Inhibition

Chapter 13

As Cat sat in the corner, Midge pulled up whatever she needed on her computer. Cat would’ve normally assumed that she used the internet, but with all technology blocked for miles in every direction and them being underground, she doubted it.

“So, what are you looking for?” Midge asked.

“We need to know about anything weird happening. You know, like freaky hurricanes . . . really strong winds . . . fish falling from the sky? The kind of things that would be odd on their own, but are too big for coincidence when piled together.” Cat answered from her corner.

“Okay, let me see.”

Midge typed for a while, the action dragging out because it was someone else doing it, using computer skills that were incomprehensible to Cat, and she couldn’t even watch. Because she was stuck in a stupid corner.

It felt different to not be the one doing the important thing. Someone else had the necessary skills and people dependent upon them. Sure, it might sound cool in a book, or a movie, or even in someone’s head, but in real life, being the “hero” was not anything to brag about.

As Cat watched, Midge’s expression started to turn more somber. She wasn’t talking with Finley while she worked. She stopped smiling. And then she started frowning. Concerned, Finley started to read over her shoulder. Finley, who wasn’t exactly the happiest person in the best of times also started to look worried.

“Cat.” She turned when she heard her name called. “Come here, I think we might have something.”

Cat got up from her seat and quickly joined the other two. There were news articles all spread out on the different screens, with only headlines visible. Each headline told of a different disaster, and usually included a death toll.

According to the dates, every single one of these disasters had happened within the last ten years, each year gaining more and more disasters than the last. Usually, disasters were cataloged by year; it was so bad that some were recorded by month, and then even by day when there were multiple disasters in a single month.

Midge started to read some out.

“In 2001, there was an earthquake that hit Gujarat, India. 20,000 people died.”

Finley pointed to another. “More than 50,000 people were killed by a heat wave in France, Spain and Italy in 2003.”

Cat read them all, some hitting her harder than others.

2004: floods in China. 1,300 dead.

2004: tsunamis caused by a 9.0 earthquake in Southeast Asia. 245,000 dead.

2005: 8.7 earthquake in Nias, Indonesia. 1000 dead.

2005: monsoon in Mumbai, India. 1,000 dead.

2005: floods in China. 567 dead.

2005: "Katrina" hurricane hits Louisiana and Mississippi, USA. 1,836 dead.

2005: famine kills over 10,000 in Niger.

2005: earthquake hits Kashmir. 80,500 dead.

2006: Java earthquake. 4,300 dead.

2006: tsunami hits Java. 520 killed.

November 2007: cyclone in Bangladesh. 4,000 dead.

February 2008: cold wave hits Afghanistan. 926 dead.

May 2008: cyclone kills 135,000 in Burma.

May 2008: China earthquake. 70,000 lives lost.

August 2008: hurricane hits Haiti. Kills 500.

September 2008: floods in India and Bangladesh kill 635.

April 2009: earthquake hits Abruzzo, Italy. 300 dead.

August 2009: typhoon hits Taiwan. 700 killed.

September 2009: earthquake in Sumatra, Indonesia. 1200 dead.

October 2009: storms in the Philippines kill 189 people.

2009: swine flu outbreak in USA kills 10,000.

January 2010: earthquake in Haiti. 230,000 dead.

February 2010: a 8.8 earthquake in Conception, Chile. 452 killed.

April 2010: earthquake in Qinghai, China kills 760.

July 2010: drownings following heat wave in Russia. 1200 dead.

July 2010: flooding in Pakistan kills 1,313.

August 2010: landslide in Zhouqu, Gansu, China. 700 dead.

October 2010: tsunami strikes Indonesia kills 500.

January 2011: flooding and mudslides in South-east Brazil. 500 killed.

March 2011: Japan’s earthquake and tsunami. 26,000 dead.

And they just kept coming. Merely looking at all the death tolls, at the pictures of the aftermath of these disasters, was enough to make Cat feel sick.

“Guys, this is weird.” Midge shook her head. “It’s not just that there are a lot of natural disasters. I checked and in the last ten years the number and severity of the disasters has increased dramatically.” She turned around to look at them. “You guys were right. Something is going on here.”