Being a girl from rural northern Georgia, Charlotte knew how to take care of herself, when times got tough. She worked as an administrative assistant in the small town where she lived. She loved to wander in the woods and hike the trails. She was a country girl through and through. Her mind wandered on her drive into work. She really would have rather called in sick, put on her hiking boots and headed out for a day in the woods. Glancing first at her boots, sitting on the floor on the passenger side of the car, and then at her cell phone…oh, that would be too easy. Thinking about it, she hadn’t taken a day off in months, oh, what the heck…you only live once.
She dialed the phone.

Going to the foothills, she parked and put on her boots, thinking that she was really grateful for casual days. She put the cell under the seat of the car, no use taking it along, there was no signal out here…and she was, after all, sick. It was a warm day, but not unusual for the area. The wood was cooler, and Charlotte headed out at a leisurely pace. Breathing in deeply the wood air, she was happy that she had made this choice. About 10 am she found a nice place to sit on a rock, where she could see through the trees.

Charlotte closed her eyes for just a moment when she thought that she saw a bright light, a moment later, the ground shook. It startled her, but looking around for a tree that might have fallen, and finding none, she thought maybe she had just imagined it. Charlotte finished her water and continued her walk up the mountain.

Later that day, Charlotte emerged from the woods, changed into her shoes and drove down the hill. She didn’t get far when she saw something that she couldn’t imagine…water everywhere.
What happened? Remembering the earlier flash of bright light and shaking, she thought that might have something to do with it. She tried the radio, to see if there was any news of what might have happened. Most of the stations were gone, but a fuzzy one from somewhere distant, told her that some sort of explosion had happened in the Atlantic just off the New York boarder.

Charlotte sat, for what seemed like an eternity. What was she going to do? The water had started to drop, but there were still plenty of large puddles the size of lakes, and they could be really deep, she certainly didn’t want to get her car stuck in the water. But she did want to see if her house was still there. Stepping out of her car, she walked around looking at the view, finally sitting on the hood, she crossed her legs, put her elbows on her knees, chin on her hands, and wondered just how long she would have to wait. Charlotte wished that she had brought some more food with her. She had eaten her lunch hours ago, and was hungry again.

The sun was setting; Charlotte could now see that the roads seemed to be mostly clear of water, but there was so much debris strewn everywhere. She thought she could take care of enough of it to get through. It wasn’t until she actually got back on the road, that she noticed it wasn’t just remnants of buildings…it was also people who had been caught in the swiftly rising water.

It didn’t take long to get to the point where driving was fruitless, and she started walking. Only about 4 miles from her home, she knew she could make it there within the hour…but what would be there when she arrived?

Her home was moved from the foundation, some of the walls were collapsed in, but she was able to get in and get enough clothes, camping gear and canned food that she would be ok for a couple days. Stuffing everything into a hiking backpack, she looked one last time at her home, and walked out the door. Charlotte didn’t know where she would go, but she figured if she went back to her car, she could use it to get to higher and safer ground.

She got back to her car after dark, and decided to drive for an hour or two before stopping for the night; she just wanted to get away from the destruction. But she had to be careful; most of the roads went back down into the valleys, where the water had wrecked havoc. When she finally stopped it was in the middle of a beautiful meadow, surrounded by trees. She could only see the stars above; she felt sheltered and was, for a time able to forget what she had seen.

The next morning Charlotte drove north. She didn’t know where she was going to go; she just wanted to get away. By the end of the day she was in a little town just inside Kentucky. It wasn’t much of a place, but it had a campground and a diner. So she set up her tent, and went to check out the town, ending up at the diner where she had a burger, fries, and a soda. The TV was tuned to the local news. They showed much of what Charlotte already knew, it was what she didn’t know that she wanted to know.

Charlotte settled in to her campground, lighting a fire for warmth, sleep eluded her though. Everything she was used to was no longer as she expected it. She didn’t have a job, a home, or a regular schedule; she wandered around for the next few days in a sort of daze. It wasn’t until she decided that she needed a job, that she started to feel settled again. It wasn’t much, just a waitress at the diner, but it was money coming in, which she really needed as her food was running low.

One morning, a group of young men came in; they seemed to be in pretty sad shape, a little hung-over from a night of drinking, was her guess. They ate, flirted with her and finally they left, saying that they were headed south. Charlotte told them of what they would find further south, but they seemed to have their minds set. She watched three of the four go out to the parking lot, where they were waiting for the forth. She thought to herself…”they are kind of cute, to bad they were not sticking around.”

That is when the earth began to shake. Charlotte tried to get to the door, but was knocked off her feet almost immediately. The building started to creak, and Charlotte was worried that it was going to collapse. She crawled under a table, covered her head with her arms and started to pray. The building started falling in, first the glass from the windows broke, then tiles from the ceiling fell, the lights broke, and the wall buckled. Charlotte was lucky that she did go under the table; it saved her from being crushed by the roof.

After the shaking stopped, she heard the voices of the guys, they were yelling for their friend, and digging into the rubble. They found Charlotte first. Once she was safely out of the rubble, they continued to dig, until they found the cook, the other waitress, and then finally, their friend. Unfortunately, Charlotte was the only person who was in the diner, at the time of the quake that survived. The guys seemed dazed. Unsure about what to do next, they had a lot to think about, first, what to do and second where to go. They decided to bury their friend in the local cemetery, they said that their friend had no other family, they were not even sure if they would have been able to get him north to where his family had once lived. The three guys stayed in the area, they seemed lost, unsure of what they were going to do.

Within days, ash started to fall. When Charlotte first saw it, she thought it was snow. She had seen snow on a few of her hikes north, though it rarely snowed where she had lived. It wasn’t cold enough though, and she realized that it was ash. The news reported that a volcano had erupted, but no one was sure of where. Communication throughout the country was unreliable, with the major news networks being out; it was hard to know what was going on. At first the ash was falling lightly, but soon, it became clear that it was going to add up quickly. Charlotte had given up on her tent and moved into a house nearby. The people who lived in the town met together on the second day of the ash-fall and tried to decide what they were going to do. The ash was starting to make the already unstable houses, dangerous, and many wanted to find a new place, where they would be safe, to live.

A few that knew the surrounding area, suggested a local cave system. It was a large cavern that would be able to hold a lot of people and they were confident it would be able to handle whatever else happened. It only took a day for everyone to gather all their things. Everyone carried what they could. They made sure to carry food as well, as they didn’t know how long it would take to get to the cave or how long it would be till they were able to leave to get more supplies.

The trip took about 2 days, slogging through the ash was difficult and slowed the group down quite a bit. As they walked they picked up many others who had the same idea, using the cave as a safe haven. The group soon numbered well over 200, and by trampling down the ash, the trip was made a little easier for those who had the hardest time walking.

Once at the cave, the group split up into smaller groups, mostly of those who had originally been together. And though the cave was large they all found that it was a little cramped. Charlotte was very interested in investigating the cave more, once she was settled. She had her flashlight and camping gear, so she and another explorer went to see the cave. They were able to get an idea of what caverns were where, where the water was and just how big the cave was. The water was very important as the ash had covered the streams and small rivers; they had no other source of fresh water. The other little caverns gave the group a place to store their food. It also gave them a place to use as a hospital ward, once the virus swept through.

The virus took many from the group. Everyone in the cave lost someone that they knew well. Charlotte had just started feeling comfortable with the people that she had now lived with, to lose some of them was hard for her to bear. But in the end, Charlotte felt that those who didn’t make it were the lucky ones. With the batteries soon worn out and no other way or place to explore, Charlotte felt claustrophobic. She just wanted to get out and do something. She started going out with those who went to find food. It made her feel like she was important and she was able to get out of the cave for a while.

The trips did give her a little freedom from the dark cave, but she longed to see the trees against the blue sky, feel the sun on her face, and sit in a meadow of long green grass. She wondered, as she checked the cloud filled sky, would the sky ever be blue again.

This entry was posted on Monday, November 5th, 2007 at 12:01 am and is filed under NaNoWriMo. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.