Chapter 20
“We need to strike back hard. That air strike was cold-blooded murder. I can fly a plane and my balls are big enough to drop a bomb right on Carson City. Just say the word.” - Decoded message from ILF undercover operative Nightingale to ILF handler Hiro Tanaka
Briar
I shouldn’t have gotten my hopes up.
My shoulders slump with disappointment because the screen in McClain’s office still says For Marcus Wells Only.
If he could’ve sent a message, he would have. It’s been a long nineteen hours of packing crates with supplies for a possible evacuation on less than two hours of sleep. I was hoping for something to reassure me that Marcus is okay before I finally lie down.
Even though I need to keep helping with our evacuation plans, I’m dead on my feet. Just a few hours of rest will keep me going.
We’ve had all hands on deck packing and moving supplies. The beach near our camp that we determined is furthest from the volcano’s reach isn’t protected by our shield, but Nova, Stella, and I decided we have to risk it. We’re keeping guards with the supplies at all times.
“I hope you’re okay,” I say to the screen, my eyelids leaden. “And I hope we aren’t all melted when you get back.”
I don’t even care that it’s at least one hundred fifteen degrees on this island right now. I’m not showering before I fall into bed and sleep like a rock in a pool of my own sweat.
“Athena to all. Code Red. We are at Code Red, evacuate now.”
I shut my eyes for half a second before bolting from the room. The fear in Nova’s voice on the radio makes my stomach hit the floor. The rice I scarfed a few hours ago threatens to come back up.
Stay calm. Nothing matters more in an emergency than staying levelheaded.
My dad burned that advice into my brain. I take a deep breath, reminding myself I don’t stop fighting until I’m dead. With Marcus gone, there are two hundred eleven people in camp right now, and they need help.
What if it’s not the volcano? A frenzied laugh bursts out of me when I realize the Code Red could be Theron kidnapping someone again, or Rising Tide mounting a full attack on us with Marcus gone.
I key in the code to the Sub’s door, which slowly inches off the ground. A massive boom penetrates through to my bones, making them feel like they’re vibrating. The ground shakes, making me crouch to stay on my feet.
Something is very wrong. The sun hasn’t set, but there’s no daylight coming in through the opening made by the rising door.
When I duck under the door and find dark-gray ash particles swirling through the air, an assignment I did for my earth science class in high school roars back into my consciousness.
Volcanic ash is deadly. It has tiny glass and rock particles that can impair vision and breathing. Why didn’t I remember that sooner?
Amira and Niran are close by. He has his hands on her shoulders and she’s giving him a panic-stricken look.
“Go! You can do this!” he yells.
I race up to them. “Take your shirts off! Wet them in the well and cover your heads with them. This ash is deadly. Tell everyone.”
Amira nods, stripping her shirt off immediately. They both take off toward the well. I pull my radio from my waistband and push the button on its side, yelling into it.
“Aphrodite to all! Wet clothing or blankets and cover your faces with them! You have to—” An acrid taste floods my mouth at the same time tiny, sandlike particles fly into my eyes.
I turn my face to the ground to finish my message, my eyes burning. “Filter out the particles. You have to filter out the particles. It’s going to be hard to see and breathe. Stop moving supplies. Just get everyone to the beach.”
I bend and spit on the ground, the strong sulfur smell in my nose and mouth making me nearly gag. Something roars through me, dropping me to my knees.
“Briar! Briar, where are you?” Amira’s scream of terror cuts through me.
“I’m here.” My words are barely audible, so I take a deep breath of ashy air in and try again. “Here!”
It hurts. Every cell of my body is screaming in pain. I can’t move. My head throbs with blinding pain more intense than anything I’ve ever known.
Pain. Pain. Pain.
I can’t scream. I can hardly even breathe. It’s not the volcanic ash and gases that are killing me, but something much bigger. A tidal wave of agony swallowing me and everything else in its path. I’m burning and choking, begging death to move faster.
And finally, everything stops.
“I’ve got you. Just keep breathing. That’s all you need to do. Keep breathing, Briar.”
I’m wet. My throat burns. I try to crack my eyelids open, but I don’t have enough strength. There’s something covering my mouth, but I can’t lift my hand to move it.
All I can manage is a short hum.
“Briar, can you hear me?” It’s Amira, and she’s crying. “Are you okay?”
I try to talk, but all I can manage is another hum.
“She’s waking up!” Amira says.
“Want me to take her?”
That voice is a man. Niran, I think.
“Yeah. My arms are about to fall off.”
Water splashes my face, my eyes finally opening. Niran’s taking me from Amira, holding me over-the-threshold style.
“Welcome back,” he says. “You’re officially a volcano survivor. The prize is pretty shitty, though.”
It’s nighttime, and we’re in water. The ocean, I think, as water laps lightly against my arms and legs.
I’m hollowed out. Exhausted. But I have to wake up and help evacuate camp. We have young children and people with mobility issues. I can’t let them get left behind.
“What’s happening?” My voice is a croak I don’t recognize.
“Just rest,” Niran says. “You’re okay.”
“No,” I manage.
“She wants to know,” Amria says softly. “Briar, you were unconscious. We covered your face with your wet T-shirt to help you breathe. Niran carried you to the beach we evacuated to. It’s been a few hours since the volcano erupted.”
“No.” It’s a helpless whimper because I don’t want to believe I failed everyone.
Not only did I not help anyone evacuate, but Niran had to carry me instead of saving someone else.
The roar I felt earlier is quiet now. There’s just a dull, flat sense of melancholy.
“They’re gone,” I whisper, my throat tightening.
“Who’s gone?” Amira asks.
It’s so much quieter now. Not silent, but the absence is staggering. They lost so many, both young and ancient.
“Plants. Trees. So much destruction.”
“You felt it, didn’t you?” Amira asks softly.
“I was dying.”
“You just felt like it because they were.”
I reach for the T-shirt covering my face, but someone bats my hand away.
“There’s still a lot of ash in the air,” Amira says. “Keep it on.”
If she can see me, she doesn’t have her face covered, but it’s not a battle I have the energy to fight right now.
“Did everyone get out?” I ask.
Amira doesn’t answer, but finally, Niran does.
“No. We don’t know how many we lost yet because we can’t see through the ash cloud. We’re in the water because it’s as far as we can get from it.”
“Nova. Ellison,” I murmur.
“They both made it.”
“You saved me, Niran.”
His chest rises and falls with a heavy sigh. “You would’ve done the same for me. Try to rest. We might not have a camp to go back to.”
We spend the next full day at the beach, the ash cloud still keeping us in apocalyptic darkness. Wendell, our new dentist, and Ellison are helping people as much as they can, but there’s not much they can do for the people who are dying from the gas and ash they inhaled.
We hope there are more survivors hiding in the jungle, because Nova’s count of everyone at the beach is one hundred thirty-seven people, and we could still lose more.
All the kids are here, their laughter out of place but still welcome. Three- and four-year-olds don’t understand what’s happening.
I’m aching for all the plants and animals that died from the volcano’s fury. So much life snuffed out in a matter of hours. Marcus will be gutted that he wasn’t here to help.
“It could be worse,” Niran announces when he comes back to the beach after climbing a tall tree to check out the island. “There’s ash everywhere, but the lava didn’t get much farther than Rising Tide.”
“It took out Rising Tide?” Adele asks.
“The Rising Tide camp is gone,” Niran confirms.
“Silver linings, right?” Adele says.
No one responds. Sickness rises in my throat. All those children. So many innocent people who were made into violent perversions of themselves by a power-hungry regime. It’s all tragic.
“Nova’s back,” Niran says.
I stand up from my spot in the sand, where I slept for a solid ten hours. Nova took a few people to scout our camp and assess the damage. We all gather around for her report.
“The Sub’s reinforced walls held,” she says. “It seems to be fine.”
I exchange a relieved look with Amira. That means there’s shelter for everyone.
“The kitchen’s roof was damaged by the weight of the ash,” Nova continues.
“There’s a layer of ash on everything aboveground.
We still have the livestock in the underground area at the farm, which has a ventilation system.
They seem okay. A calf was just born in there.
The garden is covered with ash. We didn’t go all the way to the solar panels, but there’s power to the Sub, so we still have at least some power. ”
“Are you saying the shield still works?” Niran asks.
Nova nods. “It’s up and running.”
There’s a murmur of relief. Everyone is devastated about the people we can’t account for, because we all know they likely didn’t make it out.
Hindsight being twenty-twenty, we should have sheltered in the Sub, but with the seismic underground shifting that comes with a volcano, Nova, Stella, and I all voted against it.
If it had collapsed, everyone inside would have died.
I’m still so weak that it’s all I can manage to walk back to camp, leaning on Amia for support. Once I get there, I sink to my knees on the ash-covered ground, needing to rest.
We have a lot of work ahead. Our garden is probably a total loss, and we’ll have to clean the ash from everything. The mood as cleanup begins is somber, because the volcano’s toll was heavy.
All we can do is move forward, though. The lives of everyone who survived depend on it.
The sky is still dark gray from the ash cloud, so we take turns cleaning up and sheltering in the Sub so everyone gets a break from breathing the contaminated air.
I’m nodding off during one of my breaks, sitting up against a concrete wall in the main Sub area, when someone gently kicks my foot with the toe of their boot.
“Huh?” I look up and see it’s Nova, her expression unreadable.
“We have a visitor,” she says. “Let’s go.”
I get to my feet, my arms still looking like I rolled around in a fireplace. I’m sure my face and hair look the same, but it’s not time to shower yet. Cleanup comes first, with a little time allotted to eating and resting.
“Who is it?” I ask Nova once we’re heading up the Sub’s ramp alone.
Her brows are knitted together when she meets my gaze and answers. “Pax.”