by E S Richards
“What is that?”
“I have no idea. It kind of sounds like running water?”
“No one’s left the faucets on, have they? There isn’t enough power for that in the generator, or enough water for us to waste.”
“No, I don’t think so. Besides, it sounds like it’s just started…”
Chase trailed off, turning his head and looking outside. The storm was throwing its weight around even more than it had been before, pounding against the walls of the old farmhouse and pelting it with rainwater. Climbing to his feet, Chase tried to ignore it as best he could and focus his senses on the strange sound that was echoing through the walls. It almost sounded like it was coming from inside them, like there was a river running through the inside of their house.
“Oh my…” Dropping his book on the floor, Chase took off at a sprint. He tore open the kitchen door and legged his way upstairs, taking them two at a time as he rushed toward Riley’s bedroom. Flinging that door open too, his eyes landed on the horrific scene inside, the roof sagging and collapsing in on itself.
“What’s happened?” Riley almost screamed as she ran in after Chase, seeing what had become of her room. “Holy cow.”
The roof was literally drooping into the room, the color of it completely changed as the water soaked through. The sound of running water was even louder now as well, filling every inch of the room. Slowly, Chase began to realize what had happened.
“Quick!” He urged Riley, jumping forward and grabbing on to one of the planks he had nailed down just a few hours earlier. “We need to get these down.”
“Why? Won’t that mean the water will just come into the room instead?”
“I think the tarp is stopping the water coming in here like we planned,” Chase explained over his shoulder as he wrestled with the nails. “But I think it’s just cascading into the roof now. We thought we’d made a barrier, but I think it might just be a diverter. If the water seeps into the roof and into the walls, we’re done for. We need to get this off, Riley!”
Finally understanding her brother, Riley moved forward to help him just as their grandparents appeared at the bedroom door. Chase wasn’t sure if they had heard his explanation, but there wasn’t time to rehash it all . If they didn’t get the planks down quick enough, then there was a chance the whole house could collapse. He had no idea how much water it could absorb without damaging the structural integrity. The rain hadn’t stopped completely for days now. He didn’t want to risk being buried alive if the farmhouse buckled with them still inside.
“Good work, Chase,” Jerry encouraged from the doorway. It was obvious there was no space for either him or Linda to help, but just like Chase, he had figured out what was happening. How could he have been so naïve as to not predict that this would happen? Jerry castigated himself internally, shocked that he had overlooked such an important factor.
“What’s going on?” Linda panicked beside her husband, holding on to him for support as she watched her house falling down in front of her eyes. “What’s happened?”
“The water’s gone into the roof insulation, I think,” Jerry explained as best he could. “It needs another outlet or the roof might give way.”
“Another outlet?” Linda’s voice rose in confusion, her eyes darting around the room. “There’s nowhere else for it to go!”
“This isn’t working!” Chase called and captured their attention again, the hole that he and Jerry had boarded up now completely wide open again, but making very little difference. So much rainwater had already funneled along the tarpaulin and into the wall that despite the rain now falling straight down through the hole again and not having a diversion, the walls were sagging and giving way – the added weight within them too much for the foundations to hold.
“What should we do?” Linda’s voice was filled with desperation now. It was obvious she felt powerless as she watched her house crumbling in front of her eyes. Just a fraction of the memories that had passed in that very room flashed before her eyes. It had been the nursery for both of her children, as well as Chase and Riley when they came to visit. She remembered holding Chase in her arms when he was barely more than a week old. His tiny little face looked so much like Brogan’s had, just as it did today. She couldn’t just stand by and let the room be destroyed.
“Riley! Watch out!”
Linda’s heart somersaulted in her chest as she watched her grandson push Riley to one side, both of their bodies hitting the soggy, carpeted floor as some of the plaster directly above where Riley had been standing crumbled and crashed into the room. There was a horrible creaking sound as the support beams that crisscrossed that section of the roof groaned, their wood weakened by the rainwater and years of stress.
“We gotta move!” Chase suddenly shouted again, pushing his sister toward the door. “The solar panels are coming off!”
The creaking noise quickly started to sound more dangerous. Linda felt like the room was getting smaller around her as Chase and Riley moved toward them, scrambling across the floor with true looks of fear in their eyes. Jerry grabbed her by the shoulders and forced her body to move. He led her out onto the landing, Chase and Riley right at their heels, as the noise amplified behind them. There was a tremendous crash, followed by the sound of splintering wood and falling bricks. Chase had yanked the bedroom door closed behind him, so none of them had any idea if it was over or not inside. The worst of it probably was, but the occasional bang or crash still echoed from Riley’s former room. Linda felt weak. What if Riley had been inside when all of that happened? She needed to sit down. She needed to breathe.
“Is it over?” Riley whimpered, her face pressed against her brother’s chest as he wrapped his arms around her. A delayed crash answered her question for her, the sound making every one of them wince.
Peeling his arms away from his sister slowly, Chase held her small body as she sank to her knees and wrapped her arms around their grandma instead. Pop was still on his feet, his hand on his wife’s shoulder, so Chase knew this was up to him. Cautiously, he stepped away from the group and inched closer to Riley’s bedroom door. He placed his hand on the doorknob and turned back to look at everyone, waiting. When his grandpop finally gave him a firm nod, Chase looked back and took a deep breath. With a turn of his wrist the door clicked open, blowing backwards to reveal what had become of the room itself.
Riley screamed. Linda sobbed. Pop stared in silence and Chase could only look on in horror. The bedroom was destroyed. One half of the roof had completely collapsed. The solar panels slid down as their support disappeared and smashed through the top half of the concrete walls of the old farmhouse. None of it had been strengthened when they were put in. The roof was incredibly old, and now they had all paid the price for it. The outside wall was reduced to half its height, the brick having fallen away down toward the base of the window fitting, and the roof above it was missing too. Looking upwards, they could all see the dark clouds above them as clearly as if they were standing outside. In that corner of Riley’s bedroom, there was hardly anything left.
Creeping forward, his feet never completely leaving the floor, Chase peered over the edge, half of his body sticking out of what would’ve previously been Riley’s bedroom window. There was no other way of putting it: there was a giant, gaping hole in the side of their house now. Pipes and wiring that had run through the wall lay frayed and broken. Bricks and mortar dirtied every surface and far on the ground below was Riley’s bed. Chase swallowed. She could’ve died. If this had happened in the middle of the night, Riley could’ve very well been asleep in that bed. Stepping backwards and away from the edge, Chase reminded himself just how lucky his family still was. After everything, after all they had lost, they were still alive. It was touch and go at times, but for now, there was still air in their lungs.
Chapter 8
The closer they got to the little hamlet of houses, the more worried Mia started to become about what they might find there. The ground underfoot
was wet and stuck to her shoes, evidence that the powerful lahars had swept through. Probably close to ten percent of the buildings were damaged as a result of it too, though some were much worse off than others. Both Angelica and Michael held their breath as they approached, frightened of what they might find.
A young boy was the first person who spotted their group approaching. He stopped chasing after the ball he had kicked and stood still, his mouth open as he watched them. Mia could imagine it was a strange sight. Naturally those who lived here came and went as they pleased, but a rag-tag group of nine people with cloths covering half their faces turning up after a volcano had erupted nearby and slurries of water had decimated his home was not an everyday occurrence.
“Hey, Billy!” Michael called over to the boy, Billy’s expression changing as Michael tugged down his sweater and showed his face so Billy could recognize the man. “Where’s your momma at, kid? She around?”
“Sure, Mike,” Billy waved back. “She’s down at the shop with everyone else. They’re trying to figure out what to do.”
“What’s happened?” Michael questioned as their group walked closer, no longer having to shout at Billy. “Is everyone okay?”
Billy shook his head. “People died, Mike. They’re trying to collect all the bodies.”
Michael froze. He turned and quickly glanced at Angelica, before ripping the sweater completely from his face so he could breathe more easily and sprinting off into the collection of houses. It didn’t take much to figure out where he was going. His family. His mother. People had died within the village and Michael needed to find out if she was one of them.
Everyone watched him with such surprised expressions on their faces. Angelica didn’t move. It was like she didn’t know what to do, her mind torn as she looked from Billy to her home just off in the distance. Mia stepped forward, knowing she had to do something. They needed to see what was left of the village and who was still alive.
“Hey, Billy,” she smiled “My name is Mia. Are you okay?”
Billy nodded, his confidence gone now that Michael had taken off. Mia picked her words carefully with him though. She needed to get to the bottom of what had happened, but she didn’t want to make things any harder for the young boy.
“Can you take us to everyone else, Billy? We want to see if we can help you.”
“Okay,” Billy eventually replied. “It’s this way.”
Walking behind the young boy, everyone kept extremely quiet. Mia had been right earlier; there weren’t more than fifty buildings. Most of them were houses with the addition of a few necessary stores: an all-purpose shop where she guessed everyone bought their dried food and essentials, a butcher and greengrocer, a newsstand, and a small craft store. That was it. That was all there was. And even then, a large chunk of it had been destroyed.
Billy narrated their small trip through the village as they walked, pointing out different buildings on either side of the street as they went. He was clearly terrified by what was going on, but talking seemed to make him feel more relaxed. His tone changed when they moved onto one specific street though, hardly anything remaining of the houses that had once lined it.
“And this was my Aunt Nancy’s house,” he spoke as they turned a corner, pointing to a pile of rubble on the ground. “This is where everything got really bad. Her whole place was flooded on the ground floor by those dirty rivers and she got trapped inside upstairs. Then the house came down…” Billy trailed off. “She didn’t make it out alive.”
The gravity of what Billy was referring to hit Mia and the rest of the group like a ton of bricks. People had died within the village and now a boy of no more than thirteen years was explaining it to them. He was just the same age as Riley. How much had she witnessed of similar events? It chilled Mia to her very core to imagine Riley in this boy’s position. She wanted nothing more than to be with her family again and know they were safe.
Pulling her cell from her pocket, Mia switched the device on and waited for it to power up as they continued to walk. She could already see the rest of the village inhabitants crowded around the steps of some building ahead of her, the journey lasting no more than a couple of minutes. As soon as the screen illuminated in white, the first thing Mia noticed was that now she had no cell reception. Unsurprising. In such a rural area like where they were, she wouldn’t have expected it even on a normal day, much less after everything that had happened. Very quickly, she pulled up the notes section where she’d typed out the message to her family during her time in the airport and started to type.
Update: I’ve spent a couple of days at the airport now and already the effects of this eruption are bigger than I’d expected. Lahars have swept through the countryside around Helena and destroyed not only the landscape, but countless lives as well. I’ve seen dozens of people killed and can only expect more will cross my path in the coming days.
There’s a group of us who have started the journey back home now. It will probably take several weeks to get there, as I’ve planned a route that takes us along the west coast before cutting under Yellowstone. I’ll keep coming though. Please, just stay where you are and I will come for you. It’s hard to describe what I’ve seen so far, but I’ll tell you all about it when I see you again. Please, please, just stay inside. Don’t try and go outside and don’t try and be a hero. This is bigger than all of us and there’s nothing anyone can do to reverse what has happened.
I love you all so much, stay strong and stay safe. Mia x
Signing off, Mia felt tears clouding her eyes and blinked rapidly to get rid of them as Billy brought their group to a halt in front of the steps. Several of the adults had already seen them walking toward them and stopped what they were doing. A couple of them now looked to Billy for answers, their faces unreadable in this time of disaster.
“William!” A woman stepped out of the group and addressed Billy, her hands on her hips as she scolded the boy. “Where have you been?”
“I’m okay, Mom,” Billy replied. “These guys came from the airport with Mike and Angie; they’ve both just gone to see their mom.”
Mia looked around and noticed that Angelica had peeled off as they arrived with Billy. She still hadn’t exchanged more than a couple of words with either of the former airport employees, but was aware Patrick had shared a long conversation with Michael on their walk down. Her initial perceptions of both of them weren’t positive though, and despite how much she knew it was wrong, Mia was aware how much her original perceptions of people stuck with her. She just hoped the rest of the people Michael and Angelica shared a home with were slightly more welcoming and forthcoming with their support. Though looking around the place, she could see that she shouldn’t expect very much.
“Hey,” Mia stepped forward, pulling down the scarf around her mouth so it was visible and holding out her hand to Billy’s mother so she could shake it. “It’s nice to meet you. Is everything okay? What happened here? Did…”
“Oh, Billy,” the woman replied, ignoring Mia’s introduction altogether. “Please don’t go running off like that. Especially not now. I’m sorry,” she continued, turning to Mia eventually, “who are you?”
“Sorry,” Mia replied. “My name is Mia. We’ve come down from the airport with Michael and Angelica.”
“Are they both okay?” Another woman stepped forward, interrupting the conversation. “Where are they?”
“They’ve gone to see their mother, I think,” Mia replied. “Please, can someone explain what happened here?”
“Isn’t it obvious what happened!” Billy’s mother suddenly exploded, the stress of the situation boiling over inside her. “Half of the village has died! Those waters tore through here like a tsunami and crushed all our houses. Everyone who isn’t dead is getting sick and now you lot come in here, wandering around asking questions like you own the place! Can’t you see we’ve got enough on our plates?”
“Lizzie,” the second woman spoke up, placing a hand on Billy’s mother’s
shoulder. “Calm down, it’s not their fault.”
“I know,” Lizzie replied, hanging her head. The woman was close to tears; Mia could tell she didn’t need to be the source of any more answers. It was probably best she was left alone for now. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay,” the other woman soothed her. “Why don’t you go inside for a bit? Get yourself cleaned up.”
Lizzie nodded and slunk away, Billy’s hand grasped firmly in her own. To Mia’s surprise, she saw Jorge run after the woman, offering her his arm as he walked her to her house. Jorge had always had a fondness for the opposite sex, but he seemed to be treating Lizzie like much more of a lady than he normally did his conquests. Perhaps the Spaniard was changing, learning that he really did need to care about other people in order to survive himself.
“Sorry about that,” the second woman continued. “She’s not normally like that. Lizzie just lost her husband. He drowned in the water.”
“Oh,” Mia faltered. She hadn’t expected that. “I’m sorry,” she repeated for what felt like the hundredth time. “I didn’t know.”
“How could you?” the woman answered, shaking her head and dismissing Mia’s apology. “A lot has gone on here in the last day or so. My name is Deb, by the way. That’s Stuart, Ethan, and his son, Miles, over there. Tom and Brady are also around somewhere, and a young girl called Kim, who I think is with Mike’s mom. Everyone else is gone.”
“It’s nice to meet you,” Mia replied, stumbling over her words again. It sounded like the small village had lost so many already, and by the appearance of the people left around her, she suspected they might lose a couple more too. “I’m Mia—and the first thing I need to tell you is please, find something to cover your mouth with.” It hadn’t gone unnoticed by Mia that everyone around her was breathing in the toxic air. So close to the eruption site that was extremely dangerous and she worried about what they might have breathed in already.