Warn them.
Warn the people I love. Get them to safety. I race as fast as I can, pushing this mercury cruiser to speeds I have never traveled. I must get to my family. I must warn them about the wave coming. I must save them.
Almost there.
Here comes the turn, but I do not want to brake. Braking means slowing down. Slowing down means dying. I veer wide and crank the wheel, fishtailing down the dirt road now. I can see the house. I control the fishtailing right into the driveway and hit the brakes just short of crashing into the porch. I slam the engine into park and rush out of the car leaving the door open and the engine running. Up the handicap ramp and in the door. Everything looks so normal, like nothing is wrong. I barge into the kitchen, grab a box from the table and start packing food into it.
“What do you think you are doing?” My mother asks from the hallway. I had interrupted her noon nap. She glared at me.
“Packing us some food. We need to get out of here now. There is wave on it's way here.” I didn't look up, I kept packing.
“What wave?”
“The one that is going to be headed this way soon. ” I kept packing.
“It will never happen. There is not a wave large enough to cross the sierra Nevada mountain range.” She protested and forcefully took the box from me. She began unpacking the box. My dad emerged from the hallway.
“What is shaken bacon? What is this about a wave?” He gave me a huge hug, raising an eye brow at my mom furiously unpacking the box and putting everything back.
My voice was breathy with a bit of frantic. “Just a few moments ago I had a vision. An earthquake ripped along the ring of fire near Fukeshima Japan, a wave is coming this way and it is large dad. We need to get 1,100 miles inland and 11,000 feet up." I grabbed the box from my mom, spilling what she had in her hands. “Sorry, but we have to get going mom.”
I grabbed a handful of things from the cabinets and carelessly threw them in the box. My mother grabbed what she could from the box and maneuvered around me to put them away.
“What makes you think that a wave is headed this way right now?”
“I said I had a vision, it is going to happen soon. We have to go mom, for God's sake, get some food, release the animals and lets go!” I was getting louder and angry at her for arguing. I knew she would be hard to convince, and would fight with me tooth and nail.
“If there were something like that coming, my horses would be going nuts.” My mom was right and just then my dad called her over to the window and pointed at the coral. I followed.
All three of her horses her racing back forth along the fence, freaking out over something. I ran back to kitchen and frantically scooped everything out of the cabinet into the box. With one big swoop, the contents were launched into the box. I picked it up and headed for the front door.. As I passed my parents, my mom turned and stopped me. She grabbed for the box, but I slipped around her and got out the front door.
“We will take your truck, we will need the 4X4 to get where we need to be. Let's go!” I took the box to the truck. My mom was still arguing.
“Okay, the horses are acting weird, but . . “ Just then a violent 'pvwewit' sounded from the house and the power went out. The house started to vibrate with a low rumble. Shit!
“Mom, dad, grab your keys, get in the truck. I am going to release the animals.” I dashed for the coral. Opened the gate and ran for the truck. My parents were already in the truck. I threw myself in back of the truck and with a jolt my father was racing out of the driveway. The main road was stopped with cars heading out of town.Traffic was horrible. Other people trying to get to the freeway. We could not go right to the interstate.
“Left, go left. Take the back way, over the mesa.” We went left. There was barely any traffic this way. We got to the mesa, and raced across it as fast as the Chevy Z-71 would go. The dust trail was long and tall, but not too tall to see a change in the horizon behind me. Was that mist in the air?
We bypassed the traffic jam all the way to the Bute exit on I-15. Once on the highway, we pushed speeds that were not listed on the speedometer, the needle was pegged out. So fast. We blew through Mesquite, and were through the St. George Gorge before I knew it. Man, my dad can drive. I looked back just in time to see a the mountains in the far distance and a wall of water spilling hundreds of feet into the air. The wave kept coming. We needed to go faster.
“We need to go faster dad!”
“She is already to the floor.” He announced.
“We need to stop and get the kids.” My mom stated, referring to my sister and her family.
“I already had my husband get them. They are already ahead of us by an hour. They are safe. We will be too, but we cannot stop, we cannot slow down. Stay ahead of it and we will be safe.” I looked at the gas gauge, a full tank, good. But will it be enough?
“How many miles to the gallon does this thing get?” I asked.
“30.” My dad answered.
“How many gallons do the tanks hold?”
“32, each.” He said proudly. He had installed a second tank last spring because he never liked stopping for gas, and with two tanks he could go a long while between fill ups. Less stopping.
“We will be cutting it close.” We were through St. George and climbing now. Headed up was good. Stay ahead of the wave, no stopping for anything. Must keep moving fast, racing to keep ahead. Frantic to beat the wave.
Survive what is coming.
I woke up in my own bed, back to reality and no large waves in sight. What a relief, it was just a dream. It's 3am and I am not going to get back to sleep. Coffee, I need coffee and some weather channel. Wonder if it will rain later. The California desert needs it. I get out of bed, throw my robe on and set coffee to brew. I use the remote control to turn the television on.
“Today is calling for more sunny skies over southern California.” The weather channel voice says.
Oh well, another sunny day in the Golden State. What is on the news? I change the channel.
“In other news, a magnitude 10.5 earthquake rocked the coast of Japan's Fukeshima a few moments ago.” the pretty news lady said.
“Shit!” I yelled out loud, “Curtis! James! Get up! Come one! Get up!” I raced into my bedroom, grabbed my newborn daughter and woke my husband. My dream is about to come true.
Warn them.
Warn the people I love.
I must save them.