Imagine (Fuzed Trilogy Book 2) Page 8

  Josh asked, “How many vehicles do you have?”

  The man narrowed his eyes at Josh, but Alejandra said, “He was the one who found the lava. He could have escaped but didn’t.”

  The guerilla leader looked at her and then back at Josh. “Only a few left. I’ll get all the vehicles I can. Have the first group of patients ready.” With that, he climbed into the SUV and drove off.

  Josh looked at Rodriquez. “You’ve seen lava flows before?”

  Rodriquez said, “Yes, but never this far. We’re over five kilometers from the caldera.” He frowned. “The lava must be coming from a newly opened vent on this side of the mountain.”

  Josh asked, “Where’s the nearest hospital?”

  “The city of Pasto is on the other side of the volcano, but the town of Consaca is about 30 kilometers from here and has a medical aid station.”

  Within 15 minutes, they had the first group of patients loaded into an SUV. They built a makeshift shelf that ran the length of the vehicle’s cargo bay so that they could lay three patients side-by-side, and then stack another three on top of the shelf. They chose the patients that were most critical but stable. Then they put the nurse, Leah, and the nun in the front seat along with a guerilla driver.

  Shortly after they left, another earthquake shook the village, accompanied by rolling thunder. It wasn’t any more violent than the last one, but went on twice as long. With the sun coming up and the overcast clearing, they could now see the top of the volcano. A huge cloud of rolling smoke and ash rose above it. In the airplane, he’d mistaken this gray column for a thunderstorm. Fortunately, they were upwind and the smoke and ash curved away from them.

  While waiting for another vehicle, Josh went inside and told Elizabeth about Alejandra. The small boy Elizabeth had been working on was her brother. Josh asked, “Is he going to be OK?”

  Elizabeth sighed. “He had a lot of internal injuries. We did surgery and stopped the bleeding, but he lost too much blood and we have no fluids left. If we could get him to a real hospital, he’d have a chance ....” She looked down at the little boy and shook her head gently.

  After a very long 15 minutes, another beat-up SUV appeared along with a jeep. They again loaded six patients into the SUV and managed to get three more in the jeep. They put Michelle, Montoya and two more guerillas in the vehicles. Alejandra refused to go. She nodded toward the hospital. “My little brother.”

  Josh realized there were nine people remaining — three critical patients, Rodriquez, Dieter, Elizabeth, Josh, Alejandra and the guerilla leader that captured them.

  Rodriquez stayed outside with Josh while the others went back in to prepare the last three patients for transport. The smell of burning vegetation was getting stronger.

  While waiting for another vehicle, Rodriguez sniffed the air. “We’ve had heavy rains all week. That’s helping.” He looked toward the mountain. “But the smoke means the lava is still moving this way.” Rodriquez shook his head and then looked at Josh curiously. “Elizabeth told me you were a test pilot and led the comet deflection program.”

  Josh shrugged. He needed to talk to her about not sharing that information.

  Rodriquez took the shrug for confirmation and said, “Commander Josh Fuze, what are you doing out here?”

  Josh gave him a half-smile. “Elizabeth stayed by my side through my mission; I thought it only fair to support her during hers.”

  Rodriquez tilted his head slightly, almost as if he were listening to something. He repeated, “Your mission.” Then he looked at Josh curiously and with the slightest of smiles asked, “Which mission?”

  Josh frowned at Rodriquez’s odd question. Then deflected it with, “Father Cletus Alfredo Rodriquez, how on earth did you end up out here?”

  Rodriquez smiled and imitated Josh’s shrug. “I was a prodigy priest. During the peak of the drug cartel’s power, I negotiated the release of several Columbian leaders. The church was grooming me to be the youngest Bishop of Columbia’s biggest diocese, then—”

  A rusty old Dodge sedan came up the road, and Rodriquez shook his head. “The rest of the story will have to wait.” He went inside to inform the others.

  As the car pulled up, the guerilla that had captured them stayed in the car and yelled, “The lava is approaching the only road out. We need to leave right now!”

  Alejandra came out and told him to wait while they brought out the patients.

  The man snapped, “I don’t follow your orders, Chibcha! You follow mine!”

  Josh ran inside with her to help bring the patients out. They tried to hurry, but had to be very careful with these, the most critical patients. When they came back out, the car was gone.

  Looking down the road, the old Dodge was already a half block away. Josh yelled to Alejandra, “Tell your leader, his man just ran off with the car.” Josh pulled the pistol he’d retrieved earlier from his pocket and ran down the road after him.

  It was too far ahead and moving too fast even for Josh’s amazing speed. He kept running, looking up the small streets for more cars. There were several, but they’d obviously been out of commission for a long time. As he approached the road that exited the village, the smoke got thicker. He saw the road crested a small hill and knew on the other side it wound down and into the forest.

  He turned around and headed back, but before he had gone more than a few steps, he heard a scream from behind him. He turned and ran toward the exit road. As he topped the hill, he looked down and saw the Dodge surrounded by lava. The lava on both sides of the village had met at a low point in the road like a flooded river. The guerilla had tried to drive through it, but the tires melted and the metal rims spun in the lava. Josh ran down the hill toward the car as the guerilla climbed out a window and onto the roof.

  Josh was 20 meters away when the car’s gas tank, inches above the lava, ignited. Fire engulfed the car and set the guerilla’s clothes on fire. Josh saw him stumble around on the roof screaming, until he fell face-first into the molten rock.

  Josh backed away, shaking his head. He felt bad for the dead man, but was more concerned for the living. This was the only road out of town, and the lava wasn’t just crossing the road, it was slowly crawling up the hill toward him.

  12

  LAVA

  Josh ran back to the hospital. Their only chance was to find the highest ground and hope the lava would stop rising.

  Inside the makeshift hospital, he quickly told Rodriquez and Elizabeth what he saw and added, “Turn the generator on. Let’s pump water into any containers we can find.”

  Rodriquez said, “There’s a two-story house near the center of town. It was too small for a hospital, but sits on higher ground and it’s built of stone.” He pointed. “It’s three blocks from here.”

  It took multiple trips with makeshift slings, but after an hour, they managed to get everyone into the damaged, but solid house. Mostly empty, the owners of the house must have evacuated with their possessions. The house was only a meter higher than the hospital, but every centimeter might count.

  Josh went upstairs. He found himself in a small room with windows and double-doors leading out to the roof. Going outside, he saw the top of the house was a giant rooftop balcony. Taller than any other house, it had an impressive view of the volcano. He guessed it belonged to someone important who used the rooftop for entertaining.

  Smoke surrounded the village, but through the haze, he caught sight of a stream of lava rolling by the town on two sides. The smoke was thinning, probably because it had already consumed most of the vegetation. As long as it wasn’t expanding toward them, it would have no new fuel.

  He came downstairs. Alejandra was trying unsuccessfully to talk to her leader on the walkie-talkie, and Elizabeth was playing with her cell phone.

  Josh looked at Elizabeth with raised eyebrows.

  She said. “Alejandra gave our phones back. Since it was off, it still has some battery left.”

  Josh asked hopefully, “Cell s
ignal?”

  She shook her head. “No, but I pushed the panic button.”

  “The what?”

  “You know. That new disaster app I told you about. It’s part of the iMagine digital assistant.”

  Josh shook his head. “You’re always playing with new apps.” He had to admit, he sometimes tuned her out when she went geek on him.

  She frowned. “It’s the app that automatically sends out your position and situation via text, voice and email every few seconds.”

  “That’d be great if there were a working cell phone tower.” Seeing her face, he quickly added, “But it certainly can’t hurt and—”

  A teeth-rattling boom shook their world. As loud as a nearby lightning strike, it lasted several seconds and then morphed into the sound of a freight train. The ground shook more violently than any previous aftershock. Rodriguez lost his footing and fell. Elizabeth dropped her phone, and Josh lurched against a wall. Bits of ceiling fell on them and new cracks opened in the walls. It finally subsided, but the sound never completely faded.

  Josh carefully picked his way back up the damaged staircase and out onto the roof. There were more cracks, but it still felt solid. He turned toward the mountain and watched in fascination. Geysers of glowing molten rock sprayed from the top, pushing a column of roiling, gray smoke and ash high into the air. No National Geographic video could capture this spectacle.

  The prevailing winds still kept the smoke and ash at bay, but nothing would stop the new river of lava crawling down the volcano’s side. Only a couple kilometers away, the wave of smoke and fire was moving downslope toward them. It almost looked like slow-motion footage of a rising, red tsunami. The lava, already flowing on both sides of the village, created the optical illusion that they were moving slowly toward the volcano. He couldn’t pull himself away from the spectacle. It was horrific but also fascinating. Softly, Josh said, “Jesse, I know I’ve used up my nine lives and then some, but if you’re still out there, we could use some help.”

  There was no response.

  He went back down and announced, “We need to move upstairs.”

  Smoky and growing hotter by the minute, everyone was sweating and coughing. As he carried the patients up, he was, once again, thankful for his amazing body. Laying the patients on the floor, they tried to keep them cool by sprinkling water on them. They also poured water on pieces of cloth and wrapped them around their nose and mouth to filter out the smoke.

  With nothing else to do, Josh went back out on the rooftop balcony. Elizabeth joined him. The lava had reached the edge of the village on the volcano side, sending hot red fingers probing into the lowest parts of town. They watched as it engulfed the bottom of their old hospital and set it ablaze. Slowly creeping up the streets from every direction, Josh estimated they had less than an hour before their little island would be swallowed.

  The thickening smoke and sweltering heat forced them back inside. Pulling the door shut behind them, Josh saw that almost everyone in their rooftop stronghold was coughing except the unconscious patients. Rodriquez was on his knees coughing and praying.

  With sauna like temperatures, they poured more water on the patients and themselves. Josh went over to the window and watched a house — only a few blocks away — catch on fire. Looking back, he saw Elizabeth and Alejandra talking quietly and then hugging each other, wiping back tears.

  When it couldn’t get any worse, another explosion and earthquake rocked their world. Knocked to his knees, Josh looked up through the window. A kilometer-wide, boiling, gray ball of ash blew off the top of the volcano. Through the smoke, he saw fluorescent orange veins of ejected lava streaking through the huge cloud. Woven between the skyrockets of burning rock, danced blue-white lightning bolts. Despite their situation, he was spellbound by the interplay of nature’s most brutal forces.

  With no one looking, Josh pulled the pistol from his pocket. He dropped the magazine and checked it. It was full. At least they would avoid burning to death.

  A blast of furnace-hot air blew the balcony doors open. Swirling smoke blinded them, accompanied by a rhythmic thumping sound.

  Josh knew that sound! It wasn’t the volcano. Trying to clear his eyes, he stumbled toward the unmistakable noise. Through slit eyes, he saw an H-60 Blackhawk helicopter approaching. The pilot skillfully set the right wheel on the edge of the balcony’s stone wall.

  Josh went into overdrive and started grabbing patients. The first was Alejandra’s little brother. Unconscious, the tiny boy felt like a limp rag doll. As Josh reached the open helicopter door, a man in a flight suit and helmet took the little boy from his arms.

  Elizabeth and Alejandra were coughing and stumbling, but helped him get the other two patients onboard.

  Rodriquez, overcome by smoke and unable to walk, screamed at him to save the others. Josh ignored him and carried him to the Black Hawk’s door. Last was Dieter. The large and seriously overweight doctor was barely conscious. Josh used a fireman’s carry, but even with his amazing body, he staggered under the weight.

  The heat was painfully intense. Looking down, he saw the lava had almost reached the bottom of their house. He yelled for Elizabeth and Alejandra to get into the helicopter.

  Josh coughed violently, his back and stomach muscles straining as he tried to lift Dieter up to the helo’s door. Elizabeth, Alejandra and one of the crew struggled to pull the doctor’s dead weight in. Finally, Alejandra jumped back out of the helicopter onto the balcony wall. The tough little teenager helped push Dieter inside, but just as they got him aboard, a volcanic blast — combination shockwave and earthquake — hit them like a sledgehammer. The balcony wall under their feet began to collapse as the blast pushed the Black Hawk away from the roof.

  Josh shoved Alejandra toward the helicopter door where a flight-suit-clad hand grabbed her arm, but the push sent Josh sprawling backward. As he fell between the helicopter and the crumbling balcony, he caught the edge of a steel railing. With his feet dangling only meters above the lava, everything began to move in slow motion. He heard the helo’s turbine engines spinning up into a banshee scream as its blades slapped the air harder and harder. His clothes were close to the ignition point as the hot metal railing bent under his weight.

  Using all his strength, he hoisted himself onto the crumbling balcony and staggered back half a dozen steps. The opening distance between the balcony and helo was impossible to bridge even for an Olympic athlete, and the helicopter was rolling away from him. Without thinking, he ran as hard as he could and launched himself off the balcony with his arms stretched in front of him. He clearly saw the face of one of the aircrew. It was the expression of someone watching a tragedy unfold.

  The helo had no skids. If his outstretched fingers missed the bottom edge of the door, he would belly flop into the molten rock, and if the helicopter didn’t stop its roll, it would hit the lava right after him.

  Rolling away, the open door became an impossible target. Josh watched his fingers just miss the bottom of the door.

  II

  CONSPIRACY

  “If these results are right ... you have less than half the DNA of a normal human.”

  13

  BLACK HAWK

  The shockwave rolled the helo and threw Elizabeth backward and away from the open door. Hitting her head on the far side of the helicopter, she was stunned and slid to the deck. Fighting to remain conscious, she could barely move or focus her eyes. Her body bounced on the deck as the helo lurched and rolled. All she could do was gasp for air and hope they could remain airborne. Looking toward the open door, she couldn’t see Josh.

  Josh’s dive took him under the helo’s belly and on to his rendezvous with the lava ... but the helicopter’s rapid roll rotated the left wheel down into his flight path.

  Twisting and stretching for all he was worth, the fingertips of one hand caught the wheel’s shock strut. He grabbed it, almost wrenching his arm from its socket.

  He hung from the Black Hawk’s landing gear by o
ne hand. The shock strut — radiantly heated by the lava — seared his skin. He looked down at molten death and had a brief moment of Antarctic déjà vu.

  Fighting to right itself, the helicopter’s buffeting threatened to shake loose his blistering hand and fingers.

  Josh contracted his bicep and got his other hand onto the wheel’s brake assembly. Blinded by ash and fighting the hurricane-force rotor wash, he chinned himself up and wrapped himself around the helicopter’s wheel. He felt like a koala bear clinging to a branch in a cyclone.

  Over his head, he saw the door on this side of the helicopter was closed. Managing to slide one hand carefully away from his death grip on the wheel, he pounded the door with the last of his strength. It took several tries before a crewmember looked out the window. His expression was priceless as he opened the door and pulled Josh inside.

  Josh collapsed on his hands and knees. Coughing and wheezing, he looked forward into the cockpit. Through the windscreen, he saw nothing but dark gray. The overloaded Black Hawk was clawing its way through the boiling gray ash. The pilots were flying blind, carrying too much weight at too high an elevation. A glance at the instruments confirmed they were barely climbing and both engine-warning lights were illuminated. The turbines, running at redline, were ingesting large amounts of ash. There was nothing he could do to help, so he closed his eyes and tried to picture a positive outcome.

  With one last turbulent drop, they broke into clear air and accelerated away from the erupting hell. Josh looked out the window and saw the volcano’s caldera had partially collapsed in a cataclysmic explosion.

  Trying to stop his coughing, and holding his burned hand against his chest, he looked around. The helicopter was configured for medevac with stacked stretchers installed on one side. He saw Elizabeth sitting with her back against a stretcher and her eyes closed. He crawled over, put his hand on her head and felt a good-sized lump.