Liquefaction by Fear359 (f, qs, grim) Tonya woke up at the sound of music, and slowly looked at the clock. When she looked around the room she didn't know where she was, until she thought about it. She was in her mother's house on the beach. Tonya lived with her father in Iowa, where she was a Senior in high school, and getting ready to graduate, and then go to College. Tonya's mother and father had divorced, but it had been one of those that had been easy on all involved. Tonya looked around the room and slowly got out of bed, reached for her robe and went to the kitchen. Tonya's mother had already gone to work, she had to leave early to beat the morning hour traffic that was always crazy. As Tonya looked out the sliding glass door, she still could not believe that her mother had a house overlooking the beach. Tonya thought, 'God this is great! It's spring break, and I am on the beach. Man, if they could just see me now,' she thought. With it still early Tonya decided to go take a morning run. So she ran back to her room and grabbed her running outfit, put on her shoes and was out the door in a matter of 10 minutes. Tonya ran to the stairs that lead down to the beach and began to descend down to the beach. Upon reaching the bottom she stretched out for about 15 minutes, and then she took off running down the beach. As the sun was slowly making it's way up higher and higher, Tonya felt the warm of it hit her, and with it's warmth she felt stronger and put it into high gear, and took off in a full run. She was going to make the most out of this run. Being on the cross country team back home helped, but running on the beach beat running on some small country roads. As she got about two miles down the beach, there was a small trail leading up the side of the mountain, and not really caring what was there Tonya hit the trail that lead up into the trees that lined the side of the mountain. Tonya was just taking in all the beauty of California and the smell of the ocean, when the unthinkable happened. As Tonya was running she could have sworn that the ground was moving, but since she was running she just thought that it was her. Then without warning, a jolt hit the ground so hard and powerful that it threw Tonya to the ground. As she lay there looking at the trees sway back and forth, Tonya knew what it was. 'Ahh, hell! Earthquake! I gotta get out of here now! But where?' she thought, and then she thought of the beach. It would be safe, and at least nothing would fall on her, like the trees in here. So getting up and running at full speed, Tonya tried to get to the path that led back down to the beach. Tonya was scared, but she wasn't about to stop a get crushed by one of the trees that looked like they touched the sky. Just as Tonya was about to hit the trail back down the side of the mountain, she had to hit the brakes hard, as her Nikes dug in the ground trying to get her to stop. The trail was gone. The earthquake had taken the trail, and there was nothing but a 60 to 70 foot drop. "Shit! I don't believe this! Now, how am I gonna get home? If Mom calls and I don't answer, she 's gonna freak!" As Tonya tried to figure out what to do, she had noticed that the earth had stopped moving. The earthquake was gone. She was so scared she didn't even remember when it stopped. As Tonya looked around for some way to get back home, she decided to walk through the woods, and maybe there would be a way to get down to the beach and then home. As Tonya turned around and started walking she could see a lot of damage that the quake had done. Trees uprooted, parts of the ground ripped wide open, and off in the distance she could see smoke. "Fires, that's all I need! Well, I did want to move out here, but now, forget it!" Tonya kept making her way through the woods, and she could see a small path that led down to the beach, and upon reaching it, she took a look around to make sure that it was safe. She tested the trail with her foot to make sure that it didn't give way underneath her. And when she felt that the trail was safe enough for her to go down Tonya slowly made her way down the side of the mountain. Just as Tonya got to the bottom of the hill the ground shook again. "Christ! After shock!" As Tonya turned and looked behind her, she could see the side of the mountain shake, and to her horror the mountain started to crumble right in front of her eyes. "No, no, NO!" Tonya just turned and started running towards the water, she wanted to jump into the water but she didn't want to be standing there when the mountain fell either. As Tonya hit the water she took a deep breath, and one jump, and hit the water. When Tonya came back up she turned around, and what she saw sent chills down her spine. The place where she was standing was now under at least 3 tons of dirt and trees. Tonya swam back to the shore and slowly made her way back to the beach, where she just fell on the beach, crying. "Mom, help me! I don't know what to do! I'm scared!" Tonya just lay there, trying to figure out what to do. As she looked down the beach toward home, she knew that she had to get there. So she got up and started walking for home along the beach. As Tonya kept walking down the beach she could see all the damage done to the houses off in the distance, and how the beach had ripples in the sand that looked like it had just been through a war, and lost. As Tonya looked around she knew that she was missing something, but she couldn't remember what it was. She knew that earthquakes along the beach were dangerous, because of the chance of tidal waves and mountains slipping into the sea, but there was something else, but what was it? Well, she couldn't remember. All she knew was that she had to get home. Tonya was about a mile from home when she noticed that the beach was somehow different here. The sand was softer and somehow sticky, and it was hard to walk in it. Tonya just thought that she was tired and kept on walking, until she tried to lift her left foot and it wouldn't move. Tonya looked down and saw that she had stepped into a small muddy patch of beach. "Damn! Out of this wide open beach to walk I have to walk into a damn mud puddle!" As Tonya tried to pull her left foot out again, she was in shock when she felt her right foot slip into the mud a little farther. Right, then left; again and again Tonya tried to pull her feet out, but all she did was drive herself deeper into the mud. When the mud slowly clamped down on Tonya's calves she remembered what it was that she had forgotten. "No! Earthquake + Beach = Liquefaction!" As Tonya's science class came back into her mind, liquefaction was just another name for: "Quicksand! No! Not that!" As Tonya tried to get free of the muddy death trap, she felt herself slip into the quicksand up to her knees. And she tried to lean back and try and find some kind of solid ground, but there is none to grab hold of, and the more Tonya struggled, the more she sank. Tonya felt her waist slowly slip under the sand and muck, and she knew that she would die unless she could get out of here, and fast. Tonya reached forward, searching for some kind of solid ground to grab hold of that she could use to pull herself out, but as she reached more and more, Tonya lost more and more of her body. The quicksand was pulling Tonya down, and there was nothing that she could do, nothing she could grab. The beach she was on was now nothing but quicksand. Tonya made one last try to reach for some hard ground, but there just wasn't any, and as the quicksand made its way past Tonya's chest she could feel the quicksand put pressure on her, where it is getting hard to breathe. "Help me! Somebody, help me please!" Tonya knew that there was no one on the beach. She was the only one there, and she was slowly sinking to her death in quicksand. As Tonya felt the quicksand slowly make it's way up her neck, she knew that she was doomed to this fate of quicksand. Tonya tilted her head back, hoping that someone might see her in her hour of need, and as the quicksand entered her ears Tonya screamed at the top of her lungs, as the quicksand started to enter her mouth. Then Tonya's face went underneath the quicksand, and then nothing. The ground was still.