Mammoth a disaster thril.., p.1
Mammoth: A Disaster Thriller, page 1
MAMMOTH
BOBBY AKART
THANK YOU
Thank you for reading Mammoth, a novel by author Bobby Akart.
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BobbyAkart.com
PRAISE FOR BOBBY AKART AND THE CALIFORNIA DREAMIN’ NOVELS
“If Bobby Akart ever decided to write screenplays for the movies, he'd be happy and rich as Croesus. His novels read like a Roland Emmerich disaster movie, which is to say, of the highest quality!” ~ Amazon review for ARkStorm
“I love the way you are drawn into the lives of the characters in Bobby's books. It's like you're there with them and cheering them on to not give up.” ~ Amazon review for ARkStorm
“Only Bobby Akart can put together a thriller like no other and can capture the reader with his well thought out scenarios.” ~ Amazon review of Fractured
“Life threatening, unexpected twists, full of peril, it engages the reader like no other author of thrillers.” ~ Amazon review for Fractured
“Heart pounding, scary situations and helpless regrets, I loved reading this book.” ~ Amazon review of Fractured
“Mix in a bit of humor, fear and some long suffering and guarantee you will love this series as well as his others!” ~ Amazon review of Fractured
MAMMOTH
by
Bobby Akart
OTHER WORKS BY AMAZON CHARTS TOP 25 AUTHOR BOBBY AKART
Made In China (a Gunner Fox, standalone thriller)
The California Dreamin’ disaster thrillers
ARkStorm (a standalone, disaster thriller)
Fractured (a standalone, disaster thriller)
Mammoth (a standalone, disaster thriller)
The Perfect Storm Series
Perfect Storm 1
Perfect Storm 2
Perfect Storm 3
Perfect Storm 4
Black Gold (a standalone, terrorism thriller)
The Nuclear Winter Series
First Strike
Armageddon
Whiteout
Devil Storm
Desolation
New Madrid (a standalone, disaster thriller)
Odessa (a Gunner Fox trilogy)
Odessa Reborn
Odessa Rising
Odessa Strikes
The Virus Hunters
Virus Hunters I
Virus Hunters II
Virus Hunters III
The Geostorm Series
The Shift
The Pulse
The Collapse
The Flood
The Tempest
The Pioneers
The Asteroid Series (A Gunner Fox trilogy)
Discovery
Diversion
Destruction
The Doomsday Series
Apocalypse
Haven
Anarchy
Minutemen
Civil War
The Yellowstone Series
Hellfire
Inferno
Fallout
Survival
The Lone Star Series
Axis of Evil
Beyond Borders
Lines in the Sand
Texas Strong
Fifth Column
Suicide Six
The Pandemic Series
Beginnings
The Innocents
Level 6
Quietus
The Blackout Series
36 Hours
Zero Hour
Turning Point
Shiloh Ranch
Hornet’s Nest
Devil’s Homecoming
The Boston Brahmin Series
The Loyal Nine
Cyber Attack
Martial Law
False Flag
The Mechanics
Choose Freedom
Patriot’s Farewell (standalone novel)
Black Friday (standalone novel)
Seeds of Liberty (Companion Guide)
The Prepping for Tomorrow Series (non-fiction)
Cyber Warfare
EMP: Electromagnetic Pulse
Economic Collapse
Copyright Information
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, organizations, places, events, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
The author and publisher have provided this eBook to you for your personal use only. You may not make this eBook publicly available in any way.
Copyright infringement is against the law. If you believe the copy of this eBook you are reading infringes on the author’s copyright, please notify the publisher at
CrownPublishersInc@gmail.com.
© 2023 Crown Publishers Inc. All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this book may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means including, but not limited to electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the express written permission of Crown Publishers Inc.
CONTENTS
Dedications
Epigraph
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Chapter 54
Chapter 55
Chapter 56
Chapter 57
Chapter 58
Chapter 59
Chapter 60
Thank you for reading Mammoth!
What’s coming next from Bobby Akart?
MADE IN CHINA
Author’s Notes
What If Fiction Becomes Reality
Real World News Excerpts
Acknowledgments
About the Author, Bobby Akart
More Novels by Amazon Charts Top 25 Author Bobby Akart
DEDICATIONS
To the love of my life, Dani, and our little princesses in training, Bullie & Boom. Every day, you unselfishly smother me with your love, support, and merriment. I may be the machine that produces these words. You are the glue that holds me together and the fuel that winds me up each day so I can tell these stories. I will love you forever.
This novel is also dedicated to the brave members of the Ski Mammoth Safety team that includes ski patrol, avalanche search and rescue squads, and of course the Paws on Patrol, the four-legged pups who are trained to search for people in lost in an avalanche. To learn more about Duke, Trico, Luna, Ritter and Oski, visit MammothMountain.com.
Finally, on a solemn note, I want to dedicate this novel to the memory of the three experienced Mammoth Mountain Ski Patrollers who perished on April 6, 2006, while securing a fumarole. The patrollers were fencing off the fumarole when the snow around the vent suddenly collapsed. Two of the patrollers fell into the six-foot wide, twenty-one-foot-deep hole. Two others attempted to descend into the heated vent to rescue their brothers. Three of them died due to asphyxiation from the volcanic gasses. They are:
Walter Rosenthal, a working scientist with a master’s degree who was a valued comrade of the ski patrollers.
James Juarez, a popular, fun-loving member of the Ski Patrol who sacrificed his life for the protection of others.
Scotty McAndrews, a Penn State graduate who devoted his efforts to avalanche control. He’d been voted Rookie of the Year by his peers just two days before he died attempting to make safe the mountains he loved so dearly.
God rest your souls, gentlemen.
EPIGRAPH
HAD the fierce ashes of some fiery peak
Been hurl’d so high they ranged about the globe?
For day by day, thro’ many a blood-red eve,
In that four-hundredth summer after Christ,
The wrathful sunset glared.
~ Alfred Tennyson in St. Telemachus
Volcanic eruptions are astral messages sent directly down to the Earth and of an importance that would be ignored only at man’s peril. ~ Simon Winchester, British-American Journalist
Civilization exists by geologic consent, subje ct to change without notice.
~ Will Durant, American Historian
Volcanoes are one way Earth gives birth to itself.
~ Dr. Robert Gross, Volcanologist
Extinction is the rule. Survival is the exception.
~ Carl Sagan, American Scientist
PROLOGUE
Mammoth Mountain Ski Resort
Mammoth Lakes, California, USA
That late March, spring break was in full swing across America. Some college students descended upon Fort Lauderdale, or Fort Liquordale for those who remained imbibed during the weeklong crazy train. Others hit the resort cities in Mexico—Cancun, Cozumel, and the Baja Peninsula—to find their fun in the sun. Then there was the Think Snow bunch. The daredevils who believed everyone deserved a snow day. A spring break party where the only bikini-clad coeds were found in hot tubs, slamming shots. A weeklong respite from the rigors of college, dedicated to high altitudes and getting high for some.
The tiny resort town of Mammoth Lakes, California, with a population of just over seven thousand, had a love relationship with this time of year. In past winter seasons, over a million visitors would make their way from Los Angeles and San Francisco to hit the slopes. Then came the ARkStorm, the series of atmospheric rivers that descended upon the Pacific Coast of California, generating a once-in-a-lifetime atmospheric event that conjured up comparisons to the story of Noah’s Ark in the Bible. Although the reference to an ark in the scientific sense was far different. ARk denoted atmospheric river, a thousand-year flood event. Storm, while easily envisioned, was certainly understated for those who lived through it.
Los Angeles had been destroyed when the Pacific Ocean swept across the city and joined the incredible torrent of rain that rushed through California’s Central Valley to greet it. After the deluge of rain had finally subsided that year, Californians had experienced the greatest natural disaster in modern history. The faces of mountains collapsed. Large cities were either swept away by the floodwaters or submerged, subjected to a watery grave.
The rain, combined with massive amounts of snowfall equivalent to the volume of the Mississippi River times twenty-two, had created a new body of water. Known as Lake California, it had stretched from north of Sacramento to near LA. Years later, the state had begun the healing process from what had become known as the Other Big One.
It was the weight of the water that led to what the world’s scientists commonly referred to as the Big One—a series of earthquakes related to the San Andreas fault. Only, it was more than the San Andreas. Other major faults, including the San Jacinto, Garlock, and the Eastern California Shear Zone (ECSZ), experienced major quakes. The result was nothing short of preternatural.
Last summer, as the quakes hit the state in rapid succession, the planet opened up under California. Both hungry and thirsty, the beast within gobbled up everything within its reach and then drank to quench its thirst. Nearly all of Lake California had been drained beneath the Earth’s surface or evaporated by the superheated gases emitted from the belly of the beast.
The series of events changed the attitude of many Californians, especially young people. Carpe diem, or seize the day, became the rally cry. Life’s too short, make the most of it was a motto adopted by many. They’d survived the history-making catastrophic events and were determined to live every day as if it was their last.
A group of four college kids from the University of Nevada Reno had grown up together in the bedroom community of Saddlehorn, where they’d been friends since high school. Their lives revolved around hiking and camping in the summer months while they waited for the ski resorts to open around Lake Tahoe in the winter.
Soon, winter sports became their life. They became expert snowboarders and skiers, mastering the slopes at the Lake Tahoe ski resorts. After entering college together, the foursome was inseparable, especially during the winter. They expanded their ski adventures and made their way to Mammoth Mountain, a hundred miles south of Reno.
The three guys and a girl loved the vibe of Mammoth Lakes. It wasn’t full of wannabe skiers who’d just lost all their money at the Tahoe casinos. The skiers and snowboarders at Mammoth Mountain were all about the outdoors and the natural beauty of their surroundings.
Their nicknames were epic considering their love of winter sports. The leader of the foursome, Andy Bulwark, had been teased as a kid because of his last name. As a teen, he began to embrace it and preferred to be referred to as Bullwinkle, especially while skiing. Well, that fit nicely with his friend Bo Richards, whose girlfriend’s name was Natasha, the daughter of Russian immigrants who were belittled because of their nationality. The three of them had grown up on the same street together in Saddlehorn. Bullwinkle, along with his besties, Natasha and Bo, now referred to by the friends as Boris, were inseparable.
There was still a void in the group. The cartoon characters needed a fourth. A flying squirrel, so to speak, named Rocky. Along came Paulie Hammond. Paulie wasn’t a squirrel, nor could he fly. He could, however, fight. He was undersized, but his fists were fast as lightning. When he was pushed around as the new kid in school, he responded with his fists. Bullies began to fear him, and he promptly earned the nickname Rocky.
So the group of four, Bullwinkle, Rocky, Boris, and Natasha, studied hard, partied a little harder, and skied the hardest slopes they could find. Their spring break vacation was coming to an end. They’d checked out of the hostel they’d saved their money for throughout the year. Located on the outskirts of Mammoth Lakes, they were able to walk to the downtown area and ride a gondola to the slopes. They planned one last day of skiing before they’d make the trip through the Sierra Nevada Mountains to Reno.
The four friends had just made their way to the main lodge after a raucous ride down Andy’s Double Gold, a black-diamond designated slope on the east side of Mammoth Mountain. Ski slopes were assigned easily identifiable colors and trail markers based on their difficulty. A green circle was the easiest, followed by a blue square for intermediate-level skiers. Then there were the black diamonds, also known as blacks, but never diamonds. They were the most challenging runs for only the most advanced skiers. The slopes were often steep, ungroomed, and full of obstacles like trees and rocks. Mammoth Mountain had numerous blacks, some of which were high-alpine bowls, terrain above the treeline that was wide at the top and narrowed toward the bottom of the run.
