Launa and Avi were awoken when the earth pitched them out of bed, hitting the floor hard. Startled awake, they scrambled for their bags, trying desperately to keep their balance against the rolling motion that overtook the place. Chunks of the ceiling came down, jostled from their precarious position, and nearly crashed down onto their heads. I am notgetting trapped, again. If it weren’t for the fear coursing through her, she would have been consumed in a rage at the thought of the earth trying to murder her, once more.
They ducked out of the house as fast as possible, jumping over what was left of the porch and sprinted away from it, not pausing to watch it or the others around it collapse. He grabbed for her hand, leading the way out of town, running for their lives.
Even as they met the edge of Winslow, the ground hadn’t stopped trembling, and they could hear crackling of dirt and rock as the earth split open with the force of the quake.
Please stop.
Stop this.
Stop.
The earth didn’t listen.
"We can’t stay here," Avi shouted over the sound of the quake, "Come on!" And he pulled her down the road, neither of them able to properly see the highway in the dark and going purely off the sound of their boots hitting the asphalt.
A split in road met them, closed, but with the far edge raised at least six feet higher than their side, creating a wall. Unable to see a way around, he hoisted her up with her foot in his hands, tossed up the bags, and she pulled him up, scrabbling up the side and trying not to roll down the incline when he reached the top.
And just as suddenly as it had started, the grinding of tectonic plates ceased.
They held their breath, waiting out the aftershock that soon followed, bracing themselves on their hands and knees. The rolling stopped, and, after a long moment, Launa flopped onto the ground, groaning. “I am so sick of this shit!” she cried, fists clenched.
Avi laughed, doubling over as he wheezed, shoulders shaking as it became silent laughter. “What the hell is your issue?” she demanded, smacking his shoulder. He just waved her away, unable to properly draw a breath.
"You-" he wheezed, looking up and getting it together for just a moment before crumpling into laughter, again, "you- with the- and-" the rest of his words were garbled and lost.
Launa gave him an incredulous look, starting to smile at how badly he was losing his shit. “Okay, so, you need more sleep.” He fell onto his back, feet braced on the ground and trying to catch his breath. “Man, stress does weird things to you.”
He waved at her again. “Shh!” he shushed her, “You’re not helping!”
Smiling, she pushed gently at his knee. “You’re a weirdo.” She glanced to the ground, biting down the fear that threatened to flood her. Winslow was practically leveled. “Well, we’re not getting back in there.”
Finally catching his breath, Avi rolled onto his side, looking the town over and inhaling deeply. “If it weren’t for this wreck of a town,” he said quietly, then gestured to the little cliff the split had created that they were currently perched on, “this would be a great view.”
She tossed the bedding at his face.
______
The following day was another hot one, despite the fact that they were quickly approaching the end of November. They followed their usual routine: get up, have breakfast, discuss the plan of attack, mouthwash, load themselves up with bags, move out.
They trudged along the highway to Flagstaff, cutting around splits and cracks in the earth’s crust, and hopping across when they couldn’t be avoided. Launa wiped at her forehead, glaring in the sun’s direction. I hope you know how much I currently despise you.
They paused their journey at noon, taking the time to gulp down what water they needed and being careful not to waste any. She inspected her fingers, cringing at the dry, rough skin of her knuckles and wishing for some hand lotion. Motion beside her foot caught her attention. Looking up from her hand, her eyes widened in horror.
Avi jumped as Launa’s shriek pierced the air. Whipping around, he found her leaping from her spot on the ground, flailing, and sprinting from- “Holy shit,” he swore. That was the biggest fucking spider he’d ever seen.
The thing scuttled around, approaching her bags, and she screamed at it. “Don’t you fucking dare get away from my stuff oh my God, kill it!!”
He screwed his face up in disgust at the hairy arachnid, whipped out the knife he had stored in his boot, bid it farewell, and drove it into the creature, pinning it to the ground. Once it had finally stopped twitching, Avi turned to look at her, who had buried her face in her hands and pulled in on herself as much as possible. “It’s dead.”
"Are you sure?" came her muffled reply.
He glanced back at the spider’s corpse, then back at her with a slightly amused smile. “I’m sure.”
Launa peeked out from between her fingers, inspecting the scene from afar. “Okay.” she squeaked, “Thank you.”
He stood and moved toward her, pulling her into a hug, trying hard not to laugh. “You’re not afraid of dead bodies, earthquakes-“
"-I’m afraid of the effects of them-"
"-whatever. You’re not afraid of life-threatening situations and normally scary things," he teased, making her look up at him, "but you’re afraid of kisses and spiders."
She shoved him in the chest. “Wolf spiders are poisonous, you ass!”
Avi tipped his head to the side. “Okay, yes,” he said, considering it, “but kisses aren’t.”
She sniffed, and crossed her arms, trying not to smile and failing terribly. “Cooties.” She went to collect her bags, cutting a wide berth around the spider’s corpse. When she stood again, her partners lips pressed to her cheek, his beard brushing against her skin. “Ew!” she cried, mockingly childish and pushed at him.
"Oh, whatever," he teased, hoisting his bags onto his back, "you like my cooties."
Launa ignored him and started off down the road. They’d been walking for a few minutes when he broke the silence, again. “By the way,” Avi said, “your scream was the highest pitched thing ever.”
"Ugh, shut up."
______
They settled for the evening, hours later, and continued in their routine of travel: choose a spot, lay out the bedding, have dinner, check the map to mark their journey, say ‘good night’ and go to sleep.
Launa added one more step to it, that night: check for spiders.
YOU ARE READING
Natural Disaster
FanfictionThe world was never meant for this. Not this quaking, freezing, splitting apart ruin of earth. And she didn't know why it was happening. All she knew is that she wanted out from under this damn building, and, by Gods, she would take all the help she...
