Authors: Everett Peacock
The
gate announcement of another canceled flight interrupted her
concentration. Opening her eyes she noticed a lone bird flying by,
climbing higher and higher. It seemed to be carrying the same song
she had in her heart, carrying it away.
~~~
Several
powerful aftershocks were still pouring out of the earth, shaking
everything off the walls of Dr. Zhung's office. Star had watched
several hundred semi-ripe avocados bomb the parking lot on the first
big shake, as she had trouble standing next to her car.
Even
the doctor's sign had fallen off its evidently rotten post. The
office staff were exiting the old two story wooden structure with
their belongings.
From
around the corner, where the parking lot disappeared into a well kept
lawn, came Janet in a wheelchair, pushed by the doctor himself. A
nurse followed them both with a small shopping bag full of something
she couldn't make out.
Star
rushed over to them even as a smaller trembler rolled a few of the
avocados around the pavement. “Is she OK?”
“
Yes,
yes, she will be fine,” the doctor said, happy to be getting
rid of her, so he could flee as well. “Here, you can have the
wheelchair. We are leaving.” He turned and marched off to his
Mercedes parked in front of the building.
Star
was disgusted to the point of spitting at him as he left, but as she
watched him climb into his car she was pleased to see several large
dents in the roof of his car, no doubt from the avocado rain.
The
nurse with the bag walked up and touched Star on the shoulder gently.
“Look, she will be fine, but she did just give birth. She is
sore, tired and should be watched closely for any excessive
bleeding.”
Star
stared at her with a confused look on her brow.
Handing
her the plastic shopping bag, she added, “These supplies will
keep her for a week. There are pain meds as well.”
The
nurse looked deeply into Star's eyes until she saw a glimmer of
comprehension, then stood back.
“
Good
luck.” She turned and left as well, walking down the long
sidewalks toward the harbor.
Star
turned to Janet and saw her slumped over in the wheelchair, breathing
steadily, but heavily. Grasping the chair she wheeled it over to the
passenger side of her Tercel. She reached over to open the door and
pushed the wheels up against the car, set the chair brake and walked
around to her side.
There
she reached through and tried to get Janet into the passenger seat.
“
Jimmie!
Jimmie, come on and wake up a bit. We have to get going.”
Janet
didn't respond, so Star tapped her on her leg. That must have hurt a
little. Janet moaned in pain a bit and moved her head.
“
Jimmie,
please. I can't lift you. You have to get in...”
Another
sizable aftershock rolled through the area, this one waking Janet.
She looked around a moment and then down to where she was sitting.
“
What
the hell?” She rolled her head around like it was trying to
come loose and then caught Star's eye.
“
Please,
Jimmie, please get in the car right away,” Star pleaded.
Janet
tried pushing herself up from the chair, but the pain dropped her
right back in with a heavy groan.
Sirens
were going off everywhere, including now the civil defense wailing of
an impending emergency. Star turned to look in the direction of
those and saw smoke plumes all over the city. She worried it might
be lava, but quickly dismissed that as silly. Just fires from the
quake probably, knocking over things, gas lines and all that, she
thought.
Janet
pushed herself up again, this time anticipating the pain and powered
through it. She pushed the front seat forward and dragged herself
into the backseat.
Star
had the engine started and as soon as Janet cleared the door she put
it into reverse and quickly backed up. Another tremor was shaking
the trees all around them, this time dropping small branches heavy
with the avocados that were still too green to fall the first few
times.
As
she reversed her car the passenger door slammed shut and the
wheelchair bumped into her side mirror, wedging itself there. Star
was in a bit of a panic at this point. She wasn't about to get out
and pull the wheelchair away, so she reversed up the parking lot. It
was still attached. For some reason it struck her as demonic, a
Stephen King prop.
“
Be
gone! I don't believe in you!” Star screamed, terrified now.
She saw a telephone pole slowing falling across the street, dragging
wires down with it.
Slamming
the car brakes didn't dislodge the chair either. Finally she was
backed all the way back up into the doctors private parking spot.
The wheelchair followed until her rear wheels went up on the curb and
the angle freed the chair from under the mirror.
Star
slammed the gear shift into drive and floored it, until she realized
she was going downhill, and again hit the brakes hard. Janet was
moaning with pain in the back seat with every violent move of the
car. As she stopped again, the wheelchair ran into the back of the
trunk.
“
I
don't believe in you! I don't! Be gone!” Star screamed again,
pushing ahead on the accelerator again. As she moved down the steep
driveway, she looked back in her mirror. The wheelchair was rolling
toward them, weaving slightly left and then right, but following her
nonetheless.
At
the bottom of the driveway she had to stop, going left looked bad. A
block down there were poles crisscrossing the road. As she looked
uphill, to the right, the wheelchair slammed into the trunk again.
“
Shit!”
she quickly spun the steering wheel to the right and floored it.
The front wheel drive spun the tires in a scream themselves before
grabbing and pulling Star and Janet rapidly ahead.
Star
looked in the backseat quickly. Janet was curled up in a fetal
position, moaning softly. She looked back up into her rear view
mirror to see the wheelchair racing down the street in the opposite
direction, toward the intersection below and the downed power lines.
~~~
Alice
and Jack at the Hawaiian Volcanoes Observatories were actively trying
to determine one thing and one thing only. Where would all this
magma exit the earth? Jack was fielding the phone calls from the
high level government types while Alice was gathering as much
information as she could.
Her
seismographs had now recorded seven aftershocks of 5.5 or greater.
Literally hundreds of swarm quakes, measuring around 1.5 to 2.5 were
coloring the graph paper with short little arcs.
The
problem with this, was that all of her seismographs were doing this,
all locations were showing the swarms. She felt like there must be
magma moving under the entire southern flank of Mauna Loa.
“
No
sir, we don't expect Hilo to have any problems. The summit is not
inflating. Stable up there, so we don't foresee any lava exiting to
the east and the airport or the town,” Jack was telling the
Governor on a conference call that included all the other island
mayors as well.
He
walked over to where Alice was busy scribbling a synopsis for him.
She handed him the hand written paper with hands that were incapable
of not shaking.
Jack
looked at her, concerned. He leaned over and kissed her on the top
of her head. “It's going to be fine, Alice.” They both
appreciated the attempt to calm his and her nerves with the soothing
lie.
“
Sir,
our problems are on the southern side of Mauna Loa. We are
experiencing massive magma movement underground in the entire Volcano
village area, through Pahoa, Kapoho and beyond the coastlines.”
Larry
was approaching Halema'uma'u crater at 1000 feet above the ground
level. The clouds around the massive pit were gone, vaporized by the
heat of the venting gases. He figured it looked like at least twice
the volume coming out, but the crater itself was obscured.
“
Jack,
this is Larry over Halema'uma'u. Over.”
Jack
heard his friend calling and put the conference call on standby. “I
have a report from the field now, we managed to launch a motorized
paraglider before the earthquake. He is still airborne and over
Halema'uma'u now...standby.”
Alice
leaped up out of her chair to stand next to Jack, hoping to hear some
news. Jack noticed she had put her hand on his back as she stood
close.
“
Go
ahead, Larry, over.” Jack said, a smile hidden in his voice.
Larry
was staying upwind of the massive plume, careful to avoid any contact
with the sulfuric dioxide super heated gases. Small explosions could
be heard from the half mile wide pit as well.
“
Halema'uma'u
looks to be double the normal volume plume, but the crater is hidden
at the moment. Let me see if I can...”
Jack
and Alice, and even those on the conference call heard the distant
voice on the walkie talkie pause. In such a dangerous situation as
this people got nervous immediately. It was quiet for half a minute.
“
How
is your man there Jack?” Governor Abercrombie asked.
“
Larry,
you got cut off. Say again. Over.”
Larry
couldn't believe his eyes and had to look over his shoulder as he
turned his paraglider again, keeping well upwind. A burst of trade
winds was threatening to push him downwind with the plume but it was
also clearing the mouth of the crater.
“
Jack!
Jack, we've got a problem. The crater is full. I say again, the
crater is full. It even seems to be spilling out the south side!”
Everyone
heard that.
Alice
sat down quickly and grabbed her calculator. They regularly measured
the volume of space occupying Halema'uma'u with lasers, its depth on
a normal day, measured against its current width. As she punched in
the numbers she felt sweat trickling down her back.
“
Roger
that, Larry. Understand the crater is full and spilling over.”
Jack repeated for both Larry and the conference call. “How is
your fuel now? Over.”
Larry
looked down at his gauges and with the current winds, if he wanted to
use any of his preferred landing areas in this wind he had about
twenty five minutes left.
“
Jack,
I've got fifteen minutes left, over.” Larry always kept ten
minutes of fuel to himself. Life insurance.
“
Roger
that Larry. Safe landings! Call me when you are parked. Over.”