“Oh I see” replied Simon with astonishment
“According to our estimations it’s due to erupt in three weeks. We will have to evacuate people from the north down to the south”
“How are you going to do that then?” asked Simon
“Well it’s going to be hard to evacuate that many people, but we’ll do it somehow”
“Ok then. So when can I see the volcano?”
“I’ll arrange a plane to take you tomorrow”
“Thank you”
“Now you go and get some rest” The President told Simon
“Thank you” he said, he turned round and exited the Oval Office.
The next morning he got a chauffeur driven car to the plane. The president was on board already. The plane was the best Simon had ever been on, it was five times better than any first class he had been in. Leather fully reclining seats, laptops and phones, wide screen televisions everything you could imagine. He wasn’t going to be on there for long but it didn’t matter it was the best plane he’d ever seen.
When they landed they were chauffeur driven to the volcano. They arrived and there were flocks of people looking in awe at the enormous volcano. They got out of the car and the President told Simon there was a submarine ready to take him down to the bottom of the volcano. So Simon went and got ready. He appeared bout ten minutes later all kitted up; he went over and got into the submarine.
Once in the submarine he began to steer it downwards towards the bottom of the volcano. It seemed like an eternity for the submarine to reach the bottom, as Simon was going down he was thinking of a plan to try and stop the volcano erupting. Suddenly there was an underwater tremor; the vibrations caused the submarine to go into a spin. Simon was thrown about the cabin; he fought his way to his feet and struggled to correct the subs stability, his heart beating uncontrollably, he eventually managed to correct the submarine. As he had seen al he wanted to he started his ascent to the surface.
SPLASH! The submarine pierced the surface of the water; Simon clambered out of the submarine still panting heavily from his near death experience. He walked over to the President and said “I have a plan which should hopefully, fingers crossed, stop the eruption. I plan to drill holes into the volcano to relieve the pressure so that the lava does not get pushed as far and as high and will hopefully end up in the sea. All I need are some sea drillers, how quickly can we get them here Mrs President?”
“About three days Simon” answered the President
“Good. That will give us plenty of time to drill the holes”
“Anyway you need to go home you’ve had a long day Simon and need rest for the operation. Ill get in contact with you when I have news on the drills” Says the President.
“Ok I’ll be awaiting your call Mrs President. See you soon.”
He runs off to go and get changed.
He decided to get a cab back to his apartment because he had had enough of everything being done for him.
Whilst sat at home writing and drawing up plans for the operation the phone rang, It was the President “Simon, we have a problem with the drills”
“What kind of problem?!” exclaimed Simon
“Well we won’t have them for about six days” answered the President
“WHAT! That only gives us about ten days; this is an operation not to be rushed. Any bad weather and it will have to be postponed so fingers crossed we have good weather. Have you started evacuating people yet?” Asked Simon
“We start tomorrow” said the president
“How are you going about evacuating all the people?”
“Well there will be planes stationed at all airports in north of the country, carrying people in alphabetical order, we hope that all people will be evacuated safely”
“Ok good luck with that, those damn drills better be here!”
“They will Simon I will personally see to it”
“Thank you, Goodbye” Simon hangs up the phone whilst shaken his head in disbelief. He goes back to work on his planning.
The drills finally arrive and Simon breathes a sigh of relief. The drills were accompanied by sixteen drillers, four drillers per drill.
Simon started explaining his plan to the men, “Right my plan is to drill eight holes around the base of the volcano, six in the middles and 4 at the top. We have to be very careful though because to much vibration can cause the volcano to explode, and we don’t want that happening now do we?! We’ll split into four teams, it is now eleven thirty, and we’ll start out descent at twelve o’clock.”
It takes thirty minutes to reach the bottom of the volcano, and approximately an hour to drill every hole. They start at the bottom and work up and if there is no time to finish all the holes off today there’s plenty of time left. They finally start their descent. Once all the drills were in position Simon gave the order to commence drilling over the CB radios. “Gently does it” Simon said over the radio. Eventually four holes had been drilled and Simon again came over the radio “Good work men, I’ll buy you all a drink later”
When back on the surface Simon and all the men went and got changed. When he was changed he went straight to the White House to tell the President the good news.
After he had send and spoken to the president he started walking up towards the bar where the workers normally go to as he had promised them a drink, suddenly one of them came running around the corner and looked in some distress.
“What’s going on?” asked Simon
“The volcano” blubbered one of the workers. Simon started walking towards the volcano and felt trembling.
“Oh my god” he thought. The eruption had started. He started to run to the White House to warn the president what was going on. Immediately there were hundreds of police making sure everyone was getting ushered away from the volcano. Suddenly, BANG! The lava shot out several hundred metres high into the sky, everybody was running, Simon began to run as well. The President was getting into her private helicopter and she shouted to Simon to come over there. He refused saying “I’m the person that has caused all this, so I’m going to stay here,” answered Simon
“Well that’s your choice Simon, Thank you for trying anyway; you couldn’t have done anything else”
“Maybe true but I’ve caused this and I’m staying here” he ran off into the distance.
Lava was running all through the streets, around corners, covering everything in its path. Suddenly the flowing lava stopped, it wasn’t moving anymore, Simon turned round and noticed and stopped running, he was shouting at other people to stop running, after a while people stopped running and all started cheering and jumping for joy.
“The operation was a success” shouted Simon. He started walking home with a big grin on his face. When he got home he went straight to sleep after the day that he’d had he was exhausted.
The next morning it was announced that thirteen people had dies and fifty six people injured.
“I saved a lot of peoples lives at least” thought Simon. He said a little prayer for the people that lost their lives. As he was deep in prayer the phone rang.
“Hello is that Simon?” Came the voice from the other end
“Yes, why?” asked Simon who was a bit puzzled
“The President has asked to see you”
“Ok I’ll be over shortly. Thank You”
Simon pulled up to the White House. It took him three times as long to get there because of all the destruction. He went in and was shown to the Presidents office. He knocked on the door
“Come in” came a reply from behind the door, “Ah Simon take a seat”
Simon sat down “You wanted to see me?”
“Yes I certainly did, I want to thank you and your workers for saving us”
“Shouldn’t the other workers be here then?”
“Well that’s why I asked you to come; I was hoping you can tell them for me. I’m holding a thank you ceremony here tomorrow at two o’clock”
“Ok then, I’ll be here tomorrow at two then”
“Yes, have a good day, good bye”
As Simon was walking home he saw some of the workers celebrating in a bar. He thought he’d go and tell them the good news. They were all thrilled at the news and carried on celebrating. Simon left for home. When at home he went to sleep as he was very tired and stressed. He woke up in the morning and went and got himself a drink and then went back to sleep. The next thing he knew it was midday, two hours to get ready. He went and had a bath and then had a shave. One o’clock he got dressed and left his apartment. He arrived at the White House and there were lots of press waiting for him. Two body guards cam out and ushered him into the White House. The President came over and told him what would be going on, and then the other workers were bundled through the door. Two o’clock arrived and everybody was assembled in one of the conference rooms. The president started “Ladies and gentlemen of the media we are here today to thank…”
Suddenly a loud rumble was heard then BANG! The volcano had erupted again, this time more violently; the lava had blasted out a quarter of a mile high and was rushing towards the White House. Everyone was panicking and running about then the lava came, killing everyone in its path. Altogether a radius of thirty miles was destroyed by the volcano including the whole state of Washington and some neighbouring states. Fifty years later there is still evidence of the damage and Washington has only just been rebuilt. Altogether fifteen thousand people died. Still to this day we remember the thousands lost in this catastrophe.
