The Survivors Book III: Winter

by V. L. Dreyer

  "Huh?" I glanced back over my shoulder, and stared at the not-so-distant mountain. "Is that what I think it is?"

  From the crater of the mountain, a thin tendril of white smoke swirled up into the blue sky above. It looked so small, so innocent, and yet we both instinctively knew what was about to happen. We exchanged a look, then we turned and ran back towards the convoy.

  We almost made it before the first earthquake struck. Almost, but not quite. Just as I tried to scream a warning to my friends and family, the ground jerked sharply and my legs went right out from under me. Panic took over when my strength failed me; the moment that the earthquake died down, I leapt back to my feet and grabbed Doc by the elbow.

  "Go! Get to the cars!" I cried, half-dragging and half-guiding him the last few meters towards the nearest truck. Around us, people were screaming. A couple of the children were on the ground not far away, cowering in terror; I grabbed them, and guided them to a vehicle.

  "What's going on?" I barely heard Skye's voice over the chaos, but I felt her grab my arm.

  "Ruapehu's erupting!" I yelled back, forcing my voice to pierce the noise all around us. It wasn't just human voices trying to drown me out, though; a low, deep rumble echoed through the earth all around us, making it hard to hear, and nearly impossible to think. I looked at Skylar, and then I lifted my voice as high as it could go and screamed an order. "Everyone, in the cars! Go! Don't stop unless you can't drive anymore! Go, go, go!"

  I grabbed my sister without another word and shoved her towards a vehicle. She stumbled but managed to keep her feet, and she took the hint. She shouted something that I couldn't quite make out, and then she was shovelling people towards cars as fast as she could. I spun around on the spot, frantically counting heads and trying to make sure that everyone was accounted for. Unfortunately, they weren't. With a devastating twist of my gut, I realised that Michael and Alfred were nowhere to be seen.

  "Michael!" I screamed at the top of my lungs. "Michael! Where are you?" There was no answer, or at least no answer that I could hear. I drew a deep lungful of air, trying desperately to project my voice a few inches further, but it did me no good.

  I glanced back at the others, torn with indecision. There was no way I could abandon Michael, but the children needed me, too. Skye caught my eye and made a sharp gesture, then pointed towards the rocks leading down from the road. It took me a second to work out that she was trying to tell me where my fiancé had gone.

  There was no time to thank her, I just turned and ran. The pebbles crunched and gave way underfoot, just as another tremor tore through the earth. I went down hard on my knees, bruising myself painfully, but I only stayed down until the aftershock faded. As soon as I could stand again, I was up and off down the gully, searching for him.

  A footprint in the mud caught my eye, and then another. I followed them deeper into the gully, past boulders the size of small cars and razor-edged desert grasses. I spotted a pile of fresh dog droppings near the path, but no sign of Michael. A quick search revealed more tracks, this time further spaced out. Something had sent Michael running in the wrong direction.

  Suddenly, I heard a shout, but I couldn't make out the words.

  "Michael?" I yelled again, racing towards the sound of the voice.

  "I'm here!" he yelled back. "This… this stupid dog…"

  Just at that moment, I rounded another large boulder and found them both on the ground, rolling in the mud; Michael was frantically trying to hold the dog down, while Alfred was just as frantically trying to get away from him.

  No, not from him, I realised suddenly. From the volcano.

  "I can't…" Michael gasped, out of breath and obviously nearing panic. "I sprained my ankle chasing this stupid mutt, and I can't walk and carry him at the same time."

  "You focus on walking, I've got Alfred," I instructed, flinging myself into the mud without hesitation. Between the two of us, we managed to hold him down long enough for me to get a solid grip on the old sheepdog. He was heavy, but fear lent me strength from reserves that I didn't know I had. Alfred whined and howled, but once I had him he didn't fight me. He just cowered, and tried to bury his head in my armpit.

  "We need to go," Michael said urgently, levering himself up on the boulder. "I smell sulphur. That can't be good."

  "It isn't. We need to get out of here before there's a gas cloud, or a lahar, or something equally awful," I answered, hefting the old dog up and bracing him against my chest. "Lean on me if you need to, but we're getting the hell out of here."

  Michael tried to answer, but the noise around us was too loud for me to hear him. He didn't try again. I felt his hand on my shoulder, and then we were off. It was slow going, but at least when the next tremor hit I didn't fall again. Thank heavens for small favours; my knees already felt like they were black and blue. The three of us, gasping, stumbling, and struggling to keep our balance, retraced our steps back towards the road.

  By the time we reached it, all the cars were gone except for one. I heard a voice call out to us, and then Skylar ran around from the far side. She yanked open the back door, and helped me to bundle Michael and Alfred inside. A few seconds later, she was back behind the wheel again and starting the car. I flung myself into the passenger seat and slammed the door.

  "Get us out of here!" I ordered, but even inside the truck it was hard to hear one another. She shouted something back, and the car leapt forward, bouncing and juddering across the uneven ground. I turned to stare out the back window, just in time to spot a wave of something grey and ominous rolling down the side of the mountain.

  "Ash!" Michael gasped, his voice still ragged. "Christ, it's coming right for us. We need to cover all the vents: it could be toxic."

  "There should be blankets under the seats," I answered, reaching beneath my own in search of one. Sure enough, my fingers connected with something soft. I yanked it out, and grabbed my pocket knife out of my cargo pants. With a frantic haste, I cut the blanket into strips, and handed them out. "Here, tie this over your face!"

  "What do I do?" Skye begged, her tone one of absolute panic. I glanced at her, and saw that her knuckles were white on the steering wheel, and her foot on the accelerator was almost to the floor. The truck was rocketing along at entirely too fast a pace for the condition of the road, but we really had no choice.

  "Just keep us going in that direction," I cried, pointing towards the distant horizon. "This is a long, straight road. Just keep going. I'm going to tie this over your face, okay?"

  "Okay," she agreed, obviously struggling to stay brave. I shot a glance at the incoming ash cloud, then immediately wished I hadn't. I turned away, and focused on getting us ready. We couldn't outrun it, so we had to prepare for the possibility that the ash was poisonous. Once I'd finished tying the cloth over Skye's face, I cut off another strip and did my own.

  "It's here!" Michael cried.

  His warning was unnecessary. A second later, the wall of ash hit us and our world plunged into darkness. I heard Skylar scream, and had to grab the wheel to keep her from accidentally driving us off the road. I barely had time to brace myself when she slammed on the brakes, and brought us to a sudden halt.

  "I can't! I can't do it!" she sobbed, tears in her eyes. "I can't see anything. Oh, God."

  "Keep it together, baby sis." I grabbed her hand, and shoved a wadded up ball of cloth into it. "Hold that over those vents there. We have to keep the ash from getting in here. Michael, get the back ones."

  "Got it covered." His reply sounded like it was coming from a thousand miles away, barely audible over the roar. I shoved the rest of the torn-up blanket over the vents on my side of the car, then I curled up against my sister and silently prayed for our salvation.

  ***

  After what felt like forever, the roaring finally faded away and the ground stopped shaking. Silence descended in our dark world, aside from the sound of our coughing; we'd managed to keep most of the ash out, but not all of it. I felt my sister trembling
and knew instinctively that she was crying, but it was too dark for me to see her face. The ash on the windows was too thick for us to be able to tell whether it was safe to get out or not.

  "The engine probably won't start now, even if we could see where we're going." Michael's voice was disembodied in the darkness. He coughed heavily, then added, "The ash is probably made up of crushed rock, volcanic glass, and silica. We'll need to clean the engine out completely before we can start this damn thing."

  "So, we're stuck here?" I asked, my voice barely more than a whisper. "I left my radio in the Hilux. Does anyone else have one?"

  "No," Skye replied, sounding miserable. "I didn't think I'd need it."

  "Me either," Michael replied. "Whose car was this? Maybe there's one in the glove box?"

  "I think this was the one Jim was driving," I replied. "I suppose they might have left something. I'll look."

  I fumbled for the torch in my pocket, and found it by touch alone. The thin beam barely illuminated the darkness, but it was still enough to make me squint. After a few seconds of searching, I sighed and shook my head. "Nothing in here but someone's afternoon snack. Well, at least we have some food, I guess."

  "Pass the torch here? I'll check the back." Michael's hand appeared over my shoulder from the shadows of the back seat. I placed my torch in it, and then both vanished. I heard him moving around for a few minutes, then he heaved a sigh of obvious frustration. "Nothing here, either."

  "Shh!" Skye hissed unexpectedly. "I hear something."

  We both froze, listening intently. A moment later, it came again and this time we all heard it: a faint scraping sound.

  "Oh, please don't let that be lava," Skye whispered, clinging to my hand.

  "We'd know if it were lava," I replied. "Pretty sure we'd already be dead. Besides, lava doesn't talk." I raised my voice, and shouted at the top of my lungs, "Hey! We're in here!"

  There was an alarmed cry outside the vehicle, but I couldn't make out the words. The scraping sound picked up in urgency, then suddenly light penetrated our world. Light, and a familiar face.

  "Hemi!" Skylar cried, her relief so palpable that it sent a shiver down my spine. The youth called a greeting back, and thumped on the window until the last of the ash fell away.

  I leaned past her, and rolled down the window just a crack so that we could speak. "Boy, am I glad to see you! We've got Michael and Alfred in the back. Is everyone else accounted for?"

  "Yeah." Hemi coughed and tightened the makeshift mask covering his face, similar to our own. "You guys okay? The doc's waiting down at Waiouru, but we can go get him if you need it."

  "No, please just get us out of here," I answered, shaking my head. "This truck is a write-off. We need to get the supplies out, and see if we can find another one along the way."

  "Okay. Just hang in there, we'll get you out," he agreed.

  True to his word, Hemi and his companions had us out of that truck and into the back of theirs within a couple of minutes. It was a squeeze to fit all of us in there along with Alfred and the supplies, but we made it – primarily because I ended up sitting on Michael's lap. Despite his ankle, it was a situation that neither of us minded very much.

  I draped my arms around his shoulders and stared out the back window at the shadow of the volcano against the horizon.

  "I can barely see her through the haze," I commented. "There's still too much ash hanging in the air."

  "She just tried to kill us," Michael answered dryly, slipping his arms around my waist to brace me securely in lieu of a seatbelt. "Do you really want to see her?"

  "She didn't try to do anything." I shifted back a little bit, just far enough to look into his eyes. "She's a volcano. She's just doing what volcanoes do. I would like to know if she's done, though. Do you think that's it for the eruption?"

  "Hard to say." He sighed heavily, nuzzling his face into the curve of my neck. I closed my eyes and relaxed, letting the contact calm my frazzled nerves. "It could be that was the first stage of a larger event, or it could be that she just needed to let off a little steam. Ruapehu isn't the kind of volcano that spits lava a thousand feet into the air, thank goodness. If she were, we'd probably all be dead."

  "Next time I decide to take a shortcut through a volcanic field, talk me out of it," I replied. Michael grunted something halfway between a snort and a laugh, but said nothing. I let the conversation trail off and just enjoyed the closeness. Michael was a snuggler by nature and sometimes that bothered me, but not today.

  After our brush with death, all I could think was how lucky we were that we'd all made it through. My family was safe. My fiancé was safe.

  My fiancé. My mate. Maybe even father of my child. For the first time, that thought brought a smile to my face. I felt a flush of heat run up the back of my neck, and suddenly I wanted nothing more than to find some way to express my feelings in the most romantic way I could think of. I pushed myself back away from him, and looked at him with a smile.

  "You know what? Screw it. Let's just do it," I told him in no uncertain terms. "Tonight. No more waiting."

  "Huh?" Michael just gave me a bewildered look. "You're doing that thing where you say stuff you've been thinking about as if I'm privy to your thoughts. Use your words, sweetheart."

  "Oh, sorry." Embarrassed, I laughed at myself, and then I elaborated for him. "Let's just forget about waiting and get married. Tonight. My gut's been telling me all along that you're the one, but I've been resisting it. I'm just afraid of change and commitment, but I need to stop listening to my head and listen to my heart for a change."

  "Oh." Michael went silent for a second. The silence made me worry, but I could see on his face that he was just trying to process my spontaneous change of heart.

  Beside us, Skylar laughed gleefully and gave me a nudge. "Well, look at you! When did you grow a set of balls, sis?"

  "I'll have you know that balls are soft and squishy, and not really all that tough at all," I replied with playful mock-haughtiness. "I'm quite happy with having a vagina, thank you! They're much tougher than balls, and can put up with a heck of a pounding." Skye stared at me, wide eyed, her mouth hanging open. Suddenly, the reality of what I'd just said struck me, and I started blushing furiously. "That… came out all wrong."

  Around me, the car erupted in laughter. I barely heard Michael's reply above the sound of my friends teasing me.

  He said one simple word, the one that I wanted to hear more than anything else in the world. He said, "Yes."

  Chapter Twenty- Four

  News of our spontaneous nuptials spread through the group like wildfire. By the time we'd checked in with the doctor and been given mostly clean bills of health, everyone knew. As soon as I stepped outside, Skylar grabbed my arm and dragged me away from the motor lodge where we planned to stay the night.

  "You can't see the bride before the wedding!" she told Michael in no uncertain terms, shoving me in front of her despite my protests. Hemi and his friends appeared as if out of nowhere, and dragged my poor, limping fiancé off without another word. Skye gave me a wicked grin, grabbed my hand, and led me off towards the township of Waiouru proper. "Come on! We need to find you something to wear."

  "Why bother?" I groused, though I knew better than to really fight her when she had her mind set on something. "Michael doesn't care what I look like. I mean, he sees me dressed like this every day."

  "But this isn't every day," she answered, dancing ahead of me with such enthusiasm that she almost tugged my arm out of its socket. "It's your wedding day, Sandy-pants! For one day, you get to be as much of a princess as you like. And I am going to make you the prettiest princess of them all!"

  "And just how do you plan to do that, little sis?" I asked dryly. "This used to be a military town. There isn't exactly a bridal boutique here."

  "Maybe not, but I spotted a sign on someone's fence offering tailoring services," she replied. "I'm betting that if anyone has dresses for us, it'll be them!"

  "Wa
it, us?" I tried to stop, only to get almost pulled off my feet. "What us? Is someone else getting married?"

  "No, dummy." Skye sighed and rolled her eyes. "For you and your bridal party, of course. I'm going to be your maid of honour, Maddy's the flower girl, and everyone else is… well, they want to look nice, too!"

  "Okay, this is getting way too complicated," I admitted, suddenly feeling nervous. "I just want things to be simple."

  "Oh, come on, Sandy," Skye stopped suddenly and turned to fix me with an imploring look. "For once in your life, relax and have a little fun. This is supposed to be the happiest day of your life, and I want to enjoy it with you. Besides, if you want to rebuild everything that we lost, then you need to lead by example. I've never been to a wedding before, I've only seen pictures in old magazines. They're supposed to be happy – and more importantly, normal. Don't we all deserve a chance to be normal again?"

  I started to protest, but something about the look on her face made me stop and reconsider. Suddenly, I realised that she needed it even more than I did. She needed to see me happy, and to share the moment with the people that she cared about. How long had it been since any of us had been able to enjoy a wedding? For all I knew, this might have been the first one since the plague struck. That thought struck me as poignant, and important somehow. There were going to be a lot of firsts in the days to come, and who was I to stop other people from enjoying them?

  "I… I'm sorry. You're right," I admitted quietly. "Sometimes it's hard to remember just how much my life has changed."

  "I know." She smiled at me, an expression so vibrant that it felt like it lit up the whole world. "Don't worry, sis. You've got friends now. We're taking care of everything. All you have to do is enjoy yourself."

  I took a deep breath to quell the twisting in my gut, then I smiled and nodded to her. "Lead on, then! Let's go get pretty."

  Skylar let out a delighted whoop and raced off down the street with me in tow. A few minutes later, we found ourselves jogging up the front steps of an ordinary-looking house, flushed and out of breath from our run.