Trial by Fire

But, La Garita had not yet shown the depths of its malevolence. In seven days there had been no less than six major eruptions in the San Juan volcanic field. Cochetopa, Nelson Mountain, Bachelor, Creede, Lake City and the Platoro calderas rocked the field with titanic, but lesser explosions. Each was more than 100 times as violent as the Mt. St. Helens eruption.

As the remnants of the Farallon plate pulled away, the gap between the North American plate and the Pacific plate became even thinner and as the lower crust melted, the explosive earlier gasses boiled off and basaltic lava began to flow. Massive earthquakes continually shook the earth. The extinction level event continued.

Chapter Nine

Senator Johnson rode in the second truck in the small convoy that approached Hickman, KY. They needed fuel. The police cruiser drank fuel like a starving man. He now had more than twenty men at his disposal. A Kentucky national guard unit had been cruising Highway 94 and he had drafted them on the spot. They were looking for leadership, he told himself, and he was a born leader.

He informed them that he was searching for a group of fugitives that had shot one of his men. Agent White was in a bad way. He was becoming a burden. His leg was infected and he complained constantly. As his condition worsened, he began to insist that they return to Frankfort and contact his superiors at the Secret Service for instructions. The Senator had no intention of allowing the Thayers to escape. There would be some place in Hickman to get rid of the man. His insubordination had begun to have an adverse effect on Thomas as well.

The Senator couldn't afford to lose Thomas. His authority depended on having the Secret Service with him. He would lose a lot of advantages without that. They pulled into Hickman and it was easy to see that the place was a mess. There was no one on the streets, but burnt and damaged buildings lined Main Street. One of the guardsmen noticed a sign for diesel at a convenience store and they pulled in.

Two of the policemen in his group began to search for the lid of the underground diesel tank while a group of five guardsmen secured the store. A storm of gunfire erupted inside as the first two guardsmen entered the store. The guardsmen returned fire and the other three made rapid entries through the shattered glass window in the front.

"All secure," he heard them call.

"What happened in there," he asked the captain?

"Just a couple of locals holed up in there," the captain said. "We flushed them out and they're down."

"Get Agent White in there and let's see if we can do something for him," the Senator ordered.

"Yes, sir."

Two of the policemen helped White inside. They lowered him onto a sleeping bag the former inhabitants had been using for an bed.

"It looks bad," the Senator told him. "We're going to have to leave you here and go look for a doctor. If we don't you may lose that leg. We'll leave you a rifle and some food and water, but it may take a while."

"Don't leave me here," White pleaded with the police chief. "I can make it. Just find me some antibiotics and I'll be fine." He turned pleading eyes to Senator Johnson. "I got this leg for you. Don't leave me here to die."

"We're not leaving you here," Johnson said. "I told you we're going to look for a doctor."

He propped Johnson up against a counter and dragged a case of bottled water close. The chief found a couple of cans of pork and beans and some plastic spoons.

"Just stay here and get a little rest," the Senator said. "We'll get some fuel and ask some of the local's about a doctor."

The three men left White and walked back to the trucks.

"We have fuel on board," the captain reported. "You know this is going to get harder, right?"

"I know," Johnson replied. "When we catch up with those fugitives they have all the fuel we will need. I hope we catch them before Memphis.

They got back in the vehicles and rolled out of town toward the river.

When they began to unload the fuel, Agent Thomas noticed that White was gone.

"Where's White?" he asked.

"He wanted to stay back there," the Senator said. "He was in a lot of pain and one of the locals said he knew where to find a doctor and that he would take care of him. He is going to get treated and go back to Frankfurt."

They loaded the boat and cast off.

****

The Thayers had now been on the river for 13 days. The rain had been unrelenting, but it had stopped and they were back to wearing masks when they went outside. The river had been rising but the weather had seemed to keep people away.

Twice they had felt shockwaves as seismic events rocked the earth. The tug had been giving them some trouble until Kierra finally found a clogged air filter. It took a day of pouring over manuals to even find it. They used gasoline to rinse it and after letting it dry, the engines churned happily.

The ash had thinned considerably for some reason but they all had burns from the rain. Anywhere it touched became inflamed and it was almost impossible to keep dry. The cessation of the rain was a relief but now the ash, falling on their wet decks began to harden. Chipping away the concrete-like shell became a major chore until the moisture was absorbed.

Fish were beginning to die in the river. The change in ph levels was traumatic in itself. Combined with the inundation of ash particles the river was becoming flowing mud and the accumulation of ash in their gills was quickly overcoming all but the hardiest.

"This river is going to stink to the heavens in another day," Mason told Kierra. "All these fish are going to start rotting and it's going to get ugly."

"Well, maybe it won't be so bad so long as we keep our masks on," she said. "What do you think all the land animals are doing?"

Kierra, a Texas native, had always loved animals, especially horses. She had argued strenuously with Mason about leaving her horse behind.

"There's no way we can take her with us," Mason had told her. "She has water in the pond and grass. That's the best we're going to be able to do. We can't take a horse on a boat, and even if we could, she would starve to death. You know how much horses eat. We would have to take along a barn full of hay. If anything can survive here on its own it's going to be the cows and horses, and maybe the insects and rodents."

With a great deal of agony of mind, Kierra had agreed.

"I suppose they're busy being miserable just like us," Mason told her. "I doubt anything is having much fun in this. I wonder how far south we'll need to get before we start getting some relief."

"Let's go ask Jason," Kierra suggested.

They made their way to the wheelhouse. "Hey, Dad," Mason said to Reagan as he stood watch on top.

"Hey, buddy," Reagan said. "You guys okay this morning?"

"Yeah, just wondering how far south we'll have to get to start seeing this ash thin out. We were going to ask Jason if he has any idea."

"Let me know what you find out." Reagan turned back to watching the river.

Jason was not alone in the wheelhouse. As one of the few places they could go to escape from the ash or the rain, the wheelhouse had become the gathering place where they spent most of their time.

Jason was playing cards with Danni. Alex and Sara were making a food inventory and Lanston was on the wheel.

"What's up?" Danni asked.

"We were just wondering how far we're going to have to go to start seeing less ash," Kierra said. "Do you have any idea Jason?"

"Not really," Jason said. "We seem to be getting a good wind now. I would think that once we get south of Memphis we should start seeing less ash fall, but there will be some probably until we get to Mexico. New Orleans will probably far enough that we see a lot less but once we turn west in the gulf it's going to pick up again until we get way south in Texas. We're going to have to wear masks outside for quite a while."

"I just hope we don't have any trouble getting through Memphis," Sara said. "There may be some problems there. It's a big town and there are bound to be a lot of people. Some of them may have boats."

"We've seen several in the last couple of days," Lanston said. "They haven't bothered us."

"That's true," Mason told him, "but the one's we have seen were small and seemed more afraid of us than we were of them."

"They were probably just people with the same idea we had, but with less organization," Jason said. "I still can't believe Reagan got all this together."

"He always has a plan," Mason said. "He always thought there would be some kind of disaster coming and he thought about what we would do a lot. I don't think he ever thought it would be like this, but he always thought the economy would collapse. When it did, he was ready. He knew all the rivers and caves and lakes back in Missouri. He had a couple of places picked out, islands and caves and stuff, where we could go if something like that happened. Of course, that all went out the window when the volcano erupted, but he still had a plan."

"Your dad is a smart man," Sara said.

"He's so cool," Danni said. "He thought of all this and you guys did it in two days. I can't imagine where we'd be if you guys hadn't found us."

"I think we've got a pretty good group," Sara said. "We got lucky when we saw you guys in that boat. I can't think of anyone I would rather have with us than you."

"Aw, now isn't that all mushy," Lanston said. "If you can all get over patting yourselves on the back, I'm hungry. Danni, could you steer a while so I can get something to eat?"

Danni took the wheel, just as they heard the sound of Reagan's boots hitting the deck outside. He threw open the door.

"There's a boat coming up behind us," he said. "It looks like one of those hi-way patrol cutters we used to see on the lakes. Everybody needs to get in their places. Danni, are you okay driving?"

"What should I do?" she asked.

"Just stay in the channel and don't stop for anything," Jason said.

"Got it."

Arming themselves was a quick task, and Mason set up the .50 caliber on the stern while Kierra and Sara carried sandbags and placed them around the gun in a nest.

The boat was no more than half a mile behind them. Reagan got out a bullhorn and as the boat closed the distance, it was obviously on an intercept course. He hailed the boat.

"Who are you and what do you want?"

The boat was a hundred yards away and closing.

"If you don't heave to and identify yourselves we will open fire," Reagan warned.

"This is Police Chief Davis of Hickman, Kentucky. You have fugitives aboard. Kill your engines and drop your weapons and come out on deck with your hands up."

"You're a little outside your jurisdiction, Chief," Reagan replied. "You aren't coming aboard. If you attempt to board us, we will defend ourselves. Now stand off."

"We have units of the National Guard aboard," Davis shouted. "We also have a United States Senator aboard. You attacked law enforcement officers in the performance of their duties. Surrender and kill your engines."

The two boats drifted closer and now Reagan could make out a familiar figure on the bow.

"Senator Johnson. You come back for another round," he shouted across. "You tried to steal our boat, took one of my family hostage and you got what you deserved. If you don't stand off it's going to be worse this time."

A shot fired from the police cutter whined off a winch near Reagan's position. He ducked away.

"They aren't going away," he shouted down. "Don't let them get any closer.

Two quick shots from Jason's position in an open hatch near the wheelhouse caused the Senator to disappear into the cabin of the cutter.

The cutter closed on the other side of the fuel barge and Reagan could see the desert camouflage of the guardsmen behind the cabin.

Several shots were fired from the patrol boat but they didn't hit anyone. Someone jumped onto the deck of the barge and Mason opened up the big fifty. The boarder flopped under the impact of the heavy slugs and a zipper of holes opened up down the side of the patrol boat.

The police vessel quickly fell off and made a hasty retreat toward the KY shore.

****

"What are you doing?" the Senator screamed at Chief Davis. "They killed your officer! We've got to get back in there. We can take them. They've only got half a dozen people!"

"They've got a heavy machine gun over there," the guard captain said. "They'll cut us to pieces. There's no way we can take that tug. We don't have the firepower to take that out. They've got sandbags set up and we can't get to the guy on that gun. The rest of them have automatic weapons too. They'll kill us all. We need bigger guns and a better plan. Maybe we can get some help in Memphis, but we can't take them now."

Smoke began to fill the cabin of the cutter and the acrid smell of electrical insulation burning filled the air.

"Something's burning," Davis said.

They quickly checked the engine room. Several shots from the .50 caliber had penetrated the hull and hit an alternator on the engine. They cut the circuit, but it was evident that they needed repairs or the batteries would soon be drained. They pulled into the shore and the tug disappeared around a bend in the river.

Chapter Ten

The Thayer's gathered in the wheelhouse.

"Wow, that was scary," Danni said. "Is everyone okay?"

They were, and they recounted what had happened.

"Our friend the Senator is a persistent fellow," Reagan said. "Can you believe the man is actually chasing us? The world is ending and he's on the verge of death and he's got a vendetta! It's unbelievable."

"I doubt that anyone has ever treated him like we did back there," Jason said. "He's been able to order people around and get anything he wanted his whole life. That must have been quite a shock to him. Someone actually stood up to him and kicked him off their property. It's eating him up."

"I saw smoke coming up from their boat," Kierra said. "I think we hit something and their boat is broken. That's why they aren't coming after us."

"I hope it's permanently broken," Lanston said. "I never want to see them again, and I still didn't get anything to eat."

Mason was quiet in his chair. "You okay, baby?" Kierra asked him.

"Yeah, I guess. I just killed a man back there. How am I supposed to feel about that?"

"I think you're supposed to feel good about it," she said. "They were coming here to kill us. What do you think would have happened to me, or your mom or Danni if we hadn't driven them off? They tried to kill your dad! If you hadn't shot that man he would have tied that boat to the barge and they would have either killed us or taken us prisoner. You shouldn't feel bad about it. You shot a rabid dog out there that was trying to kill us. You're my hero."

Mason set up a little. "I guess you're right when you put it like that. I just don't like being put in a situation where I have to either kill someone or be killed."

"I know, but you didn't have a choice. You didn't put yourself in that position, they put you in it and you did what you had to do." She put her head on his shoulder and embraced him. His huge frame shook a little, but he felt better.

Memphis was twenty miles downriver and the Thayer's prepared for trouble. Several bridges crossed the river and it was a major metropolitan area. They couldn't see anything ahead, even with the diminished ash fall, but they expected to at least be challenged.

Communities began to appear on both sides of the river. Very few buildings were undamaged. Clean water to drink was in short supply. Rural homes without electricity had quickly run out. With ash polluting the streams and no way to pump it out of the ground, people were beginning to die of thirst. They were becoming increasingly desperate and many were dying from drinking ash-polluted water. Those who were better armed took what they needed from those weaker than themselves, or less willing to fight for it.

In the city, the situation was even worse. Grocery stores had become war zones with competing groups constantly attacking those who controlled territory to wrest control of food and water away.

Police units ventured out on raids from their protected positions in jails and police stations to take supplies. Since they were better armed and had better stocks of ammunition they attracted other desperate people who attempted to join with them. The ruthless survived and the weak died. Starvation stalked the streets and the sick and dying lay helpless with no hope of survival.

Few people paid any attention to the river. What boats were operational had quickly been seized by the swift and wise and were heading south. Floating battles were fought between those who had no supplies and those who were suspected of having caches of supplies or fuel.

Most of the flotilla and run out of fuel in the first days and the boats were abandoned. Police check points on the bridges had been abandoned early on and the roads were filled and jammed with wrecked and abandoned vehicles that had run out of fuel. The passengers dispersed into the countryside and soon ran out of time. Lost and without supplies they either displaced rural residents from their homes or were killed in the attempt. Those who did not have shelter didn't last two days.

In spite of the trouble they had expected, the Thayers experienced little difficulty in passing through the city and proceeding downstream. Sniper fire from a railroad bridge had easily been suppressed by sweeping the bridge with small arms fire and only caused them inconvenience as two holes were shot in the wheelhouse window. These were easily sealed with silicone, intended to patch shoes, tents and raingear.

Danni had quickly picked up the controls and really enjoyed being at the helm. Alex was nearly as quick at reading charts as Jason and their only difficulty was navigating through drifting and abandoned barges and wrecked boats. With the open river ahead of them and only Baton Rouge standing between them and New Orleans, barring mechanical failure or accident, it looked as if their plan was working.

The ash had thickened again as, unknown to the Thayers; the six minor calderas had joined La Garita's huge ash pump. The San Juan Volcanic fields were awake for the first time in millennia and the vast traps added their voice to the rising chorus.

This caused the Thayers countless problems. They constantly felt dirty and gritty. The tug carried a large water tank, intended for firefighting, but they didn't dare use it often to wash. Clean water was too precious. They drank from their large catch of bottled water, but everyone tried to limit their intake. The occasional spring branch running into the river was their only opportunity to wash and replenish their water supplies. If the source was close they walked through the woods and bathed. Everyone was having skin problems and it was necessary to cover up every inch of skin that could be covered.

The trek often seemed pointless. They washed their clothes but the heavy ash fall often contaminated them before they could get back to the boat, and they felt gritty again almost before they could dress. Constantly wearing masks when outside was irritating and they tried to go out as little as possible.

Even the rain brought little relief. It washed away the dust from the decks but left mud behind and they didn't dare allow it to come in contact with their skin. The entire boat soon was covered in a thin, cement like coating that they tried to keep chipped away from vital surfaces.

The air filters on the tug had to be cleaned daily and it was a laborious process. As much as they could, they drifted with the current, leaving the tug's big diesels shut down. This conserved fuel as well and a drifting tug, they discovered, attracted far less attention than one under power. Several times they had been approached by vessels that turned away when the tug and barge tied to it seemed to be abandoned and drifting. Evidently the water craft had been pirates looking for supplies. An abandoned tug didn't look likely, so the raiders went looking for better pickings.