A/N: This is another story of survival, and this time, it's Cornelia's time to be the hero. Thanks to Lexvan for his excellent review which convinced me to go ahead with making the rest of the "W.I.T.C.H Survives Disaster" series. Each story in the series will have a different character be the hero that saves the rest of the group. This time, it's an 8.0 magnitude earthquake that hits California and puts Heatherfield in the strike zone.
*Step potential occurs when downed power lines electrify the ground around them for approximately 20 feet in all directions. Anyone standing in that zone will have to keep their feet together at all times, for if they lift up one one foot, the electricity will travel up the leg touching the ground, down the other leg, and arc between the raised foot and the ground. Likewise, if they seperate their feet, the electricity can arc between their legs. In either case, the person could be electrocuted.
Disclaimer: I own notheing but the concept of the story.
Being located in Southern California, between San Francisco and Los Angeles, Heatherfield is susceptible to earthquakes.
If a major quake were to occur along the San Andreas Fault, like most of Southern California, Heatherfield would take a hard hit.
Scientists put the odds of a major earthquake with a magnitude of 6.7 or greater occurring in the area within the next 30 years at 97%.
The last notable earthquake of such a magnitude occurred in 1989 near Santa Cruz, postponing Game 3 of the 1989 World Series.
It has been over 21 years since that quake, meaning that another one is overdue.
Scientists also predicted that Heatherfield would be one of the cities to be hit when the next "Big One" hits.
Unfortunately, when it hits, it will likely be without warning, and could cause major damage in most affected areas.
Everyone in the areas at risk could be doing anything when it happens, and when disaster does strike, they would have to act fast in order to survive...
Heatherfield, CA
June 26, 2011
Cornelia Hale and her husband Caleb were relaxing at their house with Irma Lair, Will Vandom, her fiancee Matt Olsen, Irma's brother Chris and her best friend Elyon Brown.
Elyon was in the study checking her e-mail while the others were watching a movie.
It seemed like a normal day, but that is about to change without warning.
Suddenly, everything started to shake as the ground started to rumble. "Crap! Get behind the couch!" Cornelia instructed as she and the others dove behind the couch and crouched down.
Irma was in the kitchen and stood near the door frame. "Irma, stay out of the door frame, it's not a safe place!" Cornelia said.
Irma then joined the others behind the couch. Elyon dove under the desk and held on to it.
"Hold on to the couch so if it moves, we move with it!" Cornelia ordered as the shaking reached its peak.
The walls creaked as they got closer and closer to collapse. Debris fell around the house as it was knocked loose.
Suddenly, the entertainment center fell over with a crash, taking everything on it with, including the 50" TV and the contents of the shelves.
"Get your heads down!" Cornelia instructed as the walls started to give way.
Seconds later, the whole second story of the house collapsed, littering the ground around it and the floor inside with debris.
Everyone covered their heads with their hands as a wall came down on top of them, the couch the only thing keeping it from crushing the group.
As suddenly as it started, it was over. Cornelia's house, and all the houses around it, were in ruins. "Is everybody OK? Is everyone alright?" Cornelia asked as she looked around.
They were alive because the couch bore the force of the collapsing wall, creating a void space in which Cornelia and her group survived.
Cornelia grabbed a nearby blanket, tore it into strips and handed a strip to each of her friends. "Cover your mouth with these, it'll protect your airway from dust inhalation." Cornelia said as they obeyed.
The group gave themselves a minute for their eyes to adjust. Cornelia saw a light shining through the debris and crawled towards it.
She moved any loose debris in her way as the others followed her. Suddenly, the ground started rumbling again ans she froze in place.
"Stop, stop, hold on, it's an aftershock." she said as the others stopped behind her. The walls and debris creaked as the aftershock raged on.
Seconds later it stopped and the group was able to continue. "Nice and easy, take it slow." Cornelia said as she reached the opening.
It was big enough to crawl out of and Cornelia eased herself out. Irma came out next followed by Caleb. Will came out and Matt followed behind her. Chris was the last one out, just behind Matt.
Once they were out, they grouped together in the driveway. "Where's Elyon?" Cornelia asked.
"She's still inside." Irma replied. "OK, we're gonna have to find her and get her out." Caleb replied.
"Yes, but first, we need to make the house as secure as possible, shut off the gas and power." Cornelia replied.
Cornelia led the others around the side of the house towards the gas main.
"Irma, get me a couple of bricks, we're gonna use them to shut off the gas." Cornelia instructed. Irma grabbed a pair of bricks and handed them to Cornelia.
Cornelia placed the bricks one on each side of the valve and turned it ninety degrees to the left, shutting off the gas.
She then led them to the breaker box and opened it, then Will turned off the main breaker.
"OK, we're gonna split into two teams to find Elyon. Irma, Caleb, you're with me, Matt, Chris, you're with Will." Cornelia said as she formed two search-and-rescue teams.
"Get something you can write with, a pen, or anything you can mark with, shoe polish, or even something out of the fridge, ketchup, mustard, anything that can leave a mark, get it." Cornelia instructed.
The two teams broke off and started the search. They would circle the house in opposite directions and meet in the center.
"Anybody in here?" Cornelia called out just after they entered. She noticed that the way to the kitchen was clear.
"OK, the way to the kitchen is clear, get something to mark with, get back here and let's get started." Cornelia instructed.
Will and Irma went in while Caleb helped Cornelia move a piece of debris that was blocking a nearby doorway.
After the doorway was cleared, Irma and Will came back and rejoined their teams. Cornelia's team went into the doorway that they just cleared into a hallway.
They came to a door and Cornelia had Irma create a diagonal line with a bottle of mustard that she found. "What's the line for?" Caleb asked.
"It's what the rescuers use when they're searching a house, if we become trapped, they will see this line and this will be the first place the go looking for us." Cornelia explained.
Irma slowly opened the door, pushing debris out of the way in the process. "Is anybody in here?" Cornelia called out as they entered the room.
They stepped carefully as they started their search for Elyon.
After searching every inch of the room, they went out and Cornelia had Irma make another slash on the door, turning the first slash into an X.
She also had her put a zero in the bottom quadrant of the X. "What's with the X and the zero, anyway?" Irma asked.
"It lets the rescuers know that this room was already searched, and the zero lets them know that there were no victims in here." Cornelia replied.
They went to the next door and Irma marked it with the slash. They went into the laundry room and looked around.
Caleb found a small black spot on the wall, tiny wisps of smoke coming from it. "Over here!" he called out.
"Crap!" Cornelia exclaimed. "What is it?" Irma asked.
"We got a fire behind this wall, and with firefighters having their hands full out there with the big emergencies, we'll have to handle this one on our own." Cornelia replied.
"OK, Irma, get some buckets. Caleb, get on the sink." Cornelia instructed. Irma came back with several buckets as Caleb tried the faucet.
He turned both knobs, but no water came out. "There's no water!" Caleb said. "Damn, the water main must have ruptured in the earthquake!" Cornelia replied.
"Man, now I REALLY wish I still had my powers! We wouldn't have had to worry about that!" Irma exclaimed.
"No matter, the water heater should still have plenty of water, Irma, turn off the intake valve, Caleb, keep that hot water faucet turned on." Cornelia instructed.
After following Cornelia's instructions, Irma placed a bucket under the drain on the water heater while Cornelia turned the valve.
"Be careful, it will still be scalding hot for hours." Cornelia said as she shut the valve. Irma grabbed the full bucket and stood by.
Cornelia broke a broom handle in half, making sure the piece had a point on the end.
"OK, Caleb, use this and punch into the wall. Go a foot above that spot, that's the source of the fire, we're gonna use gravity and water to put it out. Be careful, flames will probably shoot out of there. Make it big enough so we can pour water through." Cornelia instructed as she handed Caleb the make-shift punch tool.
Caleb started punching into the wall with all his might. After the second punch, flames shot out of the hole, forcing Caleb to stop briefly.
After the flames subsided, Caleb continued to expand the hole in the wall. "OK, let's get some water in there." Cornelia said.
Irma brought up a bucket and poured the contents into the hole. Caleb brought another bucket and did the same. "OK, we need to make this hole a little bigger." Cornelia said.
Caleb grabbed the broom handle and punched some more into the hole.
"Grab some cotton and wrap it around your hands, we're gonna pull this drywall out." Cornelia said. Caleb grabbed a cotton shirt and soaked it in the water.
He then wrapped it around his hand and started ripping away the drywall while Cornelia and Irma continued filling buckets.
After the hole reached three feet in length, Caleb grabbed a bucket and dumped the water onto the fire. Irma and Cornelia did the same.
After Irma's second bucket, the flames disappeared. "One more, we need to make sure that it's completely out." Cornelia instructed.
Caleb dumped his bucket and checked for embers. Cornelia double-checked and saw no signs of embers. "OK, it's out, come on, we still need to find Elyon!" Cornelia said.
After leaving the laundry room, Irma made the marks with the mustard bottle and the team moved on.
As they went through the hallway, they heard a tapping noise. "Hold on, you hear that?" Cornelia asked. "Yeah, I hear it." Irma whispered.
"Yeah, me too." Caleb replied. "It's coming from here." Cornelia said as she went towards the study. "Is anybody in here?" Cornelia called out as she and the others looked around.
"Yeah!" Elyon replied from under a collapsed wall. "OK, get the others and get them in here." Cornelia instructed.
Caleb went to get the others while Cornelia crouched down and saw Elyon. "Are you hurt?" Cornelia asked.
"No, I don't think so." Elyon replied. "Can you breath OK?" Cornelia asked. "Yeah." Elyon replied.
"OK, save your breath, we're gonna get this thing up and we're gonna get you out of there. Just hang in there." Cornelia replied.
Just then, Caleb arrived with Will, Matt and Chris. "OK, she's about ten feet back." Cornelia said.
They started moving the loose debris off of the wall. After the loose debris was cleared, Caleb, Matt, Irma and Cornelia got into position to attempt to lift the wall up.
They tried to lift the wall with all their might, but it was too heavy. Luckily, Cornelia had a plan that would work.
"OK, this isn't happening, Irma, go into my van, get the carjack and get here quick." Cornelia instructed. "Matt, Caleb, we need two-by-fours and four-by-fours, bring them back here." she added.
A few minutes later, Matt and Caleb returned with several wood planks and Irma came back with the jack.
"OK, we need a couple more inches of clearance to slide it under there, so we're gonna make a lever." Cornelia instructed.
She stacked three two-by-fours and wedged a longer piece of wood into the gap between the stack and the wall. Caleb helped her push down on the lever and the wall was lifted up four inches. Irma then grabbed the jack and started to position it under the wall.
"Hold on, Irma, you can't just throw it under there, it'll punch through the floor. Put a couple of two-by-fours, one above it one below it to distribute the weight." Cornelia instructed.
Irma did so and inserted the jack handle into the jack. "Go ahead and start cranking it, when I feel the weight come off this, I'll pull out." Cornelia said.
As the wall came up, Cornelia and Caleb pulled the lever out of the gap and started stacking two-by-fours side-by-side under the wall. "What does that do?" Will asked.
"We're doing what's called cribbing and shoring. We lift a couple of inches and we add a couple of two-by-fours to support it, so that if it collapses, it'll only fall a couple of inches and won't crush Elyon." Cornelia explained.
After a few minutes, the wall was lifted several inches and was over a foot above the floor. "Can you move?" Cornelia asked.
"A little, yeah." Elyon replied. "OK, I'm gonna pull her out of there, Irma, stay on the jack and keep going. Caleb, continue shoring it up as she goes.
Matt, I'm gonna go in and grab a hold of her, pull me out by my legs when I tell you, OK?" Cornelia instructed. "Alright, I'm coming in, we're gonna pull you out." Cornelia said.
"OK." Elyon replied. Cornelia crawled in and grabbed a hold on Elyon's arms. "OK, out easy!" she called out. Matt grabbed Cornelia's legs and began pulling slowly.
Several seconds later, they were out. "You alright?" Cornelia asked. Elyon wrapped Cornelia in a bear hug. "I am now, thanks to you guys." Elyon replied.
"OK, let's go." Irma said as they left the crumbling house.
Later that night
Cornelia and the others ended up walking to Heatherfield Park. As they walked through the playground, another aftershock hit.
The group struggled to keep their balance as trees and play structures fell over. Suddenly, the ground below Irma collapsed and she fell into a 20-foot deep sinkhole.
"IRMA!" Cornelia and Elyon called out. Seconds later, the shaking stopped once again. "Caleb, go back to the house, rip out some sheets of plywood from the walls, get anything we can use to surround the edge of this.
Will, Elyon, move those vehicles close, headlights on, but not too close." Cornelia instructed.
Will and Elyon rushed to the vehicles and moved them into position with the headlights on. Caleb came back with some sheets of plywood.
"Irma can you hear me?" Cornelia called out. "Yeah!" Irma managed to reply. "Will, grab the rear-view mirror out of that truck." Cornelia instructed. Will did and brought the mirror back.
Cornelia took the mirror and used it to reflect the light from the truck's headlights downwards into the sinkhole.
What they saw made their hearts sink: Irma was at the bottom of the sinkhole and a boulder was on her left leg and pinning her down.
"We're gonna have to get her out ourselves, she doesn't appear to have any spinal injuries, but we need to get her out of there fast. Will, Elyon, Matt, help me grab that swing set, we can use it." Cornelia said.
They each grabbed a leg post of the swing set and moved it over the sinkhole. "OK, Will, Matt, find a couple of garden hoses, bring them here." Cornelia instructed.
Will and Matt returned a minute later with the hoses. "OK, one hose right here, one on the other side." Cornelia said.
Will and Matt each wrapped a hose around a side of the swing set and tied them to car bumpers, keeping the swing set in place.
Cornelia took the remaining end of one garden hose and tossed it over the center bar of the swing set. She then took the end, made a loop and wrapped it around Caleb.
"OK, here we go." Cornelia said as Caleb stepped off the edge and found himself dangling over the sinkhole. Will, Matt and Elyon helped lower Caleb down while Cornelia acted as a spotter.
Chris took over using the mirror to keep the area lit. After a few tense minutes, Caleb was at the bottom. "OK, now get that T-shirt around her leg, just above the wound." Cornelia ordered.
Caleb wrapped the shirt around Irma's leg. Caleb then proceeded to carefully take the boulder off of Irma's leg, setting it to the side once it was off.
Irma's leg had a severe gash on her lower leg. Caleb carefully looped the hose around Irma's waist. "OK, pull her up!" Caleb called out.
The three on the other end started quickly pulling her up. Thirty seconds later, Irma was up and out of the sinkhole. "Hold it!" Cornelia ordered as she picked up a thick branch.
"Grab on to this." she said to Irma, who then reached out to grab the branch. Once Irma had a grip, Cornelia started to pull. "OK, slack off a bit, slack off." Cornelia instructed.
The hose handlers started giving them slack as Cornelia gently laid Irma down. She took the hose off and they did the same to get Caleb out. After Caleb was out, the sun was starting to rise.
As the sun rose higher, The group decided that it was time to treat Irma's wounds the best they could. "OK, we need make a splint and immobilize this." Cornelia said.
Matt took his belt off and Will grabbed a pair of small yet sturdy branches. Cornelia tightened Matt's belt over Irma's knee joint.
Caleb took off his belt and did the same on Irma's ankle joint. They gently carried her into the nearby SUV and Matt and Will sat with her. Elyon sat in the passenger seat while Cornelia drove. Caleb and Chris stayed behind to help the neighbors.
As the group drove on, another aftershock struck. Cornelia immediately pulled over to the side of the road.
Suddenly, a power pole came down on top of the SUV's hood, disabling the truck and covering it with power lines.
"Don't...get...out of the truck, you get out and you touch the car and the ground at the same time, you'll get instantly fried by the electrical current." Cornelia said.
"Now what?" Elyon asked. "There's not really anything we can do at this point, this car's charged with a lot of voltage, if anyone tries to get out, they'll get killed instantly." Will replied.
Just then, a white truck pulled up behind them. The driver got out and went up to the car.
"DON'T TOUCH THE CAR!" Cornelia shouted. Too late, the passer-by touched the door handle and was electrocuted.
The powerful current threw him back several feet to the ground and the extreme voltage stopped his heart, killing him instantly. "Isn't there anything we can do?" Irma asked.
"Normally, we...I can't believe I'm saying this...Someone's gonna have to get out and go for help." Cornelia replied. "What?" Elyon and Will asked in shock.
"I'll do it, I have an idea." Cornelia replied. "Elyon, toss me that floor mat." Cornelia instructed.
Elyon picked up the rubber floor mat under her feet and handed it to Cornelia. Cornelia opened the driver's side door and tossed the floor mat out.
The floor mat landed two feet from the car, a distance that Cornelia could easily jump. She crossed her arms and tucked them in tight against her body.
She then carefully turned herself towards the mat and carefully raised herself up. Keeping her arms (and her fingers) crossed, she jumped out and landed on the mat, keeping her feet together.
Great, now I just have step potential* to worry about! Cornelia thought as she shuffled her feet away from the car, keeping them together at all times.
Eventually, she ended up over twenty feet from the electrified car, and was out of danger.
Cornelia then sprinted towards the truck that was parked behind a second downed power pole. She got in and pulled the truck to the SUV's back bumper.
"OK, I see what she's doing, we'd better buckle up!" Will said as everybody buckled their seat-belts, Matt and Will hanging on to Irma.
Cornelia slowly tapped the bumpers together and nearly floored the accelerator. "What is she doing?" Irma asked as she felt the car jerk forward several times.
"She's using that truck to push us out of the downed power lines." Matt replied.
Seconds later, she had pushed the SUV out of the downed wires and the occupants were now out of danger.
"OK, let's get her to a triage center." Cornelia said as she met the others.
They transferred Irma into the pickup and continued on.
After a few minutes, they ended up near the Heatherdome, which was still intact, and where a large triage center was set up. They carefully carried Irma inside and a nurse helped get her onto a stretcher.
Irma received the medical attention she needed and eventually made a full recovery.
Despite the fact that they were caught in a massive 8.0 magnitude earthquake triggered by a huge shift in the San Andreas Fault, Cornelia helped the others keep cool heads and helped them work together as a team.
Even when things looked hopeless, she found a way out and helped herself and her friends survive.
The End