Change the World

Earthquake

Chapter 1

Earthquake

There comes a time in everyone's life when a change must occur. Whether it is when you turn a certain age, or when you go to college, or when you become a parent. It is part of the natural order of the world. My life was no different, except my life changed in a rather drastic way and it all started with an earthquake.

It wasn't unheard of for earthquakes to hit my part of the world but they were rarely strong enough to cause problems. I had experienced an earthquake only once in my life. I was five years old back then and the only reason I had recognized it was because my mom and I had just finished a earthquake safety unit. 

My day started on a long weekend. It was Saturday and I was enjoying the warm summer sun. It was one of those days where you don't want to do anything. I was just enjoying my time, wandering around town. As I walked down main street I passed by a small restaurant, which was one of the favourite places to eat in town, a family owned pizza place with a 60's theme. I smiled at the image of myself in the reflection. I was fairly pretty, a soft round face, fairly high cheekbones, brown eyes and a slightly upturned nose. Average weight and a height of five foot seven. Nothing really big or spectacular, pretty normal actually, if not a little on the tall side. I sighed, it was nice to get out of the apartment, it was so hot right now.

My family was not well off, so we lived in a small apartment. We would sometimes get through a month by the skin on our teeth, Not that I was complaining, our lives were hard but they could have been harder. We had a house, food, a car, a good school. Life wasn't bad.

I was distracted by a rumble. I quickly looked to the highway but there wasn't a single large truck or van going by. I frowned, a little confused but shrugged it off as nothing really major.

It was then that the ground lurched under my feet and began shaking like it was having a seizure. Cars and trucks swerved and lost control, crashing into buildings, trees and each other. I heard people screaming, lose their footing and fall. There was another rumble and the sound of rushing water came to my ears. I stood stalk still, stunned as the ground literally opened up beneath me. I screamed as a massive sinkhole formed under my feet. I was falling for a few seconds before I hit water, feet first and was dragged under. A heavy current pulled at me. I struggled to get above the water. My head bobbed up and I caught a gasping breath before being shoved under again.

I don't know how long I was thrown about. I was sure I had a few bruises and cuts but if that was all I had at the end of this I would be thankful. That was when my head was shoved into a wall. I gasped, losing the little bit of precious air I had been holding. My head felt fuzzy and I knew that I was going to faint. I was going to die.

When I woke up I was dimly aware of not being alone. There were other people near me, around me. My left arm was stiff and sore, my body ached and sweated. I was uncomfortable, hot, hungry and thirsty. Slowly I managed to swim through the fog of desires into the real world, surfacing slowly.

        "...okay?"

        "She's healing as well as can be expected Katara. Her fever broke last night. We seem to be through the worst." The voice was old and worn, the voice of an old woman. I was just able to assess that through the lifting fogginess of my head.

        "Does that mean she'll survive?" This voice was also female but significantly younger then the previous speaker. This was probably Katara. I paused mentally. The name seemed familiar but I couldn't focus enough right now to firmly place it.

        "Only if she wakes up. She's been asleep for three days. We've been lucky that we could even manage to get her to drink anything at all. Still, if she falls into the living death there is nothing we can do about it besides send her to the Spirit World." My needs were growing and I was beginning to feel tired again but what the elder woman had said scared me. The Spirit World. I couldn't place the name any more then the girl's but I could figure out that it was the realm of spirits, in other words, the realm of the dead.