November 3, 2011

Atlantis 16

          Outside the building, the streets in the center of Atlantis’ capital were filled with its citizens. The careless people were still busy partying, as they had done the whole day. The noise of laughter could be heard in every corner. Huge amounts of alcohol were consumed to celebrate the great victory. In the mood that prevailed nothing seemed to worry the citizens of Atlantis.
          Suddenly, a strong gust of wind rose up from the sea that was accompanied by a strange-sounding noise. At first, the sound could barely be heard, but it gradually grew louder. Immediately, it was quiet among the large crowd. The people stopped with whatever they were doing to see what was causing the mysterious noise. The rumbling sound of the wind grew stronger and stronger until it had turned into a high-pitched, loud-shrieking sound. The disturbance grew so strong, people could barely hear eachother.
          “Where is that sound coming from?” people shouted. Everyone, including the guards, who normally stood motionless, became restless by the strange sound. People were wondering what was going on, because they had never experienced something like this before. Something was wrong..........
          The last traces of hope that nothing was wrong and everything was still okay vanished, when the ground, for no apparent reason, began to shake uncontrollably. At first, plates and other dishes fell and broke on the ground and as the tremor grew in strength, pillars and the walls of various buildings started to crack under the force of the quake.
          Then, without further warning, came the thundering explosion of the volcanoes that dominated the landscape of Atlantis. Gigantic pillars of hot, molten magma and fire burst miles into the air. In a second, the streets of Atlantis was turned into a scene straight out of hell with panicked and frightened people running like ants in an anthill. Many were crushed in the chaos under deadly falling debris. Men, women and children, while shouting and screaming, fled to the huge temples or seeked shelter in the great hallways of massive buildings to escape the hot ash that rained down on Atlantis. But while streams of magma was busy making its way down from the hills to the city and preparing to finish her off like a helpless animal, another new disaster made its presence felt as if to let the citizens of Atlantis know that for them there would be no tomorrow.
          The first shockwave of a colossal earthquake slit with tremendous force the beautiful city of Atlantis in half. In a split second, the ground was torn apart beneath thousands of people, who were unfortunate enough to have stood above it. The last thing their eyes saw before their last breath left their bodies was the terrible, bottomless chasm that had opened before them. In the heart of this chasm, miles down under in the heart of the earth, while the surface was being torn apart, blossomed a mighty fire. From it rose such an indescribably hot wind that people, who were somehow still alive, after inhaling the invisible but deadly air, fell dead like flies.
          A second, even more massive and frightening earthquake came, and, while the last buildings of Atlantis still standing were falling apart, split the entire island of Atlantis in half. The water of the Atlantic Ocean broke through and flowed into the gigantic, hot canyon of molten magma.
          Gradually, almost calmly after the two devastating earthquakes that had finished her off, the entire island of Atlantis sank like gigantic, flat stones to the unknown depths of the ocean until it lay hundreds of meters deep under water.

--o--

 Click on Part 17 for what happens next in this series.

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