Uncharted Storms:
Short Stories of
Hearts at Risk
by
Jackie Anton
Excerpt Story: Terra Beyond 2012
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written permission of the author.
This book is a work of fiction. Places, events, and situations in this book are purely fictional and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
Terra Beyond 2012
E’s Eyes ONLY!
December 7, 2012
What a day! Like there isn’t enough to be worried about in today’s crazy world, we have to write a report on what events caused the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. I mean my grandmother wasn’t born yet!
I have to find a better spot to hide this journal. My brat brother has been snooping in my room again. If these pages fall into the wrong hands, like someone who will snitch to my custodial parent, I will be grounded forever.
December 8, 2012
I’m spending the weekend with Dad. Plans are for dinner out, as usual, some Christmas shopping, and a movie. Dad promised to give me a hand with my Pearl Harbor assignment.
I can’t see the point in any of it! All the talk at school is about the world imploding, or ceasing to exist on December 21. Grandma told me, at Thanksgiving, that during her life there had been several scares like this one. Twitter is going nuts with how the human race will go the way of the dinosaurs. Pretty scary stuff! It sure is hard to concentrate on making a Christmas list of what I want from my family when we may not see December 25th.
Just in case, I put together a short wish list.
How about: 1. Extending my eleventh birthday to April, instead of Christmas Eve?
2. Moving in with my dad?
3. Spending Christmas with Grandma, and riding her horses in the snow one more time?
2023
The ground began to convulse beneath Erica’s threadbare, used, and mismatched athletic shoes. She had forgotten about the prophets of doom and gloom orbiting the planet prior to her eleventh birthday. At twenty-two, her freshly minted college degree would be of more use as butt paper.
She scanned the doorways and alleys along her route. Her goodwill outfit reflected from the occasional window. Much of the neighborhood was boarded up. A budding fashionista during her high school days, Erica had since cultivated the grunge look. The rattier the clothes the better, you could get mugged in a heartbeat if you looked like you had something worth taking.
She waved to the drab-looking clerk on her way into the store. Shelves were getting bare. She picked out a can of noodle soup and a beat-up, ancient-looking, can of tuna hiding behind a stack of spinach cans. She was moving though the aisles scouting out the sparsely stocked shelves when they began to shake, sway, and tumble to the floor.
A loud roar filled her ears, which felt ready to pop from the increase in pressure. It reminded her of the sound of a tornado, but much louder than the few she’d been through while in college in Lubbock. It threatened to deafen her. Black clouds formed close to the ground; her first thought was that another one of the huge oil refineries that dominated Houston had exploded. Then a blinding, blue-white, ray of light penetrated the cloud-bank. That was the last thing Erica recalled as she peeked out from under a shelf, which had pinned her to the dirty, nondescript, vinyl floor of the local food-mart. Screams of terror from the street out front echoed through her mind as she lost consciousness.
