“I’m glad we are going to check out the power company today,” I say to Lauren.
“What time are you going?” asks Lauren.
I exit our master bathroom and walk towards our kitchen.
Milo walks over to me and meows. “Morning belly. I’ll get your food in a second.”
Milo walks over to his food bowl and waits for me to get his cat food.
Lauren enters our kitchen and she asks, “What about the water for oatmeal and to cook?”
“And to shower. Let’s try to avoid using tap water from now on,” I answer Lauren.
“We knew this day might come, and I think we are pretty good on water,” replies Lauren.
“Come in Ryan,” says someone over the radio.
I pick up my radio that’s on my kitchen counter and answer into my radio, “This is Ryan.”
“This is Bruce and we had a little snag with the truck for today, but Tran is working hard on it as we speak,” says Bruce over the radio.
“What time do you think you’ll be here?” I ask into my radio.
Lauren puts a bowl of oatmeal in the microwave.
“Not sure, but it could be another hour or two until Tran is done,” answers Bruce over the radio.
“Well take your time, and we’ll be here for ya,” I reply to Bruce over the radio.
“I’ll be in touch with you and give you an update when I can,” says Bruce over the radio.
“Thank you Bruce, let us know,” I reply to Bruce.
“Will do. Over and out,” replies Bruce over the radio.
Lauren removes her bowl of oatmeal from the microwave and places my bowl of oatmeal in the microwave.
I set our dining room table for breakfast and Lauren places our bowls of oatmeal on the table.
KNOCK! KNOCK!
Someone knocks on my front door.
I look at Lauren and then I go answer my front door. I open my front door and Matt is standing there. “An hour or two for Bruce’s truck?” asks Matt.
“Yeah, but that’s fine. What’s the hurry for this?” I answer Matt.
I walk onto my covered front porch and close my front door to talk with Matt.
I can sense that Matt is really anxious to get over to the electric company today and the news about the delay with Bruce’s truck this morning is bothering Matt.
“I understand you’re eager to get to the electric company, but an hour or two delay is fine,” I say to Matt.
“It’s not fine. Every minute that the water keeps coming on the streets and flooding things is a problem,” replies Matt.
I feel like there is no getting through to Matt, but I also fear that he’ll do something impulsively and could get hurt.
“I’m going to see if Shaun can take a group out now,” says Matt to me and then Matt walks away from my covered front porch.
My fear takes over and I shout to Matt, “Don’t do it Matt! Let’s wait for Bruce’s truck!”
Matt doesn’t acknowledge my words and actually walks faster towards Shaun’s house.
Matt crosses the street and steps on the sidewalk in front of Shaun’s house.
A surge of adrenaline hits me, and I sprint towards Shaun’s house and tackle Matt. Matt and I land on Shaun’s front lawn.
“You aren’t doing shit without us! You are going to wait until we all can go!” I shout as I hold Matt down on Shaun’s front lawn.
“Let me go Ry!” shouts Matt as I have him pinned down on Shaun’s front lawn.
“What the fuck is going on here!” shouts Shaun as he exits from his house.
Chewie runs over to me and Matt and he starts licking Matt’s face and then my forearms.
“He’s trying to get over to the power company now because he doesn’t want to wait until Bruce can bring the truck over,” I say to Shaun.
“Why did you tackle him though?” asks Shaun.
I look down at Matt and then get off of him. Matt fixes his shirt and then stands up.
Chewie comes over to me and I pet him on his head.
I look at Matt and ask, “You okay?”
“I’m fine,” answers Matt.
I look at Shaun and Matt and say, “I can’t lose any more people here. Especially any of you guys.”
Shaun looks at me, but doesn’t say anything.
Phil comes speeding down the street in his electric truck and parks in front of Shaun’s house.
Shaun, Matt, and I look at Phil’s electric truck and we all watch Phil exit from his electric truck.
“What’s going on here?” asks Phil.
“Ryan tackled Matt because he was trying to get over to the power company now,” answers Shaun.
“Bakari called me back over the sat phone and he said for us to get ready,” says Phil.
“Get ready for what?” I ask.
Just as I finish my question, the sounds of sirens, horns, and church bells are heard.
I look around at several houses inside Citrus Oaks that aren’t connected to solar panels and I see lights turn on.
“He did it, that son of a bitch did it,” says Phil.
“Guess we don’t have to go to the power company today,” says Shaun.
“Ryan, come in Ryan,” says someone over the radio.
Matt hands me his radio and I answer into the radio, “This is Ryan.”
“Hello Ryan. Did you turn the power on?” asks William over the radio.
“It wasn’t us, but our friends,” I answer William into Matt’s radio.
“Well, tell them thank you and I’d like to meet them,” replies William over the radio.
“Will do William, I’ll set up a meeting with my friends,” I say into Matt’s radio.
“Thank you Ryan, I’ll be in touch,” says William over the radio.
“Over and out,” I say into Matt’s radio.
I smile and I’m about to give Matt back his radio when a different person over the radio says, “Ryan, you really messed up.”
I look down at my right hand at Matt’s radio.
“Change the channel to the channel that we talked on before,” says the voice on the radio.
I recognize the voice and it’s DK. I ask into Matt’s radio, “How did we mess up?”
“Change the channel to a secure channel first,” replies DK over the radio.
I change the channel on the radio to another channel after remembering what channel I talked to DK before on the walkie-talkie he gave me and say into Matt’s radio, “I changed the channel DK.”
DK responds over the radio, “You don’t know what you just did and it’s not going to be good for you and your friends.”
“What do you mean?” I ask into Matt’s radio.
There is a couple second delay before DK replies over the radio, “You’ll see. I’ll be in touch.”
CLICK!
I hear the sound of the radio being turned off and I ask into Matt’s radio, “DK, are you there? DK?”
I look at Matt, Shaun, and Phil and Matt asks, “What do we do now?”
I hand Matt back his radio and Phil answers, “Let’s meet with Bakari and see what they found out.”
I look at Phil, Shaun, and Matt and say, “I agree. I hope they have access to a lot more things around here now.”
“I hope they can help us with DK. He sounded pissed over the radio,” says Matt.
“Setup a meeting with Bakari. Sooner the better,” I say to Phil.
“You got it,” replies Phil.
Phil goes to his electric truck and calls Bakari over the satellite phone.
I listen to the sirens, horns, and church bells and see more and more people exiting from their homes inside Citrus Oaks.
Lauren and Fran exit from our house. Kylie and Ann exit from Matt’s house. Sam, Kiersten, and Andre exit from their house.
As I look around the neighborhood at everyone who exited from their homes inside Citrus Oaks, I wonder if it was a good thing getting the power back on or not and ask myself, “Are we all in dange
r now? Who wouldn’t want the power back on? Who was blocking the power in the first place, and why would DK threaten us after getting the power back on?”
TO BE CONTINUED…
Fight 4 Us (Book 11): Access Page 20