Grey ash covered the ground. The sky had been dark for days. People began to forget what light looked like outside of their makeshift bunkers. No one had expected a volcanic eruption. Not the scientists, doomsday sayers, no one.

I had been out on the McKenzie river with Alan when we felt the first tremors. A mattress floated past us down the river before a wave of debris followed. The highway above the river was soon filled with cars racing away from Mt. Sentinel.