Earth Fall
Kathleen Powers
Smashwords Edition
Copyright 2012 Kathleen C. Powers.
All rights reserved. No part of this book my be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system—except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review to be printed in a magazine, newspaper or on the Web—without permission in writing from the publisher. For information, please contact Newage Enterprises, P.O. Box 14492, Tumwater WA 98511-4492.
Although the author and publisher have made ever effort to ensure the accuracy and completeness of information contained in this book, we assume no responsibility for any losses incurred, data errors, inaccuracies, omissions, or any inconsistency herein. Any slights of people, places or organizations are unintentional. First printing 2012.
ISBN 978-1-893012-02-8
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Dedication
This is dedicated to my dear father, Edward Powers, a fellow Geologist and one of those truly rare righteous men. I was blessed to have you! Thanks for being the most honorable person I’ve ever known and for all your sacrifices. You may think no one noticed—but we all did!
Chapter 1
Jim scanned the sky through the windshield. The sun had hurled a major electrical storm Earth’s way and it was scheduled to hit dead on today. A rare event, the news said the Aurora Borealis would be seen as far south as Denver. Jim had always wanted to go to Alaska, so having the Northern Lights come to him—well, it was downright cool. Mary and the kids were home getting ready for their Aurora barbeque tonight. All the neighbors were invited, even Carl next door, who in his opinion, paid far too much attention to his wife.
“We’re meeting in Vegas, Frank and I,” the strange woman next to him said, sweeping her long, dark bushy hair over her shoulder. “But I suppose he told you that. Skye Olsten. That’ll be my new name. If I decide to take my married name that is.”
Jim smiled weakly. Married, huh? His brother had only said he wanted this woman picked up and dropped at the Colorado Springs Airport. Why he did favors for Frank he didn’t know. He’d learned long ago not to ask too many questions where Frank was concerned. And Mary wasn’t happy about it, not with people coming over tonight. He’d hoped to get this over as quickly as possible without offending this strange woman. But now she was supposed to be his new sister-in-law?
He was trying to form some polite reply, when suddenly, the car started to buck and the road seemed rough beneath the wheels. The trees ahead bent and whipped on the mountainside in some invisible approaching wind.
It was the strangest thing he’d ever seen.
Then the mountain came alive. Boulders and mud combined as one force and spread onto the road in front of them like a dirty tongue come to lap them up.
The mudslide struck the wheels of the Cherokee. The slide thickened under the car and it spun. The jeep screeched death throes as sharp rocks and boulders slid against the underpinning. Boulders slammed into the doors and smaller rocks bounced atop the hood and against the windows. Glass shattered. Dust spewed from the air conditioning vents. The Jeep sidled like a toy carried toward the sharp drop off.
Ignoring the woman’s screams, Jim slammed the Cherokee into four wheel drive, wrenched the steering wheel back toward safety, and jammed the gas pedal. The faithful Cherokee grabbed and clutched at the dirt and rocks beneath her wheels screaming and squealing as the rocks tore her to shreds, but they inched back away from the precipice.
The terrible screeching stopped.
The dust settled.
Neither dared to move or breathe.
The truck lay in gravel and boulders halfway up the doors. A gaping abyss beckoned a few feet from the passenger side where the woman sat wild-eyed. The engine still ran, but sounded rough. Exhaust backed into the cab. Jim turned the engine off and the quiet was ominous.
If the slide started again, they were goners.
“Jeeeeesus,” he whispered, wanting desperately to move, but his hands wouldn’t release their death grip on the steering wheel.
He glanced up the mountainside to his left. Mini-rock slides skittered their way down a gaping hollow scar.
He took a deep breath and released the steering wheel.
“We need to get out of the car now,” he said, slowly rolling down the window. “Keep quiet and follow me.” He carefully pulled himself through the window.
“C’mon,” he whispered, holding out his hand, kneeling atop the slide.
Her dark hair stood out in a curly rats maze, her eyes were big, brown and wild.
“Come on,” he urged again.
She shot across the seat throwing her self at the window. One of her heavily beaded necklaces caught on the stick shift and slammed her face down on the driver’s seat.
The jeep jolted forward another inch.
They froze.
“Lose the jewelry, for Christ’s sake!” he hissed. Goddamn fruitcake will get us both killed! And goddamn his brother for wanting to marry the wacko and goddamn him for talking me into coming up here to get her.
She wrestled off the approximately five pounds of jewelry from around her neck and arms. He noticed she refused to leave the heavy leather backpack she carried. God only knew what she had in there. Drugs probably.
He suddenly felt very glad for his own normal wife and children waiting for him back in Colorado Springs.
She slowly pulled the top portion of her torso through the window, crawling onto the rock pile. From his higher vantage, he could see down her blouse. No bra. Geez, he thought, rolling his eyes. Just what my brother would like.
He grasped her under the arms and pulled her from the window. They stood on the pile next to the car. She was nearly as tall as he. His brother was marrying Olive Oyl?
“Where are your shoes?” he asked.
“I never wear shoes in the summer,” she replied.
If she wanted to walk across these sharp rocks with no shoes, that was her problem, he thought, shaking his head.
“Let’s go,” he said, leading the way downhill.
“But it’s shorter this way,” she said, pointing behind them, back toward the commune where he’d picked her up.
“This way’s downhill,” he answered, not looking back. If she wanted to go that way, it was fine with him. He couldn’t believe he’d very likely totaled his new red Jeep. He couldn’t believe he’d let his brother talk him into coming up here to get her. She’d be Frank’s third wife, and truthfully, not a whole lot surprised him about Frank, but his first reaction at seeing the tall, dark, painfully thin woman with a load of bushy hair—was shock. She wasn’t Frank’s type at all. And the place he’d picked her up? That commune? At least she didn’t look like she belonged on a street corner like the other two...
Jesus Christ! His new Jeep was wrecked. He was getting a new hippie sister-in-law. She’d be family soon! If her plane was cancelled he’d probably have put her up for the night and invite her to their BBQ. Lord. He cringed at the thought. Maybe if they were lucky a car would come soon. He’d personally pay her cab fare to catch that plane.
“If you want that ride to the airport,” he said, “you’d better follow me. No traffic is getting through that slide for a long time.”
The gravel thinned and got smaller and smaller beneath his feet merging onto clear pavement.
“Almost there,” he said, turning to the woman. Hell, what was her name? Something weird—like Moon-Unit. What had she said? Sky Yawning?
He stopped to wait as she navigated the last few feet of the slide. She hopped a little on the sharp rocks.
That’ll teach her to wear shoes like normal people, he thought. They stood together on the deserted road, looking around at the fine early summer day, glad enough to share a mutual moment of relief.
“Now we wait for the next car and hitch a ride back into town,” he said happily. He couldn’t wait to tell Mary about this. He was thinking about calling his insurance agent, wondering if he had replacement coverage on his new Jeep, when she broke his reverie.
“It’s started you know.”
“Huh?” he said. “What’s started?”
“The Polar Shift.”
“Jesus Christ, Ms. Yawning, you mean a magnetic polar shift? Where the magnetic poles of the earth shift?”
“Dawning. My name is Skye Dawning. That’s Sky with an ‘e’. And yes, that’s exactly what I mean,” she replied tartly.
“Yeah. Right. Look, Miss Yawning, I’m a Geologist. I know about these things and that was just a rock slide. Pure and simple. Just a rock slide. They happen all the time up here.”
“Haven’t you been reading the papers?”
“What? The National Inquirer?”
“See,” she said, pointing toward the ribbons of cyan, red and green waving around in the sky above the mountains. “The Aurora is going to trigger a Pole Shift.”
He looked up, marveling at the beautiful ribbons of color waving in the atmosphere. It must’ve started. “Oh come on,” he chided her. “It’s just a magnetic storm”.
“The paper says if you hit a magnet with enough electricity, the North and South poles switch. It also said the Earth is just a big magnet.”
“Oh,” he said, straining to recall his first year Physics on magnetics. He’d gotten a ‘C’. How come she knew more about this than he did? He remembered the Earth was a big magnet with a molten core and that the magnetic field of the earth shielded us from solar radiation. What was she? Some mad scientist or something? Frank and a scientist? It couldn’t be. “What are you? A physicist or something?”
“No, silly,” she laughed, punching him on the shoulder. “It’s all in the National Requirer.”
“Look Ms. Yawning. You remember all that stuff on the Eve of the Millennium? Well, Jesus didn’t descend from the heavens, aliens didn’t take over the capitol and the goddamn magnetic poles are NOT shifting. Nothing is happening. Nothing but a rock slide on a mountain ro...”
An earthquake!
He instinctively braced himself, ready to flee, sensing it first in the soles of his boots. The tremors traveled up his legs, turning them to jello.
The slide behind them began to pop and dance. The strength of the tremor threw them to the ground. They popped up and down, dodging rocks that hopped, rabbit-like around them.
The slide had only been sleeping. It came back to life and was hungry for them. Disoriented, Jim could barely think. He heard a screeching noise and turned to watch his Cherokee spill over the edge. Noise split his eardrums and dulled his thoughts. Jim wondered vaguely if it would ever stop.
A sharp rock bigger than his head slammed into his left shoulder and he yelled.
The mud slide expanded, coming toward them, picking them up bodily and sweeping them toward the drop off.
Skye pedaled backward with her feet, almost swimming atop the slide. Favoring his shoulder, ignoring the withering pain, he used his good arm to grab onto Skye’s shirt and scooted backward with his powerful legs.
Then the rumbling movement stopped and the slide stilled.
They sat atop the rockslide, too stunned to move. Jim’s heart raced at the sight of the chasm a few feet in front of him, back dropped by the hypnotically undulating color waves of the Aurora Borealis.
Chapter 2