by Bobby Akart
Younger shouted back, “I’ve had enough of this! You didn’t attend the coordination meeting, and even if you did, quite frankly, your piss-poor attitude is counterproductive here. I must insist that you leave!”
Chapter 19
YVO
Yellowstone
Jake had entered the reception area of the YVO about the time voices began to be raised between Ashby and Younger. He was unfamiliar with the woman scientist, but one thing was certain, if he was ever in a bar brawl, he’d want her fighting by his side. She was feisty and fearless, completely unintimidated by the larger man, who was apparently the new head of the YVO.
Jake was enjoying the back-and-forth, imagining a bag of popcorn in one hand and a cold beer in the other. He’d determined that it wasn’t only the animals of Yellowstone that had gone crazy. Apparently, two-legged creatures had lost their minds as well.
Then the dynamics of the argument changed. The war of words turned belligerent when Younger demanded that the woman leave. He moved quickly towards her in a menacing manner, which caused her to back up against several shelves that weren’t secured.
Just as Jake stepped forward to warn her, the shaking began. It was slight at first, causing all of the onlookers and Younger to pause. Then it began in earnest, causing the shelves to wobble and a couple of gasps to come from the YVO staff.
Seconds later, the earthquake hit. Younger screamed for everyone to seek cover or exit the building. Jake was still approaching Ashby when a top-heavy bookshelf toppled toward her. She turned just in time to see it crashing toward her, but her feet didn’t move, as if they were stuck in the concrete floor.
Jake bear-hugged her and immediately turned his back to the shelf, which crashed on top of both of them. Using the strength of his legs and his high pain tolerance he’d acquired from his days as a stuntman in Hollywood, he absorbed the blow of the bookcase and the heavy seismometer, which slid off the shelf onto his shoulders. Like a bear rubbing his back on a tree, Jake swayed back and forth until the shelf crashed to the floor.
“Are you all right?” he asked the young woman.
She was still fuming as she hollered at Younger, who was ushering people out of the building, “I guess that little quake was just another day at the office!”
Jake considered restraining her to avoid an altercation, until she began to wriggle loose.
She adjusted her hair and looked up to his face. “Yeah, thanks. Let’s get out of here.”
They moved toward the door, and Jake put his arm around her to shield her from further debris, which continued to fall off the bookcases. Once outside, most of the YVO staff milled about, looking at their telephones and watching the ground below them as the final tremors subsided.
Jake let her go and she walked off mumbling, “Good talk, good talk.”
A shout came from across the parking lot. “Doc! Doc! Are you okay?”
Ashby left Jake and ran toward the Jeep. Rita and Dusty met her partway and hugged her. Rita picked bits and pieces of drywall out of Ashby’s hair as Dusty examined her to make sure she wasn’t injured.
Jake stood still for a moment and examined the reactions of the people around him. They were trained geologists, for the most part, except for the support staff. All of them, however, worked in a field dealing with earthquakes and, at the YVO in particular, a supervolcano capable of blowing them into space at any moment. Yet, at the first trembling of the earth, they panicked.
Do they actually live in fear of the big one? The doomsday scenario that was the stuff of action movies and post-apocalyptic novels?
He shrugged and began walking toward his truck when a voice shouted after him. Jake turned around and saw the female scientist chasing after him, waving her arms.
“Hey, where are you going? I want to thank you again.”
Jake stopped and smiled. He adjusted his service belt and his weapon, which had twisted on his hip during the fracas. “Not a problem, I was glad to help. My name’s Jake Wheeler. I’m one of the law enforcement rangers here.”
She continued walking toward him. “Well, Ranger Jake, you are my knight in shining armor. Thank you for shielding me from that bookcase with your quick reflexes. You’d think these people would learn to bolt those things down considering where we are.”
“Isn’t that the truth?” Jake asked rhetorically. His palms were sweaty, and he felt awkward. He couldn’t understand why he was so nervous. He’d never been shy around pretty women in the past. But this one was different. She seemed confident and self-assured. He liked it.
“My name is Ashby Donovan. I’m a volcanologist with NASA.” She extended her hand to shake. He quickly wiped off his palm and shook hands with her. Jake immediately noticed her handshake was firm, but her hands were soft. The contradiction struck him as odd for some reason. She seemed to have that effect on him.
“It’s nice to meet you, Dr. Donovan. I’d like to take credit for the quick reflexes, but really I saw you were in a tough spot, and I stepped in just in case you two came to blows.”
Ashby laughed and wiped a little sweat off her brow. She tucked her blond hair behind her ears. “Oh, that. I guess I had it comin’ to a certain extent. Sometimes, I don’t know when to keep my opinions to myself.”
“You made sense to me,” Jake said as he watched the YVO staff file back into the building, leaving him alone with Ashby and her team, who stood respectfully to the side. “I’m no geologist, but I do understand mother nature. She doesn’t like to be messed with. It’s kinda like the Russian bear, as they say. You keep pokin’ and pokin’, and it’ll stand up on its hind legs and swat you.”
“You’re right, Jake. Yellowstone, if pissed off, is big enough to swat the whole planet. Listen, thanks again. I’m sure you have work to do, and I have to break the news to my team that we’re not welcome here.”
Ashby started to turn and walk away when Jake stopped her. “Say, um, you seem like a pretty reasonable person. There’ve been some strange things going on around here that you might want to hear about.”
“Like what?”
“You know, animal behavior, unusual swaths of trees and plant life dying, stuff like that. And then there was the fire.”
“Yeah, I heard about it. What was unusual about the fire?”
“The fire,” he began, stuttering as he wrestled with sharing what he’d seen. “It wasn’t the fire itself. It was the cause. I swear I saw—”
Jake’s sentence was interrupted as his two-way radio squawked to life. “All units, reports of damage and injuries at the Lake View Café. Please respond when en route.”
Jake was the first to respond. He was also the closest. “Unit 111, Wheeler responding.”
Ashby stood with her mouth open and Jake turned to her.
“I want to talk with you. Can you gather your people and meet me at the Lake View Café, but not too close? I don’t know what’s happened.”
Ashby shook her head. “Okay. We’ll meet you there.”
Jake raced to his truck and glanced one more time at Ashby as she hustled toward their Jeep. He hoped he could trust her.
Chapter 20
Lake View Café
Yellowstone
Jake was the first law enforcement ranger to arrive on the scene. Tourists lined the roadway leading down to where the Lake View Café stood partially submerged in water. Apparently, people had rushed out of their cabins and the small shops located in Grant Village when the earthquake struck, only to be greeted by a tsunami that had traveled into the West Thumb portion of Yellowstone Lake.
The standing water was shallow enough for him to plow through it toward the restaurant. He inched closer, going as far as he felt comfortable before the buoyancy of his tires caused the vehicle to float.
He pushed the gear stick into park and stepped on the side step before entering the water. He quickly sloshed through the rising waters until he arrived at the wraparound deck, which was covered in a foot of water. Several guests of the restaurant
were standing to the side, frantically waving their arms at him.
“One of the waitresses is hurt! Come quick!”
Jake trudged through the water, high stepping just above the surface to move toward them as quickly as he could.
“Where is she?” he asked the couple, who held onto the deck railing like they were about to float off to sea. The water was only eighteen inches deep on the deck, although it was still five feet above normal ground level.
“The kitchen.”
He entered the café through a side entrance. The power was out, and Jake was relieved that he didn’t have to worry about getting electrocuted. He reached for his belt and retrieved a tactical flashlight, which was also water resistant. He pushed the button on the base and illuminated the entry to the kitchen. The water was still knee deep.
“Hello? Do you need help?”
There was no answer. He shouted this time. “Anybody need help?”
He heard a muffled response and a pounding on the door of one of the walk-in refrigerators. He made his way through the floating debris and found a steel prep table, which had overturned, effectively blocking the heavy aluminum door.
The woman’s garbled voice was frantic. “Help! Help! Get … out of … please!”
Jake maneuvered through the water, holding the flashlight in his mouth to provide some light. The table was upside down and wedged in by a large Hobart mixer, which had toppled over during the melee.
He shouted to her, “Hold on, I just need to move a few things.” Jake bent over and tried to lift the mixer, but it was too heavy for one person. He tried again to slide the table out of the way but was unsuccessful. He was just about to go outside and solicit some help when a woman’s voice came from the entrance to the kitchen.
“Can I help?”
It was Ashby. She sloshed toward Jake, wearing a spelunking headlamp with triple lights that lit up the whole room.
“I thought I asked you to stay clear,” admonished Jake halfheartedly.
“Yeah, well, I don’t follow orders or rules very well. Is someone trapped, or are you trying to score some frozen pizza or something?”
“Very funny, although I might just do that while we’re here. No, there’s a woman trapped inside, and all of this crap is blocking the door. Can you help me move this mixer?”
“Piece of cake.” Ashby joined his side and grabbed the feet at the base while Jake took the heavier top side. They lifted it slightly and Ashby walked backwards while Jake pushed forward. They’d moved it maybe five feet when Ashby’s feet slipped out from under her and she fell backwards into the water.
Jake moved around the mixer to help Ashby to her feet. Her pants were soaked.
“Well, that was fun,” she quipped before the woman started yelling help again. She laughed and pointed at the door. “You’ve got another damsel to rescue. You’d better get to it, Sir Jake.”
Jake gave her another look-over and then slid the stainless prep table away from the door enough for the woman to emerge from the cooler. She was gasping for breath. It was Flo.
“Flo? Are you okay?”
Flo began crying and rushed into Jake’s arms. “It all happened so fast. I had just started my break, and I was gonna surprise that kid Jesse, who was sitting down by the water, with an ice cream. I came to the cooler and the ground started to—oh my God, Jake. Jesse! He was down by the water when all this happened. The water rose so fast. My God, is he all right?”
“Come on,” said Jake as he pulled Flo through the kitchen. Ashby stood by the door so she could illuminate the path for them.
Then the ground shook again.
“Aftershock!” shouted Ashby. “Hurry!”
The three of them scrambled out of the building, and Jake asked Ashby to get Flo to safety. He tore through the water and headed for the boardwalk. Many of the planks were missing, so he had to be careful not to step through an open space.
“Jesse! Jesse! Are you out here?”
From the front of the building, Jake heard people hollering Jesse’s name as well. He searched around the shoreline and near the boardwalk. He made his way back to the restaurant, thinking Jesse might have found a place to hold on.
Jake stepped through the broken rear door and entered the dining area. “Jesse! Jesse! Are you in here?”
His radio was bustling with chatter now as law enforcement rangers were responding to emergency calls around the westernmost side of the park. He muted his speaker for a moment so he could listen to any slight sound Jesse might make in response.
Jake had never experienced a tsunami on Yellowstone Lake. Something underground or a major landslide must’ve triggered it. Satisfied that Jesse wasn’t in the building, he moved toward the front of the building.
“Jake! Come quick!”
Chapter 21
Lake View Café
Yellowstone
He frantically made his way to the front entrance. The receding water levels allowed the doors to open now. He ran across the deck and was careful not to slip as he descended the steps into the three-foot-deep lake waters surrounding the restaurant. He looked around for the source of the person calling his name.
The white Jeep belonging to Ashby and her team had driven deeper into the parking lot near the stand of pine trees buffering the restaurant from the cabins. Standing on the hood of the Jeep was Jesse and the young man who was part of Ashby’s team.
“Jake!” the man shouted again. “Look what we found!”
Relieved, Jake broke out in nervous laughter and moved through the water toward them. As he approached, he saw Ashby with the other female member of her team standing on top of a concrete picnic table, holding onto a green canoe.
“Jesse! Were you going after frogs again?” Jake asked with a smile as he got closer.
“No, sir, Mr. Jake. I mean, I was just sitting there looking around and minding my own beeswax.”
Jake arrived and held his hands up to grasp Jesse under the arms. He helped the boy down into the waist-deep water.
“We found him in the canoe. Jake, I’m Dusty Holder. It’s nice to meet you.”
Jake lifted his hand up to help Dusty slide off the hood of the Jeep. “Nice to meet you, Dusty. Did you say in the canoe?”
Jesse looked up at Jake as they made their way toward the picnic table. “Yes, sir. I stood there during the quake, thinking it would be better than going into the restaurant.”
“That was good thinking,” interrupted Jake.
“Yeah. Anyway, I was watching people run out of the building into the parking lot and never noticed the water rising behind me. Before I knew it, the waves were crashing against the boardwalk, and they knocked me down. I didn’t know what to do, and then I saw that green canoe tied off around a post. I got in it thinking I could just untie it and float on top of the water. I was wrong.”
They arrived at the picnic table and Dusty helped Jesse sit next to Ashby.
“Why’s that, Jesse?” Jake asked.
“The waves were stronger than I thought, and the next thing I knew, I was headed right for the back deck of the restaurant. I crashed into the railing, spun around backwards and then headed toward the trees. I didn’t have a way to slow down, you know?”
“So what happened?”
“I crashed into the top of a No Parking sign over there near the dumpster and got stuck between it and a tree limb. I decided it looked like a pretty good place to park after all.”
The group laughed, and Jake mussed up Jesse’s curly black hair.
“We’re glad you’re okay, Jesse,” said Rita as she adjusted the young man’s shirt collar.
“Thank you, Dusty and Rita. I was afraid when the water went down, I’d be stuck up there.”
“No worries,” Dusty responded.
Flo joined the group, and Jake made the introductions. The water continued to recede, making the conditions a little better around them.
“Crap,” muttered Jake as he suddenly remembered his radio was m
uted. He turned the volume up and the chatter continued.
“Close off the road to Elephant Back Mountain … landslide … report any casualties …”
Jake looked around and saw that several Yellowstone park rangers had arrived. They were directing people to return to high ground and ordered them away from the damaged restaurant.
“Listen, I need to go,” Jake began. He turned to Flo first. “Would you mind escorting Jesse back to his parents. You know the village and can make sure he doesn’t run into any trouble.”
“You got it, Jake. And thank you for saving me.” She gave him a polite kiss on the cheek, which caused him to blush. She took Jesse by the hand, and they made their way to a trail that cut through the pine trees.
Jake rubbed his forehead for a moment and wandered toward the lake. He conducted a mental checklist of everything that he’d observed today to go with the glowing orange thing during the fire. His face started to flush. He was gonna burst if he didn’t tell his story to someone. He turned around and approached Ashby and her friends, who were deep in conversation.
“Excuse me. May I interrupt?”
First, he formally introduced himself to Rita, and then he turned his attention to Ashby. “I really need to talk to you about a few things,” he said nervously, glancing around the parking area as if someone might be listening. “Ashby, something’s wrong here. It’s a gut feeling, but I’m rarely wrong. I’ve got to go to the north side of the lake. Somethings happened there, maybe even a landslide. It may have been a landslide that caused this water to rise, you know, a tsunami, or whatever they wanna call it. If so, my gut is dead on the money.”
Ashby reached over and touched Jake’s arm, which startled him somewhat but had an overall calming effect on his nerves. “You started telling me about it at the YVO. What is it, Jake?”
The constant chatter on the radio provided Jake a sense of urgency, but it also was a pivotal point in his life, he just didn’t know it.