Free Eruption by Roland Smith Page B

followed them to the crack.
    â€œChase put the crates there to warn us,” Cindy said.
    Tomás got down on his knees and pushed on the trailer to test its stability. It moved. He took the flashlight from his go bag and leaned over the edge with it. Cindy had seen him and John do the same thing on the levee road during the worst of Hurricane Emily.
    After a couple of minutes, Tomás popped back up and said, “I will go first.”
    This implied that Cindy was going second. She wasn’t sure she wanted to go at all. “What about our friend in the truck?”
    â€œHe will have to stay here.”
    â€œMaybe I should stay with him.”
    Tomás shrugged and jogged back to the truck. He drove forward and parked it as far to the right side of the road as he could. He came back with a coil of rope and Chase’s go bag slung over his shoulder. He tied one end of the rope to the bumper.
    â€œWhat are you doing?” Cindy asked.
    Instead of answering, he handed her a webbed harness with a carabiner attached to it.
    â€œWhat am I supposed to do with this?”
    Without a moment’s hesitation, Tomás danced nimbly across the wreckage to the other side of the crack. The trailer and camper were still wobbling and screeching as he pulled himself up to the road.
    â€œAre you with the circus?” Cindy shouted across the fissure. “I can’t do that!”
    Tomás wrapped the rope around a tree, took up the slack, and tied it off. He motioned for her to put the harness around her waist and clip the carabiner to the rope.
    â€œYou are crazy!”
    Tomás pointed at his watch.
    â€œI know you’re in a hurry, but still … I can’t do this. I’ll stay here and take care of the man in the truck.”
    Tomás gave her another shrug and turned to leave.
    â€œWait!”
    Tomás turned back.
    Cindy snapped the carabiner to the rope. “Just go before you regain your sanity,” she muttered to herself. She stepped onto the twisted metal and immediately dropped to her hands and knees. There was no way she’d be able to cross it like Tomás had. She began to crawl. Three quarters of the way across, she heard a loud rumbling coming up from the fissure. The wreckage started to sway. She looked up. The sides of the fissure were grinding back and forth like jaws. The metal dropped away as if the earth were swallowing it.
    Cindy screamed.

The old man was kneeling, with his arms wrapped around three of the children. Chase was crouched down, his arms around the other two and the poodle. Pepe was whimpering. The children were crying. As the ground rumbled and rolled beneath them, Chase looked up at the volcano. The plume had turned darker and thicker, as if someone were stoking the fire beneath. A church bell rang from the village. He wondered if someone was pulling the rope or if the quake was causing it to toll.
    Chase had glanced at his watch the moment they had dropped to their knees in the middle of the road. When the quake finally stopped, only thirteen seconds had passed.
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    The shaking terrified the tiger. He unsheathed his claws and gripped the dirt so the ground would not drop out from beneath him. When it finally stopped, he continued to hold on for several seconds. He had lost track of the deer some time ago. Other scents were now pushing up the mountain. He lifted his head and listened. He heard the bang of metal in the trees below. He did not like the sound. It reminded him of the night before, when theworld came apart and the other cats lay still. He moved away from the noise so it could not catch him.
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    John, Nicole, and Mark were sitting upside down, pushing airbags out of their faces. Thirteen seconds earlier, they had been heading up the mountain on a steep incline. The trees had begun to thin out, making it easier for John to pick and choose his route. The truck had started to slip sideways and tip to the left. John shouted for them