Escape

Smoke filled the air. Suddenly you couldn’t see more than a foot in front of the car. It seemed as though a smoke blizzard was occurring.

“Turn on the lights!”

“They are on! No help whatsoever.” John hunched over the steering wheel, eyes screwed down to slits as he drove.

I looked out the side window, the back window, the other side window. Our dog cowered under my seat.

“Is it getting worse?” The road disappeared then reappeared with each turn of the car’s wheels.

A large boom answered me. Flashes of lightning lit the smoke, bits of ash blew over the windshield.

“We’ve gotta make a run for it - drive faster!”

“Michelle, can you not see that is what I’m trying to do?? Oh, my bad, you cannot SEE because there is a VOLCANO erupting!!”

The car sputtered, went a few more feet, then died.

We sat in the safety of our metal shell. Ash rained down around us.

“What do we do now?” My anxiety started to make me whine like a child. I needed some reassurance.

John grabbed my hand, looked me in the eyes, “It’s going to be alright. Get the blankets. Get the water. Get the dog. We’re not going to sit in this metal coffin. We have to walk.”

So we did what John said. We grabbed the dog and water bottles. We wrapped ourselves in blankets. We started walking, not knowing for sure where or how we’d ever get to safety.

Ash fell around us, then fire-laden dust started to fall. The air was so thick, we had to wrap the blankets over our faces as the dog snuggled down into my coat. We stumbled about, not sure where the road led us, or if we were even on the road.

Then it started - rivulets of molten lava started to meet us. Small fingers of lava, red steaming melted rock, reached our feet. The small fingers soon turned to larger streams. We tried to walk around the lava flows, but soon were jumping and running, trying to beat the inevitable of being consumed with rivers of the stuff. I dumped water on our heads, hoping to cool us off just a bit.

Eventually we made it past the worst of the lava flow. The ash lessened, the smoke cleared a bit. John and I stopped for a rest.

“Are we out of danger?”

“I don’t know, Michelle. Perhaps we’re a little ways out, but we gotta keep moving!” He started the march again.

I looked down to see the soles of my boots dripping on the pavement.

“Move it! Let’s go!”

I ran, and as I ran, the soles of my boots fell apart. I now was running on the insoles.

After some time we reached a cabin. I fell up the steps onto the porch. From the porch we could see the volcano. The lava flow had stopped, but it still emitted great belches of smoke.

John laid down beside me. The dog wiggled out of the blanket. We breathed a sigh of relief.

Then it started. Animals. All sorts of animals came running by. Elk, moose, deer, antelope were the ungulates. A coyote and wolf dashed past. I think I saw a badger and a wolverine. Then came rabbits, skunks, ground squirrels, marmots, mice, and tree squirrels. Were they all escaping the volcano and its lava? Or the grizzly bear that brought up the rear?


WC 574