Watch for Morning

Watch for Morning

Sam Adams Survives the Big One

         Sam Adams returned to his hometown of Berkeley, California when he turned 66. He had been living in South Korea with his Korean-born wife, Maria Lee. He had served 30 years in the government in foreign service before retiring. He had long wanted to retire to his hometown, as he felt drawn to the quirky vibe that was Berkeley and the Bay Area.

         He and his wife spend a few weeks looking around and finally sign a contract to rent an apartment for one year in one of the new apartment buildings that had just been built in downtown Berkeley. There was a shortage of affordable housing in the city, but he and his wife could afford the 3,000 dollars a month rent. The neighborhood was vibrant and welcoming. He felt he had returned home.

         To celebrate after moving in the next morning, they walked through town and up to Tilden Park Inspiration Point, which was at the highest point of Grizzly Peak, 1100 feet above sea level. They were enjoying the view when the big one hit. The big one was the biggest earthquake ever recorded. Over 15 on a scale of 1 to 10. Mt. Lassen, Mt. Rainer, and Mt. St Helena all blew up, as did Yellowstone, triggering the “Big One.”

         They watch the huge 700-foot Tsunami sweep through the Golden Gate. down the Bay, and up the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers flooding the central valley and creating an instant permanent inland sea. The waters gradually subsidize but the entire Bay Area lies flooded. Most of the Bay area and the central valley are now under 700 feet of fetid water. They later learned that the land had sunk, so most of the new inland sea was under 700 to a thousand feet of water.

         There were about 10 people at the park when the disaster hit. People bonded and shared their resources. The internet was knocked out, cell phones were down, and power was out everywhere. One person had a portable TV and intermittent broadcasts. The news was grim all over.

         The authorities were rounding up the military and preparing to open refugee camps, but they feared millions of people to have perished. The volcanoes had caused massive fires and lava flows further disrupting things. One hiker was a survivalist and he could build a makeshift camp and hunt for food. They were able to survive in the makeshift camp for a while.

         A week later helicopters land and they are rescued. They are taken to a refugee camp in Nebraska. The whole western part of the country had been declared uninhabitable and is under a mandatory evacuation order. The fires are burning out of control. The inland sea had settled down drowning the Bay Area, Sacramento, Stockton, and the Central Valley to Fresno. Los Angeles and San Diego are on fire and the earthquake destroyed most of the urban infrastructure of the region. The rest of the west coast was burning up or under lave flows. The Colorado River had ceased flowing, and ash and lava filled up all the lakes. Power was knocked out everywhere.
{
indent}Conservatives are openly saying that the West Coast did not deserve to be saved. They brought it upon themselves for decades of mismanagement and socialist policies. Religious figures preach daily that God had unleashed his punishment on the heathen West Coast.

         The military had set up the camp, but it was still a work in progress. Everyone was assigned tents. When they get there, they go through in-processing. The military said that they would be there for up to a year. They would all be given jobs to commiserate with our experience. Sam and Maria are assigned jobs in the administrative section helping keep the camp running.

         The camp is run by corrupt gangs enforcing “the rules” which are to just shut up, show up for meaningless work assignments, and don’t complain.

         Violations of the “rules” are severe. Sam Adams is almost killed for asking when they could get phone calls and internet access so that they could check on their properties.

         The guards televise the beating, telling Sam that he had violated rule number one–don’t complain, rule number two questioning the rules, and rule number three thinking that they are not in a prison camp. When Sam is brought back to his tent, the guards make it clear that if she complained she would be next.


         Somehow, Sam Maria and the other 50 thousand refugees managed to survive two years in the camps. They are finally released and move into an apartment in Omaha which has become a huge city filled with West Coast refugees, dubbed “westergees” by the media. They rent an apartment and try to figure out the rest of their lives.

         There is talk that the west coast might be rebuilt and they would eventually be able to return to the Bay Area. They saw on TV that the Bay Area now consisted of a series of small islands in a huge sea with most of California underwater. The inland sea had also spread north from Baja California through Arizona and into Nevada, most of which was now underwater as well. The Puget Sound had also spread south and east flooding much of Washington State. Most of Washington, Oregon, California (the part that remained above water) Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming are burned up or covered with ash and lava flows. However, there are signs that life is starting to come back. And somehow some people had survived the Big One and were living in small communities in the” Earthquake Exclusion Zones” ...

         Every evening, Sam would tell his wife, “Watch for the Morning” telling her that things will be better as the sun comes up and life begins to return to normal. And over time things did return to a new normal and they survived the “Big One” and were still alive and in love.



Please use the following as the Title of your story or poem:

"Watch for Morning"


Please select "Nature" as one of your genres.




Please use the following as the Title of your story or poem:

"Watch for Morning"


Please select "Nature" as one of your genres.