A Midsummer Morning

Background: Once again, this was my attempt to start work on a novel. Once again, I had a story in my mind that I had to get out. I do not remember when I started on this for sure, but I remember putting it up for like a year or so. I then took it out and wrote a little more, but finally stopped when "Deep Impact" came out. The story was just too similar, with the exception that most of that movie is the world leading up to a metor impact, and my story is about the life of one person after the impact, which was totally unexpected event. I may pick this back up someday, but I am not holding my breath.

May 10, 1998 - The morning was clear, and no one knew of the terror that was near. I was jolted awake by a low rumble, and I could feel teh building shaking, and I thought "earthquake".
I tried to run, but lost my balance, and fell flat on my back. The window shattered inwards, and through the hole came tons of water at forces unimaginable!
The water hit me and I felt as if I had been turned inside out and then back again. The force of teh water threw me through the walls of the dormatories in the same way a knife slides through butter.
I begged to God, "Kill me, kill me now!" but teh good Lord had other things in store for me.
The last thing I remembered before I blacked out was thinking, "Why me?" Then I hit a brick wall.

May 11, 1998 - I woke up this morning with a pounding pain in my head. I looked around and noticed that I was not in San Francisco anymore. I concluded that last night I got really drunk and someone dropped me off here. But where is here?
Hopefully I was smart enough to prepair. I checked my pands, and pulled out my wallet. There was an ATM card, my Citibank VISA, my driver's license, and a water-drenched twenty. I guess I had taken a dip. Thank God that I didn't drown, being as drunk as I must of been not to remember how I got here.
Well, I guess I better do something. I found a road not to far away. But something was odd about it. Then it hit me: The road ran straight into the ocean. How odd. Then I noticed the rest of the beach. What a funny looking beach. For one thing, there was no sand, just dirt and slightly over-green and weatherbeaten grass. Was that possible on a beach?
I followed the road into a small suburbain area. It must be a Sunday, because the churches were packed. I walked into a McDonald's to order breakfast.
"Whoa, it looks like you had a bad night last night!", commented the guy behind the counter.
"Yeah, I think I got drunk," I replied.
"Couldn't handle the news, huh?"
"What news?"
The guy looked shocked. "What do you mean `what news´? I am talking about THE news!"
"I don't think I understand what you are talking about," I commented.
"Just exactly where aer you from?" he asked.
"San Francisco," I replied.
I noticed that suddenly the whole place had grown quit. You could have heard a pin drop.
"Get out," the cashier demanded. "We don't want your types around here!"
So, confused, I left. I must be in one of those states where they hated people from California. Funny, I don't remember crossing the state boarder. It had been at least a year since I have even left San Francisco, and that was to go down to LA to tour UCLA.
I was starting to feel like I was on a different planet. I walked past a newspaper stand and glanced at the headline.
"Butte Informer" below that it said, "West Coast submerged!"
West coast, I thought, as I continued to walk down the street. Suddenly something clicked in my mind.
I ran back and bought a paper. It read:

"Butte Informer. West Coast Submerged! Early yesterday morning, while the west coast slept, it was hit by a tidal wave of enormous proprtions. Equaling a force of an estimated 15 BILLION tons per square inch, the Saint Andreas Fault gave way, and San Francisco fell into the bay. This caused the water level to raise several kilometers, submerging all of teh west coast up to the Rockys. You can still see the tops of the buildings of several of the cities, and the peaks of the Sierra Mountains in the midst of the newly created ocean. So far there have been no survivors.
Scientists as of printing time have no idea what caused this catastrophe to happen. Dr. J.S. Menor, professor at the University of Maine, commented, "As far as we know, this is impossible. There is nothing that we know of that could cause a tidal wave of this magnitude. But we are working around the clocks to try to find an explination. One logical conclusion, however, is that we have not heard the last of it. I am advising everyone to take precautions.
Researchers in Berlin have the- More on "Flood" on page 7A"

My hands trembled as I finished reading the article. It was too much for me to accept. The whole west coast? Gone? Just like that?
I decided to work my way up. Candlestick Stadium is gone. I got that. The Golden Gate Bridge was gone. I got that too. The Happiest Place on Earth was gone. Somehow, I got that too. Las Angelas was gone. That was easy, for I never really liked that part of California. California was gone. No, that was too much for me to handle.
Then something new hit me. I was there, and I survived! But how?
I found a phone booth and called my mom in Dallas. After five minuets of trying to get a call though, I finally got hold of her. She was filled with joy that I had survived. I told her that I would try and fly home soon, and she said she would be waiting for me.
I then decided.....

©Copyright 2003 William Edward Henley II