By Francis Wait
Synopsis of the book: In earth’s history there have been several eruptions that literally wiped out almost the entire population of the earth. One such is the eruption of the Yellowstone Caldera in America. In the last 1.2 million years it has exploded twice with devastating force that resulted in the earth descending into so-called Nuclear Winter. During this time the sun is blocked out by the volcanic dust and no crops can grow or animals survive. Geologists have proved that this happens on a regular cycle of about 600,000 years. The last time this happened was 640,000 years ago when nothing larger than a dog survived. So the world is overdue for another enormous disaster, but when? Nobody knows. Very few in the world have taken the trouble to prepare for this cataclysmic event. But there is one man who truly believes that it will happen in our lifetime. He finds out that the US Government is in possession of secret reports predicting the disaster will happen soon, but he knows that they will be looking to save themselves rather than the general public. He prepares to survive this event and convinces his family and friends to take action to survive this cataclysmic event. This is the story of how he solves the problem of survival when the largest volcanic explosion in the earth’s history happens.
Excerpt from The Survivalists by Francis Wait
Chapter Two
James looked round the room at all his family and friends gathered in his lounge. 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 and 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 one more fact 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, Patrick’s girlfriend who’s a biologist.”
Victoria smiled in acknowledgement to being included in this family gathering.
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 with you in 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 would 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 as a group, 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 may be dead.”
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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 built my own house in Belgium but sadly lost it due to the tax situation which I didn’t understand. I married my wife Angela in 1966 and have two children and three grandchildren. Now retired I write for pleasure and have published three books with more to come.
Contact Author:
Email: franciswait29@gmail.com
