“Do you think there are more elk or buffalo in this park? The damn things are everywhere,” Anthony said loudly, trying to speak over the sound of the elk and the river.
“Pretty sure there’s more elk,” Chad replied.
“Man I wish we had some beer right now,” Todd said in a longing voice and then continued,
“What do you guys think about all that earthquake talk?”
“Like I said before, it’s completely normal, we’ve got nothing to worry about,” Chad said trying to reassure them.
“I dunno, I heard some old man talking about quakes in the bar last night. I thought he was just drunk and stupid but now it sorta makes sense,” Anthony said.
“Well what was the guy saying?” Asked Todd, a hint of concern in his voice.
“He just said that the big one is coming soon, said he can feel that it’s gonna happen. He’s a local guy and he was pretty convinced that one of these days the ground was gonna shake and it was going to cause the volcano to erupt.”
“Don’t listen to that guy, they’ve been saying Yellowstone’s going to blow for a long time. I worry about a lot of stuff, but the chances of this thing going off in our lifetime are very low. You should worry about getting struck by lightening before you worry about that,” Chad said in a disapproving voice.
An older woman with short grey hair and tired eyes was sitting nearby and overheard their conversation and she couldn’t help but interrupt.
“Ya’ll know that man aint lying. Was his name Red?” The woman asked.
“Uh, we were at Red’s bar so I assume that was probably the guy,” Anthony responded, a little perturbed by her interruption.
“Ol Red ain’t crazy, I’ve been coming to this park for a long time and that mans smart. He’s been predicting an eruption for a long time.”
“I’m sure he has,” Chad said sarcastically.
“I aint kidding, he’s being saying that 2015 is going to be the year for over a decade now,” She said with frustration in her voice.
“Alright well if you and Red are so sure that it’s going to blow then what the hell are you both still doing in Yellowstone?” Todd said with a smirk.
“Well if you’re in the park when it blows you’ll die right away, if you aint then you’ll have a slow and painful death. I’d rather die right away,” the woman responded quietly.
Chad stood up, cold and warm water dripping from his body as he offered the woman some closing remarks,
“Alright, well you and Red have fun getting vaporized in your hypothetical eruption. Pleasure talking to you.”
With that, Chad, Anthony and Todd left the boiling river and headed back to the SUV. As they changed out of their wet bathing suits Todd and Anthony joked about the woman they had just encountered.
“Crazy old bat,” said Anthony as Todd laughed in agreement.
Chad had become quiet; he was starting to get lost in his thoughts. He had not really feared Yellowstone and he hadn’t believed an eruption to be a viable threat, but his opinion was slowly changing.
Chapter 5:
When they arrived back at their campground there was a park ranger standing at the front gate. It wasn’t the same ranger as earlier in the day, much to their relief. He was wearing a tacky dark green uniform and a silly looking bucket hat of the same color.
“Good evening gentlemen, I’ve been ordered to inform all residents of this campground that you have been advised to evacuate Yellowstone. This is not a demand, but I am of the opinion that it would be in your best interests to leave now due to the recent rise in earthquake and volcanic activity.”
The three friends looked at each other, as if waiting to see who was going to speak first.
“Uh alright sir, we will leave right away, thank you,” Chad said.
As soon as Todd rolled the window up he said,
“Screw that guy, we drove for hours to get here, we’re not going anywhere,”
“Are you kidding man? We’re leaving tonight. This is not a joke if their telling people to evacuate!” Chad said angrily.
“I just looked it up on my phone and it says that Yellowstone National Park Services has issued evacuation advisories 8 times in the past three months,” Anthony said trying to ease the tension.
“I don’t give a shit about statistics, I care about getting out of here in one piece!” Chad yelled, his voice getting ever louder.
“If they’re doing this thing all the time they just want to cover their asses. It’s my vehicle and we’re not going anywhere tonight. I’m exhausted from sweating in that river and I’m not about to drive 9 hours back to Fortuna.” Todd said Matter-of-factly.
“There’s three of us, so we should take a vote. I want to leave and you want to stay. Anthony what do you want to do?” Chad said glaring at Anthony, trying to force a desired answer out of him.
Anthony hesitated before answering,
“I’m sorry Chad, I didn’t drive all this way to leave on the second night. I vote we stay.”
“It’s settled then, we’re staying for a week like we planned, sorry man, if you’d driven the RV it would have been your call,” Chad said as he pulled the SUV into their campsite.
Chad quickly got out of the vehicle, slammed the door and got inside the tent; his frustration with the situation was evident.
Chapter 6:
Chad was the last one to wake up the next morning. He stumbled out of the tent and found that Anthony and Todd were arguing with the same park ranger from the night before. They were quite far away so he turned his head sideways to eavesdrop on their conversation.
“So you’re saying we’re just stuck in this small campground all damn day?” Todd yelled.
“Yes sir, I apologize for any inconvenience but you must understand that there is a strict safety policy being enforced here!” The ranger responded in an equally loud voice.
“So the earthquakes are bad and the volcano might erupt so you force people to stay inside the park? How the hell does that make sense?” Anthony yelled.
“This mountain has seen landslides during earthquakes in the past, the ground is likely unstable right now so it’s unsafe to drive down at the present time,” the ranger said, now lowering his tone in an attempt to civilize the conversation a bit.
“So we don’t know how long we’re going to be stuck here for?”
Todd asked, attempting to be more polite.
“I will inform you in the morning if there has been any change in the circumstances,” the ranger said as he promptly turned and walked away.
Todd and Anthony walked back to the tent cursing themselves for not leaving when they had the chance.
“I’m not even going to say anything,” Chad said trying to evoke a reaction from one of them.
“Shut up man, we didn’t think this shit was going to happen,” Todd said sharply.
They spent the day walking around the campground asking everybody they bumped into what they planned to do. It seemed as though everybody was going to sit tight until the travel ban was lifted. At around quarter to three there was an earthquake. It only lasted for ten seconds but it was big enough to strike fear into the hearts of everyone in Yellowstone.
“Should we just leave? We could drive right out of here as soon as the sun goes down,” Chad asked in a panicked tone.
“I think we should give it until tomorrow morning, if we’re still stuck here then we will just make a run for it,” Todd said.
“I agree,” Anthony added.
Chad sighed and grabbed a can of beans out of the tent. He grabbed his can opener from inside of the SUV and opened the beans in a hurry. He didn’t want to put in the effort of making a fire and cooking them, so he just ate the beans cold. He felt outnumbered in every group decision and it was starting to frustrate him. It was hardly dark yet but Chad decided he would go to sleep early. He struggled to unzip the tent, crawled into his sleeping bag and drifted off to sleep.
Chapter 7
It happened
suddenly at about 6:00 AM. Chad was outside taking a leak when he noticed thousands of elk, buffalo, deer, moose, birds, bears and wolves fleeing Yellowstone. The sight was surreal and he knew what it signified. Before he could make a move the ground shook viciously, causing him to fall flat on his back. Within seconds Anthony and Todd were awake and out of the tent.
“WE NEED TO LEAVE, NOW!” Chad screamed, the horror in his voice echoing throughout the campground.
They left everything and piled into the SUV. Anthony quickly turned the radio on, frantically searching for a signal. The park ranger who was stationed at the front gate was gone. Todd drove the SUV down the mountain as quickly as he could, when they reached the town below they noticed that multiple buildings had already collapsed.
The volcano had not erupted but an eruption was imminent if these large-scale earthquakes continued. The geysers around the park began shooting up into the sky, hundreds of feet higher than usual; this meant the volcanic pressure was building rapidly. As they drove, Anthony finally found a radio station with a decent signal. A male voice came over the radio, causing all three men to fall quiet immediately.
“You’re listening to WQFM, Wyoming’s home of country music. This just in: there has been an evacuation issued for Yellowstone National Park and all surrounding areas. If you live in West Yellowstone, Mammoth, Bozeman, Cody, Idaho Falls, Salt Lake City, Boise, Denver, Portland or Seattle, you need to evacuate immediately and get as far away from Yellowstone as fast as you possibly can.”
“Jesus Christ, that is a massive evacuation zone. Chad use your phone to look up if Fortuna is in the danger zone.” Todd instructed.
Chad grabbed his phone and did as Todd said. He then reported his findings to Todd and Anthony. Chad spoke in a slow, scared voice,
“According to this website Fortuna lies in zone 5. If Yellowstone erupts, zone 5 is not in the immediate death radius of the blast. There will be at least 15-30 centimeters of ash-fall in zone 5, which could cause building collapse, short circuiting of electricity, and car engine failure.”
“Well at least if we make it home we ran get underground and we will be safe,” Anthony said, sounding slightly relieved.
His relief frustrated Chad.
“I don’t think you get it man. If this thing blows the planet is in extreme danger. Not only will there be tons of people immediately killed by the blast, but many more will die in the years following the eruption. There would be tsunamis of unimaginable magnitude. The ash deposits from the eruption will shoot up into the air almost 20 miles. Within days the ash will have surrounded the planet. The eruption will emit sulfuric acid, which will form an aerosol that would linger in the air for years, completely blocking sunlight. Essentially the world will be sent into a volcanic winter for many years,” Chad said grimly.
“Glad to see your keeping a positive attitude,” said Todd sarcastically.
“I’ve just researched it a lot and I like to know the facts about the situation and I figured you guys might too,” Chad said, eagerly defending himself.
Todd slammed on the brakes of the SUV, instantly locking them and causing Anthony and Chad to jolt forward. The sudden stop was due to the fact that at least a hundred buffalo had just run out in front of the vehicle, frantically trying to escape the park. The three friends were nearly out of Yellowstone but they had to wait for five long minutes as the buffalo crossed.
They drove as fast as they could, but there was a lot of traffic. Thousands of people were frantically trying to escape the blast zone of the volcano. The three men fell silent as Todd put the radio back on. A familiar voice filled the vehicle,
“Experts are now saying that a full blown Yellowstone eruption is imminent. The earthquakes are consistently getting worse and eventually a big enough quake is going to disturb the massive magma chamber below the Yellowstone volcano. I’ve been told that once this happens, the magma chamber will become destabilized and it will rapidly depressurize itself. Once the chamber depressurizes, there will be a full blown volcanic eruption.”
The voice on the radio cut like a knife, hope was now crumbling. It was now a race against the clock to get as far away from the volcano as possible.
“I know this is going to sound stupid but we need to get to Canada,” Chad announced sternly.
“Canada? What the hell good will that do for us? I say we get to Maine!” Todd countered.
Chad continued,
“Canada is actually more prepared than we are for a Yellowstone eruption, they have containers with food, water and gas masks dispersed around the country. I just checked on my phone and there is a container located in southern Manitoba about an hour and a half from Fortuna. If we can get to my RV and drive it to the container in Manitoba, then we should have enough supplies to last for a long time, if we combine the supplies in the container and in my RV.”
“I thought you said that RV wasn’t working right,” Anthony said in a skeptical tone.
“Well we don’t have much of a choice, we just have to hope for the best.” Chad said trying to reassure his friends.
“Sounds like a plan, we should call our families and tell them to meet us at the RV.” Todd said, starting to calm down.
“Yes and tell them to bring separate vehicles because my RV isn’t very spacious with all of the supplies in it.”
The men each made a phone call with specific instructions to their families. Todd stepped on the gas pedal and brought the SUV up to 110 mph. The traffic was beginning to dwindle and everybody on the roads were now speeding.
They were now about 7 hours from Fortuna. Everyone was afraid, but they tried to hide their fear and focus on the task at hand. All three men had families and their primary concern was making sure that their families were safe.
Chapter 8
The drive seemed way longer on the way back. They were very far from Yellowstone, but every now and then they would feel the earth shake, causing Todd to slightly lose control of the SUV. Nobody spoke for a long time; they all just sat there dwelling on their own mortality and helplessness in the situation. Their stress was growing and their patience was rapidly dwindling. Todd was driving a steady 110mph on the interstate, with no signs of slowing down. Every now and then they would pass a wrecked car on the side of the road or in a deep ditch. No one even considered stopping to check if everyone was okay. It truly was every man for themselves.
Todd turned the radio back on for an update.
“Things seem to be calming down a bit at Yellowstone, earthquakes are dropping in severity and a few brave people have even started to ignore the evacuation warnings and head back home. We are currently broadcasting to you from a company van that is driving as far away from Yellowstone as possible.” The man’s voice evoked a few sighs of relief.
Chad, Todd and Anthony had no plans of heading back to Yellowstone. They had accepted that their vacation was now over. They passed a sign for Fortuna and they calculated that at the speed they were traveling that they would be home in less than two hours.
“So we’re not going to Canada now, right?” Anthony chuckled.
“I mean I sort of think that we still should, just to be on the safe side,” Chad said hesitantly.
“Man no way, this thing is not going to blow and I don’t feel like wasting a bunch of time driving up north. I just want to get back home, you guys can do what you want,” said Todd in an aggravated voice.
Chapter 9
“Tammy, Bryce, get everything you want out of your bedrooms and put it into the RV, we have to leave now!” Lynn yelled out from the kitchen.
The call she received from Chad had worried her and she had been paying close attention to the situation on the local news channel. She was quite happy that Chad had the RV stockpiled now, and she knew she would be getting harassed by him about it soon enough.
Bryce and Tammy made a few trips to the RV before claiming that they were ready to leave.
“Are you both sure you’ve got everything you want?” Lynn w
as taking a very serious tone with them.
“Yes mom,” they replied in unison.
“Good, daddy will be home soon and then we’re going to take a little vacation up to Canada,” Lynn said trying to fake a smile.
“Mom, what’s goin on?” Bryce asked sheepishly.
“We’re just going on a little vacation in the RV, that’s all,” She replied trying to mask the lie.
“But dad always says the RV is only for special stuff,” Tammy stated.
“This is going to be very special, it’s a special family vacation honey. Now let’s go wait for dad in the RV,” Lynn tried to keep an upbeat tone of voice, but she was sure her kids were seeing right through her.
Chapter 10
With about 50 miles to go until they arrived home in Fortuna, it happened: A monstrous earthquake that seemed to shake the very core of the planet. The forceful quakes had returned with a vengeance.
The Wrath of Yellowstone (Preppers Fiction): The Wrath of Yellowstone Trilogy Boxed Set (Preppers Fiction, Apocalyptic Fiction, Survival, Travel Fiction Book 4) Page 2
