the Picnic Lunch After the Big One Hit

The picnic lunch on the day the Big One Hit

         Sam Adams and his wife, Maria Lee return to Berkeley his hometown after living all over the world. They both wanted to spend time in his hometown as he was getting nostalgic in his late 60s. They had been living in her hometown of Seoul for the last few years after retiring from US government service.

         They rent an apartment in downtown Berkeley that catered to empty nester professionals who wanted to return home or wanted to live in the Bay Area in a somewhat affordable place. It was expensive but they felt it was worth the price to be there. The plan was to stay there most of the year but spend some time in Korea where they maintained an apartment that they would run as an AIRBNB while they were gone.

         They had signed the lease and moved into a partially furnished apartment waiting for some of their stuff to arrive, but they would have to furnish it with new stuff as well. They had after a month or so finally felt they were settling in.

         To celebrate they went for a walk in the Berkeley Hills and went to Inspiration Point in Tilden Park. There were killer views from there. They were there with a few other people and they chatted with them for a bit before hitting the trail. They were going to have a picnic lunch at the site of the old NikeReservoir,ch which was a hidden trail along San Pablo Reservoir part of the East Bay Regional Park district, one of the largest regional parks in the country.
         The trail went along the ridgeline at the top of Tilden Park, before going into Wildcat Canyon Park and the San Pablo Dam Reservoir which had limited public access. Just as they set out their picnic lunch – sandwiches, Korean Kimpop (sushi rolls) salad, and wine (technically illegal to drink, but everyone did) there was a big commotion.

         The big one hit. Later they found it was category 12 – a new category. And that Lassen Volcano, Mt. St Helena, and Mt Rainer as well as Mt Fuji in Japan and Hallasan in Korea had all blown up as well as other volcanoes all over the world. As well as massive earthquakes and Tsunamis. But the damage was the worst in the Bay Area as the earthquake caused the entire Bay area to become submerged underwater opening up an inland sea covering most of the Central Valley. It all happened within hours as they watched in horror from the top of the hills.

         They felt fortunate to not have been home as their house disappeared under the waves as had most of SF, and the Bay area.They stood there for some time looking at the utter devastation that had taken no more than 30 minutes.

         They decided to finish their lunch because they knew it would take some time before they had another meal as this had the feel of potentially a civilization-ending event. They had a nice lunch despite the devastation, thinking thank god they had gone for a walk right then otherwise they would have died.

         They packed up and went back to the parking lot where they ran into 50 people. They all decided to stick together and camp out until the authorities figured something out. Eventually, 5,000 people joined their make-shift camp.

         Sam and Maria were voted the leaders of Camp Inspiration Point. Everyone thought that the waters would recede but they soon figured out a vast new inland sea had opened up through the Bay and out to the Central Valley. Power was out throughout the state.

         Everyone was kind, shared their food, their wine and their stories as they settled in waiting to be rescued.

         As they camped out in their car, Sam said to Maria

         “What a picnic lunch this was.”

         She laughed and so ended Day One After the Big One.

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NEW PROMPT: Tomorrow, August 31, is Eat Outside Day. Write about an attempt to eat outside that goes wrong, and what they do to make it go right.