Ash.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Siblings Josh and Claire were out with a detail of locals trying to replant the Selkirk area following the previous summer\u2019s fire when the ash hit. They had seen a lot of ash, but not like this. This was a wall two miles high that swept through and buried everything. Everything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some said it had to be the result of a volcanic eruption. As far as anyone can tell, the two-score people who have made their way to the valley are the last people left alive in the world. Everyone is trying to survive, but Josh is determined to thrive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With Claire by his side, he begins to rally the people to not just claim a life in the ash, but to build a new community. With death all around them, and continuing to come their way, Josh begins to wonder if he can keep everyone going long enough to build something new. Even if he can keep their hopes up, how long can they push back against the ash?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
From the ash arises a new town, a new way of life, and hope.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Be sure to read the rest of the story in \u201cCrazy on the Mountain<\/a>\u201d and \u201cBook of Tales<\/a>\u201c!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Available now for Kindle<\/a> and paperback<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n …<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sample passage<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n You can only live in panic so long. Eventually, you have a nervous breakdown or you wear out. Claire and I just wore out. It had been about six o\u2019clock in the evening when the wall of ash descended on us and minute after minute, then hour after hour, of sitting in a darkened pick-up truck, clinging to your sibling for dear life, while outside the wind moans and nothing is visible takes its toll. Throw in that we were already tired from an afternoon of work and, somewhere in there, we fell asleep. Or my brain shut off, which was a lot like sleep.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I remember having the momentary thought that I probably wouldn\u2019t wake up. I pictured the ash covering the truck until every crack was full and the air was used up. I fell asleep picturing our parents crying one day as they got word from the Forestry Service or someone like that, saying that a pick-up with the remains of their two youngest was found buried under a mountain of ash. I look back now and am a little surprised that I fell asleep under those conditions, but at the time there just wasn\u2019t anything else to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cJosh,\u201d a voice whispered in my ear. I hoped it was my mother, waking me up in my own bed, the events of the day before just a dream.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cJosh,\u201d repeated Claire, a little more loudly. \u201cI can see.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cHmm?\u201d I asked, trying to wake up and realizing just how uncomfortable sleeping upright in a pick-up truck can be. I finally got my eyes to open and realized Claire was right: we could see, if dimly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The wind was still blowing a hefty breeze, but the cloud of ash had dispersed enough that we could actually see a little of what was outside. It was a weird light, though, and it took me a few more moments before I realized that what I could see was because the moon had broken through a gap in the clouds\u2014whether clouds of water vapor or of ash I couldn\u2019t tell at that moment in time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As my brain came into focus with my eyes, I realized that part of why we could see\u2014even by the light of a not-full moon\u2014was because the moonlight was reflecting off the light-gray coat of ash that covered everything. It wasn\u2019t quite like moonlight on snow, but it was a little brighter than if it had just been shining on the dirt. \u201cWonder what time it is?\u201d I mumbled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cMiddle of the night, looks like,\u201d Claire responded. \u201cWe must have slept several hours.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI\u2019m just glad to wake up,\u201d I told her. She cast me a strange look, but didn\u2019t ask me to explain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThink we can drive home now?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cMaybe. I can see the road, anyway. Wonder if we ought to check and see if everyone made it to safety, though?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Claire looked like she was about to say something in response to that, then pursed her lips and nodded, saying, \u201cYou\u2019re right.\u201d She pulled a flashlight out of the glove box and checked to make sure it worked. She started to reach for the door, then gave me an ironic smile as she gestured with the flashlight, \u201cWhy didn\u2019t we remember this earlier?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cJust geniuses, I guess,\u201d I replied with a shrug.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The wind was blowing, yet not really high like it had been when I had gone after the bottled water. Still, as soon as we were outside and next to each other, Claire took my hand as she swept the area with the flashlight in her other hand. If memory served, the last time she had held my hand for anything other than a family prayer was when we were both pre-school age and Mom had made us hold hands while we crossed the street. It was a strange sensation and not particularly comforting to me, but maybe it was to her. Just as I thought that, she gave my hand a reassuring squeeze, then let go.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The ash beneath our feet stirred up with each step, making us cough even though the makeshift bandanas were still in place, and then making us go slower so as not to stir so much up. It wasn\u2019t deep\u2014perhaps no more than a half-inch to an inch in most places\u2014but it was pervasive. The wind kept ash in the air, but another glance up at the moon showed me that we were in a sort of trough where \u201cnew ash\u201d (like new snow) didn\u2019t seem to be falling. The ash in the air seemed to have just been stirred up from the ground or been blown off the ridge that hung above us to the west. To the north and south, on either side of the gash in the sky, it looked like the ash still roiled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We walked nervously over to where the flashlight showed us a lump under the ash. Claire held back a step but curiosity forced me to close the distance and kneel down, even though the shape beneath the ash was pretty clear. I reached out gingerly and brushed the ash away, hoping I would startle whoever it was awake.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The body was cold beneath the ash.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cCan you tell who it is?\u201d Claire asked, coming a half-step closer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAnnie Meyers,\u201d I replied, then wishing I had a way to cover her face back up with a blanket, or the ash. A muffled sob escaped Claire\u2019s lips.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIf we had \u2026 \u201c Claire mumbled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYeah. If we had known, and if we could have found her, and if we could have brought her into the truck\u2014\u201c<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYou don\u2019t care that she\u2019s\u2014she\u2019s dead?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOf course I care. And I will spend the rest of my life telling myself I should have seen her and picked her up but I\u2019ll also spend my life knowing there\u2019s nothing I can do to change the past.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhy are you so cold?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n I stood up and responded angrily, \u201cCold? Claire, look around you. There are at least three other lumps in the ash about the same size as this one was. I\u2019m not cold, I\u2019m \u2026 I\u2019m scared to death!\u201d I was a little surprised at my ability to say it out loud, but once having said it, I knew it was true.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She came over and, putting an arm around me, offered, \u201cMaybe someone else made it to a vehicle.\u201d I nodded and we began to gently step towards the nearest vehicle, an old van owned by Mister Glass.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I pounded on the side of the van and was both startled and relieved to hear a response. The side door of the van slid open and Mister Glass stuck his ash-covered and bespectacled face out into the wind. \u201cJosh? And Claire. How have you survived this long?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe were in our truck,\u201d I replied. Claire shined the light into van as I asked, \u201cDid anyone else make it through with you?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThere are five of us,\u201d Mister Glass replied, stepping outside and looking up in apparent surprise at the moon. \u201cI think the others are asleep, but I haven\u2019t slept a wink. Anyone else make it?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe don\u2019t know, yet. We know that, um, Mrs. Meyers didn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mister Glass swore lowly, then said, \u201cI got a couple lights. Let\u2019s see if we can find anyone else.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Howard Glass was a semi-retired electrician from Kansas who had come to the mountains with his wife a decade before. She had died of cancer a couple years after they arrived. He always talked about going back to Kansas, but he also talked about how much he loved the mountains. When he lost his house to one of the fires, we all figured that would be his signal to head back to the flatlands. Instead, he had lived in a trailer while rebuilding and spent many weekends helping with one of the valley\u2019s replanting projects. He still spoke fondly of Kansas, but never mentioned going back there anymore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mister Glass picked up one flashlight from the floor of the van, gave his other to Aunt Jenny, and then we began to walk to the other vehicles that had been parked along the road. We spread out a little, but stayed within sight of each other\u2019s lights. Personally, I kept a hand on Claire\u2019s shoulder, telling myself it was for her comfort and safety but knowing it was mostly for my own peace of mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The other lumps were just that: lumps, which was an extreme relief. It seemed that everyone from our work party except Annie Meyers had made it into a vehicle. While some people were still having trouble breathing, they were all still alive. As word went around, people began to point fingers in regards to Annie Meyers. Why hadn\u2019t anyone helped her to a car? Why hadn\u2019t anyone looked for her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWait,\u201d Claire interrupted. \u201cHow did Annie get here?\u201d Several people grumbled in reply, but Claire stood firm and asked, \u201cAll of the rest of us scrambled for the vehicle we came in, right? Who did Annie ride with to get here?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n At varying speeds, we all came to the idea that Claire\u2019s question was a good one. We didn\u2019t immediately have an answer until someone declared, \u201cThe Roxons!\u201d As several people, me included, said something interrogative as to what the speaker meant, he (Freddy Wilson) said, \u201cThe Roxons were working with us earlier today. Were they still here when the storm hit or had they already left?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Everyone spoke but no one could remember when the Roxon brothers left, whether Annie might have come with them, or whether she was friendly enough to have ridden with them in the first place. A couple people said they thought they had heard a car moving along the dirt road in the early moments of the storm, but they weren\u2019t for certain and other people were sure they hadn\u2019t heard a vehicle. Someone said, loudly, that it would be just like the Roxon brothers to run off and leave poor Annie to die as they took care of their own skin. Others argued that the Roxons wouldn\u2019t have done that. I stayed silent, remembering how my own moment of selfish panic had only been thwarted by the happy accident of my sister beating me to the truck. I said a prayer of thanks in my mind that I had found her, for if I hadn\u2019t, she might have suffered Annie Meyers\u2019 fate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Someone said something about how it must be one whale of a forest fire, to be interrupted by Danica Frowley, who said in a tone that brooked no argument, \u201cThis is volcanic\u201d as she rubbed (apparently) ash between her fingers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Someone objected, \u201cWe don\u2019t have volcanoes around here!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Danica happened to be looking at me as she said, \u201cI didn\u2019t say it was around here. It could have come from a hundred miles away, or a thousand. But no forest fire is going to produce this amount of ash\u2014look at the places we\u2019ve been working these last couple years. Somewhere, maybe Capulin down in New Mexico or Krakatoa in Hawaii or one of the Alaskan volcanoes or\u2014somewhere, a volcano blew.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis came from the west,\u201d Mister Glass pointed out. \u201cDoes that mean it was Alaska?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThere are volcanoes all along the Pacific rim,\u201d Danica told him. Danica Frowley was a banker from nearby Fairplay who loved to hike in the woods. In her mid-thirties and fairly attractive with her flawless dark skin and lithe frame, I had heard more than one person wonder why she had never married. I had gotten to know her a little on these weekend work parties, but not well enough to have any sort of answer for that question. I had a guess that she was married to her work, but that might have just been nothing more than a guess. \u201cAnd just because we saw the ash coming from the west doesn\u2019t mean the volcano is in that direction. Did you see how high that wall of ash was? I think it came from the west, too, but at that altitude, the winds can blow differently than\u2014\u201c She shook her head and said, \u201cThat\u2019s neither here nor there. I can\u2019t tell you where the volcano is, but I can tell you this much ash has to be volcanic.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Since she seemed to know what she was talking about, and as none of us had any better ideas (and agreed with her assessment that this level of ash was beyond any of the fires we had seen in past years), we all turned to her as our authority. \u201cHow bad?\u201d Claire asked, receiving nods of agreement from many of us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Danica thought a moment, then replied, \u201cDepends on where this happened. If we\u2019re right and this came from the west\u2014probably from the Pacific Rim\u2014if it can blow up there and hit us with ash here \u2026 then I would think we\u2019ve got to be talking a death toll in the millions.\u201d As we all mouthed the words\u2014twenty-plus of us standing around her\u2014Danica continued, \u201cSeattle, San Francisco, if they were closer to the blast they might be leveled now. And if this set off the San Andreas \u2026 \u201c<\/p>\n\n\n\n Aunt Jenny looked at her watch and said, \u201cWe felt that first quake at about five-fifty, our time. It was probably, what? Better part of an hour before the wall of ash hit. Then, it was almost five hours before the ash let up enough for us to get out of the vehicles. Does that tell us anything?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Danica answered, \u201cI have a cousin who\u2019s a geologist. It might mean something to him. I have no idea how far or fast a wall of ash like that could travel. And if there\u2019s a weak spot in the earth\u2019s crust, that might not be the only volcano\u2014others could open up or it might just be the one. Either way, I don\u2019t think this is a good thing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWell,\u201d I said, speaking for the first time in a while and finding the nerve to do so I knew not where, \u201cIt seems to me that the thing for us to do now is try to get back to town or to our homes. See if there\u2019s power there and if anyone\u2019s hurt.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Several people agreed, but someone asked, \u201cWhat about Annie? Do we just leave her here?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSomebody help me get her into the back of my truck. I can take her at least as far as Como.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAnd then what?\u201d Claire objected. \u201cPut her in the barn until someone claims her?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt\u2019s either that or leave her out here,\u201d I replied. Did I mention that, as brother and sister, we were often very skilled at pushing each other\u2019s buttons? In the past, we had just been better at keeping it off public display. Of course, we had never had one of these discussions over a dead body before, either.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Claire, in an overly-logical voice I had come to hate over the years, said, \u201cWe can either take her into town and bury her or fire up the front end loader over there and bury her now. Either way, the salient point is that she\u2019s dead.\u201d That last word was said with pointed irony that deserves its own special typeface.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe\u2019ll take her in the truck,\u201d I pronounced somewhat imperiously. \u201cShe was Catholic. We can take her to the Catholic Church in Como. Probably people gathering there right now, trying to figure out what to do next.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Claire clearly wanted to object, but she didn\u2019t interfere when a couple ladies wrapped Annie Meyers in an old blanket and then myself and Freddy loaded her into the back of the pick-up truck. It suddenly registered on me that I was going to be driving around with a dead body in the back of the truck and I wasn\u2019t crazy about the idea but I wasn\u2019t going to tell my sister that. What I said to her was, \u201cCome on. Sooner we can get to the church, the sooner we can get her out of the truck.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Claire said nothing in response, but got into the cab and slammed the door.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I was relieved when the engine fired up, though I had no reason to think it wouldn\u2019t. I turned on the headlights, but that actually reduced the visibility due to the ash still in the air. I turned off the headlights and switched on the fog lamps and that helped some. I looked in my rearview and saw several other vehicles turning on their lights. I was glad I had parked with the truck pointing down canyon as I watched people behind me do three point turns on the narrow dirt road.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhy aren\u2019t we moving?\u201d Claire asked, none too happily.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cJust making sure everyone can get their wheels going,\u201d I replied as I slipped our truck into drive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As we moved out slowly, Claire surprised me by saying, \u201cI\u2019m sorry I argued back there, Josh. I just\u2014I just\u2014I don\u2019t know. I just get a feeling way down in my stomach that Annie\u2019s not the only one who died here this evening and, well, maybe if I can deny she did, maybe no one else did, either.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYeah. I understand.\u201d I looked over at my sister in the glow of the dash-lights before us and headlights behind us and asked, \u201cYou think Miss Frowley\u2019s right? Millions dead?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cDear God, I hope not,\u201d my sister replied quietly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At the mouth of the valley, where it opened out onto the larger South Park Valley near the site of what had been the town of Peabody back in the gold rush days, there was less ash. As if the valley we had been in were a large pipe that had blown the ash away from its entrance. But then, as we passed onto the grounds where once had stood the other mining town of Hamilton, the ash started getting thicker. By the edge of Como\u2014itself once a prominent mining town but by this time a burg with an official population of less than fifty people\u2014the ash was six inches deep and, like snow, drifted higher in some places. I was only going about five miles an hour\u2014at the beginning due to visibility but then because the traction was so miserable. I had driven that old truck in snow storms and on ice, but driving on that ash was the least in control I had ever felt in a vehicle. Only a mile down the road and I could already feel the ache in my shoulders from the tense way in which I gripped the wheel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And then someone started honking their horn and flashing their lights behind us. I came to a stop, panicking for a moment as it seemed like we were just going to keep sliding indefinitely, and then got out. Mister Glass had been right behind me in that old conversion van of his and he was getting out as well. We had started out from the Selkirk with six vehicles in our caravan and now there were only five. \u201cWhat happened to Miss Frowley and her bunch?\u201d I asked, as if Mister Glass could somehow know more than I did under the circumstance. Rather than snap back pithily, he just shrugged and we started working our way down the line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At the last car, driven by Freddy, we were told, \u201cI just looked up and Miss Frowley wasn\u2019t behind me. I didn\u2019t see her go off the side or anything.\u201d Freddy was getting out of the car as he said this and began walking back down along the road.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mister Glass had had the presence of mind to grab one of his flashlights and began to sweep the road and the ditches to either side. We had only gone a couple hundred yards when we found Miss Frowley and the three people with her gathered around her car, the hood up. As we came up closer she said, \u201cI tried honking, but I wasn\u2019t sure if anyone had heard me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhat happened?\u201d Freddy asked her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cJust died on me. I can\u2019t get it started back up.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Freddy motioned for her to get into the car, then said, \u201cTry again.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The car made a chugging noise, but wouldn\u2019t engage. Freddy opened up the air intake, took out the filter, and looked at it in the light of Glass\u2019s flashlight. \u201cFull of ash,\u201d Freddy commented, banging the filter against the engine block. Putting it back in place, he motioned for Danica to start the car again. She did, and it came on, but still sounded sluggish.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis is going to be a problem,\u201d Freddy commented sardonically, to be punctuated by the sound of one of the cars ahead of us honking wildly. As we three set out at a run, Miss Frowley\u2019s passengers jumped in her car and followed us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The third car in the caravan had been driven by Wlllard Guthrie, who was now standing beside his car and peering under the hood. \u201cJust died. Acts like it\u2019s not getting gas.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt\u2019s not getting air,\u201d Freddy told him, and us. \u201cAnd who knows? The gas line may be clogging up, too.\u201d He looked around and said, \u201cThere\u2019s a good chance none of us are going to make it very far this night.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWell, let\u2019s go while we can,\u201d Mister Glass said, then we could hear his van dying from where we were. At that moment, Danica pulled up even with the convoy only to have her car die again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Ash.<\/p>\n Siblings Josh and Claire were out with a detail of locals trying to replant the Selkirk area following the previous summer\u2019s fire when the ash hit. They had seen a lot of ash, but not like this. This was a wall two miles high that swept through and buried everything. Everything.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2111,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1982,1981,1993],"tags":[2007,1368,1989,2011,1564,1075,2008,1597,1074,1059],"class_list":["post-3673","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-apocalyptic","category-christian","category-western","tag-apocalyptic-2","tag-christian","tag-dystopian","tag-family","tag-fantasy","tag-fiction","tag-futuristic","tag-overstreet","tag-western-2","tag-yellowstonevolcano"],"yoast_head":"\n