His Cure

Mother Nature Retaliates

I awoke the next morning and quickly got dressed before beginning the day's chores. Pretty boring. "Good morning Liz." Kieran beamed as he walked past me. "Morning O'Driscoll." I joked. "God, don't you start." He chuckled which caused me to do the same. "Sorry, Kieran Van Der Linde." I corrected myself which made him smile.
The rest of the morning was the same as any other, boring chores, so I was happy when Jack gave me an excuse to do something else.
"Aunt Liz?" He asked as he walked up behind me. "Yeah darlin'?" I replied as I turned to face him. "C...can you teach me some more Italian?" "Really? Of course I can!" I said with a smile.
We decided to sit at the table inside the house for a bit of peace and quiet.
"So 'Home' is 'Casa'?" Jack asked after I had been teaching him for about half an hour. "Exactly, and what is horse?" I quizzed him. "Cavallo!" He proudly exclaimed. "Good job, bud! What is...." I was about to ask him another word but quickly trailed off as I noticed Jacks toy horse, that he had put on the table, begin to move on its own. Confused, I looked down at it and placed my hand on the table but to my surprise the table was shaking too and it was getting more and more intense. My heart dropped when I realised what was happening. "Shit! Jack, get under the table!" I demanded. I quickly joined him under the table as the vibrations got stronger and stronger, until the whole house was shaking. "What's happening?!" Jack asked, terrified. "Hey! It's okay..." I quickly replied, trying to calm him down. "It's just an earthquake!" I exclaimed as I pulled him into a tight hug but the shaking kept getting worse. "What's an earthquake?!" Jack continued to yell. "It's okay, don't worry sweetheart!" I began as I thought on my feet. "You know what happens when you get hungry?" "Yeah... my stomach rumbles..." he nervously replied. "Well, that's what this is. The earth's stomach rumbling. It will stop in a minute." "I'm scared!" Jack cried as the ceiling above us began to creak. "I know, it's okay, I won't let anything happen to you." I replied as I held him close, using my body as a shield. The ceiling continued to creak and I quickly realised what was about to happen. I put my hands over Jack's ears as I knew how loud it was going to be and braced myself.
The ceiling broke open and a part of it fell down, luckily we were under the table but Jack screamed as it hit the floor. "It's okay! It's okay!" I exclaimed as I closed my eyes and waited for it to be over.

Arthur POV:
I had nearly arrived back to camp when the shaking started.
"Woah, easy boy." I tried to calm Duke as he began to buck slightly. I quickly looked around for predators but I couldn't see anything. "What's wrong boy?" I asked, as if the horse was going to answer, as he came to a stop. "The hell...?" I said aloud as I watched the ground begin to shake. As it became more intense I suddenly understood. It's a god damn earthquake. I quickly tried to kick Duke into a sprint but he wouldn't move. "Shit..." I muttered as I climbed down from atop the saddle and began to run down the path. I needed to get back to camp and make sure everyone was safe. "Arthur! Get down!" Dutch called out as I entered camp so I quickly laid down on the floor and placed my hands over the back of my head and didn't move until the shaking had stopped. "Everyone okay?" I called out as I stood up and made my way over to them. "We're okay." Hosea replied as I helped him up off of the floor. "You alright, Robin?" I asked as she was still sat in a ball on the floor. "I... I think I'm okay... I was so scared..." she whimpered as she pulled me into a hug. "It's alright. It's over now." I replied as I looked around at everyone in camp. Everyone but Liz. "Where's Liz?" I questioned, slightly worried. "She went inside with Jack." Mary-Beth responded, clearly shaken up. "Shit." I exclaimed before I quickly ran towards the house. She was inside? If the ceiling had collapsed she could have been killed. Panic took over my body as I slammed open the door and sprinted inside. "Liz?!" I called out as I looked in each room. "Elizabeth!" I called out again when there was no reply. "We're okay!" Came a response from the room next to me and I instantly relaxed. She was okay.
As I entered the room she was in I saw where part of the ceiling had collapsed. "Where are you?" I asked as I looked around. "Down here." She replied from under the table. I quickly bent down to see that she was holding Jack in a tight embrace. "Are you okay?" "Yeah, we're fine." She said as she removed her hands from Jacks ears. "It's okay, sweetie. It's over." She added as she ushered him out from under the table.
"Jack?!" Came a shout from outside. "Go find your momma." Liz quickly said causing Jack to run outside.
"Are you okay?" She asked as she crawled out from under the table. "Yeah." I replied as I helped her up. "Arthur! That was so scary! Please don't leave me!" Robin shouted as she ran into the house and I saw Liz instantly roll her eyes. Robin did have a habit of being especially over dramatic.
"Is everyone else okay?" Liz asked as she brushed herself off. "Yeah, they're fine."
"Arthur! There you are!" Robin exclaimed as she ran in and hugged me. As she wrapped her arms around my neck, I looked over my shoulder and gave Liz a look that meant 'help me'.
"Robin, personal space, yeah?" Liz said as she noticed my discomfort. Thank god for that. Physical touch was not my style. I tried to avoid touching people as much as possible so having Robin all over me wasn't great. "Jealous much?" Robin replied as she turned to face Liz. "Of?" Liz asked, confused. "Of how close me and Arthur are." "So jealous." Liz replied sarcastically as she walked out to check on the others which made me chuckle.
I excused myself from Robin and headed upstairs to assess the damage that the earthquake had caused. It wasn't too bad. The part of the ceiling that had fallen through was from one of the rooms we didn't really use and, apart from the furniture that had been shaken all over the place, everything seemed fine. As I walked to my room to check nothing was out of place I had a realisation. My first thought when the quake hit was Liz... I had to make sure she was okay. I was worried about her... but why...? Why did I care so much?