by E S Richards
The five of them sat in what had been one of the break rooms on the fracking site, a few couches and soft chairs circling the room with a table and coffee machine positioned against one wall, alongside an old vending machine which they had managed to break into. Bags of chips and chocolate bars scattered the table in front of them, though, despite his hunger, Jorge had barely eaten a mouthful. Now that some time had passed since Mia had told them what she’d discovered, Jorge was finally ready to discuss their next steps. He wasn’t happy with what he was hearing.
“What more can we do?” Mia argued back, her body already feeling the effects of the sugar she had just ingested, becoming wired with energy. “We can’t exactly report this to anyone—especially not with the government funding it all?”
“Not all of the government,” Jorge reasoned. “There will undoubtedly be people we can go to. People who didn’t know this was happening.”
“And how do we find those people? In case you’ve forgotten, there’s no cell reception anymore because of the ash cloud, and we can’t just go online and look up where the president is hanging out. I want to do something about this Jorge, you know I do. But I don’t know if there’s anything we really can do aside from tell the people we meet along the way.”
“There has to be more.” Jorge refused to believe Mia’s explanation, shaking his head and gesturing wildly with his arms as he spoke. “We can’t just do nothing, Mia.”
Mia sighed. They were going around in circles in this discussion, both she and Jorge refusing to budge in their opinions. It wasn’t that Mia didn’t agree with Jorge—she was on his side for the majority of things—it was just that she was being realistic about what was possible. “Give me a plan, Jorge,” she tried to speak more calmly. “Give me a plan and I’ll do it. I won’t just go off running after some random professor when I don’t know where he is or what he’s doing. Not when I know my family needs me.”
That was Mia’s bottom line. Her family. She saw the expression on Jorge’s face change when she mentioned them—even if it was just for a second. He thought that the greater good was more important; he thought spreading the message about what had caused Yellowstone was worth more than going back to Houston to the old farmhouse where Mia had grown up. That was the key difference between the two scientists: Jorge was a scientist above all else. To an outsider, it might appear that Mia was that as well. She was dedicated to her work and would spend hours focusing on one tiny detail if she thought it might make a difference to her research. But she would abandon everything if it meant she could be there for her family. She would gladly never look down another microscope again, never put on a lab coat or walk down the university halls as long as she had her family to go home to at the end of every day. Jorge wasn’t like that and while Mia understood why, she still felt sorry for him. It was a sad life and one that she simply couldn’t live by.
“All right guys,” Marcus interjected, he and his friends tired of listening to the argument over and over again. “Can we just drop it for a bit? This conversation is getting old.”
Jorge looked at Marcus, a disappointed look on his face. Mia wasn’t sure if her former colleague was going to snap or not, a vein dangerously pulsating on the side of his head as he stared Marcus in the face. In the end, nothing happened, Jorge finally looking away and sagging in his seat. Mia felt sorry for her friend; she didn’t want to upset him and she didn’t want him to feel like he had lost in any way. She just wouldn’t give up on her family in order to chase the fame that might come from their discovery.
Jorge felt angry. Looking out of the window in the break room, he watched the clouds swirling outside and felt his anger increase inside of him. The blanket of ash covered everything he could see outside and he knew the effects would reach much further than he could observe. They were still only in the infancy of the eruption too, the more devastating effects like mass starvation and dehydration yet to come.
By now, all crops across America would be destroyed. The ground would be infertile for months—maybe even years—little chance of anything new growing or providing sustenance for ages. The human race would have to rethink how they survived, right down to their very basic needs like food, water, and shelter. It didn’t matter how far technology had advanced in the past hundred or so years, all of it was now useless. The ash cloud blocked the signal from all satellites, meaning nothing electronic would work now that everything had been upgraded to the new system. They were back in the Dark Ages and things were going to get a lot worse before they got better. But Jorge knew there was one thing that would always unite the human race. Throughout history, people had always found someone to blame and through that, they had come together. In his own twisted way, Jorge truly believed that finding someone or something to universally hold responsible for what had happened was the first step toward healing the planet. It made sense to him; he just couldn’t understand why Mia and the others didn’t see it as well.
“Are we going to spend the night here?” Jesse asked, sucking Cheeto dust from his fingers as he spoke, several bags of the snacks now lying empty in front of him.
Mia looked outside like Jorge was, analyzing the weather and how it continued to turn from bad to worse every single day. “I don’t think we have a choice,” she answered. “It’s getting late and besides,” she paused, “we still don’t really know where we’re going next.”
At Mia’s words, Jorge looked up at her and raised his eyebrows. He didn’t see the point in her trying to humor him and suggest they might not be heading straight back to Houston. He knew she would never abandon her family, just like she knew he wouldn’t give up on the fracking leads. The two of them had reached a stalemate and it was going to be interesting to see which one of them—if either—broke first.
“In that case,” Jadon stood up, brushing the crumbs from his lap as he did, “I’m going to try and find some real food. These snacks are good and all, but there’s got to be something better in this building.”
“Agreed,” Marcus nodded, joining Jadon on his feet. “I’ll come with you. Jesse?”
“Yeah, sure.” Jesse stood with his friends. “Count me in.”
Mia looked at the three college boys and smiled, understanding that the atmosphere was frosty between her and Jorge and not blaming them for wanting to escape for a while. “That sounds good. There has to be a kitchen in here somewhere, I’d guess. Even if we can’t get a stove working, we should be able to make something better than Cheetos and chocolate.”
“Leave it to us,” Jadon smiled back at Mia. “We’ll figure something out.”
“Thanks,” Mia nodded, watching the boys as they left the room, leaving her and Jorge behind. Immediately Mia shivered, feeling uncomfortable with the Spaniard. They had argued before when they worked in the same lab, but this seemed different. People’s lives were on the line and somehow, they were going to have to come to an agreement.
“Jorge,” Mia started talking again. “We need to figure this out.”
Jorge looked at his friend and sighed, willing himself to have the strength to begin the discussion one more time. “I don’t know what you want me to say, Mia,” he answered honestly. “We don’t seem to see eye to eye on this one.”
“I just don’t understand what you want,” Mia replied, trying to hide the exasperation in her tone of voice. “Surely you don’t want to leave us to follow this up by yourself?”
“Of course I don’t want to leave you. However, I think we need to do more than just tell the random people we bump into about this.”
“Who? I’m all for spreading the word, Jorge. I’m on your side here. I think someone needs to be held responsible. For right now—with all of this going on outside—I just don’t see how it’s possible.”
As Mia glanced out of the window, both volcanologists halted their conversation and took in the view outside. It was like something out of a horror story. The ash that covered every surface was like the wool from a field of sheep that had been m
uddied and laid down like a carpet. The air was dark, evening settling over the horizon and bringing a chill with it that inched through the fracking site despite the group of them making sure all windows and doors to the outside world were sealed shut. The highway that was just barely visible in the distance remained abandoned, no vehicles daring to traverse its deadly routes. The ash made the asphalt slippery and dangerous, forcing the driver to relinquish control to the road itself.
Shuddering, Mia felt thankful that they were spending the night inside. Despite the time it added to their journey, they still didn’t know where they were going when they left. There was still a large amount of the site to uncover and she was certain they could find somewhere comfortable to rest for the night. After the past few days and the horrors that still plagued her from Tanner and the rest of the country, Mia felt like she was overdue for a good night’s sleep.
“Okay.”
Mia turned to her right, looking at Jorge and waiting for him to continue speaking. He didn’t look at her, his gaze focused outside of the window, analyzing the fracking equipment which sat discarded and disregarded, crumbling under the density of the ash atop it.
“Okay,” he repeated, finally turning to look at his friend. “I’m with you, Mia. I’ve been with you from the start and that’s not going to change now. The world needs to know what’s happened here and why it has happened. However, the world can find out on your terms. I don’t want to part ways with you.”
Mia looked at her friend, feeling a huge weight lifted from her shoulders. She didn’t want to admit it out loud—partly because of how much the man irritated her a great deal of the time—but Jorge was a support system for her at the moment. He had been with her from the very moment everything began and he understood her emotions through it all. She wasn’t sure how much confidence she would’ve had to continue her journey without him by her side.
“Thank you,” she smiled at him. “I appreciate it.”
Jorge returned the smile, leaning forward and wrapping his arms around Mia in a slightly awkward hug. The two of them stayed like that for a couple of seconds, Mia fighting with her emotions between the hug feeling uncomfortable and yet also comforting her at the same time. She realized that if she had a choice, it would be someone else with their arms around her. As it happened, she was willing to take whatever form of human comfort she could find.
Jorge felt somewhat similar. He wanted more than anything to tell the world about what they had uncovered at the fracking site, knowing just how much it would affect everything from that moment forward. Mia was right in a sense; given the way the world was, there was no clear way for him to get that message out.
He decided to document everything more carefully from there on out. There were more papers he wanted to read that Jesse and Marcus had found on the government funding for the project—they only had a few names and he was desperate to find out more. If he could track down the actual chain of events which led to the false closure and then the secret reopening, then he could determine precisely where the order had come from. To Jorge, that was more important than the fact the professor had known that Yellowstone was going to erupt. That information was valuable of course, but it didn’t pertain to a specific person or operating body being responsible. If Jorge could locate whoever that was—he was sure that would be the piece of information that brought the organization tumbling down.
Chapter 4
“Look, darling.” Jerry nudged his wife on the arm, drawing her attention to the view outside of the kitchen door. “It’s snowing.”
Linda turned away from her plate of food, joining her husband as he looked outside at the ever-changing weather that was tormenting their lives. It was July and it was snowing. In any other normal year, they would’ve laughed and joked that the world was coming to an end, a freak day of snow in July, the perfect excuse to get the toboggans out and go outside to play. Chase and Riley would’ve loved it, their sweaters probably on before the snow had even settled on the ground.
Now it was different. The fact that the weather had changed so much that it was already snowing worried both Linda and Jerry a great deal. They feared what effect it would have on the farmhouse and their health, the broken roof above Riley’s bedroom meaning the insulation of the house was compromised. Even as they sat in the kitchen, Linda and Jerry were wrapped up in several layers of clothing. Staying in the farmhouse just wasn’t logical anymore, the old building suffering too heavily from the weather.
“I hope the kids are okay,” Linda mused, leaning her head on her husband’s shoulder as the two of them watched the snow fall outside, thinking about what it meant for them both. “I wish they’d come home.”
“Me too,” Jerry agreed, past believing that Chase and Riley had just been held up at the hardware store. “We have to trust them though.” He repeated his new mantra to his wife, the only thing he could repetitively think to tell her that might make things seem like they were going to be okay. “They’ll come back eventually, just like Mia will. We’ll all be a family again soon enough. And we’ll have the barn all ready for when they do.”
“Yeah,” Linda nodded against her husband’s shoulder, feeling the coarse fabric of his pullover scratch against her cheek. “We need to focus on what we can change,” she continued, picturing the barn all redesigned and homey. They had agreed they should move in there while it was just the two of them—it made the most sense for warmth and ease of living. “I don’t want this eruption to defeat us, Jerry.”
“It won’t. We’re stronger than this is.”
“Are we?”
“We are.” Jerry looked down at his wife and willed her to believe him. He knew how much Linda could suffer from low self-confidence from time to time, something he didn’t understand because of how he saw her, but something he had grown accustomed to. She was such a strong woman when it came to looking out for her family and caring for others; he just worried that when left alone she would falter and crumble. That was why Jerry was so afraid of what was happening to him. He was terrified of leaving his wife alone—he’d rather sit doing nothing with her than either one of them be kept busy without the other.
“We’re alive for each other,” Jerry continued, “not for ourselves. We need to remember that and keep pushing forward. The house can fall down if it wants, so long as it doesn’t bring us down with it. We are stronger than this, Linda. And we can get through this.”
Linda looked at her husband again, admiring the confidence and determination in his words. He had always impressed her with how self-assured and resilient he was about everything, even when it seemed like the odds were stacked against him. He’d built his own business from the ground up, starting out with nothing more than a couple of cows and ending with fields and fields filled with them. He’d been born into nothing and he would die a very wealthy man, not just in money, but in love, family, and friendship as well.
“I believe you,” Linda nodded, feeling her own confidence being boosted just as she looked at Jerry. “Thank you, my love.”
“That’s what I’m here for,” Jerry answered with a smile, pleased he had managed to improve his wife’s morale once more. “Are you finished eating? We’ve got a lot to get sorted today.”
Linda nodded, allowing Jerry to whisk her plate away and dump it in the sink. Their plan for the day was to prepare the barn for the two of them, bunking with the cows for the remainder of the days until Chase and Riley returned with the equipment to fix up the house. Both had agreed they would try not to focus on the what-ifs surrounding their grandchildren. They loved them both dearly, simultaneously understanding that halting their own chances of survival to worry about them wasn’t going to help anyone. If they wanted to give their family a future, Jerry and Linda had to remain focused on the present.
“What’s first?”
“Well,” Jerry clapped his hands together, ignoring the pain in his chest as he did so. He was feeling much better that morning than he had previously, even
though he still wheezed instead of breathing properly and his chest still ached if he made any sudden or strenuous movements. He hoped he was hiding it well from his wife, while knowing that Linda could see straight through him most of the time. He just wanted to remain strong enough to survive until his family was all back with him again. Keep going for them, he reminded himself, keep going for them and it’ll all be worth it.
“I think we need to address what we’re going to do about the cows first. While I love them both dearly, they are a couple of very stinky neighbors.”
Linda chuckled at her husband’s choice of words, a smile creeping across her face. “I’m not really sure where else we can put them,” she pondered. “I don’t want them outside and they’re not moving in here instead of us.”
“I know,” Jerry smiled, “I was thinking more the old milking station. It’s not secure enough for us, but Milk and Shake should be able to manage in there for a few days.”
“Oh yeah,” Linda perked up. “That should work. They’ll be fine in there, won’t they?”
“Of course. And then we won’t have to worry about sharing our bed with a couple of cows. The only other issue that I still haven’t come up with a solution for is the plumbing.”
“Ah,” Linda paused. “Well, the house isn’t completely gone to ruin just yet. We can still come back inside here for certain things, can’t we? I sort of assumed we’d still cook and wash in the house.”
“For now, yeah, I suppose,” Jerry forfeited, his idea of making the two of them completely self-sufficient in the barn fading fast. “It sort of defeats the purpose of moving in there if we’re constantly traipsing back and forth between it and the house though, doesn’t it? We might as well just block off upstairs and stay down here.”
“Wait a minute,” Linda slowed her husband down, aware she was about to lose him to a long rant about how they needed to completely bug out in the barn like they were stranded in a desert or lost at sea. “Why don’t we? Surely staying in the house is better than being out there. If we can make sure we’re protected enough from upstairs then we should be fine, right?”
