The Eruption- Volume 1

The Eruption- Chapter 16

                                                                                   Chapter 16

Today is October 29th. Prep day! This was the big day for all of us. It's time to get ready for a wild ride from Mother Nature. I was woken up to the sound of Aaron laughing. "Well well well! I knew you two were lovebirds!" Aaron laughed. I noticed that I had crashed on the couch from last night. Allison was still in my arms. "Oh shut up dad!" Ally grunted. "I'm only teasing." I asked sleepily. "It's five past seven." Aaron said. "Ughh! That's too early!" Ally exclaimed. "Well if we want to get away from your volcano, we have to get moving!" Mom walked into the room and looked at Ally and I, still laying on the couch. "Ummm... mind explaining why the two of you are all friendly on the couch?" she folded her arms. "Mom... relax. It's not like that at all. We just ended up falling asleep here." I said. "Well you need to get up and get dressed, we have a lot to do today!" "Nah, let them get some extra rest. They deserve it. We can get some stuff done this morning and they can help later." Aaron said. "Alright." My mom said. Suddenly, the sound of a weather radio alert tone filled the room. "I'll get it!" Aaron ran into the kitchen. He turned the volume up on the unit. A voice came on the radio frequency. "The following message is transmitted at the request of the Wyoming State Emergency Management. All communities in Park and Teton counties have been placed under an immediate evacuation notice. Due to the growing danger of volcanic activity in the area, all residents in the area are ordered to evacuate immediately. This is a potentially dangerous situation. Bring necessary supplies with you, such as food and water during evacuation in case of grid lock. Repeating, an Immediate Evacuation has been issued for Park and Teton counties in Wyoming." The message stopped playing. "We better get to work right away!" Aaron exclaimed. Dad was now in the room with Marvin. "Mike, civil authorities have just declared a mandatory evac for our area. We have got to get supplies moved. Allison and Jake, can you two get the latest updates while we are at the bunker?" Aaron asked. "Sure dad!" "Watch your brother." Mom said to me. "I will." Aaron, mom, and dad walked out the door. "Can I go back to bed?" Marvin asked. "Sure bro. But, I have to wake you up soon." I said. "Okay." Marvin walked off to his room. "Well that takes care of having to watch my brother." I said. Allison poked her head out the door. "The sirens are going off again." I walked to the door. Sure enough, you could hear the Sentry siren blaring again in a steady blast. "They must be sounding them off for the evacuation notice." I said. "Probably. Well we should head back inside. We have some work to do." Allison said. "Right. To the basement!" We walked back downstairs to the monitoring station. "You ready for this?" Allison asked. "I'm ready as ever!" I grinned. The first thing Allison looked through was the webcams around Yellowstone National Park. "Wow! The lava fountaining has slowed down substantially!" I exclaimed. "It's flowing mostly from the center of the fracture now." Allison said. She took a look at the CO2 readings from the Norris Geyser Basin. "The emissions are increasing. That explains why the lava is slowing down. The only reason it's slowed is because pressure is rising inside the chamber, and it's rising really fast." The latest VulCast simulation still was showing the same situation we saw yesterday, but Norris is still expected to remain sealed for at least a week. "Do you think it can hold off that long?" I asked. "Nope. Not a chance. I can't trust this model right now. There's just too much magma and pressure, and it's close to the surface. Just one more decent sized earthquake could set it off, and that could be today." "We have to tell everyone!" I exclaimed. "We will let our families know." Allison said. She shut down the VulCast program. "I don't think we will be needing this anymore." She said. "What if it erupts today?" "Today is the worst possible day for a big eruption. The roads are in grid lock. People's lives are going to be in serious danger if it decides to blow up today. We can only pray and pray Yellowstone can keep its act together for a few more days. Either way, it's going to be devastating." Allison sighed. "All those poor people." I said. "Let me call my dad real quick. We need to figure out what we need to bring to the bunker." Allison contacted Aaron on the phone. "He wants us to bring all the cases of water that is stored down here in the basement. Oh, and we should bring my equipment too." Allison said. I followed her into a storage room in the basement. "Holy crap!" I shouted. "Yeah, my dad is crazy about stocking up for a disaster!" In the room, I counted at least 50 tanks of water, anywhere from the size of a gallon to big 5 gallon jugs. "He wants us to take all of these?!" "We will take as many that will fit in my car. The bunker has access to a water line, but that water supply is going to quickly become contaminated." Allison said. "I guess we better start dragging all these upstairs then!" I put four jugs of water in my arms, and so did Allison. That was all we could fit in one trip. They were extremely heavy, especially the 5 gallon ones. "Could Marvin help us out?" Allison asked. "He might be able to carry some one gallon tanks. I'll go wake him up." I set the water jugs down and entered his room. I tapped him on the shoulder. He just rolled over onto his other side. "Hey come on man, it's time to get up." "I don't want to!" He shoved his head under the pillow. "Marvin! Come on! This is not the time to be difficult! We need your help." I snatched the pillow from him and pulled the blankets off of his bed. "Fine I'll get up!" Marvin climbed out of bed and ran out of the room. "Marvin, we need you help in carrying some of these jugs upstairs." "Can I eat first?" Marvin asked. "Sorry man, there's no time for that. I'll let you eat once we get on the road." It took a ridiculous amount of trips up and down the stairs and out to Ally's car to get all of the water cases into her car. I was shocked that all of the water jugs managed to fit! Her trunk and backseat were crammed full, but we left just enough room for Marvin to sit.