Read The Volcano That Changed The World for Free Online

turned to retrieve the container with the glass shards, he smiled, reflecting that the whole process had taken less than five minutes. Not even enough time for my legs to get much colder, he thought.
    Pleased with himself, h e placed the container in his coat pocket and took a step toward the door. As he did, he heard a loud pop. The unusual sound came from outside the door.
    Mark stopped and listened, trying to figure out what caused the noise. This time he heard a couple of clicks. Confused, he continued toward the door; reaching it, he pushed the release button.
    Nothing happened.
    He pushed again. And again. Then he pushed against the door.
    Nothing. It wouldn’t budge. The door, he quickly realized, must have been malfunctioning. Probably the result of the power outage, he thought.
    P ushing the release button one more time, he banged on the door and yelled, “Is anyone out there?” It was an automatic response, and a futile act of desperation because he knew no one else was in the lab.
    Silence proved what he already knew ; there was no one to respond.
    Still, h e banged his fist against the door several more times.
    Continued silence. He was alone.
    Even though he knew it was pointless , he reached into his short’s pocket and retrieved his cell phone. He had to rub the foggy display with his thumb before he could see what he expected—there was no signal in the heavily insulated AMGRF. He slipped the phone back into his pocket.
    I nstinctively, he pulled the zipper of his coat up around his neck as he looked around the room. There was no other way out and he saw nothing to keep him warm.
    Plunging his bare h ands into his coat pockets, he asked himself aloud, trying not to panic, “Okay, Mark, what are you going to do now?”
    He answered , “Well, for one thing, you need to stay warm.”
    Continuing to talk , he chided himself, “Brilliant, Sherlock; that’s the best you can do?”
    If he could last through the remainder of the night, hopefully someone would come into the lab early in the morning to do some work and would find him there—that was his only chance, given that the malfunctioning door was unlikely to suddenly work again.
    Mark knew that exercise produced heat, so he began to pace back and forth. Digesting food also produced heat, he knew. His body always heated up as he ate. Unfortunately, the last food he consumed was hours ago and he had nothing with him, not even a candy bar.
    As he paced, he looked down and noticed his bare legs. He shook his head and mumbled, “You dumbass.”
    As he began to realize that he was in imminent danger of freezing to death, his pulse rose, the additional blood flow providing a slight warming effect. It was not enough—unless someone came to help him soon.
     
    By the time the timer went off indicating that two hours had passed, his pacing had slowed. He felt the cold penetrate deep inside him. The human body works best at ninety-six degrees Fahrenheit, which allows chemical reactions in the body to occur rapidly enough to keep it alive and function properly. Mark’s body’s chemical reactions were slowing.
    With further cooling, the body’s last- ditch effort to generate heat was to shiver, an involuntary muscular response. He was now shivering uncontrollably, his teeth chattering.
    Mark had always thought of himself as an agnostic. Now, while slowly pacing, he pondered heaven and hell, wondering if they might be real after all.
    His mind flashed to an old girlfriend. Maybe he should have been nicer to Sara Jo, a woman he had once loved. Would she be sad or happy when he was gone? Probably happy, he surmised.
    His mind wandered to the warmth of the Greek island of Santorini, where he was heading for the summer in a few short weeks.
    Laughing out loud, he remembered that “hypothermia,” the medical term for freezing to death, was a Greek word. The juxtaposition of a warm Greek island and the Greek word for freezing struck him as funny. Perhaps his brain