The Yellowstone Event (Book 5): The Eruption Read online

  But most of them knew that to lure business away from the big boys they had to try harder.

  And many of them did.

  They were friendlier, offered more amenities, and went the extra mile to make their guests feel wanted.

  The hotel business is cut-throat in Las Vegas.

  Rocki’s belief that to find a loyal reader she had to entertain them was also true of the hospitality game. To get their guests to return to them the hotels had to pamper them a bit. They had to make them feel wanted. Maybe a bit special.

  The pair of traveling writers was trying to identify which hotels were better at doing that.

  They… those hotels, would get a great write-up in their book. Those who failed to pass muster would suffer a poor review.

  They didn’t tell any of the places they stayed they were writing of their Vegas adventure.

  That would have defeated the purpose, for if the hotels had known they were being graded they’d have treated the pair differently.

  And it was important they give their readers an accurate picture. It was essential they be treated, good or bad, just like any other guests would be treated.

  The same was true of every other thing they were evaluating during their stay.

  They’d each gained three or four pounds from eating at the expansive (and sometimes expensive) buffets in the downtown mall area as well as on Las Vegas Boulevard.

  And they’d played the slots and the two dollar tables at eleven different casinos.

  They’d sidled up to other players who looked friendly and willing to talk and started up conversations with them.

  They asked them where they were staying and how their hotels were treating them.

  They pretended they just got to town themselves and were looking for the best places to eat, the best places to gamble, the best shows to see.

  They didn’t exactly do interviews. They were just looking for interesting tidbits of information from other tourists to help augment their own experiences.

  Now, on the eleventh day, Rocki already had three chapters written.

  They had enough notes for at least a dozen more.

  And they were tired of Vegas and ready to move on.

  The book wouldn’t be finished for months.

  They’d work at it off and on as the mood struck them.

  They might write a bit on it each day for two weeks, then put it aside for awhile so they could work on their other books.

  At any given time they might have four or five books in various stages of development.

  It was a rather odd way to make a living, but it suited them; they enjoyed it. And it gave them a chance to combine their love of travel with their love of meeting new people and making new friends.

  Penny Fourpaws hopped down off the RV’s couch and nudged Darrell’s ankle with her very prominent nose.

  He looked down and asked her, “Hey, girl, you wanna go out?”

  She barked.

  He grabbed her leash and hooked it to her collar, then opened the RV door.

  “How much longer before you’re ready to leave?” he asked Rocki as he stepped down to the pavement below.

  “Let me finish this chapter, then take a walk around the block and stretch my legs.

  “I’ll be ready to go in an hour or so.”

  She checked her watch.

  “With any luck we’ll have Vegas in our rear-view mirror before the rush hour starts to build.”

  Chapter 4

  Darrell pulled the Winnebago out of the Summerset Hotel’s RV lot for the last time.

  The gatekeeper was a man named Sal Salisbury.

  “Like the steak,” he was quick to add every time he introduced himself.

  He stopped the pair at the gate and walked to the driver’s side window.

  “Permission to come aboard, Cap’n?”

  Darrell put the vehicle in park and said, “Granted. Come on in.”

  Rocki undid her seatbelt and opened the cabin door.

  Sal came in and got a hug from Rocki and a handshake from Darrell.

  He blubbered like he was losing his best friend.

  “Any time y’all come back this way you’d better stop by to say hello.”

  “We will, we promise.”

  He stepped back out and waved at them as they drove away.

  Twenty minutes later they were on the Interstate 15, headed toward Barstow.

  “Pilot to navigator,” Darrell smiled and said. “Where we goin’?”

  He was glad to be back on the road.

  They were modern day nomads, seldom staying more than a day or two at any one location.

  During the eleven days they spent in Las Vegas doing research their interview schedule backed up on them.

  “Well, let’s see,” Rocki said as she pulled her notebook from the glove box.

  “We need to see a man about a horse.”

  “You stole that from a John Wayne movie.”

  She giggled.

  “I know. I’ve always wanted to say that.”

  “What about a horse?”

  “He says his horse died about five years ago. Of old age.”

  “It happens. What else?”

  “He claims his horse comes back from the dead to visit him sometimes.”

  “That very seldom happens.”

  “That’s why we’re going to talk to him.”

  “Okay. Then where?”

  “Then Taos, New Mexico. Supposedly the lady we’re seeing is part Cherokee, and her grandfather comes back to see her sometimes and sings Indian lullabies to her.”

  “I’m guessing the grandfather is now dead?”

  “Good guess, Sherlock. You’re on your game today.”

  “Always.”

  “From there we’re going to Clovis, New Mexico.”

  “Weren’t we there back in March or April?”

  “Yes, but that was for a ghost story. This is something different.”

  “What kind of different?”

  “Apparently there’s an Air Force base there. This guy is a truck driver who made a delivery there not long ago.

  “He says while they were unloading his truck in a warehouse he saw a little green alien go running by with two men chasing him.

  “They caught him and put him back in the cage he apparently got out of.

  “Two other guys ushered him out of the area and took him to the Security Forces headquarters.”

  “Really now? What did they do to him?”

  “They told him he had two choices. He could forget what he saw or his family could forget they ever knew him.

  “He chose to forget what he saw.

  “He says they made him sign a paper saying he didn’t see anything out of the ordinary during his visit to the base. It said something about twenty years in federal prison if he ever claimed otherwise.”

  “So why’s he risking twenty years in prison by telling us?”

  “I asked him the same thing. He said he wasn’t sure. But that it was unpatriotic for the government to have secrets and hide little green men.

  “And he’s banking on the government bluffing.”

  “That’s a mighty risky thing he’s banking on.”

  “Yep. After that we have a UFO story in Henrietta, Texas.”

  “Where’s that?”

  “I’m not sure. Somewhere near Wichita Falls, I think.

  “Then it’s on to Little Rock, where we’ll drop off Penny Fourpaws.

  “That’s all we have right now, but by the time we get there I’m sure we’ll have some other places to go.”

  “Let’s go to Yellowstone after we drop Penny off.”

  “Honey, you told Meadow we wouldn’t go there.”

  “No I didn’t. I said we wouldn’t take Penny there. She doesn’t mind if we go, as long as we don’t take her dog along.”

  “Oh, that’s not true.”

  “It is. She loves Penny. She only likes us.”

  “Not true at all.
r />   “Aren’t you afraid Yellowstone will blow while we’re there?”

  “No. It wouldn’t dare. I am the luckiest man in the world, so it couldn’t possibly.”

  “Why do you say you’re the luckiest man in the world?”

  “Because I found you. Of all the other men in the world you could have wound up with, you wound up with me.”

  “Oh, how sweet.”

  “Yep.”

  “Oh, how full of it you are.”

  “Pardon me?”

  “You’re just being sweet so I’ll give into you.”

  “Um… maybe.”

  “Maybe nothing. You want me to agree to go to Yellowstone even though I don’t want to.”

  “Honey, we still need to meet Julianna and interview her. We’d have already done so if Penny hadn’t come down with motion sickness.”

  Rocki didn’t want to go, but she was disappointed that they’d missed the chance to meet Julianna.

  “I’ll make a deal with you,” she offered.

  “What kind of deal?”

  “You say the main reason you want to go is to interview Julianna.”

  “Right.”

  “Okay. After we leave Arkansas if she’s still there we’ll go, but only long enough for the interview.

  “If she’s been evacuated, we’ll plot a course to wherever she went. Fair enough?”

  “Is that the only deal I’m gonna get?”

  “Yes.”

  “Then I guess it’s fair enough.”

  Chapter 5

  Julianna Cervelli walked into her apartment and collapsed on the couch.

  It had been a very trying day. She was sweaty and filthy from trudging through thick forest all day long.

  Her arms and neck were covered with mosquito bites and she was certain she was going to come down with malaria or hepatitis C or measles or something.

  Her friend Dave Regal, who worked for the Teton County Sheriff’s Office and therefore deserved the nickname “Deputy Dave,” pointed out to her that one could not contract measles from a mosquito bite.

  “Oh yeah? Well… I’ll contract something else then. And it’ll be all your fault.”

  “My fault? How do you figure?”

  “Because you’re not a gentleman. If you were a gentleman you’d follow me around and shoo the mosquitoes. A lady can’t be expected to shoo her own mosquitoes. A gentleman would know that.”

  He laughed openly at her.

  “Don’t laugh at me.”

  “Then don’t be ridiculous.”

  She said something under her breath he couldn’t quite hear.

  “What did you say?”

  “Nothing.”

  “Jules, if the mosquitoes are getting to you, then drop out. Get yourself to safety. I’ll just keep going without you.”

  She sighed.

  “It’s not just the mosquitoes, Dave. It’s everybody who’s refusing to heed our warning. It’s all the people who say they’d rather die in a big blast than go back and live in a city somewhere.”

  “Same answer, Jules. If it’s getting to you, drop out. I’ll understand. So will the other crews.”

  “I can’t, Dave.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because you’d miss me. You’d be so sad because you wouldn’t see my beautiful face every day you’d just cry and wouldn’t be able to go on.”

  “Jules, have you looked in the mirror lately?”

  “No. Why?”

  “Your face. It’s not only sunburned. It’s all swollen up by a hundred mosquito bites and it’s streaked with dirt from you wiping the sweat from your face with dirty hands.”

  “Are you saying I’m not beautiful anymore?”

  He smiled.

  “Let’s just say your beauty is very well hidden at the end of the day. But if it helps I know it’ll be back when we get started again first thing in the morning.”

  She liked Dave.

  A lot.

  Under other circumstances she could see the two of them becoming a couple.

  But not now.

  What they were doing was too important.

  It required every bit of their focus, all of their efforts.

  For even though she was right; most of the people they were informing about the eruption were opting to stay, there were a few who were coming out of the woods with them.

  They were saving some lives.

  They couldn’t be distracted by a personal attraction to one another; they just couldn’t.

  She peeled herself off the couch and forced her legs to take her to the bathroom.

  They rebelled every step of the way.

  They were as exhausted as the rest of her.

  But she had to pee.

  She’d taken six bottles of water with her that morning and emptied them all.

  She was well aware of the dangers of going into the forest unprepared.

  Becoming dehydrated would mean getting light-headed and confused.

  And lightheaded and confused were bad things in the deep forest. They caused hikers to become disoriented and lost.

  People died that way each and every year.

  She’d resolved not to be one of them.

  Of course it was a lot harder for her to do her business in the woods than it was for Dave.

  At one point earlier in the day he’d marveled at how long it took her to go into the woods and urinate.

  She pointed out the obvious to him, and the way she phrased it made him laugh out loud.

  “That’s easy for you to say. All you have to do is take that thing out and twirl it around a couple of times and then spray it in whatever direction you want. It’s a little harder for us girls.”

  The next time he walked into the woods to go himself her curiosity got the best of her and she followed, watching him from behind a tree.

  She didn’t get caught watching, but she started to wonder if he’d peeked himself.

  Then she started walking even farther into the woods and taking even longer.

  Toward the end of their shift she was walked out and decided to hold it until she got home.

  As she walked into the bathroom she stole a look at the mirror and was disheartened to see that everything Dave told her was true.

  Her face was swollen and covered with tiny bumps the mosquitoes left behind. It was sunburned and streaked with dirt from her hands and her hair was a mess.

  She summed up her self-assessment in one word:

  “Ugh.”

  Once her mission was done she took a hot shower and tried her best to wash the day off her body.

  Or, failing that, at least the sweat and dirt.

  Then she stumbled back into the living room and checked her phone.

  She’d had it turned off most of the day because it kept distracting her.

  Now she had fourteen missed calls and eight voicemails.

  “Oh, great, she said. It took a darn super-volcano to make me a popular person.”

  Chapter 6

  Julianna started to scroll through the voicemail notifications, trying to decide which ones to listen to and which ones were the same tired messages she’d been getting for days from concerned family and friends.

  She jumped slightly when the phone suddenly started ringing in her hand.

  “Hello.”

  It was her friend Jamie, who she grew up and went to high school with.

  Jamie and her husband Mason had just moved from Boise, Idaho to Panama City, Florida.

  They decided it was safer there, but they’d only be there temporarily.

  They were waiting for their application to be approved under the new Alaska Land Act.

  “Did you watch it?”

  It was a heck of a way to start off a conversation. No “hello,” no “how are you?” Just a terse question which sounded more like a demand.

  Julianna was put off by her friend’s tone.

  Even more so since she didn’t have a clue what Jamie was talking about.


  “Watch what?”

  “What do you mean, watch what? The link I sent you. Don’t you check your messages?”

  “I was just getting ready to do that, I swear. Now, save me the trouble of doing that and tell me what you sent me.”

  “Jesus, Julianna, there’s no hope for you, you know that?”

  “Probably not. Are you gonna tell me or not?”

  “Check your email. I sent you a video of Dr. Wayne Hamlin debunking all the other scientists who’ve been saying you have plenty of time.”

  “Plenty of time for what?”

  “Oh, Lordy. You’re driving me nuts, woman.

  “All the other scientists are saying the volcano won’t erupt for a couple of years. Dr. Hamlin is saying they’re all wrong. That you’re running out of time. That you have to get out of there now.

  “Now?”

  “If not sooner.”

  “See, that’s just the thing. None of the scientists can agree. Half of them have political agendas. The other half all look at the same data and come up with vastly different conclusions.”

  “Dr. Hamlin is the premier expert. Everybody says so. Even the other scientists. And one by one the others are admitting on the record they can’t find any flaws in his calculations.

  “Jules, look… do you love me?”

  “Yes. Even though you’re a pain in the ass.”

  “Then do this one thing for me. Just one thing and I’ll never ask for anything else again. Not until I need to borrow some makeup or something.

  “Just hang up the phone and watch the video and then call me back, okay?”

  “I don’t know…”

  “You said you loved me. Just do it and call me back.”

  Jamie hung up the phone without a goodbye.

  She’d never done that to Julianna in all the time they’d known one another.

  Julianna switched over to her email and found the attachment.

  She opened it up and saw Hamlin’s face.

  This wasn’t the same man she saw being interviewed from his hospital room.

  That man was calm and collected and exuded a professional confidence.

  This man looked concerned… worried… almost terrified.

  “Good morning,” Wayne began. “Thank you all for coming. I apologize for the short notice.”