The Quest for Paradise

I hit the ground with my fist on a cry of impotent rage and looking up I abruptly stilled. Tolak was beside me asking if I was okay, but all I continued to do was stare into the distance for a moment longer.

Breaking my concentration I gripped a hold of Tolak and pointing I said, "I need you to get me over there!"

Tolak looked past me and beheld the island's solitary volcano. He glanced back to me and I repeated, "Get me there with this suitcase if you hope to see any of your people have a chance."

"I go." He said definitively.

"No, I'm going with you!" I protested.

Tolak took my face into his hands and forcefully said, "You my woman! You listen now and go back to the village! I flip the lever and come for you. Now you listen and go!!!"

Before I could protest further Tolak pulled the suitcase from my hands and tore off through the jungle headed for the distant volcano.

"Tolak!!!"

He didn't stop, in fact he was already out of view. Feeling like my heart had been ripped from my chest I got to my feet and screamed his name again, but he wasn't coming back.

Crying I turned in the direction of the village and obeyed his final wish. I don't know how I made it there, but when I did I made it clear to everyone that the boats needed to go into the water.

As usual they were resistant to any cause of action, but then the ground quaked beneath their feet even as the top of the volcano that had steamed away tranquilly for years on end tore away to let off a solid column of black ash that streaked up to slam against the cloudy dome like ceiling of this inner world.

When that collision of ash with the orange glowing clouds occurred everything went bad. The clouds crackled electrically and began to dissipate until I actually saw overlying rock layers, but worst of all the sky turned dark as the constant orange glow of the clouds diminished until all that lit up the surrounding landscape was the distant glow of the horizon.

What had I done? I'd killed everyone!

The villagers took to the boats in a screaming mass of panicked anxiety and pushed off into the troubled waters of the sheltered harbor, while I alone just stood there on the beach beholding the work of my own hands. I had thought it was the right thing to do. How could I have been so wrong?

I heard a whining sound and then the sputter of an engine. I heard the engine conk off for good at the same moment I saw the aircraft.