by Peter Repton
‘But don’t think I include you pal, my attentions are strictly for the ladies.’
‘You are still so mean to them,’ Paul retorted with a grin, his humour still intact.
‘Paul to be completely honest I am just afraid of anyone getting too close.’ This admission was quite an unexpected revelation from the man with the heart of steel.
‘What do you mean Andy? I didn’t think you were afraid of anyone or anything.’ Paul inquired with a surprised tone in his voice. A pained expression crept into Wilson’s green eyes, his head sunk low. Just for a few seconds, Paul saw a different man in front of him.
‘Every time anyone gets close, real close I lose them.’ Andrew drew in a deep breath, opening his mouth to add further comment. But he sat there gaping, the words unable to come out.
‘What do you mean…lose them?’ Robert’s pressed. He had never seen his hard mate in such a state. Almost as quick as his manner softened, Andrew changed his demeanour again. The sadness left his eyes; the coldness was back, once more an ice cube. He appeared angry with himself for dropping his guard, jumping up and heading for the door he said.
‘I don’t want to talk about it. I have some work to do and so do you,’ Wilson left a stunned Roberts sitting at the table. His ginger eyebrows raised, his mouth wide open, and his burning curiosity ignited.
‘So my old mate, you are not superhuman after all,’ Paul spoke aloud as Wilson left. He then started singing out aloud with both his arms raised into the air as he passed the receptionist in the front office on his way out of the police station.
‘Oh by the fields of Anfield road, where we used to watch the King Kenny play…and could he play…’
27
David wandered around for thirty minutes, deciding he needed to find a bed for the night. To remain out on the streets was just asking for trouble as the local police may stop him to ask him what he was doing. He entered a clean looking guest house next to a public house after seeing a vacancies sign in the window. This bar he noticed straight away featured an integral restaurant. The chalkboard sign at the entrance said they provided take-out meals, with a discount for the resident's next door at the guest house. The receptionist was an unattractive, ugly blonde with dull eyes. She was fat, her hair displaying black roots that cried out for more peroxide. Her name badge said Laura; she grunted at him.
‘You are late to be checking in. I hope you don’t think you will be getting any food from next door.’
‘That’s OK,’ David replied, ‘I have eaten already at my friend’s house. I didn’t plan on staying here tonight, but he does not have any spare room. That’s why I don’t have much luggage.’ David had anticipated her question in advance. He did not order breakfast either as he planned on leaving early, best to keep moving he thought.
David collected his room key with a sympathetic smile at the unfortunate ugly woman. Laura smiled back through cigarette stained bad teeth. David headed up to the first-floor and following the directions she gave, he located his room. The accommodation was basic providing a comfortable double bed plus an open fronted wardrobe with an attached wide dressing table. There was a large mirror on the wall. David saw how haggard his face looked. His eyes now seem to have a lost, haunted appearance; he looked like the kind of mad man that would commit murder. David found a kettle, some tea, coffee and a complimentary packet of biscuits on a tray. Drawing the curtains then turning on the television he sat down, waiting for the kettle to boil. On the ten o’clock news he was the main topic tonight.
The news featured a heart- wrenching plea from his wife Sarah, pleading for him to come home. She said she knew he was innocent. He was angry at the police manipulating her into making this appeal. She was suffering enough. His rage did not persist; he attempted to relax.
Sitting down with the steaming mug of hot tea, David got a feeling of déjà vu. Then his head started to throb at the base of the back of his skull. He pressed on the area just above his neck to try to relieve the pain, just knowing what was going to happen next. The pain intensified, he started to convulse. His eyes rolled back in his head, collapsing on the bed unconscious.
David woke much later, screaming out loud, in the very early hours of the morning. What David experienced was a terrifying nightmare of the most horrific content. He saw a colourful, surrealistic vision of terror. David knew what he saw was about to happen soon on the island of Sumatra in Indonesia. David was in shock, feeling claustrophobic. He opened the window, gasping to suck clean air deep into his lungs. He was immobilised, feeling the chill night air on his skin, cooling his sweat. The hairs on the back of his neck stiffened. They stood on end like the arched back of an angry feline getting ready for a fight.
David heard a low rumble in the distance first. Then he looked in the direction of the ever increasing sound; he’d heard this noise twice already. Then it came, the round headlight of a Harley Davidson with a coffin tank speeding towards the hotel. Riding it clad in black and denim attire, this time not wearing his distinctive helmet was Sammy. A female passenger was sitting behind him high on the king and queen wearing the SS helmet.
The powerful machine roared past, the black-eyed rider looking right at him. Sammy pointed to him in the window then laughed out loud. His laugh was a maniacal cackle that resounded off the walls of the houses opposite with an eerie echo. His long black hair, no longer restrained by the ponytail, hung down his shoulders, glistening with grease in the dim orange glow of the sodium street lighting.
David noticed his passenger grinning with manic glee also. They raced through the street with her long red hair streaming in the wind. She shouted.
‘Go Sammy go!’ as they rounded the curve at the end of the street, disappearing into the night. A few seconds later another motorcycle followed by the Trike from the diner roared past, their exhausts booming, disappearing around the bend, and into the night. The sounds faded away.
David felt scared; it was evident the man on the bike called Sammy knew where he was. How could he know that? Why would he ride past his window and laugh at him? What on earth was happening? Why would this stranger be taunting him? Didn’t he have enough problems?
He soon forgot about Sammy when he recalled his vision. The overwhelming feeling of the need to do something filled him. He also felt immense pity for the people, going to die very soon in the Far East. David never felt so helpless in all his life. But he could not go to the authorities as they were looking for him. Not knowing who to share his knowledge with, who to issue a warning.
David longed to be with Sarah, but she was helping the police. His only hope was that somebody out there by now must know he was serious. He connected his laptop to the web, logging into his usual email address. He discovered hundreds of emails in his inbox and spam folder. Much of it related to the initial warning he sent out predicting the Hawaiian Tsunami. The majority of these respondents admitted to deleting the email as soon as they got it. The tone was one of awe and reverence. The motives of some others were more mercenary in nature, requesting predictions of lottery numbers, horse-race results or an upcoming boxing match. Sixty of them were from reporters requesting an interview. A further twenty were from TV companies. David noted only one asked.
‘How can I help you friend?’ It was from a Professor Staples. David noticed instead of text there was a video file attachment and he opened it. He saw the old black man with the bright dark eyes looking at him from his screen. Staples began to speak with a measured voice. He sounded a bit like Morgan Freeman.
‘Dear Mr Kempston or perhaps I may say, David. I do not understand how you acquired the information you sent me. I have to admit the accuracy of your predictions is startling. The sophisticated sensors at the Yellowstone volcano observatory only gave warning of unusual swarm activity an hour before the earthquake hit. In the ocean off the Hawaiian Islands, the second undersea eruption gave no warning at all to that region's team of seismologists. We got a twenty-five foot Tsunami the same day as the first eru
ption, only doing a little damage. The second devastating eruption under the Ocean and the quake it caused was so close to the mainland that no-one found time to escape.
The deaths in Hilo would be much higher, but some people left their homes the previous day. Fearful of something worse to come they were camping out up the slopes.’ Staples paused for a few seconds before speaking again.
‘David, again I hope you don't mind me calling you David. I find your forecasting abilities to be most disconcerting, but also quite fascinating. I have seen a sudden increase in volcanic activity in Iceland. You will know an eruption there in the recent past shut all the airports in Northern Europe in the spring of 2010. It is now erupting again. It seems a huge coincidence all three areas manifesting simultaneous dramatic increases in activity. Most are hotspots. I mean areas of volcanoes where no tectonic plate movements are the direct cause of the volcanoes. These hotspots just burn up through the earth’s crust from a static location. Most create a chain of volcanoes in the form of islands. Over millions of years, these islands form as the earth’s crust slips sideways.’ Staples paused, apologising again.
‘Forgive me; I am going off on a tangent, as old men like me tend to do,’ Bob smiled at the screen before saying.
‘You mention a further event in Indonesia. At the risk of significant personal ridicule. If you can provide more information, I am prepared to alert the warning centres in that region even though they are always alert. I will not, of course, be relaying the precise reason for my concern. I feel guilty as I failed to act at all on your previous two warnings. Why do you not meet with the media with your story? They may hound you, but I feel they will be able to help you a lot more than I can. They have much more influence. I wish you would deal with someone else; I feel powerless to help. But, I am a Muslim I believe in all the prophets and the power of prophecy. God is great. If these so-called insights you have do indeed come from a divine source. I give you my best wishes, and I will pray for you.’ The recording ended.
David felt deflated and depressed. How could he expect any real help from this sixty-two-year-old geologist? Who now probably wished he had retired years ago. What could the guy do? Who would believe him? It seemed hopeless, yet Staples did offer to alert the people in Indonesia. That was better than nothing, and more than he could do. After all, he did now know the location of the impending disaster. How did that work? He thought. Why would he see part of the event one night and the see the rest on another occasion? How could his dreams interact so? Why did it seem he was drip fed information a small piece at a time? Who was doing it? He sighed and hung his head. So many questions and not any answers, none at all.
How did he bring this upon himself he wondered? To try and ease the awful sense of helplessness within him David made the decision to reply to Staples; it was not going to help much, but it was all he could do right now. Composing the message David once again marvelled at the clarity, and his power of recall of his vision before the dark rider passed. Just like looking at a video screen inside his mind. God help the people on the Indonesian island of Sumatra. The Indonesian's had suffered so much. Especially to be getting hit again after the Boxing Day tsunami of 2004. Then the large 9.2 undersea earthquakes hit off the coast. Now they were going to get hit again, and hard. He started to type a reply, but a sudden onset of pain hit him hard at the back of his head again. By the time he finished writing just five simple words of text. The pressure pain in his head reached a new intensity; he felt the urge to vomit then his nose gushed blood. He glanced at his words “It’s going to be Toba” and hit send as he collapsed.
28
Early on Saturday Morning USA Cascades Observatory. Staples could only stare.
“It’s going to be Toba,” the email stated, nothing more, nothing less. He felt this to be odd. Staples immediately replied giving his phone number and wrote,
‘David please will you call me as we need to speak. Please call.’ Staples also left a message on Nick's voicemail to call him immediately. Staples looked ashen with dread because Toba frightened him. It was one of his earliest studies as a student geologist. The Toba volcano explosion seventy-two thousand years ago was the largest on Earth in the last two million years. The biggest eruption prior to Toba happened at Yellowstone.
Two million years ago Yellowstone ejected only three hundred cubic kilometres less than Toba. The Toba caldera had filled with water since it last erupted. Lake Toba, the largest volcanic lake in the world is one thousand six hundred and sixty-six feet deep in Northern Sumatra.
This massive lake is one hundred kilometres long and thirty kilometres wide. Later minor eruptions created a kidney shaped, rising volcanic island. This island inside the lake, Samosir, was rising because the massive magma chamber was filling again after sleeping for millennia.
Bob called up his records on his computer and whistled aloud. The last eruption ejected a staggering two thousand eight hundred cubic kilometres of ash. The massive Mount St. Helens eruption in 1980 only ejected one single cubic kilometre.
The comparison was shocking. Staples noted with increasing awe that the Toba ash cloud once covered an area half the size of the USA. Burying most of South-east Asia, this ash was more than sixty metres thick in places.
Staples, in shock, knew the Toba volcano was coming back into activity again, but why now after all this time? Did it take this long to refill the massive magma chamber?
Staples blood ran cold, two caldera super-volcanoes becoming active and both erupting on opposite sides of the Earth at the same time as each other. It had happened before.
His mind raced with speculation. Perhaps both super-volcanoes were getting ready for the next instalment of volcanic mayhem. They would mean disaster on an unprecedented level in human history and possibly the end of humanity. It was time to pray to Allah the most merciful.
Staples unrolled his prayer mat, placing in on the floor. He lowered his forehead to the ground, submitting to Allah for the second time that day. Then his phone rang.
29
Jumping to his feet fast for someone in his sixties, Staples snatched his mobile off his desk. It was Nick West.
‘Hi Bob, I just got your message about Toba. I have been nosing around since we last spoke. I am surprised by what I discovered about the possible cause of extinction events.’ Nick paused before continuing.
‘You have to bear in mind my expertise is human history and evolution. So it is limited to only the last three and a half million years since the first Apes stood upright. I found before we appeared back then that there were five major extinction events of note. Together with a lot of minor ones along the way. You as a geologist know the big five wiped out between fifty and eighty-three percent, of all species on the earth every single time.
‘Yes, of course, I am aware Nick. The most recent were the end of the Cretaceous period, marked clearly by the demise of the dinosaurs about sixty-five million years ago. I am also sure that millions of kids know this too. They have a curious but an understandable fascination with Dinosaurs.’ Nick ignored him and continued,
‘Of course they do Bob but what they probably don't know that this mass extinction killed off all large dominant terrestrial vertebrates on Earth. Plus over seventy-five percent of the total of all of the planet’s living species and ....’
Bob interrupted him with a question.
‘When you say large dominant terrestrial vertebrates, do you mean creatures with backbones that walked on land?’
‘Yes, I do,’ said Nick
‘Bob you also know that these Dinosaurs first appeared after a previous mass extinction, at the end of the Triassic period. They then ruled the Earth throughout all the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods. For over one hundred and eighty million years.’
‘Yes, Nick you are correct. I know this too but don't you dare tell me the preceding of the big five events before the Triassic was the Permian because this is closer to my area of expertise than yours Nick.’ Staples said with a touch
of exasperation.
‘Hold on to your hat old buddy,’ Nick exclaimed.
‘I am trying to establish some precedents for historical global catastrophe's that precede a mass extinction event. I am not trying to teach my Grandmother how to suck eggs,’ he said.
‘Now will you let me finish without biting my head off?’
After a pause, Bob chuckled,
‘Sure thing Nick as long as you can keep your hat on.’
‘Touché okay I'll try. The point I am making is at least three of the big five extinctions, and some of the smaller ones were all linked to massive volcanic activity. These are the Permian, Triassic and Cretaceous. It is worrying you have discovered something similar might be happening right now, because we are overdue for another one of these.’
Bob could hear the concern in Nicks voice, he replied.
‘It is as I suspected, almost every form of life becomes extinct. New ones then replace them. Take the Dinosaurs. They were the dominant species for ages until the sudden arrival of the Mammals that dominate today.’
‘Well guess what. There is more to this good buddy. My research has shown there was quite a lot of what we term minor extinction events during Man's time on Earth. That is to say within the last three million years or so.’ Bob now interrupted.
‘Has Man been around that long?’
‘Well no, not quite. I should perhaps say since when the Apes first stood upright and became bipeds, starting to dominate. To be clear on my description of a minor event, I mean one that did not remove more than fifty percent of all known species but decimated all life on Earth.’
‘So for clarity,’ Bob interjected, ‘One hundred million of every species could be killed by this single event. Plus half of the rest of every living life form has disappeared forever. But as long as one breeding pair remained it would get classed as a minor event?’