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    The smile faded away completely. “And then, when your father was crippled, you came back to take care of your family. And did as good a job of that as you’d done scaring them to death earlier. Quite respectable, now. Even managed to get yourself elected president of your local miners’ union a couple of years back.”
    Mike snorted. “I can see Rita’s been telling tales.” He started looking for his sister, ready to glare at her, when his eyes fell on the Simpsons. They were
still
frowning at him, so he bestowed the glare on them.
    “See?” he demanded. “My new in-laws don’t seem to feel any ’romantic attraction.’ Me—
respectable
? Ha!”
    Nichols’ own gaze followed Mike’s. “Well . . . ’Respectable’ in an Appalachian sort of way. Don’t think Mr. Blueblood over there is mollified that his new daughter-in-law’s brother is a stone-hard union man as well as a damned hillbilly. Not hardly.”
    The Simpsons were still maintaining the stare. Mike was matching it, and adding a grin to the bargain. The grin was purely feral. A sheer, brazen, unyielding challenge.

    Nichols would remember that savage grin, in the years to come. Remember it, and be thankful.

 

    The Ring of Fire came, and they entered a new and very savage world.
Chapter 2

    The flash was almost blinding. For an instant, the room seemed filled by sunlight. The accompanying thunder rattled the windows.
    Mike ducked, hunched. James Nichols’ reaction was more dramatic.
“Incoming!”
he yelped, flinging himself to the floor and covering his head with his arms. He seemed utterly oblivious to any possible damage to his expensive suit.
    Half-dazed, Mike stared through the plate-glass windows of the cafeteria. The afterimage was still glowing in his eyes, as if the greatest lightning bolt ever heard of had just struck right next to the school. But, blurrily, he couldn’t see any actual damage. The windows hadn’t even been cracked. None of the multitude of cars and trucks in the parking lot seemed damaged. And if the people in the parking lot seemed like a bunch of squawking chickens, none of them seemed to have been hurt.
    The men in the parking lot were mostly coal miners from his local, who had come in from all over the area for his sister’s wedding. Partly, that was because the United Mine Workers of America never missed a chance to flaunt their solidarity.
The UMWA sticks together.
Mike thought that almost every single member of his local had shown up for the wedding, with their families in tow.
    The sight of the startled men in the parking lot almost caused Mike to laugh, despite the sudden shock of that incredible—
sheet lightning?
What the hell
did
happen? The men were clustered at the back of several pickups, making precious little attempt to hide the fact that they were sneaking a drink in clear and flagrant violation of the high school’s firm policy against alcoholic beverages anywhere on the premises.
    A motion in the corner of his eye caught Mike’s attention.
    Ed Piazza was scurrying toward him, frowning like Jupiter. For a half second, Mike thought the high-school principal was about to lecture him on the unseemly behavior of the coal miners in the parking lot. He choked down another laugh.
    
No, he’s just wondering what happened too.
Waiting for Ed to reach him, Mike felt a moment’s warmth for the man.
Wish he’d been the principal when I was in school. Might not have gotten into so much trouble. Good-humored, Ed is.
    “I know they’re gonna drink in the parking lot, Mike,” Piazza had told him the day before.
Snort
. “Bunch of coal miners at a wedding reception? But
puh-leese
keep ’em from waving the bottles under my nose. I’d feel downright stupid, all five and a half feet of me, marching out there to whack ’em with a ruler.”
    Ed was at his side now. “
What happened?”
The principal glanced at the ceiling. “The lights are out too.”
    Mike hadn’t noticed until Ed mentioned it. It was still broad daylight, and the plate-glass windows lining the entire side of the cafeteria made the room’s fluorescent lighting almost redundant.
    “I don’t know, Ed.” Mike set his cup of punch—unspiked; he hadn’t felt he could break the rules himself—on the table nearby. Dr. Nichols was starting to rise. Mike lent him a hand.
    “Lord, do I feel stupid,” muttered the doctor, brushing his clothes. Fortunately for his finery, the cafeteria floor had been mopped and waxed to a shine. “For a moment there, I thought I was back at Khe Sanh.” He, too, asked the inevitable question. “What the hell was
that
?”
    The large and crowded room was now in a muted uproar, everyone asking the same thing. But there was no panic. Whatever
that
was, nothing immediately disastrous seemed to have occurred.
    “Let’s get outside,” said Mike, heading toward the cafeteria’s door. “Maybe we’ll get a better idea.” He glanced around the room, looking for his sister. He spotted Rita almost at once, clutching Tom’s arm. She seemed a bit alarmed, but was obviously unhurt.
    By the time Mike reached the door, Frank Jackson had pushed his way through the babbling crowd. Seeing the stocky, gray-haired form of the union’s secretary-treasurer, followed by five other miners from the local, Mike felt a flash of pride.
UMWA. Solidarity forever.
    Meeting Frank’s eyes, Mike shrugged and shook his head. “I don’t know what happened either. Let’s go outside and check around.”
    A few seconds later, the little group of men was passing through the entrance to the high school and making their way onto the parking lot. Seeing him come, dozens of Mike’s local union members started moving in his direction. Most of them even had enough self-possession to leave their drinks behind in the vehicles.
    Mike’s first concern was for the high school itself. His eyes ranged up and down the long row of buildings, looking for any signs of damage. But none of the beige and white structures seemed to have been harmed at all.
    “Everything looks okay,” muttered Ed with heartfelt relief. The relatively new consolidated high school—built not much more than two decades ago, using a lot of voluntary labor—was the pride and joy of the rural area. For no one was that more true than its principal.
    Mike looked to the west, toward Grantville. The town itself, two miles away, was hidden behind the hills which gave northern West Virginia its distinctive landscape. But Mike couldn’t detect any obvious indications of trouble in that direction either.
    His eyes moved to the south. The high school had been built on a gentle slope north of Buffalo Creek. At the bottom of that slope, just beyond the end of the parking lot, U.S. Route 250 ran parallel to the small river. The hills on the other side of the little valley were steep, covered with trees, and uninhabited except for a handful of trailers.
    Nothing. His eyes began following the highway at the bottom of the slope, toward the large town of Fairmont some fifteen miles to the east.
    Stop. There was a hint of smoke . . . 
    He pointed to the hills southeast of the school. “Something’s burning. Over there.”
    Everyone followed his finger. “Sure enough,” muttered Frank. “C’mon, Ed. Let’s call the fire brigade.” The union’s secretary-treasurer and the high-school principal started moving toward the double doors leading into the school. Then, seeing the man coming through those doors, they stopped.
    “Hey, Dan!” Frank pointed to the thin columns of smoke rising in the distance. “See if you can get hold of the Volunteers. We’ve got trouble here!”

    Grantville’s police chief didn’t waste more than two seconds staring at the smoke. Then he was hurrying toward his vehicle and its radio.

 

    The radio wasn’t working, for some reason. Nothing but static. Cursing under his breath, Dan looked up and spotted Piazza.

 

    “You’ll have to use the phones, Ed!” he shouted. “The radio isn’t working.”

 

    “The phones aren’t working either!” responded Piazza. “I’ll send someone down there in a car!”

 

    The principal hurried back toward the school. “And get hold of Doc Adams while you’re at it!” the police chief shouted to his retreating form. “We might need medical help!” Piazza waved his acknowledgment.

 

    By then, Mike and Frank and several other coal miners had already started up their trucks. Dan Frost was not surprised at their instant assumption that they would be accompanying him to see what the problem was. In truth, he took it for granted.

 

    Dan had once been offered a position in a large city’s police force, at a considerably larger salary. He hadn’t thought for more than three seconds before turning it down. Dan Frost had seen police work in big cities. He’d rather stay in his little town, thank you, where he could be a cop instead of an occupying army.

 

    As he climbed into his Cherokee and started the engine, Dan checked the interior of the vehicle quickly. The shotgun was in its gun case in the back, and there was extra ammunition for his pistol in the glove compartment. Satisfied everything was in place, he leaned out of the window. Mike Stearns pulled his truck alongside. Dan was surprised to see a black man riding in the passenger seat.

 

    “Dr. Nichols here is a surgeon,” Mike explained, half-shouting. “He volunteered to come along.” Mike hooked a thumb over his shoulder. “His daughter Sharon will ride with Frank. Turns out she’s a trained paramedic.”

 

    Dan nodded. An instant later, he was driving the Cherokee down the asphalt road leading to Route 250. Three pickups and a van followed, carrying eight coal miners along with James and Sharon Nichols. Behind them, in his rearview mirror, Dan could see a mob of people pouring out of the high school. There was something slightly comical about the scene. Squawking chickens, wearing their Sunday best for the wedding.

 

    Once he reached the road, Dan turned left. Route 250 was a well-built two-lane highway. Even winding through the hills and hollows, it was easily possible to drive fifty miles an hour at many stretches. But Dan took it more slowly than usual. He was still uncertain what was happening. That flash had been truly incredible. For a fleeting instant, Frost had been certain that a nuclear war had started.

 

    Everything seemed normal, though, as far as he could see. He was driving alongside Buffalo Creek now. On the other side of the creek, at the foot of the hills, railroad tracks ran parallel to the road. He caught a glimpse of two house trailers nestled away in the woods. They were old, weather-beaten, ramshackle—but otherwise unharmed.

 

    Coming around a bend, Dan threw on the brakes. The highway ended abruptly in a shiny wall, perhaps six feet tall. A small car had skidded sideways into the wall, caving part of it—
dirt
, Dan realized—over the hood. Dan could see a woman’s face staring at him through the driver’s side window. The woman was wide-eyed.

 

    “That’s Jenny Lynch,” he muttered. He stared at the wall across the road. “What in the hell is going on?”

 

    Dan got out of the Cherokee. Behind him, he could hear the miners’ trucks coming to a halt and doors opening. When he reached the car, he tapped on the window. Slowly, Jenny rolled it down.

 

    “Are you okay?” The youngish, plump-faced woman nodded hesitantly.

 

    “I—I think so, Dan.” She reached a shaky hand toward her face. “Did I kill anybody? I don’t know what
happened
.” The words started coming out in a rush. “There was a flash—some kind of explosion—I don’t know . . . Then this wall, where did it come from? I hit the brakes, car started skidding—I . . . I don’t know what happened. I don’t know what happened.”

 

    Dan patted her on the shoulder. “Relax, Jenny. You didn’t hurt anybody. I think you’re just a little shaken up.” He remembered Nichols. “We’ve got a doctor with us. Hold on just—”

 

    He started to turn, but Nichols was already there. The doctor gently shouldered Dan aside and gave Jenny a quick examination.

 

    “I don’t think there’s anything serious,” he said. “Let’s get her out of the car.” He opened the door. A moment later, he and Dan were helping Jenny. Other than being shaky and pale, the woman didn’t seemed harmed.

 

    “Come here a second, will you Dan?” said Mike. The union president was squatting by the strange wall, digging into it with a pocket knife. The police chief walked over.

 

    “This thing is just
dirt
,” Mike stated. “Nothing but plain old dirt.” He spilled another scoop out of the wall. As soon as the cohesion was broken, the shiny substance turned into nothing but a pile of soil. “The only reason it looks shiny is because—” Mike groped for words. “It’s as if the dirt’s been cut by a perfect razor.” He poked at the wall again. “See? As soon as you break through the surface, it’s nothing but dirt. What the hell could have done that? And where did it come from?”

 

    Mike glanced right and left. The “wall” continued on both sides of the road. It was as if two completely different landscapes had suddenly been jammed together. He could see the side of a typical West Virginia hill to the south—except the side was now like a perpendicular cliff. Just as shiny as the wall across the road, except where pockets of soil were falling loose.

 

    Dan shrugged. He started to say something when he heard a sudden shriek. Startled, he rose and stared at the wall. An instant later, a body hurtled over the top and crashed into him.

 

    The impact sent Dan sprawling on the pavement. The body—a young girl, he realized dimly, a raggedly dressed teenager—landed on top of him, still shrieking. The girl bounced off him and scrambled down the bank, heading for the creek. Still screaming.

 

    Half-dazed, Dan started to rise. Mike was at his side, extending a hand. Dan took it and got back on his feet.

 

    Everything was happening too fast. He had just started to turn, looking for the girl, when he saw two new figures appear on top of the wall.

 

    
Men. Armed.

 

    Mike’s back was toward them, half-blocking Dan’s view. Dan pushed him off and reached for his pistol. One of the men—then the other—began raising his rifle.