Melissa

Earthquakes in the Pacific Northwest weren't rare, on the contrary, they happened much more often than most people realized, but when Melissa was violently startled awake in the wee hours of the morning by objects in her room crashing to the floor, she knew that particular quake was going to be one for the record books. The power had gone out the day before and had still not been restored.

Bolting out of bed, she scrambled to her bedroom doorway and clung to the door jams. Family photos bounced then slid off the walls and she prayed her house would remain standing. First the power outage and now an earthquake?

"Joey!" She yelled down the hallway to her teenage son's room. Moments later, his door flew open and he stood, wide eyed in the doorway. "Stay there! Hold on to the door frame." Thankfully, he did as he was told. She could hear items elsewhere in the house falling, crashing. The house groaned and she squeezed her eyes closed. The quake rumbled on and on. Would it ever end? With a final heave, the house went still. Silent, except for her ragged breathing.

"Are you okay, Mom?" Her son called out to her, his voice shaky and groggy.

"Yeah. Yeah, I'm ok. Are you?"

"Just a little shaken up," he said with a nervous chuckle. "What the Hell?" He looked around the dim hallway and blew out a breath taking a small step out of his doorway.

Glass and small, broken figurines littered the floor and Melissa instantly switched to mom mode. "Put some shoes on before you come out here and be careful of the glass."

Joey nodded and disappeared back into his room. Melissa did the same, pulling on her slippers and a sweatshirt. They met in the hallway and descended the stairs to inspect the damage through the rest of the house. Books had shimmied off the shelves and table lamps lay on their sides. Surprisingly, not much was broken. The portraits in the hall seemed to have fared the worst and she breathed a sigh of relief. Gathering some cleaning supplies, she made her way back up the stairs.

"I'm really worried about Amber, Mom." Joey said, the quiet concern in his voice broke Melissa's heart. She was worried sick for her daughter. The last time Melissa had checked Amber's location the day before, she was already well within the national forest, far from civilization in any form. Then the power went out, somehow rendering every piece of electronics in her home and across the town completely useless. Nothing was working, not even air wave radio.

"I am too, but we just have to keep hoping that she's safe up there in the mountains and will try and make her way back here as soon as she can." Melissa tried to convince herself as much as her son with her words. Amber was strong, independent and capable. She always had extra food and drinks with her when she went out and she had turned her Jeep into a very comfortable temporary home over the years. Maybe, when the power came back on, she would be able to call for help?

Joey murmured something inaudible before going into his room to tidy what the earthquake had disturbed. As Melissa swept up the scattered shards of glass and replaced the intact picture frames back onto the wall, her thoughts strayed to the day before. The neighborhood was generally a safe one, but she had been shocked at how quickly some of the people that lived there had turned ugly, spouting all manner of doomsday garbage. There was no way that could happen. The government wasn't secretly screwing with the people and the chances of a cyber-attack damaging the cars as well as the power grid...well, it just didn't make sense. Even with so many of her neighbors being supportive of each other, the few that were making waves had really upset her.

More than that, they had made her begin to think, what if? What if this really was the end times? She had no food stores or survival skills. She'd been a stay-at-home mom when her ex-husband had told her that he was leaving them, that he'd had a whole other family on the east coast and was choosing them over her. Amber was only seven years old then, little Joey was just five. They had never seen him again. Part of her was glad of that fact but it still rankled, almost fifteen years later, that she had been the side-chick and not even known it. She silently hoped that he'd been flying yesterday when the power went out. Pilots. She'd worked hard to provide for herself and her children though, taking a course in medical transcription, and was able to work from home. As the years wore on, she scrimped and saved, pinching pennies whenever and wherever she could, and finally, five years ago, she was able to purchase their home.

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She pushed the gathered shards of glass into the dust pan and carefully walked to the trash to dump it. The glass fell and she wondered how long it would take for the household trash to begin piling up if this was indeed a total, grid-down situation, like some of her neighbors believed it to be.

Heavy footfalls sounded on the stairs and Joey appeared in his grocery store uniform. Melissa's eyes went wide. "You aren't going in to work today, are you?"

"Yeah, the manager said that we would open for cash only purchases if the power was still out."

"I don't think that's a good idea, Hon." She started but Joey brushed her off.

"It's fine, Ma. If I get there and it's crazy, I'll come back home. I should probably get some food while I'm there, just in case."

We just made a Costco run, we've got plenty," She sighed, pressing fingertips to forehead. She didn't know why she wasted her breath sometimes. That boy would simply do whatever it was that he wanted to do and there was nothing that she could do about it. "Be safe, damn it. And if you aren't home by 3 o'clock, I'm coming down there to get you."

Joey rolled his eyes and pulled open the garage door. "I'll be fine."

She followed him into the garage. "Don't take any chances...with anything, Joey. I mean it."

He disconnected the automatic garage door opener and pulled the heavy door open by hand. "You should keep the doors locked while I'm gone, just in case. And lock this behind me." He said pointing at the large garage door. He pulled his old BMX bike down off the hook that it was hanging from and set it on the floor. "I'll be back this afternoon."

He hadn't ridden that old thing since he saved up enough money to buy that ridiculous car of his, and Melissa smiled to herself at how young he still looked swinging a leg over it. How he had always wanted to follow his big sister around when they were young. It didn't matter where Amber had gone, Joey had been her little shadow. They were such good friends and hardly fought, one taking the heat for the other when they had been caught doing something they knew they weren't supposed to be doing. He was a good kid. They were both great kids. It still baffled her that they were so grown. She'd had Amber and was expecting Joey when she was just Amber's age.

As Joey pedaled away down the driveway, she tried to ignore the sick feeling in her gut. "Bring back a big bag of seasalt!" She called out to him and he raised his hand in silent acknowledgement. Once he was out of sight, she closed the garage door, twisted its manual lock and returned to the kitchen.

Opening the freezer, she found the meat was still frozen but thawing out quickly. If the power didn't come back on in a day or so, the meat would go bad. Turning to the pantry, she pulled the door open and reached for a tattered cookbook. It had been her grandmother's and then her own mother's after, both of the older women's distinct handwriting littered the pages, altering and improving the recipes within. She flipped to the back section, looking for the pages on canning. It was a dying art, but her mother had canned jam every summer when she was alive, and along with this cookbook, Melissa had inherited all her mother's canning supplies after she had passed on. Now, it seemed they might finally come in handy.

The book held instructions for drying and salt curing meat as well, and she hugged the book to her chest. "God, I hope this isn't where we're heading." She whispered to the silent room.

************************

Just after noon, Joey returned from the grocery store rattling a shopping cart along beside his bike. She'd heard the racket from the cart all the way back in the kitchen and sprinted to the front door to see what all the noise was. The cart was full of canned food, rice, flour, sugar, yeast, coffee, more canning jars, pectin, dry goods and the like. Melissa gaped at him. How had he known what to bring home? As he neared, she realized that his uniform was torn and he had small, red marks on his hands, arms and face.

"What happened?" She cried out, running to meet him at the bottom of the driveway. She grabbed the handle of the cart and together, they pushed it toward the garage door.

"It's bad out there, Ma. Mrs. Nancy, from around the corner was there trying to buy supplies. You know she's old, people were just pulling things out of her cart and pushing her out of the way. I helped her get what she needed and get out of the store. She told me what stuff to take and to get home. So I ditched my apron and ran back in. I grabbed all that I could. She even told me to get antibacterial handsoap, vitamins, cold medicine, and pain relievers. That's all in the bottom." He panted. "When I left, people were just coming in and taking everything they could get their hands on."

"Jesus." Melissa paled visibly at his words. "Let's get you inside. Are you ok?"

"Yeah, I'm good. Just tired."

Melissa ran back up to the front door and through the house cursing as she went. She quickly entered the garage from inside and absently pressed the garage door opener. She swore as she continued forward to the large, roll-up door, cranked the lock open, grasped the handle and hauled it upwards. Joey rolled the grocery cart and then his bike into the safety of the garage, then closed and locked the large door behind him.

"What a nightmare." He breathed, shoulders sagging.

Melissa wrapped her son in a tight hug fighting tears. Pulling back, she held his face in her hands, looking up at him. "Are you sure you're alright?"

"I'm gonna have some bruises, but I'm fine, I promise."

She ran her hands over his face and down his arms, looking for any sign of serious injury then hugged him tightly again.

Joey groaned impatiently, "Ma. I'm fine."

Melissa's heart pounded behind her ribs. What if he'd been hurt badly? What would she do if he had not come home? She shook her head and finally let him go. Best to not think about those sorts of things. He was home and safe now.

Together, they emptied the shopping cart and prepared to preserve what perishable food they had.