Rock Fall
Copyright© 2015 by Gina Marie Wylie
Chapter 11: The Storm
Donovan was waving at Chris and he told Mike he’d get back to him. “You have to see the sky!” Donovan said, very excited.
The sky was indeed angry, and then Keith joined them. “When I was just a kid when I was in the army, I was stationed in Missouri at Ft. Leonard Woods. We don’t get many tornadoes, but that sky sure looks like tornado weather,” Keith warned.
A funnel cloud reached down from the clouds, it never touched the ground, but it galvanized Chris into action. “Get everyone into the mine. Yeah, we tied down the mobiles, but we didn’t expect real tornadoes! Get them going!”
Soon, people were streaming past him, into the mine. Chris turned to Keith. “Will the mine door hold against a tornado?”
Keith laughed. “You must never have looked at it very close! It’s six inches of solid steel, with bars that go deep into the rock. Your great grandfather was afraid that bad guys would try to capture the mine and steal the gold.
“There are a dozen laterals that we used for this and that that will each hold everyone. There will be plenty of room.”
The rain was fierce, lashing the last few stragglers rushing past. “We need an accurate head count, Keith. We have no idea if there is anyone left outside. I can’t send men out into this to make a final check,” Chris told the mine foreman.
“Well, consider that for a while we will need to occupy everyone. Getting head counts on each mobile, learning their neighbors — that will do the trick this time,” Keith said.
A huge lightning bolt hit one of the mobiles near the end of one of the rows, leaving the two men blinking. “Time to get inside ourselves, Chris. We can send some of the powdermen out when the storm ends, to assess the damage.”
In the distance, huge bolts were striking the ground, the stunted trees around the mine ... anything and everything. The thunder was deafening.
For an hour, head counts preoccupied people. The stake had lists of everyone present, and the remainder of the people were listed. “All present and accounted for, Chris,” the foreman told Chris.
Chris breathed a sign of relief. Another half hour later and the lights went out again. The emergency generators were quick to take up the load.
Since it was Sunday, the stake held a church service, with hymns sung from memory, followed by a sermon from Ruth, the oldest of the bishop’s wives.
Late in the afternoon, Sydney and Amy came to Chris. “Marriage plans are delayed,” Amy said. “But more important, what happens if the little stream in the mine becomes a big stream? We could end up being flooded out.”
“I’ll grant you, it’s never rained like this before,” Chris told them. “But my Great Grandfather Barnaby and my Grandfather Phillip were mining experts — mines and water aren’t a good combination. They never found a correlation between the stream and rainfall.
“My great grandfather wrote about it in his journals. The water seeps into cracks in the rocks, and only so much can get through at once. He thought it took years for the water to percolate through the rocks.”
“Chris,” Amy said, “I went to the mine door and listened for a while. The thunder is continuous.”
“Keith and I will send some of the powdermen out when it quiets down. Powdermen are the most careful, thorough, anal men who work in a mine. They never rush, they take their time, and are the most cautious men you will ever meet,” Chris told her.
“You have thought of everything,” Sydney said in awe.
“All it will take is one missed detail,” Chris said. “It’s like those guys spinning plates on long sticks. Slip once, and you are lucky if you lose one plate.”
It didn’t quiet down until one in morning, and Chris made the decision that everyone stay in place until morning.
When dawn came, Keith, Dwayne and another man slipped outside. After a half hour, Keith came back.
“We have only looked at a few of the mobiles. Some are damaged, beyond a doubt. And beyond a doubt, there is some water damage as well on the inside of some of them.
“There are thousands of places where lightning hit the ground, Chris. We knew that every mobile had at least one lightning rod, and we did a quick survey of those close to the mine entrance where the lightning rods were missing, at least threes homes out of those close by.
“There are holes melted in the roofs, Chris. The ones we saw were a foot in diameter.”
John Snow spoke up. “We can fix those. Obviously each mobile needs more than one rod. We can hook up a bunch. It won’t take long.” He looked at Chris piercingly. “As long as there isn’t a cloud in the sky.”
There were, it turned out, twelve mobiles that had holes in their roofs and the three families with small children Chris invited to stay in the main house. His fiancés were only too happy to move in with Chris until the repairs were made. Members of the stake were put up other members.
It took until Wednesday to make the repairs and get everyone back in their homes. Wednesday dawned bright and clear, and everyone was moving about. The power had stayed on, which was good.
Pine Valley hadn’t faired as well. Few homes had lightning rods and there had been no place to shelter. More than twenty people were dead, double that injured.
Mike had called on Wednesday with the news. Chris suggested lightning rods for the town. Mike huffed a great sigh. “After that day in Mogadishu, a lot of guys just stared into space. This was like that. Everyone has lost family, friends, and neighbors. It has taken everyone’s minds off the Guv turning off the lights.
“Nothing hit home like the lightning storm. My grandfather was a Marine and served on Guadalcanal. He told me once about a bombardment that lasted hours from Japanese battleships. Years later, when I read the accounts, it was really every night for a week or more. This was like that, I think. I didn’t pee myself, but a lot of folks did.
“On the radio they are talking about ‘rain events’ and ‘lightning events,’ Chris. It’s getting close to freezing. You can’t call the northern part of the country — I assume they have had a lot of ‘snow events.’”
“Sheriff Vanna, I have friends north of Vancouver, Washington. They tell me that the government is triaging the northern tier of states, the statists are not going to help them,” Amy said.
“Yeah,” Mike said. “The fact is, that we are likely to lose power again if another lightning event happens. I think the Guv screwed up — he didn’t realize he could shut off power to everyone and blame it on the storm. He won’t make what mistake twice.
“There is no one in Pine Valley, these days, who is unaware of what the government has done to us, not for us. I think that if there was another purge of politicians, there would be a lot of cheers,” Mike concluded.
“We would be far better off impeaching, recalling or calling for resignations,” Chris said, “rather than piling up the bodies. Yes, their mistakes have cost lives, but Mike are you comfortable with the death of your predecessor? Do you want to be removed from office the same way if you make a mistake or if some people take umbrage at how you do your job?”
“I can’t say as I would. What do you think we should do, Chris?”
“Stay with the law. Yeah, what’s happened so far is explainable because of what’s happened. But if we want to return to the rule of law — we’re going to have to follow the law.”
“And if the Feds don’t do that?”
“The ultimate founding document of this nation, the first sentence speaks to that: ‘When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another... ‘
“We are content to follow most laws of this country,” Chris went on, “but we will not be dictated to, forced or otherwise coerced. The government is of the people, by the people and for the people. Washington needs to relearn their grade school civics.”
“And if that means blood?” a male voice in town asked.
“We won’t start a fight. If we can’t settle things in the spirit this country was founded on, we don’t want to live in that country.”
There was a moment of silence and Mayor DeWitt broke it. “Did you get hitched in spite of the storm, Chris?”
“It didn’t seem right, sir.”
“Well, I now pronounce you man and wives by the power vested in me by the great state of Arizona. You can have a church service too, as soon as the weather calms down.”
“That might be a while, sir,” Chris responded.
The mayor said dryly, “It’s why I married you son — so you would have something to do to pass the time.”
Everyone on both ends of the connection laughed, but Chris had the last laugh. “I’ve been passing the time just fine, sir, with lots of help.”
The principal/mayor laughed. “Such a clever answer! There are more levels in that, than in Moby Dick.”
Chris smiled. “Now, Sheriff Mike, I need to get people back to work, cutting wood and you and Mayor DeWitt probably need to do as well.”
“Thank you, Chris. You have been crucial to getting us through this, as well as we have,” Mike said. “But yes, we need to get to work. Talk to you later!”
“Later!” Chris echoed.
Keith was a larger asset than Chris imagined. “Wood parties, report to the work site!” the foreman commanded and men leaped to obey.
Ruth was an asset too. “Brothers and sisters, there is work to do! Roll up your sleeves and get it done!”
Later Chris was walking through the settlement and he came upon some of the Mormons, working to put right storm damage. They were singing an unfamiliar song, and he saw Sydney was watching. When he approached her, he saw she was crying.
“Sydney? What’s wrong?”
“They are singing the Mormon handcart song. Isn’t it grand?”
“Grand is pushing a handcart uphill?”
“It is a song about Mormon spirit. Their unflagging spirit,” she told him.
“And is that a good thing?”
“It’s a reminder of the Mormon pioneer spirit. Chris, it can’t be put into words. These people are ready to do whatever they have to, in order for their families to survive. The stories of the handcart companies — they make you weep.”
“I wish I knew them,” Chris told her. “I keep running into a lot of things I never knew or suspected.”
Sydney nodded and lowered her voice. “I’ve long wished that the Mormons had a theology like the Unitarians and kept the same social networks. I’m going to talk to the bishop’s wives and see what they think.”
Things on the mountain smoothed out fairly quickly. They had been tempered by the events and now everyone was trying very hard, even the little kids. Chris heard the Handcart songs several more times.
Down in the valley things were pulling together more slowly, but they were still more united than Chris could ever remember. The power had been on an irregular schedule for several days, but eventually it stayed on.
There was little news except local news, some new from the state government and very little from Washington DC.
The weather continued unsettled, but it was mostly rain with an occasional thunderstorm. Once they received an alert that a hurricane was headed their way, but it turned more easterly and rained a lot on New Mexico. The temperature hovered near the freezing mark, but usually stayed on the plus side, even at night.
Chris was talking with Amy and Sydney about getting more wood in, when Donovan Flake came in. “Chris, they just had announcement on TV and radio — the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court is going to speak in ten minutes.”
They all gathered together in the main room and waited. At least this time they were playing classical music and not Souza marches while they waited.
Finally the message started, with the chief justice flanked by six others in black robes. “I thought there were nine of them,” one of the men who had been working at the main house said.
The chief justice looked into the camera. “Until further notice, we will begin with a minute of silence, honoring the more than a million dead Americans, including two of my fellow justices.”
Sydney spoke into the silence that followed. “Ginsburg and Breyer aren’t there.”
The minute seemed to drag into eternity, before the chief justice spoke again. “We have begun with the Herculean task of restoring our nation to what it once was. I wish to state at the outset that our Constitution is still the law of the land. Certain parts, mostly having to do with elections, will have to be adjusted because of the emergency, but I assure that will be as temporary as we can make it.
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