouble. It was unlike anything that he had ever heard, then suddenly the floor was completely out from under him, dropping several feet so fast it left him suspended in midair, like someone had jerked the world out from under him. As he was coming down to meet the floor it started to roll and move violently up. Somewhere in the middle they met and his knee’s buckled with the impact slapping him against the floor in a Jarring heap. As his body impacted he could feel the air gushing out of his lungs and he struggled for breath, then there was no floor under him again. It felt like you were on a large flat board on waves in the ocean, you were on the crest of a wave, then there was no wave there and you were falling back into the depths. As Scott met the floor on the second wave, he was still fighting to get some air back into his lungs as he sucked in trying to catch his breath. Then he was suddenly pitching violently backwards as another wave came from the side. In only a matter of seconds, the floor had moved in several directions, both up and down and sideways. In those few seconds after the initial movement, Scott had slammed to the floor, had bounced several times, then was pitched backward away from his lathe as the floor and entire building with unbelievable velocity. The entire building must have moved ten or twelve feet sideways, then suddenly it went the opposite direction. All the time there was a grinding, deafening, horrendous roar, unlike anything Scott had ever heard. It sounded like a giant had taken sand paper and was attempting to polish a huge stone, but it was so loud it was deafening. It sounded like it was coming from the bowels of the earth itself. Things happened so fast that fear never came until, over and above the deafening growling of the quake Scott thought he heard Jim Yell, Get out Scott, Get out. Suddenly the whole building was pitched sideways again, flinging Scott back even further towards the door, and then pitching back the other direction. The only thing that kept Scott from slamming into his machine was a piece of ceiling beam that had fallen. Then he was pitched back towards the door again.

At that point his mind suddenly told him that his world was coming to an abrupt end. Now, total fear had settle in as he watched the building tearing itself apart with unbelievable speed, then the earth movement seemed to becoming even worse, and the roar seemed to be intensifying. With this bellowing roaring of the earth, and grinding, and tearing of the building, It was impossible to hear anything. Everything in the room was moving and things were falling from everywhere. Nauseas and panic and built in human fear had overcome Scott, and his mind was telling him again,’ OH God, you’re going to die. He watched the floor and machinery raise suddenly and violently up again and It looked like this wave of the earth were going to crash over the top of him as he was franticly trying to move away, thinking that he was going to be buried under this wave of building when the floor come up in another wave and physically heaved him backwards again into the middle of the doorway, further away from his still screaming machine. He landed in a heap and watched as the entire room seemed to move pitch and roll, then pitch sideways again in heaving movements as the building continued to came apart. All Scott could do was curl up in the middle of the door as the ceiling and roof finally tore loose from it’s wall supports and came smashing down over the lathe’s which had now been detached from the floor, and had been bouncing around the room. He watched in amazement when pieces of the roof struck the still spinning spindle of the lathe and would fly upon impact like a bomb had gone off. During the whole process, Electrical sparks were flying in every direction, like fireworks on a fourth of July night as lights and machines were coming undone from their connections. He heard his lathe whistle and scream as the beams settled against the still turning spindle and he threw his hands over his face as he saw several pieces of the building coming towards him through the hazy and dust that had billowed up as the roof crashed down. He could feel the pieces striking his hands and parts of his unprotected head. It felt like he was being beaten and pummeled, by prize fighters with steel gloves. His mind asked, where in the hell did that come from as darkness and silence settled in. He didn’t know how long he had been unconscious, but as he came to his senses he could remember being thrown towards the door and could remember the sharp pain when the flying debris had struck him along side of the head. He didn’t know if he ever lost consciousness, because he could still remember the nauseating rolling movement of the building and ground, but now it was replaced by a unbelieving shaking, like someone was sifting flour through a sieve, When had this started he thought, and he could still see the star’s and sparks flying around in his head. He must have lost consciousness at some point he thought. It had only been a few seconds when the ground moved before he was thrown into the door, and then he was struck, but he didn’t know. Then he realized that he was choking and trying to catch his breath as the shaking was making dust billow up from the destruction so he automatically reached down and pull his shirt up over his nose enough to keep it out of his lungs.

He looked across the remnants of the lathe room and all he could see was dust and particles of finely crushed cement which was still billowing up in huge swirling storms from under the settled segments of the broken buildings walls and roof. He didn’t know how long the shaking lasted, which seemed like an eternity, but it finally subsided into calmness. As he sat there letting his mind clear even more and he thought, what the hell just happened and reached up to feel the side of his head where the chunk of flying material had hit him. Oh crap, he thought when he felt something warm and sticky, then looking at his fingers it revealed the blood which was oozing out of a cut where he had been struck by whatever it was that had flying around during the final collapsing of the ceiling. Reaching up again he could feel the swelling that had started, but there didn’t seem to be any pain and the bleeding wasn’t too bad. That’s when his mind turned on and it brought an abrupt realization that the Wasatch fault had just moved and he had been in the earth quake caused by it. Earth quake hell, his mind told him, It felt like the earth had moved forever, probably a good ten minutes which was a long time for an earthquake he thought. He couldn’t believe that it had been that long but it seemed that way to him as he regained his thought process. That’s not possible his brain was trying to tell him, quakes don’t last that long, It’s just not possible. After sitting for another minute or two to let his head finish clearing and to try to get his mind in order as to what had really just happened, he looked around at the carnage. Some of the dust had settled and the room was now in the darkness of near mid night. The only light through the dust and haze came from the three quarter moon, which was visible where the ceiling had been. It looked like the entire roof of the complex had collapsed crushing down on the contents and inhabitance inside. The only things Scott could see now were two of the partially standing center walls that divided the different work stations and the hall walls that went outside and to the break room. Looking around revealed he was sitting in a pocket held up by the door casing and part of the hall wall he had been thrown against. Looking towards the outside wall all he could see were the exposed remains of the broken ceiling girders, stinking out like twisted and broken fingers of metal in the haze of the late night moon. He looked down the remains of the hall to where the bathrooms and break room used to be and then back the other way to the corner door that went into the supervisors and business offices, then instinctively back to the door that went outside where they went to smoke. He could just make out the door through the dust and the debris from both partially collapsed walls. The silence was broken by moans which sparking him into sudden and frantic movement. OH Christ, he yelled to himself, Jim was still under this mess somewhere.

Then he heard somebody else yelling his name behind the splintered door that led to the office area.

Scott , Jim was all that he heard as he struggled to regain his feet, and began stumbling up and over the crumpled roof towards the other lathe and Jims work area.

Jim Carpenter, who was his working partner, was doing the rough in work on the valves tonight and Scott was doing the finish work. They would switch lathes every other night to relieve the boredom of their jobs. Scott and Jim were hired the same day five years ago and both had survived two different layoffs. They had become good friends during the first year together while they had learned the aspects of the job. Jim, his wife Peggy and there three boys had a small place just past Pine View reservoir in the small berg of Huntsville. It was more a resort community than anything else, having several condominium and resort style properties in Huntsville proper. There were several state parks and beaches with boat ramps for all the thousands of yearly boaters, fishermen, and campers that enjoyed the reservoir. Jim had found a small farm: a ranch type place with a dozen acres just after he went to work for Parker and Scott and Jessie had helped Jim and his wife Peggy move from a small cramped two bedroom apartment to their new, as Jim told them, their new beginning. The house was and old country ranch house with a huge front porch with two entrances. One went directly into the kitchen which was designed to feed the family and several farm hands. In other words, it was a huge kitchen. On the back side was the dining room which was also large, with a build in storage cabinet, and buffet. The other entrance from the porch led into the spacious living room and family room combined. In the back of the kitchen and living room, were the bedrooms, three on one side with a bathroom, and the master on the other side with a bathroom. It was nice and quiet, kinda out of the way, up a back road away from the everyday hassle of the tourist crowd. Jim had some chickens, a cow and some geese, along with the fresh fruit trees and what Scott enjoyed most, the garden. There were always fresh tomatoes, Peas, carrots, Beans, and several kinds of squash in the late summer and early fall: then mounds of potatoes. Jim would always plant at least three different sets of radishes too. He would plant one group; the first week in April; then a group in May; then a group in June. Jim could eat a dozen at a time and never seemed to be bothered. Scott on the other hand, if he ate more than two or three would have heart burn for a week. There were always fresh radishes in the fridge at his house and even in the break room fridge. But of course everything always seemed much better from a garden than what was in the supermarket. Scott had shared the cost of the small milking machine, and Peggy made sure they always had fresh milk, cream, and butter along with the eggs and an occasional stewing chicken. The second year, Scott had surprised Jim by ordered Six turkey’s from Murray McMurray which was a poultry supplier out of the Midwest. When fall came, they butchered on of the Toms for their thanksgiving feast. The third year was when they had made a huge stew from fresh vegetables from the garden and Scott, being an avid hunter had furnished the Elk meat for the stew. It was more like a celebration for the two of them because the plant manager put both of them in the same lathe room and their friendship had only grew from there. Jim would taunt, I’ll bet I can get more valves done than you tonight. Scott would reply, I can’t get them done if you don’t get them to me to start with… They worked well together, and their production was a third higher that the rest of the two man crew’s for which they both received commendations for their efforts.

After finally scrambling to the top of the roof, Scott was unable to walk across the debris, so he continued on his hands and knee’s trying to get to the second lathe. From the corner of his eyes, Scott could see someone through the dusty haze trying to come through the entrance where he had been laying. They were moving junk and debris to get to the lathe room and then could hear his supervisor; Dave was calling out to him and Jim.

Here Dave; Scott rasped trying to give Dave a sign to his location as he still scrambled to get across the broken roof. Scotts mind felt Panic now because there had been no other sounds coming from Jim since he had heard him calling out to get out. When he thought he was near to where the lathe was he began to shove and move the crumpled remains of the roof trying to get down now to where he thought his partner had been. Working franticly to get to Jim, his supervisor came stumbling and pushing into the room and when he saw Scott, he headed towards his location. Scott managed to pull some roofing away and saw Jim lying on the floor under a large beam that had been part of the roof. It looked like the whole roof was lying on his hips and legs. He was unconscious and bleeding from several cut and abrasions on the side of his face and head. Hearing some noise, Scott looked up to see Dave scrambling on his hands and knees over the remains of the roof to get to them. He was covered in blood from several lacerations and holding a wad of paper towel held against the side of his face with his free hand.

God Damn, Dave, said Scott. You OK?

Yea, yea, said Dave. I got hit by some falling ceiling but it’s only superficial. I’ll be ok. Where is Jim he asked in a frantic tone?

Over here, said Scott…

OH God! I didn’t expect to find anybody alive in here either, said Dave. I think both Mike and Dan are Dead, and I couldn’t make it to Steve and Charlie’s section. II think the whole ceiling has collapsed against their door way.

As he worked to moving pieces of ceiling, Scott asked, Shit Dave, where were you when it hit?

I had just coming out of the bathroom, Said Dave. I was in the doorway, and I couldn’t even stand up there.

Yea; I know, Said Scott, I fell back against the door to the hallway and watched everything else come apart. That is until I got smacked in the head.

Scott jerked with all his strength and was able to rip away some of the tarred roof in slabs, then moved some pieces of broken ceiling beams with the help from Dave. Getting down through the beam, Scott looked closer and could see that Jim lay under what looked like a large cross section of beam. He swung around looking for a something that he could pry with and there was a large piece of tubing that was among the debris, Scott used it as a fulcrum and managed to lift the beam laying over Jims legs enough for Dave to slid him out from under it. Scott suddenly felt the ground shiver and knew they had to get Jim outside before the ground moved again in an aftershock.

I’m going to get to the first aid kit, Said Scott, as he started up through the beams. Why don’t you check to see how bad he’s hurt before we move him.

Good plan, said Dave, I’ll Check and see if he got any other injuries, especially where the beam was sitting on his hips. Can you get to where the first aid kit had been stored on the wall?

Scott had already headed that direction and he scrambled over the pieces of ceiling and wall to where the first aid area had been and began digging frantically at the rubble to find it. When he finally found the first aid kit, he could see the back board next it to, so he drug it out, then Scott headed back to Jim with both in hand. When he got back, Dave grabbed Jim’s belt loop and gently rolled him on his side so Scott could put the back board under him.

I couldn’t see any other injuries, Dave said. He’s got a good cut and a lump on his head. But I don’t see any blood anywhere else, so I don’t think it’s that bad. After strapping him down and cleaning most of the superficial cuts that they could find, Scott finally look around to figure out the easiest way of getting out of the building area. He could see how bad the carnage had been’ now that most of the dust had settled. The ceiling was lying flat over the floor. The east wall had then collapsed back over the roof that had collapsed, and was in a crumpled sheet. The south wall also lay in a crumbled sheet having fallen outside of the building. It looked to be only a couple of feet to the ground over that wall from the edge.

Scott, We’ve got to get out before an aftershock hits again, said Dave,"

Yes said Scott I know. I think it’s going to be faster and easier to go over the south wall rather than try to move the debris to the door.

Scott grabbed the first aid kit and then the handles of the backboard. They headed towards the south wall pulling the back board with Jim over the debris to the edge of the wall and gently lowered Jim to the ground. It was not an easy task, they had to lift and slid, lift and slide. The ceiling moved, rolled and broke apart under their feet and the jagged edges caught on the strapping of the back board. Lift and slide, lift and slide and they finally made it to the edge of the wall. Scott jumped down the couple of feet to the ground and took the end that Dave had pushed towards him. After Dave had leapt to the ground, he grabbed the other end, and headed away from the building and towards the parking lot.

As Scott and Dave carried Jim towards the front of the building to the parking lot the ground started to move in rolling undulations, then the rumble started again. It seemed to move and roll even harder this time as parts of the remaining walls collapsed in on themselves even more. Chunks of the building ricocheted past them as the friction of the pieces of the building rubbing together shot shards of rock and cement in every direction. The first movement actually lifted them in the air, and then again there was no ground to stand on, collapsing then in a heap as the ground came up to meet their decent. To Scott it felt like he dropped at least five or six feet again when the ground dropped out from under them. Neither of them could stand against the initial violent up and down rolling movement. Looking across the parking lot, it was like the waves of the ocean, rolling towards them, but with whole sections of the ground moving up and other sections dropped down which seemed to happen all at the same time. Scott couldn’t believe that the ground could actually raise that high, and then other parts collapse into nothing.

"Oh crap said Scott as Nausea settled in once again, I can’t believe that solid ground can move this much.

Holley shit; yelled Dave, some of those waves in the ground are six or seven feet high.

They kept trying to stand, but their knees buckling, slamming them back to the ground with their arms flailing, trying to catch themselves before they struck again. As they watched, sections of the ground would raise, Split apart, and crash back into the earth repeatedly. The large warehouse next door was how just a huge heap of cement and steel that settled even more with the violence as dust and debris clouded the sky with the movement. All he could hear again was the deafening roar of the grounds shaking and the continuing grinding of the buildings as they settled and broke apart more. Scott was looking through the billowing haze of dust towards the mountain range when an entire section of mountain several thousand yards long suddenly jettison skyward. The whole mountain looked like it had risen several hundred feet or more. Huge plumes of rock and earth billowed skyward in a massive dust clouds, then weird formations were formed. Scott could even hear the air move as the sudden violent movement of the earth caused a vacuum, then shot the air back causing violent gushes of wind that Scott could follow across the landscape, ripping and tearing everything in its path as it diminished. This continued, while the mountains ground against themselves, then settling into new formations. The earth was changing right before their eyes. Scott had seen specials on television about how the earth was formed, and how it kept changing. It seemed that mother earth was again reforming right before their eyes.

God Damn; Dave, did you see that, Scott yelled and was pointing to the mountain where the section had risen.

This is totally unbelievable, yelled Dave back. I think the world is coming to an end. As they watched; a huge section in front broke off and start to slide down the slope. This piece of mountain looked as big as three football fields, and It reminded Scott of honey running off a slice of bread. Even that far away, he could hear the glutinous grinding roar as the rocks and debris moved against each other. It was even louder than the roaring movement of the ground around him and the continuous crumbling of the building. As it neared the bottom of the slope they could see several head lights from a car on some distant street or road, people trying to escape the horror they were encountering. They were bouncing around like flash lights being waved in the night sky, and Scott thought of tiny flashlights being waved in a night stadium event. Then they disappeared: swallowed up by the onslaught of earth rock and Scott’s mind followed with, for some future generation to find? If there is a future generation, he thought. It seemed like the earth had moved forever, and he knew that it was longer than the first quake, before it was quiet again. Grabbing the stretcher again, Scott Took a step towards the parking lot, then caught himself just in time to keep from falling into a gigantic fissure. It ran entirely through the center of the buildings huge storage room. Another ten feet, and the whole building looked like it was ready to fall into the crevasse, like a huge gapping mouth; Ready to swallow up anything that ventured close. It started ten or twelve feet to his left and continued through the building until it disappeared from sight with pieces of steel beams, rock and cement; hangings like branches of a tree over the edge of the fissure. Scott grabbed Dave just in time to keep him from falling in to.

Damn Said Dave I can’t even see the bottom. Thanks.

Suddenly the ground started to shiver in a slight tremor movement. Like a dog shivering in the cold and it continued to grow in strength. No heavy heaving or bucking, just a violent quiver which lasted another good five minutes, then was still. Once again they couldn’t stand against the quivering of the ground and were sent to their hand and knees. As they watched, the quivering actually shook the ground that has risen to form the crests and valley that of the waves from the first two quakes, as if it was already trying to level out the earth. Even after the shaking had stopped, both of them just knelt there in fear and amazement at what was happening.

Jim let out a moan which brought Scott and Dave back to reality and they both looked at him. When Scott got to his feet, he could feel the soreness of his knees which had been rubbed raw. He went over and looked at Jim who was as white as a sheet and there was blood oozing through his pant now. It didn’t look like any major bleeding which was a good sign he thought. The sudden realization that this could have been him hit Scott like a brick. He now felt the sharp pain where he had been struck in the head and for the third time felt sick. He also knew that there was little hope they could get Jim to help before he died if there was any internal injuries; and his mind flashed, if there was any help left? He would have to try anyway. Shaking Dave into movement, they started around the fissure to the parking lot.

When they reached the paved area it looked like someone had taken the whole box of giant cornflakes and dumping them all over the ground, and then tried to pile them in row’s. The asphalt was broken into thousands of pieces which poked in every direction, and he wasn’t even sure he could drive the dodge Dakota over the jagged crumpled mess. Looking back across to the exit, there were clouds of dust hanging in the light of the moon and there was absolutely no air moving anywhere now. There was a sudden and overwhelming quietness and Dave asked Scott, Do you hear anything? Scott stood for a second and listened. It was like being in a sound booth with the door closed to the world. There was no noise what so ever, except the noise which they made moving and trying to load Jim into the truck. After they had slid Jim into the back of the truck still fastened to the back board, they realized that they didn’t have anything to fasten him or the back board down.

He’ll just have to be ok; Dave said, as he closed the tailgate to the truck. Scott reached in and stuck the key in the ignition and fired up the truck, then they went around front in the headlights to look at Dave cuts and cleaned them up the best he could. Scott put on a couple of bandages, then had Dave look at the cut on his head. Between the two, they both decided that there was nothing serious except that there might be some scars, so this was a good thing. Come on said Scott, as he reached into the clove box and got out a flashlight, let’s go around and see if we can get into the other rooms.

If Steve and Charlie are alive, then we’ve got to try to get them out to. You can’t get them out by yourself, and I think Jim will be ok or a few minutes.

Dave and Scott went around the opposite end of the building to the back two work rooms and surveyed the easiest way to get to the lathes where Steve and Charlie should be. Like Scotts and Jims section, the entire roof was laying over everything. The Wall between the different workstation had now collapsed over part of the roof also. They crawled up on the roof, and scrambled over the room to get to the area where the lathes would be. Working together, they managed to tear up part of the roof, so they could to look inside. Shinning the light down through, they could see the bodies of both men under the roof beams. Dave slithered down through the hole and worked his way through the lattice of the roof beams to each of the bodies, checking for a pulse from each man. As Dave slid back out of the hole, he shook his head no saying, I don’t think they had a chance. Then crawled over the roof to the other lathe section where they could see through the fallen roof the bodies of both Mike and Dan. It was more than obvious that they too were dead.

Oh crap, said Dave, I don’t think they even had a chance either as they crawling back off the roof, then went back out to the parking lot and checked on Jim. He was as they had left him.

I’ve got your cell number and I’ll call when I get to the Medical center, said Scott. They reached out to shake hands and then went into a, both scared as hell, but glad to be alive embrace which lasted for almost a minute. Then Dave turned away and Scott watched as he walked over to his truck and get in. Getting into his own truck shutting the door of the Dakota, and fumbled with the key before starting It, then headed out of the parking lot following Dave into the street. Dave then turned North towards North Ogden and his home while Scott turned south towards his house and some help somewhere in between he hoped. In his mind he knew that this would be the last time he would ever see Dave.

His mind raced as he fought to work the Dakota up the streets toward home. As the thought went through his mind, they went to his brother and two sisters, then to his dad and step mom. Had his dad planned for this: how had he known when he had built the house? Had his brother made it through this hell? Would he ever see his sisters again? His biological sister had moved to the south east to help with her husband family. His step sister should be ok, she was living in Evanston and was close enough to even walk if necessary, unless they were hit with the same quake and she was unable to make it outside her house. But how strong had it been there? That was almost a hundred miles away and he wasn’t sure how quakes traveled across country. Not much sense worrying about it now. it would either be ok or not. His only thought now was getting somewhere to get some help for Jim, and getting home to checking on the four girls.

While he was working up the streets towards home, his mind kept going a hundred miles an hour. Was there something that caused the fault to move? How extensive was it and how much of the Wasatch fault had been affected. Scott knew that the Wasatch fault was made up of sections, five different major parts he had been told. He didn’t know how long it actually was, but thought that Ogden was close to the northern end of it. Had the others moved, and if that was the case, how bad had Salt Lake been hit as his brother came into mind again. He was hoping that he was still in his bus, as that would give him a better chance than being inside a building. And now his mind asked him about the rest of the population. How many had been lost and or trapped in their houses or anywhere else, like where he worked. The other business; where people were working at his ungodly hour. He was starting to get frustrated as he drove because he had to stop, back up and go around broken ground and huge jettisons in the earth numerous times Up over the curbs, over the lawns, back to the street. He even had to cut through a yard to the alley and back out the other side. He drove up the street, constantly working around huge jagged pieces of asphalt and cement, pieces of earth that had swelled up and broken and fallen trees. Sometimes he could drive up the sidewalks better than up the streets which made his advancement extremely slow. He had to get to his house on the way to the hospital and check on Jessie, Angie Hailey and baby K. To make sure everything was ok there. Christ, how can It be, he thought as he looked at the house he was passing. Then remembering the building where he had worked, how bad it had been destroyed. He kept watching the houses as he worked up the streets waiting watching for movement of any kind, there was nothing, and it almost told him of what he would find at his own house. Most houses were a total shamble, Heaps of twisted wood framing, brick and mortar, scrambled together in piles.

Only a couple was on fire, but most were just piles of broken timber and rock. Inner framework twisted and broken with the roofs settled almost level with the bottom of them. God, where was everybody, he kept thinking, He hadn’t seen anyone else since he had left work until finally he saw a man stumbling around the remains of a crumpled house as if in a daze looking for, what Scott presumed were his loved ones. He had wanted to stop and help but couldn’t force himself to, even when the man looked up as Scott drove past. He kept glancing back at Jim, and could only see the bottom of the stretcher, but still couldn’t bring himself to stop. Time after time he had to use the four-wheel drive to crawl over and around broken and twisted cement, asphalt and other debris. A couple of times when he drove over piles of debris, he thought he was hung up, but somehow just kept moving. He finally had to stop and get a chain out of the storage box so he could pull a fallen tree out of the way and drive through the upper branches like a tank to keep going. While he was stopped, he check on Jim and make sure he was still breathing.

As he drove up the streets now, Scott could see the red orange glow coming from the city center, and finally made it to the street that opened up at the intersection of Washington Ave. This was the corner of Second Street and 235 which also intersected with the old US 89 North where residential started to become the business district. He had done some shopped at the huge Harmon’s grocery store on the corner, or what was left of it. Just like everything else he had seen; a pile of broken brick and twisted beams sticking up and through the rubble. Only part of one wall stood with the roof covering everything else, just like the Parker building. He never dreamed that despair could strike a man so suddenly when he finally looked up towards the city center. It slammed him like a fist to the face when he saw the waves of fire and smoke billowing up from there. It looked like the whole mass of downtown, and them some was on fire. His only guess was that the gas mains had erupted because almost everything he looked at was on fire. There was at least nine or ten city blocks burning. Maybe more, he couldn’t tell because of the smoke that was billowing up, then floating southwest in huge misshapen, grotesque shapes In the light of the flames. When he looked over the blaze of down town towards the south and west, towards what used to be the Great Salt Lake, all he would see now in the horizon was a huge mass that looked to be even higher than the chain of mountains on the east side of Ogden. Because of the smoke, and dust in the air, he couldn’t tell what it was, but it wasn’t the same shape he looked at every night on his way home. He followed it north until it became obscure in the floating haze and smoke filling the sky. He let his sight go back down Washington, towards down town and there were only a hand full of buildings that had any kind of structure remaining. Most weren’t even partial, with only half or less of the walls standing. Big or little, they all looked the same. He had been so intent on his driving around all the obstacles that he hadn’t thought of what had happened anywhere else. He had only seen two other houses that were burning, so it came as a shock to see that much of down town on fire. When he looked up Washington Blvd. again, he couldn’t begin to comprehend the amount of destruction he was seeing. Then he allowed his sight to run along the west mountain range that was semi light up from the inferno, behind Ogden proper, and noticed the jagged formation that now appeared. Huge sections of rock were sticking up where there hadn’t been anything before that he could remember. He had been so intent on his driving that it really hadn’t registered in his mind as to how bad the housed and small business had been destroyed until now. As he sat there looking up the street at the carnage, his mind released the emotions that had been storing up since he had realized that the fault had moved. Scott broke down in rages of emotion, first sobbing in uncontrolled despair, then in fits of raging anger as he slammed his fists against the dash and steering wheel, cursing and swearing. Why in the hell did this happen, why now, why so much destruction, over and over. Finally after a few minutes he was able to get some of the emotion under control and then just sat wondering, why Me, What am I doing here. Why was I not with the rest of the dead? He was still letting his sight look around at the destruction, and happened to look in the rear view mirror, and his mind came back into focus, Shit, Jim is in the back, and I have to get home and find out about the girls. What the hell are you doing he said to himself, and started out again, and almost drove into the huge gaping hole that ran almost parallel to second Ave. and couldn’t go any further.

OH Christ; he swore, as his mind welled up in rage and anger again, God dammit, God dammit, he swore to himself again. He didn’t want to back track. He got turned around and headed towards first North, which was the first street that went through to Wall Ave, but when he turned to go down first North there was so much fallen debris that he didn’t think he could make it that way either. Backing out, he headed towards the intersection of eight nine and Wall. Crap; why hadn’t he just gone that way to start with: most of the time that’s the way he went any way. As he passed the entrance to the Wall Mart he noticed a fire truck in the parking lot, and a man working in front of it. Holly Christ, he said to himself, there are other people alive, and his immediate thought, some help for Jim, and turned in. This was the first real people that he had encountered besides the one man he saw stumbling around the house, since leaving Parker and, maybe some help. Relief swelled up in him as he swung towards the building where he could see the front had collapsed and the Wal part of the sign was at a ninety degree angle hanging from several beams. The entire rest had collapsed in on its self. The roof lay in a huge sheet inside the building a lot like the Parker shop. It looked like waves on and ocean as it rested in and on the interior of the store, only the waves weren’t moving. Only part of the front wall still stood and a couple sections of one inner wall’s towards the back of the store. The outside walls were either under the roof or they had collapsed out. His anger was replaced with a sudden flooding relief at knowing there was someone else besides himself that had survived the massive quake and earth movement. As he pulled in and looked around there were about a dozen’s or so cars that were scattered in the parking lot, several had bounced together and one was actually on top of another two. Cars that probably belonged to late night shopper’s, or people stocking the shelves, preparing the store for the emergent of the Monday rush. With a quick look around and then taking a mental survey he could see where there was one other man digging around on the roof.

After Scott swung the Dakota into the parking lot and had driven up to the fire engine; he was getting out when firemen came from in front of the truck and said to Scott: Good god man, where did you come from.

Are there any of the hospitals still standing, Asked Scott?

I don’t think so, replied the firemen. We’ve been told to get people we find ready to transport to Hill air force base. There is supposed to be an emergency medical facility set up there already because there hasn’t been any response from any of the hospitals at all. The airbase was more or less running all of the show now he told Scott. They’ve even taken control of all the Radio broadcast frequencies for the fire and police.

Where we’re you when all this crap started, asked Scott?

We were just starting our shift, Johnston and I, as he pointed to the other man digging in the rubble. We had just pulled the truck outside when the quake started, and now we’re the only two left from the entire squad. We were trying to get to some of the other guys out from under the rubble when the radio came on: The Radio in the truck. It was on The emergency broadcast frequency, and like I said, were the only two left from the entire squad. We ran over to listen to the radio when the second quake hit. God, how luck can a person get. We watched the rest of the building collapse: We would have been under it this time. The man talked like he was rambling, never stopping except to catch his breath and there was the unmistakable note of panic in his voice when he spoke, and Scott was having trouble putting everything together in a compressive fashion.

From the way they talked at hill he said, they were only two who had answered back on any of the emergency channels in the Ogden area. So that made us the only available men to look for people.

They’re coming from the base as soon as they could get some more men rounded up and some choppers in the air, the fireman said. The person on the radio told us that so far they’ve only been able to come up with three pilots, and two of those were fighter pilots, so from what Johnson and I are guessing, there aren’t a lot of people at the airbase left either. Everybody was home with their families this being Sunday night and all or they were in their barracks, I guess, he said with a worried tone in his voice. There are not enough people to go around; even at Hill, so I guess they’re working to find those up there first and as soon as they can, they will send any body they can out to the housing areas.

Shit: there’s only two here that we’ve found and I don’t think the older man is going to make it unless we can get to some help real soon.

I really don’t think there’s much sense in looking any more here, and I really want to go and check on my own family he said with anguish in his voice: How in the hell are the two of us going to find everybody he yelled? We haven’t seen or heard from any of the other fire houses. They can’t all be dead.

Easy man, Scott said. Things are pretty bad, but don’t let yourself lose control. You can only do so much. Help those who you can, get home and check on your own, and then go to Hill yourself. You probably can do more good up there, than down here alone anyway. He couldn’t believe how calm he was now, when just fifteen minutes ago; he was on the verge of mental hysteria.

Suddenly the ground started to vibrate again. The ground vibrated back and forth this time, again like it had when he and Dave were in the parking lot. It didn’t seem to roll like before. You felt like you were popcorn in a skillet, being shaken back and forth, back and forth. Everyone was shaken to the ground; then just lay there as the ground quivered. Scott just lay there because he didn’t think his knees would hold up to more scraping. He could even feel his teeth rattle with the movement. It lasted well over five minutes, then settled into a gentle quiver again, then was finally still. The other fireman was just getting off the roof and came