THREE DAYS AT THE END OF THE EARTH (First 5 Chapters of the complete novel)

Three days at the end of the Earth: Chapter 3

Chapter 3

 Ismael had a hard time getting off the floor after the tremor threw him to the ground. When he regained his bearings, he looked for Emily and was somewhat surprised to see that she was able to hold her ground pretty well, doing the equivalent of a hip-dance, using her knees as springs and shifting her weight on those slender legs as needed.

She looked around startled with a grave and serious expression in her face that changed her demeanor altogether. Ismael thought for a second that she looked more dangerous than scared. She suddenly focused her attention on him, and grabbed his forearm with hers.

_C’mon Isma, get up.

_Was that an earthquake?

_Yeah, I think so. _She was surprisingly strong for such a small and sexy frame. She lifted him up easily, and continued looking around. Ismael realized she was making an effort not to look too and he found that very appealing.

_So, there may be an aftershock, right?

_Well, this region of Spain is not near any major Fault, and earthquakes are infrequent… we may have seen the last of it…

While he was cleaning himself up he added _ I wouldn’t bet on it.

_And you may be right Isma_ She said, almost as if to herself.

He diverted his attention to look at what she was looking, and found his eyes drifting over the small island in the middle of the Ria, the one that the locals called Illa Tambo, or Tambo Island, and understood the cause for the tremor.

The top of the island had dislodged itself from the base, and was now floating in the air, and rising.

The island itself was just a big mountain that poked out of the waters of the Ria, almost in pyramidal shape, covered by eucalyptus trees. And now, the tip of the mountain was rising up in the air, while the rest of the island below remained trembling and quaking. Trees and rocks were falling from the floating mountain top back to the remaining island below, and a huge column of dust and smoke connected the island below to the rogue chunk of rising rock, like a vestigial umbilical cord.

All around Tambo, the water was raising waves that were several feet high, and a lot of the small boats that were by the harbor near the beach below Ismael were being smashed violently against the granite docks.

_Fuck, I’m truly glad we are on top of a hill. I saw the tsunami of Indonesia on TV and that left me traumatized.

_Maybe…. _She paused_  Isma, I think we should head home just in case. Let’s head towards the parking lot.

 _Eh.. yeah… but slow down, I am not as flexible as you!

_ I just want us to take our cars out of here, so the emergency vehicles can get through.

_Emergency vehicles?

_There will be arriving soon, you’ll see.

And then the second tremor came.

Everyone in the province of Pontevedra felt it, and in a 10 mile radius everyone and everything were thrown to the floor.

In the next days that followed the incident, the government agencies that commandeered the few video cameras that capture the event in Mogor would corroborate that the raising of the mountain top on the island was at the epicenter of the quakes. The island’s pinnacle was now floating a few dozen feet in the air, levitating slowly, while from the island below tendrils of roots and moss were holding onto to runaway chunk of rock, like a mother who doesn’t want to let go of its child. These same government agencies would deny the existence of video from the Naval base that showed the island shaking, and then breaking free, and rising, steadily, majestically, shedding huge chunks of dark earth down back to the island, while pine and eucalyptus trees would topple from the top, and some would slide down the side, tumble and break, but all of them finally fell back to the island.