“Is it over?” Riley whimpered, her face pressed against her brother’s chest as he wrapped his arms around her. A delayed crash answered her question for her, the sound making every one of them wince.
Peeling his arms away from his sister slowly, Chase held her small body as she sank to her knees and wrapped her arms around their grandma instead. Pop was still on his feet, his hand on his wife’s shoulder, so Chase knew this was up to him. Cautiously, he stepped away from the group and inched closer to Riley’s bedroom door. He placed his hand on the doorknob and turned back to look at everyone, waiting. When his grandpop finally gave him a firm nod, Chase looked back and took a deep breath. With a turn of his wrist the door clicked open, blowing backwards to reveal what had become of the room itself.
Riley screamed. Linda sobbed. Pop stared in silence and Chase could only look on in horror. The bedroom was destroyed. One half of the roof had completely collapsed. The solar panels slid down as their support disappeared and smashed through the top half of the concrete walls of the old farmhouse. None of it had been strengthened when they were put in. The roof was incredibly old, and now they had all paid the price for it. The outside wall was reduced to half its height, the brick having fallen away down toward the base of the window fitting, and the roof above it was missing too. Looking upwards, they could all see the dark clouds above them as clearly as if they were standing outside. In that corner of Riley’s bedroom, there was hardly anything left.
Creeping forward, his feet never completely leaving the floor, Chase peered over the edge, half of his body sticking out of what would’ve previously been Riley’s bedroom window. There was no other way of putting it: there was a giant, gaping hole in the side of their house now. Pipes and wiring that had run through the wall lay frayed and broken. Bricks and mortar dirtied every surface and far on the ground below was Riley’s bed. Chase swallowed. She could’ve died. If this had happened in the middle of the night, Riley could’ve very well been asleep in that bed. Stepping backwards and away from the edge, Chase reminded himself just how lucky his family still was. After everything, after all they had lost, they were still alive. It was touch and go at times, but for now, there was still air in their lungs.
Chapter 8
The closer they got to the little hamlet of houses, the more worried Mia started to become about what they might find there. The ground underfoot was wet and stuck to her shoes, evidence that the powerful lahars had swept through. Probably close to ten percent of the buildings were damaged as a result of it too, though some were much worse off than others. Both Angelica and Michael held their breath as they approached, frightened of what they might find.
A young boy was the first person who spotted their group approaching. He stopped chasing after the ball he had kicked and stood still, his mouth open as he watched them. Mia could imagine it was a strange sight. Naturally those who lived here came and went as they pleased, but a rag-tag group of nine people with cloths covering half their faces turning up after a volcano had erupted nearby and slurries of water had decimated his home was not an everyday occurrence.
“Hey, Billy!” Michael called over to the boy, Billy’s expression changing as Michael tugged down his sweater and showed his face so Billy could recognize the man. “Where’s your momma at, kid? She around?”
“Sure, Mike,” Billy waved back. “She’s down at the shop with everyone else. They’re trying to figure out what to do.”
“What’s happened?” Michael questioned as their group walked closer, no longer having to shout at Billy. “Is everyone okay?”
Billy shook his head. “People died, Mike. They’re trying to collect all the bodies.”
Michael froze. He turned and quickly glanced at Angelica, before ripping the sweater completely from his face so he could breathe more easily and sprinting off into the collection of houses. It didn’t take much to figure out where he was going. His family. His mother. People had died within the village and Michael needed to find out if she was one of them.
Everyone watched him with such surprised expressions on their faces. Angelica didn’t move. It was like she didn’t know what to do, her mind torn as she looked from Billy to her home just off in the distance. Mia stepped forward, knowing she had to do something. They needed to see what was left of the village and who was still alive.
“Hey, Billy,” she smiled “My name is Mia. Are you okay?”
Billy nodded, his confidence gone now that Michael had taken off. Mia picked her words carefully with him though. She needed to get to the bottom of what had happened, but she didn’t want to make things any harder for the young boy.
“Can you take us to everyone else, Billy? We want to see if we can help you.”
“Okay,” Billy eventually replied. “It’s this way.”
Walking behind the young boy, everyone kept extremely quiet. Mia had been right earlier; there weren’t more than fifty buildings. Most of them were houses with the addition of a few necessary stores: an all-purpose shop where she guessed everyone bought their dried food and essentials, a butcher and greengrocer, a newsstand, and a small craft store. That was it. That was all there was. And even then, a large chunk of it had been destroyed.
Billy narrated their small trip through the village as they walked, pointing out different buildings on either side of the street as they went. He was clearly terrified by what was going on, but talking seemed to make him feel more relaxed. His tone changed when they moved onto one specific street though, hardly anything remaining of the houses that had once lined it.
“And this was my Aunt Nancy’s house,” he spoke as they turned a corner, pointing to a pile of rubble on the ground. “This is where everything got really bad. Her whole place was flooded on the ground floor by those dirty rivers and she got trapped inside upstairs. Then the house came down...” Billy trailed off. “She didn’t make it out alive.”
The gravity of what Billy was referring to hit Mia and the rest of the group like a ton of bricks. People had died within the village and now a boy of no more than thirteen years was explaining it to them. He was just the same age as Riley. How much had she witnessed of similar events? It chilled Mia to her very core to imagine Riley in this boy’s position. She wanted nothing more than to be with her family again and know they were safe.
Pulling her cell from her pocket, Mia switched the device on and waited for it to power up as they continued to walk. She could already see the rest of the village inhabitants crowded around the steps of some building ahead of her, the journey lasting no more than a couple of minutes. As soon as the screen illuminated in white, the first thing Mia noticed was that now she had no cell reception. Unsurprising. In such a rural area like where they were, she wouldn’t have expected it even on a normal day, much less after everything that had happened. Very quickly, she pulled up the notes section where she’d typed out the message to her family during her time in the airport and started to type.
Update: I’ve spent a couple of days at the airport now and already the effects of this eruption are bigger than I’d expected. Lahars have swept through the countryside around Helena and destroyed not only the landscape, but countless lives as well. I’ve seen dozens of people killed and can only expect more will cross my path in the coming days.
There’s a group of us who have started the journey back home now. It will probably take several weeks to get there, as I’ve planned a route that takes us along the west coast before cutting under Yellowstone. I’ll keep coming though. Please, just stay where you are and I will come for you. It’s hard to describe what I’ve seen so far, but I’ll tell you all about it when I see you again. Please, please, just stay inside. Don’t try and go outside and don’t try and be a hero. This is bigger than all of us and there’s nothing anyone can do to reverse what has happened.
I love you all so much, stay strong and stay safe. Mia x
Signing off, Mia felt tears clouding her eyes and blinked rapidly to get rid of them as Billy brought their group
to a halt in front of the steps. Several of the adults had already seen them walking toward them and stopped what they were doing. A couple of them now looked to Billy for answers, their faces unreadable in this time of disaster.
“William!” A woman stepped out of the group and addressed Billy, her hands on her hips as she scolded the boy. “Where have you been?”
“I’m okay, Mom,” Billy replied. “These guys came from the airport with Mike and Angie; they’ve both just gone to see their mom.”
Mia looked around and noticed that Angelica had peeled off as they arrived with Billy. She still hadn’t exchanged more than a couple of words with either of the former airport employees, but was aware Patrick had shared a long conversation with Michael on their walk down. Her initial perceptions of both of them weren’t positive though, and despite how much she knew it was wrong, Mia was aware how much her original perceptions of people stuck with her. She just hoped the rest of the people Michael and Angelica shared a home with were slightly more welcoming and forthcoming with their support. Though looking around the place, she could see that she shouldn’t expect very much.
“Hey,” Mia stepped forward, pulling down the scarf around her mouth so it was visible and holding out her hand to Billy’s mother so she could shake it. “It’s nice to meet you. Is everything okay? What happened here? Did...”
“Oh, Billy,” the woman replied, ignoring Mia’s introduction altogether. “Please don’t go running off like that. Especially not now. I’m sorry,” she continued, turning to Mia eventually, “who are you?”
“Sorry,” Mia replied. “My name is Mia. We’ve come down from the airport with Michael and Angelica.”
“Are they both okay?” Another woman stepped forward, interrupting the conversation. “Where are they?”
“They’ve gone to see their mother, I think,” Mia replied. “Please, can someone explain what happened here?”
“Isn’t it obvious what happened!” Billy’s mother suddenly exploded, the stress of the situation boiling over inside her. “Half of the village has died! Those waters tore through here like a tsunami and crushed all our houses. Everyone who isn’t dead is getting sick and now you lot come in here, wandering around asking questions like you own the place! Can’t you see we’ve got enough on our plates?”
“Lizzie,” the second woman spoke up, placing a hand on Billy’s mother’s shoulder. “Calm down, it’s not their fault.”
“I know,” Lizzie replied, hanging her head. The woman was close to tears; Mia could tell she didn’t need to be the source of any more answers. It was probably best she was left alone for now. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay,” the other woman soothed her. “Why don’t you go inside for a bit? Get yourself cleaned up.”
Lizzie nodded and slunk away, Billy’s hand grasped firmly in her own. To Mia’s surprise, she saw Jorge run after the woman, offering her his arm as he walked her to her house. Jorge had always had a fondness for the opposite sex, but he seemed to be treating Lizzie like much more of a lady than he normally did his conquests. Perhaps the Spaniard was changing, learning that he really did need to care about other people in order to survive himself.
“Sorry about that,” the second woman continued. “She’s not normally like that. Lizzie just lost her husband. He drowned in the water.”
“Oh,” Mia faltered. She hadn’t expected that. “I’m sorry,” she repeated for what felt like the hundredth time. “I didn’t know.”
“How could you?” the woman answered, shaking her head and dismissing Mia’s apology. “A lot has gone on here in the last day or so. My name is Deb, by the way. That’s Stuart, Ethan, and his son, Miles, over there. Tom and Brady are also around somewhere, and a young girl called Kim, who I think is with Mike’s mom. Everyone else is gone.”
“It’s nice to meet you,” Mia replied, stumbling over her words again. It sounded like the small village had lost so many already, and by the appearance of the people left around her, she suspected they might lose a couple more too. “I’m Mia—and the first thing I need to tell you is please, find something to cover your mouth with.” It hadn’t gone unnoticed by Mia that everyone around her was breathing in the toxic air. So close to the eruption site that was extremely dangerous and she worried about what they might have breathed in already.
Deb looked at her with a worried expression and pulled up her T-shirt, covering her nose and mouth. The other people from her village did the same too, all quite clearly listening in to the conversation. They even took a step forward as they did so, finally revealing to Mia the horror that their bodies had been hiding. The bodies. There had to be over thirty of them, all piled together in a heap at the bottom of a set of steps. It was gruesome, but Mia could tell instantly that it was the best thing anyone left in the village had been able to do. She had struggled enough seeing the bodies of the people she’d only known for a few hours at the airport. Seeing people who you lived so closely with die must have been a soul-destroying moment.
“Dude,” Mia heard one of the three college students mutter behind her, the sight of the bodies clearly affecting them all.
Mia coughed. “The air around here is likely toxic,” she continued, knowing that no one would want to talk about what they’d just noticed. “If you can, keep your mouths covered at all times. It’s probably best to avoid the water too; I imagine that has turned toxic here as well.”
“It has,” one of the men—Stuart—spoke up. “When those dirty rivers swept through here, killing most of our friends and destroying our houses, the water pipes were damaged as well. Any time you run a faucet or flush the toilet now, the water that comes out is brown and murky. It doesn’t look like it’s safe to drink, but none of us are sure how to test it.”
“Yep,” Mia nodded. “You don’t want to drink that. I think we should evacuate this place immediately to be honest. It’s too dangerous for anyone to stay here.”
“Whoa, whoa, hold up!” Ethan stepped forward to argue, uncomfortable with what Mia was suggesting. “We can’t just evacuate. I lost my wife and two daughters no more than a day ago. I can’t just leave this whole place behind because of that.”
“If you want to live,” Mia started, trying to choose her words carefully so she relayed to the people how serious this was without making them feel insignificant. “Look,” she explained, “I’m a volcanologist. I’ve studied this sort of thing my entire life. It’s not going to be safe to stay here. I understand that it’s hard, but we have to leave as soon as possible. Trust me when I say things will only get worse if you stay behind.”
“Jeez,” Ethan breathed, opening his mouth to reply when the group of them saw Michael approaching in the distance and stopped. “Mike, man!” Ethan changed his demeanor immediately. “Are you okay? How’s your mom?”
“She’s okay, thanks mate,” Michael replied to Ethan. “I can’t believe it though. Is this really all that’s left?”
“Yeah,” Ethan shook his head. “And now she’s saying that our water is contaminated too and that we should all leave.”
Michael looked to Mia, waiting for an explanation. “I can’t say for sure until I see a sample,” she started, “but I’m pretty sure it won’t be safe. Nothing is this close to the blast site. We need to get out of here. Where does your water come from?” Mia asked, not directing the question to anyone in particular.
“We’ve got a reservoir,” Michael replied. “Farther up in the valley.”
Mia nodded again. That wasn’t good. She was beginning to understand what was happening to the small village below the airport, and while everyone thought the lahars hitting it was the worst that could’ve happened, something even worse had probably already occurred. Their reservoir was contaminated. Volcanic ash had likely settled on the surface of the water and was now flooding through their pipes and out into the village.
There was no chance the people who lived here could stay behind any longer. If they drank the water they would die. Heck, if they
continued to breathe the air without filtering it somehow, they would die. It might not be instant, but it would happen eventually. They would all have to evacuate or risk dooming themselves forever. The only issue now was, how was Mia going to convince them all to leave?
Chapter 9
“Oh my word! Chase, get away from there!”
Linda clung to her husband’s body, using his strength to help pull herself to her feet. By the time she was standing, Chase had obliged and had moved much farther from the huge hole that was now in the side of her home. She couldn’t believe it. Staggering forward, though Jerry kept a firm grip on her arm, Linda edged closer to what had not long ago been her thirteen-year-old granddaughter’s bedroom. The reality of it chilled Linda to her very core.
Her home was destroyed. Riley’s bed lay in splinters on the ground below, the rain still pounding down on it with no regard for the damage it had already done. The ceiling—or what was left of it—hung at a strange angle. It was wet to touch and the drywall felt soggy, like it could tear and fall apart even further at any minute. The whole room was ruined. There was no living in it. There was no saving it. There was no hope. With a sob, Linda curled her body into her husband’s and rested her forehead against his chest. This was too much. She had tried to remain strong for her family, but this was just too much for her to handle in one day.
“It’s okay, Grandma,” Chase said softly from the side of her. “We can fix this. Don’t worry.”
Appreciating her grandson’s words but unable to acknowledge them just then, Linda only sobbed harder. She knew he was only trying to make her feel better, but they were words she wasn’t ready to hear. She’d lived in the farmhouse ever since the day she’d married Jerry. Over fifty years had passed since that day and not once had she ever had a bad word to say about the place. They’d been through it all. Hard years of labor, parenthood, grandparenthood, and more. And now, after all that, it was rainwater that had brought them to their knees.
Escaping Darkness (Book 2): The Cloud Page 6