The Volcano Of Death

• Anthony Panteladis, Grade 11, Hamilton Secondary College
• Short Story
• 2015

Excellence Award in the 'Beyond Words 2015' competition

As he slowly descended the blistering heat was penetrating his fire proximity suit. As he slowly descended the heat reached higher than 2000 degrees which the fire proximity suit could not handle he was tempted to head back up the way he came.
But he needed to prove something. For many years, he had hidden in his father’s shadow, Maurice Krafft a famous volcano explorer, well known for the discovery of many under water volcanoes. No one ever took him seriously. Whatever he had accomplished his father had already done. As an attempt to break free of his father’s shadow, he decided to travel further down the hottest volcano in the world, Kilauea, further than anyone else had ever gone before, including his father.
It took him four years preparation for this expedition and he wasn’t going to turn around now he had a mission. He sweated partly from the heat, but partly from the fear of what may lay ahead. He kept descending further and further. The scientific equipment he was carrying, was weighing him down. He had never felt so hot. Exhaustedly, he persevered, his eyes darting left, right, and down looking for places he could step. He thought back to the days he would venture with his father to volcanoes and take notes and readings from volcanoes always in his father’s shadow, after those early times they separated, as he wanted to come out of his shadow. He decided to do what his father had never done, take a sample strait from the volcano.
He got to the point where the top layer of the lava was solid and underneath was molten lava he hadn’t noticed due to the fact he was suffering from heat stroke. Inside his suit the heat had raised to 80 degrees and slowly climbing. He started stumbling, but he persisted through the blistering heat.
Suddenly, the volcano started erupting. He realised what was happening. He hesitated about dumping his equipment, he then decided to do so and started running. As he was running, he thought how foolish he had been to want to be greater than his father. He thought back to what his father once said, ‘Never try to defy Mother Nature.’ The people at the top of the volcano were watching as a giant splash of lava consumed him. They stood silently shocked by what they had all seen, they all cried out in unison and retreated to a safe distance.