The Year Without Summer: A Post-Apocalyptic Survival Thriller

by Hunt, Jack

  Grand Teton National Park was a portion of the greater Yellowstone National Park. It was located southwest of Grant Village and it sat on top of a very active magma chamber connected to the supervolcano.

  “Why didn’t I hear about this?” Logan asked.

  Hayden shrugged and looked over the edge. “All I know is we’ve never felt an earthquake like that before. That bitch was strong.” He turned back. “You know, Logan, they say that if this sucker explodes we could be looking at a nuclear winter. It would shower down thousands of miles of volcanic ash and they think it would kill upwards of 87,000 people in the surrounding area and render two-thirds of the United States uninhabitable.”

  Hayden waited for a response, a reaction, anything.

  Logan exhaled hard. “You know cracks in rocks happen all the time with shifts in the tectonic plates.”

  “Yeah, but when was the last time we felt an earthquake like that?”

  It was true. Yellowstone experienced hundreds of earthquakes but most couldn’t be felt. On occasion they would feel the earth move but it wasn’t as strong as that. Without saying a word, Logan turned and hurried back to his SUV.

  “Hey, Logan, where are you going?”

  “I need to speak with the park geologist.”

  “But what about those two airheads?”

  Logan jumped into his vehicle and hollered out, “I’ll handle it.”

  Chapter 5

  After getting the tent set up, Catherine had been keen to make the most of their time and had arranged to take a self-guided tour on a mile of boardwalk through Mammoth Hot Springs.

  “That’s right, the hot springs is the only major thermal area outside of the Yellowstone Caldera,” the ranger said.

  Catherine looked over to find Jordan with his headphones on, and looking down at his phone. She took the phone out of his hands and he pulled off his headphones and frowned. “C’mon, mom, I was this close to breaking my highest score.”

  “Are you serious?” Catherine asked.

  She waved her arms to get him to look at the beauty around them. They were walking along a boardwalk that snaked above the steaming hydrothermal features and provided an incredible view of the travertine terraces. It was a marvel to behold. Water from rain and snow seeped deep into the earth and mixed with carbon dioxide to make a carbonic acid that would rise through the rock and flow down a large terraced hillside leaving calcium carbonate deposited in the form of travertine. The result was a staircase of water rushing down, hissing and steam rising up. All around them the rocks were dry, covered in water, or various shades of white and yellow.

  “It’s just rocks and water,” Jordan said. “I could have brought this up on Google images. Is there anything more interesting to see? And can I get my phone back?”

  She laughed and wrapped an arm around his neck as they followed a large crowd of photo-snapping tourists clogging up the wooden boardwalk.

  “You know, Jordan, back in my day we didn’t have cell phones to entertain us, we actually had to get out and create our own adventure. Seven days. You can live without your phone for seven days.”

  “Then maybe I should take yours,” he replied.

  She pulled a face. “Very funny.”

  He shrugged her arm off his shoulders and moved ahead, purposefully putting distance between the two of them. Great. “C’mon, Jordan.” She really thought that once he was away from the noise of California and his phone, he’d embrace the outdoors like she had when she was a kid. Obviously not. His generation had become couch potatoes, choosing games over real life.

  “Anyone have any questions?” a female ranger asked.

  “Yeah, I do, where is the Internet café?” Jordan asked.

  The ranger chuckled. “Kids.”

  As she turned to answer another question the boardwalk began to shake, and the sound of rumbling could be heard around them. Everyone felt the wood shift beneath their feet. A look of terror spread across the faces of families, and several children began crying. Several people who were unsteady on their feet latched on to the boardwalk for dear life while many screamed thinking it was about to collapse.

  The shaking didn’t last long but it was powerful enough to trouble the ranger. The moment it stopped, Catherine saw the ranger get on her radio and mutter something. Seconds after, she turned and raised her arms trying to calm everyone.

  “It’s okay, everyone. Calm down.”

  “We need to get off here, it’s going to explode,” a woman cried out, clutching her two young children.

  “Ma’am, I can assure you that this is completely normal. In fact you should consider yourselves lucky that you got to witness it. It’s very rare that we feel the earth move but it does happen. Remember, everyone, Yellowstone is a living volcano and there are always small earthquakes that cause tremors, and gas to seep from the ground. What you just experienced was the volcano breathing.”

  “Breathing? Are you kidding me?” a middle-aged man said.

  “Sir, the ground surface swells and sinks as gases and fluids move through the volcanic plumbing beneath the park. A few shakes does not mean that it’s going to erupt. To date the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory has never seen any warning signs that would lead them to believe an eruption is imminent.”

  “Not even the fissure down in Grand Teton National Park?” a Chinese man hollered. “My family and I were down there when they closed off areas of the park.”

  Catherine had heard about that one through the university. Utah was continually monitoring Yellowstone and among the many swarms of earthquakes, the fissure had given them some real cause for concern. In fact it was one of the reasons why she was at the park, in the hopes of speaking with Hank — the park’s geologist — that was, if she got a free minute to herself.

  Although the ranger tried to keep everyone calm by rehashing historic statistics and facts about how volcanoes react, it did little to alleviate the fears of the crowd. Many people turned and made their way back to the parking lot.

  Jordan was one of them. She knew he didn’t want to be there and this had given him his ticket out. “I want to leave now,” he said in a demanding fashion.

  “Okay, we’ll head back to camp,” she said joining him and brushing past others, but still keen to capture a few shots before they left. “How about I whip us up some lunch?”

  He shook his head.

  “Okay, we’ll head over to the hotel.”

  “I mean I want to leave the park today.”

  She didn’t immediately reply to that. The sound of feet kicking up loose rock, and people around them talking about the threat of an eruption dominated. She sighed. “We’ll discuss it when we get back.”

  Jordan whipped around. “I don’t want to discuss it. Can’t we just leave?”

  “Jordan, we just arrived. I’ve already paid in advance for our campsite. I’m not leaving.”

  Her cheeks went red as other tourists eavesdropped.

  “Then I’ll have dad come and pick me up.”

  “Dad is in California. Don’t be unreasonable.”

  He turned and looked at her. “Unreasonable? Unreasonable is bringing me here without asking me how I felt about it. Unreasonable is spending more time working than being at home.”

  She stopped walking and looked at him. Behind the teenage angst she could see he was hurting. The divorce hadn’t just torn apart her and Richard’s relationship, it had formed a wedge in their family, rippled out and affected so much more.

  Catherine nodded. “You’re right. I should have asked you.”

  “Yeah, well I just want to go. Can we just go?”

  She sighed and put her arm around him and strolled back to the vehicle in silence. Her mind circled around the arguments that had led to her divorce, the nights of tears and trying to come to terms with being single at thirty-six years of age. Although Richard’s work in the police and her responsibilities in the USGS had contributed to the divorce, she still had a feeling it would have happened
anyway. They had just become two very different people. They no longer laughed at each other’s jokes. They rarely sat together when she was at home, and romance, well forget that, that had all but dried up. It was a stark contrast to the way they were when they met in her early twenties. Back then they couldn’t keep their hands off each other, or spend more than a few days apart. What had changed? Life. Their careers. Them. It was all kinds of things. They’d tried seeing a counselor and for a while their relationship improved, but it wasn’t long before they were back to their old ways. It was just easier to call it a day. Catherine’s father had told her that a marriage was never really over until both stopped trying. The problem was, they both had.

  On the short journey back to the campground, Catherine contemplated leaving early. The last thing she wanted was to get into an argument with Richard. If it came to light that Jordan wanted to leave and she’d kept him there, he would go ballistic. She was already walking on eggshells. Still, she wasn’t going to buckle over one teenage outburst. She wasn’t stupid, she knew he would rather be in front of a computer playing games but that wasn’t what this was about. It was about them. About bonding. About repairing what the years had torn apart. She just wasn’t sure if this was the best place to do it.

  As she chewed over what had happened she noticed a herd of bison moving north at a fast pace away from the park. It wasn’t uncommon to see a herd but they were usually grazing at the edge of the road, or slowly crossing and causing traffic jams.

  Had it only been that, she might not have given it a second thought except that bison weren’t the only ones heading in that direction. Off her to right across the lush green hills, elk were doing the same thing. Had they been spooked by the tremors? Were they just moving to a different location in the park?

  When they made it back, Jordan hopped out and went into the tent. Wanting to keep him occupied, she returned his cell to him. Then Catherine swiped through her contacts until she found the number for Hank Peters, the park’s geologist. As the University of Utah was one of the eight agencies that made up the observatory for Yellowstone, and her work involved analyzing seismic data, she was often in contact with Hank. He was an employee of Yellowstone National Park and when he wasn’t at home in Bozeman, Montana, he rented a small apartment in the park so he could stay there a few nights a week and not have to drive an hour and a half each way.

  The phone rang several times and went straight to voicemail.

  “This is Hank Peters. Sorry I missed your call. If you leave your name and number and a brief message I will get back to you as soon as I can.”

  “Yeah, hey there, Hank. It’s Catherine. I’m camping in the park this week and I was hoping to touch base with you to discuss the increase in seismic activity. I’m staying in Mammoth Campground tonight, after that I will be down at Bridge Bay. Give me a call, thanks.”

  She hung up and stood beside her vehicle clutching her phone as a large flock of birds flew overhead, squawking and heading away from the park. She thought back to the tsunami in 2006 when reports came in of animals escaping and running for high ground just hours before the waves hit. While biologists confirmed that animals had some natural instinct that seemed to tell them when a disaster was about to strike, the officials at the U.S. Geological Survey were skeptical. In attempt to control rumors and avoid panic they had released a statement on their website that made it clear that animal behavior couldn’t be used to determine if an earthquake would happen. They wouldn’t dismiss cases that had been documented, nor did they address them, instead they opted to sidestep the whole topic and do what any government agency would do to avoid panic — they said their studies had been unable to make a connection. Animal experts disagreed, pointing to a case back in 1989 — the famous San Francisco earthquake — where there had been an increase in missing pets documented.

  So was there something to it? Or did it just feed into the public’s fears?

  As she turned to head over to the tent her phone rang. A quick glance at the caller ID, and she answered. “Hank.”

  “Catherine. What are you doing in Yellowstone? The university didn’t say they were sending anyone.”

  “A long overdue vacation.”

  “And yet here you are wanting to discuss seismic activity?”

  Jordan stuck his head out of the tent. “Where are the chips?”

  “Hold on a second, Hank.”

  She placed her hand over the phone. “In the trunk.” After retrieving them he glanced at her then her phone.

  “Just speaking with a friend.”

  “A work friend?” he asked before disappearing into the tent.

  She sighed and got back on the phone. “You sound different.”

  “Ah, I have a cold.”

  “Did you feel the quake today?” she asked.

  “Yeah. I did.”

  “And?”

  “It’s nothing to get worried about. We’re on top of it.”

  “Oh, we’re on top of it, alright,” she said in jest. “Look, I’d like to stop by and take a look at the data you’ve collected. Have you taken any samples of acidity in the water?”

  “Yes.”

  “Recently?”

  “It’s on my to-do list today.”

  “What about gas emissions?”

  He went silent.

  “Hank.”

  Hank sighed. “I’m in the middle of monitoring the gas. Look, if you want to drop by later, by all means, but I don’t want you getting all excited. I will admit there have been some changes that are new but nothing right now that would lead us to close the park. I need to do some risk assessment. I don’t want to raise the alarm, at least not until I can get a definitive reading from other areas in the park. As you know, it’s pretty hard because gases are coming out of everywhere in Yellowstone. It’s not like Hawaii where the sources of gas are more focused.”

  “Alright. Fair enough. When?”

  “I have a meeting with the park superintendent tonight at the park headquarters in Mammoth, so if you want to head over there, say around seven. We’ll chat then.”

  “Okay, sounds good.”

  After hanging up, Hank wiped sweat from the back of his neck and stepped back from the scene of two dead grizzly bears and their litter. He breathed heavily through a CO2 gas mask. The animals hadn’t been there long as decay hadn’t set in, and no other wildlife had feasted upon them, so he was now taking soil samples to check for concentrated levels of carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulfide. CO2 was odorless but H2S had a distinctive smell that was like rotten eggs. Most of the gases emitted in the park were harmless, nothing more than vapor, but in light of the recent activity there was a chance that toxic gases were being released. Concentrated enough, those gases were proven to be lethal. Hank stood in Death Gulch, just west of Canyon Village, after being alerted to it by a ranger who’d been out there to find a couple of tourists that had strayed from the designated paths.

  After taking samples from the ground, and a few gas readings, he crouched down and ran a hand around the back of his neck. His pulse sped up as he contemplated what it all meant.

  “God help us.”

  Chapter 6

  The pristine waters of Yellowstone Lake glistened beneath the afternoon sun as twenty-nine-year-old Darryl Keller stepped into the Bayrunner eighteen-foot rental motorboat. He’d been looking forward to the getaway for close to three years. Since starting his own advertising business he’d put in close to sixty hours a week and the exhaustion had finally caught up with him. It didn’t help that his wife, Joyce, was no longer working due to having their first baby, and had made it clear that she didn’t want to return to her job as a caregiver but wished to stay home to raise their child. While they weren’t hurting for cash, not having that extra income certainly put all the pressure on him to work harder.

  Darryl extended a hand to help Joyce into the boat. She was carrying Isabel, their two-year-old daughter. Joyce was in her late twenties, blond with icy blue eyes and pet
ite in size. Although all of them were wearing life jackets, Joyce was nervous about taking Isabel out.

  “Are you sure about this?”

  “Trust me, it will be fine. Just keep a good hold on her.”

  The boat bobbed and wobbled beneath their feet as Joyce took a seat at the front of the boat. Isabel jabbed out her stubby little finger and said, “Fish.”

  “That’s right. We’re going fishing,” Joyce said.

  It had taken a lot of pressure from Joyce to get Darryl to take a vacation. But after a number of health issues, and urging by his brother, he caved in. They had brought their Slipstream RV and were staying in the Fishing Bridge campsite just east of Bridge Bay Campground. Joyce had made it clear from the get-go that she didn’t like the idea of camping because of the bugs and wildlife. It really wasn’t her thing. She wanted to head south, take in the sunshine and beaches, and stroll along the boardwalks of the Florida Keys. Darryl on the other hand had grown up in the woods. From an early age his father had taken him and his brother out camping. It was in his blood and the thought of being cooped up in some fancy resort down in Florida really didn’t appeal to him. His idea of relaxing was hanging a fishing line in the water, drinking a couple of beers, smoking a cigar and roasting s’mores over a fire. After a lot of disagreements Joyce finally came around to the idea.

  “Just smell that fresh air.”

  “Okay, don’t rub it in,” Joyce said as Darryl stepped back onto the dock to grab his fishing tackle. “I still think the Hilton would have been nicer.” She swatted away a few mosquitos buzzing around her head.

  “Joyce, there is plenty of time to do that. I want to teach Isabel how to fish.”

  “At age two?”

  “The earlier the better. My father took me when I was four years old.”

  “Bo also put a gun in your hand at eight. And I don’t have to remind you how that worked out.”