Chapter 11 - Out of the Fire

It was late afternoon, and darkness was falling over Alvin. A guard had grabbed Celia to toss her to the auctioneer, but Sammy (on Barney’s advice) had worked quietly all day to free himself from his chains, and at last burst free. He jumped on the guard holding Celia. The guard made a very exclamatory statement of surprise, and dropped her. She writhed on the ground, having been freed of most of her chains for the auction, and tripped another guard up. He lost his whip and it was immediately grabbed by an enterprising young man who had been biding his time. From there is escalated into an all out riot, with even some of the ones who thought they had given up joining in. Sammy threw off three guards and rushed to break his friends’ shackles. It was easier than breaking his own, and only took a few moments. They ran wildly to the town-end door.
The door burst inwards to reveal an army, equipped with guns and maces. All movement stopped.
The volcano chose that moment to erupt.
And when the volcano on the island of Alvin erupts, it seriously erupts. No piddling puffs of ash and streams of molten rock for this mountain. No, this was a real eruption, with red sky seen on the other side of the world, and rain of fire, and shaking earth, and black ash falling two feet thick over the whole island and far out into the sea.
The result of the eruption was either extremely good or extremely bad, depending on where you stood. For instance, it was extremely good for our heroes, because it brought about their escape, but it was very bad for the new army of guards, because they were standing directly in the path of an enormous flying boulder, and were flattened in a burst of swearing and frantic pushing and shoving. It was also extremely good for the slaves that had been sold, because businessmen are not known for their bravery, and tended to release their captives at the first sign of danger, but very bad for Mervin the disagreeable, because his hut caught fire.
So our newly unchained heroes made a run for it through a large hole in the fence where a boulder had crashed into it. The hole was perfectly round and ringed with fire. It reminded Joseph, who was somewhat hysterical (a result of being cowardly) of a circus he had been to when he was younger, when the ringmaster had made the horses jump through hoops of fire. He laughed, but stopped laughing when his pants caught fire.
After dousing the flames, they ran across the burning docks to the water. Sparing no thought for the other slaves, because sometimes you have to look out for yourself, they leapt into the nearest boat and shoved off hard. The boat zoomed away from the dock at high speed. Then it sprung back with a crash because they had forgotten to untie it. The dock wobbled unsteadily. Flames flickered around its supports. Barney wrestled with the mooring rope. Someone had tied an excellent knot. A rock crashed into the sea inches from their boat. The water around it began to boil. The silhouetted form of the largest ship at the docks began to sweep slowly out into the harbour. On board, a figure put his thumbs in his ears and wiggled his fingers. Sammy bellowed something exclamatory at him and pulled the mooring rope so hard that the section of dock it was tied to broke off. He wielded the oars with a strength that surprised even him, and they began to manoeuvre through the debris. On the docks, a thousand voices cried for help, but the further away the boat got, the quieter the cries became. And so they made their escape from the Slave Traders of Alvin.
But they were not yet out of danger. For we all know what happens when a volcanic island erupts. The earth shakes beneath the sea, and rocks melt, and the sea rises. Up, up it rises, forming a wall of water, a mountain. If, that is, walls and mountains moved at the speed of sound and crashed down upon anything in their way, causing mass death and destruction.
The tiny boat weaved through ash and rocks at and unnatural speed. It sat low in the water, not designed to hold four. Its paint was peeling in the hot water, and blisters were forming on skin where bodies touched wood. Barney, Celia and Joseph sat hunched in the boat and tried to not to touch the sides, while Sammy pulled furiously on the oars. We, as objective observers, may think that this is not fair, and that they should have taken turns with the oars. But the truth is that it is much better not to disturb a demi-god when he has a rhythm going, and when you are escaping an erupting volcano, the best idea is to leave as fast as possible without considering fairness. So, Joseph sat with his eyes closed and his hands over his ears. He sang a little song to himself, and pretended he was at home in bed. Barney watched the eruption through half open eyes and tried to pretend he didn’t think it was pretty. He liked rocks. Celia distracted herself by watching Sammy row. She sighed a little and thought that Sammy really was very handsome and heroic. Sammy didn’t think, just deftly avoided any obstacles and rowed as hard as he could. The mountain prepared for its finale.
Mount Alvin exploded with a force that caused the ground to shake in every country of the world. There was a deafening blast and fire leapt into the sky. Molten rock rained. Four thousand mammoths trumpeted as they died (this is the true story of the extinction of the mammoth. Water rose in a wall five times as high as a house. The tiny boat rose with it. Our heroes grasped their seats tightly. Sammy forgot about the oars and pulled Celia close with arm, holding desperately to the boat with the other. He closed his eyes.