The Year Without Summer: A Post-Apocalyptic Survival Thriller

by Hunt, Jack

  He extended a hand and Wyatt clasped it and they hugged it out.

  Over the next half an hour they cooked up the beans they had and downed the peaches. It felt good to get some grub in him. They rehashed the events of the day before Billy apologized for not telling him sooner and for acting as if Wyatt owed him anything.

  “Once we have some gas, we’ll head east to Cody and then head north into Montana. If we make it back to Harlowton, we’ll keep our heads down for a couple of months and things should blow over,” Billy said, reaching for a cigarette and then lighting it.

  “Or we could head out east. To Maine.”

  “You still haven’t given up on that, have you?”

  “My uncle says the wages are good out there as a fisherman. He told me he would hire us. We’d probably earn more than we do now.”

  “We make a good living from sponsors.”

  “It’s been dwindling, Billy, and you know it. The whole online video gig has changed over the past year.”

  He nodded. Wyatt was right. Advertisers only paid the big bucks to guys who were doing bigger and better things and while they had cornered the market on crazy antics in national parks, it was becoming old. There were more eyeballs on the athletes sponsored by Red Bull, and they were no athletes, just guys with a taste for the extreme. “All right.”

  “All right?” Wyatt asked in a surprised manner.

  “Yeah. You want to head out east we’ll do that.”

  “Are you serious?”

  Billy smiled. “Yes, Wyatt. Now drop it before I change my mind.”

  Wyatt got all excited and started going on about all the opportunities that were available in Maine, and how the women were much better there—something to do with all that fresh coastal air. It was bullshit but Billy played along with it, if only to keep Wyatt happy. Right now all he wanted was to get the hell out of the park as soon as possible and if agreeing to some asinine road trip out east was what would get him there, then he was game.

  Catherine had got up early that morning to pack the tent and camping gear. Their spot down at Bridge Bay Campground was already reserved for the rest of the week, and she wanted to get a head start on the day. Hank had wanted her to head over to Death Gulch to see for herself and she wanted to, but on the other hand she needed to spend time with Jordan. He wasn’t happy about staying and after the previous day, he’d phoned his dad. Richard had wanted to speak with her but she was in no mood so she expected a call today.

  “I don’t understand why we have to go to the lake. Isn’t that where all the dead fish are?”

  “You heard that?” Catherine asked.

  “Of course, I was outside the room.”

  “What else did you hear?”

  “Something about NASA drilling. Bears that are dead. And not telling anyone else.”

  Catherine groaned inwardly as she cleaned off the breakfast plates in a bowl of water, and handed them to Jordan to dry. “We’ll find out today what is going on and…”

  Jordan’s phone rang and he answered it.

  “Oh hey dad.” He paused. “Yeah, she’s here.”

  Right on time, Catherine thought. She glanced at her watch. It was a little after eight which meant it was even earlier where he was. Jordan handed over his phone and she braced herself for the onslaught of questions.

  “Hello Richard.”

  “Don’t hello me. Why did you dodge my phone call last night?”

  “I was tired. I’d had one hell of a day and…”

  “So are you leaving this morning?”

  “For Bridge Bay Campground, yes.”

  “No, I meant the park. I want Jordan on a flight back to California today.”

  “Then you are out of luck as it’s not happening.”

  “Do I need to get the courts involved? You remember what happened the last time I did that.”

  “You know, Richard, I’m getting a little tired of your threats. You want to call the courts, and turn this whole thing into a tug of war, be my guest, otherwise back the hell off. I have as much right to parent our kid as you do.”

  “Yeah, except that involves actually parenting.”

  Catherine hung up on him. She was seething. The nerve of the man. The phone rang again but she ignored it. Jordan went to take it and she told him to leave it. “Finish drying up and helping me pack up the SUV.”

  “Are we leaving?” Jordan asked.

  “No!” she snapped. “We are going to have a good time for a week if it kills me.”

  Jordan stared back at her, a look of shock on his face. He returned to drying a pot and she felt a twinge of guilt. She exhaled hard and then apologized. “Jordan, I’m sorry. I’m just a little stressed out. It’s not your fault. Your father and I are just…” she trailed off and didn’t bother to finish. It was pointless. He didn’t need to hear about it. That was the one thing she hated the most about their breakup. She could live without Richard in her life but it bothered the hell out of her that Jordan was playing piggy in the middle to their issues. She hadn’t stopped to wonder how he was coping with it all. It couldn’t have been easy.

  Several hours later, and further south in Yellowstone, Logan made a trip to Lake Clinic to visit Hayden. The urgent care clinic was one of three in the park, the other two were in Mammoth and over at Old Faithful. In the event that patients needed to be transported out of the park, a helicopter would usually take them to Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center, or one in Bozeman or Jackson Hole. Lake Clinic was located by the water, just west of the hotel dining room and post office. Logan stopped by the general store on the way in to pick up some coffee because the clinic’s vending machine coffee tasted like mud. As the clinic only offered basic medical care, including stabilization of major trauma, he fully expected Hayden to be gone, but fortunately he was still there.

  Logan rapped on his door. Hayden was upright in bed watching the news when he entered. “Hey buddy,” Logan said. “How you doing?”

  Hayden turned down the news.

  He offered back a broad smile and his eyes lit up. All a good sign. “Ah, you brought me coffee. You’re a lifesaver. I thought I was liable to die from the crap they serve up here,” he said with a nod to the full cup of vending machine coffee on the side table.

  “Well it was either that or I brought you flowers and I just couldn’t seem to find those daisies that you like so much.” He grinned and Hayden chuckled.

  Logan glanced at the news. Media had arrived at the park after someone had leaked out a video of the dead fish in the lake.

  “Damn strange, huh.”

  “You’re telling me,” Logan said. “We had a meeting last night with Harris and Hank. Did you know NASA was drilling in the park?”

  Hayden nearly spat out his coffee. “Where?”

  “Northeast, south, and west apparently. Harris was very tight-lipped about it. Seems they got the go-ahead last month. I’ve yet to see them but Harris says they’re here.”

  “Isn’t that the way? Only those at the top know what’s going on and us minions at the bottom are the last to hear about it.”

  “That’s what worries me,” Logan said taking a seat and pulling his chair close to the bed. “Hank said his COSPEC readings were high over in Death Gulch. The same place he found those dead grizzlies.”

  Hayden blew on the surface of his drink and took a sip. “Are you serious?”

  “I don’t know what to believe. He called me this morning to say he’s heading out there with Catherine Shaw. He wants me to tag along.”

  “Catherine?”

  Logan turned his attention away from the news. “Oh, some chick from the University of Utah. We all went out last night for drinks.”

  “Oh yeah,” Hayden said getting a smirk on his face. “And how did it go after the drinks?”

  Logan chuckled. “It wasn’t like that.”

  “No? So what’s she like?”

  “You’ll see.” He looked at his watch. “She’s meant to be showing up her
e in the next hour. I’m taking her up there along with a team from the USGS.”

  Hayden’s face quickly went from a smirk to serious. “What’s happening, Logan?”

  “I’d like to say I know but I’m still confused. I’m leaning on their data, and depending on who you talk to, you get a different answer. USGS is confident that it’s nothing more than the natural rumblings of the caldera. Shaw and Hank think otherwise.”

  “And you?”

  He looked down into his coffee as steam rose to his face. “I think the park’s trying to avoid crying wolf, and avoid political and economic problems. I don’t like it, that’s for sure. But not a lot I can do about it right now.”

  “Speaking of doing something about it. What’s the update on that asshole? You caught him yet?”

  “No. We have rangers in the park along with ISB looking for them. Handing out flyers to the public.”

  “Flyers?” Hayden laughed. “So they don’t think twice about alerting the public to presence of a dangerous individual who could be long gone by now but they won’t say a word about the sleeping giant beneath our feet.”

  “Crazy, right?” Logan said before taking another swig of his coffee and turning his attention back to the news. The news anchor was interviewing tourists about what they saw. A photo of the woman who lost her life on the lake came up on the screen. She left behind a husband and four kids.

  “Damn shame. Strangest shit I’ve ever seen. You know, I’m thinking of transferring out,” Hayden said.

  “To a different hospital?”

  “No, you moron. Out of this job.”

  “C’mon, you love Yellowstone.”

  Hayden pulled a painful face as he adjusted himself. “No, I’m serious. I got talking with Allison. The wedding is next year and well with a baby on the way, I’m thinking maybe it’s time I hang up the hat and find something a little less dangerous.”

  “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

  He shook his head. “Even Indiana Jones knew when to hang up his hat.”

  Logan laughed. “But I thought you lived for this shit.”

  “Yeah, until you find yourself bleeding out in the woods,” he said looking down at his bandaged leg. “It gets you thinking about the bigger picture. You know I could have died out there, Logan.” He looked down into his drink and closed his eyes.

  “You sure Allison hasn’t been putting pressure on you? Jenna did the same with me.”

  “No. Allison is quite the opposite. That girl gets off on hearing about all the dangerous situations I find myself in.”

  “Isn’t that just the way?”

  Hayden sighed as he looked back up at the TV. “Besides, this place is unstable. I mean, what other job puts you on top of a ticking time bomb and expects you to show up with a smile on your face and be grateful for seventeen bucks an hour? I got talking to my brother down in Florida. He wants me to come and work for him at his auto body shop. He said he would train me.”

  “Really?”

  “Yeah. You remember you saying how we have to keep our eyes open for when opportunity knocks? Well I think that’s opportunity knocking. I don’t see myself doing this for much longer.”

  It was a real change of heart. Hayden had always been gung-ho to get out there and deal with the criminal element of Yellowstone. In fact he was originally keen to switch over and become a law enforcement ranger but when the opening came he never took it. He never thought he would see the day his friend would want to throw in the towel. It got Logan thinking about his own career. He loved doing what he did. There was a lot of freedom in it but at the same time there was more danger. Even more so than being a regular cop in the city. Here they didn’t have the backup. They worked in remote areas where help could be an hour away. Besides troublemakers visiting the park they had to deal with the threat from wildlife like bears and cougars. They were twelve times more likely to be assaulted than a U.S. Border Patrol officer and twelve times more likely to be attacked than an FBI agent. Then of course there was the elephant in the room — Yellowstone itself. It didn’t matter what the powers that be said about the likelihood of it not erupting. They didn’t know for sure. Even though they had stations in and around Yellowstone tracking the sleeping beast, and global positioning systems to monitor ground deformation, they didn’t know for sure if or when it would explode. That’s why there was no evacuation plan in place. If they thought they had time, if they thought they had the luxury of a few weeks or months, they could draw up a plan to alert people on how to leave but he’d seen firsthand how they’d dealt with the forest fires. It was chaotic at best.

  Logan nodded and patted his arm. “Well whatever you plan to do, I’m sure you’ll land on your feet. That’s just who you are.”

  “I appreciate that, man.”

  “And hey… I’m sorry if over the last few months if I’ve been a bit distant.”

  “You don’t have to apologize to me. I get it, brother. This life is one wild ride and sometimes all you can do is hold on for dear life and hope your ass is still in the seat at the end.”

  They both laughed.

  Right then there was a knock at the door. “Come in.”

  The door creaked open and Catherine stepped in. Hayden, in his usual man whore fashion, pulled himself up and ran a hand through his messy hair. “Wow, these nurses are getting better looking by the day.”

  “Hayden, this is Catherine Shaw.”

  “Ah, I’ve heard a lot about you.”

  “Good things, I hope?” she said extending her hand and diverting her gaze to Logan. He smiled and cleared his throat as he caught the aroma of her perfume. It had been a long while since he’d smelled someone so good. The park tended to attract folks that smelled like campfire smoke and the back end of a bison.

  Chapter 13

  Death Gulch was a gloomy ravine in the northeast corner of Yellowstone. It wasn’t the first time animals had dropped dead in the area, hence the reason why Harris didn’t immediately see the urgency of alerting visitors to the potential dangers of toxic gases venting from the volcano. Generally considered an area of the park where tourists didn’t go, it had one time been full of hot springs but over the years the water no longer flowed from the vents. Now all that remained was a rocky gully with a small clear stream of cold water at the bottom that mixed with sulfuric acid.

  The only ways to reach the area were by following 212 east through Lamar Valley and then hiking south along the Lamar River, or taking horses, or going by helicopter. Hank had made arrangements to take the USGS team out there first thing and then to swing back to collect Catherine and Logan.

  Catherine wasn’t keen on rubbing shoulders with Rebecca but she wasn’t going to let it stop her from investigating further. Her work with the USGS had been a passion of hers. Getting boots on the ground and examining samples and monitoring activity was what she missed the most. She could have stayed on. No one forced her out of her position but with the short-lived affair that Richard had with Rebecca, the office drama over her involvement with the Long Valley Caldera, and her marriage falling apart, it had all taken its toll. It was just easier to be away but that meant being relegated to an office, staring at a screen, sitting in meetings and reviewing and editing scientific papers and reports. Preparing equipment and field deployment was handled by the USGS. Back when she was working for the USGS, a quarter of her time was spent in the field making observations, collecting specialized data and conducting surveys. Though that was mostly in the summer, the winter months made it hard due to snow.

  On the way out Hank rode shotgun in the front of the Bell 206 Jet Ranger helicopter. It seated up to four people. Catherine and Logan were in the back.

  “Where’s Jordan today?” Logan asked over the steady thump of the rotor blades.

  She raised her voice so he could hear her. “I pulled a few strings to have him join one of the ranger program tours for a couple of hours.”

  “And he agreed?”

  She frowned. “
Strangely enough, yeah. As long as the tour is not with his mother, he seems as happy as a clam.”

  Logan nodded thoughtfully. “Sorry to hear that.”

  “Ah, don’t worry. I’m used to it.” She glanced out the window.

  “So he doesn’t live with you?”

  “No, I’m based in Utah, and he and his father are out in California. His schooling is out there and after we separated it just seemed like a lot to ask him to give up his friends and everything that is familiar to him. Then of course there was the fact that Richard is a cop and he had a lot more sway with the courts. Contrary to what most think, it’s not always the wife that ends up with the kids. Though looking back on it now I think the worst mistake I made was moving out before we got divorced. It made me look like I was abandoning the family. I didn’t know the courts frowned upon that. Crazy, right?”

  He nodded. “Things don’t always go to plan.”

  “And you?”

  “I was set to marry Jenna. She had these big plans to have a family, settle out east and live in a small town close to her parents.” He breathed in deeply.

  “Did you know her long?”

  “Four years. She was camping when I met her.”

  “You think you would have liked to have kids?”

  “You don’t miss what you’ve never had, right?”

  Catherine squinted. “I guess.”

  They both looked out as they flew over the hilly landscape of rock and fir trees. It was beautiful to see it from above and it only served to remind her of how large Yellowstone was. They were seeing just a tiny fraction. The thought of it all being wiped out in one fell swoop was overwhelming. The odds of an eruption were low but then it was for Mount St. Helens, too. She thought back to the photo that was taken just minutes before it erupted. For all their experience and technology, Mother Nature demonstrated her unpredictability.

  “If it did blow, what kind of devastation are we looking at?” Logan asked. “I mean, I understand 87,000 would be wiped out instantly but is that it?”