Chapter 1: Driving into Danger

As camping trips go, this had been a good one.  Clear skies, warm weather, lots of swimming, and lots of other kids to play with.  Natalie and Jason were exhausted, and they sat in the back seat quietly for the four- hour ride home.  Natalie had her face stuck in a book most of the way, and Jason, he couldn’t read in a car because it made him motion sick, and he was bored, bored, bored.

“How much longer?” he asked. Mr. Brown, who was taking a break from his job as owner of N&J Environmental,  groaned.

“Oh dear, we’re only half way home.  Please don’t start asking yet,” Mrs. Brown pleaded.  She sat in the front seat and looked ragged after three days sleeping in a tent.  She glanced at herself once again in the mirror and groaned.  Could she feel any worse?  Sweaty, tired, and an aching back from sleeping on the hard ground.  Maybe she would skip the next camping trip, she mused.  That was not a real possibility, she knew.  She would never miss out spending time with the kids at the campground.  Watching them swim the pool, play baseball, and run around brought too much joy to her.  No, she could put up with a couple of sleepless nights once a year.  She shifted in her seat for the hundredth time trying to find a comfortable position and quickly glanced at the clock wondering how much longer until they would arrive home.  She sighed heavily, still three hours to go. 

The road took a sharp left turn and paralleled a train lumbering along its track.  As they entered the corner, Jason watched as the rail cars seem to slow down as their car accelerated down the road until the train was almost motionless compared to him.  Trees, rocks, and fences whipped by, but the train didn’t move.  The same rail car stayed beside them only rocking back and forth gently and the rhythmic click of wheels to remind him they were speeding along.  Jason imagined that their car and the train weren’t moving at all, but the earth was spinning under them only giving the appearance that they were moving.  “It’s all perspective,” he giggled quietly to himself. 

The train was quit long and had many types of cars- boxcars, flat beds, tank cars, etc.  The car next to them was a tank car, and so were the two behind it.  Their white tanks looked like giant white capsules with letters and numbers printed on them.  A placard on the side read, 1017.

“Hey Dad, what’s 1017” Jason asked.

“Um, it sounds familiar.  It looks a like a compressed gas tanker.  Here’s a book,” Mr. Brown said reaching into the center console and pulling out a small, fat, orange paperback, “Look it up.”

Jason took the book and looked up 1017.  “It’s chlorine,” he said flatly.  He was hoping it was something exotic, something interesting.  But everyone knows about chlorine. It’s in everyone’s swimming pool.

“Yeah, cause it kills stuff you don’t want in your pool,” Natalie said without looking up from her book.

“Check out what the book says about chlorine,” Mr. Brown suggested.

Jason turned to the reference page and read, “Toxic, may be harmful or fatal if inhaled or absorbed through the skin”. 

“Huh! I thought chlorine was a solid?  How can you inhale it?”

“The chlorine tablets for pools are solid chlorine compounds to make it easier and safer to use,” Mr. Brown said.  “The tank car has pure chlorine liquid in it.  Very deadly stuff!  They also use it to disinfect tap water.  It’s pretty good at that.  It has some bad side affects though.  In too high concentrations, it’s toxic to humans and can form organochlorine compounds which may be carcinogenic.  I’ll be happy when they replace chlorine with peroxide or ozone.  They are much safer over all.”

“Cool!”  Intrigued, Jason looked up and down the train for other placards and found one, 1824, sodium hydroxide, a base. Disappointed, he put the book down and stared at the train.

The engine was just a head of them, but the caboose was nowhere in sight, just car after car as far as he could see.  Jason rolled down his window and stuck his head out into the wind.  He heard the pages on Natalie’s book flap in the wind and smiled when she said, “Jason, please close the window, I can’t read.”

“What? I can’t hear you,” he said sticking his head further out.  He knew it would drive his big sister crazy, but he couldn’t help himself.  He was really bored.

“Mom!  Tell him to close the window!”

Jason looked up the tracks and felt the cool air stream over his face and whip his hair about.  He could hardly see, but something up ahead caught his attention, it was a train sitting on the tracks.  He ducked back inside and pointing through the windshield asked, “What’s that train doing there?”

Mr. Brown looked and then glanced sideways at the train traveling beside them.  “Uh oh”, was the last thing he said before the speeding locomotive slammed into the parked train.  The last thing Jason remembered was seeing a white chlorine tank car launch high into the air toward them.

 Chapter 2: The Conductor

 With Georgia in his rear view mirror, the Conductor sat down and checked his speed and temperature, 48 miles per hour and green.  He shifted the throttle handle back from notch 7 to 4 and sat in his chair.  Everything was in order.  They were in the long stretch of straight track between Acton and Rockville, his next and only stop was the yards at Portsmouth.  His first inkling that anything was wrong was when the emergency brakes activated.  Through the intercom, the Engineer reported that the switch banner was in the wrong position.  Then the Conductor felt a slight jerk to the left as the train entered an industry siding when they should have stayed on the main track.  Immediately his heart began to race with fear.  He grabbed the throttle handle and pulled it back to notch 1.  The brakes squealed, and the train began to slow.  But there were sixty fully loaded cars on this train, and he knew it would take at least a mile to come to a complete stop.  He prayed nothing was on the track. 

Looking out the front windshield, the Conductor spotted the parked train on the siding just about the same time that Jason did.  His speed, 43 miles per hour.  No time to stop. The collision was inevitable.  The only question was how bad would it be.  With ten seconds to impact, he grabbed the radio and called dispatch. 

Driving trains can be lonely.  The long cross- country hauls are quiet and often monotonous.  For the most part, the train takes care of itself.  It isn’t like the old days when crew had to continuously feed the boiler of a steam engine and manage the water pressure.  The diesel engine was already fueled. It was quiet, and reliable.  The Conductor’s job was to monitor, which left miles and miles of time to think about many things including what he would do if he were about to have an accident, to ponder about acts of heroism or cowardice, to muse about jumping from the train to save his own life, or to do something to save others.  Now here he was, seconds away from his worst nightmare.  It was real, it was now, and he watched himself with interest.  

Although he was terrified of the impending collision that would likely take his life, he remained calm.  His first thought was to warn others and reaching up, he pulled the cord dangling above the dash sending a long horn blast reverberating throughout the town and countryside.  People might not know what the blast meant, but it would warn them that something was wrong.  He held the cord firmly and watched the parked train draw closer.  Ten seconds, five, two, he stood his ground proud that his thoughts were of others before himself.  That was something worth knowing about himself.  At the moment before impact he looked down at his speedometer and read 38 miles per hour.  He braced himself for impact.

 Normally, cars containing hazardous materials are located near the rear of the train where damage isn’t as severe.  But the chlorine tankers had been loaded near the front, the seventh, eighth, and ninth of fifty-eight freight cars, and received the full brunt of the collision.  All three tank cars, each containing 90 tons of liquid chlorine, derailed as the cars behind them rolled forward pushing them up and out onto the street running adjacent to the tracks.  A box car loaded with goods surged forward slamming its coupling into the end of one chlorine tank puncturing a ten inch gash through the inch thick metal.  When the screeching of the brakes and the cars finally slid to a stand still, all was silent except for a loud hiss from the tank car.  Quickly, a green mist began to form as liquid chlorine spewed from the gash and vaporized into the air.  The depressurization sucked the heat from the atmosphere freezing water vapor around the gash in the tank car.  Within minutes, 60 tons of liquid chlorine had evaporated, and the green mist had engulfed everything within 700 feet. 

The conductor woke up lying on the wall of the engine compartment.  The engine had derailed and fallen over on its side in the tress.  He looked around shocked to find himself alive.  Not only was he alive, but he was OK.  Hardly a scratch!  The cab was in relatively good condition too.  The front light was out, but the interior lights were still on and none of the windows were broken.  He picked himself up dusted himself off, then climbed out a window and slowly lowered himself to the ground.  Although his legs wobbled terribly, the solid ground felt good under his feet.  It would be a long time before he would drive a train again he thought to himself.

 The Engineer was standing in the trees and beckoned him away from the train.  Joy filled the Conductor’s heart to see him, his friend, whom he had been riding trains for the past twenty years was all right.  Somehow, someway, they had both survived.  He felt lucky, they were going to be OK.  He had stumbled forward only a couple of steps when a fickle twist of the wind engulfed him in a cloud of green mist.  He never appeared again.  The Engineer called to him for several minutes and then got out while he was still alive. 

Chapter 3: Get Out! 

Mr. Brown saw the train collision and anticipated the railcar’s launch toward the street.  It happened so quickly, he wasn’t sure if it was a gut feeling or he actually saw the cars coming toward them.  It didn’t matter, getting out of harm’s way was the important thing.  He crossed the median and headed for an open space off the road.  The car slammed over a ditch and ended up in someone’s front yard hard up against a large tree.  Everyone was shaken up but OK.  Mrs. Brown was thankful everyone was wearing a seatbelt.  They got out of the car and looked the sedan over.  The front end had been smashed and one of the front wheels dangled like a loose tooth.  Mr. Brown concluded it was not driveable. 

A dog barked and ran out from behind the house to see them.  It was a yellow lab, and although it barked loudly, Natalie could tell it was friendly by the way it wagged its tale. 

“Here boy,” she called.  The dog immediately came to her wearing a huge smile and wagging his tail so hard, his whole body shook.  “Good boy.  Good boy!” she repeated rubbing his head and sides.

Mr. Brown pulled out his cell phone and called 911.  No, they were OK, but he didn’t know about the train crew.  The accident looked pretty bad.  They were somewhere near Rockville.

Jason had wandered back to the road to see the train.  “Dad!  I think you need to see this.  The train is completely wrecked … and there’s a green mist everywhere.”

Mr. and Mrs. Brown, Natalie, and the dog walked to Jason’s side, and as soon as they got close, they could hear the hiss and see the boiling green mist building around the train.

“Quickly kids, let’s get out of here.  That’s chlorine gas,” Mr. Brown said calmly but firmly.  “Let’s go.  Let’s go.”

The yellow lab’s ears perked up, and he took off running toward the train barking furiously.

“No!  No!” Natalie yelled to the dog.  “Come back.”  Natalie took several steps toward the train, before her father caught her around the waist and pulled her back.

“This way, Natalie.  There is no time.”

“Let’ go of me!” she screamed trying to break free.  “We can’t just leave him.” 

The dog ran toward the hiss barking furiously and disappeared into the green cloud.  Immediately, its eyes began to burn as the chlorine gas dissolved into the protective moisture and oxidized the tissue, ripping electrons from the carbon atoms and breaking the bonds apart.  Then, to add injury, the chlorine formed hypochloric acid further burning the tissue.  The dog’s eyes turned white, and he was blind within seconds.  Its first breath of the green mist was its last.  Instead of sweet oxygen, chlorine gas flowed down the dog’s throat, trachea, and bronchial tubes and deep into its lungs digesting the inner lining and causing unbearable pain.  Body fluids rushed to the defense filling its lungs and further restricting the flow of vital oxygen.  It is hard to say, if the dog died from low oxygen levels in the air or from drowning in the massive amount of fluid in its lungs.  It didn’t really matter, the dog died a very painful but, mercifully, quick death.

 The dog’s bark stopped almost instantly, when it disappeared into the mist.

“Dad, let go of me!” Natalie demanded as her father dragged her back across the yard away from the mist.  She dug her nails into her fathers skin determined to fetch the dog.

Mr. Brown felt the pain and grabbed her daughter by the shoulders and shouted in her face. 

“Do you hear the dog barking?  It's dead, Natalie.  The chlorine gas killed it already, and we will be dead too if we don’t get out of hear now!”  Without waiting for an answer, he spun her in the direction Mrs. Brown and Jason were running, and not too delicately shoved her forward.  “Run!”

Natalie looked back at the train where the dog disappeared.  Instead of a mass of jumbled cars, she saw the green mist expanding billowing outward, a death cloud rolling toward them.  The dog was nowhere to be seen, and she couldn’t hear its bark.  It all happened so fast.  Could he really be dead? 

Something tickled her nose, a faint chemical odor.  It smelled like the bathroom after it was cleaned, nasty and irritating.

“I smell bleach,” she said as her eyes began to water.

“Me too,” Mr. Brown grabbed her by the wrist and start running.  Natalie didn’t have to be told again, and soon her father had a hard time to keeping up with her. 

“Head up wind and to high ground!” Mr. Brown told them.  “Chlorine gas is a very dense and will stay in low lying valleys and ditches.”

Jason led them while Mr. Brown and Natalie helped Mrs. Brown through the brush.  As they came out of the trees, Jason yelled, “Up there!” pointing to a high hill few hundred feet away.

“Yes! Go! Go!” Mr. Brown called to him.

They ran quickly through a grassy field and up the side the hill.  At the top was a small picnic area and look out stand with views of the entire surrounding area.  When all four were safely at the top, they stood gasping for air and looked down at the scene.  The green mist was still billowing from the train wreck.  The mist had expanded, filling the forested area where their hobbled car sat leaning on the tree.  They watched as the silent killer crept through the trees toward the house.

“I sure hope no one is home,” Jason panted.

“I don’t think so,” Natalie wheezed.  “No one came out after we crashed.  Only the dog.”  She was sitting on one of the park benches with her head hung low gasping for air.

Mr. Brown cocked his ear to the wind and said, “Wait a second!  Listen!  Can you hear the sirens?  The firemen are coming.” 

“I hope they came prepared because this isn’t the usual fire,” Mrs. Brown said solemnly and everyone agreed.

“Look there,” Jason pointed to the field at the base of the hill.  The mist crept out of the forest and across the field hugging the ground.  He shuddered fearful that it might rise up the hill toward them, and he took his mother’s hand.  He was about to ask if they were in danger, when the mist stopped advancing at the base of the hill, its dense mass unable to rise in the thin atmosphere.  Shortly, a gust of wind blew the mist back toward the road.  In a moment, it was gone from the field, and where once was green grass, it left only brown, and where once had been green leaves on the trees, only brown.  Where once were living creatures, was only death.  The green mist was the most horrific thing the Browns had ever witnessed. 

Jason and Mrs. Brown stood holding hands.  Natalie took her father’s hand and was shocked to feel him trembling.  She looked up at him and saw the fear in his eyes.  She hadn’t heard it in his voice down in the forest when he was telling her to leave.  She remembered his directions when they were running through the field, but he seemed strong then too.  But now his eyes were sunken and his shoulders drooped horribly.  She had never seen fear on her father’s face before.  She had always looked to him for strength, for assurance.  Her father had always been her rock.  Now, with his hand trembling in hers, she was suddenly more scared than she had ever felt before.  More scared than when she smelled the chlorine.  Or perhaps only now was she realizing how much danger they were in. 

She suddenly felt foolish for resisting her father’s command to leave the dog.  She almost got them both killed.  She wanted to say sorry, but that didn’t seem adequate.  What she really felt was grateful, so in the end she thanked him.  They all did.  Mr. Brown smiled and straightened his shoulders a little.  He said he was proud of everyone for getting out quickly.  Natalie smiled but felt that that did not include her. 

She thought of the golden lab and a large lump grew in her throat, its soft fur and wagging body, the smell of its sleek coat still on her hands.  She plucked a dog hair off her sleeve and released it to the wind.  The dog was dead, killed instantly, horribly by the green chlorine mist.  Few things made Natalie as angry as cruelty to animals.  She gritted her teeth and demanded, “How can we help fix this mess?”

 Chapter 4: The Shelter 

“Huh?” Jason grunted.  “You’re kidding, right?”

“No.”

Mr. Brown exhaled as if it was his first breath in ten minutes.  “Natalie.  This is a little out of our league.”

“I think we have some other priorities first, like finding a place to stay until we can get another car,” Mrs. Brown said.  “I still don’t feel very safe up here.”

They argued for several minutes and in the end Mr. and Mrs. Brown had to put their feet down and say “No”.  Mr. Brown spotted the town center to the northwest and they marched the two kids northward off the hill and then into town via a small road they came across. 

Mr. Brown insisted they stay in the north end of Rockville.  They found a small hotel and booked two night’s stay.  Then Mrs. Brown took Jason shopping to buy a change of clothes and toiletries for everyone.  At Natalie’s request, she also purchased a small radio with batteries to replace her iPod she’d left in the car.  The next priority was dinner.  The hotel clerk, who was constantly on the phone, recommended a small diner within walking distance.  The Brown’s found the 50s style shiny aluminum diner nestled between two modern brick offices.  Each table had a miniature jukebox, which fascinated Jason.  Natalie was too pre-occupied to notice, which worried her parents. 

They were wakened in the middle of the night by someone knocking on the door.  An evacuation order had been given for a two-mile zone around the train wreck, and they had to leave.  A bus would pick them up in the shopping mall parking lot and take them to a shelter at a church a few miles up the road.  Mrs. Brown stuffed their new things into the duffle bag she had purchased, and they walked the block to the mall.  Natalie held her radio and listened to the two local stations searching for news about the accident, flipping back and forth when they played music, golden oldies and country.  She quickly became frustrated as they seemed oblivious to the emergency and played nothing but music, so she shut it off.  Her father suggested she listen to the news on the hour and half hour.  Jason offered to carry the duffle bag and yawned constantly. 

The bus took them a couple of miles up the highway to a Knights of Columbus Hall.  The bus driver said the Church was already full.  They were among forty other people, some of them still in their pajamas, shown into a large empty room at the K of C.  The first thing Mrs. Brown noticed was there were no beds, not even a cot or mattress.  According to one of the organizers, the Red Cross may have cots for them by tomorrow.  Mrs. Brown groaned.  Her back was already sore from sleeping on the inflatable mattress in their tent for the past week.  She longed for her bed at home.  Mr. Brown didn’t look too happy either. 

They found space near a wall and set out their belongings, a polite boundary to mark their area.  Several other buses soon arrived, and the room filled quickly squeezing them in.  With the people coming and going, the noise was too loud to hope for sleep, so they sat and talked until, one by one, sleep overcame them by force. 

The next morning, they awoke to the sound of conversation.  Mrs. Brown cried because her back was bothering her so much.  Natalie, who was already in a foul mood, became irate when she discovered that someone had stolen her radio during the night.  They were not going to stay in the shelter again that night.  Mr. Brown cautioned that they might not have a choice.  With so many people displaced and so many emergency responders pouring into the area, they may be stuck there for a few days.  Mrs. Brown did not take this news well, but Natalie and Jason seemed not to mind. 

That afternoon, Natalie bought a new radio and heard that the responders were spraying water with potassium hydroxide on the chlorine cars.  She wondered why, and Mr. Brown explained that the chlorine gas would dissolve quickly into the water, and the hypochloric acid that formed would be neutralized by the potassium hydroxide.  He was impressed with the simplicity of the scheme.  They were saddened to hear that six people, including the Conductor, had been found dead.  Several dogs and cats were also dead.  More people were being evacuated. 

Later in the afternoon, Natalie heard that the Red Cross was setting up a pet shelter in the roller rink. “ Isn’t that just up the road?”, she asked.  They could walk there, and see if they could help.  Jason was excited as well. 

They had searched all day for a rental car or a hotel room to stay in but nothing was available.  Mrs. Brown, refused to stay in the shelter again and demanded that her husband call the office and have someone pick them up.  It was only a three hour drive.  Mr. Brown agreed but suggested they wait until tomorrow to give the kids a chance to see the pet shelter.  At least Natalie would get a chance to help.  It would be good for her.  Mrs. Brown refused at first, but slowly came around as she was reminded how late it was.  Mr. Brown made the call for a pm pick up the next day.  Mr. Thompson was glad to hear from them, but horrified over what they’d been through.  He offered to come get them now, but Mr. Brown refused.  It was too late and tomorrow afternoon would be fine.

 That night, Natalie came out of her shell and talked openly about the shelter wondering what they would see.  Dogs, cats, fish, rabbits?  Jason suggested snakes and Mrs. Brown grimaced.  Mrs. Brown became convinced staying was the right thing for both kids, even if it meant several visits to a chiropractor for her back.

That night, the room was packed even more than the night before.  But Jason and Natalie fell asleep early, anticipating going to the shelter early in the morning.  Their parents couldn’t sleep.

“Do you think it’s normal that Natalie is so focused on the environment?” Mrs. Brown wondered watching her daughter sleep. 

“Perhaps.”  Mr. Brown yawned sleepily.  He pinched himself hard under his leg to stay awake.  This was one of those opening questions he knew lead to a deeper conversation his wife needed every now and then.

“None of the other kids go to hazardous waste sites with their father.”

“True,” he said thoughtfully.  Waiting just long enough to match the gravity of the conversation, he continued, “But there aren’t many environmental scientists around either.  Most of the kids don’t have the opportunity.  Maybe Natalie is lucky.”

Mrs. Brown smiled at her husband.  She appreciated his sense of humor, subtle and rarely toxic.  “She seems so single- minded, though.”

“Is she any more single- minded than the kids playing baseball, or basketball, or animae games?”

“No.  I guess not.”

“She has lots of friends, likes to read, and plays the flute.  She even plays basketball, your favorite sport.  I think she’s pretty well rounded.  It’s not like we’re pushing her into the environmental field.  I think she has a genuine passion for it.”

“Yes, but where does that passion come from?  I can’t keep focused on one thing for more than a couple of weeks.  Honestly, I don’t know how you keep on top of the business all the time.”

“That’s a “have to”.  Things would go south pretty quick if I didn’t keep my finger on the pulse.”

“I guess maybe she has your brain.”

“That’s scary.  I see some of you in her.  I think she has your compassion.”

“No she doesn’t!” Mrs. Brown laughed at the absurdity of the statement.  “At least not with people.  She tells them what’s on her mind.”

“With people yes, but not with animals.  You watch tomorrow.  She’s very compassionate.”

“Hmm! Reminds me of you again.”

Mr. Brown laughed nervously.  He didn’t want his wife getting blue over whose qualities their daughter inherited, so he decided to change the topic slightly.

“Whom does Jason take after?”

“Ah, my baby,” Mrs. Brown suddenly lit up again.  She lightly stroked his hair for a moment until he stirred.  “He’s easily distracted like me.”

Mr. Brown smiled.  Now was a good time to end the conversation, so he yawned loudly and looked at his green canvas cot, one of two the Red Cross had given them.  Not even a blanket.

“Last night here,” he said dreamily.  “Tomorrow night we sleep in our own bed.  Thank heavens”.

“Oh please don’t go to sleep yet, Frank.”  But it was too late. 

Chapter 5 The Pet Shelter 

The next morning, Natalie and Jason were up early and ready to go.  Mr. Brown forced himself up into a sitting position aching everywhere.  Somehow the cot wasn’t much better than the floor.  Mrs. Brown hadn’t slept most of the night and was a mess.  Jason offered to stay behind and let her sleep, which she gratefully declined. She wanted to get out of the shelter and go home. 

After breakfast, they walked several blocks to a large aluminum building with “Roller Dome” emblazoned across the front.  A small paper sign stuck on the wall near the door said, “Red Cross Pet Shelter”. 

“This is it!” Natalie announced and opened the front door.

Inside, the Dome was quiet and almost empty.  A few dogs and a couple of cats lay in cages on the floor.  It was five minutes before anyone else arrived.

“Oh Hello,” said a short round woman in her fifties.  “Have you come to fetch your pet?”

“No, we’ve come to help,” Natalie said quickly, hopeful that there was something for them to do.

“Marvelous! Can you feed these poor creatures?  I don’t know how long it’s been since they’ve eaten,” the woman said as if people walked in and asked to help all the time.

“We can do that,” Jason said excitedly.

“Sure.  Where’s the food?” Natalie asked.

“Oh, we don’t have any food yet.  But the shopping center next door has promised to provide food for the animals.  Would you mind fetching it?  Tell them Midge sent you.”

Mr. Brown rolled his eyes. “Typical,” he thought to himself. “Nothing’s really organized.”  “Com’on Jason,” he said.  “Let’s go get some food.”

 After Mr. Brown and Jason left, Natalie walked to the cages to look at the pets.  She petted and talked to them one by one while Mrs. Brown followed and watched.

“You really care for these animals, for the environment, don’t you?” she said.

“Sure.” Her daughter said matter-of-factly.  She was suddenly wary of her mother’s serious tone.

 “Don’t you like basketball?  I was quite a player in college.”

“Yes, I remember seeing your pictures.  I like basketball.  But, for me, this is important.  We all need the environment to live.”

“Yes, its true.”
Natalie thought hard.  She wanted to concentrate on the animals, so she needed to get out of the conversation quickly.  “It’s also beautiful, and I think it represents something wild, untouched, new, and exciting, something that places like a mall or Disney Land could never achieve.  A place where things are not under the control of people.”

That ought to do it she thought to herself and she walked to a black lab that sat attentively wagging its tail.  “Are you hungry, buddy?” she asked rubbing his head and not really expecting an answer.  But the dog barked loudly, and Mrs. Brown and Natalie laughed. 

“Good boy!  Your dinner will be served soon.”

Shortly before Mr. Brown and Jason arrived with a shopping cart full of dry dog food and water bowls, a tall man wearing a blue fireman’s T-shirt walked in with three more dogs on leashes.  He seemed to know just what to do, tying their leashes to a railing and setting up three more temporary cages. 

“Can I help?” Natalie asked.

The fireman looked up gratefully and said, “Sure, grab the other end and latch it here.”  Natalie thought he looked very tired, but alert.  “Have you been helping with the train wreck?”

The man took another cage and unfolded it in an open space on the floor.  “Yeah.  What a mess.  I was on the pumper for a while, but now it’s animal rescue.  I’ve been driving through neighborhoods in the evacuation zone looking for pets to bring here.  I don’t catch many.  The cats are the worst.”

“The cats?  I like cats.  Why are they the worst?” Natalie asked.

“Can’t get near them, too scared.  There’s a stack of newspaper over there,” he said pointing to wooden bin.  “Can you please line these cages and put the dogs in them?”

“Sure.”

The man said thanks and then left. 

When the food did arrive, all the dogs barked excitedly and jumped around almost knocking over their flimsy cages.  The Browns worked quickly to feed and water each animal. With only a dozen animals, it was pretty easy keeping up.  Unfortunately, that didn’t last long.  There were three firemen bringing in pets and soon the Roller Dome was filled with about fifty dogs and cats, mostly dogs.  The variety was amazing to see, big dogs to tiny dogs, a lot of tiny lap dogs, short hair dogs and long hair dogs, dogs that barked and dogs that slept.  Quite a few cats were brought in as well.  Black cats, brown cats, and calicos.  Just after lunch, a hairless cat was brought in, which no one was quite sure what to do with.  

The Browns and several other volunteers worked hard caring for the animals.  They fed the dogs twice, mopped up the water they spilt from their bowls, and cleaned the poop from their cages.  Mrs. Brown volunteered to write down the information on their collars and check with people when they came looking for their pet.  But the best part was when the owners were reunited with their pet.  There were many smiles and much excitement.  The older people were particularly gratifying.  Watching their faces turn from anxiety to relief was the best.

 At around 3 o’clock, a young boy brought in some dead fish.  He looked very distressed, and so Natalie and Jason asked if they could help him. 

“There’s a pond by the tracks, and it’s full of these dead Sunnies,” he said and he held them up for all to see.  They were white as white and stiff with rigor mortis. 

“Wow!” Jason exclaimed.  “What happened to their rainbow colors?”

Mr. Brown looked and said, “The chlorine must have dissolved into the pond water and turned to acid killing the fish and bleaching their skin.  That’s amazing.”

“Amazing?” Natalie asked sarcastically looking at her father.

“Well, I didn’t mean it in a good way,” Mr. Brown said.  “Chlorine is nasty stuff.  That’s why they use it in cleaners.  It kills.  But the real question is,” Mr. Brown said nodding to the boy, “What were you doing so close to the train wreck?  It’s too dangerous.”

“We just wanted to see what was going on, but some police men chased us off,” the boy responded.

“Good thing, too or you could have ended up like that fish.”

Natalie asked if there was anything they could do about the pond, but Mr. Brown said the damage was done.  All the fish were likely to be dead.  Later, after the mess was cleaned up, they could neutralize the acid and re-stock it.  The boy left somewhat hopeful. 

At 5 pm, Mr. Thompson, from N&J Environmental, arrived to take them home.  Everyone was happy to see him.  He was shocked to hear the whole story and told them how lucky they were to be alive.  He wasn’t at all surprised to learn that Natalie had suggested they volunteer at the shelter.  They all agreed it was a great idea, even Mrs. Brown was glad they had stayed to help.

 Both Natalie and Jason were reluctant to leave because there were so many animals to care for.  Midge assured them they had plenty of volunteers to help out now and thanked them for their service.  Both kids were exhausted and didn’t put up a fight.  They said good-bye to all the animals and some new friends they had made.  Then they hugged Midge and walked out the door.  Just outside, a large poster covered with photos had been erected.  A sign on the top said, “Is this your pet?”

“What’s this?” Jason asked.

“I don’t know.  We’ve been busy inside all day long,” Natalie said, suddenly realizing they hadn’t been outside since they arrived this morning.

 The poster was a gruesome site.  Around thirty photos had been pinned to it, each containing a dead dog or cat lying where it had been found, on grass, or pavement, its coat ruffled and the body in an awkward position.  The worst were the animals with white eyes.  They shined like great white stones as though the devil himself had smote them, and they had turned to stone where they lay.  Natalie wondered how an owner could recognize their pet in such condition and felt sorry for them.  There would be no happy reunion for the owners of these pets.

 “Look there,” Jason said, pointing to a picture near the top.  “It’s the yellow lab we saw just after the train wreck.”  They all crowded in to look, and were shocked at its condition.  Its coat was blotchy white and yellow and was matted down hard.  Its tongue hung out of its mouth in the dirt and was dusty white.  The expressionless white eyes staring at nothing.  Natalie turned away unable to bear the sight of the friendly dog she had petted and made friends with two days ago.

“Let’s go home,” she said.