Earthquake

~Brandon James Scott Scholl

It was supposed to be another typical morning for Elizabeth. She was to do her normal routine in the morning that consisted of a lumpy bowl of oatmeal and a shower before heading off to work. However, today not only did her life change, reality was changed. Earlier this morning Elizabeth woke up to her house shaking all around her. She didn’t know what was going on or for how long it had been happening. However, it was thirty minutes after she woke up that the shaking ended. She had just been through an earthquake.

As Elizabeth came out from under the table she had taken shelter under, she walked to the television and turned it on. Mayhem was EVERYWHERE! The earthquake was the strongest that California had ever seen on any Richter Scale. It seemed like a part of the San Andreas fault had given way and created a large chasm that enveloped half of the state. She watched the news, scared of what she saw. People were hurt, dead, or dying.

Just then, her cell phone rang. As she ran back to the other side of the house to her cell phone she saw things that had fallen all over the house and either broke or shattered. When she got to her cell phone, the caller ID said it was her supervisor at the E.R.

“Elizabeth, thank God you’re alright,” Thomas Avery said with a sigh of relief.

“Tom, what’s going on?” She was still in shock of how she was awakened earlier.

“Have you seen the news? The San Andreas Fault just opened up and sucked half the state inside. We’ve been getting so many emergency calls that we’re being overloaded. I need you down here right away. Our paramedic team is being called in.”

“I’ll be there in 15 minutes,” she said as she hung up the phone.

After a quick shower and throwing on her uniform, she had jumped into her car and was headed to the hospital. She passed numerous accidents as well as collapsed houses because of the earthquake or trees that had been shaken down. Mayhem, terror, fear, death and dying, it was everywhere. The looks on people’s faces was something right out of a horror movie. Most of them were in shock and just staring off because of what just happened to them.

When she got to the hospital she was immediately dispatched with her team to an accident that consisted of a 6 car pile –up 1 mile from the interstate. As they arrived, there were people whimpering and bleeding. Only the sounds from the aftermath of destruction remained. Elizabeth ran to the first person that she saw that needed the most attention. There was a man that was laying on his back on the ground next to an open car from the accident. She checked his pulse and it was quite faint. As she started to look over his wounds she could see that he was bleeding from all over his abdomen. She checked his pulse one more time and there was nothing that existed of the man anymore.

Just then there was another tremor that started to shake the streets. As everything shook she did her best to keep from falling. She saw a large shadow waving back and forth over her and she looked up to the source. The highway was swaying back and forth like it was nothing. She could do nothing but watch in awe as the massive concrete structure started to buckle over its supports and start to lean her way. There was so much shaking that there was no way she could move far enough to not be right where the street was going to land. Out of the corner of her eye she saw movement and heard an engine that was getting louder. She turned and watched a man on a motorcycle flying down the street towards her. He slowed just enough to grab her and throw her on the bike and speed off. Elizabeth’s heart was in her throat and racing as she was moved just in time before the highway crashed where she had been standing moments ago.

“Elizabeth, it’s not your time yet. God’s not finished with you,” the strange savior said. Elizabeth was stunned.

“How do you know my name,” she asked.

“The way I know your name and my name is not important. Only hold fast to His promise that your time is far from over. You have many things to accomplish.” The driver stopped the motorcycle and she climbed off.

“Just remember that I’ll be watching out for you and I’ll be around,” the rider finished before driving off.

She was stunned. A minute ago she thought her life was going to end and yet here she stood, still in one piece. Who was the person that saved her? What did he mean by she still had many things to accomplish? What was she to do now?