2.
Each extractor that
was put online would inevitably help another team. We wanted to help
and had the capability to do so. The extra cash didn’t hurt either.
The first few jobs paid for most of the initial cost and we could do
it cheaper than any of the large foundries.
Looking back, it was
nice to see the community rally around a central idea and pursue it
with vigor. I wish someone would have stopped and thought about the
long term, though. Granted, none of us would have listened. The
problems that arose were serious. Some of them happened rapidly.
Others took years to take root, or for us to notice.
The earthquakes
didn’t seem abnormal initially. Places like California always had
the occasional massive quake. It wasn’t until they started
happening in odd places that people took notice. When entire farms
were swallowed and turned into freshly plowed mountains. We started
to take notice.
When we woke to face
our own mortality, we couldn’t ignore it.
I bolted upright in
a daze, but could feel that something was wrong. I’m not sure I can
really explain the sense of fear and dread properly. The best example
I can come up with is walking through a store with your child, who
you know is right beside you and then you realize that they aren’t.
You look around and don’t see them. That dread you feel as you are
suddenly panicked and looking for them is about as close as I can
describe. It is immediate, instinctual, and complete. Your mind
starts trying to rationalize the situation and set everything right
in your world, only none of it adds up properly. It’s not the next
door neighbors setting off bombs and mortars. It’s your entire
world crumbling around you. It’s not your kids slamming the
cupboards while making breakfast, but your whole house dancing to the
staccato rhythm of the mega earth drum. Which, by the way, you helped
create.
At that moment
though, I didn’t think about any of those things that hindsight
puts into perfect focus. I had a select set of goals:
Find my wife? Done.
Sitting in the bed right beside me with a confused and terrified
look.
Find my kids? I
heard them running down the hallway screaming, toward my room.
Sounded like three voices, all accounted for.
Cower in fear and
hope to make it out? Easy. Do nothing and hope for everything.
As the minutes
crawled on, we started to feel a little safer. The house was, so far,
remaining in one piece. The occupants and possessions were shaken,
but no one was damaged yet.
