Hell Released (Hell Happened Book 3) (20 page)

It was a wall of ocean water coming more than 40 miles in shore and still with enough mass and force to topple buildings that hadn’t been knocked down by the quake and push them further inland.

South Pasadena’s fires were put out by the wall of water and the air mass being pushed in front of the wave reached the three huddling in the mountain above the city. It came rushing up the mountain, bringing blazing heat, the smell of burned everything, dust from the cities and a thick spray of mist.

Chuck pulled Yvonne by the hand and led her and Danielle behind an outcropping of rock the size of a large house. The noise was so loud that talking became impossible. Chuck pushed them to a recessed area and the three sat down with their backs against the wall of the rock.

Chuck put his muscular arms around the women and held them close as the 200-mile-per-hour wind threw brush and debris on either side of the sanctuary they’d found. The wind, heat and hot mist made it hard to breathe and all of them coughed because of the pollutants in the air.

Just when Yvonne thought things couldn’t get worse, she felt the ground shudder like it had been struck by a giant mallet. She clutched onto Chuck with all her might and felt Danielle doing the same thing from the opposite side of the man who had saved them. She hoped he hadn’t saved them from being raped and tortured only to die behind this rock.

The spray of water in the air got thicker and she could feel her clothes getting damp. She buried her head into Chuck’s chest. One hand dug into his bicep and the other gripped around his waist and she was able to hold onto his belt buckle. Danielle had done the same thing and their heads bumped, but that told Yvonne at least they were still together and still alive.

The sound of the passing air seemed loud enough to deafen them all.

The wind slowly dropped off and they felt an opposite wind come down the mountain. It was an icy cold wind, not as stiff as the wind that had come up the mountain. The moisture that had accumulated on the clothes chilled them, and Chuck could feel both women start to shiver.

After what seemed like forever, the winds settled to almost still air, Chuck made to move from behind the rock. Both women were still clinging to him, but it felt safe enough to move out and see what nature had wrought. He grunted as he removed the vice-grip hold Yvonne had on chest.

Drops of water dripped off his hat and into his eyes.  He peeled his hand out of Yvonne’s and pulled out a slightly damp handkerchief from his back pocket and wiped his face as best he could.

As soon as his face was as dry as it was going to get, he put the hanky back in his pocket. Yvonne interlaced her fingers back into his as they worked their way back up to where they had looked at the city below them. The moon gave them enough light to see, but just enough and they had to pick their steps carefully.

When they reached where they had seen Pasadena and Los Angeles burn, everything below them looked different. Instead of pin pricks of light from distant fires, there was nothing but darkness below them. Even from this altitude, they could see water flowing back toward the sea.

They could also hear the sound of water flowing down from where it had washed up the mountainside. It was eerily frightening.

Yvonne pointed down and to the right, in an area they were parked for the night less than two hours before. There were parts of buildings, cars, trucks, trains, buses and tractor trailer rigs littering the area. If they had stayed in that area, they would not have survived.

Still without words the three looked down, seeing new destruction and desolation everywhere they could make out details.

With his left hand, Danielle refusing to release it, he pointed to an area about 100 feet below and to the left of where they stood. In the moonlight they could see the water had washed up that far before receding. There were several cars and trucks, but also a number of broken bodies, human, animal and aquatic, that had been pushed this far by the wave.

“Let’s get back to the truck and dry out these clothes,” Chuck suggested as he too started to shiver. Both women nodded but it took another 30 seconds before they could drag their stares from the total annihilation below them.

Something that had been thrown up from the wave had smashed into the back of the truck, staving in the tale gait. It had also pushed the truck off the boulder which had stopped their progress up the mountain. Chuck saw the right front quarter panel had been ripped off, but the tire was still inflated. He’d see how much real damage was done in the morning.

Chuck opened the doors on the passenger side for the women. The cab had been twisted a bit and the doors screeched as they opened. He looked down to see if there were any fluids dripping, but as wet as it was he couldn’t tell.

He got behind the wheel and turned the key and the truck started after hesitating. He turned the heat to full and everyone started taking off their wet clothes. Chuck hung his jacket and denim shirt out the window and closed it to hold them in place. If it didn’t rain, they might be dry by morning.  The women stripped down to their tee-shirts, and used the blankets Danielle had been using to cover their bodies. It was an awkward few minutes, but Chuck had the decency to keep his eyes averted.

With the truck idling, it took a few minutes to warm up. There was no talk because none of them could think of words to describe what they’d witnessed. They’d all seen movie destruction, but nothing could prepare them for the wiping out of two major cities in the space of an afternoon and evening.

Chuck watched the truck gauges and they settled into the normal range.

Danielle, in the back of the quad cab covered by a blanket, was leaning against the door. Chuck looked at the young woman and her hair was still matted to her face, but her eyes were closed and he thought she must be asleep.

Yvonne had leaned her seat back and the blue blanket covered up to her chin. Her head was back and she too looked like she was sleeping.

Chuck turned the blower down to minimum and reclined his seat back and stretched out as best he could. He was glad they’d gotten a big truck. He had a blanket and was as comfortable as he was going to get. He dimmed the gauges on the dash, but he couldn’t turn off the headlights. He closed his eyes and tried to clear his mind about all he’d been through.

He was almost asleep, right on the edge, when he opened his eyes. “Shit,” he said quietly.

Yvonne sat up and looked around quickly. “What is it? What’s wrong?” she asked excitedly.

“I gotta piss.”

Yvonne lay back down and pulled her blanket back over her. “That’s the least interesting thing that’s happened in the past two days. Enjoy yourself.”

Chuck heard a short laugh from the white girl in the back seat.

Five hours later, after getting what sleep they could, all three were awake. At different times during the night, the women too had to exit the truck to attend personal needs. Each time someone opened a door, the light in the truck’s cab came on. Both times the women did it, Chuck was startled awake and laid awake, not moving, waiting until the woman got back into the truck to make sure they were safe. When the cab light went off after 20 seconds, Chuck would drift back to sleep.

The sun motivated him to wake for the day. It was late enough in the morning that the sun was shining directly through a pass in the mountain and into his eyes. The sun must have been doing the same thing to Yvonne because she too was moving around and covering her eyes. Chuck pulled the clothes he had in the driver’s window in and they were a lot drier than the night before. He heard Danielle moving in the back seat, so he took the shirt and jacket and climbed out of the truck to get dressed and to give the women some privacy to put their clothes on.

They joined him a few minutes later and all three walked up to look down on the land below them. The sunlight made it worse. Buildings were piled up like cordwood. Bodies they could see were scattered everywhere. It was worse than a war zone, worse than anything they could have imagined. It was a gray and black desolate swath of destruction.

“Where do we go now?” asked Yvonne.

Chuck scratched his beard and leaned forward over the overhang on which they were standing. “It looks worse to the south.” He looked up the mountain, but knew it was blocked completely. “I guess we see if we can go north.”

Chuck checked over the truck and the damage was mostly cosmetic. The tires were still inflated and it ran. They started back down the mountain, avoiding most of the debris and bodies, but having to shove some cars out of the way, drive over rubble and downed trees when there was no way around.

Chuck stayed as close to the mountain base as he could, but most of what they saw for the next three hours was a devastated landscape. Chuck kept an eye on the gas gauge, thankful for the two fuel tanks.

The first signs of a lessening of the damage were on the north side of Crescenta Highlands. The earthquake had knocked over the taller buildings and shaken the houses. Fires hadn’t turned the city to ashes and the flood waters hadn’t reached over the mountain range between the city and the ocean, and the low lands back toward Pasadena inclined enough to temper the damage.

They found a car dealership with a few trucks on the lot that didn’t appear to be badly damaged. They found a Lincoln MKT luxury SUV that had a dent on a rear quarter panel, but it appeared to be roomy and all-wheel drive. Chuck worked his way into the dealership building and came out with several keys. He pressed the buttons on two before hitting the right one on the third try. The SUV unlocked and they could open the doors. The fuel gauge was near empty, but Chuck went back into the building and came out with a hose and two gas cans. It took another 20 minutes, but they found enough gas to fill the SUV.

Yvonne played with the GPS in the Lincoln as they got back on the road, looking for some place that looked safe enough to spend the night. They tried the Foothill Freeway, but there was too much damage so Yvonne guided them off the freeway and to Wentworth Street south of the freeway. They stayed on that street, passing a burning oil storage yard and eventually worked their way to the I-5.

On each side of the highway were burned or burning houses and businesses, or warehouses that had collapsed. The Ronald Reagan interchange was a mess as Chuck had expected, but the SUV handled the off road driving in good shape. Back on the freeway, they noticed water had come in this far, but not as deep, keeping them on the freeway instead of looking for food. All three were getting hungry as it was getting near mid-afternoon and they’d only had the snacks Yvonne had scrounged while Chuck was getting fuel. They needed real food and a place to clean up.

They weaved their way through the 405 / 5 interchange without much difficulty but the bridge over Roxford Street was a pile of rubble. Chuck turned off the freeway and drove through the standing water. There were a few bodies floating, but not as bad as what they’d seen earlier. There were piles of dead cows and horses that carrions were circling.

The gas station and fast food restaurant’s parking lots were underwater, but not so deep as they couldn’t get to the station. The quake had cracked the glass door. Chuck went inside and came out with lunch meats, crackers, dried fruit in his first load, and a case of bottled water in the second. On his third trip he brought out an armful of sweat shirts and tee shirts.

He was forced to make a fourth trip trough the murky water for a can opener.

“This should get us through the day,” he told them and got back into the truck and complained about being tired of wet feet and asked the women to keep an eye out for a clothing shop that was accessible.

Their next stop however was the next interchange which was where at least four overpasses had collapsed. When they were finished navigating the detour Yvonne came up with they were on State Road 10 which led them into the south side of Santa Clarita just as the sun was nearing the horizon.

They could tell water had flooded the town, but it had receded. They found a clothing store and each took a turn going inside, finding clean clothes and washing with the bottled water. While Yvonne and Danielle were cleaning up and changing clothes, Chuck found a furniture store with beds. It also had hundreds of comforters and pillows on its shelves and so he made three of the beds for them to sleep in for the night. It wasn’t much, but it would work better than the previous night.

Danielle still had the lost fawn look on her face, but she looked cleaner and was now wearing clothes that didn’t smell like death. Yvonne was just coming out of the store when Chuck returned so he told them what he’d found and sent them ahead with the SUV and the food.

Chuck joined the two 20 minutes later, feeling cleaner than he had since his last shower in prison. The two were sitting on one of the unmade beds eating crackers and cold cuts. Chuck joined them. Danielle didn’t say much but Chuck and Yvonne made small talk while they ate. He went out to the truck and brought in a dozen bottles of water and offered them to the women.

Just as they finished eating, they heard a crash outside the building they were in. Chuck and Yvonne ran outside, guns in hand, and saw it was one of the buildings at the end of the block had part of its roof collapse.

Most of the buildings in this area of the city looked like they’d weathered the quake in pretty good shape, one of the reasons Chuck chose to stay in this section of the city.