At the EoS, Professor Ong and his colleagues were anxiously monitoring the situation, which was far from perfect. The reservoirs had risen by nearly 1 foot, and the rest of Singapore had risen by around 20cm. New geyser activity was also popping out all over the islands of Singapore, and Singapore itself. Earthquake activity was also increasing, with more than 500 earthquakes happening every day, and they were slowly becoming shallower. The geologists discussed among themselves how long they had left before the eruption happened, and they all agreed they had less than 1 month left at most, maybe less if the activity became worse.
They decided to shift their equipment underground in case the eruption occurred without warning, as so do many other volcanoes. Once they had finished shifting, they got back to monitoring. Just then, the alarm sounded and a 4.2 magnitude earthquake struck about 5 km from Changi International Airport.
Meanwhile, Tom and his family were heading towards the airport but they were faced with a tremendous jam on the Pan-island Expressway as thousands of people were heading there was well. Tom called John to ask where he was and John said he was at the airport, but that they airport was so crowded he had barely enough room to move. Tom's dad checked the distance left to reach the airport. "About 5 kilometres more, but damm this will take forever with the pace this jam is going" he uttered.
Suddenly, a gush of steam and water erupted from a nearby canal, making a huge boom and creating a mass panic. People started getting out of their vehicles and began running towards the airport. Ironically, the expressway soon became almost devoid of people. Tom's mum huddled with his Dad, obviously frightened, while his Dad comforted her.
"Well, shall we walk then?" Tom's Dad asked. The rest of his family nodded. They got off the taxi and began talking towards the airport with their luggage in tow.