Megaquake

[Traceve]

Topic Title – Megaquake

Topic Description – An earthquake (obviously)

Type of story: One-Shot

Rating: T: Teen content. Mild or suggestions of adult content or themes

Main Characters: Matilda Holden (Married to Lucas not Tony or Jack). Rachel Holden (married to Tony) and Jack Holden. And others.

Genre: A mixture, including, romance, comedy etc

Warnings: No warnings.

Is Story being proof read: No

Summary: Briefly summarise your story (5 lines max).

All the SummerBay residants are living in Seattle (USA). This is in the future. Also, what is written here can and will happen sometime in the future.

Megaquake

As Matilda walked into the main room, she felt all eyes upon her. She was the new intern on her first day at the National Earthquake Observatory in Seattle. On her way out the front door that morning she had double checked she had everything, but she still felt as thought she had forgotten something. At twenty years of age she was the youngest person to be accepted there.

“Everyone, say hello to Matilda Holden and please make her feel welcome here,” her boss and the head scientist said loudly getting everyone’s attention. Matilda gave them a small shy smile, very few returned the favor.

“I’ll show you around this morning and then this afternoon you can help out Drew in the main computer room,”

Matilda nodded and followed him as he began to walk out the door.

Two weeks after Jack Holden had been elected as mayor of Seattle his wife left him for his friend Kim and taken their daughter with her. He had been out of the public eye for a few weeks trying to come to terms with the way his life was heading. Taking time off to ‘get to know himself’.

“Mr. Mayor you have a meeting with Mr. Dan Baker, the head of Emergency Services at noon,” his secretary, Cassie reminded him.

“Huh?” he replied looking up from his desk.

“You have a meeting with Mr. Dan Baker, the head of Emergency Services at noon,” she repeated.

“Can you do me a favor and cancel that?”

“Mr. Mayor, with all due respect, you have already canceled this appointment four times,”

“And now this is the fifth time,” he added.

“You haven’t made a public appearance for two weeks, the public think you’ve gone into witness protection. Some even say you have been abducted by aliens,”

“Well, as you can see right now and quite clearly, I’m alive!”

“Okay then, I’ll cancel it again then.” Cassie sighed as she walked out to her desk.

“It’s called a mid life crisis, get used to it,” he muttered under his breath.

Doctor Rachel Holden shuffled around her paper work at her office desk, trying to put it off until the last possible minute. They were having a quiet day with very few patients at the Seattle Memorial Hospital.

“Lisa?” her husband, Tony said gently tapping on the door.

“I’m doing my paper work,” she replied quickly making herself look busy.

“It’s only me,” he chuckled.

“Oh sorry, I thought you were someone else.” she giggled.

“You’re wanted in exam room four,”

“What have you got for me?”

“One divorced couple, who are sort of… stuck,” he smiled and bit his lip to prevent him from laughing.

“Stuck?”

“Don’t ask,” he chuckled.

Rachel rose from her chair intrigued by this and headed down to the exam rooms. As she pulled back the curtain she had to try and stop herself from laughing and embarrassing them more then they already were.

“I can’t believe that after two years separated I still find myself with you,” the woman spoke up.

“Wahoo,” he said sarcastically.”

“Well, you’re the one with the piercing!” she shouted at him.

“Sally, Brad,” Rachel laughed.

Matilda ran her eyes across the large computer screen double checking what she saw in front of her eyes. She didn’t want to warn her boss if this lead, this evidence proved to be wrong.

“Mrs. Holden, what are you doing?” he asked her finally noticing she was looking at a map on the computer of the all the fault systems in the northwest area.

“Oh, I was just checking out all the faults. Just seeing if any were moving at all. The Cascadia appears to have some movement this morning, Sir,”

“The what?”

“The Cascadia, you know the most extensive fault system in the Pacific Northwest Area, seven hundred feet in length.” Matilda didn’t want to explain it further. She didn’t want herself to appear smarter then the head scientist himself.

“You mean the one that hasn’t moved since 1700?”

“Yes,”

“That was only according to some old Japanese books and some mud,” he bluntly said.

“Well, it is moving right now and if it continues to do so...”

“What?”

Matilda took a deep breath and gazed her eyes back at the computer screen.

“If it continues to do so it could rupture,” she said biting her lip.

“Mr. Mayor!” Cassie called out in that tone of hers that made him want to throw something out of the window, preferably her at this current moment.

“Yes?”

“Mrs. Matilda Holden from the National Earthquake Observatory is on line two,”

“Is it important?”

“She said it was.”

“Patch her through then,” he groaned.

“Yes sir,”

“This is Mayor Holden,” he said picking up the phone.

“This is Matilda Holden from the National Earthquake Observatory here in Seattle. How are you by the way?”

“I’m fine, what is it you have to tell me?”

“The Cascadia fault according to our monitors is reporting movement,”

“The what? You mean the San Andreas Fault?”

“No, and the San Andreas Fault is in the south not the north,”

“I’m sorry I don’t have much of an idea about this sort of thing.”

“It’s okay. The Cascadia fault is the most extensive fault system in the pacific northwest area,”

“You mean it’s in the ocean,”

“Yes, a simple way to put it is..,” she fell silent for a moment trying to think of how to explain it.

“You remember the 2004 Indonesia Tsunami?” she continued on.

“Yes,”

“Well, that was caused by a similar fault system,”

“So we are going to have a tsunami?”

“Maybe, but firstly, we would have a 8.0 – 9.0 quake here, in Vancouver and Portland. Depending on the size of that a tsunami could follow,”

“If it does?”

“Depending on the size… it could wipe out Hawaii and reach the shores of Japan,”

“Dear lord…”

“Also the quake won’t be like an ordinary quake that lasts a few moments or a few minutes. It would last between four to five minutes, till the fault is completely opened.”

“Do you have any proof or is this just a theory?” he asked her leaning back in his chair. For him the whole idea of an earthquake there plus a possible tsunami was rather far fetched. But also quite a scary thought.

“This is no theory and I will get you proof.”

“Let me know when you do get some then,” he said as he hung up the phone.

He took a deep breath and put his head in his hands.

“Get me my ex wife on the phone,” he suddenly said making Cassie give him a funny look.

Matilda printed out the last of the data from the computer. Her proof and only hope of warning people in time. As she reached for the phone the ground began to shake violently. Matilda raced over to the Richter scale and watched the needle record the quake.

“4.0,” she said to herself as she took a hold of the built in cupboard so she didn’t fall.

“6.3” she shouted. Although she had a large gut feeling this would happen it felt so strange for it to really happen. The Richter scale was going berserk trying to keep up with the quake.

“7.1 and still climbing.”

The divorced couple clung to each other as the ground continued to shake with violence.

“Try not to move,” Rachel reminded them holding onto the rail. She knew the piercing was caught in Sally.

“Try not to move? Now that’s a bit hard isn’t it?” Brad said sarcastically from under Sally.

The power went out and they both looked at Rachel.

“The back up generators will come on soon enough.” Rachel supplied as she continued to hold onto the rail. Rachel ducked as the glass windows gave way scattering glass all over the room.

“What the hell are you doing woman!” Matilda’s boss shouted at her as he appeared at the door way with a cut on his head.

“Recording this quake,”

“You should be taking cover, I just saw four of the lifts completely fall to the basement from the top floor,”

“8.3,” she shouted. She looked up and the ceiling as she heard a huge rumble. Angela dived underneath one of the office desks just when part of the ceiling caved in. Her boss quickly did the same thing just in case.

“8.6,” she said softly not taking her eyes off of that machine. She threw her hands over her head as the window smashed open.

“9.0!” her boss called out shocked. He didn’t think she was right… till now. The ground continued to shake violently as the rumbling continued. Both fell silent and stopped shouting and screaming. They could now hear people out on the street screaming. Rachel quickly threw her hands over her head as the ceiling above the desk fell in. The room went dark as the quake finally began to subside.

Jack crawled out from under his desk and coughed as the dust in the air began to fill his lungs. He pulled himself up with the help of his desk.

“Cassie?” he called out. He scanned the room, not much damage.

Harrison pulled back the curtains and looked out into the street. It was littered with dead bodies, broken cars, and the injured. He picked up his phone, there was no dial tone. He slowly stepped over a few broken objects on the floor and made his way over to his secretary’s desk.

“Cassie?” he said softly. He couldn’t find her. He peered over her desk and saw her lying on the floor.

“Cassie?” he called out a bit louder this time. Harrison went behind her desk and kneeled beside Cassie. He couldn’t find a pulse, he closed his eyes for a moment.

At the hospital Rachel rose to her feet and brushed her hair behind her ears gently. She took her fingers from her ear and noticed she was bleeding.

“Are you alright?” the Sally asked her.

“Yes, just a small cut, nothing a band aid can’t fix,” she said forcing a laugh.

“I hope the dogs okay, he gets lonely at home by himself,” Brad said softly. Both Rachel and Sally threw him a look.

“What?” he asked them both. Rachel shook her head.

“Stay right here.” Rachel said addressing the both of them.

“We won’t be going anywhere,” Brad chuckled.

“I have to find my husband,” she muttered under her breath as she slowly opened pulled back the curtain.

Dan Baker rose to his feet and took his glasses off. He wiped them clean with the sleeve of his shirt before putting them back on.

“I told the prick…” he began to say referring to the mayor.

“I told him we needed more funds in case a disaster happens, and what happens?”

“A disaster?” VJ guessed. He had decided to take his seven year old son out of school that day and take him to work. Mainly because, his wife had been complaining that, he didn’t spend enough time with VJ. But, by that she didn’t mean take him to work.

“Yes VJ, a disaster,”

“Daddy, are you going to be busy now?”

“Yes, we are going to be overloaded with work,”

“So you want me to go back to drawing my trucks?”

“Sure,” he answered. He watched VJ go back to his drawing and pick up a crayon.

Matilda opened her eyes slowly and couldn’t see a thing. It was pitch black. She tried to move and screamed out in pain.

“Peter!” She screamed out for her boss.

“Peter! The tsunami! We have to get the warning out! Peter!” she continued screaming.

“Yeah?” he finally replied.

“Peter, dammit, don’t ever do that again!”

“Sorry, I couldn’t... sorry. Are you alright?”

“No, I can’t move my leg, have you gotten out that warning yet,”

“Yes I got it... No! I only just came round and the phone lines are probably down anyway,”

“Peter, million’s of lives are in your hands what are you going to do? Go to the ballet?”

“I don’t get it...”

“Just get that damm warning out, there isn’t much time left,”

“Yes ma’m’,” he replied as he crawled out from under the desk. He slowly rose to his feet. He slowly peered out into the hall. It wasn’t a pretty sight.

Down at the beach there was a young couple. Pippa and Ryan were rebels. Both trouble makers at school and were skipping class. The both lay in each others arms facing the street. The people on the streets were screaming and running away from the beach.

“You going to go and check to see if you rents are ok?” she asked her boyfriend.

“Nah, they don’t give a stuff,”

“Aww,”

“You are going to check on yours?”

“Course, not just yet though,” She replied as she kissed him.

“Why are they running from us?” he chucked.

“No idea,”

They felt a dark shadow cast upon them.

“The sun must have gone behind a cloud or something,” Pippa said as her back went from warm because of the sun to cold. She turned around and screamed when she saw the size of the wave headed right for them. Before Ryan could make a sound the wave had crashed into the shore and both were swept away.

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