David F. Capps
Tsunami Storm
DEDICATION
This book is dedicated to all those
who selflessly put their life on the line
so that others might live.
Thank you.
CHAPTER 1
Guang Xi sat with his legs dangling into the concrete box that housed the new generation earthquake sensors. Meili. He sighed and then smiled, his mind drifting through the memories of her beautiful face, her gentle touch and the softness of her skin. She was initially opposed to him taking this assignment in the remote region of Sichuan Province since he would be away from her for two months. Once he explained that his successful completion of this task would guarantee a teaching position at the prestigious Peking University in Beijing and a substantial bump in pay and social status, she had become excited at the prospects for their future.
Guang Xi was a little shorter than average but he was good looking and just a bit thinner than average for men in China. He dressed well and attracted many admiring glances from the young women at the University. He imagined himself as the center of attention at his first faculty party with his gorgeous fiancé at his side. Meili was very attractive with long black hair pulled back in a long braid. She was very graceful and quite adept in social situations.
He reveled in the envy he imagined the other instructors would be feeling as they looked upon him and Meili, the new social stars of the University. I deserve the notoriety and respect of the faculty, he thought. The day will come when I take the place of my mentor, Dr. Huang, as the head of the Earth Sciences Department. One day, even the Premier will know my name. Fame and fortune will both be mine.
Guang Xi shook the vision of Meili from his mind and stood up. He slid the metal lid that covered the concrete box into place and secured it with screws. The satellite antenna and the solar panel protruded from the top of the metal cover. He looked around to fix the memory of this part of his life in his mind. Far from the halls of academia, this remote location was his gateway into the coveted faculty of Peking University.
The Longmenshan fault ran through a low mountain pass that was commonly used by goat herders to get their flocks to more fertile grazing pastures on the other side of the mountain ridge. The ground sloped gently up to the pass and down the other side. Guang Xi had placed 24 sensors, each a mile apart, twelve on each side of the pass. The altitude was over 9,000 feet, so the air was still easily breathable, but the foliage was limited to shrubs, grass and moss in most places. There were some trees in the area, but they tended to thrive more in the small recesses where water collected, rather than out on the slopes where the sun dried out the generally rocky soil.
His professor and mentor, Dr. Huang, believed a substantial amount of tension had built up along the fault line running through Sichuan Province. Dr. Huang believed that electromagnetic emissions from the fault line could be used as a predictor of major earthquakes. The emissions would appear several days before the actual quake and increase in strength as the earthquake built up even more tension along the fault line. The new sensors would monitor both ground movement and electromagnetic emissions, sending the recorded data by satellite link directly to the University in Beijing on ten minute intervals to conserve power. Each sensor had its own solar panel to recharge the Lithium-ion batteries that powered the sensors and the radio burst transmitters that sent the data back to the Earth Sciences Lab. The new sensors were all functioning properly and communicating with the server at Peking University.
It was mid-May and Guang Xi’s last day on the fault line. Just an hour and a half walk back to the small village where he would catch the afternoon train to Beijing and his time away from Meili would be over. He smiled, remembering her beautiful face, as he packed his remaining equipment into a canvas bag.
Suddenly, without warning, an intense burning flared on his right cheek and right ear. Guang Xi instinctively ran to his left, trying to escape the intense heat and pain. As he glanced back he stumbled and fell, landing on his left side, and rolling onto his back. Above him a shimmering curtain of bluish-green light formed above the fault line undulating and intensifying. Guang Xi screamed in pain as the searing heat spread across his face and chest. He scrambled to his feet and tried to run, only to stumble and fall to his hands and knees. He rose again and hobbled away as his back began to burn, his skin sticking to his clothes. He glanced once more at the curtain of light, which had now turned reddish-orange.
Guang Xi heard the low rumble from the earth just before the ground trembled beneath his feet. The ground split along the fault line. The side opposite the crack in the earth erupted vertically thirty feet and sent a wave of dirt and rocks surging around him, sweeping him up in the flow of the tumbling stones and soil. He screamed as he was twisted and pushed backwards by the flow of earth. His right foot became crushed between several large rocks moving in the debris. When the surge of soil slowed and came to a stop, Guang Xi was buried up to his chest, with only his shoulders, arms and head poking out of the ground.
The shimmering curtain of reddish-orange light extended up over a thousand feet into the sky above him, the heat searing the flesh of his face and hands. Just as suddenly as it had all started, the curtain of light vanished and the rumbling slowed until it finally stopped. Deathly quiet remained. All Guang Xi could hear was the overpowering ringing in his ears and the pounding of his own heart. He looked around and tried to wriggle free of the dirt, but his legs wouldn’t move.
“That’s it?” he screamed at the thirty-foot high rock wall. “That’s all you can do?” He waved his arms in the air. “I’m right here! All that power, and still you can’t kill me. I will beat you. I will conquer you. You can’t win against me!” He folded his arms across his chest and angrily stared at the wall of stone. Hours passed and his energy waned, causing his mind to wander and lose focus.
An aftershock roused him from his daze. A few more tremors and then darkness gradually shrouded him as night settled in, the throbbing pain in his right foot his only companion. He drifted in and out of consciousness as the parade of stars slowly marched across the cloudless sky. The night air was cold, but the ground that covered his body held its heat and kept him from freezing. He was awakened several times during the night by additional aftershocks that shook the ground.
I am an important visitor to the village in the valley, Guang Xi thought to himself. Such a small village rarely saw anyone from a large city, let alone Beijing. Several people had followed him out to the fault line in the early days of his project and helped him dig the holes and build the forms for the concrete boxes that would house the sensitive electronic equipment. People know I’m out here. Soon they will come for me.
CHAPTER 2
Willa McBride stood with her right hand raised and repeated the oath of office for Mayor of Dolphin Beach, Oregon in front of the local magistrate, the police chief, her locally famous sister, U.S. Senator Elizabeth Bechtel, her daughter, Chelsea, and fourteen-year-old granddaughter Dakota, plus a few admiring friends.
Willa was 52 years old, slightly overweight, but not fat. Certainly not fat, she reminded herself. Her medium length auburn hair had been turning gray slowly over the last few years. She had resisted getting her hair dyed, but now that she was mayor, maybe it was time to change that. Maybe put a little curl back in her hair, like it was when she and her husband raised their family. He had died from a sudden heart attack eight years ago. Her children had already been raised and on their own. Her husband’s life insurance had been enough that she could live comfortably, just no cruises or long vacations.