by Vince Byrd
“I guess because of my dad. When my mom died, he wanted Jacob and I to be open, and honest about our feelings. We would share our feelings with each other, and I guess we developed a genuine way of communicating. We learned not to wear our feelings on our shirt sleeves. He always taught us that our feelings could trick us, that we should think through the situation and not let our feelings dictate our actions or our reactions,” she explained.
“Wow, sounds profound.”
“Yeah, it kinda does. That’s Dad. I can’t wait for you to meet him. I know we’ve FaceTimed one time with him, but it’s not the same as meeting in person.”
“I’m a little nervous about meeting him. He’s very intimidating according to what you’ve told me about him. Military vet, hero, fisherman, construction worker, father to my girlfriend, a real man’s man.”
“But he’s as gentle as a teddy bear.”
“Yeah, to you. But to a man that’s going take his daughter away, that’s another story.”
“Are you getting serious on me, Ethan?”
“I could see us getting married, having a few kids, getting rich with my app, traveling the world.”
“Oh, a dreamer, are you? Look Ethan, I like you a lot but let’s not get ahead of ourselves.”
“Whoa! Shot down! I can’t believe this. I thought it was going so well. I’m feeling queasy all of a sudden.”
“Ethan, I’m sorry. I don’t want to rush it. I really do like you, but to say I want to marry you, I’m just not there. We’ve only known each other a couple of months.”
“I thought… never mind what I thought. I guess I was wrong. I’m going back to the van.”
“Ethan! Don’t be like that. Let’s talk about it,” she called. “You surprised me; that’s all.”
Ethan quickly walked back to the van and got in. His mom was already sitting in the front seat fiddling with the radio, flipping through stations.
“Hey, honey. Your dad is almost finished,” she said.
“Yay,” he responded and slumped into the very back seat.
Paige stood in place for a minute and said quietly to herself, “Well this might be a very long, uncomfortable ride home. Why did he have to mention marriage? Why now?” She looked at the Thunderbird and spoke to the car, “I really would look good in you. I wonder if I could talk my dad into getting you for me.” She walked back to the van and climbed in next to Ethan. He didn’t even look at her. “Come on, Ethan, let’s talk about it,” she whispered.
“Your dad’s coming,” Emily stated.
“Finally, now that it’s lunch time. We’ve been out here for an hour,” Ethan moaned.
“It hasn’t been an hour,” Emily defended.
David opened the door to the van and said, “I’m so sorry about that. There was an issue that I had to address before I could leave. I hope you were not too uncomfortable. You all could have come in.” He climbed in and buckled up.
“We’re fine, Mr. Lee. I mean, David. Just ready to get going,” Paige replied.
“Well, let’s do that. Again, I apologize for making you all wait on me,” David offered.
They pulled out of the car lot onto highway 293, heading north. Everyone was silent for several miles. Emily and David began to talk back and forth. They discussed the route they were going to take to get Paige home to Acworth, Georgia and meet her dad, Jesse. Paige looked at Ethan, but he wouldn’t look at her. She reached for his hand, but he drew it away from hers. “Come on, Ethan,” she pleaded. He ignored her and put his earbuds in his ears and played some music on his phone.
Fifteen minutes passed, and Ethan hadn’t spoken to her yet. She turned to him and said, “You know why I’m not there yet? This!” she pointed at him. “When you get mad, you sulk like a little kid. You won’t talk to me. You run off and pout and then come back to apologize or act like nothing happened later on. Our marriage can’t be that way. We have to be a team, partners, best friends. I can’t marry a man that walks away every time we disagree.” She wasn’t sure he was even hearing what she was saying with his earbuds in.
Ethan was silent and didn’t respond, but he heard every word, and it stung a little. He thought about her words and knew she was right, but he didn’t want to admit it. Maybe this woman is too much for me, he thought. I don’t know if I can be that open with her.
Paige saw he wasn’t going to respond, so she laid her head back on the seat and stared out the window, watching as Florida passed her by.
Three
“Aww, come on!” David exclaimed.
“What’s the matter?” Emily asked.
“The van quit,” he answered putting it in neutral and turning the key off and on. “It won’t even turn over.”
“Look out!” Emily shouted.
David looked up and saw the back of a car coming up fast. He stood on the brakes as the van went into a screeching slide. Since the engine had stopped, the brakes were harder to press, and the van didn’t want to stop as easy as when it was running. As the van began to slide sideways, David turned into the skid, and the vehicle straightened up. The van stopped as the front bumper tapped the car in front of them just enough to jolt everyone a little. The car rolled a few feet forward, away from their van. “Is everyone okay?” he asked.
“I’m fine,” Emily said.
Ethan turned to Paige and looked at her; she met his gaze and nodded. Ethan grabbed her hand, “We’re okay, Dad,” he answered, “What happened?”
“The van just quit on me,” David announced. “I’m going to check on the people we just hit.”
“I’ll call the police,” Emily stated, grabbing her purse to find her phone. David got out of the van and walked over to the other driver. Emily pulled her phone out, but it wouldn’t light up. She tried the power button, but nothing happened. “Ethan, my phone is dead. Can you call 911 for us?”
“Sure, Mom,” he agreed, not noticing his music had stopped playing. He pulled the earbuds from his ears and unplugged the cord. He tapped the screen on his phone but nothing. He tried mashing the power button but still, it wouldn’t come on. “Paige, try your phone. Mine must have died also.”
“Okay.” She reached down and pulled her phone out of her backpack from the floor. She tapped the screen, but it didn’t light up either. “Mine’s dead too.”
“I’ll tell Dad.” Ethan opened the side door manually and stepped out. “What’s going on? Is there another wreck or something up ahead?”
Paige stepped out beside him and saw that all the traffic had stopped on both sides of Interstate 10, and people were starting to get out of their cars. Ethan stepped around to the front where his dad was. “Dad, try your phone. Ours are all dead.”
“Mine and Bud’s are also,” David informed, motioning toward the driver of the other car. “Something just happened. All of our cars and phones have stopped working.”
“Maybe it was an EMP,” Bud guessed. “Look around man, all the cars has stopped all at once.” Bud was on his way home from the beach as well with his wife and kids. He was nearly home when David bumped his car.
“Seriously, an Electromagnetic Pulse out here?” Ethan questioned.
Bud shrugged his shoulders, “What’s your theory?”
“I don’t have a theory. Dad, what are we going to do?”
“I don’t know, Son. We can’t even call a tow truck,” David sighed.
“Well, I’m walking home. I live in Cottondale, which is only about three miles away. Come on kids, let’s hoof it home,” Bud ordered as he opened the back door on his old, dirty, white Oldsmobile station wagon. “Don’t worry about the damage, you didn’t hurt it anyway. Just gave it a little more character. Looks like it will be a while till this mess is cleaned up.”
“You’re just going leave your car in the middle of the interstate?” Ethan questioned.
“Yeah, y
ou see any other cars moving? It was an EMP, I’m telling you. These cars will never work again,” Bud explained. He removed a backpack from the back of his car and strapped it on himself. He grabbed two beach chairs and tucked them under his left arm. “You ready, Betty?” he called to his wife.
“I’m ready, Bud,” Betty answered. “Tim, don’t forget your DS.”
“It don’t work anymore, Mom,” Tim complained.
“Get it anyway!” Betty snapped.
“Good luck, y’all. If you can’t figure anything out, I’m at 2875 Hwy 231 if you need a hot meal or a floor to crash on. It’s the very next exit, exit 130, go left on 231. My mailbox is clearly marked ‘Smith’.”
“Thanks, but we’ll figure something out,” David assured. Bud, his wife, and his two sons turned and walked down the emergency lane toward Cottondale.
Paige stood beside them and took it all in as the conversations unfolded. She was reminded of what her brother had said, that ‘something big is coming’. “I think we should go with them,” she blurted suddenly.
“What and just leave the van here in the middle of the highway?” Ethan disapproved. “We can get a mechanic.”
“On Sunday? Who’s going to take us there? Where is a mechanic? Do you even know?” she argued.
“We can map…the phones aren’t working,” Ethan realized. “Dad, what do you think we should do?”
“We can get a tow truck and maybe by tomorrow…” David was cut off by the sound of several gunshots firing close by. The three of them hugged close to the front of the van, and David motioned for Emily still in the van to get down. People started running away from their cars and hiding behind others. Some people ran into the woods to get away from the gunfire. Paige moved around to the side door and climbed in to retrieve her backpack.
“What’s going on out there?” Emily asked.
“Chaos, that’s what. People are going crazy and shooting,” Paige answered. She unzipped her backpack and dug deep into the bottom. She put her hand under a padded flap and pulled out a lightweight Taurus .380 semiautomatic pistol and two clips. She shoved one clip into the front right pocket of her jeans, slapped the other into the pistol, and then chambered a round.
“Paige! What are you doing?” Emily gulped.
Paige didn’t answer and went back to the guys at the front of the van, holding her pistol up in front of her pointed toward the sky. “You see anything? Who’s shooting?”
“What are you doing with that? Where did you get a gun?” Ethan asked surprised.
“My dad gave it to me before I left for college. It’s one of many I have at Dad’s house.”
“I’m glad she has it. This is crazy,” David admitted. “You know how to use it, right?”
“Of course, my dad and I shoot all the time, and I’m licensed to carry,” she assured.
“I think we need to go. Grab whatever you want to carry and let’s get moving,” David suggested.
Paige strapped on her backpack, and Ethan grabbed his jacket and put it on. David opened the back and got his briefcase. Emily took her purse and locked all the doors then slammed her own shut. They started walking in the direction that Bud and his family had gone. They heard a commotion behind them and looked back and saw two men grab a young girl and force her to the ground. Paige wiggled out of her backpack, dropping it to the pavement.
“Paige! Stop! Where are you going?” Ethan whispered forcefully.
“We have to help her! Come on,” she hissed back.
“You’re going to get us killed. Let’s go,” Ethan insisted.
“What if they rape her? You’re just going to let that happen? What if it were me?”
“But it’s not, so let’s go.”
“Paige, it’s not our fight,” David added.
“David! That poor girl,” Emily declared. “I’ll help you, Paige. What do you want me to do?”
David reached out and stopped Emily. He tapped Ethan on his shoulder motioning to move. “It’s not worth your life, son.”
“What about her life?” Paige said, as she turned and hunkered down, moving covertly from car to car closer to the two men.
The girl screamed as she tried to fight, but the men were too strong for her. Her dad grabbed for her but one of them hit him across the face with their gun, knocking him unconscious. She screamed, “Daddy!” One of the men was trying to hold her down when Paige stepped out and said, “Stop! Let the girl go, or I’ll have to shoot you.”
Four
Jesse Day 6
It was a clear, dry day in Virginia, and the temperature had risen into the high fifties. The sun warmed Ava as she leaned her head against the window and closed her eyes. The truck had been traveling at the same speed for several minutes, and Kat closed her eyes to rest them. Jesse’s focus was on the road for stalled cars, being careful not to get into a jam. Ginger was shivering from the air moving around her in the bed of the truck. Larry tried cuddling with her to warm her up, but the wind was too persistent.
Jesse slammed on the brakes as two off-road go-carts peeled across the road in front of their truck and vanished into the woods. Ava and Kat were jolted awake by the sudden stop. Larry caught himself against the stack of food and ammo boxes Ginger was leaning against to keep from smashing her. Jesse opened the back glass and asked, “You two alright?”
“We’re fine,” Ginger affirmed, and he proceeded to drive on. But around the next curve, they were halted by a gigantic, red, white, and blue Boeing 777 that had crash landed across the highway. The plane had toppled trees and torn up nearby pastures, and slid to a stop on its belly, ripping up ground and asphalt along the way.
“Wow! Is that your plane?” Ava asked.
“That’s not our plane,” Jesse answered, aghast at the sight. From around the nose ten men walked, each holding a gun at their side. The two go-carts came from behind them and rode around in circles in front their truck as the group of men began to approach.
“What do you think they want?” Kat asked.
“Everything we’ve got,” Jesse answered, “especially the truck. He slammed it into park but left it idling. He pulled his pistol from its holster and chambered a round.
Kat followed suit as Ginger handed her an AR-15 rifle through the sliding back window. Kat pulled back the charging handle, chambering a round. “We’re really going to do this? Can’t we just back up and go another way?”
“We would, but the reverse is gone in this truck, stripped out I guess,” Jesse explained.
“Of course it is,” Kat said sarcastically. “That would be too easy.”
Ginger stood up, propped her elbows on the roof of the pickup with her 12-gauge shotgun and drew a bead on the group of men. The men stopped, aimed their guns at them, and waited for her next move. “Ginger! Hold your fire!” Jesse called.
Larry climbed over some food and ammo boxes and sliding some back, he joined her with his AK-47 above the roof. “Are we doing a kamikaze here, or what?” Larry asked. “You got a plan G?”
“I’m playing it by ear. I hope Jesse has a plan. This won’t turn out well for us. We’re a little out-gunned, I think,” Ginger acknowledged.
“Kat, stay in the truck. Get behind the wheel and be ready to drive like a scalded dog. I’m going to go try to talk with them,” Jesse said, as he opened the door and slowly stepped out with his hands up in the air. He looked up at Larry and Ginger, “Hold your fire, but if this goes south, give’em all you got.” Larry and Ginger nodded. Jesse looked at Kat and Ava and then started walking toward the group of men.
Kat scooted into the driver’s seat and placed the barrel of her AR-15 on the dash pointing it toward the men. “Ava, I want you to get down on the floor in case they start shooting.”
“I have a pistol; I can help,” Ava informed.
“No, I don’t want you to get hurt,” Kat frette
d.
“If bullets are flying, I don’t think you have much say in the matter. Let me help you,” she pleaded.
“Okay, but get down until it comes to that,” Kat argued. Ava unbuckled and slid down to the truck floor. She placed her pistol on the seat and laid her head on her arm, hoping that it wouldn’t come to that.
Kat turned to Larry and Ginger and warned, “If the shooting starts, hang on because we’ll be rolling.”
“Got it,” Ginger answered not taking her eyes off the men and Jesse.
Jesse raised his hands high. “We don’t want any trouble!” he shouted. One of the men dropped his rifle to his side, walking toward him as the others kept their position, with their guns aimed. The white glare of the sun on top of the plane was blinding. Jesse squinted to start processing each man, and the type of weapon they held. He surveyed the area for pockets of cover and escape routes. “Ten men, ten guns,” he whispered to himself. “Three single-barrel shotguns, two revolvers, two semi-auto pistols, two deer rifles, and an AR, I really wish I had an ear-piece or a walkie.”
The man walked about twenty yards and stopped, waiting for Jesse to get to him. He was an older man probably in his late sixties. He had gray hair and was clean shaven. He wore a pair of dirty, faded blue jeans, a green sweatshirt and a blue, ball-cap that read Ford Tractor. His shoes were blackened; worn out, work boots that looked like they’d been through a coal mine.
Jesse paused about ten feet away with his hands still raised. “We don’t want any trouble, sir. We’re just trying to get home. My friends and I were also in a crash in the mountains not too far from here. My name is Jesse.”
Five
Paige Day 1
Paige held her pistol trained on the creepy men standing over the girl. Both men had on blue work slacks and mechanic shirts stained with grease. The names on their shirts read, Mojo and RJ. “Okay, you got me,” Mojo said, as he stepped back from the girl and raised his hands. The girl got up holding her torn dress to her chest and ran to her dad to check on him.