The Storm on Jan-Ho Island

This week's Prompt: Describe an Earthquake, a Shipping Container, and an Electric Car.

It was the next morning, and Jess was getting more anxious; her anxiety levels were hitting the roof. They had enough food. Bottled water, and the toilet was one of those canister things, so no problems there. “We need to get out of here,” she said to Daniel, pacing up and down the 40-by-12-foot underground shipping container. 

“I know, but we still don't know what it's like outside. Let me check the Garmin again” 

“Dan-dan, you need to save the battery, I say, let's just open the door”  

He got the nickname Dan-dan on the first day of school. He was so nervous when asked his name, he said, ‘Dan, Dan, er, Daniel. And the Dan-dan stuck.. 

“Ok, but if we die, don't come crying to me,” Dan-dan said, putting the Garmin back in his rucksack.

Jess and Daniel were held up in the basement of his parents' house; he had no idea where they were or the whereabouts of Jess's Mum. Yesterday, it was reported that Storm Bailey would hit the island of Jan-Ho at 19.00hrs Caribbean time; it landed two hours earlier, while they were on their way back from school. 

               Daniel's father was the only police officer on the island; he had relocated from the UK when Duell Con opened the Laboratory on the Island. His mum was the chief scientist at the Duell Con Laboratory. Born in the Caribbean, Daniel had taken his dad’s blue eyes but his mum’s skin colour. She led the team studying the volcano situated on the east side of the island and the effects on the ecosystem. Out of the three hundred residents who lived on the west side, two hundred and fifty worked for Duell Con. They all lived in Shipping containers. Daniels' parents bought six, one underground, four running parallel in twos, and one on top. If you looked at them from above, it looked like the letter ‘H’

Daniel climbed the stairs, the only way out of the underground container, “Have you got your Go Bag?” he asked.

“Yes, now let's go” 

“Here, put this on,” he passed her a head touch, “It will keep your hand free.” Daniel pushed on the trap door. He was never into sports, and he could feel his legs burning.

The door opened, and water rushed in, soaking Jess.

“Dan-dan,” she shouted, 

He relaxed, dropping the door back down, “Come, no Jess, it's a bit of water” 

Grabbing a towel, she dried herself off and stood further back as he pushed again, “Pass me that box,” he asked.

Jess handed it to him, and he wedged it into the gap between the door and the floor, easing the pressure off his back. He took one step upwards. "Right, here goes," he pushed with all his strength; the door swung open, banging against the wall. “Pass me my bag,” stretching out his hand to receive it. "Thanks."

Jess and Daniel were standing in what was the kitchen of his home. “Oh my God, I can’t believe it” Looking around the container, there were Palm leaves and shrubs. Sand covered the floor, mixed in with broken jars, food from the fridge, plates, and the contents of the drawers. The furniture was either upside down or broken, and all the pictures off the walls had gone. “Dan-dan, what's that noise?” Jess moved her head around the container, slowly shining her torch. “Look, it’s Zak," she moved over to a row of cupboards missing doors, and inside was his dad's three-year-old German Shepherd Police Dog. 

“Come here, Boy,” Dan said, kneeling, “Come on, it's OK” He could see Zak was weary about leaving the safety of the box, but the dog knew Daniel and Jess, and he knew he would be safe. Leaving the safety of the cupboard, he walked to Daniel. “There's a good boy,” Daniel made a fuss of him, scratching him on the neck and behind his ears. Taking out some Paracord from a side pocket of his rucksack, Daniel made a loop and passed it over Zak’s head.

Jess held onto Daniel's arm, “Can you hear that?”  They hadn’t noticed it before. The wind was howling through the gaps where the windows once were. Palm trees were battering the side of the Container home. Water was seeping in from somewhere, and within a few seconds, it had gone from a little stream to a torrent. The water was hitting their legs with some force. “Can we go and check on my Mum before we go to the Laboratory?” Jess’s Mum also worked for Duell Con; she was the financial Director. Their shipping container home was only a few hundred yards away. “She is working from home today, so she should be there.”

“Ok, let's go, but keep close, I’ll take Zak, you keep hold of my Rucksack. “Oh, just a minute,” he turned and closed the door to the container basement. “We don’t want that flooding; we might need all that food and water.”

Leaving the confines of the Kitchen, Daniel held onto the side of the container. Zak was by his side. Jess was close behind. The ground was sodden, and the rain was hitting them from all sides,

Reaching the end of their drive, they stopped. The wind was trying to force them to the right, but they needed to go left. “You OK?” Daniel shouted over his shoulder. Jess gave him a thumbs-up. He shouted over the wind, “We’ll move one tree at a time.” Standing, holding onto a Palm tree, they were both in shock; some of the container homes had been blown over. There were only five cars on the Island, and they were electric. Two of them were here on Bob Marley Drive. One upside down, the engine compartment was on fire, and the other was leaning at a very odd angle against a Rubber tree.

Zak started to bark and pull towards the car on fire, “Down Boy,” Daniel said, but he couldn’t hear him. He was pulling on the makeshift lead, the Paracord slid through his fingers as the Dog set off towards the car. The rope was burning his fingers, so he let go.

“Dan-dan, there must be someone in the car.” Jess stepped away from the tree towards the car; the wind and rain were battering her from both sides. One step at a time, she was making some progress. Feeling Dan-dan at her side, she held his hand, “It’s my mum's car”

“What did you say?” Daniel shouted, but Jess heard nothing as the wind took his words to the other side of the Island.

She pointed, “My mum's car”

He understood and nodded, leaning forward at a strange angle, taking one step at a time. The rain was relentless, battering them from the front and the back. They made it to the car. Zak was sitting at the upside-down driver's door, doing what we had trained to do. Jess dropped to the floor, looking inside. “She’s in there” Jess pulled at the door, but it wouldn’t budge as the roof had crumpled, twisting the metal frame.

Daniel dropped his rucksack; the earth was drenched, and water running down the hill was splashing over their trainers. He rummaged inside the rucksack. “Move over,” he shouted, swinging his arm back, hitting the glass with whatever he had taken out of his rucksack. The glass smashed, brushing the broken glass out of the way, he climbed inside.

Inside the Duell Con Laboratory

               “I need to get home to Jess,” screamed Lia Simms, the financial director of Duell Con, from her second-floor office—also a shipping container—glancing through the wall-to-ceiling window over the northern part of the island, where the containers were arranged in the shape of an octagon, two high, with interlocking walkways.

               “She will be fine,” answered Beryl, her PA for the last two years, “I bet she is with that Daniel, the boy she’s always with.”

               Pacing her office, “Yes, yes, I guess you're right, but I still need to be sure” Lia picked up her phone for the umpteenth time, “No signal,” she threw it down on her desk. “Right, I've made up my mind, I'm going,” Lia grabbed the keys to her Tesla, her waterproof jacket. She had already changed from her business attire into joggers, a sweatshirt and running shoes.

               Starting up her car and pressing the remote button to open the garage door, Lia hit the accelerator, speeding down the driveway that used to be lined with Palm trees. Driving over palm leaves and other debris that had been blown over from the Jungle.

               On a normal day, it was a fifteen-minute drive from the office to home; it could be walked in about forty-five minutes to an hour, but Lia loved the feeling of speed that the dual electric motors the Tesla provided when on an open road. Turning left out of the complex, Lia hit the brakes, bringing the car to a sudden stop. She wasn’t expecting what was in front of her.

               More palm trees lay across the road, and a container home was hanging off the road and down the side of the mountain. “That’s someone's home, I hope they're ok,” she said to herself. Manoeuvring the Tesla around trees and rocks that had been strewn across the road. With her thoughts on Jess, she carried on, slowly. Through the gaps in the trees that remained standing, she could see her home perched on six metal legs sunk into the ground, rising the container eight feet above the ground. Images of her and Jess sitting out on the deck watching the sun set made her smile.

On reaching the junction with Bob Marley Drive, BAM, something hit the side of the Tesla. “Aggrrr, what the hell was that?” The car began to slide to the right. Turning the wheel into the skid, the vehicle righted itself. BAM, another bang on the side. This time, Lia looked left to see rocks sliding down the hill. “Oh no,” she held onto the wheel as a rock, as large as the car, connected with the front left side wheel, spinning the Tesla like a top. Another rock hit them hard. Lia felt herself being lifted. Pressing down on the button to release the seatbelt, but nothing happened; it was stuck. The car was on its side and kept rolling until it tipped over. Now on its roof, Lia was trapped upside down, the seatbelt keeping her from falling on her head.

Trapped upside down in her car, Lia must have passed out; she woke to the smell of smoke and a dog barking. Her legs felt wet; it must be the rain, she thought, and the front windscreen had been blown out. She thought nothing of it until it started to sting, “God, the batteries must be leaking.” Lia struggled, thinking she could squeeze out of the seatbelt and get to safety. The dog barked again, looking sideways. She recognised the dog that was sitting next to the car. “Zak, Zak,” she shouted. Then the only window that hadn’t shattered did, and the glass went all over her.

“Mrs Simms, it's me, Daniel. Are you OK?”  

“Daniel, I'm glad to see you. Is Jess with you?”

“Yes, Ma’am, she’s here just outside. We were coming to your house, then making our way to the Lab” Daniel moved further into the car, took out a knife, and held it against the seat belt. “I’m going to cut the belt, get ready for a fall.”

Lia did as asked and braced herself. Daniel cut the belt; falling a foot or so wasn’t so bad. “The car is on fire, we need to get you out quick,” Daniel said, backing out of the window. Lia followed him.

               On escaping the burning car, Lia stood and hugged Jess, and after a few seconds, brought Daniel into the hug. “My legs are burning, the batteries must have burst when the car turned upside down,” Lia said as she took off her joggers.

               “Mum,” Jess shouted as her mum dropped her joggers in front of Daniel.

               “Jess, my legs are burning, and I’m sure he's seen a woman in her underwear before” Lia took a bottle of water from the side of one of the rucksacks and splashed it over her legs. “Here,” passing her joggers to Jess, “Rinse these out”

               Daniel was all a Gog, not knowing which way to look. The rain was coming down hard, and the wind was blowing at them from all directions. His best friend's mum was standing in front of him in her knickers.

               “Dan-dan, my bag, I have a spare set of joggers. Can you get them for mum?” Jess asked as she threw the others in a ditch.

               “Yeah, sure,” glad of something to do, “Here, Mrs Simms,” Daniel passed them over, then pulled on his rucksack. “I think it's time we got a move on,” He turned to Lia and asked, “Was my Mum at the Lab?.”

“Erm, no, I don’t think so. She was on the mainland. I saw your father this morning; he was on his way to the docks. I heard…, only gossip, mind you, some drug smugglers had landed on the East side, probably waiting for smaller boats to transport the drugs to the mainland. But as I say, only gossip”

               Jess looked at Daniel, “Right…, shall we go?” For a split second, the rain had stopped. Lia reached inside the car for her raincoat and pulled it on over her wet clothes. “Mum, how was the road?”

               “Passable on foot, but it will take over an hour in this,” she held her hands to the heavens. They walked on in the direction Lia had just driven. “I cannot believe the devastation; all those years it took us to build this community.

               “It's only stuff, Jess said, looking at her mum, “Do you know if any lives have been lost since Monday?”

               “None have been reported; a few container homes have been damaged or gone down the side of the mountain into the sea. But as you say, Jess, it's only stuff, it can be replaced” Lia wiped her face with a handkerchief, and before she had pocketed it, she was soaked again. “When will the rain end?” she said to herself.

               They walked in silence for a while. Daniel had let Zak Walk free; he thought it would be safer if anything happened, and if he found Lia, he could find someone else stuck or trapped.

               A Police siren could be heard over the wind and rain, “I think that’s my dad,” Daniel said, standing on his tiptoes to get a better view.

               “Dan-dan, look, he's coming this way,” Jess pointed towards the red and blue lights bouncing off the wet leaves and the puddles in the road. All three were standing by the side of the road when the Police cruiser stopped.

“Hi, guys, what the hell are you doing out in this?” Daniel's father inquired.

        “It’s a long story; can we get in? It's a bit wet out here,” Lia asked.

        Jumping into the cruiser, Lia sat in the front with Officer Jacobs, Jess, and Daniel shared the back seat with a very wet Zak. On reaching the Lab, after drying off and putting on dry clothes, all three went in turn to tell their part of the day's events. Officer Jacobs was impressed with Daniel and Jess firstly for locking themselves in the basement and then for rescuing Lia.