He watched the sky a lot, the threatening red looked less scary as the sky lightened. It didn’t lighten too much.
The clouds were a deep, dark gray, some were even downright black. The temperature had dropped enough his Raynaud’s disease flared up. That usually only happened in temps less than sixty. His fingertips went numb and white. CJ warmed them in the water.
Finally, it seemed everyone slept. Everyone but CJ. He watched the time, ready to go as soon as it was light enough.
When that happened when he felt they could move on, he snuffed his fire, grabbed his stuff and headed to the car where Mindy slept. He wanted to wake her, make sure she was alright. He was still the only one awake, and the first one to feel and see the ash fall.
CJ didn’t know at first what it was, he even considered the possibility of snow. It began with a few flakes, then the light gray matter fell from the sky rapidly within minutes.
CJ caught it in his hand. He knew upon first sight that it was ash. He didn’t need to rub his fingers through it. He did, though. It was rough and coarse.
“Everyone!” CJ hollered out. “Hey, wake up and cover up.”
“What’s going on?” Someone asked.
CJ was just about to answer when someone else did.
“It’s ash. I think it’s ash.”
“It is,” said another.
“What the hell erupted?”
Erupted? CJ didn’t even think on those terms. He thought something was burning and they were getting the ash. Whatever caused it, CJ was at least smart enough to know, walking and breathing in the ash wasn’t a good thing.
He opened the car door and Mindy was stirring.
“Hey,” he said.
“What’s going on?” she cringed as she sat up.
“You doing alright?’
“I feel horrible. But I’ll be fine, we only have a couple miles, right.”
“Right. And we need to move. Ash is falling.”
Mindy didn’t ask about it, she merely tilted her head with a questioning look.
“We have to move,” CJ said.
Mindy nodded.
After stepping back to give her privacy, CJ urged everyone to gather their things quickly. As Mindy said, it was only a couple miles. Which was a good thing because the shortest time they were out in the falling ash, the better.
<><><><>
Cheyenne Mountain, Colorado
“It blew.”
No ‘good morning Mr. President.’ Or ‘We need to speak to you’. When Parker opened his eyes after a few hours rest, he looked up to see Charles.
“It blew,” Charles said.
Not exactly the scientific or technical term he expected to hear, but ‘it blew’ summed it all up.
“We expected one vent,” Gary explained in the morning meeting. “Russia contacted us this morning. Seems three vents erupted and they are expecting that the images they are sending this afternoon will be one of the last clear shots of the US. They are hoping to give us an idea where and how far the cloud will travel.”
“I’ve seen the projections,” Parker said. “Those Yellowstone ash maps have been around forever. I’m aware. Just … just like I am aware that we are not in a good area.”
“No, we are not,” Gary said. “The ash has already started to fall here. Within twelve hours there will be so much ash, travel will be impossible. If it falls like I predict, and then rain, we can be looking at never getting out of here.”
“Impossible,” Parker said. “This place is designed to be able to evacuate under any circumstance.”
“Mr. President, I don’t think this was designed with a super volcano in mind.”
“Well we have far too many people to evacuate.”
“This is true. Now the good news …”
“There’s good news?” Parker asked.
“Yes.” Gary nodded. “The good news is we have more than one vent blowing its top.”
“How is that good news?”
“Look at it this way,” Gary said. “If you have a hole in the bottom of a cup and you put water in it, it’s gonna take a lot longer to drip out if you have three holes in it.”
“My God, what is it with you and analogies? Parker asked.
“I like analogies. And I am just saying. The eruption won’t go on as long. In my opinion,” Gary said. “It is also my opinion you should initiate a partial evacuation. Take as many people and supplies as you can in a truck and leave a team who knows we’re here, who can come back and get us.”
Charles looked at Parker. “We do this now, pack a truck, take the twelve children we have and the adults with them, and go.”
“Where?” Parker asked.
“The closest, safest point from here … Midland, Texas,” Gary replied.
“Just like that? Midland. Did you pull that out of a hat or is there science behind it?” Parker asked.
“I’m basing this on ash projection maps and knowledge,” Gary said. “We know the ash cloud from both Long Valley and Yellowstone will carry east. Interstate 40 is a great gauging line. Everything south of there should be free from heavy ash, at least enough to make a difference. We know a meteor hit twenty-two miles south of Dallas. It activated the Balcones Fault which triggered quakes in excess of eight points on the Richter scale in the Houston, San Antonio area. Midland is your biggest point of contact in a safe zone. We are trying to reach FEMA in those areas.”
“Is FEMA even up and running?” Parker asked.
“Not FEMA as we know. But we have managed to make contact with some areas that aren’t as bad off, some small towns and cities. We are trying to nail down locations that are willing to help refugees or injured.”
“I’m sure that’s everywhere,” Parker said.
Charles shook his head. “Some just don’t want to use their resources on refugees. We’re trying to get supplies to them. And we will …” Charles added. “Have the Emergency Alert system or a variation of it, up and running in about two hours. We’re recording the loop now and we’re going to send the signal until we can’t because of the ash.”
“And you think sending out a small group is best?” Parker asked. “I just can’t see that, considering we have everything we need here.”
“Except a way out,” Gary said. “If it all turns to stone. What good is surviving if we’re stuck in here?”
“I still don’t believe that,” Parker said, standing up. “But let’s get the children out and somewhere that is definitely safe. We will also divide the government, which is you and me,” he said to Charles. “That way we aren’t putting all our leadership eggs in one basket.”
“So I’m going with the convoy?” Charles asked.
“Yes. Get things in motion. In the meantime, I’ll keep trying FEMA and work on safe stops for those migrating. There are a lot of people out there who need our help,” Parker said. “Let’s do our best to get it to them.”
TWENTY-FOUR
The blue plastic, drug store shopping carts were a godsend. So were the items in the store. Aside from candy, snacks and drinks, they loaded carts with other items they needed. One such item was protective facial masks. They were the thick round ones, but they worked, covering noses and mouths to prevent breathing in the ash.
Items also helped Rose.
Using things they picked up there they lined the cart to give it cushion and placed Rose inside. She slept comfortably and didn’t speak much. She wasn’t well. Marty pushed the cart, maneuvering around any broken concrete or things that got in his way. He stopped letting people help him, he wanted to do it on his own.
There wasn’t a single medical professional in the group. Which seemed unusual to CJ. Anytime he was in a crowd, it seemed there was always at least one nurse in the midst.
No one knew exactly what was wrong with Rose, but it was obvious she sustained injuries in the crash. Injuries that left her listless and nearly comatose. A lot of people were injured, many of them saying it was when the wave wiped out their vehi
cle. The bandages and pain medication from the drug store did very little. They were weak, fighting to move on. CJ started to believe that Mindy was one of the injured.
She claimed she scraped or bumped her belly getting out of the car when it was underwater, but she increasingly looked drawn and pale. She moved slowly, which was unlike her and she started to stagger in her walk.
He knew something was up when he woke her. She inched her way out of the car, arm draped over her abdomen.
Yet, if he asked her, she stated she was fine and just tired. He even offered to get her a drug store cart and push her.
Mindy said, “Don’t be silly. I can walk.”
And she did, but her pace was slow and CJ stayed right by her. Slow was good, though. The falling ash was like snow, giving everything a light covering. The city was barren. Not a soul was around, nor did they see a car. It was a ghost town.
By the looks of things the citizens just moved on.
“We’re almost there,” CJ said.
“Have you thought about the ‘then what’?” she asked.
CJ had an answer. An answer he didn’t want to give. ‘Yeah,’ he thought. ‘find somewhere, somehow, where’s there’s medical attention. You need it.’ But he didn’t say that. He simply replied, “No. I’m hoping my father has it all figured out.”
“Have you always left it up to your father?”
“You don’t know my father,” CJ said. “He doesn’t leave me much of a choice.”
“I wish I knew my father,” she said almost breathless. “I didn’t. I always wondered if he knew about me. If he knew he had a child.”
“What did your mother say?”
“I never asked her.” Mindy paused and looked down.
“What’s wrong?”
“Just tired,” she said.
“Wanna take a break?”
“No … no. We need to get out of this ash. It’s not too far. It can’t be.”
It really couldn’t have been far. CJ saw signs, they were so close. But the group of two dozen people pushing their carts, the injured staggering, moved so slowly it could have been a hundred miles.
They trudged on. The leg of the journey would be complete when they arrived at the airport.
Unfortunately, CJ realized it wouldn’t be their last stop. With Rose, the other injured and Mindy, CJ knew finding medical help would be the first priority. If they didn’t, the group two dozen strong would probably be a third of that in a few days.
<><><><>
The map was pretty and had topography. It probably wasn’t meant to be any more than a souvenir, but Abby believed it exceeded her expectations. She found it in a frame in the lounge of the private terminal a half a block away. The only reason she knew it was there, or hoped it was there, was she saw it in a pamphlet at the welcome counter. The image was of two private pilots having a drink at the bar, in the back on the wall was the map.
When the ash fell, she ventured over there.
Sure enough, there it was.
She grabbed that, a first aid kit and a bottle of vodka. She wasn’t a drinker, this was for medicinal purposes. Her knowledge of first aid was limited. However, her knowledge of the map was not. After finding a highlighter , she worked on the map then headed back to the main terminal.
“By tomorrow,” she said pointing down to the map. “We’ll be covered with an inch or two of ash. Far less than that is needed to close an airport.”
“This here you have circled?” Guy asked. “What is this?”
“The area getting the heaviest ash from the eruption.”
“Eruption of what?”
“A super volcano,” she replied.
“Super volcano?” Guy laughed. “You think a super volcano erupted?”
“You act like you don’t believe there’s a super volcano.”
He shook his head.
Ruben interjected. “They are real. Where have you been? Yellowstone? You never head …”
“Ah, yeah, yeah.” Guy nodded then snapped his finger. “I heard of that. So you think Yellowstone erupted?
“I don’t know about Yellowstone, but I think Long Valley did.”
“I never heard of that. It can’t be that big,” Guy said.
“The comparison I was given is if Mount St. Helens is a raisin, then Long Valley is an apple and Yellowstone is a bagel.”
Guy was rendered speechless, in fact all he could do was clear his throat.
“Ash will continue to fall, because the volcano will continue to erupt, sometimes for weeks. It will move east.”
“How do you know it’s this … Long Valley,” Guy said, waving about his hand. “And not Yellowstone.”
“We wouldn’t get this much ash if it were Yellowstone.”
“How do we know it was a volcano at all?” Ruben questioned. “Just asking. I mean we had a shit load of meteors fall from the sky. It could be ash from things burning.”
“Could be.” Abby shook her head. “I’m positive it isn’t. The meteors are what caused it. I think. Chain reaction, they were already on the cusp of eruption.”
“So what do we do?” Guy asked,
“Right now, cover our mouths and get supplies. We need to head out. South. Outside these areas, if we leave tomorrow, then we won’t run into much problem.”
“Traveling across country to those areas sounds good,” Guy said. “Even if we find a vehicle, how the hell will we go very far? I’m pretty sure the gas stations will be closed.”
Ruben snapped his finger. “Diesel. There …” he stepped back. “There is the diesel tank truck they were using to fuel the buses on the airfield. The toy shipment center is across the street. There are a lot of trucks. We will take one and follow with the tanker.”
“That’s saying the ash keeps falling like snow. That’s saying it was a volcanic eruption.” Guy said. “I’m still not convinced.”
The sudden flash of light and clap of thunder outside the terminal window caused them to look and walk that way.
“Would ash from a fire do that?” Abby pointed. “There is so much debris and movement in the ash clouds it’s causing lightning. God help us if it rains.”
“Wow.” Guy said. “Here I thought you were an actress.”
“I am.”
“But a scientist, right? A teacher?”
“No, an actress,” Abby replied. “I mean I did work at the news station.”
“As a weather woman?” Guy asked.
“No, a teleprompter writer.”
“No scientific knowledge, education, whatsoever?” Guy asked. “How do you know any of this?”
“I was in a docudrama on Yellowstone,” she said. “I played a scientist.”
Guy stared at her and blinked.
“Do you know how many times I did this exact same scene, convincing others of what was on the way? It’s just so weird,” she said. “No one yelling ‘cut’, I did kind of stumble over the ash cloud stuff.”
Guy just stared.
“What?” she asked, “Everything I said was based on scientific fact.”
“In a movie.”
“Um … a docudrama and not just any docudrama, it was on the Science Channel Network.”
“Oh that makes it better.”
“Hey, Guy,” Ruben moved more toward the window. “Either we’re being attacked by a hoard of bargain shoppers or your son has arrived and brought people.”
Guy ran over to the window. Not far away, was a large group. It was hard to see, they looked like shadows. He could see that some pushed shopping carts, they all moved slowly.
Guy pried the sliding door open enough to step out. He ignored Abby who cautioned him to cover his mouth, and he raced out to the driveway.
The ash fell as fast as any snow storm Guy had experienced and the wind whipped viciously, blowing it around as the continuous flashes of lightning made everything look ominous and grim.
It was a world without color, only a dozen shades of gray.
Guy didn�
��t want to believe some super volcano erupted, but being out in it, seeing how it intensified, Guy couldn’t deny it any longer.
He watched the group approach and prayed his son was among them.
<><><><>
Cheyenne Mountain, Colorado
Lieutenant Colonel Stefan Rush had been at Cheyenne Mountain for a while, months actually, it was his home. He was second in command on base, the Executive Office, and he had ended up taking the reins when the General was called to Washington a week before the events.
Had the meteors not arrived, Rush was as close to being relieved of duty as one could come. He was labeled nuts and out of control. Now he wasn’t even able to say ‘I told you so’.
As a portion of the globe prepared to watch the greatest lightshow as the meteor shower approached, Rush and his men monitored the air and sea around the continental United States.
He wasn’t quite sure how the information ended up on his desk. It was a one of those instances where a friend of the brother of one of his top communication specialist brought it to his attention. The ‘friend’ was an amateur astronomer, who relayed it to the brother who told the specialist … forty percent of those meteors expected to be only lights in the sky were asteroids with several being extinction level size.
Rush wouldn’t have taken it so seriously had his specialist not insisted that the astronomer wasn’t some crack pot.
When the would be sky watcher sent the images to Rush, he included a note that said, “Yes, the dark side of the globe will see a hell of a light show, but we on this side of the earth will witness the end of world. They are that big.”
Then the note went on to ask if they could send some missiles out there.
Rush forwarded the information. While he didn’t understand the measurements and data the kid included, someone in Washington did. No one paid it any attention. Or maybe they did, and the fact that it was only twenty-four hours before the event someone figured ‘why bother’.
Rush took flack for not only sending the information and wasting time, but for receiving and sending what was considered personal email on a classified server.
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