Drew Marx was a man of adventure who had a famous job. He was a photographer who had the job of having to take pictures of the inside of a volcano. As dangerous as it was, he loved his job. He traveled around the world doing various studies of volcanoes. Whenever an eruption occurred, he was there to catch the action. Sometimes, he got close to flowing lava and feel the heat as he took the photographs.

After all his adventure, it was time for him to take a vacation.

“Where do you think you’re going to go?” the boss asked him.

“Knoxville, Tennessee,” said Drew. “My gal, Penny, is living there. I haven’t seen her in a while.”

“Have a good time,” said the boss. “Don’t get caught in any volcanoes.”

Drew laughed and replied, “The great thing about Tennessee is that they never have to worry about volcanoes.”

“Amazing,” said the boss. “You are getting the opportunity to get away from volcanoes for a while.”

Drew finally went home to his beach house in Malibu, California. Because he had being flying for a while, he decided to drive to Tennessee instead. He packed up the car and headed out of town. He waved goodbye to the city of Los Angeles as he made his way out.

#

Days later, he was in Knoxville, Tennessee. It was his first trip ever to Tennessee. He drove through the city until he came Penny’s house. Penny was sitting on her porch waiting to see him.

“Did they finally let you get away from those volcanoes?” she asked him.

“They sure did,” said Drew. “I won’t see another volcano until I return to work.”

“Good,” said Penny. “I would hate to see an eruption around here.”

“With you,” said Drew, “I won’t have to think about it while I’m here.”

Drew unloaded his car and went into the house.

#

Days later, Angela Hart was working late at the National Volcanic Operations Center in Los Angeles. She was sitting at her desk when she heard beeping from the computer. She looked at it and saw that it was in an unusual location. She immediately picked up the phone and called the boss. “Hello!”

“This is Angie,” she said. “We have a possible volcanic eruption, but I have no idea where this place is.”

“Go get the books to get the reading. The coordinates on the computer will match the ones in the book.”

Angela went to look at the books and got the coordinates. She was totally shocked at what she saw.

“According to the coordinates,” she said, “this volcano is southeast of Knoxville, Tennessee.”

The boss was stunned. “Get Drew on the phone. Let him know about this.”

“Isn’t he on vacation?” Angela asked.

“He is there,” said the boss. “He is in Knoxville. Also, alert the Tennessee State Police. They will need to know about this.”

Angela tried to call Drew for hours, but there was no answer. She kept on calling.

At a state park southeast of Knoxville. There were a few boys who were hiking through the woods. They came upon a creek where it was deep enough to swim.

“Should we jump in?”

The boys took their clothes off and jumped into the creek.

#

A family was hiking the same trail when they came upon the creek.

“We should have lunch here.”

There, they had their picnic. While they were sitting down, the one daughter looked into the creek and saw the bodies of the boys and screamed immediately. Everyone looked and saw that the bodies were melting. The father called 911 on the cell phone to report what they were seeing.

#

Meanwhile, Drew and Penny were at the house enjoying a nice lunch. As they were eating, a news flash came on the television. Drew watched as he saw the news reporter talk about the deformed bodies in the creek. Penny looked on and saw the bodies.

“How did that happen?” Penny asked.

Drew looked on the newscast. “How far away are we from there?”

“The actual creek is about a mile from here,” said Penny.

Drew said to Penny, “Take me there.”

“What for?” Penny asked.

Drew watched the newscast and saw that the bodies were still in the water and that the rangers were just arriving. Drew called 911. The people answered the phone. Drew said to them, “Tell the rangers not to touch the creek. It could be dangerous.”

Penny asked him, “What is happening?”

Drew replied, “Take me to that creek.”

Drew went to his car to get the equipment that he used for testing water for toxic gases. While at his car, his phone rang. He looked and saw that it was Angela. “Hello.”

“Drew,” said Angela, “I’m glad I found you. Sorry to ruin your vacation, but the computer is showing a possible volcano in your area near Knoxville.”

Drew was stunned by what he heard. “We just had an incident happen. Get some workers here as soon as possible.”

Drew went into Penny’s car. Penny asked him, “What is going on?”

Drew replied, “We could be seeing a volcanic eruption soon.”

“Where?” Penny asked.

Drew replied, “Those bodies melted from the extreme heat of toxic gases that are in the water. It looks like I may not be on vacation after all.”

There was a loud explosion. They looked up on top of the mountain and saw smoke blasting from the top of the mountain. Everyone on the streets of Knoxville watched as they saw smoke rising from the volcano and could not believe what they were seeing. They continued to watch as lava began flowing out from the top. Lava rocks blasted through the sky and land on houses and buildings. Many of the people were terrified throughout the city.

Drew and Penny went to the police station. “May I help you?” the secretary asked.

Drew replied, “I am Drew Marx of the National Volcanic Administration. Is the chief here?”

“He’s out,” said the secretary.

Drew asked, “May I see your dispatcher?”

The secretary took Drew to the dispatcher. Drew said to him, “You must evacuate everyone that is south and east of the Tennessee River.”

The dispatcher did as Drew told him. At that time, the chief came in and saw Drew talking to the dispatcher.

“You must be Drew Marx.”

“I am,” said Drew.

The chief said, “We have been informed by FEMA that you are in charge.”

Drew was stunned by the comment and said, “Have the officers evacuate everyone west of the Tennessee River. They will be safe from the lava flow.”

They did as he said. Penny came to him and said, “So, chief, what am I to do now?”

“Let’s go,” said Drew.

At that time, they left the building.

Drew and Penny were going towards the volcano while everyone else was getting away from it. They watched as the lava flowed down the mountainside. A wide flow rolled down the mountainside towards Knoxville. People were panicking. The police and fire departments tried to calm them down, but everyone was terrified. Drew and Penny came to a traffic jam.

“What should we do?” Penny was panicking.

Drew replied, “It will eventually move. I see this all the time in LA.”

They sat there a while. Drew looked up and saw some heat coming from over a ridge. He got out of the car and climbed up to the top of the ridge to take a closer look. He saw that a river of lava was about to crest it and run towards the road. He ran towards the road and said, “RUN!”

People got out of their cars and began running. They looked back and saw that lava going over the ridge and coming towards the road. A woman kept crying out, “My son, my son, somebody save him.”

Drew went to the woman’s car and saw that the son was handicapped and could not walk. He opened the door, picked up the boy, and headed over to where the woman was. Everyone continued to run until they could get across the river. Drew sat the boy down and went back across the river. As he was crossing, he saw police officers carrying two men that had lava touch their bodies. He looked at the hillside and see that it was covered with lava. He went to one officer and said, “The lava is coming too fast. You’re going to have to move the people away from the river.”

A fireman came over to him and said, “We have fire trucks ready to try to cool this thing off.”

“Do it,” said Drew.

Fire trucks were lined up in an attempt to try to cool off the lava. Everything the lava was touching was catching on fire. The firemen began spraying water on the lava hoping that it would cool off. Drew watched as they were able to cool some of it off, but more lava was headed towards the river.

“Do what you can, but if it doesn’t work, be ready to leave.”

People were being evacuated from the Tennessee River in preparation of the lava flowing into it. The people watched as the lava flowed into the river. Smoke rose from the water as the lava touched it.

Lava was flowing into areas around the mountain. The firemen were successful in stopping the lava flow from going into a housing community. The eruption lasted a little while before it ceased. Everyone was relieved. Drew called Angela and asked, “Is this thing still active?”

Angela replied, “As for now, it appears that you are in the clear.”

Drew said to the fire chief, “The eruption has stopped. It doesn’t look like anything else is happening. You will have to somehow try to see if you can cool off the rest of the mountain.”

Thunderclouds came in, and it began to rain. The fire chief said to Drew, “It looks like we may not have to do anything.”

It rained hard cooling off the lava that was on the mountain. It rained hard throughout the day and into the evening.

#

Morning came, Drew looked out onto the mountain and saw that the lava had completely hardened. He got into a police helicopter to look over the mountain. He saw that only the high parts and ridges were unaffected by the lava. From Knoxville, the mountain gave the city a different looking skyline.

#

Drew continued with his vacation that he was on before it was interrupted. They decided to make a trip to the Carolina coast instead. Drew and Penny were hoping that there was no volcanic activity there.

THE END