Curtain Fall: Second Edition, Disaster, Preparedness, Survival, Awakening (The Gatekeeper Book 1) (35 page)

Jenna moaned and rested her head against John’s shoulder. John put an arm around her as they watched the interview. Richard removed his glasses and rubbed the bridge of his nose. He looked over at Megan and said, “Yes, I believe the earthquakes are a result of the eruption of the Yellowstone Caldera. I received word from a former associate that the eruption occurred around seven o’clock this morning . . . Mountain Time. It was the sudden and violent release of energy that triggered the equally dramatic seismic activity across the country.”

“But how’s that even possible, Richard?” asked Megan. “Many of the earthquakes were more than a thousand miles from the eruption site.
Surely the eruption isn’t responsible for triggering all of those earthquakes . . . like the ones in California and Missouri?”

“Well, what you have to understand, Megan, is that the earth’s crust is composed of tectonic plates, and those plates collide at friction points called abduction and subduction zones. The resulting pressure from those colliding plates generates extreme pressure, and when that pressure is released, well, it causes earthquakes. I believe the eruption . . . the sudden release of all that energy . . . caused all the other fault lines to release theirs in turn.”

“Which leads me to a viewer directed question,” said Megan. “Mr. Ward, did the USGS know the Yellowstone Caldera was about to erupt?”

Richard squirmed in his chair, and slipped the now folded reading glasses into his coat pocket. “Megan, as you know, I no longer work for the USGS, but I’m responding to what I heard from my former associate. The USGS is a government organization. And as such, they report directly to the White House. That would be a better question for the President. But I will say this, many people have foreseen this event and have issued warnings, but I don’t believe the government ever issued a warning.”

John released Jenna and said, “Adam, we’ve got work to do. Be ready to leave in five minutes.”

Adam replied, “Okay, dad,” and he ran from the kitchen and upstairs to his room.

John turned to Jenna and said, “I need to fill the truck and all the spare fuel cans before panic sets in. Will you be OK while we’re gone?”

Jenna reached around John and turned off the television. John asked, “Why’d you turn it off?”

“There’s nothing more I want to see,” responded Jenna, as she leaned forward to kiss John on the cheek. “We’ll be fine,” she added. “Abby and I have work to do here. Just be safe, OK?”

“I will. I love you . . . and I’ll be home as soon as I can,” said John, and he left the kitchen to head into the master bedroom.

John was in the bedroom closet, kneeling before their open floor safe, when Jenna walked in. When he saw her eyes were welling with tears, he stood and went to her. They embraced firmly, and enjoyed a quiet and tender moment together, but then Jenna began to sob quietly against his chest.

He said, “Everything will be OK. I promise you, Jenna. It will all be alright.”

After several more deep sobs Jenna composed herself, but she kept her face pressed firmly against John’s chest. Her tears whetted his t-shirt, and in that moment he realized everything, every fear and worry he shared with her since first learning about the disaster, was now coming to the surface. Like the Caldera eruption, Jenna’s emotions were flooding to the surface with a sudden release of energy. He was glad for it, knowing it was better to get those feelings out now than to wait for the ash to start falling, but he was worried about her.

“Are you gonna be OK?” whispered John.

“I can’t believe this is really happening,” said Jenna. “I can’t believe you were right. John, I . . . I’m so grateful you listened to your feelings,” added Jenna, and she pushed back to look at his face. “But I’m scared. I’m scared for us, but mostly I’m scared for the kids.”

“I’m scared too, Jenna. That’s normal. We don’t know what’s gonna happen, but we can do this. We can make it. We’re prepared to survive. There’s a few more things we need to do before the ash begins to fall, though.”

“How much time do you think we have?” asked Jenna, as she grabbed a tissue off the vanity counter to wipe her eyes.

“I’m thinking we have a day, maybe more,” said John. “But it won’t take long for people to panic. That’s why we have to act now. I’m going to take some cash with me for fuel, but also for the pharmacy. I have a plan for Abby’s meds. Just keep her busy and be strong, okay?”

Jenna nodded and said, “We’ll finish up inside and then head out to the garden to harvest what we can. Please be careful when you’re out,” pleaded Jenna as she hugged John again.

John hugged her back and said, “I will. I’ll be back before you know it.”

“I doubt that,” said Jenna. “I’ll worry like mad until you’re home again.”

“Fair enough. Just know that I know we’re gonna make it . . . we’re going to survive,” said John.

“I love you. Please keep your phone close.”

“I will. And I love you too. We’ll be quick. I’m thinking about two hours . . . maybe two and a half at the most,” said John.

“Be sure to take your phone with you,” said Jenna, as she walked to her night table and picked hers up. When she tried to call John and heard a busy signal, she said, “That’s not good.”

“What’s not good?” John asked from the closet.

“The phones aren’t working.”

“I’ll get the radios out . . . they have about a ten mile range. Just a sec.” John stopped what he was doing and ran to the garage. He opened a black, plastic foot locker from a shelf and removed two, hand-held radios. He ran back to the bedroom and showed them to Jenna. After giving her a quick refresher course on how to operate the radios, he said, “Now they may not reach all the way into town, but they have really good range. So keep yours on and with you at all times. I’ll call when I’m on my way back.”

He also explained how to jump frequencies if their channel became cluttered, and reminded her not to use their real names or address, or give any other information that would expose their true identities and location over the radio. “Remember,” said John, “anyone with a radio like ours can hear what we say, so use code-speak as often as possible. OK?”

“OK. Just be careful, John. I don’t know what I’d do if you don’t make it back,” said Jenna.

“Jenna, my love, I’ll be back. But you’re right, you never know. There are a thousand things that could go wrong, but I know we’ll make it,” said John. He studied her face and was pleased to see the strength he always knew she had. The look on her face reminded him of when they
first met, following a mountain bike event in the high desert around Tucson, Arizona.

Jenna had fallen and cut her thigh deeply above the right knee. It was a pretty serious cut for the environment, and one that really needed stitches, so she did the one thing most unimaginable for John, she stitched herself up. Using a pre-threaded suture from her small medical kit, Jenna stitched up her own wound and finished the race. The sutures were nothing fancy, but they were enough to hold the wound closed. She completed the treatment with several gauze pads and a piece of duct tape removed from the main tube on her mountain bike.

John saw her limping down the trail after finishing the race and he offered to help. She accepted his offer, but only with the mountain bike. So while pushing two bikes along, he tried to strike up a conversation with the hot wounded cyclist while he followed her to the aid tent. But it was the sight of that strip of silver duct tape on her tanned brown thigh that never left his mind.

When she was finally patched up, John asked her out. A short time later they fell in love and decided to get married. Since that day, John considered himself the luckiest man alive. Jenna was more than strong and intelligent, she was deeply emotional and filled with love. She was his perfect balance, and he loved her more than anything in the world.

He pulled her in for another long hug and said, “If I don’t return in three hours you have two options. You can either wait for me here, or you can go to Ray’s. But I’d rather you wait here, because I’m coming back,” said John.

“I’ll wait, but please don’t make me wait too long.”

“I won’t,” said John. “As for Raymond, I’ll be surprised if he shows up, but if he does, keep him busy till I return. I’ll give you radio checks along the way. Oh, and I wouldn’t open the door for anyone you don’t know.”

Jenna nodded and said, “I better get busy. I’ll see you soon.” Then she kissed John tenderly and left the room.

W
hen Jenna left the room, John turned his attention back to the closet safe. First he removed the pistol, and after checking the load, he slid it holstered into his pants at the small of his back. Next he grabbed a stack of cash. After thumbing off a thousand dollars in hundreds, fifties, and twenties, John folded the bills and slid them into his front pocket.

John was about to close the safe when he spotted the small, watertight, Pelican box at the bottom. He lifted the deceptively heavy box from the safe and sat it on Jenna’s dressing chair. John opened the two latches and inspected the contents of the box. Inside were several sheets of plastic covered gold and silver coins.

While he stared at the coins an impulse, actually something more like a gut feeling, or even a small voice in his head, urged him to take some of the coins with him. He questioned the feeling, thinking he wouldn’t have an opportunity to convert or trade one of the coins for anything useful, but he picked up two of his gold coins and felt the weight in his hand.

Since learning about the disaster, John came to appreciate his feelings about certain things. He was more confident with those feelings, especially when it involved doing something good. The feelings didn’t always make sense to him, and he still struggled with ideas of logic, but he was learning to trust them more and more, so he pocketed the two gold coins and put the box back in the safe.

John wasn’t thrilled about leaving Jenna and Abby alone so soon after the earthquake, and on the doorstep of ash fall, but the trip was an
important mission. He knew that much from his feelings as well. It was one of those, “Balls to bones,” feelings that just couldn’t be ignored. In fact, he knew the sooner he acted, the better it would be for all of them.

He would have liked to leave Adam home to help, but he also knew he’d need his help. Like everything leading up to this point in time, John was beginning to see the importance of listening to his inner-self, and trusting his gut. Taking Adam with him was more important than leaving him home, so Adam was going.

John stepped into the walkway and called for Adam. Adam responded with, “Coming,” and nimbly bounded down the stairs to join John.

John looked at him and said, “Go get the empty gas cans and load them in the Suburban. I’ll meet you there in a minute.” Adam took off like a shot, and John went to find Jenna. He found her working in the garden. She and Abby were busy harvesting what they could before the ash arrived. He offered them a heartfelt goodbye, and then went to help Adam with the empty gas cans. They were quickly loaded, and John drove away with a barely contained sense of urgency.

They saw little in terms of perceptive earthquake damage during their drive into town. And what they did see consisted of little more than a broken window, a cracked wall, or a randomly collapsed fence. Everything else looked fine. Even the roads were serviceable, as were the many bridges and overpasses they crossed or saw. For the first time since the quaking stopped, John wondered if they were even related to the eruption.

When John tried again to make a call with his smart-phone, he was met with a consistently annoying busy-signal. He handed it to Adam to try, but after several attempts Adam handed John the phone. “What’s that mean, dad?”

“One of two things,” said John. “Either the local cell towers are down, which I doubt, or so many people are trying to call that it’s tied everything up. And then there’s the emergency override. I believe emergency
services get priority during disaster periods, so they may be blocking civilian phone traffic . . . you know, free up the lines and all.”

Adam grunted and said, “Can they do that? Can they take over the phones like that?”

“Yes, they can,” said John.

The radio was playing softly in the background, but when John heard the telltale sound of the Emergency Broadcast System, he turned up the volume. After several annoying blasts, John heard, “This is a message from the emergency broadcast system,” followed by more squawking.

Finally, after all the broadcast formalities were complete, “All personnel living within five-hundred miles of the Yellowstone National Park are encouraged to seek immediate shelter. We repeat, all personnel living within five-hundred miles of Yellowstone National Park are encouraged to seek immediate shelter,” came over the radio, followed by even more squawking.

John reached over and turned the radio off. He didn’t need to hear what he already knew to be true. Adam looked out the window and said, “You were right, dad. But what happens next?”

“Well, first we get gas . . . before everyone starts freaking out. That will be a problem if the power’s out in town, but we can hope it’s not. Then we’re gonna go fill Abby’s insulin prescription. After that . . .”