by Scott Todd
Jan glanced back with an affectionate, silent thank you. "I'll help Terry with the fire then, ok? All these fallen branches will be just the ticket," she said, and went right to it.
And with that we all had our chores, and scurried our separate ways. The grizzly thought of hacking that bear to pieces kept invading my mind as I made my way down the other side of the mountain through the woods. I did not have the benefit even of a crumbled road this time, so the going was very slow. Whole sections of earth on the hill had collapsed in landslides from the shaking, taking out patchy areas of smaller trees. A few of those places exposed the solid rock core of the mountain.
Spotting a new treeless patch below, I climbed down and was startled and frustrated to find a similar situation, but even worse: The impact of the water on this side had taken an even bigger piece out of the mountain, leaving me standing at the edge of another, higher cliff about 200 feet high. So the only option was to circle around until I found a place where I could get to the water from land that had not sustained a direct impact. This was taking too long now, and I wondered how the others were faring.
Finally. "There it is," I thought to myself as I rounded a bend and saw the new water-land interface down below. One last effort got me down the hill, and I kept thinking the water seemed lower, like it had receded some. But I could not be sure, until I saw wetness on the bark of all the trees, some 50 feet higher than the water line. Hmm. Strange. Maybe the water was receding.
As I dipped the bucket to get what I came for, I couldn't help but look amazed at the newly made scenery. All that water, and not a creature in sight, save a few birds left in the trees on the mountain- and a bear that was no longer. But what about deer? Surely there had to be a few deer running around up here, for I had seen plenty of them before on many trips to the area. They could provide some additional...
I froze. For as I started back up, I heard a huge splash off in the distance. And then another and another, increasing in frequency. Turning around I looked back out towards the sea, and thought I saw one of the splashes near the horizon. Then I looked up, totally dumbfounded, and saw what appeared to be a million black dots, littering the sky. I focused on one, and it took only a second to realize that it was growing bigger with each passing moment.
Looking back out to the water, now I could see and hear them plainly. Huge splashes were being created, but from what? And then something whizzed past my head, and with a thud left a small indent in a tree behind me. As I tried to find what it was, I heard another, and then another. And then one hit me in the leg hard.
"Damn it!" I said out loud in a brief instant of pain and burning, and then got hit again. I spotted a bigger tree and made a run for it, now hearing these things constantly. As I crouched behind the tree for protection, the sound of these grew louder and louder, like I was in a hailstorm. But as they hit, I realized quickly from the sound of the impacts, that this was no hail.
Chapter 16: Pounded Into Fire
I reached down to pick one up, but it was glowing red hot. The sensation of heat let me get no closer, and then I smelled smoke. It was burning the ground! I looked where I was hit, and saw a hole in my pants, and another burnt hole on my other leg. I hadn't realized with the stinging pain, that I had also been burned by these things.
A meteor shower, maybe? My mind raced to comprehend what in the hell was happening.
But then a much bigger one hit with a thud behind me, and I heard it start to sizzle with a plume of steam rising from it. I was about to be toast if they started a fire. I quickly put it out with the water in the bucket, and more steam rose from it on cooling. Then I realized that I was still in the receded water line area, and everything was still wet, including the ground and the lower parts of all the trees.
But it would just be a matter of time before they caught the upper trees on fire. And what about the others? They were all on dry land up top! I panicked not only for me, but for them too. I couldn't see any way out of this one. All I could do was to keep filling the bucket and trying to put out what I could while protecting myself best I could behind the tree.
I put the bucket on my head for some protection, after a few close calls. It was raining fire rocks, but they seemed to be coming from one direction. And then it struck me I was on the wrong side of the hill for this. The incoming angles of the rocks were such that the opposite side of the hill might offer better protection.
So tree by tree I went along the water line, desperate to make it to the opposite side of the hill. Every now and then a much bigger one would hit in the ocean, and one hit so hard and close in the water that it sent a mini tsunami. I scurried further up to avoid it, lest I be sucked out to sea. I heard another bigger one hit near the top of the hill, and felt its thud through ground vibrations. I just hoped it didn't hit near them.
I kept going and going, but there seemed to be no end in sight. The mountain just kept on in a straight line, and I couldn't find a turn that would signal me reaching the other side. I finally concluded that this was more of a mountain ridge than a single mountain, and cursed myself for not knowing more about the territory I was in.
So instead I started climbing up and up, running from tree to tree for cover, until I finally made it over the top and to the other side. I saw a trail near the top, but had to pass right over it. I only found some relief from the flying stingers once I started descending on the other side. But I still heard the muffled sounds of the bigger flying fire bullets hitting their targets with terrifying impacts on the side I had come from. The bigger ones were causing the mountain to vibrate on impact.
I could only imagine what had happened to the others, and didn't even want to think about it. I looked again down at my gun. What a relief it would be to finally use it and end this madness. I mean what chance did we have anyway, all things considered? There was no realistic hope of long term survival after all this.
But perhaps I had not really considered all things. And I remembered Ben's encouraging words: "We're not dead yet." Even though we still didn't know what had happened, I kept telling myself I owed it to our species to hold out until the last final dying breath. And I damned sure wanted Ben's opinion on this latest development.
I knew I needed to make my way back in the opposite direction to get back to them, because I had gone pretty far on the other side before turning upwards and finally making it over the hill. So I moved as quickly as I could, but the going was slow through the steep woods, and I was often loosing my footing. But I pressed onward for at least another hour. I was totally lost.
Then suddenly I was startled to hear the rushing of footsteps and voices come barreling down the hill, further ahead in the distance. I saw Jan, Terry and Ben, but didn't see Sandra. They were headed down towards the water line, fleeing from the destruction taking place on the other side.
I had found an indent in the side of the mountain, and it was protecting me well from any stray projectiles. "Hey! Over here!" I yelled out.
They all came running, panting and gasping, and I saw they had been hit by a few of their own. Ben was holding his arm tightly with a death grip, and grimacing in pain. Jan had a hole on her shirt in her back, and Terry had been hit in the legs too.
"Where's Sandra?" I said loudly and concerned. Jan looked up in both pain and terror and started to speak, but couldn't.
"She... She... Didn't make it," gasped Ben. "She was hit by..." Jan reached out suddenly and covered his mouth.
"Don't," she screamed. "I can't... I can't..." and she broke down in tears, seeking my comfort once again. Terry just sobbed, holding her Dad and staring at his arm, while nursing her own wounds on her legs.
Ben took off his shirt, and wrapped it around his arm, where a gnarly impact wound was visible for a minute. It had burned him badly, but it appeared to be a glancing blow, and his arm did not appear broken. I was hurting myself, but was one of the lucky ones this time. Jan had a similar glancing blow on her back, and it didn't appear too bad, but it was painful.
She broke out the pills.
Twenty minutes of silence and deep reflection ensued as we all waited for the medication to kick in- while a hailstorm of death continued to rain on the other side of the mountain. We watched as some sailed over us and out into the far sea beyond, and some of the bigger ones had long smoke trails behind them. Every now and then one would explode in mid air, creating shock waves that pierced our souls.
"We got as much of the supplies as we could behind the deck ruins," Ben interrupted our silence by saying. "I hope some of it's left."
"So what the heck happened?" I questioned. "How could..."
"I don't know!" he said, in a raised voice, angry at himself for not knowing. "I need time to think. Cause right now I am not understanding at all how this possibly could happen. Unless..."
Ben paused and went into deep thought. Again morbid silence ensued for quite a while, as all hopes for an explanation were lost.
Chapter 17: Rotten Eggs and The Mad Dash
Hell continued to rain down for another two hours, until we finally detected a decrease in frequency. Fires had erupted on the other side of the hill, and we were seriously smelling the smoke. One thing saving us was the direction the wind was blowing, because it was carrying the smoke away from us. I surmised that the vast clearing at the top of the hill had acted like a fire barrier, but it would not protect us from the fire spreading around the sides of the mountain summit.
But as luck would have it- the sky had become darker and cloudy. The only thing that might save us would be rain. We all gasped sighs of relief when the first drops started to fall, and rain hard it did. We graciously accepted the cold and drenching that came with it, knowing it was our last hope. We hugged each other for warmth, immersed in a the cold rainstorm. The decreasing impacts were becoming much less prominent.
By sunset all we heard was the rain, and even the smell of smoke yielded almost totally to the cleansing. Jan was huddled in my arms and had fallen asleep, removing herself from the apocalypse as I stroked her hair mindlessly out of sheer nervousness. Terry and Ben had been dead silent, and they had lain down in retreat from it all too. All I could hear was the steady rain and my thoughts. But I could find no sleep.
I kept racking my brains through all the things that I had read in pursuit of a greater understanding of the earth. But it was clear that no one really understood it. Not to the point it could save humanity from something like this, at least. I kept pouring over all the plate tectonics maps I had in my head, struggling for something. But I got nothing. Nothing that would explain this latest symptom. No earthquake or even large crustal displacement would be the cause of fire rocks reigning down from the sky.
I drifted back to an asteroid strike again and again, but kept coming up short. Why didn't we feel the shockwave, and better still, where was all the fire? For it was well known that such an impact would create intense heat that would spread out over vast distances in a great wall of fire- even if it impacted in the ocean. Surely by now that wall of fire would have hit us, if it was powerful enough to send the entire sea.
And surely we would have seen a bright, bright flash of light illuminating the sky all around. Even if on the other side of the globe, that reflected light would be visible in the atmosphere. It just wasn't making any sense. And why would NASA not have alerted us? Surely someone somewhere would have seen an incoming asteroid big enough to cause this kind of damage. But for now it made the most sense, as I didn't have much else.
And again, what did it matter. What did it really matter anymore. What last hopes we had of any kind of survival were probably gone. Did our supplies even make it? I thought about tearing myself away from the warmth of Jan in my arms to go look before it got dark- but didn't.
Instead I fixated on a stream of water coming off the hill from the rain as runoff, and stared at it in contemplation for what seemed like forever.
And then I got a faint whiff of something strange. I didn't pay it much attention at first, and it went away. But then it was back again. It was faint, but it was there. It smelled like... Like... Rotten... Rotten eggs. Now wait a minute. Rotten eggs? That's... Is that? Nah, can't be...
"Can I borrow your lighter," I said quietly to Terry. She looked up at me with no soul left, and just handed me the Bic. I lit it, shielding it from the rain with my hand, and held it up to the water stream. Sure enough, it had a yellow tint. It was slight, but just enough that I could see it. After smelling it though, I didn't have much doubt.
Sulfur. I was smelling sulfur. Ben was eying me closely, even through his own painful ordeal. "What," he mumbled. "You smell something strange? Cause I think I did too. Something other than... You know... Sandra..."
"I think we have sulfur here, Ben," I replied with a sigh. He immediately righted up, grabbed the lighter, and smelled the stream himself.
"I think you might be right, cause that sure does smell and look like it. And if it is, that could be an important clue to what has happened," he said. He reexamined the water color with the lighter, and smelled it again. "Yup. I agree. That I believe IS sulfur, coming down in the rain runoff. That changes everything."
"It changes nothing!" barked Terry angrily, startling Jan out of her retreat. "We're still on a mountain in the middle of the ocean. I'm cold, I'm wet, and everyone's probably dead!!! Give me that damn..." She lunged forward at me, going for my gun. Reacting quickly, I managed to divert her hand, while Ben tried to restrain her. But she got loose and took off, heading straight up the hill.
Realizing that Ben had left the rifle in the car, I quickly ran after her with everything I had left.
Chapter 18: The Million Dollar Cigarette
I caught up to her just as she was pulling the rifle out of the car. I tackled her to the ground, grabbed the rifle, and tried desperately to calm her down. And that's when I smelled something else. Something far more intrusive than rotten eggs. I barely had time to even register it, as Terry was giving me hell, infuriated and fighting me viciously, with superhuman strength. And then I felt Ben pounce on us both, engaging in the fray, further trying to subdue her.
But it wasn't until limping Jan arrived a minute later, that we made any progress at all. "Leave her alone!" she yelled, bringing the struggle to an immediate end. Terry stopped fighting in a heap of sobs and crying. Jan rescued her from the two of us, and escorted her into the car. It was getting dark, but I noticed that their car was just far enough down the hill to survive the impact strikes. The tree that had stopped their car was now missing its top.
And then I turned around, looking up towards the deck where the foul odor seemed to be coming from. "Don't," said Ben, looking at me pleading, "You really don't want to..." But I was not to be deterred. I had to see what the hell had happened for myself, and took off running up to the deck.
And boy did I regret that move. What I saw froze me in horror. It was the remains of Sandra, who was literally crushed and dismembered by a large, flying fire boulder. It was a direct hit, and left what remained on fire, now smoldering and steaming from the drenching rain in an impact pit. And then I remembered hearing and feeling that strike myself while I was escaping down by the water line.
"Come on," Ben said as he grabbed my arm, yanking me away from my frigid stare. He led me over to the deck. "We'll need these," he said, stuffing my arms with an array of food and water, which had survived from his quick thinking of hiding them behind the standing wall of the deck remains.
The wall had taken a further pounding of its own during the strikes, but served its purpose surprisingly well. It was still mostly intact, and hadn't been hit from a larger projectile. But Mr. Mitchell's poor grave didn't fare so well. It had been hit multiple times, and many of the stones were missing, exposing the insides. We headed back down to Ben's car and got in with the goods.
I was still reeling in shock, but Jan had calmed Terry down somewhat. Jan relocated to the back seat with me, while Ben took the driver's seat. Terry was gone into her own world now, and I don't think
it even registered that we were with her. Jan looked up at me with a distasteful look, like I had just done something bad, and then went into her own detached world for a while, looking off out the window.
"Can you pass me that blanket in the back," Ben pleaded. "I'm freezing my ass off." Cold and wet as we were, it was somewhat better in the car out of the rain. I wondered for a minute why they hadn't just gotten in there to begin with, instead of coming down the hill.
But I didn't wonder long, as another whiff of the horror I had just seen up there reminded me. The vision insidiously resurfaced in my head. Not only was there the awful sight of Sandra, but there were steaming remains everywhere of impact craters indented proportionately in the ground- or into whatever else they had hit.
"We couldn't handle the smell anymore in here, and a couple of those flying rocks landed way too close," Jan said out of the blue. "So we high-tailed it down the hill, and that's when we heard you yelling," she finished. "That was awful what happened."
