When the Lights Go

My husband and I were currently traveling to see my parents in Oklahoma. It was getting close to my birthday and we needed a break from the city. Our two dogs went with us almost everywhere and this was no exception. My parents had several acres and our dogs loved to stretch their legs there but we still had a bit to go. Our hotel wasn’t bad; it had a king size bed and a big window on the second floor overlooking a small cow town, Dumas, Texas. There were a few trees and a few low lying city lights. I loved looking out as the skies got dark. My wonderful husband, Erik, had started walking up behind me. I could see his amazing 6 feet figure walk up from the reflection in the window. He wrapped his strong, loving arms around my waist. We stood there for a minute looking out at the scenery before us. He then says, “Hey beautiful, I have something for you.” I looked at him and smiled. “Ooh! A birthday kind?” I ask. “Well, yes, yes, it is! How could you have known?” As I stare up and smile, he reaches into his pocket. He brings something shiny out! It was a beautiful white gold heart shaped locket with a beautiful gold chain. The heart had blue sapphires that I am pretty sure matched a ring he had bought a few years back. He hands it to me and I open the locket. Inside was not a picture but a phrase. “Hi Beautiful.” He looks at me with a smile and says, “I want you to know, every time you open this that you are truly beautiful!”

We did not feel like with had been asleep very long when we started hearing Annie doing a low growl. Next, we heard a knock on our hotel door. We checked the time. It was 3:23 am. We went to turn on the bathroom light but it didn’t work. Erik walks up to the door and peers through the peep hole. He says, “It’s only the front desk guy.” He opens the door. The front desk clerk had a big flashlight on and other than that the hallway was dark. “Hi. What’s going on? Is everything ok?” Erik asks. “Sorry to bother you. It seems the town lost power. There was a small earthquake and now nothing is working. We aren’t sure when it will come back on. You are welcome to stay or head out. You already paid for your 1 night.” “That’s odd. I need to talk to my wife to decide our plans. Can I call down to let you know?” Erik says. “Normally, that would be fine but phone lines aren’t even working. Cell phones are not working either,” the clerk says. Erik turns to look at me. I thought for a just a second and the said, “We can go ahead towards my parents. We are already awake.”

As we got on the road, Erik squeezed my hand and dozed off. I loved to listen to music as I drove. Sirius XM wasn’t working so I put in the only CD we had in our car, LMFAO. I had barely gone more than 4 songs down highway 287 towards Amarillo when the steering wheel started vibrating. I looked at all gauges and nothing looked wrong. I gently shook Erik awake. “Sorry babe. The car is having an issue. The steering wheel is vibrating.” “Oh. That’s not good. Is it a flat?” he asks. “I do not know. I will check,” I answer. I got the car pulled on the side of the highway. We both opened our doors and stepped out of the car. As soon as our feet stepped on the ground we felt vibration under foot. We both got our doors closed and then went to step. As we did the vibration knocked us over.

The vibrations were an earthquake. We were both pinned to the ground. Neither of us had ever experienced an earthquake. This earthquake only got worse. Finally, it stopped. As we looked at each other under the car, neither of us knew if it was safe to stand. He had a small scuff on his face from falling. We were both covered in dust. We waited. We stood after a minute and both immediately checked on the dogs and the car. The dogs were scared, much like us, but fine. The car was fine too. He walked up to me. “Are you ok?” “Yeah babe, I think. Are you?” I answer. “Yeah,” he breathes, “At least the pups… and car are good.” We walked the dogs around and noticed the road was completely torn up. The earthquake had destroyed it for as far as we could see. We couldn’t see far though. It was still very dark. “Do you think we can drive on this?” I ask Erik. “I think some. We can also drive on the side. It will just take us awhile to get anywhere. We probably want to get started.” He says.

We only had about 40 miles to our exit north of Amarillo. This should have only take 45 minutes. Today was different. We kept moving slowly south. As the sun came up we saw more destruction. There were houses in shambles and oil field equipment knocked over. Some oil equipment had left messes and some were still spouting stuff into the air. Many fences also looked twisted. We still did not have any cell phone service. We knew we couldn’t help anyone no matter how much we wanted. Fortunately, we only passed a few houses. We were about 20 miles north of our exit. We had not seen very many vehicles on the road. There were random pillars of dark smoke all around us. To our south, Amarillo, there was a huge amount of smoke. It seemed to cover the whole horizon. We saw a semi-truck and trailer on its side. We both knew we needed a break. We pulled up behind the truck. I put my little 9mm gun in my waist holster and we got out. I was actually glad that we had brought our guns. Hopefully I wouldn’t need to use it.

As soon as we got out of our car, Erik yelled out to the truck. There was no response. We started walking up to the rolled over truck yelling as we went. As we got up to the cab Erik knocked on the back of the cab. Still no response. “I am going to climb up there and see if he is ok. He might have a CB radio we can reach someone on.” Erik states. “All right. Be safe,” I say as I walk around to the front of the cab and add, “The windshield is pretty much shattered. Be careful.” I waited for only a few minutes before Erik popped his head out. “I do not think he is alive. I cannot find a pulse or breathe. Go ahead and get the dogs. I am going to mess with the CB radio in here.”

After getting the dogs and walking them, I walked up to the truck cab to check on Erik. “Any news?” I yell out. Out pops his head again. “YES!! Give me a second.” He jumps out of the cab. He looks at me with fear. “So there are big issues caused by that earthquake. I was able to reach a dispatcher in Panhandle, Texas. She said there was a little earthquake that caused phones to stop working and then there was the big one. The one we felt. People fled to her town because Amarillo fell into a sink hole. This caused gas explosions and fires. The dispatcher has been working all day to try to reach other towns. There are reports of Dallas, Oklahoma City, Tulsa, and the stretch of I-25 from Pueblo to Denver being gone. The Mississippi River started flooding towns on both sides. She said to stock up and get to a safe place.” I stared at him. Thinking of how this could not be real. What did we need to do? This is when we both sprang into action. We were able to get a few supplies out of the semi cab and we headed due east to Oklahoma.

On our way, we stopped in numerous small towns to collect supplies. We were running lower on fuel than we liked so we started heading towards the town Chickasha in Oklahoma. I had been around this town growing up. It was nothing of the town that I once knew. The brick buildings had crumpled over in the earthquake. There was a horrible smell we could not pinpoint until we started down a side street to avoid the crumbled buildings. Bodies had been pulled from the destroyed buildings. There were so many I am sure they didn’t know what to do with all of them. They had been piled up all over. Dozens of piles. We attempted to avoid running over them. There were just too many. I saw a woman step out of some trees. She simply walked a few feet and then sat down. I had Erik pull the car over. As he stayed in it I got out and took a bottle of water to the woman. Her clothes were covered in blood and grime. She was filthy. I reached out to hand her the water and she was so weak she could barely take it from my hand. Her arms shook as she pulled it to her lips. I just smiled at her and went to walk away. She spoke. Saying, “Do not stay around here. It’s not safe. Everyone is getting sick. If you don’t get sick, you will get robbed. People don’t know how to function.” As she spoke, I could tell it was taking effort. I was so sad. I smiled the best I could, waved, and walked away.

We drove on towards my parents’ house. Their house was several miles out on backroads. The dirt backroads had not been torn up nearly as much as the asphalt roads. This made traveling much easier. We had driven at night and were going up the last hill to where their house was situated. It was 5:20 am. The sun had started trying to show its first brightness. The sky was a beautiful grey. My parents had a fairly tall house. It showed up pretty well. They had several acres of land and a few animals. I was so anxious to see them! As we crested the hill, my heart sank. Their house was not there. I was so heartbroken. Erik continued driving towards their gate. We pulled in to where their drive way started. Their brick mailbox was a crumble of bricks. I looked down the drive way towards where the house I grew up in should be. I opened the car door and started to step out to their gate which was closed. As soon as my car door closed an air horn sounded. I stopped in my tracks. “Back out and leave now. There is nothing here for you.” A voice shouted. I was scared. I just wanted to be home and safe. I yell out as loud as I could, “This is my parents’ house!!! Would you just tell me what happened to them? Please!” I felt like I held my breath for so long. A voice finally came back, “Who are you?” “This is Janelle and Erik! Where are my parents?” I scream back! No more than 3 minutes had gone back when 2 people started walking towards us. It was my mom and dad!!!!

As the weeks went on more information started coming out. Apparently the earthquakes caused sinkholes under almost every major city. Some states, like Colorado, had almost completely disappeared underwater. Coastal areas were also under water. A new world was created!