When The Fault Breaks: Life Will Never Be The Same Page 23

  At least it was several miles from the cabin and there was no path leading to it so we figured we would be good for now. We marked the opening with a rag so we could find it again and decided to split up and check out both ways. We would go for one hour and return.

  I went uphill and didn't get far before the road dead ended, I returned and went looking for Floyd and found him looking out over a huge valley. We both figured it was the one we came up.

  The road had clearly not been used for years and was very over grown in many places, so we figured it was ok. We returned to the cabin just in time for dinner. It was great to come around the corner and see the smoke coming out the chimney and smell dinner in the air. We could smell the fresh bread and blackberry pie from a mile away. We all were happy again for the first time since the quake.

  It had been at least a month since we found our little bit of heaven. During that time, we continued to cut firewood to ensure we wouldn't run out, and we conserved our other supplies as best we could. We all knew that the supplies were only for four people and there were eight of us. So we used it sparingly, and we continued to hunt and fish to supplement what we had as we prepared for winter to hit.

  We didn't have long to wait either, after a nice Indian summer the snow started to fall and fall it did. We were snowed in the cabin a few times and had to dig our way out to get fresh air for us and the fire. There was a pen for the chickens but we knew that was not going to be good enough for them over the winter so we brought all of them inside the mine to keep them warm, and to keep them making us eggs, it worked out very well.

  We didn't lose anyone over the winter. We were so lucky to find that cabin, as there was no doubt we would not have made it through that winter in tents. Then one day in late winter, maybe early spring, Ed made an incredible discovery."

  "Would you like to tell them about it Ed?"

  Ed replied, "Sure why not, I was out exploring the site when I found a hollowed out tree. I saw something sticking out so I looked inside, it was a small cotton bag but it felt like it weighed several pounds. I couldn't believe my eyes when I looked inside the bag, it was a large cache of gold. One of the miners must have stashed his gold inside the tree and it had been dislodged by the quake.

  My first thought was to hide it back in the tree, but then I thought about my friends. We had been through hell together and I owed my life to them, so I decided I would split it with everyone. Besides the plan was to equally split ALL the gold we found, really this was no different.

  By now we had a fair amount of gold and we knew it was going to be the only real money for a long time to come. You should have seen everyone; it was like one of those old slapstick movies. After I told the others about the gold I found, everyone started running around looking for other stashes but none were ever found. Now if you all don't mind I am going to let Ted finish this."

  "That's fine Ed, I will finish. It must have been mid spring when our worst fear happened, we heard someone yell, 'Is there any one in there?'

  Mark and I both stepped out with our guns to find out who had found us. They had called out to see if anyone was there, so I said yea there are bunch of us here, and asked who they were. They said they had seen our smoke while coming up the road, which turned out to be the one that Floyd and I had found. That's when we met John and Edith here," pointing to John and Edith.

  John spoke up and said, "We had left a little militia controlled hick town a month or so before then, as soon as we were able to travel. We spent the winter there, it was over crowded and people were killing each other just because they felt like it.

  We would have left long before, but with winter coming we could not go anywhere. We spent the winter packing away whatever we could and took off as soon as possible in the middle of the night. We left in the dark with no flashlight and as much food as we could carry."

  Someone in the room spoke up and asked John, "Where were you when the quake hit?"

  "We were in New York City when it hit."

  Someone else asked, "Did you feel it?"

  "No we didn't, but let's allow Hank to finish and I will tell you all about New York when he is done."

  Hank said thank you and continued.

  "Now where was I," he paused and said "Oh yea these guys showing up at our little heaven in the woods," and laughed, again pointing to John and Edith.

  "They both had very little with them and were very hungry, so we invited them in and gave them a meal, but we were all still very leery of anyone at this point. Now we all KNEW our little piece of heaven would not stay isolated forever.

  We sent four guys down the road to see where it led. After several days they said they came upon a high overlook and made a troubling discovery. They had seen a convoy of trucks. The trucks appeared to be heading up the same road, but were moving very slowly. They said they watched them for a spell until the convoy stopped"

  Ed spoke up, "We could see that a bridge had been washed out so they were setting up camp at that location. It was getting late so we headed back. The trucks were still a long way away but not so far that it would take them long to make it up the road, we all returned to the cabin and told everyone what we found.

  As I described some of the trucks, John told us it was the trucks from the town they had left. He said they had been planning on exploring the mountain in the summer but must have started out sooner with us leaving and the good weather.

  John also told us that there were several places that would require them to build bridges to get past but that he was sure they could do it. We figured we didn't have very long, a few weeks at best, before the convoy or a scouting party made their way up here so we started preparing to leave.

  The first thing we did was to take an inventory of everything we had. John and Edith each had a backpack, a four-man tent, their own sleeping bags and some cooking gear as well. They had time to prepare for the mountains so they were well enough equipped just like the rest of us.

  We collected every bit of food that was left that we could carry. We had found four rifles and four hand guns with ammo for all, we even found some explosives that must have been used for blasting the mine. We left everything else because we knew how hard it would be to travel up stream.

  Every effort was made to make it look like the owners had left long ago. We pushed a boulder on the generator to make it look like it happened in the quake and to deprive them of it. Luckily we had not buried the miners so there was no sign of them.

  We left the doors and windows open and threw a bunch of stuff in to make it look like it had blown in. The mine and cabin were left intact in hopes of it slowing them down because they would not want to leave it. Additionally, we figured they would not send people out looking when they could put them to work in the mine. It broke our hearts but we simply trashed the place."

  Henry spoke up, "What about the gold you did find?"

  Ed answered back, "We all still have it, well at least I know I do."

  We all heard, "I do too, and another I do too and still several more."

  As Ed described all that gold, and because it seemed as though everyone had held onto their gold, I was concerned. My first thought was this could be a problem. Up until now no one had anything like that, and we were not very concerned about anyone stealing. No one really had anything worth stealing or worse yet anything worth killing over.

  I had no idea what to do about it, or if I should do anything at all. I decided all we could do now was wait and see how it all played out. About that time several people excused themselves because they had to work early in the morning and Brandon's men had lights out soon.

  Hank spoke up, "I am also getting tired. I would be happy continue at another time for anyone that wants to hear the rest of it."

  With that everyone went their separate ways and we headed back to our cabin. As we walked I took that opportunity to express my concern about the gold to Hank. He said he understood that it could be a problem. I told him we would figure out wh
at to do to make sure the gold and everyone was safe.

  I felt a little better about it after our conversation, but I was still very concerned. I just didn't want anything to ruin what we had. That night Ann and I spoke about it before we went to sleep, and Ann told me 'to sleep on it' we laughed and both went to sleep.

  The next day was very much like all the days before except, Floyd, Ben and I headed out to find a suitable location to build their cabin. I had seen this really nice location one day when I was exploring the area and told him I thought it would be perfect for him and Alice.

  It was not far from ours, a bit down valley, and had a nice place for a garden. When he saw it he said it was perfect and rushed back to the cabin to get Alice to show it to her. Beth, Ann and the girls all went back with him and everyone agreed that it was great.

  The girls all started walking around it talking and they seemed to forget we were even there. With that, us guys made a quiet departure and left the girls to figure out how they wanted to arrange it. After all it's always the girls that have the final say on how things go anyway.

  Later that day we all headed over to the mill and took a nice swim in the pond, it was a hot day and every one was ready for a dip. It was nice to just relax, laugh and joke a bit. From there we went to dinner. Afterwards anyone that wanted to hear more met up outside the cave.

  Chapter 30: The Climb Continues

  Floyd continued to tell us about the rest of their trip.

  "We started out walking in the stream heading down instead of up, we figured no one would go downstream looking for anyone. When we got back to the confluence, this time we headed up the other one staying in the middle of the stream in hopes of not leaving any signs that we had been there or that we went up that way.

  As we made our way up the valley we never started a fire during the day because we did not want anyone to see the smoke. We lost track of how many days it had been but it was a bunch. The stream had been getting smaller and smaller, when one day we came upon a large opening and we could see the headwaters.

  It opened out into this breathtaking meadow. It was a lush plain with tall grass blowing in the breeze. The whole area was crisscrossed by a small braided stream that flowed to where we crested the valley.

  Everyone just looked at each other and didn't even need say anything. We all just dropped our gear where we stood and said about the same time, 'Let's stay here for a spell.'

  We had been traveling for some time, we were high enough and far enough away so we figured we would be safe making a fire during the day. After that long climb we were all hot and tired so many of us just laid down in some of the shallow streams and let the cool water flow over us. It felt so good to just cool off and rest like that.

  After we got camp set up a few of us decided to check out where the water was coming from. We could tell we were near the top because we could see the pass a mere hundred feet up. We hadn't gone up far when we found a few nice springs flowing from the side of the mountain.

  That water tasted so good, we all just sat there and drank all we could, and filled our water containers. From the pass we could see for miles and miles, both from where we came up and what was ahead for us. That night there was a beautiful clear sky, the stars were so bright we could make out every constellation in the sky.

  We laid around that night watching for satellites and counting them. At one point the International Space Station passed overhead and it made us wonder what ever happened to the people manning the station.

  It was so peaceful and beautiful there. We spent a couple nights resting after the climb getting there. When we left we stood on the pass and looked ahead down into a lush valley below. Then there it was, we could see plumes of smoke way up the valley. We could not make out where because it was beyond our line of sight but it was clearly smoke we were seeing and we knew we had to find the source.

  The valley went so far north that we could not see the end. We could also tell it was going to be hard to get to the bottom and looked like it was well over a thousand feet down. By now we were off our maps so we had no idea where we were and really didn't care. All we knew was we wanted to get to the valley floor below then head up the stream to find who made the smoke.

  We came down the side of the valley, so water was very limited save for the occasional small feeder streams along the way. At times we were switch backing down a forty-five-degree slope with the ground at forty-five degrees. Several times we were walking on shale and having it slide out from under our feet, which nearly caused several to fall.

  At one point, near the bottom of the face, we decided we needed to slide down the shale. We all sat on one foot with the other foot in front and glissaded down the face. It was hell as our feet kept getting crammed into the toes of our shoes.

  When we reached the bottom of the valley we came upon another incredible location to stay, it looked like someone had made it just for us. It took one hard day to reach the bottom and everyone was beat.

  There was a section of the stream that had a small waterfall with the perfect pool under it, the kind where you could sit under the flow of the water and let it run over you. Everyone took the opportunity to get a shower, we cleaned up and relaxed in the water.

  A little up stream of that we found a sweet fishing hole and caught several fish for dinner, it sure was nice having fresh fish that night. We spent a few days there and explored downstream a bit. We were a good mile down when we heard a very loud roar and knew it was a waterfall. As we looked at the falls we said there was no way anyone was going to get up that, neither in nor out of the water.

  The next morning, we started up the valley, hoping that this one would lead us to a safe place. We knew that by now we were deep in the Rocky Mountain wilderness and we knew there was something up stream and after seeing that falls we were certain no one was coming up the river.

  We had traveled several more days and any time one of us asked if we were there yet our standard answer was it's just over the hill and around the corner, it always made us laugh. Then one morning just after we got up, Tom here came walking out of the woods with his hands up telling us not to touch our guns.

  I don't think any of us even thought about it. Then Brandon and Peter came out and the rest is us here now. I don't know how we can ever thank you guys for welcoming us in."

  It was getting late but no one wanted to miss what John had to say so everyone stayed up to hear him.

  Ben asked John, "How did you get here from New York City and why would you have left it?"

  With that John took a deep breath and let out a very long sigh, and said, "You have to understand this is hard to say (another long pause and a sigh), New York City is gone."

  GASPS, that's all you heard.

  "There is nothing left, it was burned to the ground, the entire city is gone," He answered with tears in his eyes.

  "How?"

  Chapter 31: The Fall of New York City

  "I think it was almost four o'clock in the afternoon when breaking news interrupted all the daily programming telling the world that a major earth quake had struck the entire west coast. None of us could believe our ears, the entire west coast?

  Everyone knew that California was supposed to be hit by 'The Big One' but no one ever said anything about this. The newscasters were saying the earthquake began off the north coast of British Columbia and traveled all the way south to the Gulf of California."

  Floyd interrupted, "Are you telling us the entire west coast was shaken at the same time?"

  "Yes, the scientists said the Cascadia Fault ruptured where the Juan De Fuca Plate dives under the edge of the North American Plate. That the crust had moved over forty feet and the rupture traveled along its entire length, from British Columbia to just north of San Francisco."

  Bill gasped, "Oh my god we never heard any of this, why didn't you tell us any of this before?"

  "I'm sorry Bill it was just too hard, but now there are too many people to think of to hold it in an
y longer."

  Ted asked, "How long did it last?"

  "The scientists said it lasted over nine and a half minutes, they said it traveled all the way to the San Andres Fault. It was reported that Cascadia caused the San Andres Fault to rupture along its entire length as well.

  They said that every city on the west coast was hit by massive seismic waves one after another, and that the quake was felt all the way to the Rocky Mountains. Everyone was in shock; no one expected something like this to happen.

  By closing bell of the stock exchange that day the Dow Jones had plummeted over one thousand points. All night we heard more and more news as some of the more western TV stations had been able to get satellite uplink by generator to get the news out, and the newscasters pleaded for help from the government.