Winter Fall

by Byron Tucker

  Sam leaned back in his chair, letting out a long, tired sigh. Looking over at Irene, he said, “I think we should fix ourselves some supper and get settled in for the night.”

  Irene stood up immediately, seemingly grateful just to have something to do.

  Jimmy got up in tandem, pointing to the open passenger door. “Is it okay I go have a look around?”

  “A look around where?” Sam asked.

  “The mountain that we're on. I want to see if I can get to a spot where I can see what's going on, like the valley we just came out of.”

  Figuring that it might be a good idea to let the boy run off some extra energy, and considering they probably had a long wait ahead, he said, “Okay, but don't be going out of sight of the highway, okay? And please be careful. The last thing we need right now is for you to get hurt.”

  “I'll be careful, Dad,” Jimmy said, smiling. “I'll not go far, I promise.”

  He was gone in a flash.

  The ground shook. A little tremor, nothing major, but enough to make the vehicle creak against the stabilizers.

  “I don't think you should have let Jimmy run out like that,” Irene said, her face etched with lines of worry.

  Smiling at her to hide his own concern, he said, “Don't worry, he'll be back soon.”

  Jimmy's Journal Entry, July 31st, 2019

  What a day! I honestly have to say this has been the most exciting day of my whole life, and it's not even over yet. We first noticed something was wrong as soon as we started out after breakfast, when there wasn't a single animal or bird to be found, which means something's totally screwed up. Then we got to Old Faithful, and oh man, oh man, it was the craziest thing I've ever seen. All these geysers were totally spazzing out, and everybody was running around like crazy, and we decided to walk up the hill so we could see more of it.

  That's when the earthquake hit. 8.4 on the Richter scale, can you believe it? It was so strong, it knocked all of us on the ground, and the whole valley was all wavy, just like the ocean. Trees were crashing down all over, and these huge cracks in the ground opened up all over the place. And then this monster-sized geyser went off that must have been a couple of thousand feet high, and that's when we knew that we had to get the hell out of there. We ran as hard as we could back to the motorhome, with Dad carrying Eliza most of the way, and when we finally were able to get out of the parking lot, a park ranger told us that Yellowstone was closing and that we had to leave. But then we found out that the road was cut in front of the two closest exits, so we had to keep going up and around on the loop road, which was really slow. But we turned off of that and went back to the village of Canyon, where we got gas, and then when it looked like we were going to have a free pass out of the Park, boom! Another earthquake hit, and wouldn't you know it, the road fell in, like right in front of us. Another few feet, and it'd been us that'd fallen in with it. Talk about a close call!

  Once we decided that we need to stay put and wait, like they said to do on the radio, I asked Dad if I could have a look around. He said not to be gone long, but I guess I got carried away. It took ages just to get to the top of the mountain, and when I got there and could see over the whole valley (which is really a giant caldera, according to what Uncle Ryan tells me,) I could see these white plumes shooting up all over the place. At one point, I could see like eight or nine of them, and one of them was so big, I could hear the noise it was making. It seemed like constant thunder, but much fainter. It was scary to look at, but very beautiful too. But yeah, I stuck around way too long up there, and it started getting dark, and on top of that, there was another shaker, almost as bad as the one that cut the road, and I fell down and banged my knee against a rock. Man, that hurt SO bad. I thought I wasn't even gonna be able to walk after that. But I finally managed to stand back up again, and it started not to hurt so badly, so I kept on going down the hill. A bit later, I ran into Dad, who was going around with the flashlight looking for me, and the two of us had no trouble getting back to the motorhome after that.

  Yeah, both my parents really laid into me about what I did. Dad especially, but Mom too. Hell, even my little sister called me “irresponsible.” Jeeze. But yeah, I was being stupid, climbing all that way and letting it get dark on me and nearly getting my leg broke on the way back, but it's not like I planned for it to happen. So, as punishment, I've been sent to the bedroom to think about what I did while the three of them play that game Eliza likes so much. Oh, I'm sure they'll forgive me soon enough, they always do. But it does suck that I made my parents worry so much, especially when none of us have any idea of what's really going on, or how long it'll take to get out of this place. Hopefully we'll know by morning, especially since we're right next to the break.

  I wonder what Uncle Ryan is thinking right now. No doubt that he's freaking out, big time. We've been trying to call him all day, but the cell networks are jammed, or the tower's been damaged by the earthquakes. I bet he's been trying to call us all day. I just wish there was some way we could let him know that we're okay. Grammy too, as I'm sure she's watching the news about all these earthquakes, freaking out about us being here. Hopefully we'll be able to call out in the morning, or better yet, be able to drive on out of here.

  I'd be lying if I said I wasn't scared. All of us are, as this is some serious stuff that's going on under Yellowstone. If this thing really does go off like Uncle Ryan says it will, it's sure gonna mess things up. Hell, I might not even be able to go back to school this fall. All that ash will kill the crops, and there won't be enough food to go around. Let's just hope that he's wrong and that it's just a bunch of earthquakes and stuff and then it stops. But I can't help but to think that something huge is lurking under the surface, as what would make all those monster geysers erupt at the same time like that? It's all pretty dammed scary, if you ask me.

  I guess this is all I have to write about for right now. Hopefully I'll have some good stuff to say in the next entry. Over and out.

  Chapter 8

  In the process of finally drifting off to sleep in the wee hours of the morning, a loud, insistent banging against the passenger door jolted Sam awake, along with the rest of his family. He scrambled out of bed, grabbing his bathrobe and slipped it on as he rushed over to the stairwell. He popped the door lock, pushed it open and was confronted by the sight of a uniformed Park Service ranger holding a bright flashlight in his hand.

  “Sir,” he began, pointing to the road break with his flashlight, “In about ten minutes, they will be ready to open a path for you to get past the break, and I need for you to have the vehicle started and ready to go, as there's little time to waste.”

  Sam leaned outward to get a better look at the man. “So what's going on? How do we get out of the Park?”

  “You'll be following an escort vehicle up to Highway 212, where you'll be able to go east. As of this time, that road is open to traffic, but time is of the essence, as more severe earthquakes are expected.”

  Not wanting to take up any more of the man's time, he said, “Thank you. We'll get this thing started and ready to go.”

  Ten short minutes later, with the stabilizers retracted and the motor humming, Sam spotted someone with a glow light waving him forward in the otherwise pitch-black night. Sam looked over at Jimmy in the passenger seat and said, “Wish us some luck, I have a feeling we're going to need it.”

  Jimmy held up a set of crossed fingers. “I've got that covered, Dad. Go, the man is waving us through.”

  Sam clenched his teeth, easing the heavy vehicle onto a path of freshly-scraped soil, feeling the wheels digging precariously into the soft ground. He pushed the pedal down a bit, causing the motorhome to lurch forward, treading over a thin layer of gravel. Following the frantic waving of the road repair crew, he kept hitting the gas, and the ungainly vehicle rocked from side to side as he passed them, but thankfully it did not get stuck. Reaching pavement on the other side, he struggled to keep up with the escort vehicle ahead of them, a truck wi
th flashing yellow lights on top. It traveled a bit too fast for comfort, but he wasn't about to complain. He wanted nothing more than to get his family out of this place, and the sooner it happened, the better.

  For the next hour or so, they followed the escort vehicle, slowing to a crawl in places where the road had been damaged, including going around a break even larger than the one that had stopped them the evening before. They eventually reached the junction where Highway 212 went off to the east, a solid stream of cars parading by from the west, apparently because the North Entrance was still blocked. Following instructions from a highway patrolman to join the line of traffic, Sam turned right, having been told to keep going until they crossed over the Beartooth Pass, after which they would reach the Interstate in Montana.

  Progress was slow, with many pauses, due to the vehicles attempting to navigate around damaged sections of highway in the inky darkness of the night. The series of strong earthquakes that hit in a fifteen-minute span didn't help either, making it difficult for Sam to keep the motorhome from going off the road altogether amid the shaking ground underneath.

  Once they began the long climb up to the ten thousand foot-high Beartooth Pass, dawn finally broke, and by the time they finally reached the crest of the rugged mountain range, it had become fully daylight. The scenery was incredible to behold as they began to descend into Montana. Actually, what was incredible was that they had made it out of Yellowstone. Period. Alive and unhurt, discounting his son's bruised knee. Nothing else mattered, really.

  Jimmy flipped through the road atlas for a bit and then put it away as he asked, “So, are we going to Uncle Ryan's, then?”

  Sam chuckled, glancing over at his son momentarily. “You know what, I haven't thought that far ahead. I think what we'll do is to stop when we get to the Interstate, and we'll try calling him from there. We'll go ahead and top off the tank as well, and maybe find a place to have a meal and rest a bit.”

  Jimmy flashed him a thumbs-up along with a white-toothed smile. “Sounds like a plan. And I really am sorry about last night.”

  Sam slowed to navigate a hairpin curve. We're not home free yet. “Um, yes. Just promise you'll not do that again.”

  “I promise, Dad.”

  “Good. You'll have to excuse me so I can get us off this mountain in one piece.”

  The endless series of curves finally coming to an end, Sam's phone rang. Pointing to it, he looked at Jimmy and said, “Check to see who it is. If it's Ryan, you talk to him, so I can keep this thing on the road.”

  Jimmy picked up the chirping phone. “It's him. I'll put on speaker so we can both hear.”

  “So where are you guys?” Ryan said in a frantic tone over the phone's speaker.

  Jimmy laughed and said, “We're out of Yellowstone, if that's what you're worried about. We're in Montana on our way to Billing, where Dad's planning to get on the Interstate.”

  Ryan's voice cracked, the result of a weak connection. “How much fuel do you have?”

  “Enough at the moment. We filled up at the campground area before we got stranded.”

  “If you see a place to get more gas, do it. You'll need to keep the pedal on the floor and head east as quickly as possible.”

  Jimmy held the phone out toward his father. “You hear that? He says we should –”

  “Yes, I realize that,” Sam said. “I'll go as fast as traffic allows. But I have to think we're far enough away to be out of danger at this point.”

  Sounding more frantic than ever, Ryan said, “No, you're not the least bit safe until you're at least five hundred miles from Yellowstone. Understand me? It's about to go nova any moment now. And when it does, anything within four or five hundred miles is going to be obliterated. So you need to get on that Interstate and go east as fast as you possibly can. Is that understood?”

  In a loud voice, Sam said, “Yes, I understand, Ryan. How about we give you a call once we get out of Montana?”

  “You do that, as I have to make a few supply runs this morning. And you are coming straight here, right?”

  “Um, yeah, that's what we're planning.”

  “Good. Concentrate on your driving. Just get away from there as quickly as you can.”

  Sam rolled his eyes as Jimmy ended the call. “If only he knew what we've gone though.”

  Jimmy laughed. “Yeah, he'd be crapping in his pants if he knew what was happening back there.”

  Sam chuckled, pushing the motorhome up past sixty, the road stretching out nice and straight in front of him, devoid of traffic for once. “Yes, I agree.”

  * * *

  Acquiescing to Irene's request, Sam piloted the motorhome into the town of Billing in search of a supermarket, so they could stock up on fresh provisions she wanted to get, like milk and orange juice, in addition to some fried chicken and slaw to have for a picnic lunch.

  The little side excursion turned out to be a mistake. While getting the motorhome topped off with gas wasn't too much of a hassle, with just a five-minute wait for an open pump at the truck stop, the stop at the supermarket was a disaster. He had difficulty parking the motorhome in the congested parking lot, and came perilously close to hitting two cars. Inside, they found the place mobbed with panicked shoppers, and people were grabbing everything they could get their hands on. The checkout lanes six or more people deep, even with all of them open.

  Sam turned to Irene and asked, “Well, we've got water to drink, don't we? And some leftover food in the fridge?”

  Irene nodded her head as she gazed at all the people rushing back and forth in front of them. “I just don't understand this. It's like the end of the world or something.”

  “It is the end of the world, Mom,” Jimmy said.

  Sam herded the members of his family toward the exit. “Come on, let's get out of here. We need to be rolling down the Interstate, not fighting a panicking crowd in a supermarket.”

  In sharp contrast to the chaos in Billing, Interstate 94 turned out to be nice and open, especially once they got past where Interstate 90 split off from I-94. He put the cruise control at a heady seventy-five miles an hour, figuring he should at least match the speed limit to make the best time possible. While he still had doubts about Yellowstone erupting off as a supervolcano like his brother theorized, Sam wasn't about to take any chances, considering what they've just gone through getting out of the Park.

  About an hour out of Billing, Irene requested to take Jimmy's place in the front passenger seat. Hurriedly putting on her seatbelt after they traded places, she said, “I'm sorry for making you stop at that grocery store. That was horrible.”

  He smiled, happy to have his wife up front with him for once. “Well, we had no idea. I can't imagine what's it's like in Chicago.”

  She gave him a puzzled look. “Surely Chicago won't be affected that far away, would it?”

  “Perhaps not, but people love to panic. That's one thing I will agree with Ryan about – the ease with which people will panic in stressful conditions. Just look at us last night.”

  She chuckled softy while raising her fist over her head. “That boy.” She paused briefly and said, “So, are you still planning to drive to your brother's?”

  “Yes, but we'll find a motel or something in Minnesota so we can get a proper night's sleep, and go the rest of the way tomorrow. Unless you have a desire to just cut things short and go home.”

  She frowned and looked downward, apparently debating some unwelcome choices in her mind. When she looked up again, she said, “Personally, if it was up to me, I'd prefer to go home. But I can fully understand the need to be with your brother right now, especially if it goes, you know, goes nova, as he puts it. So, if that's what you want to do, just know you have my full blessing, okay?”

  Sam was almost to the point of tearing up. His wife really was the most wonderful woman to walk the face of the Earth. And I'm married to her. “Thank you, Irene. And yes, my gut instinct says we should head to my brother's. At least until all of this settl
es down.” He pointed at the undulating ribbon of concrete extending into the distant, treeless horizon. “And right now, I'm going to put as much distance as possible between us and Yellowstone, so all of us can rest a little easier.”

  “Well, just so you know, I've managed to scrape enough food together to do a decent picnic lunch after all. The kids are getting a bit peckish, and so am I. So if you see a good spot soon, just pull off and we'll have ourselves a nosh.”

  There was no denying that he was hungry. But he really did want to put more miles under them before stopping again. “Give me two, two and a half hours, and we'll stop again. Deal?”

  She put on a warm, friendly smile. “It's a deal. We can manage until then.”

  After two more hours of blasting across the grasslands of eastern Montana, Sam perceived Yellowstone to be a long ways behind them, not just in terms of physical distance, but also mentally. It was almost as if the experience of the past twenty-four hours had been a dream, fading with each hour of normalcy. His wife and children were happily engaged in Eliza's board game, the air punctuated with excited shouts from each of them in turn as they staked a lead over their opponents.

  The highway stretched blissfully empty in front of the motorhome, with almost no traffic. There was the occasional nut who blasted past the motorhome at insanely high speeds, making him flinch when they did so, but he did his best to ignore them.

  Sam checked the speedometer, still pegged at seventy-five. Seeing no need to burn the extra fuel by going so fast, he took the cruise control off and allowed it to drop to about sixty-seven or so, and re-engaged it there. The hum of the motor lessened, in addition to the reduction of noise of the wind blasting against the broad face of the windshield. He was tempted to drop it even further, but decided to keep it at its current speed, just so they could keep making good time.