The Yellowstone Brief

by Larry LaVoie

  “I’ve gained a new respect for our military,” David said, “that’s the most impressive thing I’ve ever seen in the air.”

  “Even better than the SR-71 Blackbird?” Trick asked, referring to the all titanium, cold war, spy plane the military decommissioned in the late Nineties. It had been rumored to fly at four times the speed of sound with a ceiling of over 80,000 feet.

  “Well, I might make an exception for the Blackbird, but it couldn’t haul a tank to the top of a mountain either.” He circled around the site one more time. “Looks like they might get this road built in three days, like they said.”

  “The Corps of Engineers built 1700 miles of the ALCAN highway in eight months back in 1942,” Trick said.

  “Aren’t you a bundle of American trivia,” David chided. “I don’t remember you being a history buff.”

  “You’d be surprised at what a guy will do to keep from going stark raving mad in the Alaskan wilderness,” Trick said. “The night I met Tanya, I was reciting The Cremation of Sam McGee to a tavern full of lumberjacks and drunks.”

  “How romantic,” David said. “And she still went out with you.”

  Trick slugged him and the helicopter banked sharply. David struggled to bring it under control. Leveling it out over the tree tops, he gave Trick a scowl. “When we get back you’re going to help me cut off this cast. I sometimes forget I have it on and it’s going to get us killed.”

  The first thing they did when they arrived back at their camp was start looking for something to use to remove the cast on David’s leg. “Get me a hammer and a chisel and I’ll have it off in a minute,” Trick said.

  “How about a knife and a pair of scissors, smart ass?”

  “Or you could use the infirmary at Headquarters. The doc might be able to exchange the plaster cast for one of those light-weight strap-on fiberglass boots.”

  “Whatever, as long as it gets removed today.”

  Chapter 27

  August 26th, Yellowstone National Park

  Nathan Langford pulled up to the curb of the deserted street in front of Park Headquarters. With a pain in his heart, he looked up at the three-story sandstone structure that had originally housed Army officers after its completion in 1913, but for the past three years had served as his business office. I’ll be back, he promised himself. He looked forlornly at the aging structure. I’ll be back. “This will only take a minute,” he said to his wife, as he got out of the Jeep. He noticed a light in Henry’s office window and, once inside the building, leaned through the door to see if he was in. Henry was deep in thought, staring at his computer. “Henry, I expect updates, even though I’ll be out of the park.”

  Henry spun around in his chair.

  “Are you feeling okay?” Langford asked, seeing beads of sweat on Henry’s forehead.

  “I might as well tell you,” Henry said. “I don’t think we’ll make it.”

  “What do you mean? Make what?”

  “The tunneling project. The ground rose another two inches last night. This is scary, and the Army has cut all communication out of the park, so you won’t be getting any updates from me.”

  “You think we’re going to have a major eruption?”

  Henry stood up. “I wish I knew for certain. If I could leave with you, I would. I’m spooked.”

  Langford noticed Henry’s hands were shaking. “I wish I could do something to help.”

  “It’s all right,” Henry said, unconvincingly. “The tunnel is over 50 miles away. I’m going to stay on and monitor the park from here.”

  “I’m sorry, Henry,” Langford said, putting his hand on Henry’s shoulder. “If it’s any consolation, from the briefing, it sounded like the whole country will be lost if the tunneling isn’t successful.”

  Henry put on his bravest face. “I guess it’s come down to where we want to die. If I were you, I’d get to the airport, before all hell breaks loose. We’ve already seen major disruptions in the geysers. Beehive Geyser has started spewing ash like a small volcano. It’s never done that before.” He turned back to his computer and sat down staring at the screen again. “Sorry, Nathan, but I’ve got to get updated numbers to Dr. Wayne.”

  “Right, I’ll get out of your hair.” Langford didn’t bother stopping by his office. He headed straight for the exit. He was silent as he started his Jeep and headed east along Loop Road. “That didn’t take long,” his wife said.

  Langford didn’t answer. He pushed down on the accelerator and brought the Jeep up to sixty.

  “Nate, the speed limit is 35 here. Have you gone crazy?”

  “I know what I’m doing,” Langford said, taking a corner, temporarily losing control. He braked hard and brought the vehicle back to his side of the road and sped up again. When he came to the junction for Highway 212, at the northeast corner of Loop Road, he turned. He wanted to get out of the park as quickly as possible.

  “This isn’t the way to Cody,” his wife protested.

  “We can take the turn off to 296,” Langford said, “it’ll get us there in time for our flights.

  “I hate that road. You know I get carsick on curvy roads. Let’s turn around and take the other road.”

  The other road would take them deeper into the park. It would have been a faster route to the airport, but Nathan was having none of it. He wanted out of the park before it could blow up. He ignored her and kept on driving.

  *****

  Heather opened her eyes to a world that appeared upside down. The morning sun was casting long shadows in the ravine. She was struggling to breathe and for a moment thought someone was choking her. The smell of decaying human flesh and spilled gasoline fumes filled the air. A hard bump on the side of her head had left its mark in the form of a huge lump and an excruciating headache. She tried to release the safety belt again, but it was hopelessly jammed. She felt around until her hand rested on a piece of glass. She pried it loose from the windshield and tried to use it to cut through the webbing, but the glass wasn’t sharp. After sawing for a few minutes, barely causing the webbing to fray, she dropped the shard of glass. “This will take all day,” she said angrily.

  She reached for the dead man, hoping he had something in his pocket. There was a loud thump on the vehicle, causing Heather to divert her attention. A large turkey vulture had landed on the side of the vehicle and was peering in the window. This can’t be good. He looks hungry, she thought. The stench from the decaying body next to her would draw all kinds of scavengers. She didn’t care to watch as they made dinner of the man and then started on her for dessert. With renewed urgency, she stretched as far as she could and walked her fingers inside the jeans pocket of the dead man. She felt something metal. She worked at it trying to get it to slip out, but the position of the body and the angle of her hand made progress slow and painful. After a few minutes, she gave up. She pulled at the deflated air bag and ripped it from its place in the dash. This exposed the glove compartment, which was sprung open. She leaned forward as far as she could and reached in with her right hand and felt for anything sharp. The compartment was empty. She massaged her aching head. This is ridiculous, she thought. I can’t die here, less than a mile from the highway. She felt around with her feet. They were dangling at an angle resting against the transmission tunnel instead of the floor. There were a plethora of items accumulated there from the crash. She kicked off one of her shoes, so she could feel with her toes, although she didn’t know how she would get hold of anything should she find it. She felt papers, a book that appeared to be the vehicle operator’s manual, and several CDs along with the plastic cases. As she shuffled the items around with her toes, she leaned as far to her left as the seatbelt would allow her, and observed the items around her feet. What’s that? Her toes touched it at the same time her eyes caught a glimpse of it. It looks like a box cutter. Could I be that lucky? She moved the item with her foot and tried to grasp it with her toes. Wishful thinking! It’s a penlight; what am I going to do with that? She worked it betw
een her toes on her right foot, still not having any idea how she could use it. I wish I would have kept up gymnastics, she thought, as she slowly lifted her right leg and crossed it over her left. She strained against the shoulder belt, as she leaned down to get the penlight. As she struggled, the light teetered between her toes like a baton in the hands of a clumsy majorette. It was barely out of reach. She grabbed her right leg, below the knee, with her right hand and pulled it closer to her left hand. Finally, she had the penlight firmly in her left hand. With a smile of satisfaction, she held it up to her face and tried to adjust her body. The circulation was being cut off to her lower extremities. Her legs started to tingle. She pushed the button on the penlight and it lit up in a bright green pinpoint of light. The place on the dash where the light was pointed started to smoke. What kind of flashlight is this? She immediately pushed the button turning it off. She read the lettering on the side of the device; Wicked S3 Spyder Arctic Laser. She hadn’t seen one since her training days at Quantico. The unit they had demonstrated in training was much larger. This must be an updated commercial version, she thought. The instructor had demonstrated how the powerful laser, in the hands of the wrong people, could bring down an airliner.

  She carefully scooted her body around and directed the laser at her seatbelt. As the webbing started to melt and burn, the vehicle erupted in flames. Gasoline had pooled beside the driver side door and started burning. Soon the driver side seat was in flames and the only thing keeping Heather from being consumed by the inferno was the dead man. In seconds the smell of burning flesh and the crackling of the flames caught up with her. As she worked her way through the passenger side window the flames licked at her bare feet. In a single motion, she rolled out of the window and onto her feet. She let out a painful scream as her feet came in contact with sharp rocks. No time to be a tenderfoot, she told herself, as she forced her legs to move her away from the rapidly growing bonfire. As the flames consumed the vehicle, nearby sagebrush and scrubby pine caught fire. Heather worked her way up the cliff as rapidly as her tortured body would let her. By now the sun was high and the temperature rising. Thirsty and hurting, she picked her way along the ragged rocky slope. Near delirious, with sweat burning her eyes, she reached up hand over hand making slow but steady progress. After what seemed like hours, her hand came down on a shoe attached to a body. She had found Joshua Stone. He had been thrown from the vehicle as it tumbled down the cliff. Heather searched his body for anything she might use to survive. There wasn’t much, but in a pouch on his belt was a satellite phone. Thank God, this was in his holster, she thought. None of the items she had on her person at the time of the crash were anyplace to be found in the vehicle by the time it had come to rest and any hope of retrieving anything from the van had gone up in flames. She considered it a small miracle to find an intact phone. She found a spot to sit, powered up the device, and checked for a signal. Within minutes she was talking to her office in D.C. As she waited for help to arrive, she watched the rising smoke from the small forest fire she had started slowly drift off and the flames die down. Her long ordeal would soon be over.

  Chapter 28

  August 26th, Yellowstone National Park

  David massaged the red rash on his leg and brushed away the dead skin left behind after the cast was removed. He opted to use the doctor at the infirmary, rather than the hammer and chisel suggested by Trick. “Put some weight on it and see how it feels,” the doctor said.

  He walked around the room barefoot, for a few minutes doing his best not to limp. “It’s a little tender. I’ll have to take it easy for awhile.”

  “You are lucky you heal fast, but I suggest you use this temporary boot until you get your strength back.” The doctor pulled out a two-piece black plastic boot that resembled a ski boot with a hinge along the back. He placed it around David’s leg and tightened it with three Velcro straps. “How does that feel?”

  “It feels like I’m still going to be walking around with a gimpy leg.”

  “Give it another few weeks. Your body will thank you.”

  Trick poked his head through the door. “I hate to interrupt, but we’ve got to go.”

  “Thanks, Doc,” David said. “Put it on my tab.”

  The doctor waved him away. “You boys go play. Come back and see me if you have any problems.’

  David and Trick rushed toward the exit. “What’s going on?” David asked.

  “I just got word our base camp was evacuated.”

  On the way back to temporary headquarters, Trick slowed down for a buffalo herd crossing the road with no intention of giving way to their vehicle. “I’ve never seen buffalo here before,” David said.

  “I’ve never seen that before,” Trick said, pointing to a smoldering area of pavement ahead of them. “You don’t suppose the magma is close enough to the surface to cause that?”

  Trick set the emergency brake. “Let’s take a look.”

  “It can’t be that hot out here,” David said, looking up. The sky overhead was blue, except for the plume of black smoke and ash in the distance. He bent down and put his hand to the pavement.

  Trick did the same. “Are you thinking what I’m thinking,” he said, glancing at David.

  They both jumped back in the vehicle. Trick released the emergency brake. He looked ahead to see heat waves shimmering above the pavement. He glanced over at David. “You think we should try it?”

  “If you want to get back to camp in this decade, it’s the only way,” David said.

  Trick gunned the pickup and proceeded into the patch of gooey asphalt. As the truck began to bog down, he shifted into 4-wheel drive and slowed to try and gain traction.

  “Get through this!” David shouted. “I don’t want to walk out of here.”

  Fortunately, the stretch of melted road was only a few car lengths long. In less than a minute they were spinning the tar off their tires on solid pavement again. Trick checked the gauges to see if there was any lasting damage from the excess heat.

  “I think we escaped without harm,” David said.

  “Easy for you to say. I need to get back to camp so I can change my shorts.”

  “That’s you I smell,” David said, grinning at Trick. “I thought you ran over a skunk.”

  They hadn’t moved up the road more than a quarter mile before another large heard of buffalo was meandering across the road. “I’ve never seen so much wildlife on the move,” David said.

  Trick slowed the vehicle to a stop again. “Take a look over there,” he said, pointing to a very large grizzly bear. “Maybe he’s got them spooked.”

  “Maybe so,” David said. “I’m not getting out to ask him what’s going on.”

  Trick eased the park vehicle into the herd. “They don’t seem to be in a hurry to move.”

  “Strange behavior,” David said. “Look at that. What in the hell would bring wolves out in the daylight?” David grabbed the handhold on the door post. “Did you feel that?”

  Trick stopped the truck as it began to shake violently. Buffalo scrambled to keep their footing. Trick slipped the vehicle into park and grabbed the steering wheel with both hands. Buffalo were thrown off their feet and slammed into the side of the truck. Wolves were howling and scampering about. A young moose and its mother ran from a nearby pine forest only to tumble down on the meadow grass, helpless to stay on their feet. After the quake all hell broke lose as buffalo struggled to their feet and ran in a stampede toward the nearest grove of pine. The bear also headed for the woods. The wolves were nowhere to be seen. The moose and her baby struggled to their feet and ambled off as if this sort of thing happened every day.

  “That was cool,” Trick said, nervously.

  “I guess these earthquakes are taking their toll on the wildlife, too.” David said.

  “Animals have a sixth sense about these things,” Trick said in a professorial tone. “They knew it was coming and took to the open areas before it hit.”

  “Right,” David said. He
put his shoulder against the door and forced it open. It moved halfway and stopped. He squeezed out the narrow opening and assessed the damage the buffalo had done. There wasn’t a spot on his side of the truck that wasn’t dented. He called to Trick, “You’re going to have fun telling this story to the ranger who loaned you the truck. I think this thing is totaled.”

  “Help me pry this fender away from the rear wheel,” Trick said. The two of them pulled on the dented sheet metal and moved it away from the tire. “This should be good enough to get us back to the lodge. I bet you’ll have a thousand questions waiting for you when we get there.”

  When they pulled into Old Faithful Inn, it appeared to be deserted. A few days earlier the tunneling crew had set up temporary headquarters there. The lodge is advertised to be the largest log structure in the world and has been a favorite resting place for park visitors. On their first night in the inn, Trick had marveled at the towering stone fireplace and the massive copper, wood, and wrought iron clock.

  This trip David was less impressed with their place to sleep and more concerned with the nearby Beehive Geyser that had started oozing red hot lava. “Where do you think they went?” David asked.

  “I caught a short message while we were at the hospital. It said something about moving closer to the tunnel site.”

  They did a quick check of the lodge and saw everything had been removed, including their personal belongings.

  “I guess they think we overstayed our welcome,” Trick said.

  “Let’s find out where they are,” David said heading for the door. It was turning dark and he checked his watch. “We’ve got some activity blocking the sun.”