Escaping Yellowstone

by Larry LaVoie

  Elliott shrugged. “I can do it if you don’t know how to drive a military vehicle.”

  “I know how. Hell, there probably aren’t any keys in it,” Chase argued.

  “Hot wire it,” Elliott said.

  “You know what it takes to operate a bar in a Federal Park?”

  “I’m sure you’re going to tell me.”

  “You have to have a clean criminal record. That means I can’t steal vehicles and keep my license.”

  “Get out,” Elliott said. He grabbed the door handle and opened the door.

  “You’re not leaving me here.”

  “Then get in as a passenger. I’m not arguing anymore. You want to stay here okay. I’m going back for the plow. Catherine, you can drive this thing, can’t you? I think Chase is getting off.”

  “Piece of cake,” Catherine said.

  Elliott climbed in the driver’s seat. “Catherine and I are going back. You’re welcome to ride along.”

  “This is bullshit,” Chase said, getting out of the snow taxi. He opened a side door and climbed in Elliott’s rig. Elliott backed the snow-cat into a snowdrift, turned around, and raced back toward Madison. When they had passed through Madison thirty minutes earlier, none of the buildings had lights and they hadn’t been able to raise anyone. The community was vacant, but that wasn’t unusual this time of year. All the roads leading into and out of Madison were closed for the winter.

  The snowplow Elliott had spotted looked more like an army personnel carrier with a blade in front and a track around the wheels. It was a strange looking vehicle that might have been cobbled together out of several vehicles as someone’s pet project. It was painted a dull green. When they climbed inside there was a single seat for the driver and rows of seats along each wall. Passengers sat sideways with their backs facing the side. There was room for a dozen or more if they placed people in the center. Elliott sat in the driver’s seat and looked at the crude instruments. The vehicle had no steering wheel and a metal mushroom shaped button on the floor for starting the engine near the gas pedal.

  “How do you steer this thing?” Chase asked, looking over Elliott’s shoulder.

  “Leavers. It’s like an old D-10. You ever driven a Cat?”

  “Never,” Chase said.

  “The levers brake one side or the other. If you want to stop you pull back on both of them… I think.”

  “You’re going to get us all killed,” Chase said again.

  “Shut up, or I’m going to leave you in the snow,” Catherine said.

  Elliott stepped on the starter and the engine roared to life. He checked the fuel gauge and it showed full. There was a temperature gauge and oil pressure gauge and an alternator gauge with a needle showing 14 volts.

  He looked around and pulled out a knob and headlights came on. “We can go anyplace with this. We can make our own roads if we want,” Elliott said. He was as excited as a kid with a new toy.

  “And you don’t think anyone will miss it,” Chase said.

  “It’s an emergency. You don’t think they would let us use it for a rescue mission if they were here?”

  “Just in case anybody asks, I had nothing to do with this,” Chase said.

  “We get it,” Catherine said. “Will you let it rest?”

  “Come with me, Catherine,” Elliott said. He turned to Chase. “You follow in the snow-cat.”

  As the needle on the dash passed twenty miles per hour Elliott turned to Catherine. “You riding okay, back there? I don’t think this thing will go any faster.”

  “I’ll never need a massage again. Every muscle in my body is jiggling like it’s on one of those exercise machines at the spa.”

  “And you’re getting this treatment for free. Can’t get any better than this.” Elliott grinned.

  When they approached the carved-out section of road, Elliott slowed and lowered the blade, pushing a mound of snow into the opening. He did it one more time, then drove over it and raised the blade slamming it into the bank on the other side. He backed up and took another pass at it. This time raising the blade cutting a path up the other side.

  “I’m going to keep this,” Elliott said to Catherine. “Can you follow me in the snow-cat.”

  “Lead the way. I can’t wait to get out of this contraption.” She got out, walked back, and climbed into the abandoned snow taxi.

  Chase was stopped beside it. He opened the window. “What’s going on?”

  “I can’t get Elliott out of his new toy. He wants us to follow him. He’ll clear a path if he needs to.”

  Old Faithful

  Back inside the maintenance building, Cody went over every connection for the radio. “I can’t find anything wrong,” he announced to the audience standing behind him.

  “If I might be of assistance, son,” George said. “I worked on a project where we used two-way radios and their range isn’t that great in rough terrain. I think the best thing to do is keep trying to reach someone. Give it a short break and try again. Patience and fortitude are the key.”

  “I agree,” Cody said. “We need to keep trying in case someone comes within range, it’s the only way out of this.” He was thinking about the level of fuel in the tank. They couldn’t stay here much longer

  “At least we are warm. We can be thankful for that,” Cody’s mother said.

  When he had checked the gauge, it didn’t register any fuel. They may have an hour but no more, after that they would be at the mercy of the weather again. He hoped the new day would bring sunshine and possibly warmer temperatures, but that was wishful thinking. The last time he had looked up he could not see the moon. Clouds might bring warmer temperatures, but also more snow.

  “This is Cody Street calling from Old Faithful, can anyone hear me?” Now, everyone in the shed was standing behind Cody, including Wendy, with her arms around Tyler and Meghan.

  Cody switched channels and tried again. On his third try there was static but no discernable words. “That’s someone trying to respond,” George said, anxiously. “Try to reach them again.”

  “This is Cody Street, calling from the maintenance building at Old Faithful. We have nine adults and two kids. We need help. If you can hear this please respond.”

  Again, there was a crackle, but this time garbled voices.

  “That was clearer than the last time,” Lisa said. “I think they’re trying to reach us.”

  Catherine heard the call in her snow taxi and radioed Elliott. “Did you hear that? I think it’s Cody.”

  “All I got was static,” Elliott said. “Chase did you hear anything?”

  Chase didn’t respond. Elliott checked his side mirrors and could not see the headlights from Chase’s vehicle. “Catherine, is Chase still behind you?”

  “I don’t see him. Maybe we need to slow down and wait for him to catch up.”

  “Have you checked your fuel gauge lately?”

  “I’m nearly empty. Maybe he ran out of gas.”

  “I’m stopping. If he doesn’t catch up in a minute or two we’ll have to go back for him.”

  “I can wait. Why don’t you go on?”

  Elliott had stopped in the center of the road. He got out and climbed in the snow taxi with Catherine. He leaned over and checked the fuel gauge. The needle was hovering in the red. “Turn it off. I’ve still got three quarters of a tank. We’ll go back and find Chase.”

  “I don’t understand why he didn’t call.”

  “Grab your things; we’re wasting time.”

  As they backtracked in the dozer, Elliott said, “Are you sure you heard Cody? I didn’t hear anything on my radio.”

  “I’m sure.”

  “Then he’s is alive. We’ll find Chase and continue on in this rig. Did you notice the road is getting worse? I think the earthquake was centered in this end of the park.”

  “I saw you use the blade a few times to cut a path.”

  They were a mile from where they had turned around when they spotted Chase’s snow taxi
over the edge of the road. They tried to reach Chase on the radio with no response. Elliott stopped and got out. He slid down the ravine and opened the passenger door. The taxi was pointed nose-down into deep snow. Chase was pitched ahead into the steering wheel with a gash on his forehead. Elliott checked and could see he was still breathing. He popped the clasp on his seatbelt and dragged Chase out the passenger door onto the snow. He patted some snow on Chase’s face and Chase came to.

  “What happened?” Chase asked, trying to stand up.

  “Looks like you drove off the side of the road. Do you think you can walk?”

  Chase nodded. He sat up and looked at the wrecked snow taxi. “That isn’t going to be easy to get back on the road.”

  “We’ll worry about that later. You go up the bank first. Catherine is up there waiting with some hot coffee.”

  Chase scrambled up the embankment, slipping back nearly as much as he gained with each step. Catherine was at the top to help him up to the road. Once they were on their way again, Chase turned to Catherine. “I’m ready for that cup of hot coffee.”

  “Me, too,” Catherine said. “People in hell want ice water.”

  “Ice water we have,” Elliott said. “I just told you we had hot coffee to get your ass in gear.” Elliott spotted the snow taxi Catherine had been driving. “We’re going to leave it and continue in this rig. Chase, were you getting low on fuel before you drove off the road?”

  “I don’t remember much. I think I fell asleep.”

  “When I was your age, I could party for three days straight and then go to work the next day.”

  “Yeah, gramps. Superman lived back then, too.”

  “Catherine said she heard Cody on the radio,” Elliott said.

  “Did you hear anything?”

  “Now, I remember. I was trying to adjust the squelch just before I went off the road. I didn’t fall asleep. I heard someone calling for help.”

  Elliott picked up his radio. “Cody, this is Elliott. Do you copy?”

  There was static and then Cody came on, weak and broken. “This is Cody calling from Old Faithful. Battery getting low. Please respond.”

  “Cody this is Elliott. We are in a snow-cat about seven miles from Old Faithful.”

  The people behind Cody in the maintenance office cheered. “Did you hear that? They’re coming for us,” Blake said.

  Wendy wrapped her arms around her kids. “Cody the stove just went out.”

  “Elliott, this is Cody. The lodge was destroyed in the earthquake. We are a hundred yards away from it in the maintenance building. I will signal you with a flashlight.”

  Blake was standing in the open door of the maintenance building when he spotted headlights. “They’re here,” he shouted. “We’re saved.”

  Cody signaled them with a flashlight. Elliott responded by flashing his lights.

  “I never thought I’d say it,” Cody said to Elliott. “You are a sight for sore eyes.”

  “Missed me, did you?” Elliott said grinning. “How do you like my ride?”

  “Will it hold all of us?”

  “I don’t know. There’s room for a dozen or so.”

  “We’re all there are. Anyone else trapped in the lodge is probably dead by now. The building collapsed even more after we escaped.”

  “You’re lucky. The road is barely passable in this thing. I had to make our own road in a few places.”

  “We need to go,” Cody said. “I hope that thing has a heater.”

  As Wendy and the children were helped into the vehicle, Susan touched Cody on his arm. “I was praying for a miracle.”

  “Looks like you got it,” Cody said. “Another hour and we’d be freezing again.” He watched until all were in the dozer and climbed in. He crouched down next to Elliott. “You can tell me the story later. What’s the plan to get us out of here?”

  “The road is bad. I swiped this thing from the station at Madison Junction. Unless you know a better way, I’d say we go back the way we came.”

  “There will be more quakes. We need to watch for slides, but it’s the shortest route out of the park.”

  “Everybody settled in?” Elliott asked in a loud voice.

  “Go,” Catherine said.

  “You going to stay there or find a seat?” Elliott asked Cody.

  “I’ll ride here until it gets too rough.”

  “Just so you know, the radio on this contraption sucks,” Elliott said. “When I finally heard you, we were only seven miles out.”

  “We were running on battery power and I could tell it was getting low. Why aren’t there more rescue workers?”

  “This close to Christmas, we couldn’t reach anyone on this end of the park.”

  “It figures,” Cody said. “I was worried about the West Thumb area before that asteroid hit.”

  “Asteroid?”

  “You didn’t hear?”

  “You mean the one that was going to miss the moon?”

  “It missed earth, but hit the moon. Didn’t you notice it looked a little strange?”

  “I thought it was brighter than usual, but thought it was the fog or an upper atmosphere disturbance. Anyway, it helped. It’s not as dark as it would be.”

  “The impact changed the moon’s orbit. I think these quakes were triggered by the impact.”

  “How so? Yellowstone is famous for its earthquakes.”

  “We need to get as far out of the park as we can.”

  “Why do you say that? Mammoth was hit by the quake, but damage was minimal.”

  “High tide. If I’m right we’re going to have increasingly worse earthquakes with every high tide. The moon is tugging at the earth’s crust and we’re sitting on a thin spot with a magma pool under us the size of Lake Huron.”

  “What happens then?”

  “I can’t say for certain. The geyser basin at West Thumb was acting up before any of this happened. I felt several explosions followed by quakes. I doubt there is much left of anything near Yellowstone Lake.”

  “Chase lost most of his liquor supply with the first two quakes, but other than that we just got rattled. Lost our lights, small stuff. I thought we’d get back there and see if we can reach someone outside the park for help.”

  “How about the roads out of the park?”

  “Never thought to inquire. We did have emergency service, but frankly the park is a ghost town until after the New Year. The 9-1-1 operator was in Casper or someplace out of the park.”

  “There may be other survivors. Do you think they are sending anyone in?”

  “Hey, you know a lot more than I do. If the moon is causing this kind of trouble here what’s it doing to coast property?”

  “You’re right. FEMA will have its hands full. There will be widespread flooding around the world.”

  NASA Headquarters, Washington DC December 23

  Martin Downing sat on a high stool with a white towel tucked in his shirt collar waiting patiently for the makeup artist to finish touching him up. He was about to address the nation on every major network and hundreds of their affiliates. It was the most important broadcast of his career, and could quite possibly be his last. He had made the decision to delay any news that might panic the public during the holiday season, and he had elected to discard two impact simulations and opt for the third that showed Dark Angel missing the moon by several miles. With the obvious error on his conscious, he was now with a panel of experts warning of the possible devastation along exposed coastlines throughout the country and around the world. In fact, there were some island nations that had already disappeared in the rising waters of the last high tide. His decision to delay wouldn’t have changed anything, he reasoned, but knew in his heart it had caused hundreds if not thousands of deaths.

  “That’s enough,” Martin said, grabbing the towel and tossing it to the floor. “No one is going to care how pretty I look when they hear the news.” He slid off the stool and went to the mirror. He was wearing his academic attire, a whi
te shirt with a red and white checkered bow tie, a gray herringbone sports jacket with suede patches on the elbows. A worn pair of Levi jeans and Nike sneakers finished the look. He smiled at the image in the mirror. “Knock ‘em dead, Tiger,” he said.

  “Dr. Downing, you’re due in the studio in thirty seconds.”

  As Downing walked down the corridor leading to the studio, a sound man affixed a wireless headset to his belt and handed him a tiny mike that he paused long enough to clip to the lapel of his jacket. He smiled at the others sitting around a curved table. In the studio, a live audience of about 500 reporters waited to hear what the experts had to say. He would be the first to talk.

  A woman stood in front of the panel and pointed to the moderator counting the seconds before they went live.

  “Good morning America and the world, this is Howard Foster reporting from Washington DC in a special broadcast we are calling, Aftermath. About ten hours ago in an unprecedented celestial event, a very large asteroid named Dark Angel collided with the moon, shifting its orbit nearly forty thousand miles on its closest approach to earth. This event will impact every nation on the planet and probably already has. Today we have a panel of experts who will explain why this happened, what we can expect in the coming months, and how we can recover from the global disaster. First up on our panel is NASA spokesperson from the Near-Earth-Objects division or NEO. Dr. Downing received a Bachelor’s degree from UC Berkeley, a Master’s degree in Astrophysics and a Doctor of Philosophy in infrared, optical, and radio astronomy. He also is a Fellow at the Space Science, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory ― Dr. Martin Downing.”

  “Thank you for the wonderful introduction, Howard.” Downing cleared his throat and took a sip of water. “The division of NASA that I work for is responsible… “

  West Palm Beach, Florida December 23

  Homeland Security Director James Carling was playing golf on one of his favorite courses designed by golfing legend Arnold Palmer. He watched his ball hit the green with a splash. He turned to his caddy, “what the hell was that?” The green was in a low-lying area and they both watched as it continued disappearing underwater. They looked around at the others on the course and saw some were standing ankle deep in water and others were sitting in stalled golf carts in water over the floorboards. James pulled his cell phone from his pocket and dialed his emergency number. The phone was picked up on the first ring.