By Francis Wait
Chapter One
The phone rang in the middle of the night. Bleary eyed, James groped in the general direction of the bedside table, and picked the phone up, fearful that something awful had happened to either of his kids. “Hello, who’s this ringing at this ungodly hour?”
“Is that James?” The voice sounded vaguely familiar.
“Yes,” James snapped. “Whoever you are, what on earth are you doing ringing me in the middle of the night?”
“James, mate, it’s Rex. Remember me from our army days?”
How could James ever forget? In the invasion of the Falklands he’d crawled out in front of enemy fire and dragged a badly injured Rex to safety.
“What’s this all about?
Listen. I’ve got something vitally important to tell you. Since you saved my life, I’ve owed you one, big time, now I’ve got the chance to save yours.”
“What on earth are you talking about?”
“I need your e-mail address right now. The message I send will explain everything, but you have to act on it as soon as you can. I can’t stress how important this is. The US Government is keeping a lid on something that may end up being globally catastrophic. They know I have access to this shattering information, and it wouldn’t surprise me if someone was watching me right now, so I can’t talk for long. I’m phoning from an outside line here in the States, and when I’ve got your e-mail address I’ll send you some mail from an Internet café in the hope it can’t be tracked down.” “Have you been drinking Rex? This is just ridiculous.”
By now Patricia had woken up. “Who’s that on the phone? It isn’t about the kids is it? Are they all right?”
No, its Rex, remember him? I saved his life when we were in the Falklands. I think he’s having a bit of a funny turn.
“Well put the phone down and get back to sleep.” She mumbled angrily.
Rex must have heard the conversation, “James, James,
listen to me,” he yelled, this isn’t a joke, I’m stone cold sober, this is for real. If you and your family want to stay alive, give me your e-mail address and I’ll send you a message that will explain everything.”
Still unconvinced that this wasn’t a big wind up, James reluctantly told Rex how to get in touch.
“I’m going to send the message right now and I’d urge you to act on it straight away”
All right, I will. Thanks mate.” By now James just wanted Rex to get off the line.
“Oh come on, let’s get back to sleep,” muttered Patricia as she snuggled down.
But James couldn’t get the call out of his mind, so he went to his study and switched on the computer.
“What are you doing?”
Patricia was standing behind him.
“Rex says he’s sending a vitally important e-mail, and we must act on it, as our lives depend on it.”
“He must really be having a funny turn, what utter rubbish. Leave it and come back to bed.”
The computer pinged and ‘One new message’ appeared in the corner of the screen. James clicked on the anonymous words,
‘From your Pal.’
They both read the contents.
“Oh my God,” exclaimed James, turning to Patricia and holding her tight. “This looks as if it’s genuine and if it is we’ve got to change our entire lives.”
Chapter Two
James looked round the room at all his family and friends. He held some sheets of paper in his hands. “Now I want you to take this seriously because it’s frightening to read,” he said holding the sheets up for them all to see.
“This is a secret report from a friend of mine in America; he works in a volcanologist centre close by the Caldera in Yellowstone Park. The authorities in the US have tried to put a secret classification on it to play down the dangers. But this one got out before they reacted to the information. “Now Rex, that’s his name, has written at the bottom of the report that we will have to act as fast as we can. The reason is, because, as you know, there was a minor explosion in Yellowstone, last week. The Volcanologists who work there are of the opinion that if this follows the patterns of other volcanoes, there will be a series of small explosions over a period of months culminating in an enormous one.” He looked round grimly. “If that happens it will threaten the whole world, and it is possible only a few thousand people may survive. That’s right, we could all die.”
“Why don’t you tell them what you want to do?”
It was his wife speaking, and as usual in James’s view, she was trying to get her views in too quickly. James looked steadily at her, she was only a small woman but well able to make her views known. Of Irish descent, she had red hair which needed now, to be dyed, to stay that colour. But she still held all the characteristics that red hair indicated; which included the trait to lose her temper in an almighty explosion if she so chose.
“Instead of butting in, why don’t you let me get to it in my own time, so I can present all the facts as necessary?”
“I agree Patricia, why don’t you let him have his say, then we’ll know whether to argue with him or not.” The Prof spoke louder than normal, in an effort to stop the looming argument. He was a big man who wouldn’t have looked out of place on a rugby field but in fact liked the quiet life on his smallholding in the country.
James had invited him and his wife Julia seated next to him, as they had been friends most of their lives. She tossed her hair which was long and lustrous, as she concurred with her husband. She was a striking looking woman who would never be beautiful, but still managed to make most men look twice at her. “Let’s give James a chance first shall we? I must say I’m intrigued to learn more about this…..explosion. It sounds interesting.”
James nodded his thanks at her choice of words and glared at his wife, daring her to interrupt again, and then started again. “As I said just now this e-mail I got from Rex includes a report from a group of scientists who’ve been studying volcanoes; in particular the one in Yellowstone.” He looked around the room. “Now if you’ll let me, I want to give you some facts about this particular volcano, although to give it a better name, it is a caldera which is left after a volcano explodes with terrifying force and blows the top of the volcano away.”
“Is this going to take long?” His daughter Colette spoke. She was seated next to her husband Richard, a civil engineer. She was a doctor with all the attendant worries of her profession and never seemed to have time for any social life. “Because I was
hoping to go out for a drink and a meal this evening.”
James felt sympathy and annoyance at the same time, because caring for her first child and a job, she was easily stressed so her time was precious. He snapped. “If you’ll let me get on
with this, maybe you’ll be able to get out this evening.”
He ploughed on. “This disaster has been proved to have happened twice in the last 1.2 million years.” He held his hands up to stop the possible disbelief that was going to surface. “It last happened 640,000 years ago and is currently overdue for another explosion by about 40,000 years. Now let me give you some facts and then you can all shout me down.”
“The caldera is 70 miles long by 30 miles wide and is thought to extend six miles down. If that blows, the amount of dust and debris that will spread is mind boggling. A nuclear winter will spread over the whole globe and it is thought that it will last for at least ten years. Crops will fail, and most of the inhabitants of this planet will die of starvation. I can tell you two more facts and that is the last time it happened nothing larger than a dog survived. There has been a great deal of movement in this area with all these explosions, and you heard yourselves about the last one because it was on the TV. Also the ground at one end of the lakes has risen by about a metre. Now let me ask you, how much pressure would have to be applied to raise six miles depth of ground by a metre? It would be impossible to calculate and if those pressures continue, the resulting explosion would be enormous.
Now I want you to think about this and it’s a rhetorical question. In the case of a disaster happening, what’s the first thing that all the people in power who run our lives start to do? And I’m talking about council officials, politicians, forces personnel, civil servants, royalty.” He paused for effect then answered his own question. “They all start to find a place to hide in for as long as necessary and then emerge to take up the reins of power again. Mostly, these people have no real skills that could be useful to anybody trying to run a community that must, in the end, be self sufficient. So I think that the people who could make this work and have the skills to do it are people like doctors, nurses, engineers, scientists, builders, electricians, carpenters, farmers, and teachers, and any person able to bring the ability to work to a community.”
His son-in-law Richard raised his hand. “I can see now why you invited us. I’m an engineer, Colette is a doctor, Andrew a builder, the Prof and Julia are teachers, you’ve even got Victoria, who’s a biologist.”
James grinned; he had at last made some sort of breakthrough and got a discussion started. “Well let’s look at the
problem from the beginning shall we?”
He ticked off the points on his fingers as he spoke. “First, we have to find a place to live. My suggestion is that we erect a very large building and start an indoor farm; I’ve taken the trouble to examine possible places to select and this comes up. I think you’ll agree that it has got to be well away from any other civilisation, so that would rule out most of the northern hemisphere and anyway, the fall out will probably be most severe there. And, as I said, if we get too close to any other human beings they will almost certainly try and take what we have. That is one reason why I think we will have to arm ourselves as well, but more of that later. Most of the southern continents such as South America, Africa and India, I would disqualify for one reason or another. So I think the only viable option I can see would be Australia, somewhere in the Northern Territories.”
One or two of his audience grinned and some frowned, his daughter Colette was the first on her feet. “Do you mean to say you want us all to pack up everything and go with you to some godforsaken wilderness in the outback of Australia? Have you considered at all what this would do to all our lives?
“That’s the whole point, darling,” James retorted, “it might just save your life.”
She didn’t answer but turned to her husband and snapped. “Get your coat on we’re leaving, I’ve never heard so much rubbish coming from dad’s mouth in my life.” She turned to her father and said scornfully, “Why don’t you grow up and stop dreaming, it’s never going to happen.”
She swept out of the room with Richard in tow. He cast an apologetic glance at James before departing. James sighed, he had been counting on her support. Then he stared at the remainder of his audience and asked: “Do any of you feel like that?”
His son, Andrew, who worked with James as a builder, shook his head. “Look dad,” he exclaimed, “I told you at work that Victoria and I are in with you on this. Neither of us is convinced about the disaster happening, but we quite fancy living in Australia so we’re willing to go and give it a try.”
James nodded and said to The Prof, “What’s your take on this?”
The Prof laughed, and nudged his wife. “What do you reckon then, love?”
She chuckled in her turn. “It couldn’t come at a better time could it?” She answered.
Then, turning to James she explained, “We have been discussing moving to a house in Spain but we both like the idea of living in Australia, miles from anywhere. We’ve heard a lot about British citizens who’ve been ripped off by the Spanish and we prefer Australia.”
James frowned, “You never mentioned anything about this to me, when were you thinking of going?”
The Prof shrugged and cast a sideways glance at his wife who smiled and nodded. “In a couple of weeks, we’ve got a buyer for the house and when that goes through we’ll be gone.”
James persisted. “But why, right now?”
The Prof grinned, “I’ll let you know when we meet next time………wherever that is”
He handed James a piece of paper from his pocket, “that’s my new mobile number; I’m getting rid of the old one, now if you’ll excuse us we’ve got a lot of packing to do. Oh, and don’t give that number to anyone else, it’s important.”
They then said their goodbyes and left, leaving James nonplussed, holding a slip of paper in his hand. Patricia sat down in a chair facing him and asked. “Have you any idea of how you’ll persuade Colette to come with us because we aren’t going to leave her behind.”
Shrugging, James answered, “I’ll think of something.”
A few days later the event happened which was to prove the pivotal moment that would change their lives. James got a phone call in the evening just as they finished their meal. It was their son-in-law Richard and the first words he said were, “have you seen the news?”
James shook his head before realising that Richard couldn’t see him, and then answered in the negative. “There’s been a huge explosion in the Yellowstone Park, and it’s killed a lot of people,” Richard blurted out. “But the scientists have predicted that it’s not over yet, they think it can blow again but they don’t know how long before it does. There’s worse to come, I’ve got a text from my brother to tell me he was going to visit there this week during his tour of America. He’s probably dead.”
By this time James had Patricia holding on to his arm as she attempted to listen in to the conversation. He shrugged her off and said tersely, “switch on the TV, there’s been an explosion in the Yellowstone Park and Richard thinks his brother is there.” Patricia held her knuckles over her mouth and did as she was asked. That done, she held out her hand and asked him to hand her the phone. James did so then switched on the news channel. he smiled to himself as it was obvious that although the government agencies in America had tried to keep a cap on it, the news was out. The Yellowstone Caldera was erupting and several thousand people had died. It looked as though the fallout would be large enough to lower the mean temperature of the world a little, but it was nowhere near the eruption that James had anticipated.
Then, as James watched in consternation, the announcer said that although the opinions of the scientists were divided, they all agreed this was just the forerunner of a much larger eruption and it was possible sometime in the next twelve months, the long awaited enormous eruption could occur. He shook his head in despair; they were too late and they had run out of time; he couldn’t carry out his plan to save them all.
His wife put down the telephone and sighed, “Richard is convinced his brother is dead, he said he would have rung by now and he isn’t answering his mobile.”
She slapped him on the arm. “Listen to me; I know you and I know what’s going through your head. You think it’s too late, don’t you? Well it’s not, we can still do it and this time Richard has just said that he and Colette are going to come. This has proved the turning point for them, and the icing on the cake is that she is going to have another baby, so she wants to secure the future for the two children.”
That evening they held another meeting and a very disconsolate Richard attended with his wife. Colette came over to James and, putting her arms around him she said, “I’m sorry for doubting you dad, you were right and I was wrong, we’ve had a phone call from America and Richard’s brother is among the casualties. He’s going to America to his funeral and in the meantime I’m putting our house on the market, so we can come with you.”
After they had all given Richard their condolences they sat down in the lounge. The only persons missing were the Prof and Julia, James had had a hurried phone call from him to say that they were definitely going with them and would be in touch later. James had outlined his plan to the Prof and he had said to count on him financially and he would be in contact in Australia.
Colette started by asking. “Why don’t you bring us up to date on what you were thinking of doing if you go to Australia?”
James nodded. “OK, here’s what I think we should do. I believe we’ll need about 30 people to make it viable,” He held his finger up, “and I do mean people who will be useful, such as farmers and tradesmen, experts in the fields which we’ll need, then we will all have to sell all our property and houses and the money we raise goes into a central pot. We can take containers with our personal possessions in them, and then we must buy some land miles from any other habitation. We’ll need to build a big two-story building with the bottom floor lit by fluorescent lights and the top floor in glass. Now when I say big, I mean very big, probably a 100 yards long by the same wide. When we’ve done that we move in and start growing all our food inside. We’ll have to get all our electricity needs from one of those really large windmill generators, and all our water will have to come from deep underground, although I’m hoping that we can buy
something like a farm that already has a water supply.”
Colette had been listening intently to this and nodding as James spoke. “I can see the windmill and I can see the water supply, but what about the roof? I take it that if the roof is going to be glass, you’ll want to use it as a greenhouse, but surely if there’s that amount of dust about, within a very short space of time it’s going to be knee-deep in dust and it’ll be useless for growing things.”
James smiled; she always had had a gift for putting her finger right on the weakness in an argument. “I take your point,” he answered, “We’ve been using a power washer at work just lately and if we have enough water and electricity, we can clean the roof periodically with one of those.”
Victoria raised her hand. “I’d like to make a comment here, if I may.” James smiled at her. “Go ahead, dear,” he said.
“This is a democracy after all.”
“I have given this a little bit of thought,” she said. “But
surely there’s a lot of things it won’t be possible to grow aren’t there? I mean what about coffee and tea and what will we use for medicine when the supplies run out, and they will if we’re in there for possibly ten years?”
James sighed. “I agree there are a lot of things we can’t grow but we will be able to take some seeds with us that will last for some time so we can grow them in the future. And as for medicine, mankind lasted for a long time using just herbal remedies didn’t they? And don’t forget, Collette is a doctor so I’m sure she can stock enough of the right sorts of medicine to last us. But I admit that in the end, if we will have to ignore things like cancer and sicknesses that can’t be treated, because for us to survive only the fit will be able to live.”
Andrew and Colette looked at each other and Andrew asked, “does that mean that if you’ve got something like aids or cancer you’ll stop them going?”
James shrugged. “More or less I suppose, there doesn’t seem any point in taking somebody who will die anyway.”
Andrew raised his eyebrows at this and said, “I can’t believe you said that dad, you’ve always been someone who’d
take care of people less fortunate than yourself.”
James smiled clasping his hands in front of him, he answered. “Look, it’s simple enough, if we do go and this catastrophe does happen, we’ll be in no position to care for the sick and ill, they’ll drain our resources and if somebody has to look after them they won’t be able to work for the good of the community. And that will be the single most important object in our lives. How would you like it if food or medicine was taken to care for a terminally ill patient and your child needed that medicine? So if we go, I want it clearly understood that no sick or ill person is going. And whilst I’m on the subject, you can forget all the relations and friends you want to invite as well, because our capacity is limited. And for now that’s my last word on the subject.”
James then asked Victoria, “You’re a biologist, do you think it’s possible to grow the amount of food we need?”
The question seemed to amuse her and she answered. “I don’t think you know how many different kinds of biologist there are James, but I will say that I have given some thought to this, and I feel that if we had a large enough area and sufficient growing medium we could grow the crops in troughs about five high and if we kept the seasons right by using lights, we could grow the same crops several times a year to ensure succession. Also hydroponics could play a part as well. And coming to that, have you given any thought to animals, I mean what about cattle, pigs, sheep, chickens, and so on, and not forgetting horses. I know they wouldn’t be much use while we were inside but think of the value if we kept some alive, we might end up with the only horses in the world.”
James nodded; she had started to think along the right lines now, so he carried on and added, “Of course we’ll have to compost everything so we can use the resulting manure for the crops, and a side issue that could come from that is we might be able to produce our own gas from the fermentation process as well. I also thought that we should take as many computers as we can manage, with their programmes, so that we can educate the children for the future, and that goes for books; we’ll probably need a big library because if this catastrophe does occur, all the TV stations in the world are going to close down.
Author Bio:
I was born in Seaford in 1939 and as it was wartime I was evacuated to Manchester to live with my mother’s sister. I came back to live in Seaford in 1950 and lived there for the next 40 tears. I trained as a plasterer and ran my own company for many years. I worked in various countries during my working life and have used some of those experiences in my writing. I married my wife Angela and have two children and three grandchildren. Now happily retired I write for pleasure and have published three books with more to come.
Contact Author:
E.mail: franciswait29@gmail.com
Gripping story about a disaster threatening the whole world.