by E S Richards
Neither of them moved. Despite them both committing their lives to researching natural disasters like the Yellowstone supervolcano eruption, neither had ever witnessed anything close to this. The worst thing Mia had ever seen was the car crash that killed her brother and his wife a year ago. This was on a whole other scale.
Wind spiraled in front of them like hundreds of tiny tornados, rocks, ash, and debris all picked up and flung around with it. It was obvious they were within the ash cloud, visibility reduced to only a few feet in every direction. Stepping out of the plane, the temperature rose considerably. Mia guessed it had to be over a hundred degrees, her clothes instantly sticking to her body with sweat.
Looking at the plane, it wasn’t obvious what had brought it down. They hadn’t crashed into anything specifically—other than the ground—but that explanation was unimportant now. All that mattered was they were down on the ground and they had to find a way out of the darkness.
“Where are we?” Mia shouted over to Jorge, the strength of the wind almost carrying her voice away before it reached him.
Jorge shrugged. “I don’t know. You got any guesses?”
Honestly, Mia had absolutely no clue. She knew they had to start walking though and they just had to hope they were going in the right direction. If they walked toward Yellowstone, they could end up caught in the lava flows or the lahars and that would mean certain death.
“The plane is pointing this way,” Mia suggested, knowing that they were trying to fly away from the volcano. “Is that good enough?”
“That’s all we’ve got,” Jorge nodded. “Let’s get going.”
Striding away from the plane wreckage, Mia didn’t even bother to look back. She felt saddened for the pilot and Tyler who had lost their lives. She didn’t know the pilot that well, but she knew Tyler had a boyfriend back in Texas. Though, if the eruption was as bad as Mia thought it was, he would likely have his own problems to deal with rather than waiting for Tyler to return.
Her own family was back in Texas too. Her parents were looking after Chase and Riley while she was away. Would they understand what was happening when the effects of the eruption reached them? Mia estimated it would take less than a day for the jet streams to carry the ash cloud to Houston. Once that happened it wouldn’t take long for crops to be destroyed, the power to short, and people to be potentially poisoned just by breathing in the air. She thought of her father. He’d suffered a stroke only two months earlier and certainly hadn’t recovered the way everyone had hoped he would. Mia prayed that he would stay inside—she knew how the particles from the ash cloud could lacerate your lungs in minutes. Just one short walk outside could doom someone immediately.
Her throat itched and complained with every breath Mia took even now. Even with the mask she was wearing from the plane, there were likely still tiny particles from the ash cloud making their way into her lungs and poisoning her body. But what could she do? They had to get out of the epicenter as quickly as possible and that meant walking through the cloud, no matter how devastating it could be.
“I think it’s thinning out,” Jorge called over to Mia as they walked. She had been so focused on thinking of all the effects of the eruption and her family, that Mia hadn’t been paying much attention to where they were going. Jorge was right. They had been walking downhill and as they did, the ash cloud appeared to be rising above them and diluting at ground level.
There was still a long way to go, though. Mia gave Jorge a thumbs-up as they continued walking, both of their heads down to avoid as much ash as possible. It was like walking through an impossibly dark wind tunnel, objects appearing in front of them almost out of nowhere. They were definitely escaping the cloud, which Mia was pleased about. But there was something in the back of her mind that told her things were going to get a whole lot worse before they got better.
They hadn’t passed a single other person since leaving the plane. Mia wasn’t exactly certain which direction they were walking in, but she had expected people to be running around in a panicked frenzy everywhere she looked. A supervolcano had just erupted. She must have read over a thousand papers on the theory of it happening, but now that she was experiencing it, it was something completely different. She picked up her pace slightly at the thought. The scientist in her wanted to see it; it was so rare that someone in her profession ever got to experience the real thing first hand.
“Do you think it’s weird?” Mia questioned, thinking out loud and earning a puzzled look from Jorge. “The lack of people,” she continued. “Where is everyone?”
“Mia,” Jorge started, “the largest volcano on the planet has just erupted. I would find it a lot weirder if there were people just wandering about their daily tasks.”
Mia laughed. With Jorge’s thick Spanish accent the sentence sounded even more amusing than it already was. Jorge was right, of course. The sad reality was that a large percentage of the people who had been outside when Yellowstone erupted would likely be dead. Just like the pilot and Tyler and just like the people she had watched fall into the magma chambers as the rock roof of Yellowstone had collapsed earlier. Thinking of it all, Mia found herself laughing even harder. It was uncontrollable. She knew it was wrong, but her body couldn’t fight it. Laugh or cry—they seemed to be her only options.
As Jorge watched Mia with his eyebrows raised, he tried to remain focused on the mammoth task ahead of them. They were thankfully escaping the ash cloud now, but like Mia, Jorge knew there would be much more devastating and prolonged effects of the eruption to come.
“¡Ay, dios mio!” Jorge was suddenly stopped in his tracks as he noticed what was happening ahead of him. Mia finally ceased her nervous laughter and gasped at the sight in front of them. They had walked into some sort of valley. Neither of them had a clue where they were, but it was obvious what had happened. They were closer to the volcano than they had thought and one of the lava flows had weaved its way through the hills of the national park, forging a river that ran right through their path.
“What do we do?” Mia stumbled over her words, the breath knocked out of her lungs by the sight in front of her eyes. It was incredible. But equally terrifying at the same time.
“I—I don’t know,” Jorge replied. “We need to find a way around it.”
“But could it go on for miles?” Mia questioned, knowing that if the flow of lava was so strong in front of them, it wouldn’t be contained to just a small area. “What if we follow it in the wrong direction?”
“Well…” Jorge stopped and thought for a moment. “At least this shows us where the volcano is. We can tell from the lava flow, so we know which direction to walk now.”
“True,” Mia started to reply, her sentence cut short as she noticed something resting on the bank of the lava river below them. A human arm. Bile rose in her throat as she watched it float past, no sign of the body which it had once been attached to. Mia understood that thousands of people would’ve been killed in the eruption, but watching a disfigured limb float past her suddenly made it all real. “Let’s just get out of here,” she choked out. “I don’t want to wait around any longer.” Questions ran through her head about where exactly she and Jorge had landed over and over again. She desperately hoped they had made it out of the kill zone. Or at least that they weren’t strolling straight back into the arms of death.
With a nod, Jorge started moving again. He had seen the same thing Mia had, the disfigured limb unmistakable even through the hazy air that surrounded them. Visibility was low, but somehow the human eye still managed to see the things you didn’t want to. Despite that, they both opted not to speak about it. But the river of lava was a growing concern for Jorge. While it technically pointed them in the direction away from Yellowstone, they still needed to find a way around it or across it. It meandered through the valley steadily but surely, choosing its path as if it already knew exactly where it wanted to go.
What Jorge marveled at most about it, though, was how non-violent it appear
ed on the surface. The lava crept along at a consistent pace; it didn’t throw up waves or spit up fire like he had expected it to. After everything, he realized that his entire profession was merely based on theory. What he and Mia had experienced today—and would hopefully continue to experience if they made it out alive—would revolutionize the world of seismology and volcanology. Their eyewitness statements would become pull quotes in scientific papers for decades to come, their stories and involvement immortalized in print forever.
“Look!” Mia’s cry pulled Jorge’s attention from his fantasies, the lure of fame a hidden driver that had always been at the back of his mind through all his sporadic professions. That was why he’d trained as a stunt pilot: for the glory. It was also why he’d spent a summer acting as an extra in LA during his teenage years. Throughout everything, Jorge wanted to be remembered. He’d always had a passion for volcanology and so once he hit a certain age, he decided to pursue it. Now he was increasingly happy that he had.
“Do you see that ridge over there?” Mia continued once she’d captured Jorge’s attention, the Spaniard following the angle of her finger. “I think we could get across that, don’t you?”
“Yes, Mia!” Jorge grinned, “I knew there’d be a way out!”
Picking up their pace, the two of them began jogging towards what Mia had identified. The valley dipped down even farther and the lava flow gently followed it down, leaving a piece of land jutting out over the top of the river that they could use to jump across.
“Do you think we can make it?” Mia asked once they were up close, standing just a few feet away from the deadly flow of molten lava. She knew how toxic this could be to them and didn’t want to spend longer near the burning lava than she had to. In truth, she knew both she and Jorge had likely already inhaled enough of the volcanic ash into their lungs to change their lives forever.
Jorge paused. “There’s only one way to find out,” he grinned, turning his head slightly and winking at Mia. She instantly knew what he was about to do. With her heart pounding in her chest, Mia watched as Jorge took a few steps back and then started running. He sprinted toward the end of the ridge, kicking off with his feet at the last moment and soaring through the air, potential instant death hovering just an arm’s length away.
Chapter 3
Sitting around the dinner table, Chase kept his phone unlocked on his leg. He glanced down at the screen every ten seconds or so, willing for something to change. Anything. After not being able to get through to Mia, Chase discovered that he couldn’t get an Internet signal either and none of his messages would send. He wanted to put it down to a problem with the provider, but something told him it was a lot more than just bad cell connection.
“Chase!”
“Huh? What?” Chase looked up from his phone. He had been so distracted by his thoughts that he had completely missed his sister speaking his name, the look on her face indicating that she’d repeated it several times before he finally heard.
“Can you pass the peas, please?” Riley sighed, rolling her eyes. “Some girl texting you or something?”
“What?” Chase looked down at his cell quickly before catching up with what Riley was indicating and frowning. “No,” he pouted as he passed the bowl of peas to his younger sister. “Not that it’s any of your business.”
“C’mon guys,” Jerry cut in from the head of the table. “Let’s keep it friendly, shall we?”
For everything they had been through together, Chase and Riley could still fight like anyone’s business. Losing their parents in the car crash had undoubtedly brought them closer as siblings, Chase constantly trying to look out for Riley and in turn, Riley constantly looking up to Chase. But as a result of how close they’d become, they both knew just how to take a jab at one another. They teased each other religiously, pressing the other’s buttons for fun until they snapped and bit back. Chase knew to never actually hit his younger sister, but that didn’t stop them from having the occasional rough and tumble. He’d never intentionally hurt her, but he didn’t see anything wrong with holding her in a headlock and giving her a noogie until she begged for mercy.
“Seriously though,” Riley continued after receiving the warning from her grandfather. “What’s so important on your phone?”
“Nothing,” Chase shrugged, remembering what Pop had said to him about trying to protect Riley and Grandma from the terrifying truth. “Just checking my fantasy team before the weekend games.”
“Ugh, baseball,” Riley rolled her eyes again. “I’ll never understand what’s so great about watching a bunch of guys hit a ball and then run around a square over and over again. It’s so boring!”
With the topic of baseball now up in the air, Riley launched into one of her famous monologues about why all sports were a “stupid waste of time”. Despite being a very athletic girl herself and often winning a large proportion of her swim meets, she didn’t see the point in team sports and had very little interest in taking part. For once, Chase wasn’t listening. An alert had just popped up on his cell that nearly knocked the breath out of his lungs.
FOX NEWS REPORTS: Yellowstone Supervolcano Erupts
Desperately, Chase clicked on the notification, expanding the news report to full screen. The background layout of the app opened up, but there was nothing but a loading wheel spinning in the center of the screen. No text and no explanation. Closing the app, Chase quickly reopened it, determined to find out more of what was happening. The same thing happened though. The familiar blue and red colors of the app appeared but where there should be different articles, there was only a black wheel spinning slowly around in the circle. It was bizarre. His phone was operating as if there were no service and yet some information was still getting through. It didn’t make any sense to him.
“Excuse me,” Chase mumbled as he pushed his chair back from the table, not looking up or making eye contact with anyone. He could feel bile rising in his throat as he made his way over to his laptop, opening the screen and waiting for it to wake up again.
“Chase?” Grandma Linda called, rising to her feet as her grandson left the table. “What are you doing?”
“I just need to check something,” Chase replied as nonchalantly as he could, though he knew if what he had just read was real, he wouldn’t be able to keep it secret or protect his family from it for much longer.
He pulled down the notification panel on his cell as he waited for his laptop to log on, but the alert had disappeared. Frowning, Chase questioned whether what he had seen was real. Could he have imagined it? Surely if a volcano had erupted there would be more information available than just one quick alert and then nothing. There had to be something else he could find out.
Finally, after several more painful seconds, his laptop screen lit up. Chase’s MLB fantasy team opened in front of him from earlier that day. Baseball would have to wait for now. As quickly as he could type, Chase navigated to the Fox News live television site, praying for the link to work. Slowly but surely the page started to load and a news reporter appeared in the video box, clearly halfway through an announcement. Holding his breath, Chase turned up the volume on his laptop and hit the play button.
“…urge everyone to stay inside and start rationing food. Avoid traveling long distances, and if you must go out, use breathing protection. The volcanic ash from the cloud can kill instantly, so please, exercise extreme caution. Remain on this channel for further information.
“Again, if you’re just tuning in—this is an announcement following the eruption of the Yellowstone supervolcano. The once-dormant volcano erupted at 16:23 EST and the effects are expected to cover the entire northern hemisphere within a matter of days. We urge everyone to stay indoors. Avoid traveling long distances, and if you must go out, use breathing protection. The volcanic ash from the cloud can kill instantly, so please, exercise extreme caution. Remain on this channel for further information. Again, if you’re just tuning in…”
Chase lowered the lid of hi
s laptop. The room was deathly still. The look on everyone’s faces revealed just how serious they all knew things were. Yellowstone had erupted. That was bad enough in itself, but for the Clarke family it was even worse. That was where Mia had been. When was her flight out? Would she still have been there? Questions filled Chase’s head as he looked to each of his family members, similar queries filling theirs. No one had the answer. No one had any answers. Seconds turned to minutes in silence as the four of them sat there, waiting for someone to break the tension.
“She’ll be okay,” Pop quietly started to mutter to himself, shaking his head and staring at the kitchen floor. “She’ll be okay.”
“Jerry…” Grandma Linda reached across the table to her husband with her hand, intending to lay it on Pop’s shoulder. The old man flinched, jumping up to his feet and shaking his head harder from side to side.
“She will have gotten out,” he almost shouted. “Mia won’t have been there.”
“If anyone could have gotten out, it will have been Mia,” Chase replied, trying to alleviate the situation. “I’m sure she’s fine, Pop. I’m sure you’re right.”
The old man turned his head from side to side, a panicked look in his eyes as he looked first at his grandchildren and then to his wife. Linda looked hurt. That much was obvious to anyone who looked at her, the reaction of Jerry both shocking and upsetting her. It was very unlike him to react like that—Chase hoped it was just in reaction to the news; their family couldn’t deal with any more strain now.
Riley had barely reacted to the broadcast, something that hadn’t gone unnoticed by Chase. Through everything, he knew that Riley had to remain his top priority—no matter how annoying or infuriating she could be at times. He’d made a promise to his father before his parents left to go on their holiday over a year ago, a promise that he would look after his little sister. Every day he thought of the words he had spoken when he was saying goodbye, and every day he tried his best to live by those words. It was Chase’s way of honoring his parents to some extent, of letting them know that they were still guiding his future, even if they weren’t a part of it.
