(¯*´¯'*•.¸¸.WHOOSH! *´¯'*•.¸¸.•´¯)
A soft yellow light bathes the walls inside the Planet Aid container – Sheldon had sprinkled glowsticks everywhere after he’d prepared their refuge from the earthquake. He’d said it was their best bet for survival. After her car had disappeared down the hole and they’d avoided falling telephone poles and lampposts, he’d pushed her inside the cavernous metal box and ordered her to don a red safety jacket with matching red hardhat he’d produced from his emergency bag.
“By my estimation, this container is too large to fall down a hole and sturdy enough to resist the blows from falling masonry. The clothes beneath us will cushion any aftershocks that are bound to occur.”
“Aftershocks?” Penny had asked.
“Oh, lord,” Sheldon sighed. “An aftershock can follow a quake. Sometimes it can be even more powerful. The US Geological Survey database states there is a 97.45% chance of a major earthquake within fifty kilometers of Pasadena, within the next 50 years, as I often tell Leonard – and numbers don’t lie. The largest earthquake within 30 miles of Pasadena was a 7 Magnitude in 1971… I bet its aftershock was a doozy! FYI, we are sitting on the Raymond Fault and it doesn’t seem too happy just now,” he’d added with a satisfied smile.
“Gee, so not everyone loves Raymond, then!” She had obeyed him for once, agreeing to sit tight and wait for the all clear sirens, and helped him when he insisted they lay out a groundsheet over the bed of discarded garments. “I doubt anyone would’ve donated clothes without washing or dry-cleaning them first, Sheldon.”
“Did you?”
She fell silent.
“Penny, I don’t intend saving us from a natural catastrophe only to succumb to other people’s germs!”
After that, Sheldon had removed his hardhat and decided to sleep, to ‘rest his brain’. She couldn’t, with the worry: she hopes Leonard is okay. Sheldon had assured her he’d be safe if he stuck to the routines forced on him during their quarterly Emergency Preparedness Drills. Penny knows he will. Leonard is a total nerd. She realizes that’s why she loves him.
She smiles down at Sheldon, wrapped up in his sleeping bag like a sarcophagus, the yellow glow on his face making him look like a little boy. She strokes his hair, her fingers lingering on his forehead, hoping the brain inside Sheldon is so proud of will get them out of this disaster.
Penny hadn’t really experienced a large quake since living in Pasadena. They didn’t have them in Nebraska, although it is slap bang in the middle of Tornado Alley. Pasadena had little quakes usually, what Sheldon called ‘ones and twos’. There was one in the hills just last week – it was on the news – some rich guy’s pool had been ruined. But this one had the power to swallow her car. It must’ve been at least a five by Sheldon’s reckoning, although he'd felt troubled at why there wasn’t more shaking and she’d had to sing him to sleep with Soft Kitty.
Her car shook though, like… a shaky thing. She’s pleased there isn’t more shaking. She loved that car too.
She reaches into Sheldon’s big black bag and pulls out a hi-energy fruit bar. Food helps her relax and ignore the sirens whooping around the city. Police, ambulance or firetrucks – she doesn’t know, probably all three. She picks up Sheldon’s cell. Hers is on the dash of her car, which is now in the hole…. Sheldon had told her all cells would be useless.
“The phone network is probably down because people are clogging the airwaves with inane conversations about their pictures falling off the wall, while the emergency services struggle to save the injured and the dying…”
Suddenly she hears a rumbling. Sheldon sits bolt upright.
“Is this an aftershock, Sheldon?”
He cocks his head to listen. “I can hear the squeak of heavy wheels…”
She hears it too, now. “What is it?”
“Hmm. It could be a tank. Maybe the army is here. Maybe there is full scale anarchy and looting and riotous behavior on the streets of Pasadena as we speak…”
Sheldon looks scared at the thought. It’s clear he isn’t going to move. The age of chivalry is dead. Good riddance, she thinks. “Well I’m gonna check it out,” she says, adjusting her hardhat.
Sheldon grabs her arm. “But Penny, the army shoot looters! I’ve seen and read enough dystopian dramas to know that…”
“They won’t shoot me. I’m dressed in safety gear.”
Sheldon considers this. “Uniforms don’t shoot other uniforms, generally, it’s true…”
Penny hesitates. “Show me how this thing works,” she says, picking up Sheldon’s crossbow…
DON'T BE AFRAID TO CLICK THE LITTLE STAR GRAPHIC IN THE TOP RIGHT CORNER IF YOU THOUGHT THIS CHAPTER WAS GOOD. :)
Quiz question:
What's the name of Sheldon's young female assistant at Caltech?
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The Uncomplicated/Uncomfortable Principle (Big Bang Fanfic)
FanfictionSheldon discovers a scientific problem he can't solve. Even worse, only Penny can fix it. Drat! He has just put her on his 'mortal enemy' list!
