VOLCANO ESCAPE

• Benjamin Anderson, Grade 6, WAAIA-YALCA STH PRIMARY SCHOOL
• Short Story
• 2015

Excellence Award in the 'Read Write Repeat 2015' competition

“Run!” I yelled the air was getting hotter. You couldn’t even see two metres in front of you, it was very hard to breathe, you had to feel where you were going, my legs took me as fast as they could go. The rumble behind me sounded much larger then when we got here I tripped over a rock and tumbled.
“Ben you’re up,” said the pilot. I was at a training facility to go into a volcano. I am a person called a volcanologist. I travel into volcanoes and warn the cities surrounding the volcanos if it is going to erupt. I walk into a room filled with green screens. I have to put on these glasses and after you do, you see a massive, red glow coming from heaps of smoke. What you have to do is put gas mask on and run away from the lava, you then have to find shelter and survive a few days on the volcano. This is the last drill we have to do, it lasts for three days and if you don’t survive, you don’t go to the volcano. Tom, my friend, was going to Yellowstone, South Dakota with Jason the pilot, Peter the co-pilot, Mary, and I.
The next day - “Mayday mayday we’re going down! Brace for impact!” screamed Jason. I put my head crossed in my arms, leaning against the console. A massive bang echoed through the aircraft. Jason managed to land the plane with minimal damage. We were on Yellowstone, which was bad, we didn’t know if the volcano was going to erupt or not. We had to get off the volcano. I managed to get up after a couple of tries. I go and see if everyone was ok. Everyone was fine except for a wound on Jason’s leg. Tom and I helped Jason up and got everyone into the main compartment. The air was quite hot. I asked Tom to get the emergency pack, when thick, black smoke filled the compartment, which could only mean one thing.
“Run!” I yelled, the air was getting hotter. You couldn’t even see two metres in front of you, it was very hard to breathe, you had to feel where you were going, my legs took me as fast as they could go. The rumble behind me sounded much larger then when we got here. I tripped over a rock and tumbled. I looked back, there was a massive, red glow that filled the sky. If the volcano wasn’t erupting, this would be the most amazing sight. I got back up, and yelled to get your gas masks on. I grabbed mine from my belt and pushed it onto my head then I continued running. I tripped over another rock, and then my eyes closed.
I woke up in a hospital bed, the nurse said that Tom saved my life and most of the people living near Yellowstone were uninjured.