The
Eruption
September,
1877
Leo Lanely was an orphan, and he lived in an old
garage. He had short brown hair, big blue eyes, a small forehead, and a pointed
nose. He was 11 years old and lived in a small village named Tarumta, which had
a population of a few thousand people. He worked as a laundry boy in an old
laundry in mornings. After working he would go to a restaurant named “Meal
For The Day” to buy lunch from his hard earned money.
One day
Leo was walking down the street, he was returning from his work. He arrived
home and stepped into his garage. It was given to him by his master, who lived
right above. His master was a lean guy with bald head and blunt nose. He was a greedy
man. He owned the laundry shop in the neighboring street, in which Leo worked. At
times he was rough on Leo.
Leo sat
on his bed and ate his lunch which consisted of a salad, stir fry and orange
juice. Leo took out his only and favorite book which was about Volcanoes. It
was given to him by his parents on his last celebrated birthday. By now it had
torn and its pages were tattered. His favorite part in the book was
How
to predict a volcanic eruption
i.
Animals
howling
ii.
Emission
of Sulphuric gas
iii.
Trembling
of the Earth
iv.
Puff of
Ash from Volcano
Leo
remembered the giant Volcano which shadowed his village, it was a sleeping
giant covered by forest and lot of wild animals. He wondered if it would ever
blast again because it had not erupted for thousands of years. The village people
wondered if it was ever still active. He read the book again and again till
night. He soon fell asleep dreaming about Volcanoes,
Ash and Lava.
“Aaaaaa
hhhhh!” Peter, Leo’s best friend was screaming. Leo went from dreaming to
shrieking in terror. Peter was also an orphan and lived right beside Leo in
another shabby garage.
“Leo! Wake
up you are late for work, and even I am late for my work too” screamed Peter.
“Whaaaat!”
Leo said as he jumped out of his bed. “I
am skipping my work today. I have enough money so that we both can eat”
“Ok,
then even I am skipping my work too” Peter repeated. “Leo something strange
happened last night. All the animals in the forest were howling almost through
the night! I wondered how you slept through, I couldn’t sleep!!!!” he
exclaimed.
Leo’s
mind raced along, suddenly he remembered the lines “Animals howling” from the book he had. And that is what Peter had
said, thought Leo.
“Come
on! Hurry!!! We need to go near the Volcano” said Leo.
“Why????….”
But before Peter could finish, Leo raced along the road, even Peter followed
him. They ran faster and faster but Peter did not know why they were heading
towards the giant Volcano.
Leo and
Peter soon reached the Volcano. Without saying a word Leo rushed into the
forest.
“Hey,
wait up” said Peter.
“Ok
come on” said Leo as he waited for Peter to catch up.
As they
walked through the forest, they saw many dead animals. From the smallest rat to
the biggest wolf.
“That’s
so strange” said Leo.
“What’s
happened here? Is it a hunt? And is that why the animals were howling?” asked
Peter, who was looking very nervous.
Leo
walked up without saying anything. Peter shrugged and followed on. They walked
for about an hour, which felt like few hours to them. They swirled around dead
animals, and burnt trees.
“How
did this happen?” asked Peter.
“I
don’t know but we will soon find out” answered Leo.
“How
much more do we have to walk?”
“We
have to walk until we find what we are looking for” said Leo
They
came to the edge of the forest and saw terrible sight, everything was burnt.
“Whaaat
has …!” before Leo could finish his body became very heavy, his brain felt
dizzy and his lungs burned. Then they fainted.
Leo
opened his eyes and saw that he was in a rich looking house, he wondered where
he is.
“Leo!!
…” shouted Peter; happily. Leo opened his mouth to say something but he could
not speak.
“See,
these men saved our lives” said Peter pointing to the two men who were sitting
beside them.
“Hello”
they said and waved at Leo.
Leo
waved back. He was given something to eat. After recovering Leo asked the
people
“How
did you save us?”
“I will
tell you from the beginning” said one of the men “we were assigned to check why
the animals in the forest had been howling strangely”
“Wait,
by whom were you assigned?” asked Leo interrupting them.
“By the
Mayor of course, so we set off. We went through the forest and saw horrible
sight. All the animals and trees were burnt. We went further and saw that whole
forest had been burnt, That’s where we saw you both and rescued you, there was
lot of sulphuric gas and that’s why you had fainted, but we had protection
gears and were wearing masks which we carried just in case some problem happens….”
Before he finished a tall man appeared behind the door and said
“That
is enough for now, I need to talk to these kids”
Then
the two people took leave and vanished behind the door. The man who had just
entered had short black hair, average height, big black eyes and a blunt nose.
Leo recognized him immediately.
“Aren’t
you the Mayor of Tarumta?” asked Leo.
“Yes”
answered the man “Now I want you to tell what you were doing in the forest?”
Leo
told the Mayor everything; all he knew; how the Peter had told about strange
behavior of the animals, how he had got the doubt on the Volcano and how the
smell of the sulphuric gas affected them. The rest, the Mayor knew.
Peter
suddenly jumped and asked “Leo, why you did not tell me all this?”
“I just
wanted to confirm myself before telling anyone” said Leo calmly.
“Hmmm,
do you have any proof about this?” asked the Mayor who sounded serious.
“Yes”
said Leo as he handed the book to the Mayor. He had carried the book with him
all the way.
The
Mayor told, “Ok, now take some rest while I go through this book”
Leo and
Peter were escorted to a room in the Mayor’s office (or house as Leo thought)
by a guard. The room had huge windows, two large beds and a small table. They
fell asleep on the beds thinking about what will happen next.
Leo and
Peter were woken by a huge looking guard who was shouting outside the building.
“Why
are you shouting?” asked Peter as he came out. Leo came running behind him.
“Look
you both, I have been given orders by the Mayor to alert the people of the
village about the eruption, so I told all the people about the eruption but
they are not ready to believe. After showing your book now they kind of
believed it and are running around helter-skelter” said the guard.
After a few minutes of talking the Mayor came
outside and said out loud “Does anyone here know how we can escape quickly
without getting harmed?”
“Yes, I
do” said an old man softly and slowly, who was hidden in the thickest of the
crowd. “There is a trapdoor hidden in this village, which connects to a new
land through a tunnel”. Everyone stared at the old man in astonishment.
“When I
was a boy, I had used it once and it took me to a new land after few hours”
“But
where is this trapdoor and tunnel?” asked someone nervously.
“It is
in an old small house behind the church” said the old man.
The
Mayor requested the old man, “Will you please lead us to this house, which you
are talking about?”
“Yes, I
will. I also have the route map which leads to the same new land by road” said
the old man.
“I want
all the brave men with their horses to come on my right side” shouted the Mayor
pointing towards his right side. Almost few hundred men came with their horses.
“You
men will have to take your horses, the map and leave to the new land right
away” said the Mayor.
They
collected the route map from the old man and said good bye to their families
and left right away.
“Ok now
follow the old man to the trap door” said the Mayor to the remaining people.
“Follow
me” said the old man confidently. He led the people, mostly women, children and
aged people to an old broken house behind the church. Nobody had been there for
ages.
They
reached the entrance of the house, it had collapsed leaving small space to
enter it.
In the
house there were no windows and the house was covered with cob-webs, spiders,
bugs, and dust. The old man, Leo, Peter, the Mayor and few guards entered the
first.
“Ewww!
This place looks scary and stinks” said Leo as he covered his nose.
Even
the Mayor and Peter covered their noses but the old man seemed fine with it.
They reached a room which was enough to hold around twenty people. The he old
man went behind a statue and pulled a lever, suddenly a trapdoor opened in
front of them. The trapdoor had a ladder which connected to a tunnel.
“Peter
get the people in, we need to escape as soon as possible” commanded the Mayor.
“Meanwhile I and others will light the tunnels”
Peter
dashed out to get the people who were waiting outside and others set off to
lighten up the tunnel entrance. After few minutes all the people were ready to
get in.
Peter
was standing in front of the line guiding everyone to the trap door, he was
looking very proud.
“I am
very excited” said Peter to Leo.
The old
man gave two match boxes to the men who were going to lead in the tunnel and
said “Go on lighting the torches along the tunnel as you go, hurry we do not
have much time left”
One by
one they descended the ladder and went into the tunnel.
After a
few hours, “Everyone get in fast, the Volcano may erupt anytime soon” shouted
Leo. All the people who were left started hurrying and got inside the tunnel.
Soon the old man went in along with Peter and the Mayor. Only Leo and one more
man were left behind. The man seemed hesitant to get inside. Leo looked at him
and recognized him, it was his master.
“Master
please get inside the tunnel fast, we do not have much time left” shouted Leo.
“I do
not trust you Leo, nothing will happen to our village, the Volcano will not erupt
and I will stay here!” as he said these words he ran out.
Before
Leo could say something, the Mayor and Peter pulled him inside the tunnel. Leo
was looked back thinking his master will return. But to his disappointment he
did not see him again. Leo started crying for missing his master.
“I lost
my master!!! He should have listened to us and come with us” said Leo, as he
sniffed.
“Cheer
up my boy, do not grieve about your master, it is true that we lost him but you
saved the lives of so many people, look around!!”
Leo
seemed cheerful with that statement and thought to himself “We will soon begin
a new life on a new land”
After
few hours into the tunnel everyone heard a big gigantic “Boooooom!!!!” and felt
immense heat inside the tunnel. “The Volcano has erupted!!!” shouted Leo with
all his might. All the people started hurrying. After walking long hours they
came out of the tunnel to see a new beautiful land.
By
Amogh Kulkarni
October 08th 2015
5th Grade
