Then he saw it. A little light glinting off the mirrors that he hadn’t noticed before.
The mirrors ran along just one of the walls. From one end of the wall to the other. They were up where the second floor would have been, if the ceiling hadn’t been that high.
They were probably two-way mirrors. Used for surveillance before the installation of security cameras.
Jim didn’t know for sure how it worked, but he imagined that there was a hallway or room up there behind those two-way mirrors, where an employee would have been tasked with spying down on all the shoppers.
It’d be a perfect place to fight them off. Well, not perfect. But better than being out in the open.
Now all he had to do was get up there.
Jim’s eyes were moving. Still moving. As fast as he could move them. Thinking as fast as he could. His thoughts scattered. Trying to keep them together. Trying to keep it all together. His mind was racing. Felt as if it were about to go off the rails.
Jim saw the man before he heard his footsteps.
In the dim light, the first of the bikers had appeared. He had long, shaggy hair, and an intense beard that stretched down his chest. He stumbled as he walked into the room, his foot apparently getting caught up in some of the junk scattered on the floor. He wasn’t being careful, despite not seeing well.
Jim noticed that the biker still wore sunglasses, despite his eyes not even being adapted yet.
Jim didn’t even bother thinking “what an idiot,” to himself. Instead, he got his feet firmly planted, lined up the shot, and pulled the trigger.
The shot rang out, echoing out throughout the box-style building. Sounding much louder than it would have outside.
There went Jim’s hearing.
The round struck the biker in the chest. Jim saw the blood come out. It was a good shot.
But he didn’t wait to see the man fall.
There were more bikers coming. How many, he didn’t know. It was only one down. There might be twenty more to come.
Not that there was any time to worry about the odds. Not now. It was just survival.
Jim saw the next man appearing right when he finally spotted the door to the upstairs area.
The door was behind the cash register. It was made to appear inconspicuous among the shelves where the nicotine cessation products were stored. If Jim hadn’t been actively looking for it, he never would have seen it.
The second biker likely couldn’t see well either. But he had an advantage over the first biker. He didn’t wear sunglasses. And he’d heard the first biker get shot. He knew that there was a threat there.
Jim waited until the second biker’s arm appeared around the corner from the hallway. His finger, already pulling back on the trigger, squeezed. Twice. In rapid succession.
Jim didn’t wait to see if he’d hit him.
There was no cry of pain. Not that Jim would have been able to hear it with his ears ringing.
With his gun in one hand, Jim dashed towards the counter. He didn’t bother to try to do anything fancy, like zigzag. He knew it was pointless. He just needed to get to that door as fast as he possibly could. Every single second that elapsed from here on out simply meant that more bikers would appear. More threats with each passing second. Less of a chance of surviving with each passing second.
Jim would either get shot or he wouldn’t. There wasn’t any point in thinking about it.
He simply ran.
His vision was a tunnel.
He reached the counter.
He jammed his left arm down, his palm against the counter. Throwing his weight one way, he managed to vault over the counter in a single shot. Maybe the most athletic feat he’d ever pulled off. He’d certainly never done anything like that before. Chalk it up to the power of adrenaline.
Two shots rang out. Jim was barely aware of them. He barely heard them over the intense ringing in his ears.
He’d reached the door that hopefully led to the upstairs surveillance area.
The door handle wasn’t a knob. It was a flat lever.
He didn’t even bother trying to grab it. His left hand just smashed down on it.
Without waiting to see if the door was open, Jim threw his entire weight against the door.
It’d either open or it wouldn’t.
He was likely a split second from taking a bullet. He needed to save each fraction of a second that he could.
4
Jessica
Jessica’s hands were on the wheel. They were headed down the street in the RV going about fifty miles per hour.
Jessica kept looking in the rearview mirror. She was expecting that at least a couple of the bikers would follow them.
But they didn’t.
There was no one in the rearview mirror.
Jessica didn’t dare, though, to breathe a sigh of relief. They’d done what they’d all said they’d never do: leave Jim alone in the pharmacy.
There was no way to contact him. No way to get in touch. No text messages or voice mails.
If Jim survived, they’d have to find him. And something like that could easily go wrong.
“What’s that?” came Rob’s voice, breaking up her thoughts.
Jessica turned to look.
“What?” she said. “I don’t see anything.”
“See all that smoke? Hang on. Wait until we’re past that building. It’s blocking your view.”
Jessica’s eyes flitted back to the road for half a minute.
“OK,” said Rob. “Look now. To your right.”
Aly made a strange noise. Kind of guttural. Maybe some kind of primal fear response.
Jessica felt it too. She was already on edge. Already nervous. Already full of fear.
But now she felt her guts twisting up inside her. She didn’t know why. It was just an instinctual response.
“It’s just smoke,” she tried to tell herself, saying the words out loud as if they made sense as part of a conversation.
And it was just smoke.
But it was a huge pillar of gray smoke rising up to the cloudy gray sky.
“It’s got to be a long ways off.”
“How far?”
“No idea.”
“I wonder what it is.”
“It’s cities burning,” said Rob. “Isn’t that an expression from somewhere?”
“From a song, maybe.”
“Something like that.”
“Not that the songs exist anymore.”
The huge pillar of smoke was hard to ignore. Impossible to ignore. Jessica felt like her eyes were transfixed on it. It seemed like a symbol of what the world had turned into. And of what was to come.
But she made sure to tear her eyes away from it. She couldn’t afford to keep them off the road for long.
There was no one else on the road. Just some vehicles stopped here and there. Some of them with their doors open. Some with the hoods popped, as if someone had tried to diagnose an engine problem after the EMP.
They were passing a cross street, and Jessica was trying to come up with a plan for when they should turn back around to try to find Jim. It seemed like a futile plan, and she felt her guts tightening up even more in fear and desperation.
Suddenly, something slammed into the side of the RV.
It was a tremendous impact.
Metal on metal. A horrifically loud screeching sound.
The RV was thrown to the side.
Jessica, who wasn’t wearing a seatbelt, was thrown forcibly against Rob in the passenger’s seat.
Her head collided with his skull. She seemed to hear the skull-clinking sound inside her head. Tremendously loud.
Her legs were tangled up in something. Maybe the seat. Or the gear shift. She couldn’t tell.
There was pain in her back and her shoulder. And her head.
It was all too confusing. It had happened too fast. Her senses were mixed up. A blending of chaos and nonsense.
Was she dying?
M
aybe.
Time seemed to have slowed down.
A scene from her childhood came up out of nowhere, seeming to overtake reality. She’d heard of this. Her life was flashing before her eyes. One memory at a time. It was happening.
It was a scene from when she was just a tiny little kid. She didn’t know how old. Maybe three or four. Right when her memories were beginning. She hadn’t thought of this in years. Maybe a decade or more. Her mom had taken her to the park, where there was a calm little lake, nice and blue, with a couple big swans that somehow terrified her.
“Jessica!”
Someone was shaking her. It took her out of the memory.
She wasn’t going to die after all. At least not just yet.
“Come on, Jessica. You still with us?”
Only seconds had passed. But it had felt like much, much longer.
Jessica vaguely nodded her head. Her neck was stiff and full of pain.
She began to take stock of her surroundings again. It was that survival instinct kicking back in. Everyone had the instinct. But some had it stronger than others. Jessica knew she had a lot of it since she could never really seem to shake it. It was always there, always pushing her to do the most that she could, to take in the most information that she could.
Her torso was over in the passenger’s seat. Most of her body lay against Rob’s. He’d moved his head. So he was alive.
Had he been the one talking to her? She didn’t think so.
“Aly?” said Jessica.
“I’m here, Jessica,” came Aly’s soft voice.
“You OK?”
“I’m fine. Rob’s knocked out.”
Jessica realized suddenly that one of her eyes was closed. That’s why her vision had seemed strange.
She tried to open it. No luck.
Was it injured? Probably.
The world looked blurry. And having one eye closed didn’t account for blurriness.
“Am I OK?” said Jessica.
“I think so,” said Aly. “You have a cut on your head.”
“My eye?”
Aly didn’t answer.
That wasn’t a good sign.
“Rob?” Aly was saying. “Come on, Rob.”
Aly was shaking Rob’s body gently. Since Jessica still hadn’t managed to get herself up and off Rob, she could feel the shaking.
Jessica’s mind was still reeling. Still trying to piece the world back together.
What had happened? She’d forgotten that it hadn’t always been like this.
What had they been doing?
They’d been driving in the RV.
There’d been a crash.
Someone had crashed into them.
The pieces were coming back together. One by one.
It wasn’t all a big mystery now. It’d just been a car accident. They were common enough.
But to have a car accident, there had to have been another car.
And another car meant someone else.
And that meant a threat.
“Who hit us?” said Jessica, fighting against the chaotic sea of thoughts to get the words out.
But Aly didn’t respond.
“Rob,” she was saying. “Come on, Rob.”
But Rob wasn’t responding.
And he wasn’t moving.
“Rob!”
And that’s when it hit Jessica.
Rob might very well be dead.
That’s the way life was. Especially life after the EMP. When you least expected it, it could all be over. Or you could lose someone. Just like that.
“He’s not answering,” said Aly. Which was already painfully obvious.
Jessica was still leaning against Rob. His body still felt warm. Could she feel a pulse? No. But that didn’t mean anything. If he was alive, maybe she wouldn’t be able to feel his pulse. It was sometimes hard to find anyway.
She was able to move her hand around, trying to get it to his neck, to the jugular, where it’d be easiest to feel his pulse.
There was a noise on the side of the van that hadn’t been hit. Someone was trying to open the sliding door.
Aly’s head turned. Her hand moved to something. Hopefully to her gun.
Jessica wasn’t fast enough. She was still in pain. And her vision wasn’t right.
The door opened. Extra light came streaming in.
Pumped full of extra adrenaline, Jessica tried to move. To do something.
She got herself partially off of Rob. But everything seemed painful. Or numb. And her body seemed to be moving too slowly.
She did manage to get her head around.
In the open doorway, there was a blurry figure.
“Out of the vehicle!” the figure shouted. A male voice. Loud and angry. Spoken like a cop, sort of. But didn’t sound at all like a cop. “Hands in the air.”
Jessica’s hand was too slow. And her mind was foggy. She couldn’t quite remember where her gun was.
A gunshot exploded throughout the RV.
The leather and fabric interior of the RV did nothing to dampen the sound. It echoed throughout the relatively small vehicle intensely.
The roar filled Jessica’s ears. This only served to further disorient her, making the blurry world feel more confusing and chaotic.
The blurry figure fell backwards out of view.
Aly’s face appeared in front of Jessica. Her mouth opened. Wide. As if she was screaming something. But Jessica heard no sound.
Aly did it again. Her mouth making the same shape. Anger and frustration appeared on her face. A finger appeared, pointing out through the windshield towards the road ahead.
Suddenly, Jessica understood. The word that Aly was screaming, that the roar in Jessica’s ears was obscuring, was clear: “Drive.”
Jessica didn’t know if she could.
But she was occupying the driver’s seat. She was preventing Aly from driving the RV herself.
Aly’s hands were on Jessica now, trying, apparently, to pull her forcibly out of the driver’s seat.
Someone else was at the door. Another blurry figure. Holding something in front of them. A baseball bat, maybe. Or a big stick.
Aly, gun still in hand, pulled the trigger again.
The roar in her ears increased.
Jessica didn’t look to see what happened to the figure.
Suddenly, Jessica found the strength she needed. Her mind found the sense of urgency. And it found the command over her muddled-feeling painful body.
Jessica jerked herself up and off of Rob, getting her torso back fully into the driver’s seat.
Her right foot found the accelerator pedal. Her right hand found the shifter and its button. She threw it into drive.
The RV engine was apparently still running. The possibility that it had stalled out hadn’t even occurred to her.
Jessica floored the accelerator and the RV took off down the road.
Her left eye was still closed, and the world was blurry in front of her.
But she could still see.
Her mind was racing in every direction. She took in a sharp breath, trying to reset herself, trying to take stock of the situation.
Rob was unconscious in the seat next to her.
Aly was in the RV, behind her. Gun in hand. She’d just shot two people.
Jim was stuck in the pharmacy.
Things weren’t looking good.
But she was alive.
Aly’s face was nearby. Jessica turned to look at it. Aly’s mouth was moving rapidly, in time with her hands, trying to communicate something, but Jessica was still temporarily deaf.
She was trying to keep her eyes on the road. Not that it did that much good.
Everything was blurry. Trees and buildings on the side of the road seemed to blend together, creating one long, stretching miasmic background image.
Again, Jessica tried to open her left eye. But it just wasn’t happening. It felt like she had no control over a part of her body that, until just now, had done exac
tly what she’d always wanted it to, without even having to think about it.
But she could see the road. It was blackish-gray pavement, faded, stretching out in front of her for as far as she could see, which wasn’t far. All she had to do was keep the RV headed that way. Everything wouldn’t be all right. But they’d keep living. For a few minutes. For a few hours. Maybe for a few days.
Everything had fallen apart.
But she had to keep it together. What would Jim have done?
Something practical.
They needed to check on Rob. If he was dead, they needed to know it for sure. And if he wasn’t, he might need medical attention.
There was no way to communicate with Aly except by pointing. So that’s what Jessica did. She pointed at Rob frantically, and then at her own neck, pressing two fingers against her neck as she drove, with one hand still on the wheel, indicating that Rob’s pulse needed to be checked.
Aly got the point. She was pushing her fingers against Rob’s neck. The look on her face was just panic. Pure panic. She was looking back at Aly, shaking her head.
Jessica looked back through the front window.
Nothing but a blur.
But there was something there. A blur against a blur.
Jessica saw it too late.
A car in front of them.
She was speeding right towards it.
Foot off the gas.
Slamming her right foot against the brake.
She didn’t know if it’d be enough.
5
Jim
Jim made it through the door without being shot. It’d been open.
It was all just luck. Not that he was complaining now.
He slammed the door shut behind him, scanning the dim, narrow hallway he was in, looking for something to shove against the door.
He was in a small utility hallway behind the cash register area. It wasn’t long. There was a toppled-over mop bucket on the floor, some calendars and schedules on the wall, and that was about it. At the end of it, there was a narrow, unadorned stairway.
There was no bolt on the door. There was just a standard keyhole.
Of course Jim didn’t have the key. And there was no key in sight.
The ringing was roaring in Jim’s ears so badly that he didn’t know what kinds of sounds the bikers were making on the other side of the door, but he had to assume that they’d still be flooding into the pharmacy.
Final Dread: A Post-Apocalyptic EMP Survival Thriller (Surviving Book 3) Page 3