Under the Gray Skies

by Jacqueline Druga

  He informed us that for sanitation and safety issues, they were attempting to keep the camp as clean and ash free as possible. Because of that, we had to leave our belongings outside of the perimeter. At least the clothing and blankets. Anything that would hold the ash. My notebook and remaining supply of booze bottles were permitted.

  He showed us to an area behind the plane. There were more airline seats. Not as many, and a tent structure that was only a little wider than a port-a-john perched on the edge of the clean perimeter. I quickly learned it wasn’t an outhouse, but rather a shower or rinsing room. A barrel marked, ‘water’ was next to it. Stepping inside, the floor was slanted to allow the water to run out away from the clean area. Doug sought out clothes for us while we rinsed away the ash. It took a while, the water was so cold I lost my breath, but it was fantastic to feel clean again.

  I waited for Madison to finish rinsing. Then with our clothes picked from random luggage, we walked around to the front of the plane to search out Doug.

  “Shit.” Madison stopped cold. “What the hell is the matter with me? I’ll be back.” She took off running back to the rinsing stall.

  I followed her, when I got there she was placing the locket back over her head. She kissed it with closed eyes before allowing it to rest on her chest.

  “That must really mean a lot to you,” I said.

  Madison cleared her throat. “That’s an understatement.”

  “Is it a picture of your mom or dad?” I asked.

  “My daughter.” She opened up the locket that was about an inch and a half. On one side a picture of a baby the other side was plastic with a cross. “That’s her picture, the other is some of her ashes.”

  “Oh, Madison. Oh I am so sorry. She’s beautiful.”

  Madison smiled sadly and closed the locket. “My only girl,” She cradled the locket again. “Me and Bruce we tried. Oh we tried so hard to have a third child. We were ecstatic when we found out it was a girl.” Madison smiled. “Everything was good. We got all things pink. After I had her, there were so many pink balloons in the room. The whole family was excited but I guess God decided he wanted her more. She passed away before we even left the hospital. It was her little heart.”

  There was a silent moment after she said that. One filled with sadness. No words spoken, only quiet gazes of understanding. As a mother, I could imagine her pain. Now, like me she was worried about her sons, our families. We both hadn’t talked much about finding them, we were too preoccupied with getting to safety.

  That part was done. At least I thought it was.

  We’d move on to the next phase, I suppose.

  “Everything okay?” Doug’s voice broke that moment between us.

  “Yes,” I replied. “Yes, it is.”

  He led us back to the plane and waited until we climbed up the ladder. Once inside, the air was clean and fresh and the plane seemed bigger without the seats. Areas were sectioned off as if it was some sort of trailer.

  Doug extended his hand to a small table, which had two bottles of water along with two small boxes that resembled the bistro boxes I got off the plane.

  “I figured you’d might be hungry.”

  “Actually, yes,” I said.

  “I am, too.” Madison walked to the table.

  Honestly, food sounded awesome but my mind screamed for answers. I was living the world’s longest riddle, come on, give me the answer.

  “I just made some coffee,” Doug said. “Would you like some?”

  I only nodded.

  Madison on the other hand perked right up. “Oh my God, I would kill for a cup.”

  “No need to go that far.”

  I sat down and lifted the lid to my box of food. There was a roll and a small square container with some sort of brown gravy, along with a pack of dehydrated fruit.

  “New emergency meals,” Doug said as he handed us the coffee then finally joined us.

  “I’m so confused,” I said.

  “About what?” Doug asked.

  Madison laughed. “As if you have to ask. This is a plane, but you have gone way beyond what would be on a plane. How?”

  I shook my head. “My question is bigger. I wanna know what happened?”

  Madison nodded. “Okay, that’s a better question.”

  Doug sighed and stood. “What happened? Not one thing, many things, no one really knows.”

  “For real!” Madison blasted. “Are you fucking kidding me? Look, I am drinking bottled water with the letters FEMA on it, eating out of a boxed called …” She lifted it. “Emergency Survival Rations. I had a shower in a tent, now correct me if I am wrong, but I am pretty sure that Sky Blue Airlines doesn’t have all this in their cargo department. Whoever gave you this, has answers.”

  “No one has definitive answers,” Doug said. “A lot happened. Alright … from my point of view …” He sat back down. “I’m flying. On my way to Seattle from Dallas. Three hour layover in Vegas. All I know is, about an hour out of Vegas, I receive word of major seismic activity off the Pacific coast and that I would be grounded longer. Hell, I figured Seattle had a quake. I was cruising at about twenty-two thousand feet. I informed the passengers of this and all hell broke loose. The attendants told me that no one was able to get Wi-Fi or use their phones. About twenty minutes later I see this huge ass black mountain of a cloud blasting my way. I’m at twenty thousand feet. This thing is that high. It was like a freak storm with lightening.”

  “So you only saw the cloud?” Madison asked.

  “Yes and no,” Doug answered. “I immediately turned and lifted the plane as fast as I could. I remember Rod, my copilot saying, ‘Jesus that looks like a cloud from a volcano.’ And while I’m busy trying to avoid this disaster headed our way, I’m racking my brain trying to figure out where the hell was a volcano. I lifted above it. I mean I went as high as I could safely go. It was below us, rolling on. Like a sea of blackness filled with fire and lightening. I also saw something else…” he paused. “Streaks of fire and debris, just falling from the sky.”

  “What goes up, must come down,” I said.

  “Or comes down and starts it all,” Doug said. “Whatever started it sent everything into a frenzy. My computer went nuts, I was playing a guessing game about our location. There was no communication, I flew every direction, or so I thought. Navigation was shit. I had a hundred and sixty hysterical people on board. The air was rough and it grew worse. Finally, I knew I had to land. I didn’t know what was below, I couldn’t see. All I knew was that with each passing hour, the thick part of the cloud kinda loomed above the ground and it spread out to the point it was getting harder and harder to see. It went from clear skies above it, to gray, no matter what altitude. Debris was making its way into the atmosphere and spreading out like a blanket over it all. I descended on a prayer, hoping we’d clear it without hitting a building or mountain. Thankfully, we made it through. Ash was falling like snow but it was still thin enough to see the ground. By the grace of God we landed safely.”

  “Did you have any problems breathing?” I asked.

  “No. None. That happened when the cloud rolled in. We were above it.”

  “So you know about that?” Madison asked. “I called it the Choke. I saw people choke and die.”

  “From what I heard about it, that may be a good name for it. Anna …” Doug pointed to a curtained off area. “Said people suffocated from whatever was in the cloud. Well, she didn’t see it obviously. Just reports from survivors.”

  I looked around. “No one’s here. Where are all the people from the flight?”

  “Oh, they left about three days after we landed. Military envoys rolled passed, saw our strobe. They were setting up a station about fifty miles from here. They had maybe a handful of survivors. It’s a little clearer on the ground south east of here, but not much.”

  “Why are you still here?” I asked.

  “They asked. They asked if they gave me help, would I consider being a transitional stop
in case anyone makes it out of California, or near here. I lit three torches and keep the strobe going. They wait here, a truck comes every couple days. Takes them out to the station,” Doug said. “A truck just left this morning. Of course, after that second ash storm I was beginning to think we saw the last of the walking survivors.”

  Madison perked up. “So there are other survivors?”

  “Yes.” Doug nodded. ‘Not a lot. About thirty have been through here.”

  “And they take them where?” I questioned. “To the station?”

  “They’re gathering survivors to get them to long term safety.

  “Can they help us get home?” I asked.

  “If you live in the continental US,” he said. “There is no home any more. Canada too, within a week that won’t be habitable.”

  I laughed in disbelief. “How is that possible from one volcanic eruption?”

  “One?” He asked. “Something, no one knows exactly what, lit up an entire line of active volcanoes from Washington State down through California. No warning just … an entire line, boom, boom, boom.”

  “Yellowstone?” Madison asked.

  “They think that’s what happened last night. Again, it’s only talk because whatever is in the air blocks radio and communications farther than twenty miles. It’s like the pony express way of getting messages. They know Mt. Rainier wiped out pretty much everything north of San Francisco.”

  “You said something caused it,” I said. “Any guesses what?”

  Doug tossed up his hands. “It could have just been Mother Nature saying enough is enough. It could have been one thing setting off the whole slew, a meteor, something breaking earth’s rotation and gravity pull, even for a split second. Nobody knows.”

  Madison muttered softly, “The moon. Ruth said something about the moon.”

  Doug nodded. “That’s been tossed out. Then again, what I hear is only what Major Graham tells me when he stops by. He’s the one that has me set up here. They’re good people. They’re trying. They are inhibited by lack of communication. How do you evacuate an entire country south when there’s no way to reach them?”

  “I need to get home,” I said with emotion. I could feel the anxiety building. I never once considered I wouldn’t get home or there’d be no home to go to. “How can I get there?”

  “I told you, there’s no way. Most people, hopefully will see the only way to survive is to go south. Way south. You can discuss this more thoroughly with them. They’ll have more information. I know they’re trying to find a way to move everyone south.”

  “Why south?” Madison asked. “Is that the only area the cloud didn’t touch?”

  Doug shook his head. “It’s the only area that may … may be warm enough to survive. Have you looked up? No sun. It’s dark most of the time. I can only imagine how cold it will get.”

  “The next ice age,” Madison said.

  I closed my eyes. This wasn’t happening. My focus was to get to safety then to find my family. Doug had to be mistaken, he had to be.

  “Now, if you’ll excuse me,” Doug stood. “I’m gonna go check on your friend and see if you two are able to visit her. Eat. Please.”

  My fingered trailed against the box of food. Thoughts of my husband and children were dominating my mind. Were they safe? Were they scared? “Doug?” I called to him and looked over my shoulder. “Do you have a family?”

  He paused at the curtain. “I … have a pretty large family. Wife and four kids. My oldest …” his voice cracked. “Just graduated high school.”

  “Will you go to them? Or are they already safe?”

  “No.” He shook his head. “My family was in Tacoma, Washington. They didn’t have the luxury of making it to safe ground. Excuse me.” He slipped through the curtain.

  I drank the coffee, but somehow, any appetite I had was long gone.

  After several minutes of thick silence, Anna opened the drape.

  “Did you want to visit with Ruth?” she asked.

  That went without question. Both Madison and I stood up from the table and walked into the back portion of the plane.

  Ruth was set up on a cot next to the windows. She had an IV running in her arm and oxygen fed through her nose. She opened her eyes when we approached her bed.

  There was something brighter about them and that caused an immediate exhale of relief.

  “Hey,” I said reaching down to her hand.

  “How is she?” Madison asked.

  “As you probably guessed, she was hypothermic,” Anna said. “She’s tough. Her vitals are stable, heart rate better, she doesn’t seem to be slurring as much. I think she’ll make a full recovery in time. Once they get her to Hilltop, she’ll get full on care until they move her out.”

  “What’s in Hilltop?” I asked.

  “A miracle,” said Anna. “The mountains really shielded most of the town and reserves from Flagstaff set up a base there. They’re trying, you know. Sending people south to set up camps. It’s so difficult to find out what is going on where because of communications. I have heard that the farther southeast you go the longer distance you can radio.” She shrugged. “That’s only what I heard.

  “If Hilltop is such a miracle, why don’t people stay there?” Madison questioned.

  “I suppose a small amount will, but even spared from ash and destruction it isn’t spared by the weather. It’s summer, daylight temperatures are fifty, night drops to twenty.” She gave a nod down to Ruth. “Hence why the hypothermia. And that’s just now. The longer we go without sun, the colder it will be. My concern and job is to treat people and get them healthy enough to move.”

  We were the questioning duo. I supposed all me and Madison did was ask questions, probably like other survivors did, and Anna, along with Doug, answered them as if they answered the questions a hundred times before.

  More of a rattling off of memorized lines.

  They both were to be commended. Doug and Bill were both on the flight and stayed behind. We didn’t speak to Bill much, he was quiet. Anna was in Flagstaff doing her internship. She joined up with Major Graham and the forces he gathered.

  Everyone was helping out of the goodness of their hearts. All doing their parts to save a spark of humanity.

  Yet, no one knew what was beyond our country. Was it worldwide or just us?

  Madison mentioned it had to be global, there was no way, after all these days that some other country wouldn’t have come in to help. Maybe they did and we just didn’t know?

  Though some of our questions were answered, most we’d learn in bits and pieces. More information the more we traveled. For the time being we were stalled at the plane, waiting on the truck to come, healing, gathering strength while physically and mentally in the dark.

  NOTEBOOK – DAY SEVENTEEN

  Hey gang,

  Today I found out I missed a day. I don’t think I miscounted, I think I just missed it. My God has it been two and a half weeks since we spoke? Three since I saw you? It seems like forever. Tonight I am safe, we are learning more people survived and that’s a good thing. We’ll be getting help soon. Help to get home to all of you. I keep saying we, I know, I think my new friend Madison and her family will be with us. We all have so much to offer each other and I don’t know how far I would have made it without her.

  I learned something else today. No one really knows what happened, at least not on this side of the country. It is a bunch of, ‘I heard, she heard, I saw, I think’ I hope you have answers, I really do. This is driving me nuts.

  I also had my first cup of coffee in weeks. My head is buzzing. How funny is that?

  Mom

  NINETEEN – DECISIONS

  The Sky Blue Airline Jet that parked on the highway was a stopping point. In the two days we were there, not another survivor emerged. Doug said that was normal, he had gone as many as four days between survivors before us.

  It was a different feel. No longer striving to move forward to survive, no longer an
essence of the unknown. Although the exact schematics of the events weren’t known, at least we had a general idea of what caused all the damage.

  Ruth was getting better. She slept a lot, Anna told us that was to be expected. However, perky Ruth probably would return by the time we reached Hilltop.

  We were resting, waiting for the truck and thinking ahead. Doug and Bill both had told us things change daily. Information from the east travelled by way of messenger until that messenger reached a point where they could begin a series of radio relay calls. Unfortunately signals didn’t go more than a few hundred miles after Texas, even less in New Mexico. So something that was decided on a Monday could take as long as a week to reach Doug, especially since he relied on the information to come with the truck.

  He expected one day that truck would come with no information and just pack them up and move out.

  We would be better informed once we reached Hilltop. I anxiously waited to go, hoping that when we got there we’d find out that a more organized plan of evacuation and exodus was in place. Something initiated by the government, or what was left of it.

  Doug believed that was happening. He only knew Major Graham’s side of the story. That the major activated his National Guard unit by pretty much going door to door of the homes of those who were in his unit. They created a chain reaction, each person then going out and getting more soldiers together.

  Anna was part of that reserve unit. She said a little less than fifty percent showed up, but their families volunteered. The force was pretty big in Hilltop, diminished in size by the amount of scouts they sent out and members, like her, that went to transitional camps.

  I believed we were told all that we could be told by them.

  While taking a moment not to worry about driving and finding a way through rubble, I got to know Madison better. Alicia was the name of her daughter who passed away a mere three years earlier.

  Her husband Bruce was a mechanic, who actually started out as a real estate agent. I didn’t ask how he made such a switch in careers.