The Upheaval

The screams were only muted now, not silent. The red-haired woman couldn't see anything through the haze of dust that filled the air. It could have been from great chasms that had ripped through the ground or from the buildings crumbling on the heads of the people pouring out doorways. Maybe it was both.

Probably it's both, I acknowledged to myself even as I wondered what was going on. I've never had red hair, this isn't me.

The woman stumbled and fell as the ground continued to shake, she was certain it was only the aftershocks now, but they seemed unending. Finally the shakes had mostly stopped and the woman struggled to her feet, checking the chain around her neck, the red of her hair a dull brown from the dust that was beginning to settle. The light of the morning sun broke free of the dust and I squinted as gold glinted off the locket that had fallen out of my blouse, the light redirected straight into my eyes.

This is so real. I can feel my legs trembling and my heart racing. But this isn't me.

Worry began creeping in. Was her daughter alright? Her husband? They had stayed home while she ran errands. How widespread had the earthquake been? She pulled her cellphone out of her purse to call home.

Of course there's no bars. The cell towers must have been affected by the quake. I'm not going to be able to call home to check on my daughter.

...wait, daughter? I don't have any kids, I'm not even dating anyone since Geron moved away. And I don't have a cellphone either. At least not one that works. Dad still uses his grandmother's cellphone as a paperweight, but that's all it's been good for for...well decades at least. Maybe a century.

Someone nearby managed to start their car, but what they intended to do, the woman didn't know. The road was destroyed for at least as far as she could see in either direction. A moment later she nodded in understanding after the man had told his companion to turn up the radio so everyone could hear the news. The screams had died down. It was almost silent as the man reached in through the window, seeking the radio dial.

Static. Then a brief silence as he turned to a different station. More static. Another brief silence. Static. Silence. Static. Silence.

A woman – not her she was relieved to realize – began wailing in terror. All the radio stations were down. There was no cellphone signal. Unless someone had access to a satellite TV, there was no way to know what was going on.

I made it to my own car. It wasn’t going to be taking me anywhere soon even if the roads could somehow be magically fixed. Not with the rather large chunk of building that had pinned the trunk to the ground.

At least it's not the engine or the side the gas tank is on. I'd rather not have to worry about an explosion on top of everything else.

I could still get my things out of the back seat. I stuffed as much as I could into the backpack Samantha had left in there. It would be easier to get it home that way. I was not looking forward to hiking more than eight miles but there was no point in bemoaning what had to be done. Ben was smart enough to keep Samantha home. They had no way of knowing precisely where to find me whereas I knew exactly where home was.

The only advantage to doing this on foot is not having to stick to the roads. It's almost worse away from the roads though, what with nearly every tree uprooted. Gotta keep going.

She sat up with a start, hand going to the tarnished gold heart locket around her neck. Nona Elaine's necklace. It's been in my family since before the Upheaval. The handmade quilt she slept under wasn't nearly as old. Gran had made it for her when she was born.

"Wait," she whispered. "Was that Nona Elaine? Her memories?" It had to have been. Some of her earliest memories were of Grandma Samantha telling stories of her own childhood. A childhood that had begun before the Upheaval.