The ground beneath me shook vigorously for the fourth time within two minutes. People around me were running and screaming as the ground broke apart under our feet in a Walmart parking lot. Looking to my left I watched an older man get swallowed up by the earth as the cracks grew wider and wider. His wife stood there with horror written across her face seconds before the earth swallowed her whole as well.

“Run” a voice in my head boomed, but my feet brought me closer to one of the many openings in the ground.

As I crept closer the shaking stopped and I was able to peak over without risk of losing my balance.

Heat immediately smacked me in the face and I was looking down at a bright pool of orange.

My heart stopped in my chest as I took a step back, lava.

I turned around and immediately followed the instructions the voice in my head gave only moments before, I ran.

Quickly I dug my car keys out of my purse and headed in the direction of my vehicle. As I made it to my car the ground started to shake again harder this time, knocking me to my butt.

As I worked on standing up, a crack formed beneath my front tires dropping that half of my car into the newly made hole.

“Shit” I exclaimed and stood back on my two feet.

An orange light reflected off the bottom of my car and I knew that the lava was directly under my vehicle.

Moving as fast as I could, I headed for the main road away from the cracks forming in the ground.

Again the ground stopped shaking and that allowed me to run a bit faster.

Once I made it to the road I stopped and took in what was going on around me. One of the stop lights had been dropped into a massive crack in the ground as flames were dancing on the trees around it.

“What the hell is happening” I yelled out loud in frustration.

All around me was pure chaos as people fled from the deadly openings underneath us.

“Help me please!” A lady screamed to my to my right.

I turned to her as she was peering down into another gap in the ground.

Rushing over to her I looked down to find that a child in a car seat was dangling from the seatbelt that the lady was holding.

“Please help me save him” the mother’s eyes pled with mine.

“What do you want me to do?” I asked while stepping closer.

“I need to get him out of there before the next wave starts of the ground shaking! Hold this” She said while placing the seat belt now acting as a rope in my hand.

I yanked on the seatbelt to keep weight back on it while the mother climbed down in the ground.

“Almost there baby” she said to her child while making her way down to where he was.

Finally she made it to him and removed the car seat from being wedged in between some large rocks.

“Pull him up and then cradle him while I climb back up” She yelled and I followed her command.

Once the child was up with me I unbuckled him and held the infant in my arms.

“Thank you so much” the lady spoke while making her way up, “he is my world and its only been 6 months since he’s turned my world upside down.”

I smiled at her as she stood up and brushed her clothes off.

“Let’s get out of here” she said right as the ground began to shake once more. The hole behind her made a loud popping noise and heat rose up making it feel like we were in an oven. The ground beneath our feet broke into two parts and the woman in front of me fell backwards.

Our eyes met in fear for a split second and then she was gone.

I held the child close to my chest as I screamed and tears then began to pour down my face.

Moving away from the instant death I just witnessed, I clutched the small child against me and I ran.

I wiped the tears from my face as they fell hoping that I could soon get us to safety, but the smoke filled valley in front of me didn’t look promising .