Sink

  His office in the corporate office was quite plush. Black leather chair with arms, a walnut desk with matching credenza and plush green carpeting. The office had monitors on two walls that could focus on every location in the resort and was completely computerized. He had his own secretary in a little alcove in front of his office and everyone called him chief. Life was roses. His assignment of men at the various entrances and other important locations had been reviewed by Datafuture, the designer of the security system, and had been approved with flying colors. He was more than ready for the grand opening.

  Being a Saturday, his secretary was off and he was all alone in his office watching the monitors automatically changing from place to place. He could see his guards at their assigned locations smiling and greeting the guest as they wandered around the resort taking in all the

  sights. He was looking at the monitor in the kitchen when the chef suddenly disappeared from view. It looked like the chef had slipped and maybe hurt himself. The monitor stopped at waist level in the kitchen and he figured the chef had fallen to the floor. He immediately got on the radio to the guard stationed outside the kitchen door and told him to check on the chef that it was possible he had been injured when he had slipped and fallen. The guard told him he would check on the situation and report back promptly.

  Chief Morgan waited over five minutes and heard nothing back from the guard. That is really strange he thought. I should have heard from the guard by now. He called the next closest guard, the one by the front desk and repeated the situation and asked him to check on what was going on as soon as possible.

  The retirement benefits were very generous from the package Chief Morgan received from the Chicago P.D. Unfortunately, the only benefit that the chief would get to use in the near future was the burial plan as the elaborate desk, credenza, chair, and plush carpeting and of course the chief disappeared when the entire corporate office building sank quickly beneath the surface of the earth.

  June 14, Saturday 1:05 p.m.

  Corporate office building

  Becky McClellan was standing on the grass just outside the back door of the corporate office daydreaming as she stared at the majestic waterfall in the distance when, the entire building sank abruptly behind her. There wasn't much noise, some slight glass rattling made her turn around, and the building completely disappeared from sight. She could not even see any of the brown tiles on the roof. Just a large hole remained where the building had been and as she stood frozen, completely transfixed at such a horrible sight the hole began spreading. The edge closest to her began folding slowly under with the emerald green grass still attached almost like a blanket undulating in the wind. She stood paralyzed, unable to back away from the approaching danger. The sinking ground was within two inches of her firmly planted toes when an urgent barking broke the spell. She immediately backed away from the hole and began running toward the manmade mountain in the distance. She glanced behind her and was very relieved to see her savior, Bart the dog, keeping pace slightly behind her.

  "Come on boy. Follow me. We'll go where we'll be safe. You're such a good doggie. You saved my life. I'm going to cook you a big steak dinner when this is over. If this ever, gets over."

  June 14, Saturday 1:06 p.m.

  Courtyard of resort

  Steve Sidel touched the attractive brunette on the shoulder and began to speak softly to her when, she raised her tear streaked face and looked him directly in the eyes. He was about to ask her if she was all right and that they should go and see if they could help the other people in the resort when he forgot what he was about to say and just stared back into her brown eyes. He could see tiny flecks of green in her very dark eyes and he became tongue tied for a moment. He regained his composure slowly and instead of laying out a rescue plan he put his hand under her chin and said.

  "This might be the wrong time and the wrong place but, I think you are gorgeous. Forgive me. I'm usually not so straight forward like that and I really apologize if I embarrassed you but, I guess I couldn't help it."

  "Apology accepted." Kathy Santos replied in a quiet voice. The blush in her cheeks quite apparent. "I appreciate the compliment but, you're right we have to go and see what we can do to help the others."

  Her look of acceptance of him was a definite chemical reaction and he was pleased with himself that he was able to make her feel even half of what he had churning in his heart. When this is over, he thought to himself, I have to see more of this lovely lady. Well, true love can wait, he thought and then realized he had actually fallen in love at first sight. He had heard of that happening but not to the tough Steve Sidel, mister no emotion, too involved in his work to worry about his love life. Sure a date here and there. A marriage that didn't work. He thought he was destined for lonely ville and now his heart was tipsy turvey. Oh well. You never know. It just takes a simple little disaster like a hurricane or maybe even a sinkhole, for his true emotions to blossom. He didn't know what would happen in the future but, as soon as this mess was cleared up he was bound and determined to see what he could do to change his lonely lifestyle.

  Kathy Santos had a warm feeling in the bottom of her stomach that she had never before experienced. Man that guy is handsome and I really think he likes me. I really hope that when this is over he'll still be as serious acting as he is now. I can just see us together, walking down the beach, eating a quiet meal in a quaint little restaurant, making love all night long. Gosh, I'm going off the deep end she thought. I'd better cool it and just help him try to rescue some people.

  Steve and Kathy walked rapidly across the courtyard, went around the large hole in the ground where the lobby use to be and went across the parking lot to where a small crowd was standing and asked the twin boys standing there what they could do to help.

  June 14, Saturday 1:07 p.m.

  In the parking lot

  Connie Littlefield was awakened by the sudden jolting of the van. She sat up and looked through the tattered curtains barely covering the rear windows. The duct tape wrapped around her wrists and ankles prevented her from much movement but, she could still see out enough to know that the ground wasn't horizontal to the rest of the vehicle. In reality, the back end of the van was teetering on the edge of a very large chasm and it was gently rocking back and forth barely maintaining its balance. Her first thoughts were of survival so, she swung herself away from the rear of the van and headed in a slight hopping motion toward the side door. Pushing down on the inside handle she managed to unlatch the door and then throw her weight at the still closed door. Her momentum pushed open the door and she followed it out landing painfully on her left shoulder. The minute she hit the asphalt, she rolled away from the body of the van and watched spellbound as it rocked one final time backwards and plunged end over end into to the dark hole.

  Praying to her self, she began chewing on the duct tape wound tightly around her now swollen wrists. She managed to rip through the top layer and began unraveling the tape with her teeth. She put all thoughts of pain out of her head as she quickly spit out the remaining strip of tape and began rubbing her sore wrists. The needle and pins affect on her hands began to diminish so she reached down and began peeling the tape off her equally numb feet.

  Free from her bounds, Connie looked around her and saw a small group of people gathering in the front parking lot. They all seemed to be looking down at another large hole perhaps one hundred yards away from where she sat. She got slowly to her feet, still dazed from her adrenaline rush away from the van and began walking toward the small crowd hoping she would not encounter that monster Frankie or his weird sidekick Carrie. A pretty young brunette looked up as she approached and said something to an attractive redhead standing next to her. Both girls began hurrying toward the Indian girl with sincere compassion on their faces.

  "Oh miss." Soothed the brunette. "You look all banged up. Come over here and we'll see what we can do to help you."
>
  Beverly Forham gently put her arm around Connie's shoulders and lowered her arm to the middle of her back when, she noticed how Connie winced where she touched her. Sally Backlin led the two of them over to the nearest royal palm and helped Beverly carefully lower her down so her back could rest against the trunk.

  "What happened here?" Connie managed to squeeze out between the now beginning sobs. "Why are there big holes in the ground? What's going on?"

  The pushed aside pain began assaulting her like artillery attacks and she wrapped herself in a semi fetal position pushing herself backwards toward the base of the tree. The sobbing became full-time as the redhead began to try and sooth her.

  "We don't really know. It must be some kind of sinkhole or something. The only thing important right now is that you seem to be okay. We have to leave you now to help the boys try to rescue the other people. Just sit here where you'll be safe and we'll come back and help you as soon as we can."

  Sally and Beverly turning away from the shivering Indian girl, rushed back to the edge of the hole where the twins were tying the yellow ropes to the other trees surrounding the hole and throwing the ends down toward the collapsed building. The screams of the trapped people were turning into more moans than calls for help and the plantiful cry of the baby had seized

  altogether.

  June 14, Saturday 1:08 p.m.

  Base of mountain

  The man made mountain was a miracle of modern technology. The one hundred and twenty-foot majestic waterfall was completely computer controlled, from the rate of descent to the precise amount of back splash in the lagoon. This sparkling spectacle was engineered to please even the most diehard nature lover with its realism. The surrounding rain forest, the tops of the trees swaying in a simulation of a soft island breeze, even emitted jungle sounds that would fool a real South American hunting guide. The power plant, completely hidden from public view deep in the bowels of the mountain, was soundless on the surface and contained innovations completely new to the self-producing energy field. The entire project, solely designed by Datafuture was a closely guarded secret and other companies had even tried to infiltrate spies in order to learn the processes that would upscale many of the world's great amusement parks. The security, heavily financed by Tankinato, was completely effective and the other companies could only hope for a disgruntled employee to show up on their doorstep one day.

  The lake maintained a constant level even in the event of heavy rains or extreme drought by a series of specially located sensors around the shoreline and the filtering of the water was so pure that any algae or bacteria was chemically treated before it could spread. The water level was adjusted by the removal or adding to the underground water table by a series of massive pumps also hidden in the mountain.

  The entrance to the mountain was hidden by well placed manmade boulders on the east end and that is where Rebecca McClellan and Bart now headed. Becky didn't know what was causing this sudden shifting of the earth around her but after watching "The Wizard of Oz" at least fourteen times and after hearing about cold war fallout shelters from her parents when they were reminiscing about the fifties and sixties, she figured the best place she could go was somewhere very stable and the manmade mountain seemed to fit the bill. She pressed the entrance button built into the side of the doorway and was thankful of the whirring sound the door made when it slid open. The power plant, being self-contained she had reasoned, would probably stay on during a category five hurricane, and a feeling of relief washed over her when the door slid slowly shut behind her.

  Feeling quite a bit safer now that she and Bart were surrounded by steel reinforced heavy duty walls she began wondering about her parents and her friends. Bart, sensing her anxiety, put his paw out in a gesture of utter devotion for his human pal. The tears that had begun welling up in her eyes slowly dwindled as she realized that there was still hope for the world, even if a dog was the one that had brought that reality back to her.

  "You are right Bart. We can make it no matter how rough it gets. You are truly man's best friend or in this case, woman's best friend. Let's go up to the top of the mountain and look out that little observation port they put in. We will be able to see the whole area and maybe find out what is really going on."

  June 14, Saturday 1:10 p.m.

  County Sheriff's office

  The switchboard lit up like a Christmas tree for more than ten minutes. The calls, many garbled, had two things in common. They were all frantic and all came in from cellular phones. The regular phone lines, fourteen in all, routed through the office in the lobby, had been severed in the first sinking of the building. The callers, half male and half female, were disoriented and had no clue what was happening, other than they were in a dark area surrounded by hundreds of other people and they had no idea how to get rescued. Finally, a call came in that was steady in nature and explained a lot better of what was actually going on. The voice was of a young male who said he was walking on the edge of the lake when all the buildings had suddenly disappeared. He explained that he was a life guard, off duty at the time, and that it looked like a massive sinkhole had struck the area. He was calling from one of the resort supplied cell phones that he had forgotten to return at the end of his shift. He very anxiously stated that many rescue vehicles were needed and that he could not find his girlfriend.

  The sheriff, Ralph Slocum, taking over the switchboard from his startled dispatcher, asked for the caller's name for the sole purpose of calming the alarmed youth down.

  "My name is Paul Zangallio, sir and I'm awfully worried about all the people here."

  "Don't worry son." The sheriff soothingly replied. "I'll get you some help out there right away and everything will work out fine. Just keep calm and stay on the line while I alert all the people I need to."

  The sheriff, picking up the radio transmitter, yelled loud enough to be heard throughout the county office building.

  "Paul, where the hell are you? I need you out at the new resort right away. Pick up

  anybody you see on the way and carry them out there to help you. We have us a real life disaster happening right here in our county. I am going to call the governor's office and the hospital but I need you out there to straighten out whatever you can. Hurry up boy."

  "I got your message sheriff. It's that robbery I predicted isn't it. I was right wasn't I?"

  "Don't get on your high horse Paul. It sounds like the whole place has caved in. Just get out there and help all you can. I'll be out there as soon as I make my calls. Now hurry up."

  June 14, Saturday 1:11 p.m.

  In the front parking lot

  The small group that gathered in front of what used to be the lobby entrance was composed of the twins Mike and Mark Summers, the two teenage girls Beverly Forham and Sally Backlin, the lost Indian Connie Littlefield, and the new found couple Steve Sidel and Kathy Santos. The twins were tying the yellow nylon ropes around the closest Royal palms and had just started tying the third one when they heard someone shouting at them from back by the tennis courts.

  "Hey guys. We don't really know what's going on but we're coming over to help out."

  Kevin Backlin and Bill Forman were jogging across the green lawn toward the small crowd of people and Kevin was trying to comfort them as best as possible with his shout of the calvary of two were coming.

  "Oh daddy you're safe." Blended out of the two girls' mouths simultaneously."

  "We thought you were trapped underground with mommy." Cried Sally Backlin.

  "Yeah, we thought you were down there." Echoed Beverly Forham. "I'm so glad you are all right. We just have to get mother out of that hole. I hope she's not hurt. I'm so worried about Sally's mom too. What can we do? We just have to help them."

  "It's ok Beverly. We'll get everyone out safe. Right Kevin."

  "Yeah girls. Don't worry. Everyone will be just fine." Assured Kevin Backlin.

  "Listen men.
I just got here but I have an idea." Suggested Steve Sidel. "I think these boys have a fantastic idea of dropping the ropes down so we can pull the people up but, from the sounds I hear I think some people will be to weak or hurt to try to make it up the ropes. I think we should find some ladders and maybe some wood and make some kind of makeshift ramp to pull these people to safety. I don't think we have much time before maybe we'll have more collapsing of the ground and the deeper it goes the harder it will be to get the people out of there."

  "That's a good idea mister but, I wonder where we can find any wood?" Questioned Bill Forham.

  "There is a big pile of new lumber behind the maintenance shed that they were going to use for building a storage area for the new lawnmowers that are on order. There are also two extension ladders hanging on the back wall of the shed that we used to clean the gutters of the second floor wing." Mark Summers enthusiastically suggested. "Mike and I could grab the ladders and the girls could carry the boards over one by one."

  "That's a great idea. See if you can find some nails and a hammer while you’re over there and maybe we can build something stable enough to help those people out of this hole. If you two gentlemen can shimmy down these ropes with me maybe we can start helping some people out of the pit of hell they are in. Ok?"