From the Ashes

Dark, black clouds swirled in the sky in a rather sinister manner, and the wind howled, crying out shrilly. A rather fitting day for the events taking place on Earth at this time: At this moment in time, a man is travelling up a jagged body of rocks, placed strategically by nature. Steam rises up, from the hot springs, and wets the leg of this man. But these hot springs are not the kind you’d want to swim in, no. These hot springs are far too heated, and in a matter of seconds, you’d be disintegrated. These are the hot springs of Yellowstone, Wyoming. And they are fueled by the most terrifying volcano known to man: The Yellowstone Caldera, a super-volcano that has not erupted for hundreds of thousands of years. The man, travelling up the side of this monstrosity, is here to change that.

This man has seen much suffering in his life. Reaching into his shirt, he gently grasps a heart-shaped locket, looped onto a golden chain, which opens up to show a picture of his beloved wife and daughter: A reminder of what has been taken from him by his own kind. He wishes to end the destructive nature of all mankind. To liberate all of humanity from having to live and see the suffering that he has endured. People killing each other, destroying nature, wreaking havoc on everything they touch. Having witnessed it all, Jeffery was determined to end it all, and the plan was simple. He had a huge backpack, full of C-4 that he’d gotten from some shady people, and he had managed to avoid being spotted as he made his way up to the summit. Reaching it, he saw that there were guards, who expected to see suicidal people up here. He drew a bag of throwing knives, and took off, bolting towards the volcano, ready to jump in and ignite it all. He didn’t hesitate to toss the blades into two guards’ necks, with perfect aim. They dropped, dead, and Jeffery leaped into the volcano, igniting the C-4 right as he hit the lava!

People around the world heard the sound barrier break, as the Yellowstone Caldera, aided by the C-4, released an explosion of terrifying proportions! The damage was beyond what scientists had predicted. It was as if nature itself wanted to aid Jeffery in his mission. The sound was as if the sky were being ripped in two! The force of the explosion set off a chain of earthquakes and tsunamis around America! Those in areas near the volcano saw the ominous plumes of smoke rising, followed by lava, spraying out in every direction, moving quickly, so hot, it was flowing like water! Those in the vicinity had no hope of survival. Multiple cities were covered all at once. The ashes made it impossible to breathe, even if the lava didn’t do it.The ashes spread out, covering the continent, smothering a number of people, making it hard to breathe. The more they inhale, the worse it gets. Many die from this alone. Birds fall from the sky, also smothered by the ashes, and over the course of the next few days, their dead bodies would release diseases, making some survivors die from the sickness, and others would survive, but would be irritable and likely to kill. Some of the surviving birds contracted the diseases, and would even migrate to other continents and spread the problem there! America was in shambles! Dead bodies reeked, humans and animals alike, buildings were covered in ashes, so hot that the buildings were catching fire and burning down, killing even more people, especially in big cities, where the buildings collapsed as they burned, while earthquakes dealt even more damage, along with the super tsunamis. Time went on. The disasters settled down a bit. By this point, there was no way of knowing how many were dead and how many weren’t. Back at the Yellowstone Caldera, Some very small movement occurred:

A house, covered in ashes and cooled magma, shifted, and a small teenage girl crawled out, quite shaken by the events. She had witnessed the death of her brother and her father, as the lava fell onto them while they were sitting on the couch, jumping as they heard the explosion. The lava had burned a hole in the roof, then burned right through them. She had been standing across from them, in the kitchen, then seeing them get killed instantly, she cried out, and ran to the laundry room, grabbing a fire extinguisher, and spraying its contents all over a metal hatch before opening it. The hatch led to an underground concrete basement, which her father and brother had spent good money to build, in case the volcano ever went off. Too bad it wouldn’t do the two of them any good. Once in, she cried, mourning the loss of her loved ones, who had died so suddenly. She stayed there, with a watch, to keep track of the date and time: September 23, 2022, 2:00 pm.

She stayed in there, crying for hours, taking shaky breaths. She eventually fell asleep. She spent the next few days eating some of the food in the fridge down there with her, and checking her phone for news, which never came. She figured almost everyone was dead by now. She eventually decided to try and get out from under the house. She grabbed a purple bandanna, covering her soft, fair skinned face, and pulled on a mahogany-colored leather jacket, which had belonged to her father. She went to the hatch, which had been burnt up badly, but managed to hold somehow, and carefully pushed it up, feeling for any lava that may still be hot. She opened it, and came out. Some ash fell down, mixing into her dirty blonde, curly hair. The house was completely burned down. She made her way over to the couch her father and brother had died on. She stared at the burnt remains of them, and in the ashes, she spotted something strange: a golden heart shaped locket.

She opened it, to see a picture of a man, with a woman and a little girl. A family. She wept bitterly at the cruelty of the world. Her father had named her Hope, after her mother. But how could she hold onto hope after this? Hope felt a prick on her stomach, and realized she had something in her pocket. She fished it out, and it was in fact, a journal, containing a picture of her father and brother holding her on their shoulders. She smiled sadly, remembering those happy times. Her lip quivered, and she let out a shaky breath. She knew her family wouldn’t want her to stop living happily just because they died. She took the old picture out of the locket, and replaced it with hers. She had a very challenging task ahead of her: How would Hope survive in this kind of environment, this terrible new world, created by the volcano’s eruption? Well, at least she'd be able to jot notes as she learned. The journal would keep track of the events happening in this destroyed world, a sort of, say, Doomsday Diary, noting her experiences, after emerging from the ashes.