“Is this what we’re here to talk about?” Richard looked around the group.
“No,” Erin said, leaning forward. “We’re here to talk about the near-term and long-term prospects of survival.” She paused and met the worried gazes of her friends. “So far we’ve been reacting to the immediate dangers, and I believe we’ve done pretty well, all things considered. But there’s an unconscious assumption, I think, that this is a short-term thing, like a power failure or a water main break. Government will step in, by and by, and make it all better, and we’ll all go home.”
“And you don’t think that’s the case, I take it?” Richard asked.
Erin shifted again, trying to get comfortable on the cheap aluminum lawn chair. “We’ve got some experience with the effects of volcanoes—Mount Saint Helens, Pinatubo, Krakatoa, any number of others in historical time. And those have been bad enough. They did significant damage and caused significant disruption to local society, technology, and economies. But they are to Yellowstone as a firecracker is to a stick of dynamite.”
“Wait, Erin, how do you know this? We’ve had no real communications since the earthquake.”
“Partly theory, of course, Richard. We know what Yellowstone is, we know how big a magma reservoir it has. It’s hard to imagine any mechanism by which we’d get a small eruption that produced that much ash. I had Bill open one of the gates this afternoon, just to get a look. There’s over three feet of ash on the ground, and it’s still falling. And Lincoln is seven hundred and fifty miles downwind. This is no firecracker, guys. This is the real thing.”
“So …”
“So think about three or more feet of ash over most or all of Nebraska. Where do you put it, even if you can collect it? It won’t melt or compress, like snow. If you pile it somewhere, it’ll just blow around and continue to be a hazard. And you can’t collect it anyway, because heavy equipment is all dead, or soon will be. There’s not going to be any recovery in Lincoln, maybe not for years. Same for any other population centers in the path of the ash. And based on geological data from the last eruption, that could include up to half the continental U.S. We have to consider the possibility that Outland is our new home, for a long time.”
“Son of a bitch,” Richard said into the shocked silence. “But how sure are you? I mean, FEMA surely has a lot of resources to throw at this.”
“This is a black swan event,” Monica said. “An event so singular and so huge that there’s simply no point in trying to plan for it, other than in terms of simple survival. The budget to evacuate half the population of the country to the other half of the country would be more than even the U.S. could muster up, assuming they could get it approved. FEMA won’t be able to handle this. They may not exist in a week.”
“Excuse me?”
Monica gestured toward Erin, who took up the thread. “Toba blew up about seventy to eighty thousand years ago. It was bigger than anything in history, even Krakatoa or Vesuvius or Thera. But not as big as Yellowstone. And it affected the climate in Africa, which is on the other side of the world and in the other hemisphere. I think the United States is done. Likely Canada and Mexico as well. Very probably some European countries. This might be the next Dark Ages.”
“How will we know?” Richard asked. “How can we find out if there are relief efforts?”
“I have some ideas on that,” Bill said. “Erin, the electrical interference, that’s short-term, right?”
“Yes, no more than a couple of days of no reception, really. Another couple of days of poor reception until the crap in the air thins. But that doesn’t mean TV and internet will be back—”
“Give me some credit, Erin. I understand about infrastructure,” Bill said. “I’m thinking more along the lines of satellite reception.”
“Oh, sure, no problem as long as someone’s transmitting.”
Bill smiled but offered no further comment.
“Anyway,” Erin continued, “I think we need to take a longer view. We need to set up a council of some kind, with representatives from the refugees. We’ll need law enforcement, which I understand Monica is already looking into. We’ll need to think of long-term needs for food and shelter, and especially clean water. Look, if I’m wrong and things get organized Earthside and we can all go home soon, then the worst that has happened is we’ll have kept people busy and maybe safer for a few weeks. No harm, no foul. But if we don’t prepare for the worst case and it turns out to be reality …”
“Dammit.” Richard put his head in his hands. “This is getting out of hand. I think you’re right about the council thing, Erin, and we should do that first thing. But we also need to talk about whether we’re going to allow our possessions to be nationalized, or whether we’re going to implement some kind of feudalism, with us as the property owners.”
“That wouldn’t last long, Richard,” Monica said. “Six of us can’t hold off nearly three hundred people, if they decide they’ve had enough. I think we need to stay far enough in front of this so that we can steer it a little instead of getting trampled.”
“Got it,” Richard replied. “Bill, you’ve already got the beginnings of a hierarchy of sorts, with your work crews and crew leaders. Ask them if they or someone they know should be on this council, at least until we can have elections.”
52. In the News
CNN headlines on the hour:
Three known survivalist strongholds, one in Nevada and two in Utah, have declared independence from the United States. They have published an ultimatum to all military and law enforcement to leave their respective states within twenty-four hours or be declared outlaws. It is not clear if the two groups in Utah are working in cooperation or competition.
There have been eight more instances of individuals or small groups going on murderous rampages, these latest incidents occurring in Utah and Texas. In one of the Texas events, forty-two people were killed before law enforcement cornered the suspects, who reacted by killing themselves with an explosive device. In all such cases, the suspects have committed or attempted to commit suicide.
OPEC has announced that all its oil shipments will be temporarily suspended until the extent of the volcano’s effects have been determined.
Dr. Michael Nedmann of the USGS has issued a statement concerning the Yellowstone eruption. “This is far more powerful than our models predicted,” he said. “We are estimating well over 700 cubic miles of ejecta in total. This would make it the largest eruption from the Yellowstone hot spot in its existence.”
When asked how this would affect the country, Dr. Nedmann replied, “This is going to affect the planet! There has already been plenty of coverage in the news of the possible effects of a supervolcano eruption … Just triple that.”
53. Planning Committee
July 30
Richard banged on the folding table with his coffee mug. “All right, let’s bring this to order. This is our first, admittedly informal meeting of the Council of Rivendell. And you can blame Bill Rustad for that name.”
There were a few chuckles, and some blank looks.
“Let’s do intros around the table. I’m Richard Nadeski, one of the creators of the interdimensional gate that got us all here.” He looked to his left.
“I’m Matt Siemens, currently in charge of the scavenging crew.”
“Krista Tollefson. I’m in charge of medical. I’ve completed pre-med at UNL, and I would have been transferring to Omaha in the fall.”
“Fred Mack, retired cop. Monica Albertelli is actually in charge of security, but she’s a little busy at the moment. I’m her acting assistant until things are set up, then I’m gonna retire. Again.”
“Anita Neumann. I’m an aggie at UNL, so I’m representing the agronomy and horticulture majors. I guess I’ll oversee farming, if we ever have farming.”
“Ed Tigersen. I’m in charge of scouting. We also handle the hunting. My qualifications are all informal. I’ve been a backwoods guy all my life.” Ed looked around the group
and grinned, creases lining his weathered face. “Obviously I’m not a UNL student, just got caught up in the sweep when everyone was bailing. I’ve got no family on the other side, so this maybe isn’t as much of a horror for me as it might be for some people.”
“That’s a good point,” Krista replied. “Most of our population is young, which means family on the other side. Right now, the shock—and let’s face it, the novelty—is keeping everyone more or less distracted, but I expect a lot of anxiety and depression over the next little while. Keeping everybody busy is probably our best defense.”
“I don’t think that’s going to be hard,” Richard said. “But let’s get the intros finished before I launch into that.” He pointed to the next person.
“Dick Thompson. I organized the livestock rescue, so I’ve kinda ended up in charge of animal husbandry by default.”
“Bill Rustad. I’m one of the G.O.—the Gate Owners, as we’re being called. Officially, all the G.O. are on the council, but you’ll probably never see more than a couple of us at a time. I’m an engineer, so I’m in charge of the technical aspects of our life here.”
As Bill finished, Richard sat back in his chair and picked up his tablet to resume his talk. “We’ve got a list of items to discuss that’s going to take several days to go through, I think. For starters, we won’t be using tablets over the long term. Those will be reserved for gate-related activities. So we’ll need stationery supplies.” He looked at Matt. “We should probably go over the list of required items offline. Unless something comes up in this meeting, the council really doesn’t need to hear the details.”
Krista raised a hand. “I have my own long list. Maybe each of us should submit their own list to Matt, and he can take it from there.”
“Good idea. That’ll save some time.” Richard put his tablet down and paused to look around the table. “Now, the really big item. You’ve gotten some of the story informally, and Erin Savard will do a presentation to the council later, but the bottom line is that we’re going to be here a long time. We can scavenge from Lincoln in the short term, but we’re going to have to think about building our own industry, our own agriculture, and so on.”
Matt leaned forward on his elbows. “We’ll be looking for people on Earthside as part of our operation and offering them an opportunity to cross over with us. I’d like to be able to explore farther afield, looking for survivors, but I’m not sure if that’ll even be possible. We’ll know more after a recon or two.”
“We also have some immediate concerns on this side.” Bill made sure he had the floor, then continued. “Latrines. We’re going to overwhelm the ones we’ve already set up, and frankly we’d be better off setting up a proper septic field, downhill of any potential water supply. Which brings up the second item—clean water.” He motioned to Matt. “You’ll need to bring across any bottled water you find, but that’s just a stopgap. We need a well, and proper filtering and disinfection. I have a list for you.” Bill paused and looked down at the paper in his hand. “And look for containers of bleach. Anything with sodium hypochlorite listed as the main ingredient, as long as it doesn’t have perfumes or colorants. One jug can disinfect hundreds of gallons of water. You’ll need to make this a priority.”
“Medical supplies are also a priority,” Krista said.
“Which means,” Matt said, “that we should be scoping out vehicles and fuel supplies first.”
Bill shook his head. “Doesn’t do us any good with a limited number of gates to bring stuff back and forth—”
Richard held up a hand. “Let’s not start arguing about competing priorities. Matt, any formal plan is just going to get argued to death. Your time is better spent going out there and getting supplies and equipment. You’ve heard the discussion here, you’ll get lists from each person. Use your judgement.”
“Locating items and bringing them across will be a bottleneck, all right,” Matt replied. “We only have my pickup truck on this side, and nothing on the other side. Even if we can find working vehicles and locate keys for them, I’m not sure the streets are navigable with all the ash. It’s going to be slow going if we have to hump everything to a central location. And until the ash settles, everyone who goes Earthside will have to wear masks and goggles. And we have a limited number of those.”
“I have some ideas that should help with some of that,” Bill said. “Matt, meet me at the Mad Science Lab after the meeting. Richard, you too.”
Bill’s Mad Science Lab was in a section of the East Shed that he had set aside. All the portal hardware as well as various tools and items of equipment formed a maze that greatly reinforced the informal name.
When Richard walked up, Bill was playing with the pole-cam while Matt held the control tablet.
Matt turned and wordlessly handed the tablet to Richard. On the screen, a video window showed the exterior of the group’s warehouse in Lincoln. Another window displayed the GPS coordinates of the location.
Richard shook his head and handed it back to Matt, then said to Bill, “You really like the dramatic reveal, don’t you? Same principle as the camera?”
Bill grinned back. “Yep. I have one of our GPS receivers wired up to the pole cam. When everything is powered up, I can crank the external antenna through the gate with this.” Bill pointed to another piece of rigging on the pole, similar to the one that was used to tilt the camera forward and back. “It picks up the GPS signal Earthside, and voilà!”
Richard shook his head. “Engineers. Geez. So the scavenging party can use the pole-cam to scout and to determine locations from this side—”
“—and to communicate with the Earthside search parties from this side,” Bill added. “I’ve also rigged up an external antenna for the walkie-talkie. As long as the pole-cam is open, everyone has full cross-dimensional communication.” He smiled in triumph.
“So we can determine locations using GPS,” Matt said, “drive to that location on this side, then gate things across. This will greatly minimize exposure to the ash and allow us to get a lot done without worrying as much about walking around with masks.”
Richard squinted at the small gate on the end of the pole. Plastic film, stretched across the aperture, blocked the steady fall of ash on the other side. “Good job, guys, this looks very workable. When will you start, Matt?”
“Today. I’ll be sending out search parties to make note of locations and potential loot. We have to do this quickly. Erin says structures won’t stay up long once Lincoln gets a rainstorm or two.”
Richard raised an eyebrow at Bill.
“Turns out ash absorbs water, the same way as beach sand. And it doesn’t wash off easily, so the absorbed water just adds to the roof loads.” Bill shrugged. “Makes sense. I have to stop thinking of the ash as similar to what’s left in a fireplace. It’s very different.”
“Once weather starts getting at salvageable items, their value will drop to zero,” Matt added.
“And once again, we’re on a deadline,” Richard said. “Outstanding.”
54. In the News
This is an NBC News Special Report.
White House officials confirm earlier reports of several terrorist bombings in Washington, D.C. They also acknowledge a number of bombings of government buildings in other states, which they characterize as domestic terrorists attempting to take advantage of the Yellowstone situation.
In response, the president announced that he is recalling thousands of military personnel stationed overseas back to the U.S., saying, “Right now we need to protect our home soil and our citizenry.”
Civilian air travel has been suspended indefinitely worldwide, because of the danger of damage to aircraft engines from volcanic ash. Some countries have also suspended rail service, fearing damage to locomotive engines, moving parts of rolling stock, and even the actual rails.
Despite these developments, the White House is downplaying the severity of the eruption, calling the latest USGS assessment “premature and ill-advised.”
“This is not the end of the world,” said a spokesman. “This is a volcano. We went through something similar with the eruptions of the Icelandic volcanoes of 2010 and 2014. There were disruptions. There were inconveniences. But we’re still here.”
Dr. Michael Nedmann of the USGS could not be reached for comment, and his office stated that he is “currently on leave.”
55. Explorations
August 1
Ed Tigersen and Dick Thompson rode up over the top of the low hill, and they could now see the gleaming towers of Rivendell. Well, the metal sheds of Rivendell, Dick corrected himself.
The two were doing reconnaissance of the area around the colony on horseback. Experienced riders both, they had jumped at the chance for the outing. They had already completed a circuit roughly a couple of miles’ radius, crossing Outland’s equivalent of Salt Creek twice. Dick had taken notes, as one of their duties was to look for a short-term water supply.
Now, late in the afternoon, they were returning to Rivendell.
Dick hadn’t stopped smiling for the entire outing. He explained that back home in New Mexico, he had been able to ride every day. Since going to UNL, he’d desperately missed the feeling of freedom that riding gave him.
Ed was more of a dedicated and enthusiastic horseman. The two had spent the day talking and comparing notes.
“Must have been great, growing up on a ranch,” Dick said. “Your horse always right there, all that space …”
Ed laughed. “Sure, and if I managed to finish my chores in a reasonable time, I could actually do something about it. We didn’t live on a dude ranch, Dick. It was a working property, and we didn’t have a bunch of employees to do the work. When I wasn’t at school, I was shoveling manure or fixing fences, or tending to the cattle and the chickens, on and on until I was ready to hurl.
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