by Jim Eldridge
“We’ll take it in stages,” I said. “The main thing is we have to get on a high road that takes us away from Pompeii.”
“The volcano seems to have settled down,” said Leontes.
“We ought to go back home then,” said Popilla. “In case Daddy comes back.”
“He isn’t coming back!” I said. “If he was in Herculaneum he’s dead!”
“You don’t know that!” shouted Popilla. “He may not have got as far as Herculaneum! He may be heading for home now!” She glared at me. “I don’t care what you say. You’re just trying to scare us. I’m going back home!” She looked at elder brother. “Come on, Leontes. Acorn is our donkey. We’re going home with him.”
As she said this, there was a terrible rumble from the mountain. The ground shook so hard beneath our feet that we all fell over. The donkey stumbled and I thought Julia was going to fall off, or at least drop the baby, but she managed to hold on to little Minerva with one arm and the donkey’s mane with her other hand.
As I pushed myself up off the ground, I looked towards Vesuvius and a feeling of terror welled up in me, making it hard to breathe. The top of the mountain had blown up again, and another river of fire was pouring out. It was heading straight towards us!
CHAPTER
13
“Run!” I screamed.
I leapt to my feet and ran to Acorn. I grabbed hold of the rope around its neck and began to pull, desperately shouting at the donkey to move, but it stayed stubbornly where it was.
The others had also got up and turned, and now saw the river of fire pouring out of the mountain and heading for us.
Leontes ran to the donkey. He snatched the rope from my hand, said something to the donkey, and it began to move. He said something else, and the donkey began to trot.
“Hold on tight!” I shouted at Julia.
Popilla ran to the donkey, reaching up her arms.
“Give me Minerva!” she shouted. “I can run with her!”
Julia hesitated, then passed the baby down to Popilla, who grabbed her baby sister up in her arms.
“Where are we going?” screamed Popilla at me.
I pointed up the hill.
“Higher!” I yelled.
We were all running now, not caring if stones or holes might trip us up. We were only aware of the burning river of fire bearing down towards us. I could feel the heat of it on my back getting more intense; hear the cracking sounds and small explosions as it got nearer and nearer. I could hear sudden violent crashes as trees and bushes burst into flames. The smell of burning wood, leaves and grass filled my nostrils.
A few times I stumbled and nearly fell, but fear of what was behind us kept me going, as did the need to make sure I kept the others safe. I kept casting glances around to make sure that they were still running. They were, but their eyes and mouths were wide open with terror.
Suddenly the terrible rumbling sound seemed to die down. There were still explosions and cracking sounds, but they seemed a little more distant than before. We kept running.
Throwing a frantic look over my shoulder, I saw that the river of fire seemed to have stopped, almost as if it had run out of speed. Still terrified and not quite trusting it, I carried on running with the others. Then little Claudius stumbled and fell, crashing to the ground.
I ran to pick him up, and this time when I looked back I saw that the river of fire had slid to a halt barely a quarter of a mile away from us.
“It’s stopped!” I shouted.
The others turned, and saw that the huge, heaving river of burning red fire had stopped, although it was still dangerously close.
None of us could take our eyes off the burning river. My father had told me the real name for it was lava, and that it was made of rocks that had melted in the heat and become liquid. When the lava cooled, it would turn into rock again.
I could see that this was already starting to happen. The massive, burning red river was starting to turn grey in places. It was like looking at the biggest fire there had ever been, but with rocks blazing instead of hot coals. Even from this distance we could feel the heat coming from it. Every so often a movement in the earth caused a crack to open – smoke and red liquid poured out and set fire to the grass.
Popilla looked back towards her house and tears began to roll down her face. Where their house and barn and olive grove had been, there was now just a solid mass of burning rocks.
“It’s all gone!” she cried. “If Daddy did come back. . .”
Leontes went to her and hugged her close.
“We have to go on, Popilla,” he said.
“And quickly,” I urged them. “It’s stopped for the moment, but it could start moving again.” I went to the sobbing Popilla and wrapped my arms around her and Leontes. “I’m sorry, Popilla. But the harsh truth is that all we have now is one another. We’re still alive. And your parents would want you to do everything you could to stay alive. I know you don’t like me, and you don’t think I know what I’m doing. But if I hadn’t made you to leave your barn, you’d all be dead now. Trust me, and I’ll do my best to get us all to safety.”
She nodded and wiped her eyes with her hand.
I looked again at the smouldering lava. At the nearest point to us it had trickled down to a thin layer of grey rock, but further back it was as high as a person. And it still glowed red beneath the grey. As it cooled it moved, almost as if it was breathing. It looked as if it was alive.
All around the lava, wherever it had touched, there were flames. It had set light to the grass and trees and bushes, and the air was filled with a terrible stench of burning. I shuddered at the sickening realisation that if we hadn’t run, that smell of burning would have been us.
“Come on,” I said. “Keep going.”
CHAPTER
14
Claudius had hurt his knee when he’d fallen and couldn’t move very fast, so we put him on the donkey along with Julia. Popilla insisted on carrying Minerva. We were just about to set off when Fabius suddenly threw up.
“I’m sorry,” he apologised, wiping his mouth. “Thinking of what nearly happened to us made me feel sick.”
“Me too,” I told him.
With Leontes leading the donkey, we carried on up the hill towards where I hoped the road might be. All the time, all of us were sickeningly aware of how close we’d been to being killed by the river of fire, and terrified that there might be another surge of lava from the mountain. The smell of burning stayed with us as we walked.
What I couldn’t get over was how fast the lava had moved. It really had seemed more like water than rock, like a fast-flowing river.
Below us we could see the people of Pompeii still clearing up after the earthquakes. I wondered if they realized how close they’d come to being wiped out. If the river of fire had carried on down the mountainside, it was on a direct course for the city and would have covered it in red-hot lava, just as had happened with Herculaneum.
“There’s a road ahead!” shouted Leontes.
Yes, there it was not far away. As we drew nearer to it, I recognized the wreckage of our cart with the dead body of our poor old horse, Pallas, lying beside it.
“That’s our cart!” I told them. “This is the road we want!”
We quickened our pace, but as we moved closer I stopped. Someone was there, stepping out from behind the wrecked cart. It was a wild-looking man, naked except for a loincloth and covered with ash and soot. In his hand he clutched a long sword.
CHAPTER
15
“Marcus! Is that you!”
I stared at the man, stunned. I recognized his voice. It was my father!
“It’s Uncle Lucius!” shouted Fabius, and he and I both broke into a run towards him.
My father threw the sword onto the cart and ran towards us, his arms open wide. I threw myself into them.
“I thought you were dead!” I said, tears rolling down my face as I hugged him tightly.
“I thoug
ht you were dead!” he replied.
He looked at Fabius, his face suddenly sad.
“Where are your parents?” he asked.
I saw Fabius’s lip tremble and tears come into his eyes. I knew he was too upset to say the words.
“They are both dead,” I told my father, standing back from him and wiping my eyes. I gestured towards the others who had joined us now. “This is Leontes, the one leading the donkey, and Popilla, the one holding the baby. The baby’s called Minerva. That’s their brother, Claudius, on the donkey with Julia. Their parents were also killed. I’m taking them to our house.”
My father nodded.
“It’s the right thing to do,” he agreed. “We all have to help one another.”
Curious, I asked him: “Where did the sword come from?”
“I found it,” said my father. “So many people were trying to kill me, I decided I needed something to defend myself with. But in the end people were more worried about getting to safety.”
Leontes was looking at the broken cart and he asked: “Is there any way we can mend it? We could tie Acorn to it and he could pull us along. He’s very strong.”
My father shook his head.
“The axle’s broken. We’d need tools to repair it.” He pointed at the mountain. “Vesuvius could blow up again at any second. We need to get away from here as quickly as we can and put a valley between us and the volcano so that if it erupts again we won’t get caught in the river of lava.”
He looked again at the volcano, a worried expression on his face. “The way the lava is bubbling at the top tells me the crater could collapse at any moment. If it does, all the lava inside it will rush out and pour down the mountainside.”
“What about the people who are still in Pompeii?” asked Leontes.
“I tried to warn them, but they wouldn’t listen to me,” said my father sadly. “All we can do is hope they survive.”
He went to the cart and picked up the sword.
“Just in case we meet danger on the way,” he said.
He set off, heading up the hill. Leontes and Popilla looked at one another, questioningly. Then Popilla nodded and they set off after him on the road – Popilla carrying Minerva, Julia and Claudius on Acorn. Fabius hurried to catch up with Julia and the donkey.
I turned and looked down on Pompeii – at the ruins, at the people working to try and repair things. I thought of Uncle Castus and Aunt Drusilla lying dead beneath their wrecked house, and how I’d seen a whole city destroyed in minutes when the river of lava had poured down over Herculaneum. I’d survived.
Why had some people died and others lived? Was it the power of the gods? Did the gods decide who lived and who died? If so, why did they choose me and Fabius and Julia to live, and not my uncle and aunt?
Suddenly I heard a deep rumbling sound coming from the direction of Vesuvius. I swung round and saw with horror that this side of the volcano had collapsed, the top of the crater was crumbling and breaking open. There was a bubbling mass of burning fiery red surging out, just as I had seen during the night, only this river of fire looked even bigger and seemed to be moving even faster.
“Marcus!” I heard my father’s yell of panic from farther up the road. “Marcus! Run!”
But I couldn’t move. I was rooted to the spot, hypnotized by the sight of the enormous river of fire pouring out. It rushed down the side of the mountain, reached the still-smouldering pile of cooling grey lava and overran it, racing over everything in its path.
“Marcus!”
The shout was close to my ear this time. I felt my father’s hand grab me roughly and haul me away, dragging me up the road.
We ran. The others were waiting for us at the crest of the hill. The road beyond dipped down to a valley and then rose back up. I realized that if the raging liquid lava came along this road and down into that valley, we would all die. There was no place for us to go where we could escape it.
My father and I joined the others and then turned to gaze in horror at the river of fire as it surged along. As we watched, it swerved away from the road and began following the dips and valleys in the ground, heading down the mountainside straight for Pompeii. The lava was so near to us that our faces were stung by the heat and smoke.
We watched in horror as the white-hot mass heaved and writhed and poured down on the city.
“Don’t look!” shouted my father.
But we couldn’t stop ourselves. We stood there, watching a tidal wave of flame and molten rock surging down, wave after wave, hurtling away from us. Even more red-hot lava was pouring out of the mountain now, and rushing after the first surge, then more and more, piling on.
Seen this close, it was wider than the widest river – a huge sea of fire and flame, spreading even further as it flowed. There was no way anyone in the city could escape. The huge burning sea hit the city, then surged on. The buildings disappeared beneath it. Everything disappeared. It covered the whole city and then ran into the sea, cascading out over the water before sinking in a mass of steam and smoke.
Where the great bustling city of Pompeii had been, just moments before, there was now just a sheet of bubbling red lava, turning grey as it cooled in the air.
The city and everything in it had disappeared.
We stood in stunned silence. I realized I was shaking, and when I looked at the others I saw they were shaking, too.
“We are alive,” murmured my father. “That is the important thing we must cling to. We are alive.”
“We are alive,” I repeated, dully, as if trying to force that into my brain.
I began to walk along the road, heading homeward, leaving the scene of utter destruction behind me.
I was aware of the others following me, the clip clop of the donkey’s hooves and our footsteps on the road.
We were alive.
The past was buried behind us.
HISTORICAL NOTE
THE DESTRUCTION OF POMPEII
On 5 February ad 62 a serious earthquake almost destroyed Pompeii and the nearby city of Herculaneum. For the next seventeen years the area around Vesuvius suffered from tremors – some large enough to cause deaths, some smaller. On 24 August ad 79, these tremors came to a head when the volcano, Vesuvius, erupted and destroyed the cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum.
The timetable of the eruption
During the morning of 24 August there was a series of shocks and tremors in the area around Vesuvius, gradually getting more and more violent.
At 1 p.m. a large cloud took shape above Vesuvius. Molten ash and pumice were being blown out of the crater at a great rate: about 10,000 tons every second. For the next few hours, lumps of pumice rained down on Pompeii, and layers of it built up on the ground and the roofs of the buildings.
Pumice is less dense than water, so when it landed in the sea it floated.
Volcanic rocks were also being blown out of the volcano by the eruption. These were heavier than pumice, and they smashed through roofs and caused serious injury when they struck people.
By 2.30 p.m. a dark cloud of ash had gathered in the sky over Pompeii, making the sky so dark it was as if dusk had fallen. Layers of pumice and rock were building up on roofs. Buildings were shaking from the constant earth tremors. Over 100,000 tons of rock and ash had already been thrown out by the volcano. The streets of Pompeii were now buried under 50 centimetres of ash. The pumice particles falling on Pompeii were getting bigger, killing more people as they struck.
The thickness of the ash in the streets made walking difficult.
By 6 p.m., with the roofs laden with over 50 centimetres of ash, buildings were collapsing. Many people fled to the shore hoping to be rescued by the Roman navy, but the boats couldn’t get to the shore due to the masses of hot pumice floating on the water. Boats moored in Pompeii couldn’t get out.
At 8 p.m., magma was now coming from deeper within the volcano. Magma is hotter and heavier and not so rich in gas. This meant that less ash was coming out of Vesuvius. So
me people thought the danger was over. They were wrong.
At some time between 1 a.m. and 2 a.m. on 25 August ad 79, part of the crater at the top of Vesuvius collapsed. A river of fire made of lava poured out of the top of the volcano and ran down the side of the mountain heading towards Herculaneum. This avalanche of burning lava travelled at 100 kph and had a temperature of 815ºC. When it struck Herculaneum it overran the city and killed everyone.
At 6.30 a.m. there was another surge of lava pouring down from Vesuvius. This one struck Pompeii, killing most of those who had remained in the city. At 7.30 a.m. there was one final outpouring of lava from Vesuvius which travelled at 100 kph. When it hit Pompeii it killed everyone else who was still alive. Pompeii was entombed beneath 6 metres of volcanic rock.
The timetable of discovery
Both cities remained buried beneath thick layers of rock for over 1,500 years. In 1594 an Italian count, Muzio Tuttavilla, started work in the area to build tunnels that would divert water to power grain mills. The workmen uncovered ancient walls with Roman decorations. When wells were dug around Herculaneum in 1706 to try and get new water supplies, the workers uncovered the remains of large buildings. Real investigations to uncover the buried cities began in 1738, and continued through the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. In the twentieth century, major work was carried out to uncover and preserve the ruins of Pompeii as it looked at the time the lava from the volcano struck the city. The uncovered and preserved cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum are now major tourist attractions.
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CHAPTER
1
“Hey Ralph, can we swap bunks tonight?”
“Why?” My older brother sounded suspicious. “You gonna be kicking my bed springs, Jimmy? Is that it?”
“’Course not, Ralph,” I said, trying to sound all innocent. “I just want to try the bottom bunk.”
“Fine. But no monkeying around, do you hear me?”
Mam switched out the lights and lay down in her bed next to our bunk bed.