RUNAWAY TWINS and RUNAWAY TWINS IN ALASKA: BOXED SET (22 page)

"What will happen?" Rachel asked.

Justin put his arm around Janie. "It'll kill everything in its path—trees, animals…people."

"Us?" asked Janie.

"It's pretty far away," he said. "It might dissipate before it gets here. I think it depends on how hot it is, how high it goes, and how much garbage is up there."

"When will we know?"

"Won't be long. I've read about these pyroclastic flows—hundreds of miles an hour."

"Can we do anything?" asked Janie.

"Watch and wait, hope the cloud starts getting smaller, not larger…hope the red glow goes away."

Rachel motioned toward Glacier Lake below them. "It's like the earth took a big drink of water. The lake's so much smaller."

"And the plateau's gone," said Justin. "At least the helicopter wasn't parked down there."

"What about the river?" asked Janie.

"No idea," said Justin, "suspect it's acting up all along its course, though."

"The fishermen…kidnappers?" asked Janie.

"Murderers," said Rachel. "Probably still running, tripping over each other trying to get away."

Justin stared at the pyroclastic cloud. "I guess we'll find out soon enough if any of us will get away."

Janie, who was still under Justin's arm, looked at him and then at her sister. "I can't think of two nicer people to die with."

Idaho Joe, Montana Mike, and
Ernie from Washington stood with their backs to the entrance of a shallow cave they had discovered in the side of a hill. They had been crouching inside, hoping the shelter would grant them some protection from the pyroclastic flow that might sweep over them; but they had been driven back outside by a series of earthquake aftershocks, one quite violent, that seemed to threaten the stability of the roof of their hiding place.

They gazed toward what was left of Mount Yuktapah and Joe said, "Hard to say, but I think we're safe. The hot gas and ash should've been here by now if it was coming. And look, there to the northwest, the winds seem to be blowing the bulk of the cloud away from us. Couldn't do that if the pyroclastic flow had the power to reach this far."

Ernie seemed to be distracted. He mumbled a response to Joe's observation, and then said, "We should've climbed down to look for Jack."

"We called out to him over and over again," said Mike. "He fell, he died. It was hundreds of feet down the cliff. If he was still alive we'd have heard something. He was dead all right. If we'd tried to reach him, we might be dead now, too."

"He'd have searched for one of us," said Ernie.

"Doubt it," said Joe.

"I'm going back to look for him," Ernie said.

"Suit yourself," Joe said, opening his hand toward the trail. "Mike and I are going inside the cave for a while, just to be safe, and then we're heading to camp to figure out what to do next."

Ernie's protestation regarding searching for his friend was not quite as strong as his instinct for self-preservation, and he was the first to re-enter the cave.

The teenagers were now fairly
certain the main body of pumice and gas could not reach them, so they began to assess their situation and to make decisions regarding what to do next. "We could wait here or climb down to the level of the lake and the cabin," said Janie. "Rex and Martha will surely be on their way soon to rescue us."

"Two problems with that," said Justin. "You can see from here that the lake keeps sinking minute by minute. I don't want to be on that level. It's the least stable ground in the area. And the cabin has sunk, too. All we can make out is the roof. It looks like it's three quarters underground already. And the second problem is the fishermen. We don't know where they are, but if we hang around here or back at the station they might regroup and come for us."

Rachel nodded. "Good thinking…but we have to climb down anyway, at least for a short visit. We need to see if we can crawl inside, find your jacket, grab our packs, fill them with supplies, look for that big tent—or at least some blankets…and try to locate someone we've forgotten about."

"Umbriago!" cried Janie. "He must be trapped in there, scared to death. Let's get started."

The hike down the trail was more difficult than any of them imagined. The plateau was gone, and in its place was a long, steep drop off that offered few opportunities for a safe descent. They finally found a spot that wasn't perfectly vertical and scooted down on their bottoms to the level below. When they got to their feet they hesitated, for though they could make out the lake and the cabin beneath them in the distance, the intervening landmarks had been displaced by the eruption and earthquake. They decided on a path through a small grove of fallen mountain hemlocks, and it proved to be a good choice. After twenty minutes spent sidestepping broken branches, tree trunks, and a wide variety of litter, they emerged with the cabin in view.

The structure had sunk more deeply into the earth than they had been able to ascertain from the higher elevation. The roof stood no more than four feet off the ground and only a few inches of the doors and windows were visible.

"Oh, poor Umbriago," said Janie.

"I wonder about the lower half of the cabin," said Justin. "Did it sink in one piece or did it hit bedrock or hard earth and compress? What we find might not be pretty."

"Can we get in?" Rachel asked.

"Think so," said Justin. "Dig around the big window, break the glass, and I'll drop in."

"You?"

"The whole thing might collapse entirely—disappear. No sense in all of us going with it. I'm the strongest. Logical."

"Who says you're the strongest?" said Rachel. But she knew he was telling the truth and making the right decision, so she didn't add to her objection, except to say, "Why are we always waiting to see if you're going to survive?"

15
Subsidence

The teenagers dug down to
the middle of the double-glassed large window, and Justin leaned back and called out, "Might not be easy. These suckers are hard to break sometimes. Move away so I can get some leverage. I'll try to kick it in."

The girls complied and Justin braced his back against the mound of dirt they'd been accumulating. He then thrust both of his heels forward against the heavy glass, but instead of shattering as he expected, the glass yielded under the force of his attack, and the entire unit broke free and toppled into the interior.

"Amazing," said Rachel, "what can you see?"

Justin stuck his head in the opening and made a quick survey. "Squished…a lot! But not completely. About three or four feet high in there, and dark, real dark."

"Umbriago?" asked Janie.

"Can't see him or much of anything else—imagine he's hiding, scared out of his wits…I'm going in." He flashed the girls a smile and dove head first through the opening.

"You okay, Justin?" Rachel called out.

"Yeah, fine. Little light from the window, but can't see beyond. Can't stand up straight—crawling, feeling my way."

"Get your jacket and our packs," Rachel said. "Get whatever food you can."

There was no reply for several long minutes, and then Justin's dirt-smeared face appeared at the opening. "Black and low inside, but I got my jacket and a friend." He pushed Umbriago forward, and Janie grabbed him eagerly. Next he tossed out his jacket and said, "Umbriago was in the kitchen in his special place next to the stove. He moaned when he felt my touch, like I was Big Bertha come to save him. Going back in for packs and supplies."

Rachel said hurriedly, "Get the large tent if you can find it. Give us a place to sleep tonight."

"I'll try."

Shortly after Justin returned to his search, the twins were knocked off their feet by a sharp jolt. The exterior of the compressed cabin began to sway and the ground began to undulate. A deafening thunder clap filled the air, and jets of water shot into the sky from Glacier Lake, as if someone had turned on gas jets underneath.

Janie had dropped Umbriago, and she now knelt to scoop him up. He had made no effort to run away, and he responded like a small child happy to be in his mother's arms.

Rachel leapt back into the hole they had dug, and though the earth was still heaving, she stuck her head inside the opening and screamed, "Justin, Justin, are you okay? Come on, get out. Forget about the stuff—get out now! Something's terribly wrong. Please, now!"

There was no reply, and because of the grinding noises of the new earthquake, and the strange loud booms coming from the lake, she could hear no sounds of movement inside the cabin. She sucked in a deep breath of air and considered the situation. Justin might need help, might be trapped, might die without someone coming to his aid. She would be that someone. She lowered her head and dropped through the opening.

Janie watched in horror as her sister disappeared into the maw that led to what was left of the station. Now both of her companions were in danger, creeping through a dark space that could collapse at any moment. She put Umbriago on a small patch of grass, knowing he wouldn't run away. He was with his new family and he knew it, and there was no way he was going to flee into the dimly lit forest. She then jumped into the pit in front of the window frame and made ready to follow Justin and Rachel inside…if it turned out they needed her.

The timbers and rafters of the building groaned, the roof inched lower and lower, and it seemed that at any moment a sinkhole might gobble up everything in sight.

Glacier Lake was now twenty to twenty-five feet lower than normal, and the water jets and geysers had not abated.

The new quake and aftershocks
caused the three remaining fishermen to move swiftly, and twilight had not yet fully given way to night by the time they reached the spot where they'd pitched their camp on the Yuktapah. The river was swollen and was filled with fallen trees, scrub brush, driftwood, and scores of other types of floating debris, but there was no sign of their campsite—no tents, no equipment, no canoes—everything had been washed away.

Ernie shook his head. "The rangers were right. We chose the wrong location."

Joe said, "Didn't make sense to move to higher ground. We were leaving in the morning…with the girls tucked into the bottoms of the canoes. Who knew the volcano would blow?"

"What now?" asked Mike. "We're helpless out here. Back to the ranger station? See if the kids are there, load up on supplies. I still want that reverend's money."

"And run into the returning rangers?" Joe said. "Besides, we'd never get there tonight. It'll be pitch black before long. We can't hike back there in the dark….I want the money, too. Boy dead, twins in Whitehorse. That's what the Prophet wants. Earthquakes and volcanos won't cause him to pay us out of the goodness of his heart."

"What heart?" said Ernie.

"We'll head down the Yuktapah, down to the camp of those hunters, Bilboa and Barnes. See how they made it through this disaster. Maybe they have some extra equipment and supplies to loan us."

Mike and Ernie smiled. "I'd guess they do," Mike said.

Rachel and Justin met in
the hallway between the kitchen and the living area. Neither could see more than a few inches, and they collided with some force. They reached out for each other. "Rachel? Janie?" Justin said.

"It's Rachel. We've got to get out of here. The aftershocks are tearing the place apart, and the ground…the lake, the whole floor of the canyon is sinking. We'll go with it if we stay."

"Then let's roll."

They inched down the hall and out toward the faint light coming from the opening where Justin kicked out the window.

"Hurray!" Rachel said.

"Must be three, maybe two, feet high in here now," Justin said. "Not too easy to hurry."

"If we don't we'll die."

They increased their pace and soon reached their escape hatch. Justin took Rachel by the waist and hoisted her up.

Janie shouted from the outside, "Oh, good!" and pulled her sister the rest of the way to safety.

Justin followed and soon the three friends had retrieved Umbriago and had moved ten or fifteen yards away from the cabin. The earth was still shaking violently, and a cloud of steam now covered the lake.

"We're not far enough away," Rachel warned. "Let's move to higher ground as fast as possible."

No one argued.

They raced through the fallen hemlocks, climbed on their hands and knees up the incline they had previously descended where the plateau used to stand, and then hiked higher and higher until they arrived at a point that seemed to be safe from whatever was going to happen to the cabin, Glacier Lake, and Yuktapah Canyon.

The hillside was now relatively still and for a moment they thought that the worst was over and their escape had been unnecessary; but as they watched the panorama below, the canyon seemed to fold up like a zipper bag, the lake vanished (at least the part they could see), and the cabin, roof and all, slid into a giant sinkhole. Soot, silt, and steam saturated the air, and when it began to clear they looked down in wonder.

Not one familiar landmark was visible. It was like they were staring at an entirely new section of the preserve—one they had never seen before.

"Rex and Martha will fly right over," said Rachel. "They'll think they overshot the station. They'll backtrack, change their headings, and think their instruments are malfunctioning."

"We're on our own," said Janie.

"We've been on our own before," Justin said.

The girls stood straighter. "Yes, we have," said Rachel. "What now?"

"Inventory," said Justin. He showed what he'd recovered. "One pack—shoved eight or nine cans of something into it. Don't know what—too dark in there—we'll take a peek in a bit. Found the small tent, the big one was too bulky…and I got one blanket."

Rachel rolled her eyes. "One blanket and the small tent. Where are you going to sleep, Justin?"

"Between you two. It'll be nice and warm."

They distributed their meager supplies and Rachel suggested they move a greater distance away from the collapsed canyon before they made camp for the night. "Did you get a can opener?" she asked Justin.