by E S Richards
Overhearing Jadon mention that he was a philosophy major gave Jesse his in. He didn’t have a clue where to find the classrooms on campus so he knew that following this fellow football player was his only option. And, in short, that was what led to his friendship with the two of them. Jadon caught on that he had a shadow after three days of Jesse trailing behind and called him out. They butted heads a couple of times but after letting all the aggression out on the field, a true friendship naturally clicked and that was that. When all three of them were selected for first string and put in a training program together, their fates were sealed.
Thinking back on it now, Jesse was so glad he’d managed to find friends like them. It was a real coincidence that they all came from Philly, their hometown giving the young men something further to bond over. They were now in their second year and instead of moving into a frat house like the rest of their team, the three of them had rented a small place together just off campus.
“Hey,” Jesse piped up, thinking about their time at college and where Mia’s route was taking them. “Do you think we’ll end up heading back past the university? Like, aren’t we heading in the direction of Seattle now?”
“Oh yeah.” Marcus pushed himself upright again. “We could go back to our place for a bit. Lay low there until this all blows over.”
“I don’t know guys,” Jadon cut in, thoughts of his family and going home still fresh in his mind. “Don’t you think we’re better off sticking with the group? We don’t really know how to deal with this ourselves, do we?”
Marcus quickly changed his mind, deciding going back was a bad idea. “Yeah true,” he nodded. “I think we should stick with Mia.”
“Be cool to go back for a bit though,” Jesse pushed further. “Just to get some stuff. We’ve got loads of things there we could use, I bet.”
“If it hasn’t all been looted.”
“What?”
“Oh, come on,” Jadon continued. “You don’t think everywhere will be safe in the cities, do you? I bet that’ll be the worst of all this—what everyone else does. That’s what always messes things up in the movies, isn’t it? It’s not the disaster itself, it’s how the human race reacts to everything.”
Jadon’s revelation seemed to shock Jesse and Marcus, stunning them both into silence. They both spared a second to think about what their friend had said, trying to come up with their own examples where that hadn’t been the case. But Jadon was right. In almost all the scenarios they could think of, it wasn’t the actual disaster itself that had made the most damage, it was the people reacting to it. Out of all the volcanos that could erupt and storms that could damage the planet, no one was doing more harm than the human race.
“Jeez, you’re right, man,” Jesse replied as his head flopped forward into his hands and he let out a groan. “We’re screwed.”
“Hey,” Jadon placed a hand on his friend’s shoulder. “No we’re not. We’ve got a good thing going here. I say we just stick with the group and keep making progress. We’ll find a way to make it back to Philly before you know it, and I’m sure everyone there will be fine. Philly has got to be one of the farthest points in the country from all of this. I’m sure nothing bad has happened over there.”
Doing his best to reassure his friends after the worry he had caused them, Jadon reminded them just how different things could be only a few hundred miles away. The thought of home and what it would be like was in all of their heads now though, each of them worried about what they may find.
“How long do you think it’ll take us to get back there?” Marcus asked, picturing his girlfriend’s face and desperately willing her to be okay.
“Your guess is as good as mine,” Jadon shrugged. “I’m sure Mia has a few more tricks up her sleeve. She seems to have the hang of all this.”
“Yeah—that girl got game,” Marcus laughed. “I wouldn’t want to mess with her.”
“Me neither,” Jesse agreed, joining in with the laughter. All three of them were huge, strong young men, but all three of them had very quickly developed a high level of respect for Mia. She might be small physically, but on a mental level she was a lot tougher than any of them could hope to be. If anyone was going to get them home safe, it was her.
“We should probably try and get some rest guys,” Jadon reasoned after the laughter had died out, aware that tomorrow they would be continuing their journey away from the airport and further west.
“That’s going to be interesting on this,” Marcus smirked, his legs sticking out from underneath the superhero sheets from the ankle down. “I feel like a giant on this bed.”
“You’re welcome to come and slum it on the floor,” Jesse joked, rolling over onto his front and trying to get comfortable on the random collection of pillows that had been fashioned into a bed.
Marcus laughed again, “I’m good, actually. Night, guys.”
“Night, dude,” Jesse and Jadon both chimed, their voices merging together in the darkness. With his eyes closed, Jesse tried to prepare himself for what was ahead. He knew getting to Texas and then back to Philadelphia and his mom was the final and absolute end goal. But there was no telling what they might come across on the way.
He’d seen the sky outside and he’d watched how the cloud had started to hang lower and lower over their group, even as they moved away from the eruption itself. The water in the village where they were staying was contaminated and he worried that might be the same for wherever else their route took them. If they couldn’t breathe the air and they couldn’t drink the water, it didn’t matter whether they were trying to cross the country or just make it to the next state over. They wouldn’t get very far without some sort of help. Mia was great and all, but she wasn’t a magician. There was only so far people could get with a good attitude and positive mental outlook. Jesse was aware of that, and he was afraid for what would happen when the positivity eventually ran out.
Chapter 12
Standing in Michael and Angelica’s house, Mia struggled to keep herself calm as she listened to the pair of them. She could understand where they were coming from and that they didn’t want to leave their mother to die alone, but she couldn’t comprehend why they were willing to condemn themselves to death by doing so. Surely this was not what their mother wanted. Surely, she would also be encouraging them to leave. Encouraging them to live.
“I’m sorry, Mia,” Michael shook his head for the thousandth time. “I just can’t leave her.”
“But what about your family?” Mia argued back, her knowledge about Michael’s life increased after the conversations she had shared with Patrick the night before. “What about your children?”
“Please don’t,” Michael hung his head in shame. “Please don’t bring them into this. Don’t you think this decision has been hard enough? Don’t you think I’ve already spent hours trying to figure out what to do? I know I’ll never see my kids again if I stay here, but that is the choice that I have made. It’s my choice, Mia. Not yours.”
Pursing her lips, Mia knew she couldn’t argue too heavily with Michael. He had clearly weighed his options and he had chosen to stay with his mother. Mia hadn’t even seen her yet, but she had to imagine she was incredibly unwell for Michael to be willing to abandon his own children to stay with her and keep her safe. Not that he could really do the latter. No matter what they tried, the people in Michael’s village would die if they stayed behind and already that morning Mia had discovered that death toll was going to be a lot larger than she had hoped.
Stuart was right. The people were basically split in their decisions: half were willing to leave; the others wanted to stay behind. The small village in the valley was the only place most of them had ever seen. It was the only place they had ever felt safe and as a result, it was the only place they wanted to die. Because die they would. Mia had explained it to them repeatedly. There was no way of escaping it. The village simply didn’t have the resources to outlast the eruption. The people in it would die, and
they would die a horrible death too.
It sounded like it was already happening in some instances, a cough from Angelica confirming Mia’s suspicions. If anyone breathed in the harmful toxins too much, their lungs would begin to fail. They would struggle to catch their breath, finding things as simple as walking upstairs difficult. Their throat would begin to itch, the person’s insides dying without them even noticing. They’d cough up blood, retching out the poison from inside them. But it wouldn’t be enough. Once the volcanic toxins had been ingested, no one stood a chance of survival.
And if that didn’t kill them——if by some miracle they managed to avoid inhaling their murder weapon, the people in the village would likely swallow it instead. The water. They were doomed if they drank it, equally as doomed if they didn’t.
Dehydration could take up to ten days to kill the people who stayed in the village. For those who were already unhealthy, the suffering would likely be shorter, their bodies unable to fight to stay alive. The symptoms of dehydration itself weren’t too bad altogether. Headaches and cramps would occur and potentially even mild feelings of euphoria towards the end. The issue was whether many of them would ultimately die from dehydration, or whether they would succumb to their thirst and drink the dirty water.
That, in turn, would lead to infection. Mia couldn’t be certain what parasites were living in the water, or what toxins the volcanic ash would push into the body. The only thing she could say for sure was that it wouldn’t be pleasant. She’d heard of parasites that ate the body from the inside out, sucking all the nutrients out of the host’s internal organs until the body collapsed in on itself. There were also stories about toxins which caused the blood inside the human body to become extremely acidic, burning the victim alive from the inside out.
Mia shuddered at the thought of it all. She’d already decided not to tell Michael and Angelica what could happen to them in detail if they stayed behind; they didn’t need the added stress to deal with. But as she considered how hard it would be to walk away from them and know how their lives could potentially end, Mia questioned whether she’d made the right decision or not. She had to keep reminding herself that she couldn’t save everyone. She could only offer the relevant information and allow people to make their own educated decisions. It wasn’t her job to do that for them.
“Mike!”
A frail cry carried through the small house from a room in the back, turning everyone’s heads to look at the closed door. It didn’t take a genius to figure out that was where Michael’s mother was, a woman who Mia had yet to set eyes on.
“I’m sorry,” Michael spoke in a low voice, the silence having drawn out between them for several minutes. Angelica had moved away from the conversation, the woman still reluctant to interact with anyone despite everything Mia had done for her. “Do you want to meet her?”
Mia was taken aback; she hadn’t expected Michael to suggest that, even though she was curious to find out more about the woman who was effectively condemning her children to their deaths. “Sure,” she replied, “I’d love to. Thanks.”
Following Michael to the back of the house, Mia suddenly felt very nervous. She was about to come face-to-face with the woman who Michael was hanging his life on the line for. Thinking about her own parents back in Texas, Mia wondered what she would do in Michael’s situation. Chase and Riley weren’t technically her children, but she loved them exactly like they were. If Mia never had kids of her own, she would still be happy; those two were more than enough for her and she couldn’t imagine her life without them.
Thinking on that, though Mia also knew how much she loved her parents, she just couldn’t find a way to make herself agree with Michael’s decision. She could support it, but she couldn’t side with it. She could only imagine how angry her mom and dad would be if she sacrificed Chase and Riley to save them. They had already lived their lives. They’d had many, many happy years together and Mia was sure at the end of it all, they would give up everything just to see their children and grandchildren go on to live for even half as many years. Mia would do the same too, she realized. That was what being a parent meant. Giving up your luxuries so your children could benefit from them. Chase and Riley were her children and she would give up anything to see them happy. Surely, as a mother, the woman behind the door felt exactly the same way.
“Hey, Mom,” Michael said as he opened the door and ushered Mia inside. “Are you okay?”
“Mike,” the old woman replied, her voice little more than a whisper as it carried over from the old-fashioned hospital bed where she lay. “My pillows have slipped. My back…”
“I got you, Mom,” Michael smiled, walking over to the side of her bed and picking up the pillow that had fallen to the floor. “Here you go.”
Mia watched as Michael tenderly helped his mother lean forward, positioning the fallen pillow behind her back and rearranging the others with one hand, while the other kept the old woman supported. Then he laid her back as gently as humanly possible, making sure she was comfortable and relaxed before turning to look at Mia, who still hovered awkwardly by the doorway.
“Mom,” Michael spoke up again. “This is Mia. She’s the one from the airport that I told you about. The one who got us back down here.”
Mia walked forward, raising her right hand and waving it awkwardly at the woman. “Hello,” she spoke, realizing that Michael hadn’t even told her his mother’s name. “It’s nice to meet you.”
“And you, dear,” the woman smiled. “Thank you for what you did for my children up there. You saved their lives.”
“It’s nothing,” Mia replied, feeling increasingly uncomfortable every time another person thanked her for what she’d done. In reality she’d done very little and deep down she still felt she could’ve done more. Plenty of people died in the lahars. People she could’ve very well saved if she’d done something differently. In Mia’s eyes, she didn’t deserve anyone’s thanks.
“It is,” Michael’s mother argued, seeming perfectly sound of mind despite how crippled her body appeared. “You saved nine people’s lives up there, including your own. It may not sound like a lot, but it’s probably nine more than what would’ve been saved if you hadn’t been there. For that you deserve some appreciation.”
“Well, thank you,” Mia replied as graciously as she could muster, understanding that arguing with Michael’s mother would be a pointless task. “I just wish I could save more. Especially now that we’re here.” It was a bold tactic, bringing up the fact that she thought more people should be leaving the village in front of the woman who was making two of them stay behind, but Mia couldn’t resist. If Michael’s mother truly valued human life, surely she would be encouraging her children to leave her behind.
“I know,” the old woman nodded. “I’ve tried telling Mike and Angie that they should go with you, but they both refuse.”
“What?” Mia was astonished. That was not how Michael had led her to believe things had gone down at all.
“Mom,” Michael shook his head. “We’ve been over this.”
“I know, I know,” the old woman repeated, rolling her eyes. “But staying here to look after me isn’t going to do any of us any good if we’re all going to die anyway. You have a chance to live. My life is over already. You should go out there and live yours.”
“I can’t have this conversation with you again, Mom,” Michael sighed, turning away from his mother’s side and dropping into a seat. “Will you just drop it, please?”
“Michael,” Mia interjected carefully, cautious of speaking, as she knew it wasn’t really her place, but unable to hold her words back any longer. “Your mother is right. You deserve a life—one with your children. You shouldn’t just accept death like this.”
“Mia, I’m sorry, but…” Michael paused. “Shut up. I know you think you know what’s right—I know you both do—but this is my choice and I’m not changing my mind.”
“Okay,” Mia replied after a few seconds, understa
nding how futile it was to waste her time on Michael any longer. Outside of his house, there were at least some people who wanted saving, who wanted a second chance. She had to focus her efforts on those people now and help them to make it out alive. “Well…” she trailed off. Mia didn’t really know what to say to him now, the atmosphere between them awkward. “We’re leaving in an hour. I hope to see you again before then. It was nice to meet you,” she added to Michael’s mother before turning and exiting the room.
Mia closed the bedroom door behind her and strode through the house toward the exit, stopping only as she passed Angelica sitting on the couch. “I know you’re probably of the same mindset as Michael,” she declared, “but if you change your mind, we’d be happy to have you join us. We’re leaving in an hour.”
Finally walking away from Michael’s house, Mia felt like she had been drained of all her energy. She just couldn’t wrap her head around the situation, no matter how hard she tried to understand it. If their mother didn’t want them to stay around, why on earth were both Michael and Angelica so determined to do so? Michael’s kids were out there—not even that far away from where their route would take them. It was alien to Mia for someone to pass up the opportunity to see their children again.
“They’re not coming?” Patrick knew the answer to his question already; he didn’t need Mia to respond. As he saw her approaching alone, he understood that neither Michael nor Angelica’s mind had been swayed. He was upset of course, but he knew he couldn’t dwell on it. His main focus had to be getting Allie home safely, his one remaining daughter was his top priority and Patrick had vowed to himself that one day, he would see a smile on her face again.