All was Lost

Chapter 3

As we climbed miserably out of the car, dad opened the boot of the car and took out the wet cloths that mum had packed to cover our mouths from the ash, the money that he had packed just in case of emergency, as if this wasn’t enough of an emergency already, and the safety backpack which he slung over his shoulder. He handed us the clothes, and as soon as I got mine, I put it straight to my mouth, and I felt some cool relief from the blistering ashes. Dad took hold of my and Mum’s hands, and I took hold of Lily’s and Mum took hold of Gran’s and Gran was holding Mary, until we stood in a line, our family braced against what would come, because we all knew, that whatever it was, it would be terrifying.

In the long walk that followed, I found out a lot about volcanoes. Dad was trying to keep us distracted from the terror that was about 10 miles behind us, so he told us all he knew about it. He told me that Rangitoto was a shield volcano, and that things would get a lot worse as soon as that lava hit the sea. He said that large amounts of white hot steam would billow up, displacing more rocks and causing a lot more damage. I kept looking back at Rangitoto, at the large grey cloud above it and the red hot lava that was slowly trickling towards the sea, like the sand in a timer, slowly coming towards the end.

Gran was coughing more and more as we continued, and we had to stop many times when the coughs really racked her whole body, and we had nothing to do except watch her old, thin frame shake and jerk as she struggled to dislodge the ash that had settled in her lungs. Eventually it was so bad the she dropped to the ground, her face pale, and her chest barely moving.

Her breath was coming out in short jagged gasps as she struggled to breathe. We all dropped to our knees around her. Lily and Mary began to cry, and I could feel the hot tears beginning to fill my eyes and my vision began to blur. Even Dad’s eyes were moist, and mum had tears dripping down her cheeks, leaving tracks in the dirty ash than covered her face. Gran looked at all of us, her eyes full of love, though her face had an expression of pain etched on it.

One single delicate tear leaked from her eyes as she reached up to grasp Mum’s hand. “Lisa, Joe” she rasped, her eyes looking at Mum then Dad in turn. “Look after the kids for me” she murmured, smiling through her pain, “they have too much to lose rather than dying in some silly volcano”. She looked at us, her eyes reassuring “I love you, never forget that”. Then her hand slipped from Mum’s grip and her body froze, her eyes staring blankly into the distance, dead.

Lily was wailing now, shaking Gran’s dead body and screaming, “We love you to Gran, please wake up!” Dad had his hands around Mums shoulders, shaking his head and muttering “too much ash, it was the ash inhalation that got her”. I could feel the tears pouring down my cheeks, but I refused to let what was going on inside my mind show, or I would go mad with grief.

 After allowing us a few minutes of mourning, Dad looked back at the volcano, and at the way the lava was extremely close to the sea. He stood up and shook the ash of his clothes. “Guys” he said his voice cracked and full of sadness “Gran would not have wanted us to have of died because of her death, we need to keep on going”.

We all stood up, and after short discussion, we dragged Gran’s body under a bush, where at least it would have some protection from the eruption that was to come. After we each planted a kiss onto Gran’s cold forehead, muttered our goodbyes and forced our stiff limbs to work, we began, again, to trek away from the mountain.

We walked for almost an hour, our paces varying from a rush, to a slow tired drag. Every now and then I would look back at the volcano, which was slowly distancing. Sometimes we saw other families with the same problem as us, but most of the time we were alone with the everlasting traffic.

Mary had no tears left to cry, so instead she was sleeping on Mum’s shoulder, a peaceful escape from the terror that was around us. We barely spoke, as the tea towels that were wrapped around our mouths made any sound come out muffled, so we walked in eerie silence, except for the occasional rumble from Rangitoto. Suddenly, I heard a loud hissing crash, and I turned around to see a large mass of white hot steam and rocks spewing into the air as the lava from Rangitoto hit the sea. The eruption had begun.