Content Warning: This section features graphic depictions of death. The source text includes offensive portrayals of Indigenous Hawaiian people.

“Rachel could actually see inky, pimpled blackness spreading like an oil spill, some terrible stain, except that the darkness was climbing up the trees. It was like some sort of upside-down lava flow from one of the volcanoes, but the lava was defying gravity, not to mention everything Rachel Sherrill knew about plant and tree diseases.”

This quote draws a connection between the two life-threatening dangers the characters in the novel face, volcanic lava and the defoliant Agent Black, by describing the creeping “blackness” caused by the substance as “some sort of upside-down lava flow from one of the volcanoes.” This description foreshadows the crisis to come in the novel.

“Mac took a deep breath and exhaled. The microphone picked up the sound.

‘Today,’ MacGregor said, ‘I am announcing an imminent eruption of Mauna Loa.’”

One of the challenges the protagonists in the novel face is the difficulty of how and what to inform the public about the impending crisis. In this quote, Mac is nervous about speaking at the press conference. While elsewhere Mac’s character is strong and capable, this quote gives an insight into his weaker areas.

“John MacGregor was lying his ass off.

He knew exactly when the eruption was coming, and it wasn’t two weeks or even one.

Five days.

And counting.”

This quote describes the first of many times Mac and the other characters lie to the public to prevent panic. It also sets out the timeline, which generates the plot’s tension: they have five days to prepare for the eruption.