Aftershocks

a Novel

Late one December night, a massive earthquake shatters an isolated farmhouse in the mountains of Southern Oregon. Trapped inside, pampered housewife, Georgia Kaminski and her mortally injured husband stress over their only daughter, Callie, a freshman in college at the other end of the state. Thirteen hours of terrifying aftershocks pass without rescue. Desperate, with slivers of lumber and glass tearing at her flesh, Georgia crawls out of the wreckage. Shoeless, in a hard rain, she scrambles down the hill to beg help from her only neighbor, petty thief Turk, whose house is destroyed. Turk has no use for his wealthy neighbors, but in self-interest agrees to help get her husband out of the wreckage, then her SUV from under the collapsed garage so they can make it to civilization. The truce lasts until the next night when his two outlaw buddies show up and want to rob her, "knock her in the head" and take her vehicle. The men make a serious mistake in underestimating Georgia. She's armed and she doesn't hesitate to shoot. Meanwhile, communications are down and Callie is frantic to get to Mamma and Poppie. A hundred miles from home, she abandons her mysteriously disabled car, then accepts a ride from the stranger she met the night before. When he pulls off the freeway to a side road, intent on attacking Callie, he doesn’t expect this innocent little girl to flatten him with a head-butt to the belly, outrun him, then elude him all day in the deep forest. Near dark she jumps out onto Interstate Five, hails an eighteen wheeler and her journey home continues. A deep snowfall and a huge rockslide blocking the freeway must now be overcome. Callie grows up fast on her three day odyssey.