Greensburg
"This is Doctor Riley from Cincinnati."
"You another geologist?" Sheriff Adams asked him.
"Yes sir."
"There's more of you guys in town than there is citizens right now."
"Oh, who else is here?"
"A couple in a big van, been putting those things all over town." He pointed at a metal box sitting next to the curb. "Good looking woman and a black guy, they'll be back in a bit, we've got them checking in here every couple of hours. Have some coffee and wait."
"I'll do that. I'm waiting on another one myself. Dr. Monroe, the Indiana State Geologist. He's supposed to meet me here."
"He coming from Indianapolis?"
"Bloomington."
"Liable to be a long wait. 46 is closed 'tween here and there."
A rumble spilled the coffee in a cup on a milk crate. The geologist looked around at the surrounding area. "Has that been happening every half hour or so?"
"Some stronger some weaker. You get used to them after a while."
A crashing noise from behind them got everybody's attention. "Another chimney most likely." The mayor said.
"Happens after every tremor." The fire chief added.
"Most interesting town you got here mayor."
"What's left of it. You come to see our cracks?"
"Yes sir."
"Let's take a walk. I'll show you where my parking spot used to be."
"Used to be?"
"Yes sir. It was a hole about twenty feet deep last I saw it, you could still see my reserved sign in it, don't know now though."
Pinhook
"Doctor, I don't mean to tell you your business, but if you don't mind, I'd like to get you delivered and get back home before this evening."
Saul nodded. "You're right. Thanks for stopping." He got back in the huge old four-wheel drive truck.
They bounced around and over the jutting rock that had ripped the road in two and continued on. This detour had taken them on a round about tour of a good section of two counties. But they were getting close to their goal now.
"A protuberance like that is most likely caused when the surrounding material subsided and the rock formation remained stable."
"So if the road sank and the rock didn't, the rock would punch through the road."
"Exactly."
"Hey, you don't have to go to school to learn this stuff."
"No sir. You don't"
Rt. 421 east of Greensburg
"Hey, that's my people. Hit your horn." Saul said to the driver.
The van stopped at the blaring of the trucks air horns.
Patrick got out and waved when he recognized the geologist.
"Thanks for the lift. Take it easy going back."
"Yes sir. Thanks for the lessons. Something to tell my kids."
The truck roared around in a U-turn and bounced back down the uneven pavement.
"So what brings you to the scene of the crime?" Susan asked him.
"I had no idea it was actually this bad." He stooped to look down a crack in the pavement.
"You ain't seen nothing yet." Susan said.
"We've had to borrow a guardsman and his Hummer to get out to some sites."
"And we've had fissures swallow instruments."
Saul nodded. "I'm meeting Dr. Riley here. I'm sure he'd love to see it all too."
"Let's go. We're due at check in anyway."
"Check in?"
"With the sheriff. He wants to keep track of us in case we fall in a hole someplace."
Williamstown
If there had even been a town here it was difficult to tell from outside, you had to look down.
The area had sunk up to four meters in places from where it had been.
Every structure had collapsed. Almost every tree had fallen. Water was now collecting in the lower spots.
Farm ponds in the area had drained when the ground began to break up and their springs had failed. Now they were recollecting what water there was available from the gentle rain that had fallen overnight.
Still the ground shook from time to time.
Fresh cracks appeared, then the earth itself would moan, and some part of the ground would drop yet again.
Middletown
"You come'n or not?" Clara shouted back into the house.
"I done been out there twice waiting on you so just hold on."
Joe finally emerged carrying another box of 'valuables'. Their house hadn't collapsed, yet, but it was sinking as a unit into a slowly widening cleft in the ground that had devoured their front yard and it's crab apple tree.
Their area was now under mandatory evacuation. They had hung on through the voluntary, hoping the shifting of their house would stop and they could stay. But now, they had to go.
As Joe drove the heavily loaded van through the back yard and through the garden to get around the gaping fissure Clara looked longingly at the house. "We spent a lot of good years here."
"Weren't that many years, and weren't a lot of them good." Joe said.
He ended up driving as much on the shoulder as on the road to get out of the area.
Germantown
A furtive figure eyed the sky suspiciously. Then it ducked into a deserted house. A few minutes later it emerged carrying a VCR.
It loaded the machine into its jeep then walked toward another house.
Some time passed. The figure came out with a bag and got into the vehicle.
Then it drove carefully down 700 trying to avoid the worse of the deformities in the road.
Indianapolis
"My fellow Hoosiers. As all of you know, there has been a catastrophic series of geological disturbances in the Southern part of our state the last few days. Fortunately to this point there have been no deaths, and only a few injuries. Although the loss of property has been astronomical.
"We have lost entire towns. Farms. Roads. The entire infrastructure over almost three entire counties and some surrounding areas has been obliterated.
"Even now, we have teams on the ground, monitoring the situation, advising us as to what to do next. But in the face of the power of nature, we can do little but get out of her way.
"I will travel to Greensburg as soon as it can be arranged and inspect the damage. But you have seen as I have, the television pictures and heard the reports from the scene. The devastation is total except for some areas on the extreme eastern side of town. Where our State Scientists have a monitoring station set up with those local authorities that remain."
She smiled and took a deep breath.
"I am pleased to report that looting and other disturbances have been minimal. Most evacuations went off without a hitch. People are respecting the road closures and restrictions in place for their protection.
"For this. I thank you. I am proud to be your Governor.
"As soon as the situation is under control I will be applying for Federal Aid to assist those that have been displaced by this calamity."
She faced the cameras for another minute. "Thank you."
Greensburg
"Well State Scientist." Dr. Riley looked at Saul. "Are you ready to give Her Honor a tour of your monitoring station?"
"Yeah." He drained his coffee and turned off the battery powered TV.
The camper was sitting at a crazy angle. They had given up all hope of keeping it level enough to use.
The ground of the parking lot had resumed some semblance of levelness, you could stand upright without difficulty now. They had fled the hospital lot after the building began to collapse. To set up shop in the parking lot of the New China restaurant.
The owner of the place let them help themselves to the stock he couldn't get in a pickup truck and take with him. They ate well between runs to take readings and measurements.
"If it gets much worse. In spite of Madam Governor. We're packing up and moving on." Saul said when Patrick and Dr. Riley came back from another trip.
Now they were driving a four-wheel drive, the van having been taken to safety.
"This is incredible. I'm surprised the place isn't swarming with geologists." Dr. Riley said.
"It is. They won't let them in." Sheriff Adams said. "In fact. Officially, we are the only people left in almost the whole county."
Susan was monitoring the instruments. She looked up, "Hang on." She said.
They 'assumed the position'. The ground shook and rolled for a minute.
A chair fell over.
The truck danced on its oversized shocks.
Another crash from over towards the high school.
It passed.
"That was a good one." Patrick said.
"Six, maybe seven on the Mercalli scale." Dr. Riley said.
"Does that include changes in altitude?" Susan said. They walked over to her ring of monitors and computers arrayed on milk crates so they didn't have as far to fall during shocks. "According to this, we just dropped about six centimeters. Downtown, it was over twenty. And down at the site at exit 132, it was half a meter."
"Just then?" Saul asked incredulously.
"Just then, and still, there it goes again. Exit 132 just tilted by five degrees."
"Didn't your people say this would stop after half a meter?" Dr Riley asked Saul.
"That was at least a meter ago. What's our max recession now?"
Patrick had to check. "We lost a transponder in that last one. But the one this side of Downeyville northwest of here on 1050 is reading down by over five meters."
"Sixteen feet." Susan translated for the Sheriff.
"More." Patrick added.
They were all looking at Saul.
"One more of those. I mean it. One more of those, and we go."
"Where?" Susan asked him.
"Someplace level."
"Cincinnati." Dr. Riley smiled.
[Note: All rights reserved, including rights to publication. Distributed copies to proofreaders and editors remain property of the author. No infringement of copyright is intended. All persons are fictitious, all occurrences, while possible, have not happened. Yet. No cities in Indiana were actually destroyed in the writing of this story. All geologic features actually exist or are presumed by geologists.Back to the Desk
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