by Shawn Inmon
Joe’s heart leapt. Yes! On the right track.
“They didn’t happen to say how far they were going, did they?”
Merlin shook his head. “No. From the looks of them, I didn’t figure them for long-distance hikers, though. They looked pretty peaked.”
“Thank you so much, I’m trying to catch up with them. Glad I’m not too far behind.”
Joe turned to leave, then he hesitated and turned back. “Listen, you folks are so nice, I know you’re not going to believe me, but I’m gonna tell you anyway.”
Merlin leaned forward in his lawn chair, causing it to creak ominously. “What’s that?”
“The mountain’s about to blow.”
“Oh, I’m sure it is, but no one knows when. In the scope of a mountain, a thousand years isn’t even the blink of an eye. I don’t expect one day to make all that much difference.”
“Unless it’s this day,” Joe said. Something about his tone pricked up the ears of both Merlin and Sapphire. “Listen, I don’t expect you to believe me, because if I was sitting where you are, I wouldn’t. But, I wanted to give you a shot. For the sake of your kids, I’d pack up now and not stop moving until I got out of the blast area.”
“Then why are you moving directly toward the mountain?”
“Because I’ve got idiots for friends.”
“Having met them, I can’t disagree.” Merlin and Sapphire exchanged meaningful glances. “Thank you for the warning.”
“Thanks for the skeeter spray. Much appreciated.” Joe tipped them a two-finger salute and walked back toward the path. Once he was a hundred steps away, he turned and looked back at the small camp. They were breaking it down, getting ready to leave.
Chapter Seventeen
Joe hiked on. The sounds around him, once bright and cheerful, quieted some. Dusk had fully arrived, and night wasn’t far behind. He pulled his flashlight out of his backpack and turned it on to make sure it was working. A comforting white beam cut through the encroaching darkness. He switched it off to save the batteries, but carried it with him.
Joe didn’t see any other signs of people. Even on a nice weekend with beautiful weather, the rumblings and earthquakes had scared off many of the would-be nature lovers. Several times, he saw spur paths that moved off from the main trail. When he came to each of them, he would walk fifty or a hundred yards down it and call out, but he never heard a sound except for the occasional echo.
Darkness fell so gradually that he tripped over a rock in the path before he realized that he couldn’t see the path in front of him. He flicked the flashlight on and followed its beam step after step and eventually mile after mile. He tried to do the math to figure out how long he could hike toward the mountain before he reached the point of no return. He estimated that he could hike in until 1:00 a.m. and still have time to turn around and get to a safe distance before it blew.
In the darkness, his pace slowed, and he covered less and less with each passing hour. He shone the flashlight on his wristwatch. It read half past midnight, and he sat down in the middle of the path. His batteries were fading, and he was tripping and stumbling more and more often. He pulled the replacement batteries out of his pack and had a moment’s panic when he realized he hadn’t double-checked to make sure whether or not the flashlight took C or D batteries.
He blew out a breath of relief when the batteries that fell out of the flashlight matched the ones he had brought with him. Wouldn’t that have been just great, though? Stumbling along the path in the dark, trying to get out of here before I get blown to bits.
He screwed the cap back on and the white beam of light cut through the midnight blackness in a most satisfying way. He turned the light off, though, and sat in the cathedral quiet of the forest. He took his last sandwich out of his pack, devoured it, and washed it down with water from his canteen. It was no longer cool, and now only tasted stale.
I hate it, but I think it’s time to give up on this adventure. I don’t want to leave them here to die, but they made their choice. If I can’t find them, I can’t find them.
He slung his pack over his back and stood up again. Weariness washed over him.
What I’d really like to do is lay down and take a nap. Close my eyes for just a minute, then fall deep asleep and wake up, when exactly? What if I die while I am tilting at this windmill? Then where am I? Do I wake up back in 1978, or does this fulfill some karmic debt so I’m allowed to go on to whatever is next? No idea, but I don’t want to find out.
Joe took a deep breath, flicked the flashlight back on, and walked back the way he came. After a quarter mile or so, he paused, turned the flashlight on his watch. It still read 12:30.
Shit!
He peered at it more closely and saw that the sweep second hand wasn’t moving.
Oh, God. No way to know how long it’s been stopped. It could be one o’clock, or it could be three o’clock. I’ve completely lost track of time.
He swiveled around to the east to see if there was any hint of dawn. There was only darkness.
Joe put his hand against his chest, trying to calm both his breathing and his hammering heart.
Have I come out here on a fool’s errand, and now I’m going to kill myself? Standing here worrying about it doesn’t get me any further away, that’s for sure.
Slightly panicked now, he began retracing his steps. Almost immediately, he missed seeing a tree root stretched across the trail in his bouncing flashlight beam. It grabbed his left shoe and he pitched forward, hitting the dirt with an explosion of breath and curses. He laid his head against the cool dirt.
That’s not gonna help, either.
He gathered himself for just a few moments, pushed up onto all fours, then stood and dusted himself off.
Nothing broken.
He began alternating the flashlight beam ahead of him a few yards, looking for obstacles, then dropping it back down immediately in front of him. That worked better, and he made more efficient time, but he was still moving slower than he had been on the way in.
After what seemed like hours hiking back, but was probably closer to only thirty minutes, he saw the glow of a campfire off to his left. It was at the end of a small spur trail that he had missed the first time by.
Who the hell still has a campfire burning in the middle of the night, or this time of morning?
A thin, high-pitched laugh wafted across the night air. The distinct, stoned laugh of JD McManus.
Joe shook his head. At this point, I don’t even care anymore. They’ll only slow me down.
He took several steps back up the trail, but drew to a stop.
And then all this, risking my life, was for nothing.
He turned around and looked for the small path. He found it and jogged ahead too quickly, getting whipped by branches and blackberry vines that scratched against his jeans and mosquito-bit arms.
He stumbled into a small clearing and face to face with JD and Bobby, who were in the midst of passing a joint. They wouldn’t have been more surprised if Bigfoot himself had strolled into their camp.
“Joe? What the hell?”
“Listen,” Joe said, trying to catch his wind. “I’ve risked my life to come out here and give you assholes one more chance to see another birthday. At this point, I don’t care if you follow me or not. But, the mountain is gonna blow in just a few hours. At least, I hope it’s hours.” He looked at the first sign of pinks and purples in the eastern sky. “Do either of you guys know what time it is?”
JD and Bobby looked at each other, then comically gawked at their wrists, which were bare. Wide-eyed, they shook their heads.
“Damn. I never get up early enough to know what time the sun comes up.”
“Oh, I stay up this late almost every night,” JD said. “It comes up around 5:30.”
Joe looked at the brightening sky, and said, “Must be around 5:00 or 5:15, then. Shit. Listen, I’m leaving. If you guys want to live, you better haul ass with me. If not, it’s been nice knowing
ya, but I’m out of here.”
“Man, you’ve convinced me. If you’d drag your ass out of Middle Falls and all the way up here just to tell us this, I believe you. We really thought you were just trying to scare us the other night.”
“At least it’s light enough now, we’ll be able to see where we’re going,” Joe said. “I about killed myself looking for you guys last night.”
“You’ve been looking for us all night?”
“Yes, and it’s all for nothing if we don’t get a move on. Come on, let’s go.
Chapter Eighteen
“Leave all this stuff,” Joe said, casting a nervous eye in the direction of the mountain.
“What? No way, man? This is all my dad’s camping gear. He’d kill me if I didn’t bring it back,” Bobby said. He stood up, stretched, and looked around at their campground. “Too bad we have to leave, this was an awesome spot. We’ve gotta come back here soon.”
“No one’s going to come back here for a long time. Every tree around us will be blown down like matchsticks in the first blast. A tremendous lahar, made up of melted snow and ice, mixed with mud, will blow through here, wiping out all traces of life as you see it. In a few hours, this place will be as lifeless as the surface of the moon.”
“Man, you’re all fired up. You’re like one of those old school biblical prophesiers or whatever. Okay, okay, I’ll hurry and get packed up.”
Bobby’s idea of hurrying, when compared to the life and death clock ticking its doomsday countdown in Joe’s head, was not hurrying at all. He dismantled the tent, rolled it up and slipped it back inside the orange bag it came in. Joe ran around the area, throwing things into their backpacks, but in the end, he probably just slowed the process down more.
Finally, he couldn’t take it anymore. The sun was above the horizon, now, and he felt doom descending on them minute by minute. “Dudes, come on, we’ve gotta haul ass out of here.” He looked at JD, slightly bent over by the weight of the backpack that rose above his head, and canvas bag he was carrying.
Joe grabbed the bags each of them were carrying to more evenly distribute the weight among the three of them, then moved out. When he reached the trail, he turned left and double-timed it. Each step he took away from the mountain, he felt a little better.
We’re gonna make it. God help us, I think we’re gonna make it.
Joe glanced behind him and saw that he was already fifty yards ahead of JD and Bobby.
To hell with it. I’ve done every damned thing I can to save them. If they want to die this bad, that’s on them. I’ve already done en-uuuunnnnhhh.
Glancing over his shoulder, Joe hadn’t watched where he was going. He fell face-first at double speed. Both his hands were carrying bags, so he couldn’t catch himself. He turned his body to try to absorb most of the fall. He landed shoulder-first in the dirt, then his head slammed into a small rock outcropping with a sickening crack.
Joe’s eyes fluttered, then rolled up.
When he opened his eyes again, everything seemed brighter, but that may have only been the stars he was seeing.
“Dude. If you try and go that fast, you’re gonna kill yourself,” JD said.
If you only knew.
Joe shook his head, but that was a mistake. He rolled over and threw up a thin ribbon of vomit onto the dirt.
“Whoa, take it easy. You’re bleeding. Pretty sure you shouldn’t move for a while,” Bobby added.
Joe cleared his throat and spat, then found his own backpack, retrieved the canteen, and washed his mouth out with water, and spat again.
Joe strove to keep his voice even. “If I don’t move, we’re all dead. I don’t remember exactly what time it’s gonna blow, but it’s full daylight now, so it can’t be long. Any idea how far it is to the parking lot?”
Bobby shrugged. “No idea. I’m not exactly Grizzly Adams, you know.”
“This is not news,” Joe said, gingerly touching his hand against his head, just above his right ear. It came away sticky and red. “Okay. I’m gonna have a splitting headache for a while. But, the truth is, it’s not going to matter if we don’t get to our vehicles and put some miles between us and the mountain. I hate to do it, but I’m not gonna wait for you guys any more. If you want to weigh yourself down with crap, go ahead. I’m getting the hell out of here while I still can.”
A brief conversation later, JD and Bobby stashed all their gear behind a big tree that had been struck by lightning a few years previous.
“You’re spooking me now, man. I can remember where this tree is and come back and get Dad’s gear next weekend,” JD said.
“Finally. You should have been spooked a long time ago. Let’s go.”
The three of them set off at a jog. The bouncing jog made Joe constantly nauseous, and he stopped one more time to vomit. Aside from that, they kept a steady pace that ate up the distance to their vehicles. When they passed Merlin and Sapphire’s camp, Joe was happy to see it was deserted.
Strangers listen to me? My supposed best friends? No way.
They turned a corner and ran into the parking lot, panting and out of breath. Joe looked at the same vista of the mountain he had admired the night before. It looked as peaceful now as it had then, its snow cone top undisturbed.
“Let’s get out of here. Once we get to the freeway, let’s stop at a gas station. The wind’s blowing northeast, but still, everything within a hundred miles of the mountain is going to be covered in heavy ash fall very soon.”
Bobby opened his mouth to say something, but whatever his words were, they were drowned out by a deep rumbling from the east. The ground under their feet vibrated and bounced.
“Oh, God, it’s too late!” Joe shouted, knowing his words too, would go unheard.
As quickly as it started, both the rumbling and earthquake stopped.
Into the silence, Joe said, “That’s it, boys, that’s the beginning.”
They turned to stare at the mountain and watched as the whole northern side collapsed and slid away as if solid dirt and rock had been instantaneously liquefied. Immediately, steam, ash, and dirt shot skyward in a massive column.
Bobby and JD turned to Joe. “Shit, man, I didn’t believe you!”
Joe ignored him and jumped for the Olds. He fumbled with his key to get in, but eventually managed it. He slid behind the wheel and started the car. He slammed it into reverse and turned toward the road. He felt an onrushing heat and the ash fall covered his windshield faster than the wipers could move it. He hit the window wash spray, but that only smeared the whole gray mess. The ash was hot and sizzled slightly as it hit the moisture of the washer fluid.
The car became unbearably hot, but Joe knew he couldn’t open the window. Chaos swirled around him. To his right, a doe leaped ahead of him, running for its life.
Godspeed and good luck, deer.
He turned the wipers on high, but they had little effect. He was essentially driving blind.
It’s like I got dropped down inside a snow globe filled with dirt and ash. I think I’m screwed.
He made it back to the bridge that crossed the Toutle River. There was debris partially blocking it, and he had to slow to maneuver around it. He glanced in his side mirror and saw JD’s pickup right behind him, riding his bumper.
Guess they’re finally in a hurry.
He glanced to his left. A massive wall of brown water, debris, and sludge washed toward him at an incredible speed.
Oh, God.
Chapter Nineteen
Joe Hart opened his eyes and coughed violently. He felt dizzy and his shirt clung to him damply. He looked wildly around him, but all was calm.
He was sitting on his couch, back in the house he had shared with his mother.
Whoa. It happened just like she said it would. I’m right back here, like a save point in a video game. Holy crap, what a rush. I never want to do that again. In the list of bad ways to die, I’m going to add getting caught up in a volcanic blast.
He swung his feet
to the floor, stood up and walked to the window that looked out on the back yard. There were freshly-turned flower beds, newly planted flowers, and he could still see a few spots where his mother’s ashes were visible. How about you, Mom? Are you in a loop like this, too? If you are, I hope that loop took you back before Dad left on that tour. Otherwise you’re going to be miserable.
He walked around the house, not surprised by the condition he found it in this time.
“Well, crap,” he mumbled. “All that work I did is out the door. That’s discouraging.”
Might as well make the best of it, though. First life, I learned a few things, even if I didn’t do much. Second life, what did I learn? I guess maybe I learned if people want to be stupid, I’ve gotta just let them be stupid. Doesn’t mean I can’t change things, it just means I’ve got to let people find their own destiny. If I try to change it, they’ll do it any way, and they’ll just take me down with them.
He looked in the bathroom, which was just as filthy as it had been the last time he woke up here.
I can clean this up again. That’s no big deal. But I don’t know if I can stand to do all the work around here I did the first time.
With a resigned sigh, he went to the closet and retrieved a bucket, mop, and some Comet cleanser and went to work.
He was bent over the bathtub, scrubbing at the black grime, when he heard the front door open.
“Yo, yo, yo, Joe!”
Joe poked his head out of the bathroom. JD and Bobby.
Of course. Just a few minutes ago, you were hightailing it away from the eruption, and now here you are again, fresh as the morning dew.
Bobby took in Joe’s appearance, from the cleaner in his hands, to his plastic gloves. “You okay, dude? Did something turn you into Betty Crocker or something?” His high pitched giggle filled the house. “Is it still copacetic if we watch the game here? Your TV’s a lot better than the one at my house.”