“Did you have any problems breathing?” I asked.
“No. None. That happened when the cloud rolled in. We were above it.”
“So you know about that?” Madison asked. “I called it the Choke. I saw people choke and die.”
“From what I heard about it, that may be a good name for it. Anna…” Doug pointed to a curtained off area. “Said people suffocated from whatever was in the cloud. Well, she didn’t see it obviously. Just reports from survivors.”
I looked around. “No one’s here. Where are all the people from the flight?”
“Oh, they left about three days after we landed. Military envoys rolled passed, saw our strobe. They were setting up a station about fifty miles from here. They had maybe a handful of survivors. It’s a little clearer on the ground south east of here, but not much.”
“Why are you still here?” I asked.
“They asked. They asked if they gave me help, would I consider being a transitional stop in case anyone makes it out of California, or near here. I lit three torches and keep the strobe going. They wait here, a truck comes every couple days. Takes them out to the station,” Doug said. “A truck just left this morning. Of course, after that second ash storm I was beginning to think we saw the last of the walking survivors.”
Madison perked up. “So there are other survivors?”
“Yes.” Doug nodded. ‘Not a lot. About thirty have been through here.”
“And they take them where?” I questioned. “To the station?”
“They’re gathering survivors to get them to long term safety.
“Can they help us get home?” I asked.
“If you live in the continental US,” he said. “There is no home any more. Canada too, within a week that won’t be habitable.”
I laughed in disbelief. “How is that possible from one volcanic eruption?”
“One?” He asked. “Something, no one knows exactly what, lit up an entire line of active volcanoes from Washington State down through California. No warning just… an entire line, boom, boom, boom.”
“Yellowstone?” Madison asked.
“They think that’s what happened last night. Again, it’s only talk because whatever is in the air blocks radio and communications farther than twenty miles. It’s like the pony express way of getting messages. They know Mt. Rainier wiped out pretty much everything north of San Francisco.”
“You said something caused it,” I said. “Any guesses what?”
Doug tossed up his hands. “It could have just been Mother Nature saying enough is enough. It could have been one thing setting off the whole slew, a meteor, something breaking earth’s rotation and gravity pull, even for a split second. Nobody knows.”
Madison muttered softly, “The moon. Ruth said something about the moon.”
Doug nodded. “That’s been tossed out. Then again, what I hear is only what Major Graham tells me when he stops by. He’s the one that has me set up here. They’re good people. They’re trying. They are inhibited by lack of communication. How do you evacuate an entire country south when there’s no way to reach them?”
“I need to get home,” I said with emotion. I could feel the anxiety building. I never once considered I wouldn’t get home or there’d be no home to go to. “How can I get there?”
“I told you, there’s no way. Most people, hopefully will see the only way to survive is to go south. Way south. You can discuss this more thoroughly with them. They’ll have more information. I know they’re trying to find a way to move everyone south.”
“Why south?” Madison asked. “Is that the only area the cloud didn’t touch?”
Doug shook his head. “It’s the only area that may… may be warm enough to survive. Have you looked up? No sun. It’s dark most of the time. I can only imagine how cold it will get.”
“The next ice age,” Madison said.
I closed my eyes. This wasn’t happening. My focus was to get to safety then to find my family. Doug had to be mistaken, he had to be.
“Now, if you’ll excuse me,” Doug stood. “I’m gonna go check on your friend and see if you two are able to visit her. Eat. Please.”
My fingered trailed against the box of food. Thoughts of my husband and children were dominating my mind. Were they safe? Were they scared? “Doug?” I called to him and looked over my shoulder. “Do you have a family?”
He paused at the curtain. “I… have a pretty large family. Wife and four kids. My oldest…” his voice cracked. “Just graduated high school.”
“Will you go to them? Or are they already safe?”
“No.” He shook his head. “My family was in Tacoma, Washington. They didn’t have the luxury of making it to safe ground. Excuse me.” He slipped through the curtain.
I drank the coffee, but somehow, any appetite I had was long gone.
After several minutes of thick silence, Anna opened the drape.
“Did you want to visit with Ruth?” she asked.
That went without question. Both Madison and I stood up from the table and walked into the back portion of the plane.
Ruth was set up on a cot next to the windows. She had an IV running in her arm and oxygen fed through her nose. She opened her eyes when we approached her bed.
There was something brighter about them and that caused an immediate exhale of relief.
“Hey,” I said reaching down to her hand.
“How is she?” Madison asked.
“As you probably guessed, she was hypothermic,” Anna said. “She’s tough. Her vitals are stable, heart rate better, she doesn’t seem to be slurring as much. I think she’ll make a full recovery in time. Once they get her to Hilltop, she’ll get full on care until they move her out.”
“What’s in Hilltop?” I asked.
“A miracle,” said Anna. “The mountains really shielded most of the town and reserves from Flagstaff set up a base there. They’re trying, you know. Sending people south to set up camps. It’s so difficult to find out what is going on where because of communications. I have heard that the farther southeast you go the longer distance you can radio.” She shrugged. “That’s only what I heard.
“If Hilltop is such a miracle, why don’t people stay there?” Madison questioned.
“I suppose a small amount will, but even spared from ash and destruction it isn’t spared by the weather. It’s summer, daylight temperatures are fifty, night drops to twenty.” She gave a nod down to Ruth. “Hence why the hypothermia. And that’s just now. The longer we go without sun, the colder it will be. My concern and job is to treat people and get them healthy enough to move.”
We were the questioning duo. I supposed all me and Madison did was ask questions, probably like other survivors did, and Anna, along with Doug, answered them as if they answered the questions a hundred times before.
More of a rattling off of memorized lines.
They both were to be commended. Doug and Bill were both on the flight and stayed behind. We didn’t speak to Bill much, he was quiet. Anna was in Flagstaff doing her internship. She joined up with Major Graham and the forces he gathered.