The house violently jolted with another tremor as they tumbled out the front door and onto the still shaking ground. They rolled over to witness the back half of the farmhouse collapse in upon itself, sending up great plumes of dust. Both men scrambled onto their hands and knees and crawled as far away from the farmhouse as they could before the rest of it came crashing down.
Henry and Lenny slept fitfully through the night, fearing that the wolves would return. Henry was only able to get a few hours of sleep because his training wouldn't allow him to sleep through a situation. He needed to remain alert in case the wolves came out of hiding and found a way to attack.
Luckily, the wolves had not returned; but the fact that the wolves had not returned worried Henry more than it had cheered him up. He had nodded off for a bit when a disturbance outside woke him. He rushed over to one of the windows in the chapel to see what had spooked him. As he gazed outside, he watched several flocks of birds scatter as if something had startled them. Henry ran over to Lenny.
"Lenny, wake up!" Henry shouted.
Lenny rolled over on the church pew and swatted Henry's hands away.
"Just five more minutes, Grandma."
Henry walked over to the crates that contained food and water. He grabbed a small water bottle, twisted off the cap, walked back to Lenny, and poured the water on his face.
Lenny bolted upright. "What in the bloody hell is going on?"
Henry unceremoniously threw a towel at Lenny's head.
"Something’s not right. My gut's telling me that we need to get the hell out of here now!"
Lenny tried to protest but Henry walked off to pack things up. Irritated, Lenny dragged himself out of his sleeping bag to help. They spent the next thirty minutes hastily packing the all-terrain vehicle. Henry was in such a rush that he tossed things into the back of the vehicle without bothering to tie them down. Lenny tried to talk some sense into Henry, but all he got in return was a look that said don't piss me off right now, so Lenny gave up.
Henry could hear Lenny continue to grumble and complain about missing breakfast and how he'd been rudely awoken from a wonderful dream. Henry shook his head and ignored him. Something nagged at him, and he wasn't sure what it was.
Henry felt a strong tremor, then peered out the chapel doors to see poor Lenny hanging onto the top of the all-terrain vehicle for dear life. He had been on the roof of the vehicle securing things as the earthquake hit.
"Hold on!" Henry shouted.
He dropped everything and ran out of the chapel towards Lenny, who jerked back and forth wildly. The tremors shook Lenny off the vehicle, tossing him to the hard asphalt before Henry could reach him. Small cracks appeared in the walls of the ancient church. Lenny sprung to his feet, nursing his injured shoulder.
"My equipment!" he yelled as he bolted into the shaking building.
Henry raced in after him, dodging objects as they fell from the walls. The large glass orbs that had once bathed the room in a soft glow were swinging widely, some colliding with the walls and others shattering, covering the area with shards of white glass.
Lenny scrambled about collecting his electronic devices when another strong tremor hit the church, throwing him from his feet. Henry watched helplessly as the lanky man hit his head against the church’s altar. Lenny lay upon the floor dazed and confused while trying to shake off loose cobwebs and stars that danced in his vision. Henry slid up next to him.
"Are you okay?" he shouted.
"Uh . . . yeah . . . I think," Lenny replied still dazed.
A bookcase nearby slammed to the ground, smashing one of their bags of rations to the floor. Henry grabbed Lenny and his pack and dragged the half-conscious man out of the church. It was difficult to navigate out of the otherwise open chapel because the quake kept throwing things everywhere. Several times Henry had to shield Lenny with his body to prevent a church pew that had catapulted into the air from striking him.
The large wooden doors swung back and forth, slamming together which such force that Henry knew they would easily crush anything caught in between them. He laid Lenny down before he pushed one of the church pews between the two massive doors. The two doors slammed together with a thunderous retort. One door bounced off the hard wood of the bench while the other slammed into the bench, crushing a portion of the seat and became wedged.
Henry turned around to grab Lenny and found him jostling about on the ground as the quake continued to roll through the small Irish town. He had never felt a quake like this before in his entire life. Not even the movies he’d seen about earthquakes striking a city could compare to what he experienced now. The ground shook with such an intensity it was as though the world was trying to tear itself apart.
Henry tried to help Lenny get back on his feet, but the semi-lucid man continued to lose his footing time and time again. Henry lifted Lenny up over his shoulder, grunting as the man’s full weight pressed down upon him. He rushed passed the doors, making sure to avoid the single swinging door. He ran down the steps and tossed Lenny into the passenger seat. He laced the belt through the straps of Lenny's bag and buckled him in.
Henry turned as he heard an ear-popping crackle ring out from the dell. Trunks of trees swayed and snapped; tops of trees crashed to the ground blowing up dust and leaves. Henry and Lenny both coughed as they tried to clear their lungs of the dust that filled air.
"What in the hell is going on?" Lenny groggily squeaked out over the rumbling.
Alarms rang out in Henry's mind. He spun around to see the asphalt at his feet crack open into small fissures. Henry jumped into the vehicle and turned it on. The engine immediately hummed in reply.
"Hold on tight! We need to get out of this town and into the open as fast as we can. This isn't a normal earthquake."
At that moment, the church belfry came crashing down in front of the wooden doors. The air filled with dust and chunks of stone from the impact. Both men had to shield their faces to avoid being cut by the flying stone shards that pelted the body of the all-terrain vehicle. One of the lights shattered on top of it, and several dents appeared on the vehicle’s body.
The air was thick with dust making it difficult to see.
Henry punched the accelerator, and they raced down the road towards the village limits. The earth groaned as huge fissures split the ground open. Henry watched in horror as one fissure swallowed up a building and was weaving its way towards them. Henry pushed the accelerator to the floor; the vehicle responded, immediately increasing their speed.
Henry pulled hard to the right, narrowly missing a fissure that ripped passed them. Lenny yelped out in terror as he nearly toppled out.
Henry raced desperately out of town. The world around him descended into chaos—buildings crumbled and windows exploded as tremors rolled through the abandoned village. Henry yanked the vehicle to the left trying to avoid something that flew at them. Lenny screamed when the vehicle hit a small pothole that popped up out of nowhere and caused his laptop to tumble out of his pack and crash onto the road behind them.
Another fissure worked its way towards them, devouring street signs, benches, and old vehicles. Nothing could escape the monstrosity’s hunger as it devoured everything in its path.
Everything around Henry blurred as he raced through the small village, swerving to avoid tumbling homes and buildings. Every muscle in his body tensed, ready to react the minute a calamity struck. His reactions happened instinctively even before Henry had the chance to think.
The all-terrain vehicle swerved down the street with such precision that the vehicle skimmed past every obstacle in the road. Lenny wailed like a banshee about the loss of his laptop as he clung to the vehicle for dear life during the insane dash out of Moneyneany.
As Rick and Jacobson sat in the middle of the farm’s open pasture, they felt the tremors of the quake begin to subside. After the farmhouse had collapsed, they’d run towards the open pasture dodging falling trees, a crumbling old barn, and several other obstacles al
ong the way. It had been difficult to run across the shaky ground as it threatened to rip apart under their feet.
Rick's dislocated shoulder still radiated with pain, but there was nothing they could do to reset it while the world whipped about.
Jacobson stopped to catch his breath. "I hope that was the last of the quakes.”
“Me too.” Rick said exasperated.
“We should look at that shoulder of yours and see if we can reset it. You're not going to be much use with it out of place."
Rick had cradled his arm as best he could through all the craziness, and even then, he’d bumped it several times, causing pain to lance through his body. The pain was so intense that he had to focus on the situation at hand or risk slipping into unconsciousness.
Rick gritted his teeth as Jacobson tenderly inspected his shoulder; Jacobson used his hands and fingers to try to assess how bad it was. When he was done, he walked over to his pack and pulled out his tablet. Luckily, the crack in the screen had not spread.
He walked over to Rick, activated the medical scanning software, and waved the device over Rick's injured shoulder. Instantly, an X-Ray image of Rick's shoulder appeared on the tablet.
"It doesn't look good," Jacobson remarked. "It appears that you have severely dislocated your shoulder, and I'm sure all this jostling around has caused more damage than I can see at the moment. However, after we set the shoulder, I can give you a shot of the healing agent to help with the rest."
Rick winced through the pain and nodded his understanding. Jacobson looked around and spotted a sturdy section of stone fence near the front edge of the pasture. He helped Rick to his feet and guided him over to the fence. Once there, he helped Rick sit down against it. He handed Rick a broken stick.
"What's this for?" Rick asked.
“You'll need to bite down on that so you don't bite off your tongue."
“Are you serious? I thought was just something they did in the movies?”
“Just do it so we can get this over with.” Jacobson responded.
Rick placed the stick in his mouth and mumbled, "Now what?"
Without warning, Jacobson grabbed Rick by the shoulder and slammed him as hard as he could into the stone fence.
There was a loud pop, and Rick screamed before passing out.
The frantic race out of Moneyneany and across the Irish countryside had been a horrifying mad dash of potential doom. The quake tossed broken cars around like a child shaking his toy cars in a plastic container. Lenny sat glued to his seat while Henry punched the accelerator through the chaos like a NASCAR driver punching his car through a massive pile up of wrecked cars on the speedway.
Several fissures opened up along the way, swallowing up cars, the road, and trees. Only luck and Henry's driving skills prevented these fissures from swallowing them up as well. When the quakes subsided, Henry pulled over to catch his breath and to let Lenny get out of the vehicle. When he did, he crumbled to the ground and kissed it.
"Lenny, get up!" Henry called.
"No!" Lenny yelled back.
"We can't stay here long. Any minute another aftershock could roll through. Besides, I need you to see if Rick's tablet is still transmitting."
Lenny stood up and grumbled as he pulled a new laptop out of his backpack. He placed the device on the hood of the vehicle and powered it up.
"You know, that was my favorite laptop we lost back there. It's going to take me weeks to get another one back up and running with even half the stuff I had on that one!"
Henry shook his head. "Which is more important, the laptop or your life?"
Lenny looked like he was going to say something but thought the better of it and shut his mouth. Lenny astounded Henry at that moment. He could have sworn Lenny was about to say that the laptop was more important than his life. The familiar ding of the operating system, saying it was ready rang out and Lenny went to work trying to locate Rick’s tablet. Henry took note of what had transpired and reminded himself that he needed to talk to Lenny about it when they got off the island.
It took Lenny a few minutes to reconfigure the program on the new laptop but he was able to track down the signal of the tablet.
"It looks like it’s still transmitting," he said.
Henry grabbed a few pieces of dried meat from the food locker in the back seat and offered some to Lenny. Lenny grabbed a couple of pieces and took a bite out of one while he shoved the others in his pocket.
"Have you ever felt an earthquake that strong before?" Lenny asked.
Henry shook his head. "Honestly, that didn't seem like a normal earthquake to me, but I could be wrong. The strongest quake I've ever been in was maybe three point two, nothing too serious. I think the cave-in I was in over in Afghanistan was stronger than that quake."
Henry walked around the vehicle to inspect the tires for any flats or any other possible issues from the debris that had pelted them. Luckily, he didn't find anything wrong with the tires and whispered a prayer of thanks.
"How far is it to where Rick and his team are?" Henry asked as he inspected the rear tires.
Lenny brought up the GPS tracking system. "It looks like we’re about ten or fifteen minutes away. With all the crazy detours you had to make to avoid those fissures it doubled our drive time."
Henry kicked the dust off the tires and then climbed back into the vehicle. "Well, let's hope the quakes are over and there is nothing in our way between here and Claudy."
It wasn't long before the all-terrain vehicle was slowly making its way down Glenshane Road to Claudy. Lenny's head leaned against the frame of the vehicle with his jacket rolled up as a pillow to help him sleep. Henry cautiously drove through the town, watching out for any possible sinkholes or fissures they’d have to navigate around.
The trip to Claudy was uneventful, so Lenny took a nap. Before he nodded off, he transferred the GPS tracking system over to the monitor in the dashboard so Henry could follow it. The signal pointed to a house or building located outside the city limits.
Henry was feeling a little apprehensive because he wasn't sure if Rick would be okay with him coming to save him. Henry knew that Rick had stayed in the army because he had wanted to prove that he didn't need Henry to save him. Even though Rick had been a part of several missions without Henry and had made it through successfully, the fact remained that their superiors kept assigning Henry to be part of Rick's team. He knew that many teased and bullied Rick because his big brother was always there to save his bacon. Rick said it didn't bother him, but Henry knew otherwise. Now, here he was in a dire situation as Henry rode in on a white horse to save the day.
Henry sighed and continued down the road towards his little brother.
Rick slowly opened his eyes as he comfortably leaned against an old willow tree. The feeling of the cool spring breeze caressing his cheeks reminded him of how his mother would run her hand across his when he was sick. Birds fluttered from tree to tree while squirrels and chipmunks dashed among the branches above. Everything was so serene and perfect.
Rick sat at the base of the tree, enjoying the warmth of the sun as it radiated through his body. However, his tranquil moment didn’t last long because curiosity got the better of him. He stood and walked across the little grass field towards a small sapphire colored pond. The wildflowers danced in the breeze as Rick made his way through the field. Butterflies and bees buzzed all around him yet never came close to him. It was as though they moved out of his way as he approached. Rick smiled as he watched several little unknown birds flutter back and forth over the pond, chasing small insects that hovered nearby.
The pond seemed familiar. Something nagged at his senses, making him wonder if he should know this pond. He looked back at the fields hoping that something back there would jog his memory. In the distance, he saw an old log cabin. Something about it too seemed vaguely familiar, but he couldn't place it. It was too far away to make out any details, so Rick shrugged his shoulders and made his way down to the pond’s edge
.
When he neared the pond, recognition set in and a small smile lit his face. The pond had been a favored fishing spot that he and Henry had often visited with their grandfather when they were boys. Their grandfather would take them to it every time their parents brought them over to visit.
Rick remembered how his grandfather had always made sure to take them fishing when they were in town. They’d made several fishing trips to that pond back when he was alive.
Why didn't we ever come back here after he passed? Rick wondered. Both Henry and I loved this place. I can't count how many times the two of us would sit by that bank waiting for the fish to bite as Grandpa told us stories about the old days.
Lost in his memories, Rick watched the surface of the water ripple when the fish came up to feast on the small bugs that touched down on the water’s surface. It reminded him of when he had asked his grandpa about the ripples.
Rick heard the laughter of a young boy. He glanced across the pond and saw a young boy who looked like a younger version of himself. Sitting next to the boy was an older man that looked like his grandpa.
"Grandpa, why does the water ripple like that?" the young boy asked.
"You see, Ricky, those ripples are created by the water nymphs that fly around this pond. They like to tease the fish, so they fly down and dip their toes into the water. That’s what causes the ripples. They are very special creatures that protect the pond."
"Why are they special, Grandpa?"
"The nymphs are special because they make sure the land is protected from anyone that would harm it. If someone were to come here and try to hurt these trees or pull up those flowers, the nymphs would use their magic and turn them into wart-ridden frogs."
The Shadow Above The Flames Page 22
