October 29, 2003 Dear Diary, Today I can honestly say I feel lucky to be alive. I must admit, being afraid of death is something I never thought I'd experience...my strength has always been more than enough for any situation I've encountered - before today. It started like any other day. I woke up, showered, and went into the basement to work out (nude as always, of course). As often happens, I got a little out of control...after a couple hours of effortlessly lifting, curling, pressing and compressing thousands of pounds of metal, I brought myself to climax by crushing a 5000-pound barbell against my clit. I should really learn to control my excitement better. At any rate, I came upstairs afterwards and flicked on the TV. I wasn't really watching anything, just enjoying the feeling of my pumped-up muscles cooling down, when suddenly I felt the ground begin to shake. It took me a minute to realize it was an earthquake. They're fairly common in California, but I had never before had the pleasure of experiencing one myself. I quickly stood up and looked around, but nothing seemed in danger of falling over or breaking. It appeared to be a fairly minor one, and was over in less than a minute. I inspected the house. My fridge had moved about three inches to the right, but I just picked it up and set it back in place. Then I went back to the TV and flipped to the news. They were already reporting on the quake, giving first estimates of its strength, pinpointing the source and so on. I watched with mild interest for a half hour or so as they talked with various seismologists and weather people. Although it had been small, many of them seemed concerned about what had caused it. "The geological center of the quake," explained one of the bespectacled experts, "was safely removed from any populated areas. However, it is uniquely situated in relation to the infamous San Andreas fault." A map appeared on the screen, with a dot showing the center of the earthquake. Then a line appeared, labeled 'San Andreas Fault.' The dot was almost exactly at the north end of the line. "We need to research this further," the expert was saying, "but it's likely that this quake will precipitate more activity." I left the TV on and went to get breakfast. By the time I wandered back, the tone of the discussion had definitely changed. "Our instruments indicate that the instability in the Fault is increasing exponentially. There have been several more small quakes in the north, and the most logical explanation for that would seem to be, uh..." He paused. "Tectonic shift." "Meaning what?" the reporter calmly asked. "Well, it's too early to say," the seismologist responded nervously. "But it's a possibility that...that the Fault could separate." There was another tense pause. "That California could, essentially, uh...split from the continent." "Mr. Wilkinson, are you saying that California is about to fall into the ocean?" "No, no. We're not, uh, we're not saying that." The reporter swallowed hard. "Yet." Well dear diary, two hours later that's exactly what they were saying. A graph appeared on the screen showing exactly where the split would begin and the route it would take. They had a timetable and everything. Within 12 hours, they estimated, California would be underwater. That was when I said, "The hell with that!" and grabbed my keys. I drove as fast as I could to the location they had said would be the starting point for the catastrophic event. As they had stated, it was far removed from any cities or towns, and the last 75 miles was through the desert without any road. By the time I reached it I could feel the earth getting angry. The ground was vibrating so violently that under different circumstances I may have been tempted to find some sort of elongated rock formation...but I kept my mind on my task. Before long I was rewarded...the earth began to split open right before my eyes. It was a breathtaking sight, almost impossible to describe. A huge gorge was slowly opening and traveling south. One second there was flat ground, the next second a crack splintering through it, the next, a 50-yard gap between two cliffs, and a crevasse hundreds of yards deep. I hadn't really thought about what I was going to do. As the opening gorge approached me, my first thought was to grab onto whatever earth I could and try to hold it together. Not very smart, as I soon realized. Dirt doesn't really hold together that well, and I was left with a couple of fistfuls of it as I dove away from the widening gap. Fortunately, split was still traveling relatively slowly, so I could catch up with it by running. Rethinking my strategy, I crouched in its path and concentrated all of the strength in my legs on not allowing them to spread apart. I also, once again, dug my hands deep into the dirt. The crack traveled perfectly between my feet. I gritted my teeth and dug in my heels as the earth began to separate. My thighs and calves bulged against the unstoppable force that was driving my feet farther and farther apart. I leaned forward, willing my legs to pull against the quaking earth. I had never before exerted my muscles against such a powerful force. My bulging buttocks soon ripped and shredded my jean shorts, but I paid no attention. Sobbing with effort, I helplessly felt my feet getting farther apart. Before long I was doing the splits over a deepening chasm. I jumped to safe ground once again. Angrily shedding the rest of my clothes, I ran to catch up with the moving quake once again. I tried to make myself believe that it had slowed down a little, but the force that I had felt was no match for my own. There was just no handhold! The only things to grip were dirt and rock, and they wouldn't hold against that kind of pressure. Even if there were a handle I could grab that would stay put, I would have to exert so much force that I would crush it before I could use it to pull the earth back. As I ran alongside the gaping wound in the desert, I felt a despair completely foreign to me. Never, in all that I had undergone, had I come up against a test of strength that was even that: a test. Whether lifting kitchen appliances or demolishing kitchen stores, ripping open bank safes or juggling semi-trucks, fighting a herd of angry rhinos or an armed military platoon, it had all been as easy as breathing. Now at last I had a worthy adversary, and I felt helpless. Staring down into the chasm, I realized what I had to do. Down there, at the bottom (if there was a bottom), the earth would be solid rock, not crumbling dirt. There would be cracks I could use for grips. And the bottom was the source. At the top I was fighting the final effects of the Fault, not the beginnings of it. I gritted my teeth and started running down the side of the cliff. Almost immediately I lost my balance and started sliding recklessly down the shaking slope. I grabbed at what I could but could do little to impede my progress into the dark abyss. The opposite side of the gorge grew slowly closer, until I could stretch out my feet and brush it, brace my self against it. Finally it was close enough that I could stop my fall, wedging myself between the two cliff walls. The ground was not shaking as much down here; the activity had moved on. As my eyes adjusted to the dark, far ahead I could barely see where the crack was continuously lengthening. I had to move. I inched lower and lower until I could see a floor below me, a narrow strip of rock between the two sloping walls. I didn't know how long that floor would hold, but it was my only chance. I started running as soon as I hit it. My feet told me that it was extremely hot, but I didn't listen to them. I was gaining on the quake, and in my mind there was only one course of action. Get to the front of this corridor and hold it shut. Thirty seconds of hard running did it. I have no idea how fast I was going, but I've outrun just about every motorized vehicle on the planet, so it was probably fairly speedy. In front of me was the crack, forever widening and moving forward. I jammed my hands into it, looking for hand holds. Gripping whatever I could, I pulled with all my might against the widening walls. I had to adjust my grip numerous times, but finally I got a good hold on both sides at once. This was it. My biceps flexed of their own accord, harder than I'd ever felt them strain before. I clenched my pecs, remembering the numerous times I crushed metal or concrete between my breasts. I tried to imagine crushing the hardest, strongest, biggest thing I could. My large breasts were standing straight out before me, lifted higher than ever before by my pulsating pectorals. Glancing to one side, I was shocked by the sight of my own bicep; I had never seen it pumped that large, not even close! Still, my arms were being pulled inexorably apart. I willed even more power into my burning muscles, feeling my breasts pushing against each other with tons of force, feeling the skin on my arms stretching thin over my exploding biceps. But eventually I had to let go, or I would have been pulled apart. My skeletal structure alone stood no chance against that kind of force, it was only the flexing of my muscles that saved me from being torn in two like a rag doll. I let the rock slip from my hands with utter exhaustion and disappointment. But the shaking all around me had definitely decreased! I realized with a shock that the fault was not traveling nearly so fast now, nor was the quaking of the earth as violent as it had been moments ago. I had slowed it down! With a surge of excitement I plunged my fists into the earth once again and pulled with all my might. My burning muscles screamed with agony, but I barely noticed. The thrill of victory was like a drug, feeding me a tremendous burst of new energy. I was pulling even harder than before, feeling the earth yield to my limitless power. This time I would not let go. The feeling of superiority over nature was intoxicating, and I felt my vagina dripping with arousal. Within minutes, my muscles exploded in the most forceful orgasm I had ever experienced! The quaking of the earth gave way to the infinitely more powerful tremor that coursed through my writhing body. I felt the ground give a final, violent shudder, and then all became still. I gradually realized that I wasn't breathing. Letting out a long, slow breath, I gently released my clenched fists from the canyon walls. Sweat was running down my body like water from a shower. Every muscle on my body stood out in rock hard ridges, still pulsing with every heartbeat. I wiped my brow and let out a whoop of joy. I had conquered the most violent forces of nature, and saved millions of lives! No one would ever know, but that was the way I liked it. The only problem that remained was getting back to the surface. I found myself now in a mile-deep gorge with sheer, near-vertical walls of rock. Laughing to myself, I decided that after what I had just accomplished, a little rock climbing was nothing to worry about. I grabbed a ledge and began pulling myself up. I didn't bother with footholds. The strength in my arms was more than sufficient to support myself as I moved quickly upwards. If there were no cracks or ledges to hold, I simply drove my fist into the rock and created one. The feeling of my biceps and pecs pulling me upwards was great. It took me less than ten minutes to reach the top. Then it was a five minute jog back to where the car was parked. I hopped in and headed for home, laughing at the news reports on the way. "The events of the last hour were completely unexpected," the seismologist confessed. "The fault began to separate as expected, but it seems to have been counteracted by..." He paused for breath. "By what we believe was another, unrelated earthquake. The two tectonic forces, rather than intensifying each other as is usually the case, seem to have counteracted each other, producing the stability we now see. We observe no indications that the activity will continue in the future." Tectonic force? Yup, that's me. Good night, dear diary.