Fallen Ash

Chapter 2

After dinner we were in our rooms waiting for the teachers to come around announcing lights out. I was on the couch doing more research, I looked at a familiar website and read through it. It was recently updated. Scientists are saying that the super volcano is twice the size they thought it was. They say that two-thirds of America would be inhabitable, that didn't change, but the amount of ash changed. Over 10 feet of ash would spread up to 1000 miles away from the immediate vicinity. My eyebrows raised as I scrolled through the article. 

Air transportation would be shut down because of the gas and toxins from the explosion, not just in America but all over the world. Escaping would be unlikely except possibly by boat. I continued looking through the article and many other articles, curled up in bed. 

Eventually Rochelle walked in telling me it was lights out. I had overheard conversation from the teachers earlier in the week, they had decided to check on the students 2 hours after lights out to make sure they were actually asleep. All the teachers got spare keys to each of the rooms. I can easily get away with this. 

In case you haven't figured it out already, I'm a very observative girl. My room is about 7-10 steps away from the door. My bed is an extra 3-4 steps. That rounds to 10-16 steps. Which takes about 20 seconds to walk to. In those 20 seconds I can close my laptop and shove it under the bed, and get under the covers and quiet my breathing before getting seen. If the teacher simply peeks in the room it will be 5 seconds of steady breathing, if they actually walk in and look around it could be about 10 seconds of steady breathing. But listening is key here, I will be able to hear the doors open and close and the footsteps of the teacher. I can easily get away with this. I have about 10 years of experience with getting away with these things. I'm practically an expert. 

I smirked to myself as Rochelle told me it was lights out. 

"Thanks Rochelle." I spoke. She nodded, went to the bathroom to change then got into bed and turned the TV on for a bit. I shared this information with the others, the ability to avoid getting caught by the teacher. 

"Any new information?" Rochelle asked after a bit. I nodded and turned to her.

"Turns out the explosion will be worse than the scientists originally thought, the statistics were wrong. Over 10 feet of ash will spread up to 1,000 miles away from the original vicinity. Two-thirds of the continent will be inhabitable." I told her. 

"Interesting." She said and chuckled.

"I'm assuming you aren't going to sleep until 4 in the morning again." 

"Nope!" I said turning back to my laptop. Rochelle chuckled and went back to the TV. I opened up my notepad on my laptop and wrote down notes about the volcano as I went through the articles. I'm not sure why the Super Volcano fascinates me, I think it's because of the amount of destruction it could cause. I looked up more charts and graphs and made similar ones on my notes. 

"You have an addiction." I heard Chris's voice say softly. I looked up. Rochelle had fallen asleep not too long ago. I smiled.

"Hey Chris." I greeted. "And no it's not an addiction, it's a hobby." 

"Whatever you say." He chuckled and sat down next to me on the bed and peeked at what I was doing. I didn't care, everyone does. 

"10 feet?" His eyes went wide. I nodded. "Remember the blue zones?" 

"Yeah?" 

"That's where the worst of it would be, almost 20 feet if I remember correctly. And there will be 10 feet in the purple zone and half of the orange zone. The other half of the orange zone and the yellow zones would be safer. I might be wrong but I'm not sure. There's so many theories it's crazy." I mumbled as I typed on the laptop. Chris watched me.