“So you’ve been here the whole time? Two weeks?” Madison asked.
“Seventeen days to be exact.”
That caught my attention, after looking around, seeing how they impressively had their survival act together, I faced him. “Are you’re stuck here?” I asked.
He shook his head. “The plane is. We’re not.”
Madison looked at him with a confused expression. “I don’t understand. Why didn’t you leave?’
“If I had, I wouldn’t have been here to help Ruth, would I?” He forced a closed mouth smile then turned serious. “There’s more to it. Right now, let’s get you settled and we’ll talk.”
Reluctantly, I agreed. A part of me wanted to tell him to talk and explain, but what was the rush? Darkness was fast approaching and there was nowhere else to go. We were there for the duration.
At least finally, I would get some answers to what happened. At least I hoped I would.
EIGHTEEN – DANCING ON THE EDGE
Seventeen days earlier something happened to the United States, maybe even the world. I was buried in a hole while most of the world tried to assess the damage, survive other events. At least that was what I was beginning to think.
His name was Doug and he was the pilot of Flight 2472, Dallas to Seattle. Doug was formerly in the Air Force reserves, but served actively on a volunteer disaster emergency task force. In fact, he had a simulation seminar in San Francisco the day after the event. Obviously, Doug never made it.
He informed us that for sanitation and safety issues, they were attempting to keep the camp as clean and ash free as possible. Because of that, we had to leave our belongings outside of the perimeter. At least the clothing and blankets. Anything that would hold the ash. My notebook and remaining supply of booze bottles were permitted.
He showed us to an area behind the plane. There were more airline seats. Not as many, and a tent structure that was only a little wider than a port-a-john perched on the edge of the clean perimeter. I quickly learned it wasn’t an outhouse, but rather a shower or rinsing room. A barrel marked, ‘water’ was next to it. Stepping inside, the floor was slanted to allow the water to run out away from the clean area. Doug sought out clothes for us while we rinsed away the ash. It took a while, the water was so cold I lost my breath, but it was fantastic to feel clean again.
I waited for Madison to finish rinsing. Then with our clothes picked from random luggage, we walked around to the front of the plane to search out Doug.
“Shit.” Madison stopped cold. “What the hell is the matter with me? I’ll be back.” She took off running back to the rinsing stall.
I followed her, when I got there she was placing the locket back over her head. She kissed it with closed eyes before allowing it to rest on her chest.
“That must really mean a lot to you,” I said.
Madison cleared her throat. “That’s an understatement.”
“Is it a picture of your mom or dad?” I asked.
“My daughter.” She opened up the locket that was about an inch and a half. On one side a picture of a baby the other side was plastic with a cross. “That’s her picture, the other is some of her ashes.”
“Oh, Madison. Oh I am so sorry. She’s beautiful.”
Madison smiled sadly and closed the locket. “My only girl,” She cradled the locket again. “Me and Bruce we tried. Oh we tried so hard to have a third child. We were ecstatic when we found out it was a girl.” Madison smiled. “Everything was good. We got all things pink. After I had her, there were so many pink balloons in the room. The whole family was excited but I guess God decided he wanted her more. She passed away before we even left the hospital. It was her little heart.”
There was a silent moment after she said that. One filled with sadness. No words spoken, only quiet gazes of understanding. As a mother, I could imagine her pain. Now, like me she was worried about her sons, our families. We both hadn’t talked much about finding them, we were too preoccupied with getting to safety.
That part was done. At least I thought it was.
We’d move on to the next phase, I suppose.
“Everything okay?” Doug’s voice broke that moment between us.
“Yes,” I replied. “Yes, it is.”
He led us back to the plane and waited until we climbed up the ladder. Once inside, the air was clean and fresh and the plane seemed bigger without the seats. Areas were sectioned off as if it was some sort of trailer.
Doug extended his hand to a small table, which had two bottles of water along with two small boxes that resembled the bistro boxes I got off the plane.
“I figured you’d might be hungry.”
“Actually, yes,” I said.
“I am, too.” Madison walked to the table.
Honestly, food sounded awesome but my mind screamed for answers. I was living the world’s longest riddle, come on, give me the answer.
“I just made some coffee,” Doug said. “Would you like some?”
I only nodded.
Madison on the other hand perked right up. “Oh my God, I would kill for a cup.”
“No need to go that far.”
I sat down and lifted the lid to my box of food. There was a roll and a small square container with some sort of brown gravy, along with a pack of dehydrated fruit.
“New emergency meals,” Doug said as he handed us the coffee then finally joined us.
“I’m so confused,” I said.
“About what?” Doug asked.
Madison laughed. “As if you have to ask. This is a plane, but you have gone way beyond what would be on a plane. How?”
I shook my head. “My question is bigger. I wanna know what happened?”
Madison nodded. “Okay, that’s a better question.”
Doug sighed and stood. “What happened? Not one thing, many things, no one really knows.”
“For real!” Madison blasted. “Are you fucking kidding me? Look, I am drinking bottled water with the letters FEMA on it, eating out of a boxed called…” She lifted it. “Emergency Survival Rations. I had a shower in a tent, now correct me if I am wrong, but I am pretty sure that Sky Blue Airlines doesn’t have all this in their cargo department. Whoever gave you this, has answers.”
“No one has definitive answers,” Doug said. “A lot happened. Alright… from my point of view…” He sat back down. “I’m flying. On my way to Seattle from Dallas. Three hour layover in Vegas. All I know is, about an hour out of Vegas, I receive word of major seismic activity off the Pacific coast and that I would be grounded longer. Hell, I figured Seattle had a quake. I was cruising at about twenty-two thousand feet. I informed the passengers of this and all hell broke loose. The attendants told me that no one was able to get Wi-Fi or use their phones. About twenty minutes later I see this huge ass black mountain of a cloud blasting my way. I’m at twenty thousand feet. This thing is that high. It was like a freak storm with lightening.”
“So you only saw the cloud?” Madison asked.
“Yes and no,” Doug answered. “I immediately turned and lifted the plane as fast as I could. I remember Rod, my copilot saying, ‘Jesus that looks like a cloud from a volcano.’ And while I’m busy trying to avoid this disaster headed our way, I’m racking my brain trying to figure out where the hell was a volcano. I lifted above it. I mean I went as high as I could safely go. It was below us, rolling on. Like a sea of blackness filled with fire and lightening. I also saw something else…” he paused. “Streaks of fire and debris, just falling from the sky.”
“What goes up, must come down,” I said.
“Or comes down and starts it all,” Doug said. “Whatever started it sent everything into a frenzy. My computer went nuts, I was playing a guessing game about our location. There was no communication, I flew every direction, or so I thought. Navigation was shit. I had a hundred and sixty hysterical people on board. The air was rough and it grew worse. Finally, I knew I had to land. I didn’t know what was below, I couldn’t see. All I knew was that with each passing hour, the thick part of the cloud kinda loomed above the ground and it spread out to the point it was getting harder and harder to see. It went from clear skies above it, to gray, no matter what altitude. Debris was making its way into the atmosphere and spreading out like a blanket over it all. I descended on a prayer, hoping we’d clear it without hitting a building or mountain. Thankfully, we made it through. Ash was falling like snow but it was still thin enough to see the ground. By the grace of God we landed safely.”