His hands felt sticky. There was not enough light to see. His eyes had time to adjust, even so they could only discern a liquid of a blackish hue. Why did his hands smell of blood. He looked around left, right, behind. He could not see far into the darkness. The ceiling above his head was falling, crumbling, clamping down from above. He twirled around like a rat in a maze. He felt himself break out in sweat while he panted. His leg ached. Something fell from above, he jerked awake.

"Settle down!" the penguin said straight into the man's skull. The man pawed at his forehead and found some loose snow had struck him while he slept. He swiped it away, remembering the aching leg, realizing he had burnt it while stomping out the fire. The adrenaline must have worn off. He examined the place where he lay. It was like a reverse hammock. Snow had managed to weave a seal, roughly from the top of his head to his feet as his fall had made an impression in the snow and created a thin impromptu trench.

He remembered the penguin flying out ahead, straight out of his hands, items flying all around, the drone chasing, and most everything past that was a blur.

"Are you alright?" he asked.

"I can hear your thoughts" the penguin sighed. "Yes, I got lucky and landed in a thick pile of snow. Head first! Like a dart. Took a while to wriggle out. Luckily, no sign of the drones." the penguin hopped beside him.

"Are you alright? You are sweating a lot. Plus I was picking up a strange dream."

The man wiped his brow and sat up breaking apart their thin snow shelter.

"Do you remember anything from back then? In my dreams sometimes I think I see that place. But when I wake up it's gone." the man's hand massaged his temple. The penguin looked the man in the eyes, the stared into the sky for a bit.

"I remember a sound." the penguin said.

"A sound?"

"Yes, " the penguin replied "Like a river, but of stones fighting each other. It got closer and closer. It was a trance. I don't know what happened next." the man sat, and thought for a while, the sun was high in the sky. It was mid afternoon. After a few minutes of silence the man groaned and barked "I can't remember a thing. Also don't peak into my dreams."

"Fine." the penguin said. "While you slept I gathered the items scattered around." the man nodded and began gathering them back into the backpack sack. He worked for a few minutes while the penguin watched. The penguin could see the man deep in concentration. It hopped, behind the man and with his great beak he smacked him in the head.

"What the hell was that for!?" the man shouted.

"Didn't your parents ever teach you to say thanks!" the penguin thought, while screeching at the man. The man stared at him with arms crossed. In the next minute his expression softened, he may have even smiled a little. "Maybe in time we'll remember more." the penguin stopped as well. It could see something of a sadness in the eye's of the man. But it did not pry into that mind to know more.

***

An earthquake struck, In an ordinary year of the early 21st century, on the west coast of North America between the hours of 4 to 6 am, before the average citizen would have the opportunity to hit the snooze prompt on their phone alarm. The people knew: construction codes had been written, drills taught, and emergency services were well funded.

And yet, buildings collapsed in great number. Most were old but some new crumpled, burying their tenants, often alive. Most expensive buildings like hospitals, large apartment complexes, only suffered minor damage. Many roads where blocked off by rock slides, land slides, mud slides, or rivers being redirected. As land moved, pieces of road detached from each other.

Emergency services had a great difficulty in search and rescue. Cell towers, power lines, water lines, many were destroyed. The quake had caused tsunamis. It was too early for masses of eager beach goers. But there were still many sea side properties and early birds who in a period of a half an hour were struck by waves. Many people were sucked into the ocean, ultimately drowning many thousands.

An estimated 150 thousand persons were dead by mid afternoon. A further 50 thousand was attributed to failures placed at errors by emergency services and hospital deficiencies in the weeks after.

***

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

"Grace, it's time to wake up." Grace heard her curtains being torn open as a bright beam of sunshine struck her face. She rolled over onto her stomach and buried her face in the pillow. Suddenly the blanket began to shake letting in the cold air. "You just turned 14 you can't be acting like this!" Grace groaned and rolled her eyes. Then. she rolled around curling the blanket into a warm cocoon.

"We have to get packing. We are leaving soon." a warm voice said with a deliberate hint of sternness.

"Mom! I said I don't want to go. I don't see why we have to do stupid trips. I just want to do nothing! No-thing! It's my spring break not yours." Grace shouted and pouted into her pillow.

"No, it's our spring break. It'll be fun. Seeing northern lights. Think of what you'll be able to see through that camera. " Grace heard a few verbal *clicks* from above her, and off to the side from the make believe camera. She grabbed her pillow and yeeted it at her mother. She ducked and it flew right over her brunette locks and struck the door. "I can see someone is feisty. We are leaving in 3 hours. We have a long drive ahead of us, rest and ready yourself." her mother dressed in a black cardigan and long pants left the room softly closing the door.

Grace sat out of bed, and wondered how much effort she would be willing to muster to either: run away, or fake being seriously ill. She scratched her head and feeling the messiness of her hair, grabbed a brush off her table. She brushed through it a few times while brainstorming a way to not have to go. With her hair straightened, she grabbed the pillow from the floor and tossed it with a spin back to bed. She made her bed. Then, just lay there a while, scrolling mindlessly on her phone. She texted a few friends for ideas, they all cheered her up with a joke or saying they wanted to go.

She scoffed, then texted a class mate, Trevor. He asked if she wanted to stay over again. She shrugged, knowing it wouldn't save her. Their parents new each other well. Her father was a doctor, mother had been a nurse. Trevor's dad, did software, whatever that meant and his mom was a project manager and always loved charts, and spreadsheets, as well as always talking on the phone. Trevor was situated on a computer most of the time, like his dad.

She was thankful though. Her parents finally could spend some time at home, and she wouldn't have to stay at Trevor's while they were away. Her mother had not worked in ages, she was still called on to help.

"What's so good about Alaska?" she texted Trevor.

He replied with a gif of the northern lights and added a little about glaciers, nature, animals.

"Think of all the pictures you could take. You might even sell a few if they are good." he said. She read over the message and sighed.

"I guess... I like photos, but I want to be a reporter. Nothing is going on out there." She winced at the grinning emote Trevor posted and further at his reply.

"True! But if you can find a story out there. Couldn't you find one anywhere?" She glared at the phone screen annoyed. He was right. But it felt wrong. She smacked her phone on her pillow and snuffed the life out of it. She grabbed her camera and tilted it back on herself. She made the ugliest face possible: triple chin, and face covered in hair till it resembled a monster. Click.

She grabbed her suit case from the other room, and packed quietly in her room stopping every so often to check her phone. She packed away: spare clothes of all kinds, a few extras for the cold, fluffy wool socks, winter jacket, camera equipment : lenses and extra film, a notepad. Soon enough her suit case was ready. It would only be a week. From sunshine to the piercing cold. She was already dreading having to sit in the SUV for hours, staring out the window at a panorama of random cities, forests, orchards, and mountains all disordered.

She could hear her parents searching frantically for the passports. She took some time to put on light make up to cover a few blemishes. She was so utterly bored. She grabbed a skipping rope and went outside. What did she have in common with these people? What did they want to do but go to Alaska and see some stupid lights. All the real life was happening here... and what where they doing but leaving their responsibilities behind. Suddenly they emerged she stopped skipping and could see they were hauling all the suit cases outside.

She jumped in the car while they loaded it up. Her mind drifted to her birthday. Out of all the invites half could never make it again. She remembered how she had blown out the candles. How happy everyone looked. She was shocked at all the smiling faces. She snapped smiles, tears, and hugs with her camera. Her dad had bought her a small photo album to mark the event. She had gotten the pictures developed and filled it all out. She was happy.

Going out into nowhere would suck. None of her friends would be there. She wasn't even sure she'd get cellular reception. She didn't even understand why her parents wanted to go so badly.

By the time her line of thought had ended she already noticed the car had long since started the journey. She had hoped by staring daggers she'd be able to break the tires, engine, and frame.

"Why do we have to go?" she murmured. She saw her dad's eyes flash in the rear view mirror.

"Because I want you to see it." he said.

"See what! It's not like we are going skiing or snowboarding or swimming." Grace replied.

"Have you ever seen real emptiness. Nature devoid of human beings, their worries, their pain? Alaska is the least populated state. It feels endless. My dad used to take me there when I was young but when you get old, things change. Even if you hate it," she heard a smile enter his voice, "you won't forget it for as long as you live. Your mind can be just like that camera, but instead of an image you have to feed it an experience. And it might even last an entire life time. You have to be there to see it."

"If you wanted to go so bad. I wish you'd just gone by yourself." she could see him sigh and continue to drive. Her mom laughed at the retort. "She has your bad temper, and my good one!" as her dad turned his face to look at his wife she could see him frown.

This was going to be a long trip.